Reborn in Gensokyo series (RiG4 has begun!)

[Mima]

Chapter 2

Arriving at the village, there was the instant appearance of tension in the village, as always, because the feared ?Sleeping Terror? had just entered the village. The townspeople tried to go back to continuing what they were doing, running their shop stalls and general life while the two of us walked through the village, towards where the Eientei Medical Centre was located.

As part of the routine that usually occurred when Yuka entered the village, it wasn?t long before the unmistakeable figure of Keine Kamashirasawa appeared, most notable for the extremely odd box-like hat she wore on most occasions. To be honest, in the two years I?d been around, Yuka hadn?t done anything majorly rash and I guess Keine had realised the same, since the fashion of her appearance had degraded from a hasty run to that of a more watchful eye.

?Good morning Haru, Miss Kazami.? Keine nodded to the two of us as she announced our names.

?Hi, Keine.? I returned the greeting

?What brings the two of you here today?? Keine asked. ?If you?re here to see Akyu today, I?m afraid you won?t be able to, she?s got a bit of a cold and with her... condition.? Keine paused a moment, ?She has to be taken care of, I?m sure you understand.?

?Sad to hear that, but we?re on other business.? Again, I wasn?t sure if Yuka would enjoy me telling everyone that she was ill, so I kept my details to a minimum, ?So, yeah, where we?re heading is on the other side of town so-?

?AH-CHOO!? Yuka sneezed loudly again.

Keine immediately smiled a friendly smile at the red-dressed youkai, ?Oh, Miss Kazami, you don?t mean you?ve caught that cold as well??

Yuka merely made a sneering noise causing Keine to speak once more, ?I see, well, this that?s unfortunate.? There was a momentary pause, ?I?ll take a guess that you?re here for medicine or something similar then??

We started to continue walking through the streets, Keine on the other side of Yuka, most likely to stop her from branching away and causing havoc unnoticed, ?Yeah, that?s what I dragged her along for.? I grinned, ?She?s not too keen on the idea, though.?

Keine laughed lightly, ?Well, no one likes to see the doctor.? There was a short pause, ?But, it?s something you must do if you?re ill, so make sure you go, Miss Kazami!?

Yuka simply didn?t respond and minded her own business.

The reason Keine asked if I was here to see Akyu is because it?s what I mostly do when I visit the village, Hieda no Akyu is a writer, with the memories of her previous incarnations and the ability to remember everything, which makes her a primary source of information, since she writes the Gensokyo Chronicle, a volume of books which contain the details of all youkai and locations of note.

So, what started off as just occasional trips to her acquire knowledge of my new homeland soon changed once I have learnt all I could, from then one, the roles reversed slightly, and I?d return every now and then to tell Akyu of the adventures I?d experienced and the youkai and humans I?d met, which she then recorded for her works. Being such a figure of importance, she was restricted in her movements, as well as her condition, Akyu?s blessing also carries a curse, every reincarnation she goes through, her life span shortens, which generally makes her more and more unhealthy, and in the incidents she gets ill, she gets the best care she could in case it?s an attempt on her life.

Some small chat took place in the short walk through the village until Keine coughed to clear her throat, ?Well, this is the street you need, it?s that white building with the bamboo by the front that you need, I need to go this way for some other business.? She pointed down a street adjacent to the one we needed. ?So, I hope you get on well Miss Kazami and maybe I?ll see the two of you later. Oh, and happy birthday by the way, Haru!?

I spoke quite surprised, ?You remembered too? Am I the only one who didn?t??

Keine giggled discreetly, ?Well, I am a historian after all; I have to remember dates and events, good bye!? With that said, the woman walked away, her large blue frilly dress dominating the small street she headed down.

I turned to the flower youkai, ?May as well get this over with.?

?You make it sound like you?re the one who?s got to go through with this.? Yuka growled slightly.

?Relax, just kidding, it?ll be fine.? I laughed somewhat.

Yuka sneered unhappily and paced down the street at a considerable pace and stopped outside the bamboo-clad building, by the time I had started to walk after her and caught up, she had turned to me with a grin, ?Yes, looks like everything is fine.?

?What?? I asked as I approached, before noticing the building was completely closed, a look through the window showed the lights were turned off and obviously no one was in there, I also noticed a note on the front door which I stepped towards and read out loud.

?Due to unforeseen consequences, the Eientei Medical Centre is closed until further notice-?

?See, looks like we?re just going to have to go home!? Yuka cheered as she interrupted.

I raised my voice, ?-The centre?s services however are running as usual, Ms Fujiwara will come here every hour, on the hour to escort any who need assistance to our main base at Eientei.? I grinned at Yuka, ?Looks like we?re just going to have to take a detour and find Eientei, I don?t think I?ve ever been there, even with you.?

?Not much to see there, rabbits, bamboo, not interesting.? Yuka tried to brush the suggestion aside.

?Well, we?ll just have to put up with it, since we?ve got to go there.?  I grinned.

Yuka rolled her eyes, ?You?re being quite persistent on what to do, today.?

I looked up, ?Well, it?s like everyone is saying, it?s supposedly my birthday so we do what I say.?

Yuka stared at me, ?Is that so? I?ll just keep that in mind for when it?s mine then.? She finished the sentence with a crack of her knuckles.

I quickly spoke, ?When is your birthday? You?ve never actually said.? 

Yuka flashed a devilish smile at me, ?Oh, you?ll know when it comes.?

?Well that?s not fair, you could be lying.? I objected.

?Life isn?t fair, little Haru.? She spoke in a patronising tone and sarcastically patted my head. ?Well then, let?s go.?

Yuka headed straight towards the piece of forest that was nearby, which didn?t make much sense, since Eientei was hidden deep within the bamboo forest, which I?d never entered but had seen form the small hill that Yuka?s flower field is placed.

?Isn?t the bamboo forest over that way?? I questioned, pointing to our left, I thought this way headed to the shrine.

?This way will probably be quicker in the long run, and it?s nice to have a change of scenery. Having a crowd of humans watching you while you walk gets quite irritating, especially since you can?t do anything back to them like-?

?I get the message, Yuka.?  I forwarded with a sigh.

I caught up and walked alongside Yuka as we entered the forest of magic. The Forest of Magic was a mostly uninteresting part of Gensokyo, despite taking up quite a large portion of it. There was very little of interest inside the forest minus a few residences belonging to magicians, Marisa Kirisame and Alice Margatroid, other than that it was just a lot of densely packed trees and wild youkai making it a naturally dark and potentially dangerous area, although wild youkai are among the weakest of the youkai, so even I?d stand a chance against one in combat but on the bright side, wild youkai only tend to attack lone humans which makes things a little safer for me, plus of course I also have the violence-loving flower youkai with me, who?d be more then eager to fight in my stead.

As we slowly got deeper and deeper into the forest, and the density of the nature rose, the canopy of leaves slowly began to cause the visibility to wane, being a youkai of the nature I am, I tend to notice these things a lot faster, considering my power depends on light, but a minute or so later, Yuka finally noticed and let me know about it, as she usually does when something?s wrong.

?Haru, it?s getting dark now, make yourself useful.? She said, as she closed her parasol and simply held it resting on her shoulder.

?If I must.? I mumbled quietly, and held out my arm, hand pointing up, and began to channel some light and concentrate it, mostly through the canopy of the trees until a decently sized orb of light was just floating above my hand. With such a large density of light it acted as a sort of high-powered torch or lamp, causing the forest to dramatically light up around us. One of the more practical non-combat uses I had found for my ability.

With the new source of light, the walk continued on as any other normal walk would be like, that is until, after a good 10 minutes of walking, and just as the scenery had changed to that of bamboo, Yuka froze.

?What?s the matter, Yuka?? I asked, slightly puzzled.

?Something?s watching us. It?s been watching us for a while now, but, something doesn?t feel right.? Yuka spoke normally, ?Can?t you sense it.?

?Nah, I?ve not got as far as that when it comes to developing as a youkai.? I laughed.

Yuka sneered, ?Useless.? Taking a look around to her left, and then her right, Yuka frowned, ?It?s strange, I don?t recognise it the energy.?

I didn?t know what to say, so I merely stayed silent, until rustling caught my attention, causing Yuka and I to both look at some bushes, and to my surprise, I saw Wriggle Nightbug walk, or even shuffle out towards us slowly.

[Mima]

Chapter 3

I sighed, ?It?s only Wriggle. You got me worried for a moment there.? Wriggle Nightbug, as her name suggests is an insect youkai, and like insects generally are to other creatures, she?s not the strongest youkai in Gensokyo, she?s well known for hanging around in a certain group, however she?s among the most mature and smart of said group making her a bit more approachable then others. Generally, I get on well with everyone in that group, there have been a few pranks and games that have happened in the past but nothing too major, plus, their general weaker fighting ability and the friendship I have with them allowed me to spar against someone a little less overpowering then Yuka.

I noticed Wriggle was still walking towards us, so I called out, ?Hey Wriggle, what?s up?? I moved my leg to begin walking to her when Yuka?s arm shot out in front of me.

?Stop.? Yuka ordered.

I looked at her, ?What?s wrong with you? It?s only Wriggle.?

Yuka put her face close to mine, and spoke in a cold voice, ?You might not be capable of sensing energies, but I can. And I can tell something is wrong, so don?t doubt me. Okay??

?S-sure.? I muttered quickly, stepping back slightly.

As Wriggle continued to approach I got a better look at her, nothing seemed different, her usual outfit that consists of a fairly simple white button-up shirt, blue-black shorts and a cape of the same colour which ends in two points, almost like the wings of an insect. Her hair was a darker green then Yuka?s, and shorter too giving her a quite tomboyish appearance, the only thing that struck me as odd were the colour of her eyes, which were a pinkish-purple colour, I?d always recalled them being green or maybe blue, but I?m rather careless about minor details such as that, so I could be mistaken.

A few metres away, Wriggle suddenly froze, and suddenly threw her arm out in front of her and began to throw a wave of bullets at us.

?Just as I thought!? Yuka said, and she jumped back several metres before sizing the bullets up and charging back forwards, weaving gracefully between them. Slowly and a little more clumsily, I did the same but unlike Yuka, as I travelled forwards I launched one of two orbs of light, which headed straight at Wriggle who made no effort to dodge, and took the blows but didn?t seem to care that much.

?What the hell is going on?? I shouted at Yuka, who just cursed at me in return.

The insect went into a lower stance before pouncing towards us in small leaps, to which I replied by causing slanted pillars of light to appear between the two of us, a move I?d learnt was effective against Yuka to the extent it makes the incoming pain lose a little bit of momentum and speed, and could even put off weaker youkai... but that wasn?t the case this time, somehow Wriggle managed to charge and weave through the pillars like they were nothing and then prepared to strike finalising in one final, large pounce at me.

Fortunately the blow never came, the first move I ever learnt I had, back in the human world incident, was also one of my most cherished, a complete wall of light appeared in front of me which Wriggle slammed into and as I intensified the light, it actually seemed to cause Wriggle some distress, but not a huge deal.

I wish I knew what was going on.

?Now.? Yuka?s voice commanded.

With a nod, I caused the barrier to completely disappear and not a second later, Wriggle fell to the ground, closely followed by Yuka?s heel which had just collided with the back of Wriggle?s head.

Yuka smiled to herself as she looked down on the still insect youkai before commenting, ?Well, that takes care of that.?

I replied with a shrug, ?If you say so.? Not only was Yuka one of the strongest youkai when it came to magic, she was equally powerful when it came to physical combat, and it?s true a kick like that could leave you unconscious for a few hours.

?Well, let?s leave, I don?t wish to linger around that... demented little youkai.? Yuka added, as she began to walk away.

As we walked through alongside a length of bamboo shoots, I opened my mouth to speak, ?So, what-?

?I have no idea, before you ask me.? Yuka cut me short.

We continued to walk in silence, while I silently thought of an explanation of what just happened, but came nowhere close. Somehow, a generally weak youkai suddenly gained considerable skill when it came to dodging and a general lack of... any sense.

?She?s back again.? Yuka announced, almost at a whisper.

?Wriggle?? I quickly asked.

Yuka nodded to answer the question. ?She?s approaching fairly fast, just do the same again, if you will, I?ll sort her out this time.? She ended her sentence with her usual evil grin as she continued walking beside me.

Although I couldn?t sense a youkai?s energy yet, I had my other, slightly enhanced senses, in this case, hearing made her approach very recognisable.

Get ready; she?s most likely going to pounce, so wait until her footsteps? patterns begin to change.

Now.

Immediately I swung around and threw another wall of light up but was horrified to see that Wriggle had foreseen the move and had jumped to the side and was now circling to flank me.

In the small time I took to shift my arms around, Wriggle was already in my face, attacking me, swiping her claws towards my face. Taken off-guard, I leant back to dodge the slashes but as her attacks continued without any sign of stopping I lost my balance and fell backwards to the ground.

Fortunately, that was actually the window I needed, since the small distance that just formed allowed me to comfortably place a wall between us causing Wriggle once again to jump into it, this time causing her to emit a horrible shriek.

?Haru, now.? Yuka spoke calmly.

I nodded my head as I let the wall disappear, but before Wriggle could regain her senses, Yuka stepped up to her, grabbed her and threw her quite a distance into the air, as the insect was being pulled back by gravity, Yuka lightly tossed the parasol from one hand to the other, pointed it towards Wriggle and laughed as a gigantic laser fired from the tip of the parasol, the well-known spell Master Spark famous for its sheer power, and one of Yuka?s favourite spells, possibly for that reason.

As I expected, Wriggle didn?t respond after being hit by such an attack, her still body crashed to the ground a couple of metres away and remained still, of course, any ?normal? creature would have certainly died from that, but youkai are resilient creatures, able to withstand ridiculous amounts of damage and recover just fine, such as when I witnessed Yuka have her arm blown clean off only to have it recovered the next morning.

?Nice of you to only step in at the end.? I commented as I brushed the dust off me from where I had fallen over.

?You need the practice, I don?t.? She spoke in an elitist voice. ?Now, let?s go, we should see Eientei any minute soon.?

I walked alongside Yuka until we were close to getting out of the clearing, when Yuka spun around and growled, ?What now!??

But this time, Wriggle was moving, but someone, no, something was moving around her, some strange purple, or maybe pink thing, not quite a mist, but very close to something like it rose from the youkai and hovered in the air.

Just before I was about to say something, Yuka asked the question for me, ?What the hell is that??

As though a trigger, the moment Yuka spoke, the strange thing sprung to life, shooting into a thick patch of bamboo, spiralling it a few times and then weaving between bamboo in our direction.

?Yuka, I really don?t think that?s friendly.? I said, slightly panicked.

?Obviously.? She snapped back.

Yuka stepped forward and fired a barrage of large flowers towards the thing, but it took little effort for it to dodge through and continue its charge, as Yuka continued to open fire upon it, I knew I only had one thing that could possibly stop it, another wall.

Like I feared, the thing managed to get close, causing me to throw up another bright wall of light, which the thing slammed into at such a force that for a moment I felt the barrier struggle to hold but to my relief, after the momentum was gone, the creature merely made an even more horrific shriek then Wriggle a moment ago, and continued to do so.

Yuka for once just stood behind me, probably thinking the same thing I was, so I merely kept the defence up until the being let out a final alien scream and sped away into the bamboo.

?It?s gone.? Yuka announced, before I slumped to the ground, quite exhausted from maintaining the light manipulation I?d been using.

?That thing, did it come from Wriggle, is that what made her wrong?? I questioned, slightly out of breath.

?I believe so, I have no idea what it was though, and it definitely wasn?t a youkai.? Yuka answered, quite seriously. ?Well, the insect is alive, but she?s going to be out for a while I?d say, so let?s just get out of here.?

?I can agree to that.? I said, as I roughly picked myself up again and walked with Yuka the rest of the journey to Eientei.

[Mima]

Chapter 4

After what felt like too long, I finally found myself able to see an aged looking Japanese style building in the midst of the now dense bamboo.

As it always seems to happen when with Yuka, as we approached the building, someone ran out towards us, looking slightly stressed with the situation, but then, if I didn?t know Yuka much and I saw her approaching my residence, I?d get stressed too.

It was easy to tell from the start, due to the ears, that it was a rabbit approaching, and the only two rabbits with any authority was either Reisen Udongein Inaba or Tewi Inaba, however her height confirmed she was the former and soon enough, it was confirmed when she was close enough to see properly, due to the general low light of the forest.

?Hello...? The moon rabbit in front of us spoke cautiously as she approached us, by the looks of it she was wearing her usual outfit, which was a black business suit style top covering a white shirt, also she was wearing a dark-lavender dress which over all gave her the appearance of an office worker or something similar.

Her hair was a very bright purple which trailed far behind her, past her hips and on her head there were her rabbit ears, they?re quite different to all the other rabbit?s ears, but that just supports the fact she?s a rabbit from the moon, not the earth like all the other rabbits of which Eientei?s workforce consisted of.

?Can I help you?? She continued, sounding as formal as she could.

I replied, giving no effort to sound formal like she was, trying to give her the impression not to be either, ?Well, yes. We?re here to see Eirin. The sign at your shop said to come here.?

Realisation hit the rabbit, ?Ah! I see! So, you?re... here regarding medical business...??

And not to destroy the place. I finished the sentence in my head.

?Yep, we could use some help.? I replied again, since I knew Yuka wouldn?t do explain anything herself.

Reisen nodded, ?I see, well, please follow me. Stick close, in case any of the rabbits try anything funny.? As she said that, her infamous red eyes quickly scanned the area, presumably for any of the tricksters she just mentioned. Reisen?s eyes are infamous because they have the ability to basically make you hallucinate and all sorts of weird stuff like that, I?ve been fortunate enough to not experience it so I don?t know how to best describe it, but I hear losing one?s sanity is a good way to do so.

Once we?d entered the actual mansion itself, there continued to be a mysterious feeling, but then, all new locations carry that feeling, and the rarity of being in such a place probably exaggerated my feelings. The building itself, was as you?d expect, very old fashioned building, made primarily of bamboo and wood. As we walked through the maze-like corridors, various rabbits ran by with various items for who knows what purposes, but fortunately none of them seemed very malicious.

As we turned another corner, I noticed that one of the doors had a couple of chairs beside it, possibly being a makeshift waiting room, this was confirmed when, as we reached the door, the moon rabbit knocked on the door.

?Yes?? A distant voice called from behind the door.

Reisen spoke louder than usual at the door, ?Master, you have a... patient here to see you.?

?Very well, please send them in Udonge.? The voice ordered.

?I shall take my leave now, I?m fairly sure those rabbits are up to something...? Reisen?s voice drifted off to thoughtful tone, as though anticipating the rabbits? next move. She quickly opened the door, gave a slight bow and then chased after a rabbit that ran by, with a cry, ?Hey! Where do you think you?re taking that!??

I slowly entered the door, briefly pulling Yuka?s sleeve since she wasn?t following me which caused her to growl quietly and stomp in after me which caused the red and blue clad woman at the desk to turn around to look at us.

?Well, well. This is quite the surprise.? She spoke with a tone of false shock, before moving her hands along the sides of her head to brush her bright silver hair back.

Eirin Yagokoro was originally a person of note on the moon, but due to some historical mishaps and such, she ended up residing in Gensokyo running Eientei. Some say that it?s Kaguya Houraisen that?s the one in charge of Eientei, but anyone who?s seen the two with their own eyes will know that it?s the genius in front of us that?s actually running things. Eirin specialises in the medical line of work, as you would guess from the medical store and such, but she?s probably the single greatest doctor there will ever be, especially since she created the cure for death. Kaguya, her rival Mokou and maybe even Eirin herself, are all immortal due to a potion that she created once, the Hourai elixir, and because they consumed it, they?re cursed to wander the world forever, even if they get absolutely butchered, somehow, they?re restored to normal, it makes me wonder if there?s a cure to the cure to death.

?So, to what do I owe this honour?? The doctor smirked, ?It?s not every day that a youkai of your... status... comes here nicely.?

?Stop with the theatrics.? Yuka spoke.

Eirin chuckled, ?I see, that?s how it is.?

Wait, what? Trouble after just one sentence... That must be a record for even Yuka.

?Your voice has a slight rasp tone, caused usually by something such as the common cold located primarily in the throat or even chest.? Eirin continued to talk.

?So, the mighty Yuka Kazami, the unstoppable Youkai, has contracted something as worthless as a common cold.?

?Shut up, before I make you.? Yuka snapped back.

Eirin chuckled again, ?It?s not stopped your feistiness though, has it? Maybe time is finally catching up and your age is taking its toll.?

There weren?t any signs of it, but Yuka was probably close to just losing it, being the short-tempered person she is. Fortunately, I think Eirin managed to see that as well since she interrupted the awkwardness with a slightly more welcoming voice, ?Please, sit down, I won?t be a moment.?

As we slowly made our way over, Eirin stood up from her desk and walked through a doorway opposite where we had entered the room. The noise of glass gently hitting other glass rung through the room for a few minutes until Eirin finally reappeared, holding a tray with several glass flasks of oddly coloured chemicals.

?I shall spare you the humiliation of diagnosing the problem and your physical condition, I have a good idea already from our previous encounters which I can?t say were as... civilised.? Eirin chuckled quietly to herself. ?I shall also presume that you want this ailment cured as soon as possible. Well, I have just the thing.? Her chuckling suddenly got a lot darker.

In front of us, at a table facing us, Eirin started with a small vial and a flask filled with a thick red liquid that looked like blood but seemed to be a bit thicker. Regardless of what it was, she poured in a quarter of the vial and then immediately poured in a few drops of a thin green liquid, followed by a pink and then another red liquid, thinner than the previous liquids.

With that, Eirin seemed content and shook the vial lighter in her hand for a moment eventually she looked at the vial and gave herself a nod of approval and with that, she held the vial out to the two of us, of course as I expected, I was the only one who made an effort to obtain it.

?I?m not drinking that; it could be some damn poison or something.? Yuka immediately complained.

Eirin simply returned a grin, ?Trust me, I?m a doctor.?

There was a moment where simply nothing happened, no one spoke or moved at all, I wasn?t sure what to do.

?Well, it?s simple... Miss Kazami. You ingest that vial as it is, or I?ll simply introduce it to your system with this.? Eirin?s grin had grown larger as she sat there playing with a syringe.

Yuka snapped back again, ?Don?t you dare come near me with that.?

Yuka is afraid of needles? Surely not.

?One or the other.? Eirin spoke with a whimsical tone.

Fortunately there wasn?t another awkward silence, instead Yuka immediately growled, ?Fine, just give me the damn thing.?

I held out my arm slightly and immediately Yuka reached over and snatched the vial from it. ?This had better be what you say, or you?ll have hell to pay.?

?You should hope it?s what I said, or you could be one dead youkai.? She laughed for a moment, arms folded.

Yuka hesitated for a moment, but then suddenly pushed her head back and drunk the rather unpleasant looking liquid.

?Well?? I asked.

?Nothing.? Yuka shrugged.

?Give it a moment.? Eirin spoke.

Yuka yelped in pain and reached for her chest to which I sprung out of my seat and ran to her, ?W-What the hell is this! C-c-chest burning, Yagokoro... you...?

?Hush now, Miss Kazami, good medicine is usually the most unpleasant. I assure you nothing is wrong. Hopefully.? I noticed she added that final word on just to add uneasiness. ?Your cells are just being pushed to the point that the chemicals will just, well, get rid of them to put it simple. The inferior virus won?t be so lucky and it?ll be simply destroyed.? Throughout the speech, Yuka continued to writhe in pain until a minute or so later, she started to calm down a little.

?How are you feeling now?? I said quietly.

Yuka took a breath, ?To be honest? Worst than when I came in.?

Eirin stood up one again and walked over to the desk she was working at when we entered and began jotting something down and something began to make me wonder if Yuka had just been used as a test subject, but I decided for everyone?s sake not to raise the issue.

Eirin walked back to face us, ?You might suffer some weakness due to the intensity of what you just took, but rest assured that you?ll be back to your usual self by... at least tonight.

Yuka displayed that she was feeling better by growling again, ?Tonight?? She weakly slammed her fist on the arm of the chair she was sat in. She looked at me, ?I wanted to hunt that thing we saw.?

Eirin sneered, ?What thing??

I answered quickly to stop Yuka from saying anything potentially unpleasant, ?Just some weird purple-pink cloud thing, it was doing something to Wriggle Nightbug and then tried to attack us, but it fled and we came straight here.?

Eirin closed her eyes for a moment, ?I see, and since your appearance isn?t... highly presentable...? I realized at that point that the fall in the fight earlier and caused me to get a slight bit more dirt on me then I?d first seen. ?...I will take a shot in the dark and say that you got into a fight with this Nightbug??

I nodded in response.

?Did she seem normal?? Eirin asked, still serious.

?Completely feral.? I replied.

?Intriguing. Very intriguing.? Eirin commented.

I looked out the corner of my eye to see that Yuka was starting to look a bit more active, clenching her fist and such. ?Does that mean anything to you?? I asked Eirin.

?As a matter of fact, yes, it does.? Eirin looked away slightly. ?A few days ago, one of the rabbits here went, well, insane. I thought Udonge had been abusing her powers and may or may not have made her take a medicine similar to the one Miss Kazami took, albeit a bit less stable.?

A glance at Yuka showed that she might have caught on that the medicine she took was unfinished.

?The rabbit attacked other rabbits and eventually was chased off into the forest, a day or so later the rabbit returned, looking in quite a... burnt state and with no recollection of the events. I?m sure that she had run into an encounter with a certain Fujiwara but we learnt nothing of it. But what I?m getting at is maybe there?s a good chance our incidents are connected, that... ?cloud? as you put it, could possibly be behind this incident too, which begs the question, what is it??

Eirin turned to look at Yuka, who was just beginning to get out of her seat and stand up, ?Now, doctor?s orders, no chasing after that thing today, okay?? The doctor once again stood up and retrieved another book and began writing something into it, ?I?ll assign some rabbits to keep an eye up for anything like a, purple-pink cloud, to quote you, or any youkai behaving erratically.?

Yuka, now stood up, but still a bit wobbly spoke, ?Come on Haru, let?s leave.?

Eirin grinned, ?Be sure to get plenty of rest, and as a favour of bringing this to my attention I shall inform you if anything interesting comes up.?

I nodded, ?Fine, well, thanks for things Dr Yagokoro.? I said, as I followed Yuka who was now leaving the room by herself.

?No problem, have a safe journey.? She called after us, after which I closed the door and easily caught up with Yuka.

I looked at Yuka, who didn?t look to be in her best shape, ?How are you feeling now.?

?How do you think? Awful. I feel even worse than before I took the damn medicine.? She mumbled quietly.

I walked alongside Yuka, who seemed to know which way to go through the mansion?s corridors in order to find the way out, whether she remembered them when she entered or previous visits here, I?ll probably never know. But in the end, we stood outside, back in the dark bamboo forest.

?Before you ask, we?re going to Mugenkan, I need a nap.? Yuka continued to speak, ?And make yourself useful, carry this while I don?t need it.? She lazily passed her parasol to me.

From then on, the rest of the journey was what Yuka had wanted, a simple, uneventful journey back to Mugenkan.

[Mima]

Chapter 5

For the last few hours, Yuka had retreated to her room leaving me with very little to do, at one point I considered going to see if I could access Akyu?s works to see if I could find anything about the strange entity we encountered, but in the end I ended up just sitting around Mugenkan, or rather on the roof of the mansion.

Since I could fly it wasn?t hard to actually get up there, and almost passively using my ability made sure it never got too dark or cold up there. The higher altitude gave quite a breathtaking view of the rainbow coloured flower fields and on occasion it was just so relaxing up there  I could get some thinking done, but that wasn?t the case in this instance.

As the sun was starting to set, as suggested by the fact it was harder to maintain a good level of light so I began to consider whether or not to go inside but my thoughts were stopped prematurely.

?Hey! What are you doing up there again?? An all too well-known voice shouted.

Standing up, I took a jump off the roof, applying some flight near the end to make sure I didn?t slam into the ground like I had on previous attempts, and fortunately found myself landing in front of the much better looking Yuka.

?How are you feeling now?? I asked as I landed.

?Better.? Yuka replied simply.

I grinned, ?You mean the medicine you doubted so much worked??

?I think all I needed was a good sleep.? Yuka replied with a straight face causing me to sigh loudly.

?So, what are you doing up? The doctor told you to rest.? I waved my finger jokingly.

?Oh be quiet. As a matter of fact, we?re going out.? Yuka spoke, leaning casually on her parasol.

Why she needs a parasol when it?s getting dark, I don?t know. But then again, she?s probably hoping for a fight.

?Going where?? I asked.

Yuka waved her hand, ?Oh, nothing big, I just feel like going out.?

?If you say so.? I replied, partly because I was fairly bored myself.

Yuka nodded, ?Well then, what are we waiting for?? With that said she turned away and began her stroll down the path from the mansion, shortly followed by myself.

As we wandered down the rather colourful path, as helped by the flowers either side, Yuka asked a question, ?So, you mean that say, that while I was napping, you did nothing but sit on that roof??

?Pretty much.? I replied, with a yawn.

Yuka playfully sighed, ?So boring, can?t you do anything without me??

?Obviously not.? I said sarcastically.

Yuka chuckled a little and continued walking with me, and as usual, she entered the portal a moment before me, and we emerged outside, in the darkening flower field.

?It certainly is becoming winter.? Yuka mused out loud.

I looked at Yuka, ?What makes you say that??

?Just check the time, it?s only about 6 o?clock and it?s already getting dark, not long ago we had far more hours of light.? Yuka replied.

?Ah, I see.? I commented, ?So, are you going to tell me where we?re going??

?Nowhere special, don?t get too panicky.? Yuka remarked mockingly.

It became pretty clear where we were heading after Yuka began to head in the direction she was, there were only two things in that direction, a rather small and sparse part of the forest of magic and the Hakurei Shrine, the latter being the most likely destination.

Despite the Hakurei Shrine being home to the infamous Reimu Hakurei, the one responsible for exterminating youkai and resolving disasters, I found myself spending a lot of time there, as did many other youkai. It?s quite a nice place really.

As we flew over the forest, I wondered for a moment if that entity from before would appear, but this time I kept hopeful and fortunately, there wasn?t anything eventful happen in the reasonably short cruise.

As we approached the shrine I couldn?t see anyone, but Yuka didn?t seem that concerned, so I just followed her.

Suddenly, Yuka spun backwards and faced down with her parasol open as a figure sprung from the trees below, catching me completely off guard.

?Wait a second! You ain?t who we?re after!? The approaching figure suddenly froze in a few metres from Yuka, showing who it was, Marisa Kirisame, clad in her usual blue and white, somewhat over-sized witch costume complete with broom, on which she rode.

Another figure quickly approached from where Marisa appeared from, ?Marisa, you need to stop being so hasty and try assessing a situation.? The voice, and soon after the unmistakeable figure showed it was Mima, Marisa?s mentor and also the goddess of the Hakurei Shrine as of two years a few days ago. Her figure is unmistakeable since due to her not only being a goddess, but she?s also a ghost, or a wandering soul, thus the lack of legs and instead a weird ghostly tail.

?Good evening Yuka, Haru.? She greeted. ?Sorry about the mix-up.? She laughed, as she lifted the pointed blue hat she wore, of which the colour and yellow sun-like patterns matched the dress-like robes she wore and scratched her green haired head.

?Why in Gensokyo were you both waiting down there?? Yuka asked.

?We were waiting to ambush someone, obviously!? Marisa replied.

Yuka wasn?t particularly fond of Marisa for one reason; Marisa has what could probably be described as minor kleptomania, and among the things she?s stolen includes one or two of Yuka?s spells which she then adopted as her trademark, so to speak, which didn?t please Yuka at all. Also technically Yuka is a very distant aunt to Marisa, spanning a roughly 1300 year gap, but I wasn?t sure where Yuka stood on that matter, she never likes to acknowledge her previous existence as a human.

?Marisa is right, that annoying little darkness youkai came by earlier and caused no end of trouble, so we were going wait until she came back and catch her off-guard.? Mima pointed at her apprentice, ?Her idea, not mine.?

Yuka sneered, ?And how long have you been down there??

?Three hours?? Marisa guessed. I noticed Yuka had an expression that showed she was laughing in her mind.

?Anyway, I?m heading back to the shrine, are you two coming?? Mima asked.

Yuka nodded, ?Of course.?

?I?m coming too!? Marisa shouted, and then zoomed off to the shrine.

Mima suddenly popped up between Yuka and I, and shouted, ?Well then! Let?s go!?

Despite Mima having a horrible history including being murdered and at one point vowing to destroy the Hakurei bloodline, at some point she lost her evilness and is actually quite friendly, and one of the few people who can mess around with Yuka, putting her as her best friend. They were unknowingly paired up having never met each other before to solve one of the incidents in Gensokyo and seem to have got on well.

?That darkness youkai, Mima, do you mean Rumia?? I asked.

Mima nodded slightly, ?Yeah, that might be it, wears black, short blonde hair.?

?It?s not usual for her to attack here of all places.? I stated.

?She didn?t seem to particularly care, just attacked out of the blue, in daylight to make things even more odd.? Mima answered.

I looked at Yuka, ?Do you think that thing is behind it??

?Quite likely.?

?Oh? What ?thing??? Mima questioned.

I shook my head slightly, ?We?ll tell you when we get to the shrine, Reimu and Marisa will probably want to hear this too.?

?If you say so...? Mima shrugged her shoulders.

Upon reaching the shrine, we found Reimu Hakurei, the famous shrine maiden casually sat by the shrine drinking tea, her usual pastime, while Marisa was a bit more laidback, literally, lying on her back possibly asleep, prompting Mima to make her metallic silver staff, with a crescent moon as the headpiece and prodded her, causing her to move.

?I?m awake! I?m awake!? The witch said as she sat up.

?Go and fetch us some tea.? Mima ordered.

Marisa rolled over, ?Hey Reimu, go get us some tea!?

?No.? The shrine maiden replied, still drinking tea casually.

Marisa groaned as she picked herself off the floor and walked off.

As she left, we all sat down on a ledge at the edge of the shrine where we sat fairly silent for a while until Yuka nudged Mima.

?You ought to watch him, I let him do what he wanted today for his birthday, and I end up spending half the day asleep, ill.? Yuka whispered, but loud enough for me to hear.

Mima grinned, ?That?s horrible, after all the care you?ve given him, he wants to watch you suffer.?

?I know, it?s saddening isn?t it.? Yuka grinned back.

?Stop making me look like the sick and twisted one!? I shouted slightly.

Yuka looked at me bemused, ?Oh, then who are you saying is sick and twisted??

But as I was about to mess up my answer, another voice interrupted, ?Hey, did she just say it?s his birthday??

?I?m pretty sure she did, Suika!? Another voice that I hadn?t heard before answered.

Mima cringed, ?I thought she was on holiday for another week.?

Out of nowhere, Suika and a new girl I hadn?t seen before, much taller than Suika, wearing a plain white shirt and a dark blue skirt, it was clear she was also an Oni like Suika since she was decorated in chains like Suika, and instead of the two horns Suika had, the new girl had a single red horn on her forehead.

Suika looked quite similar, wearing a pinkish shirt which had its sleeves torn off, and a purple dress rather than the dark blue worn by the other Oni. The only other difference was Suika?s hip-length orange hair compared to the other?s hip length blonde hair.

?Nothing like a good party to celebrate a birthday!? Suika shouted, presenting her purple gourd, an unlimited supply of sake.

?I?ll agree to that!? Said the other Oni, as she drunk from the red dish she was holding.

The two Oni?s pleasure was interrupted when Mima tapped her staff on the ground, ?And who might you be?? She aimed the question at the new Oni.

?Oh, I?m Yuugi Hoshiguma, want a drink?? She offered her dish in our general direction.

?She?s an Oni, just like me! We go way back!? Suika interrupted, now pretty much drinking non-stop.

Mima spoke again, ?Oh, she?s who you went to see??

?Yup! But I thought, why sit down there in the dark when we could be up here drinking with everyone!? Suika shouted. ?So I grabbed Yuugi and come back here!?

?Hey, Suika.? Yuugi bent down to Suika to speak in her ear, but spoke normally for some reason, letting us overhear. ?Where do you think the others are? They were following us earlier.?

?What others?!? Mima shouted, ?You mean you?ve invited even more people here?!?

Suika moved her hand reassuringly, ?Relax, there?ll only be, what, 4 more people at the most.? Suika looked around, ?See! There?s one here already!?

Suika began jumping and pointing in the direction of Reimu, and for a moment, I was just confused, until I noticed there was a black pile of fluff, an animal or some sort, asleep on her lap, whether she?d noticed or not I wasn?t sure since she was now reading a book.

?Hey! Orin, come over here!? Yuugi shouted.

From the pile of fur, a head emerged and looked in our direction and meowed, before slowly standing up and stretching and then bounded over to us, and meowed again.

?Heeey, how long you been cuddling Reimu for?? Suika asked, beginning to sound a little less sober.

The cat meowed again.

?Aww, come on, stop messing with us!?

The cat just began purring and lay down close to the three of us already sat down. I noticed then, that the cat not only had black fur, but also, unusually parts which were coloured red, not the mention the cat?s eyes were also red which instantly told there was more to this cat then meets the eye.

?Hey, I got the tea, but will someone help me!? Marisa cried from behind us.

As we looked, Marisa was trying to carry a tray filled with cups of tea which isn?t usually that hard a task, however the tray happened to have a black bird of some sort sitting on the edge of the tray, and not making life easy by circling around the tray causing balance to be all over the place.

?Go away!? Marisa shouted, weaving from side to side to keep balance.

I laughed a little, ?What an annoying crow.?

At that instance, the bird looked at me and flew off the tray, and in my direction, it didn?t take more than a couple of seconds for it to arrive and began pecking my head, quite painfully at that.

?Ow! What the hell!? Yuka give me a hand or something!? I shouted, trying to chase the bird away to little prevail.

Yuka sneered, ?Of course not, you were the one who insulted it.?

?How the hell did I insult it?!? I asked back.

?Well obviously it?s not a crow like you stated, it?s a raven.? Yuka spoke casually.

?Since when have you been a wildlife expert?? I asked again.

Yuka looked at me and grinned. ?Let?s not forget I?m more than a millennium older then you, I?ve had plenty of time.? She answered whimsically.

Not long after, the attacking on my head desisted, and the bird flew up and sat on the roof of the shrine, looking at it again, it looked like every other bird to me, with the exception of the fairly large green ribbon tied around its neck.

?Ahhh... Okuu why?d you hafta be so annoying all the time.? Yuugi spoke out, practically lying on a patch of grass now.

The raven simply cawed as a response, meanwhile I felt Yuka nudge me and she mumbled quietly, ?There?s a strong energy coming from the two, especially the crow, maybe tonight might be more entertaining than I thought.? She ended it with a quiet, sinister laugh.

[Mima]

Chapter 6

Reimu groaned in frustration and hissed, ?Not those two again.?

For a moment, I thought she was referring to the cat and raven that had appeared, Orin and Okuu apparently, but that didn?t seem to be a case, when I noticed two more newcomers approaching the shrine, this time however, they were both human, or at least appeared so. From the distance they were, one looked to be wearing a blue and white robe like outfit and had fairly short purple hair while the other wore a yellow jacket like coat and appeared to have silver hair, but vision was restricted lightly due to the large brimmed black hat she wore which had a small yellow ribbon tied around it.

At this moment I realised that these newcomers must have been those behind last year?s incident, neither Yuka or I had met them before now since they didn?t come to this year?s Reitaisai for an unknown reason and being dwellers of the underground, they?re not someone you simply walk into, but there has been rumours that one of the sisters occasionally hikes around Gensokyo relatively unnoticed due to her supposed ability to manipulate the subconscious. They were only rumours though, and due to their rarity there are no records of them, outside of the underworld anyway.

?Heya Reimu!? The one wearing yellow cheerfully shouted as she approached, ?Heya Marisa!?

?Hello.? Reimu replied in a monotone.

?Heya everyone else!? She shouted after Reimu was done.

?Uh, hi.? I said fairly quietly, much like everyone else did, except the two Oni who were now too intoxicated to be polite and shouted their greeting.

Now the duo were close up, I noticed something rather strange, the two of them had what first appeared like wires scattered over them, the pink haired one had red ones and the white haired one had blue, but then I noticed there was a large ball-like object over their heart, which made things even more confusing until I saw the more distant, pink-headed girl?s object was in fact an eye, the other?s must be the same, only the eye is closed, it was quite a weird sight.

The pink haired girl approached us, ?Good evening everyone.? She had a more serious tone then the other girl, who I presumed was her sister.

Once again, our group greeted her, and I noticed the eye on her chest was looking at all of us.

I wonder who they are.

The pink-haired girl cleared her throat quietly, ?My name is Satori Komeiji, this is my sister Koishi Komeiji, and I can see you?ve already met Orin and Okuu.? As she said that, the raven on top of the shrine flew down and perched on her head.

I looked at Yuka for a moment; she had a very slight grin on her face that could be interpreted as something villainous.

Looks like Yuka?s found someone new to fight.

Confusingly, Satori giggled for a brief moment before Mima spoke up, ?I?m Mima, the deity of this shrine, welcome! By the sounds of it you?ve Reimu, Marisa and... those two.? Mima?s voice drifted off as she looked at the two Oni who were just giggling hysterically. ?The only two you?ve not met are our friends, Yuka Kazami and Haru... Kazami?? Her voice rose a little at the end, making it a question, clearly she was unsure if I was considered an actual part of the Kazami house, which to be honest I didn?t know either, asking Yuka would just prompt either a threat or a riddle-like answer knowing her.

?Hey, you Oni, go and get some seats, we?re running out of room.? Mima ordered.

?Kayyyy!? They both shouted as they ran off rather unsteady, causing Mima to sigh.

Looking around quickly, the cat was still lying down doing very little, while Koishi was sat down near Reimu, talking to her about something.

Drinking some of the tea I was given earlier, I made sure to go slowly to try and make someone else bring up a conversation, and fortunately, someone did so.

?So, you were the ones, who nearly turned Genjii, into turtle soup, he wasn?t too pleased about his pond suddenly starting to boil.?

Satori laughed ominously, ?Hasn?t your maiden told you anything? It was her who heated things up.? She pointed at the bird sitting happily on her head. ?And it was her who sent all the spirits up.? She pointed at the cat.

I look a look at the cat, which rolled onto its side carelessly. ?I should also add that it Okuu mentioned it was gods from up here that made Okuu do what she did.?

Mima growled and muttered under her breath quietly, ?Those damn Moriya.?
 
The conversation stopped at that, until the Oni returned holding a tree each and slammed them onto the floor, narrowly missing Satori and causing the raven to protest loudly, and did nothing but cause the Oni to emit giggles, after a moment, Suika stood up off the freshly dropped tree and ran into the shrine.

I wonder what their powers are, I bet Yuka is probably wondering the same thing too.

They seem a bit creepy and weird really.

The pink-haired girl giggled at that moment for no apparent reason, which suddenly made me suspect something, but decided not to follow up for now.

?Come on, let?s drink, birthdays are for drinking!? Suika shouted, as she dived out of the shrine, holding a tray with a large amount of glasses on before carelessly waving her gourd around, messily filling the glasses, the tray and the immediately area in sake.

Yuugi jumped up at the sight and grabbed a glass, downing it in a second or so, as for me, I could stand the stuff a bit more then when I was a human, but I still couldn?t drink a great deal without the taste making me feel bad.

Oddly enough, as the Oni settled down a bit to the drinking, having left the glasses of sake alone for the other guests to prey upon, I notice that the cat which was sat beside me had got up and walked over to one of the glasses and begun to drink from it. After a few licks of the sake, it gave a cheerful meow prompting the bird to fly over and begin drinking from another glass next to the cat; they were obviously acquainted since other cats I?d met in my lives weren?t so happy to share company with a bird.

Fairly reluctantly, I reached for a glass as everyone else had by now and I slowly took a few sips of the drink, which stilled tasted as bad as I could remember, maybe it?s something you grow used to over a much longer time then I?ve been around for, like maybe a couple of hundred years.

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that, oddly enough, the cat and the raven were both oddly glowing red, for a moment I blamed the sake I was holding, but then realised I?d barely drunk anything and I didn?t get drunk that easily. To my surprise, although I should have seen it coming, as the glow intensified to the point you couldn?t see anything; the two animals were replaced with figures far more humanoid.

Where the cat once sat, there was now a bright red haired girl sat in its spot, obviously the same being due to the black cat ears and two tails she had, her hair was crafted into two braids, one down each side of her face and were tied together with a single black ribbon, her clothing was a strangely patterned dress, mostly black but contained some green for the patterns.

The raven however was slightly more surprising in appearance. Her colouring as the bird remained as her hair colour, which trailed far down her back. She wore a fairly frilly white shirt, which had a black trim along the edges and along the centre; however the more eye-catching part was the giant red orb, which resembled an eye in the centre of her chest. He also wore a fairly simple green dress and on one foot she wore a normal shoe but the other foot looked like it had been dropped into wet concrete which had then solidified, very odd. The final part of her that stood out was the two large black wings she had, obviously due to her being a raven, however the wings also seemed to be holding up a strange cape which was white on the outside, but on the inside it was a dark blue starry pattern.

Regardless of their transformations, the two continued doing what they were before, drinking the sake, only now they were able to drink it at a much faster rate and within a few seconds the two of them slammed it onto the floor, thankfully not breaking the glasses, with a cry of ?Done!?

The raven Utsuho cried out, ?Dammit! I lost... again!?

The red haired girl cackled, ?I win, I win!?

?Damn, you always win.? The raven mumbled.

?That?s because I?m just better then you.? The cat teased playfully.

The raven thought for a moment, ?Hmm... Best two out of three!? She shouted as she grabbed the Oni?s gourd and refilled the glasses, and then an exact replay of the previous drinking competition occurred, down to the winner and loser.

?Again!? The raven shouted, and so a seemingly endless chain of drinking occurred causing me, in the end to look for other things going on. The Oni were still drinking, which was nothing new, Satori was still talking with Reimu, but for once Reimu didn?t seem too unhappy about talking.

Mima and Yuka were, in between watching the drinking, beginning to speak with the apparent owners of the two animals, Satori, who still seemed to bother me somehow.

Maybe I should ask about them and what their powers are, just to strike up a conversation.

Satori giggled quietly, ?Well, Orin is a Kasha; she?s in charge of carrying away corpses where we?re from. Okuu, has what is called nuclear fusion manipulation, she regulates the fires of the old Hell.

Nuclear Fusion? Must not get into a fight with her, or tell Yuka.

Satori giggled again, almost confirming my suspicions.

She can read my mind.

?I see you?ve finally figured me out, yes, I can read minds, my sister would also, but she chose to refuse her power, instead she gets to manipulate the subconscious.? Satori laughed once more.

?You can read anyone?s mind?? I asked.

The pink-haired girl was about to say something when she smirked for a moment, ?Yes, your partner is just thinking ?If you can read this, I?ll rip your throat out.? She?s quite vicious isn?t she??

Partner? I don?t think so.

Satori giggled, having read my mind, causing me to curse silently.

?I?m serious.? Yuka stood up, with a large, rather unstable grin on her face.

Satori looked at her, ?I see, if you?re so insistent for a fight.? Satori took a quick jump back and then leapt and remained in the air.

As Yuka laughed and jumped into the air, I let out a loud sigh causing her to look at me, ?Oh shut up, some of us know how to have fun.? I replied with another sigh causing her to turn away and fly at her opponent.

Satori grinned as Yuka appeared, and before Yuka had even stretched her arm forward, Satori was already dodging the laser before it had appeared.

Satori replied by sending a wave of orbs and bullets which looped around creating a wall, but Yuka merely flew through it effortlessly and taunted her opponent, ?Pitiful! I don?t even need to read your mind to dodge your weak attacks.? Yuka ended her speech with a wave of flowers which appeared with a wave of her arm and curved around to surround and close in on Satori, but once more she had already foreseen this and escaped before the flowers had created their trap which causes Yuka to growl.

Satori held her chin in thought for a moment as her third eye moved very slightly, as though it was scanning every part of Yuka, or more likely, her mind.

?This looks like it might be fun.? She said, with an eerie tone, before holding her arms out, one hand over the other and suddenly fired the unmistakeable Master Spark; one of Yuka?s most prized, and previously stolen by Marisa, spells, which I knew straight away, was a mistake on her part.

Yuka laughed, rather insanely as she gracefully dived backwards to dodge it, ?You dare use my own magic against me?? Her voice suddenly turned less hostile and quiet, ?Still, I know how I can beat you, easy.?

Satori?s eyes widened slightly when that was said, but she quickly regained her composure, ?Really now? Not while I can read you, just like a book.? She chuckled quietly.

Yuka brushed some hair from her face, almost in a taunting fashion before I realised what she was doing, since it had been a while since I had seen her cast the spell she was. She made a large arc around her with her parasol before pointing it to the side, and a small yellow spark of light appeared a few metres away and as it hastily spiralled upwards a figure materialised, another Yuka Kazami.

Satori?s eyes widened once again as the event occurred in front of her, ?I c-can?t copy that!??

For some reason, which I?d never remembered to ask Yuka about, she had the ability to make a second version of herself, it wasn?t done through a spell card or similar things but she just seemed to be able to do it, and of course, having two Yukas attack you isn?t a good thing.

Immediately, one Yuka flew in front of Satori, while the other one flew behind her, which confirmed my suspicions on her plan, by positioning herself like that, Satori could only read one Yuka at any time.

Of course, from that point on, the fight didn?t take much longer at all, as Satori panicked and tried to read the incoming attacks she ended up rendering her defence useless allowing both Yukas to close in, dodge her scattered attacks and deliver a couple of blows before sending her plummeting to the ground.

?Master!? Okuu shouted as she cruised through the air to her defeated owner.

?That was a dirty cheap trick! I?ll avenge you, master!? She shouted as she bolted into the air, at Yuka.

A few seconds later, Orin decided to join the fight too causing an all out brawl to start while the rest of the spectators downstairs remained ?civilised? and just tried to ignore them, even the Oni remained fairly calm, minus their drunken giggling.

Fortunately, there wasn?t too much stray fire, for the whole duration of the fight I only had to run out of the way once to dodge a stray miniature sun and twice to dodge a swarm of flowers.

While the fight took place, I merely talked about the former hell with Mima, Koishi, Reimu and the recovering Satori learning quite a fair deal about things down there, and in a way I?d quite like to visit it some time, some parts of it sound quite interesting, and extremely hot.

During our conversation, the fight ended and they simply rejoined us as thought nothing had happened and time began to fly.

...

?Come on Yuka, we had best go home now.? I spoke up, noticing that the several hours of drinking was definitely starting to take effect on everyone, and even the Oni looked practically unconscious now.

?Ah, I?m not even started yet, I can drink more than them Oni ever could.? Yuka shouted.

Once again, I sighed, ?I?m sure you can, so let?s go.?

Yuka moaned in disappointment as she struggled to pick herself off the floor and walk over to where I was.

As well as the others could, they shouted goodbye and such and we left the shrine with Yuka leaning against me, very much drunk.

?Haaaaru.? Yuka slurred.

?What?? I answered.

?Carry meeeee.? She said in some odd drunken playful way.

I glanced at her, ?Carry yourself.?

?Come onnnnn.? She continued.

?Fine... Whatever...? I moaned, causing her to practically jump at me, forcing me to catch her.

Lying sideways, she put an arm around my neck, ?Thanks Haruuu.?

The rather uncomfortable walk progressed slowly, and at last I entered the portal to Mugenkan.

?Hey Yuka, what did you think of those new people then?? I asked.

There was no reply.

I asked again, ?Yuka??

Looking down, as I should have guessed, the flower youkai was peacefully asleep, green hair covering her face slightly.

With a quiet, short laugh, I carried her across the thankfully short path, past Elly?s house, who was already asleep herself, to the mansion where I quietly ascended one of the stairways, silently flew through the space-like dimension of a place Yuka called her bedroom and placed her on her bed before hastily leaving the room and going to bed myself, having realised I now had a headache, most likely due to the small, compared to everyone else?s, amount of Oni sake I drunk.

[Mima]

Chapter 7

I was disturbed from my slumber by the sound of something smashing, glass or something of the sort.

Looking at the curtains covering the closest window, I noticed it was already quite bright outside. Wiping my eyes and then letting them focus for a few seconds, the clock opposite the window showed it was a few minutes past eleven o?clock, unusually late since at most, Yuka would have come back and kicked my door and disappeared before I could do anything.

Wobbling out of bed, I stumbled over to the wardrobe and pulled out another set of clothes, matching the majority of the clothes in there and quickly got dressed before I rushed out the room to see what the commotion was.

Reaching the main hall of the mansion, I looked down the stair to see a proud looking Yuka with her arms on her hips, staring at a large smashed window. A few seconds later, a voice I hadn?t heard in a while spoke out, as carefree as ever. ?Still don?t wanna? Alright then, see you next time.? The red haired shinigami, Komachi Onozuka walked over to the mansion?s front door and let herself out.

It wasn?t hard to tell from the scene, that Gensokyo?s Judge of the Dead, Sikieiki Yamaxanadu had come to the mansion on one of her attempts to, put it simple, encourage Yuka to stick to the cycle of life and well, die. I can only guess that Yuka is considered extremely old even for a youkai, and has no intention to die any time soon, I can?t see what damage it?s doing, but the Yama tries none-the-less.

As always, Yuka?s reply was a negative one, and by the looks of it she launched the Judge out of the mansion through the closest window, which the maid fairies were now gathering around and utilising some kind of magic to repair the damage. Sikieiki?s workmate, Komachi Onozuka didn?t share her zealous personality towards work, and was usually slacking in some way, thus her exit from the scene without doing much at all.

?Had some visitors, have we?? I shouted out from where I was, causing Yuka to turn around.

?Finally decided to wake up, have we?? She mimicked. ?Honestly, I was the one who you?d think would sleep longer!?

?Hey, I was the one who had to carry you all the way back last night.? I laughed slightly.

Yuka shouted sarcastically, ?Oh, well boohoo. I always had to carry you around at one point, returning the favour for once won?t hurt.?

I decided any further discussion on the matter would be useless and result in me losing, so I changed the topic, ?So what?s the plan for today then Yuka??

?Isn?t it obvious?? She asked.

?Not really.? I replied, and followed up with a yawn.

Yuka waved her parasol a few times, as though it was a sword or something, ?We?re going to hunt that thing in the forest!?

?You know, I don?t think that?s a good idea.? I spoke back to the youkai.

?You would, you?re boring.? Yuka sneered.

I nodded, ?Thanks, I guess.? With that said I turned back around the corner and finished getting ready.

A few minutes later, I descended the staircase to see Yuka merely playing around with her parasol, namely throwing it in the air and catching it again repeatedly. Upon noticing me, she spoke, ?Finally. Let?s go.?

As I followed Yuka out of the mansion and then walked alongside her as usual I told her the idea I thought of as I was getting ready, ?Hey, Yuka, I think we should go to Akyu?s place first, see if we can find something about that thing you want to hunt, might be better to find some information on it before we just charge blindly... Know your enemy or something like that.?

?Fine, whatever.? She replied, with a slightly irritated tone.

Some way into our journey to the human village, I spoke to Yuka, ?It didn?t take you long to get sober, especially after how much you drunk.?

?Of course, what kind of weakling do you think I am? Had you not been a spoil-sport and made me leave, I could have drunk a lot more.? Yuka bragged.

?And then you?d have probably gone on some drunken crusade against the human village.? I commented.

Yuka shrugged, ?Not that there?s anything wrong with that. In fact, why don?t we go and do that now?? Yuka?s face turned a bit more sinister, she gave a small giggle and lifted off the ground and flew at the village at a considerably high speed.

?W-wait! Hold on!? I shouted as I flew after her as fast as I could.

Yuka ignored me, and instead held her parasol out in front of her, her usual move before casting Master Spark.

Yuka spoke to herself, ?Three... Two... One...?

?Wait, don?t!? I shouted.

Yuka just laughed and turned around, ?You are so incredibly easy to wind up, you know that??

I gave a quick sigh of relief, ?Whatever...? I dropped down to the ground, and began walking again.

Yuka continued to chuckle and she dropped down beside me and wrapped her arm around mine as we walked along.

The rest of the journey simply consisted of Yuka humming a melody and soon enough, we reached the human village where Keine was already waiting for us.

?Good afternoon Keine.? I shouted out as we approached.

?Good afternoon, Haru, Yuka.? She spoke back.

As we got closer, Keine spoke again, ?A rather terrified human reported there was a hostile looking youkai taking an offensive stance against the village. I presume you?re the guilty party?? She then only stared at us, with a rather serious expression.

Before I could say anything, Yuka spoke up shouting in a cheerful voice, ?Well Haru, looks like more people then you can?t take a joke, let?s be going then!? I then found myself being dragged away by Yuka and just managed to catch a glimpse of Keine?s expression, confused.

For some reason, Keine decided to not follow us today, maybe she could read Yuka?s mood as not being one of a threat, or maybe she had other business, whatever it was, we managed to get to Akyu?s residence without our usual escort today.

I knocked on the front door of the residence and a few seconds later, a fairly weak voice shouted out, ?Come in!?

As the voice stated I opened the door and let Yuka in before entering and closing the door behind me. Walking down the corridor and taking the first left as usual, Akyu was sat at her usual table, doing her usual pastime; writing.

?Ah, Haru, and Miss Kazami too, it?s a pleasure to see you both!? She greeted cheerfully.

?Good afternoon, Miss Hieda.? Yuka spoke out.

?Hi, Akyu.? I said afterwards. ?How are you today? I heard you were ill yesterday.?

?Oh, very well thank you, Miss Yagokoro was kind enough to get some medicine delivered to me and I was fine by the time I woke up today, she?s quite the genius.?

I decided for my own safety to not mention Yuka?s similar condition.

?So, what brings the two of you here today?? Akyu happily asked.

?Ah, we?re here to try and find some information.? I replied.

Akyu nodded, ?I see, you?re not the first to do so today. Just half an hour ago I was visited by Marisa and Miss Mima, and they?re not the only ones.?

?Ah!? I said in surprise, I turned and spoke to Yuka, ?We never told Mima and the others about that thing we saw, with all the fighting and drinking I completely forgot.? Yuka just shrugged as a reply.

?What thing, may I ask?? Akyu questioned.

I walked over to the writer, and took a seat, ?Well, in fact it?s what we came here for, so it?ll help to explain anyway.?

I spent the next half hour explaining the stories I?d heard involving the strange entity we saw to Akyu, who just listened thoroughly with a troubled face.

?...and before Yuka went off to hunt it, I told her we should come here first, so here we are.? I ended.

?I see... Well, I can?t help you in this case.? Akyu spoke quietly.

I spoke, probably sounding a tad too surprised that I should have, ?What, really?!?

?My knowledge may go back a good one thousand, two hundred and thirty two years, but in all of it I?ve not had anything to do with what you?ve described. There have been some minor possession incidents, but they were nothing of note since they only lasted a few seconds, this is unheard of.? Akyu stopped for a moment and thought, ?There?s only two things that could be the case then.?

?What are they?? I asked quickly.

?Either this strange being is a new resident of Gensokyo, much like you were two years ago, or it existed before I made my deal and somehow remained hidden since then.? Akyu answered, spinning her pen around.

?What deal?? I questioned.

Akyu gasped in surprise slightly, ?Oh, a deal I made with the Yama some time back.?

?Some time being roughly one and a quarter millennia ago?? I added.

?Yes, anyway, the deal was whenever I reincarnate I retain my memory of past lives, but my lifespan is cut short a fifth on each reincarnation.?

Akyu?s face suddenly turned to something of extreme sorrow, ?I probably only have a few years left, and then it?s another 130 years before I get reborn.?

?Well, why don?t you ask the Yama for a break in the chain, next time you see her?? Yuka interrupted, surprising me. ?It?s simple, break the deal and lose your memory but retain your ability to always remember, or reincarnate as a youkai, or even better, do both. With your ability and the records you?ve made, it wouldn?t be hard for you to artificially replace your memory.?

Akyu looked up at Yuka, ?That, that?s a good idea Miss Kazami, but, I do not know if I can simply do such a thing. I would have to ask the Yama and well, we?ll have to see.?

Slowly, a smile reappeared on Akyu?s face, ?I shall certainly try though, it would be great to be able to be free outside and do as I wish, rather than being imprisoned in progressively weaker bodies every time.? Akyu looked at us again, looking a bit more serious again, ?Anyway, I am sorry I can?t help you with the information you need, and I find it quite disturbing. If you, Miss Kazami, do not know, and I do not know, then there?s only one other person who has a chance of knowing, and I?ve not seen her for a good while.?

?Yukari...? I quietly guessed.

?Yes, that?s the only possible lead I can give you, I?m sorry.? Akyu bowed her head.

I looked at Yuka, ?Well, Yuka, what do you say we do now then??

The youkai shrugged, ?We?ll just see what comes along first, Yukari or the thing.?
?Well, I guess it?s time we left then, thank you Akyu, and I?ll see you around.? I said, as I got up from the chair, shortly followed by Yuka who left with a simple ?Farewell.?

?Goodbye, both of you, please be careful!? She shouted cheerfully as we left.

Outside of the building, I looked at Yuka, ?I didn?t expect you to come up with an idea like that to help Akyu.?

Yuka sneered slightly, ?It was a simple idea, common sense.?

?Do you think it would work?? I questioned.

Yuka held her hands out, ?Maybe, I?m not an expert in the underworld, I just send them there.? She ended with a grin. ?Anyway, let?s head towards the forest; see if we can find that creature.?

?What about Yukari?? I queried.

Yuka glared at me, ?Yes, because Yukari is an easy person to track down. Now come on, let?s get moving.? She ordered as she quickly linked arms again and pulled me along in the direction of the forest.

[Mima]

Chapter 8

As usual, the forest was dark and generally horrid, despite the summer coming to an end, the leaves still seemed to form a solid wall overhead preventing any light from coming in, and eventually Yuka nudged me to summon another ball of light with my free arm, youkai have some ability to see in the dark, but it?s more beneficial to just have light, and since I have the ability to do so, it?s a no-brainer.

?You know, this forest is a big place, we?re probably not gonna find that thing.? I commented after a few minutes of walking in silence.

?Oh stop being pessimistic.? Yuka nagged. ?You never know, besides, I think I can sense something close.?

After a brief moment, I decided to say my thoughts out, even if it was just for amusement, ?So, Yukari?s not been seen in a while, right?? I paused for a moment, ?So, what if those ghost thing was linked to her somehow??

Yuka looked amused at first, but her face slowly turned into thought, ?Well, the energies I sense are different from each other, but I suppose there?s always the possibility that her energies morphed after... whatever happened to her.? Yuka fell silent for a moment, most likely thinking, ?It?d be just like her to do this, messing around with people as she always does. Anyway, keep your eyes open.?

After just about a minute, I noticed something out the corner of my eye and looked quickly, but nothing was there.

?You see something, Haru?? Yuka asked.

?Thought I saw something purple.? I answered, still looking in that direction.

Yuka nodded, and headed in that direction, casually swinging her parasol in her hand, but in a way she could easily swing it up for an attack, but as we got there, it was clear nothing was here.

Just at that moment, I felt something touch my back, and so did Yuka since she spun around incredibly fast and fired a rather large laser in that direction, but strangely enough, nothing was there.

?You?re getting slow! May I borrow you for a while?? A voice teased behind us, one which I was never that pleased to hear.

Yukari.

Yuka swung around, fist ready to hit the source of the voice, when suddenly everything went dark.

?Yuka, you there?? I shouted out.

?Yes, I?m right next to you, stop shouting.? Yuka growled.

I quickly apologised, ?Oh, sorry. So I presume Yukari gapped us somewhere??

?Oh, looks like someone knows what?s going on!? Yukari?s voice echoed through the black void we were in.

?Just tell us where the hell we are, Yukari.? Yuka hissed.

Yuka continued to sound cheerful, ?Oh, just a temporary void in space, don?t worry, no way in, or out minus my gaps, so don?t waste your time trying anything! I just need to fish a few more people and drop them here and I?ll be with you, won?t be long!?

A single miniature sun-like object appeared in front of me, casting some light into the otherwise empty void, at least letting me see Yuka beside me.

?Any idea, Yuka?? I asked, hopelessly.

Yuka took a few steps forward towards the sun, and waved her parasol right through the sun. ?No, nothing.?

The void returned to silence for just a few seconds, before there was the sound of someone shouting and straight afterwards, Mima and Marisa dropped into the room, if you could call it that.

?W-what the hell is going on now?!? The evil spirit turned deity shouted in anger. ?It?s gotta be Yukari, and things were just getting peaceful without her.?

?Why, good afternoon there Mima, what a surprise it is to see you here.? Yuka spoke sarcastically, since Mima and Marisa were facing the other way and hadn?t yet noticed us.

The duo spun around to face us, ?Is it really you??

?Of course it is, do you want me to crush your little apprentice to prove it?? Yuka grinned devilishly.

?Let?s go then!? Marisa cockily taunted as she leapt forward, but jerked backwards as Mima grabbed the back of her clothes.

?Not so fast, it?s them alright.? Mima told Marisa. ?So, what are you doing here??

Yuka growled, ?Taking a walk, what do you think??

Mima quickly sounded more calming, ?Okay, okay, I get it, just thought you might have found out something.?

?We?ve been here for about 20 seconds longer then you.? I added to the conversation.

?I see... Yukari?? Mima asked.

I nodded.

?Did someone call?? The gap youkai?s unmistakably whimsical and odd voice echoed out, ?Wheeeee!?

As she shouted with joy, she slide down from above the sun as if she was on some invisible slide or something, before landing on her feet and stopping a few steps from us.

?Good afternoon everyone, how are you?? She asked cheerfully.

Yukari was wearing was could only figure as her winter clothes, in the summer she wore a bright purple dress with a large amount of ribbons and frills, but this time around, it was an incredibly elaborate pinkish-white dress, made with multiple layers of a frilly material, with a strip of purple and orange cloth down the middle with some various symbols on it. She held a pink parasol, rather like Yuka?s and on her head was a pink, poufy hat, with frills along the rim and a red ribbon, not to mention the collection of ribbons that decorated her dress and tied her hair together in multiple locations.

Yuka didn?t flinch at Yukari?s appearance, or move at all, but I knew she was stopped herself from lashing out. Marisa looked less bothered and was stood by Mima who was just frowning, waiting for answers.

?If I may, I?d like to borrow a moment of your time.? She asked, waving a fan in her hand.

Mima snapped at Yukari, ?Why the hell should we waste our time with you, after you?ve screwed us around for so long??

Obviously, Mima hadn?t forgotten our previous encounters, such as when Yukari turned Yuka and I into humans and send us to the human world, and only by chance did we get back to Gensokyo.

Yukari giggled in her slightly irritating, unpredictable way, ?Because if you don?t help me, then there?s a good possibility that Gensokyo might go kaput.?

?Wait, what?? Marisa shouted, like someone who hadn?t been playing attention.

?You heard me.? Yukari answered, ?Now, will you help me or not??

?Why haven?t you asked Reimu, she?s the usual one to deal with stuff like this!?? Marisa shouted again.

?If you care to enter this gap, I will explain everything.? Yukari looked at Mima, ?Everything.?

A large gap appeared where the sun was once sat, yet somehow the light still remained.

?After you.? Yukari smiled.

There was a standoff, where no one moved at all, not even their expressions.

After what felt like a minute Mima finally spoke up, ?Fine, one chance.? She slowly hovered over to the gap, loyally followed by her apprentice and entered the gap.

?Well, Yuka?? I quietly asked, noticing she?d remained quiet for the entire confrontation.

Yuka nodded slightly and spoke quietly, ?Let?s go.? She grabbed me and pulled me over to the gap, ?Must be better than being stuck in here, anyway.?

?That?s the spirit!? Yukari shouted happily.

As I entered the gap, there was no moment where things blacked out, instantly I found myself in what appeared to be a normal house.

The house looked like it couldn?t decide if it was of a western or eastern design, and it was highly decorated with ornaments and paintings, yet somehow managed to have a humble feeling to it.

The two magicians were a few steps ahead, looking around just as we were when Mima turned around, ?This must be her house.?

?Correct, you are!? Yukari?s ominously joyful voice shouted.

As soon as she had completely left the portal, Yukari quickly closed it and took a deep breath and exhaled.

Taking off her hat, she looked at us, devoid of her usual unpredictable and menacing look, ?Welcome to my humble abode, as they say.?

Yukari walked down a hall of the house and waved us to follow, we did so but as we followed her, Marisa spoke up, ?This isn?t your house; we?ve been to it in Mayohiga and it looks nothing like this!?

Yukari turned around with a smile, but once again there was no sign of the usual menace it held, ?No, Marisa, this is my real house.?

That line basically sent us reeling in a way; no one knew what she meant.

Yukari seemed to have noticed and began to speak, ?The house you know of, is a fake as such, not many people have even seen it, yet it?s widely known to be my residence, that?s a lie.?

Yukari?s voice almost seemed down-to-earth now, normal, maybe even with a hint of sorrow, either way, seeing Yukari acting as she was now was as creepy as she was normally.

We soon entered a dining room, it wasn?t dramatically sized for about 20 people around a large table, like the one in Yuka?s mansion, it was once again, fairly small and homely, with only four chairs at the table, Yukari noticed this and instantly gapped in a few more stacked chairs and moved them around. ?Please, take a seat.?

Yukari didn?t take a seat right away; instead she walked into another room and shouted, ?Won?t be a moment!?

The four of us that were sat down simply looked at each other, gob-smacked and confused. Yuka whispered, ?Is this another one of her games??

Mima replied, equally as quiet, ?She?s doing a good job of it this time.?

Yuka spoke up again, ?Well, be ready for anything, false sense of security and all that, she could be able to do anything.?

Cautiously, we sat and waited, trying to notice whatever trap Yukari had set.

[Mima]

Chapter 9

Not long after, Yukari re-entered with a small tray holding a teapot and coffeepot and a number of mugs, not the usual cups and saucers.

?I?d like to ask you that everything that takes place while you are here remains completely confidential, absolutely no one must know about this.? She looked serious for a moment, before smiling again, ?Tea anyone??

After a brief hesitation, Mima, Yuka and I pushed the mugs we?d been given forward, prompting Yukari to fill them up, a moment later she stood up and headed out the room again, ?Oops, forgot something.?

Marisa whispered, ?I think you?re right, something is up.?

Yukari quickly entered the room, holding a small jug of milk and a cup of sugar, ?Please, help yourselves.?

Moments of awkwardness passed as we slowly started to drink the beverages we had been given, until Yukari spoke up, ?You?re wondering what?s going on.?

?Of course.? Mima spoke over her drink.

?At the moment, not a great deal.? Yukari commented, over her own drink.

That was a slight sense of irritation in the room, when ran walked into the room, wearing her usual costume minus the hat showing off her fox ears, ?Yukari, when are we-? The nine-tailed Kitsune froze when she saw us, ?Yukari! What are they doing here?!?

?Relax, Ran, I brought them here.? Yukari calmly replied.

Ran nodded nervously, ?If... if that?s what you think is right.? After, she promptly left the room.

?What was that about? Ran?s never usually nervous when I come here.? Marisa asked.

?Like I said earlier, ?that? house is a fake, of sorts.? Yukari waved her arm as she spoke. ?The truth is, before a few minutes ago, the only people who had ever been inside this house was Ran, Chen and I. No-one else. How do I know? Because we?re not even in Gensokyo.?

There was yet another silent pause, as Yukari began to pick the red ribbons out of her hair and carelessly dump them on the table, straightening her hair as parts became free.

?This is our own space, a place where no one else can enter and annoy us, where I can get the peace I desire.? Yukari continued to talk peacefully when Ran poked her head around the corner again.

?Yukari, will they be staying for dinner? I can start preparing if you wish.? She asked.

Yukari shook her head, ?We?ll see, Ran. Besides, it?s my turn to cook tonight.?

Ran nodded slightly and disappeared again.

Suddenly, Mima rose from her seat, ?You?re not Yukari.?

Everyone looked at her, while Yukari simply remained in her timid state.

?It?s... you...? Mima suddenly sounded melancholic.

Yukari smiled slightly, and nodded.

?But why, Mura, what?s going on, tell me.? Mima suddenly sounded a lot more vulnerable, even upset.

Yukari rose from her seat, and walked a few paces and faced a wall, ?Didn?t you hear? Murasaki died in Gensokyo a few decades after you did.?

Murasaki... I know that name...

No... Wait... Murasaki was the name of the creator of Gensokyo, could it really be?

?She was only human after all, their life-spans are short, and over in the blink of an eye, or a youkai?s anyway.? Yukari continued to look away, talking to the wall still, ?And yet, this question arises, who is this person who stands in front of you??

All of us remained quiet, waiting for answers.

?In Gensokyo, this person is simply Yukari Yakumo, the ancient youkai who enjoys causing general trouble and irritation for the residents there.? Yukari opened her fan, ?And yet, who am I now? Outside of Gensokyo, in a location inaccessible by every single resident of Gensokyo??

?It?s obvious, you?re Murasaki Hakurei.? Mima answered. ?You mean to tell me, that for all this time, you?ve been playing an act??

Yukari waved her hand, ?Something like that.?

?But, why??

?Murasaki was a marvel, she was brilliant, she saved a good number of youkai from death and worse when she created Gensokyo all those years ago, how long has it been since then? How many youkai or even gods have saved themselves by entering Gensokyo since then? Countless, and what does that make Murasaki Hakurei? I?ll tell you... It makes her something along the lines of a god, a messiah.? Yukari finally turned around to face us, and placed her hands on the table. ?Had ?Murasaki? still been alive today, what would that have done to Gensokyo? If Murasaki still lived in Gensokyo, she?d be worshipped by almost everyone and what would happen to the other gods were they to receive no worship due to the monopoly caused by that? They would die, and then Gensokyo will have lost its purpose.?

I quietly spoke, ?So, you?ve simply used a false identify, simply to maintain Gensokyo??

?That?s exactly what I did.? She answered. ?As mentioned, the only place that Murasaki truly ?lives? now, is in this house, where no one can ever discover the truth. Of course, I hope you realise that I trust you all to not discuss with anyone when you return.?

Yuka spoke up, ?Stop with the attempts to get sympathy for a moment, how the hell do you explain what you?ve done to us in the past? The number of times you?ve screwed things up, annoyed people needlessly and even sent us to that damn human world.?

Yukari nodded, ?I understand your anger, Yuka, and minus the occasions where it was simply part of maintaining my character, I shall explain fully in a moment.? As she finished, she took a long drink from her mug.

This is just completely unreal.

?I?d like to tell you a story.? Yukari started again, ?Once upon a time, there was a young shrine maiden, she was a cheerful person who wielded the most spectacular power, she could do almost anything, and as well as that, unlike all the other humans of that time, she was friends with a large amount of youkai. Now, the youkai were sad, they were being left behind by the humans they co-existed with, killed by them, forgotten, and the shrine maiden didn?t like this, she wanted to help.?

Mima spoke again, ?So, the shrine maiden created Gensokyo.?

?Not just yet, first, she started to test the limit of her powers, she stretched it as much as she could, ignoring the warnings passed down by her family, and eventually, she managed to be able to tear gaps in reality itself, the thing she?d sought for, and with that, it was just a matter of time and planning before she created her own realm, yes, then she created Gensokyo.? Yukari stood up, and paced around the room, ?But what that shrine maiden didn?t realise, is that in her experiments regarding gap manipulation, she released something, something that was trapped inside the void of gaps itself. She didn?t notice it, and since nothing immediate appeared minus a bad feeling, she ignored it.?

?A couple of years later, the shrine maiden is living happily in Gensokyo, the humans are taking a while to adjust to their new magical home and were being generally hostile to all things that could use it, except the shrine maiden of course. Now, the shrine maiden suddenly recognises a horrible feeling, she senses something evil, the same evil she felt those years back during her experiments, but still, she had no idea what is actually was, but it was her job to destroy it, Gensokyo was a home for youkai and humans, but something of such evil was not welcome and was simply put, a threat.?

Yukari sighed, and walked over to some cupboards and took out a glass before filling it with water from a tap.

?Now, where was I? Ah, right. So, as a result of the human?s prejudice, the shrine maiden befriends a similar aged girl who was one of the first humans to being to wield magic in Gensokyo.?

Mima sighed, ?That would be me.?

?The shrine maiden was glad to have a close friend for once, rather than simply being looked up and so welcomed the company, but her friend seemed to be a magnet for trouble. Some horrifically tragic events took place, and eventually there was a meeting at the shrine.?

Mima whispered, ?Finally, the truth I?ve been waiting for, for all these years.?

?The girl arrived in a terrible state, an unstable mix of emotions and an appearance to match made her appear quite frightening, as one would expect in her situation, however, there was one more thing that only the shrine maiden knew of, that horrible evil was lurking in the area again. Was it her, her close friend after all this time? Was it her that caused the murder? The shrine maiden, unused to personally caring about people let her emotions cloud her judgement, and indescribably feeblemindedly, she killed her closest friend to save Gensokyo from that evil which had haunted her senses for so long.?

Yukari?s eyes almost appeared to be getting watery at this point, ?Her hopes was lifted slightly, when after her friend passed away, an evil spirit rose from her corpse and put up a truly vicious fight, killing two bystanders and fatally wounding another, fortunately, again the shrine maiden prevailed and banished the spirit into the realm from which she?d released it.?

Mima didn?t respond, she was simply resting her head on her linked hands, staring at the table.

?But something was wrong. Horribly wrong, the shrine maiden?s heart almost shattered to pieces.? I noticed Mima looked up slightly, ?The evil being was still present, and the friend she had just killed had been innocent all along, staining her hands with her trusting friend?s blood.?

?The shrine maiden knew there was only one other living being in the area, and suddenly everything made sense, it wasn?t the girl with the magic who was the trouble, it was the one who wanted her dead, the human who was currently lying against a tree, slowly succumbing to his mortal wounds.? Yukari cleared her throat and quickly took another gulp of water, ?The closer he was to death, the more the evil could be felt, and she realised that whatever this entity was, it was inside him, controlling him and since it?s host was close to death, it was going to abandon him to prevent itself from being dragged to the netherworld, as is the fate of living being?s souls.?

?Mima, Yuka, maybe you can answer a question for me. Mr Kirisame, your father...? She looked at the two in order as she spoke the titles, ?What was his eye colour??

There was a pause, ?Yellow, maybe green.? ?Purple? Yuka and Mima spoke at the same time.

Yukari nodded, ?Correct.?

?Which is correct?? Marisa asked.

?Green... and purple.? Yukari nodded, ?Yellow wasn?t an eye colour for the Kirisame family until the magic had fully sank into their blood, so to speak.?

Yuka held her head, ?I... I think I can remember purple for some reason as well.?

Yuka?s past... I bet she is hating every second of this...

?You may well have, it was probably the last thing you ever saw.?

Yuka sighed at that statement, ?Explain.?

?Well, this is just a theory since there?s no evidence or anything to check, but here it is, ?Some time before any of this occurred, your father-?

?He?s not my father.? Yuka slammed the table.

Yukari stared at Yuka, however as usual it wasn?t the tormenting, evil stare, ?One cannot change the past, else none of this would have happened, like it or not, that man was your father.?

?He was Haruka Kirisame?s father, I am Yuka Kazami.? Yuka hissed back.

?You shouldn?t deny your human heritage, were it not for that, you wouldn?t be what you are now.? She spoke quietly. Yuka just quietly growled as a response.

?As I was saying, one day I believe he was, by a case of bad luck, taken over by this being and then it slowly took control over him, possibly after an amount of time where it learnt his normal life and was therefore able to fit in.? Yukari looked at Mima, ?And then, of course, his grudge against magic began, he summoned groups of villagers to try and exterminate Mima like some animal, but no one cared, so he used another method, he framed her for a murder, the murder of his daughter, Haruka.?

?If he wasn?t such a weak pathetic human he could have resisted.? Yuka slammed the table again.

Yukari looked at Yuka, ?You don?t know that.?

?His plot worked, and brings us back to the previous scenario, this evil is finally about to present itself, but the shrine maiden is exhausted and powerless from her fight, unable to open another tear in reality, she grabbed the last talisman she had and cast it, Evil Sealing Circle. Fortunately for her, it worked and the spirits escape was prevented. She needed something to trap the spirit in, something less energy consuming, and then she saw it, a yin-yang orb from the previous fight, she could easily seal the spirit inside it as a make-shift prison, and so that?s what she did.?

Yukari stood up again and paced around the room, ?The sealing was a success, the yin-yang acted as a fine prison, so the next day, once the shrine maiden regained consciousness, she ventured to a desolate cave and placed it in there, sealing it away from the rest of the world.?

?That?s pretty careless, if you ask me.? Mima said.

?It was the safest option, if the spirit managed to do anything malicious like try to corrupt someone, there?s no one there.?

Mima nodded, unsurely.

?And so, peace returned to Gensokyo. Haunted by the past, the shrine maiden lived her life, had children and then mysteriously disappeared out of the blue one day.? Yukari stretched, ?And roughly 100 years later, a youkai known as Yukari Yakumo made herself known to Gensokyo.?

?But in reality, you were there for those 100 years, right?? Mima questioned.

Yukari smiled and nodded, ?Of course I was, but the last thing I wanted was to be recognised by my own daughter or her offspring, so I had the heartbreaking task of simply waiting for my own family to die before me, and when it was safe, I made myself known through various methods, visiting the shrine and befriending my current living relative or maybe something more sinister, like inducing a typical Gensokyo disaster.?

?Wait a minute, you caused all of them?!? Marisa shouted in her usual non-serious way.

?Not all of them, some of them happened by themselves, for example, the moon incident was caused entirely by Eientei, one reason I was so curious to go along with Reimu. But yes, I?ve caused more then I can count, even the incidents where Mima escaped from her prison was caused by me, and so Gensokyo never got boring and it kept the current shrine maiden at her best in case the worst case scenario happened, that spirit broke free.?

?Eight hundred years or so into this, I visited that yin-yang orb, and I was stunned by what I had saw, the orb was not longer its standard black and white, instead it was a stale browny-sand colour with a pinkish-purple field around it, not only that, but a visage of a girl appeared to be formed into the side of the orb,  don?t know if this has something to do with the spirit?s past or what, but it was a frightening sight, but since the orb was still physically stable, I left it alone.?

Yukari smiled, ?And so, over a millennium passed peacefully, things went by without a problem until you could say I got careless.? Yukari?s expression changed to that of sorrow again, ?I was the first incident of a certain shrine maiden called Reimu Hakurei, one you might even be familiar with her.? She grinned slightly.

?Anyway, I instigated an incident for Reimu, it wasn?t too difficult, I allowed a fallen angel to enter Gensokyo and cause a bit of trouble, but I missed something, I had forgot that it was this year that was Mima?s time to escape, which didn?t turn out too problematic, since she fortunately got her senses back, didn?t you.?

?You could say that.? Mima commented.

?But another being in Gensokyo, an Astral Knight by the name of Konngara also decided to start a disaster, just as I allowed Sariel, the angel, access to Gensokyo, so I never noticed this second disaster, as I lurked around the former holy being waiting for Reimu?s arrival, Reimu actually went to resolve the second incident, which was coincidently located inside a certain cave, where there was a certain corrupted yin-yang orb, Reimu knew no better, the orb managed to manifest some types of projectiles I would guess and attacked her, which is exactly what she wanted, and she attacked back with...? Yukari paused.

?Another yin-yang orb.? Mima finished the line, ?I remember it well.?

?Correct, and it?s like it you throw a good apple at a rotten one, the rotten one exploded to smithereens, releasing the spirit, Reimu would have thought she had destroyed it, considering her age and abilities however, I felt the yin-yang orb?s disruption and the feeling of evil reappearing and quickly realised what had happened, I simply gapped the entire building that Sariel had holed up in and banished it to somewhere irrelevant, but it was too late to fix things, that entity had fled the scene and hid somewhere I?ve not been able to find it for all these years.?

?I needed a new plan, I needed to get rid of that being once and for all, but it was impossible to know where it was, or when it would reappear, so I increased the number of incidents in Gensokyo, training Reimu and eventually a certain witch...?

?Me!? Marisa shouted.

?...to be of their optimum strength, I also noticed that two people already linked to the spirit were still present, and so, I tried to involve them and get them as allies too, and here they are before me.?

?Can we wait a second, why am I here then? Mima, Marisa and Yuka are all insanely powerful, I?m not.? I asked.

Yukari smiled, ?I brought you here, because Yuka wouldn?t have liked it if I didn?t.?

Basically, Yukari just politely told me I?m here to keep Yuka happy.

?Finally, as you all know, youkai have started to be unpredictable at moments, and I believe you know that cloud-like being you saw once, and allow me to finish your doubts off, if there are any. What colour was the aggressive youkai?s eyes??

?They... were purple...? I replied.

Yukari nodded, ?And so, the being responsible for the death of two of you, and something that will threaten the fate of Gensokyo, has reappeared. It?s been, quite a heavy story I?ve just told you, and I don?t want to tell you much more for now, I?ll ask you a final question, and I?ll get your answer later on.?

?Will you help me??

With that, the four of us, the chairs we sat on and the table suddenly dropped into the dark room from before, and then the scenery flashed again and I found myself lying in the forest, next to Yuka, no Mima or Marisa in sight.

?Did... did that just happen?? I spoke out.

[Mima]

Chapter 10

Yuka and I picked ourselves up off the ground, ?So, I didn?t just imagine that, then?? I groaned.

?Yeah, you didn?t...? She said, distracted, after pausing for a moment, she simply began to walk away.

Quietly, I caught up with her and as normal, I walked beside her, summoning an orb of light as usual since we were still in quite a dark part of the forest.

?Thanks.? Yuka mumbled as I created the light source, still obviously replaying the previous conversation.

She just thanked me? She?s definitely not thinking properly.

The silence began to grate on me, and as I let the orb of light disperse due to lighter surroundings, I decided to try and strike up a conversation just to stop me going mad, ?Penny for your thoughts??

?Hmm... Hm? What?? Yuka said in a confused tone, losing her thoughts.

?I asked what you were thinking about.? I pressed.

?None of your business.? Yuka replied.

Not this attitude again.

?If it?s about what we?ve just been told, of course it is.? I replied.

?Why?? Yuka looked at me and asked.

I grinned, ?Why else? We?re a team, even Yukari thinks so if she brought me along to wherever that place was, with you.?

Even though I recall Yukari saying I was there to stop Yuka from misbehaving.

By now, we were exiting the forest and I noticed that Yuka was heading in the direction of the flower field.

?I see... Well... My head is a mess right now, so many... unwanted memories in my head...? Yuka growled before returning to her quiet state, ?I hate the past, I hate it.?

?I understand, Yuka, but it?s something you?ve got to face, or at least decide if you want to.? I spoke to her encouragingly.

Yuka nodded slightly, ?I know, I know. I just need to think about things for a while.?

?I understand.? I quietly answered.

We began to approach the flower field, and soon enough we began to wade through the ocean of colourful flowers.

Suddenly, Yuka froze, causing me to turn to look at her. Dropping her parasol on the floor, she held out of arms either side of her and then simply collapsed back onto a bed of flowers.

?You can?t be tired, surely.?

?Of course not, what did I just say? I?m thinking.? She replied unhappily. ?So shut up and let me concentrate or go away.?

With that, she simply rested her head back on some flowers and closed her eyes, looking very much asleep, after a surprisingly quick moment, even her breathing appeared to slow down to suggest so.

?So, are you asleep now?? I questioned, testing the situation.

No reply from the sleeping youkai.

I knew it.

Not feeling tired myself, nor wanting to hang around the field for what could be a few hours, I decided to leave the flower youkai alone and see if I could find anything interesting, making sure I steered well away from the forest for obvious reasons.

For a moment I considered flying over to the Scarlet Devil Mansion for no reason in particular except possibly trying to get into Voile to do some research, but in the end I decided that maybe I could do with trying to get my mind off the issue at hand.

Instead, I simply walked along the coast of the lake, actually heading in the direction of the bamboo forest, but I planned on not actually planning on going in there if I could help it.

The walk as actually quite peaceful, there weren?t even any stray fairies to be a nuisance on the route, that is until I heard a certain fairy?s voice, ?You liar!?

Oh great, now what?s going on.

Just by the wall of trees that marked an entrance into the forest, the unmistakable figure of Cirno the ice fairy stood, facing away and waving her arms by her side rather zealously while she shouted.

?I?m telling you! I know nothing about it!? Another voice shouted, who I recognised as one of her friends, Wriggle who, of course, we had previously encountered in the forest causing me to change the pace of my approach.

Slowly and quietly I made my way over to where Cirno was to see she was with her usual gang, Wriggle and three other friends, Rumia, a short blonde haired girl with a long black dress and a taste for humans, Mystia, a Night Sparrow recognisable by her burgundy clothes and hat, pink hair and purple bird like wings and finally there was Daiyousei who looked similar to Cirno, a fairy wearing a simple blue dress except Daiyousei had green hair to Cirno?s cyan.

Didn?t Mima say that Rumia was taken over too?

I quickly thought for the easiest method to check they?re safe and to make sure I wasn?t walking into a trap, fortunately an idea stuck.

Using my hand to cover the other, to prevent getting any early attention, I summoned a reasonable orb of light in my hand before propelling it into the air, a good distance above Cirno and her friends, as planned they all looked in my direction but also in the sky to see what it was, allowing me to see their eyes.

Red, gray, green, blue and blue. No purple, looks like its clear, for now.

?Who?s there!?? Cirno spun around and snapped out.

I grinned, ?Easy, Chilly.? I spoke with a bit more confidence than normal, simply because Cirno and the others were roughly around my skill level if a fight did start.

?Don?t call me Chilly!? She complained, ?And what are you doing here?!?

?I was having a walk, when I found you lot in the way.? I explained.

Cirno made a disapproving sound, ?Well, go on then.?

?It sounds like you?re not getting on well.? I commented.

Cirno shouted, ?Well when your friends attack you and then say they didn?t do it, it?s a good enough reason to fall out!?

?I see, they attacked you.? I wasn?t sure if Cirno was trying to hide the issue and accidently told me, or not. ?So, who attacked you??

?Wriggle and Rumia.? Cirno shouted unhappily again, which caused the two mentioned to look at each other sadly.

?And what did they say about it??

?That they can?t remember. I think it?s a bit funny if they both attacked me and they both say they don?t remember attacking me!? Cirno continued to complain.

?Well, maybe they?re telling the truth.? I answered. I wasn?t sure if Yukari wanted me to mention the strange entity to others, or just her secret identity, so I tried to be a bit vague. ?I heard some rumours that there?s a youkai or something that?s controlling other youkai, it could have been that.?

?Really?? Cirno asked inquisitively.

?Yes, I don?t suppose Wriggle or Rumia happened to have purple eyes when they attacked you did they?? I questioned.

Cirno thought for a moment, ?Uh, I think... maybe.?

I decided to take that as a yes to avoid lingering around in this conversation longer then needed, ?Well, there you go then, it wasn?t their fault at all, it was this... youkai I heard about.?

?Oh...? Cirno sounded a bit down. ?Sorry you two, if you really weren?t lying, that is.?

Rumia and Wriggle nodded, with smiles back on their faces, and I figured it wouldn?t be long before they were back to their normal, chaotic selves.

It didn?t take a genius to see an idea hit Cirno and as she opened her mouth to speak, I cut her off, knowing what she was going to say, ?And don?t try and beat that youkai up... Yuka?s got her name on it.?

For the first time since the conversation started someone other than Cirno and I spoke up, it was Daiyousei. ?Where is Miss Yuka anyway? She?s almost always with you, have you fallen out too??

I laughed slightly, ?Nah, we?re fine. She?s just asleep in her flower field, that?s why I decided to take a walk.?

A devilish grin hit Cirno?s face, ?Asleep, you say??

?Yeah, why?? I asked, wondering if she was going to say what I thought she was.

?The perfect chance to catch her off-guard!? Cirno shouted.

Yep, she said it.

Cirno then seemed to hesitate and looked at me, ?What do you think, do you think it?ll work??

?Quite possibly so, she?ll never know you?re coming.? I lied.

Bad Haru, looks like Yuka is being a bad influence on you after all.

?Okay! Don?t wish me luck, I don?t need it!? Cirno shouted as she flew at full speed towards the field.

Daiyousei made a nervous sound as Wriggle and the others simply looked amused, they knew what was going to happen, ?C-Cirno! Stop!? The fairy shouted as she chased after the other.

?Never!? Cirno shouted defiantly.

After the two fairies had left, I turned to the three sitting down and spoke to them, ?Wriggle, Rumia, were you telling the truth that you can?t remember anything about these... accidents then??

Wriggle nodded as Rumia spoke, ?Yep!?

?Can you remember anything that happened before the blind spot in your memory?? I asked again.

The two of them shook their heads negatively.

?Damn, well, thanks anyway. I?d better go and stop Yuka ripping out a certain fairy?s spine or whatever violent act she?s in the mood for at the moment.? With that said, I turned and walked at a quick pace towards the flower field which was a few minutes away.

So, Rumia and Wriggle got controlled, but they seem alright now, so at least that shows it can only control one person, still so many unknown facts though.

I noticed as I approached the field that a certain fairy-like object flew into the air upside-down  before flying back down in what looked a painful way, a few seconds later the fairy flew several metres away from where she was before a large laser blasted through where she stood.

A few seconds later, a fairly limp looking Cirno could be seen being carried away by Daiyousei who was hovering through the air in my direction as we passed each other, Daiyousei muttered under her breath but loud enough for me to hear, ?She?ll never learn.? I took a quick final glimpse at the hanging Cirno who seemed to be out cold and couldn?t help but grin as I walked back to the field.

It didn?t take too long for me to spot where Yuka was, since she was now standing so I walked over to her and greeted her with, ?So, did you enjoy your wake-up call? Thought you might have wanted some stress relief.?

Yuka grinned, ?You mean you sent that innocent fairy to what could have been its death? That?s quite evil of you.? She looked back at what she was looking at before I approached which turned out to be several flowers covered in ice. ?Make yourself useful.?

?Huh??

?Sunlight, melt this ice, the fairy couldn?t aim if her life depended on it.? Yuka explained.

?Oh, right.? With that said, I began to focus some light onto the flowers that had suffered in the crossfire to try and warm them up a bit. ?So... are you done sleeping now??

Yuka shouted at me, ?I told you! I was not sleeping!?

I nodded, ?Sure.?

Yuka just stared at me.

?So, have you made your mind up then?? I queried the youkai.

?Yes, I have.? She answered in a short and simple fashion.

I sighed, ?Well??

?You really think I?m going to let someone who can say they?ve killed me live?? Yuka grinned unstably.

?Oh, of course.?

She came down to the decision with just that reason?

?Now, shall we go for some dinner?? Yuka asked.

I sighed once again, ?I thought you just told me to thaw these flowers.?

?They?re warm enough to survive now, they?ll be fine. Now come on.? She ordered.

Since she probably knew best when it came to flowers, I simply did was she said and stopped manipulating the light and followed Yuka.

[Mima]

Chapter 11

?So, I guess we just have to wait for Yukari to appear now?? I asked as we were walking down the path back towards the mansion.

The green haired youkai simply nodded in response.

A minute or so of walking later, I noticed we hasn?t reached the mansion yet, the longer walk this time around suggested that Yuka had something to say.

As I predicted, Yuka soon began to speak quietly, ?You know, Haru... You don?t have to come along if you don?t want to... I mean, it could be dangerous and you?re always avoiding fights for whatever reasons you have, so I won?t mind if you don?t want to come.?

I couldn?t help but grin, ?Forget it, I?m coming along.?

Yuka looked at me, half-disguising a look of surprise, ?Oh??

?Well, it?s not something you see every day, and someone?s got to make sure you don?t lose it.? I laughed.

Yuka scoffed, ?If you say so.?

As I continued to walk, hands in my jacket pockets, I looked up to the sky of this quasi-real world and noticed the sun was now started to descend from its high perch in the sky, bringing in its usual blanket of darkness.

Still looking in the air slightly, I noticed the looming figure of the mansion began to appear in my vision blocking the soon to be orange sky from my view, finally after a weird day; I was back to the safety I called home...

Or at least that?s what I thought, however as I reached for the door to open it for Yuka, there was a slightly familiar shape flash by before I was surrounded by darkness again.

I spoke up, ?It looks like Yukari found us a bit earlier then we?d planned.?

Yuka?s voice spoke out from where she was before we were suddenly moved to this empty void even though it was currently completely dark and made it impossible to see her, ?So it would seem, we could do with a light in here or something.? Yuka spoke up for the latter part of her sentence.

?Whoops!? Yukari?s voice ominously boomed around us, before that was a flash as the small sun from before appeared and began to emit some light.

Not even a few seconds later, Mima and Marisa rose out of the ground a few metres away, after their initial confusion that realised the situation, and us, and headed over to us, ?Back already?? Mima spoke up.

Neither of us got to reply since the surroundings flashed again and we were in the building we knew as Yukari?s real residence, where the strange youkai herself was stood.

?Welcome back, I hope I?ve given you enough time to make a decision, but things have had to move a bit faster then I planned.? Yukari said in her scary ?normal? tone, with a hint of fright in there.

?What do you mean?? Mima asked right away.

Yukari nodded slightly, ?I?ll explain in a moment, let?s go into the other room so we can sit down.? With that said she led us down the same hallway as before and took us into the same room where we all sat down, taking her hat off and untying her hair en-route.

Entering the dining room, I noticed right away that this time the lights were turned on, on the ceiling at the centre of the room was a fairly awe-inspiring chandelier while around the room there were lights that appears as candles, yet gave out a surprising amount of light.

Oh, were there windows here before? I never thought to look; I wonder what?s outside.

?So, would you care for a drink? We have practically anything you might want.? Yukari said cheerfully.

Yuka was first to speak, ?Wine. Red.?

I looked at Yuka, and then the expectant Yukari, ?What she?s having.?

As Yukari looked at Mima, the spirit simply gave a nod of agreement, taking her hat off afterwards and causing it to simply vanish in a tiny poof of smoke.

Yukari turned to the final guest, Marisa, but before she could say anything Mima interrupted, ?Orange juice, for the junior.?

?What?!? Marisa immediately complained.

?You?re under aged, aren?t you?? Mima said with a devilish grin.

Marisa hit the table lightly, ?You?ve let me drink all the time before!?

?Well...? Mima thought of a reason, ?Better late than never to start enforcing some rules.?

?This is stupid.? Marisa muttered as Mima giggled to herself.

Yukari laughed a little before she left for the kitchen or wherever she was going. In her absence I looked around the room noticing the odd contrast in age, some parts of the room seemed very old, for example there was a very ancient looking scroll of some sort sat curiously above the fireplace, while on the wall opposite there was a very odd looking modern art-esque sculpture mounted on the wall, and this odd pattern continued all around the room and something told me all around the house.

Yukari re-entered shortly after she left placing as requested, a glass of orange juice in front of the frowning young witch and then placed a tray on the table holding a bottle of wine and several glasses, ?Now, this wine is ancient, I saved it from a burning mansion I came across once.?

?You ?saved? it?? I asked.

?Oh, yes, a lot of the stuff here are things I?ve saved from various disasters that would have destroyed them, I prefer to not steal things from humans if I can help it.? Yukari explained.

?So noble of you, now give me that wine.? Yuka ordered.

Yukari smiled, ?Okay, okay.? She picked up the green bottle and began to tilt it towards one of the glasses to pour it, when I noticed the cork was still in the bottle. I was going to say something when I noticed a small flash and I saw a gap appear either side of the cork allowing the wine to flow normally.

?That?s quite sneaky.? I commented.

Yukari chuckled, ?My powers have their uses.? Straight after, the elder youkai filled the other wine glasses up and we all took one and began to drink in silence for a short amount of time.

?So, yes, as I mentioned earlier, I?m sorry but I need an answer now, I was planning on leaving this matter until tomorrow, but it seems our friend is more powerful then I had guessed, it managed to take control of Reisen Inaba for a brief moment earlier, I thought it was only able to take control of smaller beings at this moment, but it appears it?s much greater than that, which is why I need to set my plans into motion before tomorrow.? Yukari began to speak seriously.

Mima spoke up, ?We?re in, but I want to hear your plans, no, I want to know everything you know.?

Yukari nodded, ?And you??

Yuka simply nodded.

?I see. Thank you, all of you.?

There was a brief silence in the room as we all waited for Yukari to say something, ?So, I have two plans for tomorrow.?

?...Two?? Mima asked.

?Yes, the first should be the most effective, but it?s also a gambit. The second would get the result we want, but it?s far more dangerous and the cost would be potentially higher, something I want to avoid.?

The evil spirit brushed a hand through her hair, ?You had first start explaining.?

?Of course. The first place involves an observation I made earlier, I noticed that when the spirit moves to a new host, for the period of a few seconds the spirit is forced to become physical before it can enter the victim?s body. Another observation was that the stronger the victim was, the longer it would take for our little adversary to take them over. Therefore I theorise that if we bait the spirit out and allow it to possess someone, then the rest of us will destroy the spirit when we can. It should be safe, since I?ve noticed on more than one instance it?s seemingly forced to full possess someone before it moves on, Cirno and another fairy were together when the fairy got possessed, Cirno is far more powerful and tried to even pull the spirit off, but it didn?t care about it.

After Yukari?s long briefing, Mima spoke up, ?That?s a bit risky.?

?It?s also the only chance for us to attack it, it never becomes physical except at that moment, the only other method of getting rid of it is what?s in plan B.? Yukari replied.

?And what would that be?? Mima asked right away.

Yukari stretched, ?Well, this is going off my own experience, all that time ago... remember my tale earlier? I prevented the spirit was escaping Kirisame through the use of a Evil Sealing Circle, if we could get Reimu to cast one and then we kill the host, the spirit would be dragged with the victim?s soul to the Netherworld, if we do that, it?s as good as done.?

?That?s even more risky!? Marisa commented.

Yukari frowned, ?It is, that?s why I?d like to avoid it... It?d work though.? There was a pause, ?Anyway, leave that until tomorrow. Who wants some dinner? I?ve not eaten yet.?

?No thanks, we?ll be eating at home.? Yuka spoke up.

Yukari laughed, ?Oh, did I not mention this earlier? You?re not going home tonight.?

?What?? Yuka asked, deadly serious.

?Sometime tonight or tomorrow, I?m going to be messing around with Gensokyo, split it up, scatter it and hide it and all that.? Yukari commented uncaringly.

?Wait, you?re doing what?!? Mima practically shouted out, ?What the hell is that for?!?

Yukari looked straight at Mima and stared, ?In case things go wrong, our little friend escapes to Eientei, power to manipulate eternity, the scarlet mansion, power to manipulate fate, Moriya, it becomes a god. I?m splitting Gensokyo to prevent the worst case scenario of that it gets a power that lets it cause far more damage than just destroying Gensokyo.?

?I?m a goddess.? Mima added.

?You?re dead; a spirit can?t possess a spirit.? Yukari smiled back.

An odd silence fell upon the room, which I thought was weird and had expected someone to complain about such a plan, but after a while Yukari took a drink from her glass and gave out a satisfied sigh, ?So, anyway, do any of you have any preferences for dinner? I was thinking pizza myself.?

Yuka?s face moved a little, I knew she was hiding a grin and mumbled, ?Fine by me.? After our trip to the outside world two years ago the almighty youkai gained a fondness for pizza or all things.

Marisa shouted out, ?Pizza!? It appeared Marisa also liked it, having eaten some when she visited with Mima once, one of the rare events where Yuka isn?t chasing Marisa out of the mansion,

?Okay then, I guess that?s decided then.? Yukari said cheerfully as she got up and left the room.

A few seconds later, ?Don?t I get a say in it?? Mima complained quietly.

?Nope!? Marisa chirped as she poked her mentor.

Due to a lack of conversation, I decided to start one myself, ?What do you think about tomorrow then??

Mima looked at me, ?Well, it sounds a bit odd to me, I?m quite sure part of the first plan is so that Reimu doesn?t get involved, Yukari seems so bothered about not letting Reimu know, and I have no idea why.? Mima stopped for a couple of second, ?Other than that, I guess we have no choice. She seems serious, and with what has happened, I perhaps foolishly find myself believing her.?

Very little was said other than that, until suddenly several gaps appeared above the table and several pizzas, plates, cutlery dropped down neatly onto the table, all of this was shortly followed by Yukari who dropped into her chair.

Yukari clapped slightly and grinned, ?That?s better! I was going to cook myself, but that?s terribly rude when you have guests waiting, don?t you think? I decided it?d be much better if I just went and got some that were already done... Another benefit of my powers I guess.?

What? Pizza delivery?

?But please, help yourself!? Yukari ordered, and no one hesitated and began to eat.

While I ate, I began to wonder what my reaction would have been a few years ago had I imagined the situation of eating pizza with a evil spirit-turned-goddess, a witch and two youkai, one with the power to end reality and the other who is so powerful she can kill you with flowers, heck, in my head that sounds weird even now.

[Mima]

Chapter 12

After a rather good tasting meal, Yukari suddenly gapped away everything from the table minus the wine and glassware and then cheerfully announced, ?Well everyone, please make yourself at home, do as you want but... try not to make a mess if possible.? She ended with a giggle.

The four of us stood around awkwardly for a moment rather unsure on what to do in such an alien environment until finally Yukari noticed, ?Oh, right, I haven?t shown you around. Well, let?s just go to the living room for now.? With very little choice, we simply followed her.

Yukari took us down a hallway opposite the one we entered and as we walked I noticed the theme of the building still didn?t seem to be able to decide if it was new or old, with various antiques and artwork scattered around. That said, it didn?t seem out of place, it worked well, even the odd colour scheme which in this hall was an incredibly sickly bright purple, much like the summer dress Yukari wore, but much brighter.

Finally we entered a room that looked like what we were looking for, namely due to the two sofas and a couple of armchairs or something of the sort, this room had a much warmer theme, leaning towards a simple red-orange colour, I noticed the wall to the left, which the sofas and such were facing was a large curtain further increasing my curiosity on what is behind them.

?Oops, I forgot the wine bottle, back in a mo!? Yukari said cheerfully, it was still weird seeing her different to how she was as our nemesis since I arrived.

?Yahoo!? Marisa shouted as she practically belly-flopped onto one of the large sofas, after she shouted a victorious ?Mine!?

?Oh no, you don?t.? Mima ruled, as she flew over and began to try and force a spot for her on the same sofa, resulting in a small struggle.

?I guess they made themselves at home like Yukari asked.? I said quietly to Yuka.

?So it would seem, but if you try doing that I?ll just break your leg.? She giggled to herself as she walked over to the other sofa leaving me to wonder if she was serious, not that I was going to try it to find out.

As Yuka sat down, in a far more civilised fashion then her distant niece, I slowly inched over to the curtains to take a look when Yukari re-entered the room causing me to freeze, and begin to head over to and sit down next to Yuka.

As Yukari walked in, she sat in the armchair between the two sofas and let out a long sigh, ?Ah, nice to have a comfy sit-down once in a while don?t you think??

?Of course.? Yuka said between sips of her wine.

?Ah, before I start things up, you may or may not have wondered where we are right now, I know one of you at least, is curious.? Yukari smiled.

Typical.

Yukari groaned as she lifted herself out of the chair and walked over to the curtain, ?Well, actually, we move around a lot, we?ve not been here nor will we stay for that long, but here we are...?

Yukari threw the curtains open, revealing something that surprised me, it probably did the others too, but I didn?t notice.

?Is... is that Times Square?? I asked, looking at the brightly lit array of buildings.

?Yes, it is.? Yukari nodded, looking pleased with herself.

?So we?re flying?? I asked again.

?Indeed, and immaterial as well, can?t have humans crashing into us with their planes and such.

I hesitated for a moment, but questioned the youkai again, ?Have you always been in the human world.?

?Pretty much, I?m the only person in over a millennium with the power to move from Gensokyo to here, and vice versa, so I made the most of it, not to mention it lets me relax and be... normal, as you can see.? She laughed. ?Actually, we were meant to be at the Niagara Falls for a couple of weeks, but one of the household members was almost traumatised by all the water and such, I?ll leave you to guess. Either way, I just moved it here.?

?We should make the shrine look like that! It?d be way cooler to look at!? Marisa claimed, having always been one to enjoy colourful displays, as proved by some of her magic.

There was a peaceful moment where nothing happened apart from people admiring the view, minus Yukari who it was probably normal to, and Yuka who was trying to look uninterested.

?Well, I doubt just looking at that will entertain you for the night, so let?s make the most of what we have here!? From somewhere, Yukari obtained a remote of some sort, holding it with one hand and pressing a button with the other, there was a loud beep and suddenly the ceiling looked like it was moving. Part of it began to descend, beginning to cover the freshly unveiled window; it became clear after a few seconds that this object being lowered was in fact a television, quite a large one at that, but I wasn?t that surprised any more.

I knew that Yuka knew what it was that we were looking at, but I wasn?t sure if Mima or Marisa knew. Sure, Yuka soon got a functional television along with a computer after our journey to the outside world, but as far as I know Mima and her apprentice hasn?t been in the room to see it, let alone make it work.

?So, to start things off, would you like to watch a movie or play a game?? Yukari asked.

Instantly, Marisa shouted, ?Game!?

Yukari chuckled at Marisa?s eagerness, ?Well then, in that case, you?ll need to go and pick something out.? Yukari pointed at a door in the corner, ?You?ll find everything in there, I?m sure Haru here will know what you need for whatever you want, it saves disturbing Ran too.?

?Why Ran?? Mima questioned, ?Are you too lazy??

?No, no, it?s just that Ran is the technical one here, she?s the one who owns most of the stuff in there... I suppose Akyu was quite right on saying that computers are like shikigami for humans, since they seem to get on so well.? Yukari laughed.

I slowly stood up and followed Marisa slowly, I noticed that Yuka distantly trailed me, seemingly the lure of something that interested her was too much, Mima didn?t seem so concerned and lazily sat there drinking wine.

Following the witch into the room, it was much larger than I expected, I was quite surprised to see how much was actually in this room, at a glance it felt like every single computer-related thing was in the room, the walls were lined with shelves which in turn were full of various objects such as components, consoles, games, seemingly everything. Not only that, it also seemed to partly be a workshop, with a part of the room scattered with computer parts and such.

?Hey you!? The witch shouted, when I looked, she was looking at me.

?I have a name you know.? I complained.

Marisa shrugged, ?Yeah, yeah... Anyway, check this out!? She then went to pick up something and hold it in the air.

?Oh, I remember those.? I said as I walked over to her, what she was holding, is a plastic guitar, one of the special controllers for a music game. ?You basically play the game by pretending that you?re playing the instrument, it?s much easier, and better to just use a real guitar though.? I explained.

?Let?s do it anyway! There?s more!? Marisa shouted as she picked up more pieces of plastic.

I sighed, ?Do we really have to, I?m sure there?s much better things in here.?

?Well, it?s not like we don?t have time if we?re staying here, now give me a hand.? Marisa ordered.

Why have I suddenly been demoted from nameless nobody to servant.

As I grabbed a bunch of required items, Yuka walked up to me and spoke, ?Quite a nice collection they have here, by my experience.?

?Yeah, it?s quite amazing...? I quickly changed to topic to the more pressing matter, ?Are you gonna help me carry this? I could use a hand.?

?No.? Yuka turned away, before turning back, ?Just what is that anyway??

?Some music game, Marisa wants it.? I mumbled.

Yuka chuckled, ?Is it really? Do you use that guitar??

?Yeah.?

Yuka took it from me, ?I?ll take that then.?

?Not you too...? I lamented.

As Yuka walked off, I carefully balanced the large amount of equipment, and slowly made my back into the main room where the others were looking as me expectantly.

?You took your time.? Yuka said with an evil grin.

Carefully ignoring her comment, I went over to the gargantuan television and slowly managed to set everything, triumphantly I leant back and lied down only to receive a slight kick, coming from, as I?d guessed, the flower youkai who always treated me nicely.

?Move. You?re in the way.? She added.

With an unsatisfied groan, I picked myself up off the ground and dropped onto the sofa Yuka had now left free, while the others in the room were gathering around the machine.

Once again, there was an odd scene where a witch and 3 immensely powerful magical beings, all over a millennium old, were playing with plastic instruments and singing to play some game, I really did think I?d seen it all and wouldn?t think anything is strange ever again after my first few weeks in Gensokyo, but this has proved otherwise.

Fortunately, after sitting bored through various musical abominations and another glass of wine, the latest band sensation to hit Gensokyo split up after the lead guitarist Yuka decided she was too good for the group and quit. The youkai walked over and greeted me with a pleasant, ?Get up and help me find something else.? With little other choice, I followed her into the room and began to carry the increasingly large pile of things she picked out.

For many hours after that, the night consisted of pretty much the same thing, running in and out of that room, quite tiring really, but at least I eventually got to play along with them when it was relevant to my interests and didn?t involve beating up some plastic instrument. Something in my head however was bugging me, but I couldn?t figure out what it was, as though I?d worked out something important, but couldn?t remember it, but even as the night progressed I couldn?t figure out what it was.

Eventually, Yukari yawned and spoke up, ?Well, I think it?s time we all headed to bed, you all need to be ready for tomorrow. You might not expect it, but we do have some guest rooms, so you two can stay in one and you two in the other, I think Ran and Chen made the beds earlier so I?ll take you there now.

Just like she said, Yukari took Mima and Marisa to a room and then took us to another; it was a simple bedroom-looking-room, with two beds which got rid of a thought that Yukari might have only put one to see the fun that ensues.

After wishing the others good night and getting changed into clothes that had been left on the bed, I saw Yuka had already claimed a bed and was facing away, so I simply went to bed myself and called out, ?Good night, Yuka.? The youkai mumbled something back which I presumed was also good night. I quickly looked for the closest thing resembling a light switch and pressed it, fortunately doing the job desired and causing the room to fill with darkness.

What felt like hours later, I was still awake, unable to sleep with that irritating thought at the back of my head that I couldn?t quite reach. As the lack of being able to sleep began to get maddening, I decided I?d go for a walk or something.

Having snuck out of the room, I took an aimless wonder around, achieving very little and eventually I came back into the living room, with the television ascended once more, I took another look at the almost hypnotic light show down on the earth below. Taking a seat on the sofa again I simply watched the sight while thinking.

Was I nervous, scared or something about tomorrow? It didn?t sound that bad. More time passed, and then suddenly the thought hit me like a certain youkai?s kick to the head. A certain line that Yukari said earlier, ?...if we bait the spirit out and allow it to possess someone...? could that be the reason I?m really here? I?m by far the weakest so I?d be no good at actually shooting the spirit when it?s possessing someone, plus if it got someone like Yuka or Marisa, it?d be even more problematic, but if it got me, then we?d have the most firepower and if it didn?t work, well, I bet they could kill me easily enough.

Heck, maybe that?s why I?m a youkai after all, if Yukari saw Yuka found me tolerable when I was first in Gensokyo, she probably brought me back to Gensokyo as a youkai when I died so I could do what I?m most likely going to do tomorrow.

I shook and then held my head.

I?m thinking too much.

Suddenly, the sofa moved slightly causing me to jump slightly, it was then I noticed that Yuka had entered the room and sat down next to me, immediately, I questioned her, ?What are you doing here??

?I should ask you the same thing.? Yuka spoke, fully awake.

?Oh, you know, just not able to get to sleep.? I lied.

Yuka looked at me, ?That?s unlike you, you?re like me, you sleep easily...? Yuka paused for a moment, ?Remember when Flandre attacked you all that time ago??

?How could I forget?? I mumbled.

?You fell asleep easily enough after all that commotion and you nearly died then.? Yuka continued to push her point forward.

?Probably from exhaustion.? I answered.

Yuka laughed slightly, ?If you say so, anyway, something?s up with you.?

?No, really, nothing?s wrong, just not able to sleep.? I lied weakly, once more.

I had better not tell her my thoughts; best case is she thinks I?m an idiot. Worst case is she causes a riot in the house and goes after Yukari.

There was a moment of peace enter the room for a while, until suddenly something touched my shoulder, once again nearly making me jump, although the hair pressing against the side of my head made it obvious that Yuka was resting her head on it, a few seconds later Yuka spoke again, ?You know, I guess the humans can do some things right.?

?Huh??

?The lights you seemed to like so much earlier, they?re actually quite nice if you just simply look.? Yuka reminded me.

?Oh, yeah. I guess so.? I mumbled again.

Another couple of minutes of tranquillity went by, until I spoke again, ?Say, Yuka, what do you think will happen tomorrow??

?...?

?Yuka??

With a sigh, I noticed that it was useless waiting for a reply, since the youkai had dozed off, still resting on my shoulder, practically trapping me here until I wanted to risk waking her up.

With little to no options left, I was forced with either thinking more about tomorrow, or getting some sleep, sanely, I chose the latter option and tried to get some sleep. Why bother losing sleep now when everything would come clear in the morning?

[Mima]

Chapter 13

Suddenly I heard a click, followed by another, and then a whirring noise, quite an unusual thing to hear waking up.

The thing that fully made me wake up was the sound of giggling, not just ordinary giggling, giggling with a hint of mischievous intent, which was never a good thing, especially since I was the one in position to be the victim.

I opened my eyes to see the rather unpleasant sight of a camera lens, a small amount of eye refocusing due to the open window letting in a large amount of light; I saw that standing there was Yukari, Marisa and Mima.

Yukari spoke out in a mock-narrator voice, ?Haru, the one who tamed the most violent youkai in Gensokyo.? The group then giggled once again.

?Huh?? I spoke drowsily, I turned my head slightly and felt hair brush against my cheek, and then I remembered what, and noticed the weight on my shoulder.

She?s still asleep?

Yuka was still fast asleep, but it didn?t bother the others.

?You know... she?s not gonna be pleased when she wakes up and sees this.? I stated.

Mima grinned devilishly, ?If, she wakes up, she looks quite comfortable there.? She followed up with laughter.

Yukari giggled and speaking in a teasing voice, ?I wonder what pleasant thoughts she?s thinking of right now.?

?Mostly about how I?m going to kill you all.? Yuka said.

Wait, Yuka?

The same wave of horror and shock seemed to hit the three amateur photographers as Yuka?s eyes immediately opened.

There was a standoff where nothing happened for a moment, before Marisa yelled, ?Run!? which signalled the escape attempt by the dastardly trio, shortly followed by Yuka who bounded off the sofa to commence chase.

With a yawn, I picked myself up off the sofa, quite the opposite of the energy Yuka has just a moment ago and went and got changed while the chase, or fight or whatever took place.

Eventually, things calmed down, and slowly everyone began to assemble in the living room where I?ve been lying down waiting for everyone. Once everyone had arrived, Yukari cleared her throat and spoke up, ?Alright, we?re going to head off in about an hour, remember to be very careful and don?t hold back.?

Everyone nodded uncaringly as a response, but I could predict what was going to come next.

?Which brings us to a delicate matter, I hope you all recall the plans from yesterday, and you might notice something missing from the plan.?

There was an uneasy silence as the others noticed what they had overlooked, the silence continued until Mima speak up with an irritated, disheartened voice, ?If I could, I would have done it, typical that I?m the only one who can?t help.?

?It?s obvious, is it not?? I said out, causing everyone to look at me. ?I?m the one who should do it.?

Yuka immediately objected, ?Don?t be stupid Haru, you?re the weakest of everyone here.?

?And that?s why I?m perfect for the job; we get the maximum firepower on the spirit, and if things didn?t go as planned... well...? I stumbled over my own words, ?It?s not going to be hard to, like, kill me or anything.?

?This is ridiculous!? Yuka shouted, ?Yukari! I bet you planned this didn?t you! All along you knew Haru would be the one to do this.?

Yukari spoke up, ?Yuka, I did-?

?Shut up! You say you?re different, but you?re still just a manipulative coward!? Yuka pushed Yukari out off her way and stomped out of the room.

?Yuka!? Mima said as she floated after her, shortly followed by Marisa, leaving me with Yukari.

Yukari took a breath and spoke, ?I?m sorry, Haru-?

I interrupted her, ?Look, right now, I don?t really care. I?m gonna do what I?ve got to do. I?m the best person for the job, like I said, so I just want to get it done with.?

?...I see.?

I stopped for a moment, and a thought struck me, ?Can you answer one question for me, though??

?Of course.? Yukari nodded slightly.

?Did I come to Gensokyo naturally??

Yukari chuckled, ?Gensokyo is hardly ?natural? in that tense, but I know what you mean. Does it really matter??

?Well, sorta. I just want to know if I truly belong in Gensokyo, or I was artificially brought here for an, until now, ulterior reason.? I explained. ?You seemed to know where I had come from when you dropped Yuka and I back there not long after I returned to Gensokyo too... It just worries me, slightly.

Yukari hummed in thought, ?I guess I can see what you mean, and in that case, you?ll probably be pleased to hear that the only time I moved you around was when Yuka went with you. As for knowing where you came from, in which to send you and Yuka there, well... you may recall the unusual movements of a certain timepiece. That?s your answer.?

I sighed with relief; I?d probably never be able to tell if she was telling the truth or just saying it to maintain morale, but this time, I?d trust her. Yukari spoke up again, interrupting my thought, ?And now, I think you really should go and visit a certain someone.?

?...I guess so.? I answered, as I turned around and left the room.

It wasn?t long before I saw Mima and Marisa stood outside a door, talking to each other, as I approached they noticed me and struck up a conversation.

?Hey Haru!? Marisa started, ?If you?re lookin? for her, she?s in there.? She gestured towards the door she was leaning next to.

Mima added to the assistance, ?She?s in a... difficult mood; you might have more luck talking to her.?

I laughed slightly as I opened the door, ?Difficult mood? Nothing new then.?

As I pushed open the wooden door, I was surprised to find myself in a garden, considering the house was flying high above the earth, I didn?t really consider the possibility of such a thing, but it made a bit more sense that this was where Yuka had run off to.

By the looks of it, she was sat on the side of the garden, literally, legs hanging over the edge of the garden, which seemed to be the end of Yukari?s ?space?, it also made me wonder for a moment if that made her visible to those below.

?Hey, Yuka.? I tried to sound cheerful as I sat down next to her.

?... Hello.? Yuka spoke after a pause, not bothering to look at me.

I didn?t really know what to say, or what I was saying, so I just said things on the spot, ?So, how are you??

?Fine.? She continued the simply stare into the distance.

A moment of awkwardness passed, ?I guess you hate me then.?

?No.?

?Well, what?s the problem then? You don?t want me to go ahead with the plan??

?...? I noticed her look away slightly.

I sighed, ?Look Yuka, you may be worried about me, or something like that, but you need to trust me on this one.?

For a moment it looked like she was going to say something, but then reverted back to her silence self.

?I think you?re underestimating me, you?ve got to remember, I?m no ordinary two year old youkai, I?ve had a great? teacher for those two years, I?ve won some fights that other youkai wouldn?t have at this point of their life.? I looked at her, even if she wasn?t looking at me, ?Plus, I?m going to do this because it?s really the safest way. Like I said, if you, or Marisa were taken over, and we couldn?t destroy the spirit, then well, I?d probably die in the results, others could die as well, not to mention the firepower we have would be hindered... I trust you and the others that you?ll get rid of the spirit and then no one will have to get hurt.?

Yuka chuckled very lightly, ?You?re an idiot sometimes.?

I grinned, ?Is this where I say that sickly line, ?Yeah, but I?m your idiot???

Finally, a grin broke out on Yuka?s face, ?Such an idiot.? Yuka then began to move, ?Come on.?

Following what she said, I sat up and walked beside her, ?Oh, and Haru?? Yuka spoke before wrapping her arms around me and giving me a hug which, although it wasn?t the first time was still a surprising event, ?You had better be careful, okay? If you end up dead to me again, I?ll find you in Hakugyokurou and make you suffer.?

?I get it.? I answered; returning the hug slightly until I heard a click, followed by another, and then a whirring sound... identical to the one from earlier, and it appeared I wasn?t the only one who was hit by that realisation.

Yuka?s head shot straight into the direction of the sound, where a certain evil spirit and her apprentice were stood with giant grins on their face and armed with a camera.

?You... Get here now!? Yuka shouted as she dashed at them, while the mischievous duo ran around the corner giggling like schoolchildren.

I sighed with mixed feelings, positive with cheering Yuka up, and the event that just occurred, but there was also the fact my ordeal was fast approaching, it was made worse by the fact I had no idea what to expect, but I tried to think positively, Yuka would do everything in her power to make sure nothing happened to me, so I guess it?s a good thing she?s considered one of the most powerful beings in existence.

With my mind starting to fog over with ideas of the imminent trial, I slowly made my way back to the living room part of the house, still hearing the giggling, and roaring, of the chase going on.

[Mima]

Chapter 14

Walking back into the living room, I noticed Yukari was still in this, although she was now sat down in one of the chairs, facing the window, ?I see you succeeded.? She spoke as I approached.

?In what?? I asked, unsure.

?Why, cheering Miss Kazami up back there.? She replied.

I laughed sheepishly, ?I didn?t do much.?

As I walked around to sit down, Yukari looked at me, ?You should stop underestimating yourself.? She nagged, ?With Yuka with you, you have a lot of potential, a good team-mate, a good power, you just need to have faith in yourself.?

Unsure whether Yukari was joking or not, I just sat down on the same sofa as last night and waited for the on-going pursuit to end.

After a while, a voice called, ?Haru.?

Turning my head, I noticed Yuka approaching with a slight grin, ?Catch.? As she said it, she threw something at me, which turned out to be a camera, or rather the camera. ?Please get rid of whatever is on it.?

?Oh, alright then.? I mumbled.

?You can do that later.? Yukari interrupted, ?It?s time.?

Standing up, Yukari made a slight motion with her arm causing Mima and Marisa to drop into the room.

?Now listen up, as I mentioned, Gensokyo is in fragments right now, scattered in several planes and whatnot and only I know, or maybe, can comprehend, where they are. The major exception is that there?s two that are in close proximity, and in fact, haven?t moved at all.? Yukari opened a gap, which let us see an aerial view of some land, ?This section is the central field of Gensokyo, and the Hakurei shrine, I chose them for a large area to work in, since there?s the forest in between as well.?

Everyone simply nodded to affirm this.

?Now, of course, our little friend is also there, floating around, doing whatever it does, it?s currently inside the body of a fairy, which is far too weak for anything we need to do.?

Yukari turned around to look outside through the window, ?Now, this is what we shall do. First of all, Haru will go ahead of everyone, I?ll gap him in away from the fairy to cause no suspicion, and then Haru will simply defeat the fairy, no problems. Then, things will begin, the spirit will start to go after you, which you need to pretend to avoid but ultimately allow.? Yukari turned around and held her arm slightly pointing with one finger, before slamming her arm to the side, ?That?s will be our cue! At the instance that spirit makes contact with Haru, it will become physical! We will jump through the gap I?ll make and we?ll destroy the spirit, job done, back here for dinner.?

?So, you mean we just annihilate it with sheer firepower?? Mima asked.

?Correct, of course, Haru may suffer from some? friendly fire, but this is why he?s doing it and not the fairy. I know he can hold through it, unlike the current host.? Yukari smiled.

There was a small pause where everyone took in the instructions that were giving, and then I stood up, ?Well then, let?s do this.?

?Do your best.? Yukari nodded.

?Good luck.? Mima added.

?Yeah, good luck!? Marisa parroted her mentor.

Yuka simply nodded to me.

?Well, I?m in your hands now, see you in a few minutes.? I said back to them, as I spoke, another gap opened by me, and I jumped through.

When I came to my senses, I noticed that I was in part of the forest, not very deep in however, since a few metres away the light from the sun was highly visible, because it was the best idea I had, I headed in that direction.

In the open, it finally dawned on me where I was; I was currently in the field that was between the human village and Yuka?s sunflower field, which I noticed ended suddenly a few metres before the portal to Mugenkan, obviously this was the end of the fragment Yukari spoke of.

Immediately, I scanned the air for anything and as I expected, a few hundred metres away and equally high was a single fairy, it already knew I was here since it was heading in my direction.

I allowed it to approach to a reasonably close distance and noticed it began to fire some projectiles at me, but since it was simply an ordinary fairy, it wasn?t threatening at all, nor was the winged being very resilient; after firing just a few orbs of focused light, the fairy vanished in a little poof of elemental energy, soon to reincarnation, as is the nature of a fairy.

However, in the fairy?s place was, as expected, that sinister looking purple cloud, which shot towards me. Leaning and firing back, I hurled several more orbs at it, which simply phased right through it, seemingly ineffective as I expected. The speed difference between us was all too clear as the spirit?s shape morphed to a much thinner shape as it almost lunged at me, even faster than before. With such a speed, there was no avoiding it.

The instance it connected, my mind immediately began to ring, my senses were being completely assaulted, by vision starting to cloud over with the spirit?s pinkish-purple colour, my ears were ringing with a constant high pitched squeal and my body was starting to become unresponsive. Through the trauma I managed to spot that my backup had indeed arrived and had begun their assault.

?Go! Attack now!? Someone?s voice, though I couldn?t make out whose, cried.

Even though I was being hit by an immense amount of firepower for some of the most powerful beings in Gensokyo, I felt none of it as a result of the attack the spirit was leading, the pain inside my mind was getting to the point where I felt I was going to go insane.

?This must be damaging it! Use more firepower!? Someone ordered.

With my senses now fading rapidly, I managed to see that Yukari was nearby, firing an immense amount of bullets, orbs and other objects through the use of a gap while the others fired from the side.

After what felt like an eternity of agony, my loss of senses was now becoming more and more noticeable, and I felt my mind slowly start to shut down.

?What the hell!?? I thought I heard someone shout.

?Hurry up and destroy it!? A voice shouted again, my senses now at the point where I couldn?t make out who was shouting completely.

More sounds of firepower boomed through my mind alongside the piercing screams, and however reluctant, I found myself being pulled towards the warm painless state of unconsciousness.

?You idiot! Stop h-?

?

?

?

[Mima]

Chapter 15

I first realised my consciousness via the sensation of pain, which cascaded through my entire body, on the bright side, it strongly suggested I was still amongst the living, but the non-responsive nature of my body suggested otherwise.

Memories of what just happened played in my memory, not that there was much to remember, just pain, and that spirit.

My head throbbed again, just from thinking.

What the hell is up with me? I haven?t felt this bad since I was human? What happened?

Seemingly paralysed, I, after some meaningless thinking, went back to sleep, it was the option with the least pain, at least.

?

The pulsating pain greeted me back to the world of the awake, and once again, with little other options, I simply replayed the past events to myself.

As I thought, I began to be aware of my surroundings, I was lying on something pleasantly comfy and I was fairly sure that someone else was nearby.

As curiosity began to make itself know, I tried to force myself to move, which intensified the pain writhing through my body. After an internal struggle against the reaction to avoid pain I finally felt myself move slightly, this was my chance.

Slowly, I began to open my eyes, which was easier than I thought, since I had pre-empted some sunlight to cause pain, but it appeared I was in a darker environment.

With my eyes open, all I saw for a moment was blurred objects, but as I vision returned, I found myself face to face with Yuka, ?Hey, Yuka...? I groaned before pain racked through my head as an image of Yuka looking at me when I first woke up in Gensokyo. As the d?j? vu passed, I realised something different to the last time, my head was on its side, and she was asleep in a chair beside me.

With my eyes open, I began to concentrate on the next part of my recovery, to move more parts of my body. After a while, I managed to make myself sit up and at the same time, I started to notice the youkai next to me being more active and soon enough, she opened her eyes.

Dozily, she said out, ?You? you?re awake??

?So it would appear.?I answered with the obvious.

The youkai wiped her eyes and yawned, ?I? wasn?t sure if you were going to wake up.?

I replied confused, ?Huh, why??

Yuka sat up in her chair, ?Well, you?ve been unconscious for almost 3 days and your physical wounds healed before even a day passed, so I began to? worry that something bad had happened.?

?I see? Three days, huh?? I mumbled. ?Why?s it so dark??

?Because it usually is at night.? Yuka replied.

Nice to see she hasn?t lost her sarcasm.

As I was wondering what to ask next, another voice spoke up, ?You talking to yourself again, Yuka?? A few seconds later, the spirit Mima flew into the room, it took a few seconds for her to notice me awake, ?Ah! You?re finally awake.?

?Yeah? I am.? I paused for a moment, and a question hit me, ?Wait, where am I??

?My shrine, of course!? Mima announced proudly, as always.

There was a pause where nothing happened, minus Mima flying from the doorway over to by Yuka.

?So, are you two going to explain what happened?? I asked.

Mima spoke up first, ?How much do you remember??

I tried to recall back, but failed to recall anything new, ?Nothing but my senses in agony.?

?So, that?s what it did to you then.? Mima spoke quietly.

?What do you mean??

?Never mind, we?ll get to that later.? Mima hastily brushed the question aside.

Yuka stood up, ?Haru, can you walk??

?Give me a moment, and I?ll try, I guess.? I hesitated for a moment, ?Why??

Yuka half turned away and smiled, ?You?ll see.?

Can?t say I?m looking forward to it.

Slowly, I struggled to pick myself up, and noticing that neither of the two elders in the room were offering any support, I found myself having to try and readjust to the pain and stand unaided. Fortunately, I managed to do so and slowly wobbled after Yuka, who began to move after she saw I was mobile.

I continued to follow Yuka as she led me out of the room, followed by Mima, into the front room of the shrine which was equally poorly lit. Fortunately, the more I walked, the more I felt my strength return, although it still didn?t get rid of the horrific headache I had.

Yuka reached the sliding door and spoke out, ?This might help to explain.?

With a light kick from the side, the door slid open. At first, I didn?t notice anything, but as I got a bit closer, I noticed what was indeed, wrong.

The night sky wasn?t completely a night sky, with a minor orange rift down the centre; the sky was split with night on one side, and day on the other. I then looked down, and noticed the weather was behaving similarly with rain covering an area, and not the other, as I looked, I saw more of these freak anomalies.

?Well?? I knew almost instantly what had happened, ?It?s either that the spirit has possessed Gensokyo, which is impossible, or it has taken over a certain someone.?

Mima spoke from behind, ?Correct.? She then flew past me and outside, and looked up, ?Things are in quite a mess.?

?So? what happened?? I asked after some time passed.

The spirit spoke up first, ?Well, you probably don?t remember, like you said, but as we began to attack the spirit, as planned, we were able to hit it with our firepower; however we simply couldn?t do enough as we were.?

Mima settled down to the ground and looked back, ?That?s when we rushed in closer and decided to go all out, it was better to hurt you severely and let you heal rather than be taken over and as a result killed, obviously.?

?I? I can recall someone flying close.? My head throbbed as I thought back.

?Yukari flew in extremely close, as part of her theory and began to bombard it heavily, which fortunately began to make a visible effect, but then a major flaw in her plan occurred, and that?s when things began to go to Makai.? Mima frowned, ?The spirit wasn?t stuck in a process or anything, once Yukari was close enough, the spirit grabbed hold of her too rendering her as useless as you were at that point.?

?So much for being the oldest, most powerful youkai, eh?? The flower youkai commented.

Mima looked up to the sky, ?I can only guess that in fact, we had walked into the spirit?s trap, because, as you can guess, once it disabled you, it fully infested Yukari and took control who then within seconds opened a gap and retreated.?

Yuka finally began to explain something, ?We dragged you to the shrine and tried to sort something out, but we?re stuck in this fragment of Gensokyo with just the five of us, and even our little friend hasn?t reappeared with its new host yet.?

Mima spoke up once again, ?I?m beginning to wonder if these occurrences are due to the spirit learning its new abilities or whether it?s just Gensokyo beginning to deteriorate and fall apart as a result of the split? But we just have no idea what to do, not even Reimu knows this time.?

Yuka wore in incredibly large grin that just told she was enjoying something about this, and spoke up, ?I know one thing we can do which may or may not fix things.?

?What?s that?? Mima asked.

?Kill Yukari Yakumo.? She replied far too happily.

[Mima]

Chapter 16

?Are you serious?? I asked instantly.

Yuka looked at me cynically, ?Of course I am, who do you take me for?? Yuka grinned, ?I?m sure we can take down ?Yukari? who doesn?t have knowledge on her powers, hell, I bet I could take her down myself.?

?Let?s not get too overconfident Yuka, you don?t know that.? Mima interrupted Yuka?s zeal with a serious tone.

?Of course I do, we?ve fought it before, and it had Wriggle under control, yet could do nothing to control the insects.? Yuka grinned and looked at me, ?Right, Haru.?

I nodded, ?Well, that?s true, but we sh-?

?There you go then! Plus, it?s what Yukari probably wants.? Yuka added.

?What?? Mima asked, confused slightly.

Yuka?s zealous grin returned, ?Her second plan! We need to kill the current host while Reimu does something.?

?An evil sealing circle I think she said.? Mima thought back. ?We?ll need to ask Reimu about that then? after some sleep, it?s still early in the morning you know.?

Yuka tutted, ?Whatever, but it doesn?t sound like you have any objections to the general plan.? She smiled slyly.

?I don?t know what to think any more.? Mima moaned.

?Me neither, plus my head is still killing me.? I complained.

Yuka tutted once more, ?Weakling, go back to bed then, but you have better be fit for fighting later, you never know when Yukari and ?it? might turn up.?

?Yeah, yeah, see you tomorrow, or later, whatever.? I slurred as I slowly trailed back to bed, it didn?t take long to fall back asleep, not just to tiredness but also to the promise of less pain.

?

?

I felt consciousness soon seep back into my mind, and I began to become aware of the world around me once again. Opening my eyes, I noticed that it was sunny this time around, and I pondered on how that worked, since earlier the sky was made of light and darkness, yet appeared dark but now it?s the opposite, was it the position of the split in the sky? I wasn?t sure, but decided not to lose too much sleep over it.

At that moment I noticed that thankfully, my headache had dramatically settled down, I almost felt like I had my senses back in control, with just a small, sharp pain in my head that throbbed every now and then. As I got out of bed, I found myself able to stand and move a lot easier too.

As I entered the other room, everyone else was in there talking, Reimu, Marisa, Mima and Yuka, noticing me first, as always, Yuka spoke up, ?Finally awake, eh? I didn?t think you were going to wake up.?

?Huh? What time is it?? I asked.

Yuka grabbed her pocket watch and looked at it, ?Quarter to two, so you?ve been out for about another 10 hours.?

?That?ll explain why I feel so much better then.?

Yuka gave an evil smirk ?If it means you?ll be less of a weakling, I guess that?s good news.?

Mima interrupted, giving an amused giggle, ?Stop teasing him so much, you?ll hurt his feelings.?

?Don?t worry, he?s past that stage.? Yuka brushed the comment away. ?Besides, he knows better than to go into a depression or something, because he knows I?ll beat the hell out of him.?

?I suppose that?s one way of training someone.? Mima mumbled, ?Marisa had it a bit easier than that.?

Reimu, who I had neglected to register in my mind, sighed and interrupted the casual conversation, ?Can we get back to things now?? Mima looked at her and nodded her head slightly, allowing her to continue, as she did, I moved over to Yuka and sat down. ?So, you want me to trap Yukari with an Evil Sealing Circle, and then let you lot kill her??

Mima nodded, ?As morbid as it sounds, yes.?

?That?s impossible.? Reimu mumbled as she took a sip of tea, one of her most regular pastimes.

?Eh, what are you talking ?bout Reimu?? Marisa raised her voice.

Reimu sighed, ?First of all, in case you haven?t noticed, Evil Sealing Circles boundaries neutralise almost anything, so even if I got Yukari in there and prevented her from gapping away, unless you were in there with her, you?re not going to be able to hurt her.? Her explanation was interrupted by another drink of tea, ?Not to mention, if you were in there, you?d have less than a metre to move around.?

Mima looked back at her shrine maiden, ?That?s no good.?

?What about using more seals?? Yuka spoke up.

Reimu froze for a moment, probably thinking it out in her head, ?Well, in theory if I made a large border made of seals and activated them all, it would form a much larger field which you could manoeuvre around in freely but to handle that much energy would make me useless??

Mima raised an eyebrow, ?What do you mean??

?If there?s going to be that many seals used, and if you want them to be maintained and not fall apart in a few seconds, I?m going to have to try and keep them stable, but I?m going to be in a useless state, like a trance, so I can?t help.?

?I suppose we have no choice.? Mima mumbled.

Mima scanned through everyone, silently asking for any objections of which she received none. Taking a breath, she spoke up, ?Alright, we have no choice then, when, or if, Yukari reappears in Gensokyo, we?ll do the following. First, we?ll try and lure her over to the area we?ve planned, we?ll conceal Reimu with some magic or something and as she enters the area? WHAM! We?ll trap her in, along with us.?

?If we do that, then it?s just a case of beating her in combat? and bringing ourselves to finish it.? Mima hesitated at the end, quite surprising since Yukari was her arch-nemesis until yesterday.

Yuka spoke up, ?If you?re going to be that weak, I?ll finish her myself, I don?t care.?

Mima looked down, but smiled, ?Fine, if that happens, then you can do it.?

?Oh don?t worry, I was planning to anyway.? Yuka returned the smile.

?It?s a rather basic plan.? I commented.

Mima looked at me, ?Sometimes, simple is better, with thing like this, you never know what might happen, and if you start getting complicated, things can fall apart easier.?

If you say so.

?So, now we just gotta wait?? Marisa asked.

?Pretty much.? Mima yawned, as everyone stood up to walk off.

Reimu spoke up, ?Oh no you don?t, you?re helping me.?

?Huh?? We all stopped in our tracks.

?I?ve got a load of seals to make now, and since you want them, all of you can help me!? Reimu ordered.

Slowly, we trailed after the Shrine Maiden who went through the process of throwing various things at us and showing us what we needed to do in order to make a seal for her, which we then spent the new few painful hours doing.

?We could have done with having the Oni here; she?s good for mass production works?? Mima muttered under her breath at one point.

Slowly, the time passed by, and finally we had created a good amount of seals which Reimu seemed satisfied with, not a moment after we?d done, she had grabbed them all and wondered off.

?Oi, where are you going now?? The blue and white witch shouted after her.

Reimu sighed, ?To place these seals, what else??

?Lemme come!? Marisa shouted as she ran after her, while Reimu simply walked away muttering something.

Soon enough, it was late in the afternoon and everyone had devolved back to the state of lying around idly, until everyone was shaken by a large tearing noise which echoed around the building.

?That her?? Mima questioned as she sprung up.

Yuka was next to get up, and walked over to the window, ?It?s her, the skies changing again.?

?Quick, we need to get Reimu down to the seals and hide her before the spirit notices.? Mima ordered as the rest of us quickly got up and shuffled around.

?I guess this is it, good luck everyone.? Reimu spoke as we were leaving the shrine.

I nodded, ?Yeah, good luck.?

As we left the shrine, I was quite sure that I could see the figure of Yukari holding her parasol quite high in the sky, hopefully she hadn?t noticed us yet, and we needed that advantage, but there was no denying that the fight for the fate of Gensokyo had probably just begun.

[Mima]

Chapter 17

With little idea on what was going on, I simply followed the group who ended up leading me to the large field in the centre of Gensokyo, the site where I had been possessed not that long ago. Mima and Reimu were talking quickly to each other and pointing out locations until Reimu flew down closer to the small patch of sunflowers that were actually in this shard of Gensokyo.

?Yuka!? Mima shouted, catching the green-haired youkai?s attention and making her fly over.

Some more dialog was exchanged briefly resulting in Yuka nodding and Reimu sitting down in the flowers, a few seconds later some of the sunflowers moved slightly, concealing Reimu rather well, following that, Mima spun her staff a few times causing the immediate area of flowers, and Reimu to pretty much disappear from sight, knowing Mima it would most likely mask her power?s energy too to prevent the spirit from homing in on that.

With Reimu taken care of, it was just a case of getting Yukari into the right area for Reimu to activate the trap which it appeared Yuka had already taken into her own hands, by firing a multitude of projectiles in the general direction of the possessed youkai which seemed to work well enough, since she began to move in our direction.

Her approach was quite ominous, since Yuka didn?t need to lure her over with any more firepower, nor did the approaching entity do anything, she remained perfectly motionless as she slowly moved through the air towards us.

?Back off a bit, make sure she?s in the area.? Mima whispered, and was an order we all followed promptly.

Just as planned, once Yukari had emptily entered the area, Marisa shouted the signal, ?Now!?

At that moment, a large blue ethereal wall rose around us, trapping us in a fairly large sized area, rising higher than even my youkai-enhanced eyes could see.

?So? You?ve used a trap??

I double-took when I released who spoke, the voice being a slightly warped version of Yukari?s.

?So, what, you?re going to try and kill me now?? The youkai began to laugh in an unstable manner unlike the original host. ?I?ll take pleasure in destroying you all before destroying this world!?

Mima spoke up, ?Silence, I don?t know who you are, but I won?t let you harm anyone! As the deity of the Hakurei Shrine I will destroy you!?

The horrible, grating laughing started again, ?A deity now, are you? I wonder how different you really are, I remember when you were that lonely depressed coward who cried to her friend and ended up being coldly murdered by her, what a coincidence that these hands will defeat you once more, and this time, I?ll make you suffer more then you could possibly imagine.? I began to feel repulsed by the entity, who was becoming more and more unstable as proved by the deterioration of her laughing.

Without warning, Yuka dived forward and launched a series of projectiles at Yukari before closing in for a few strikes but was foiled by a border being created in front of her target which simply vaporised the incoming attacks and made Yuka freeze in her tracks.

?And you. I recognise your energy? somehow?? The possessed turned its back to Yuka, ?You were such an insignificant existence, a weakling who put up no fight whatsoever while I killed you, and this time will be no different.? As usual, laughter followed.

?Don?t relate me with that? human!? Yuka screamed as she once again lunged at her tormenter, this time catching her off-guard and delivering a punch square in the cheek sending the youkai recoiling for a moment.

?So, yes, as I said, insignificant weakling.? Yukari looked at me and then Marisa, ?And you two, you?re barely worth my time, a human and a young youkai, you honestly think you can even inflict the smallest degree of pain upon me??

I was actually quite surprised that the being was delivering such language, I?d considered it to be a mindless maniac to this point, or is it a result of possessing Yukari?

Suddenly, without warning, Yukari reeled back and clutched her head while emitting an absolutely terrible, ear-piercing shriek which caused me to flinch slightly. As the screamed died down, it slowly started to turn into the same laughter from a moment ago, and eventually the possessed youkai lifted its reeled head and looked at us.

?Your little nemesis just tried to take back control, she?s supposedly the most powerful being in existence and only puts up that much of a fight? Your deaths will be quick.?

Again, the way she spoke reminded me partly of Yukari?s charade, which made me strongly begin to think that the spirit was beginning to take things from Yukari?s mind in some way.

Yukari then held her head once more except this time there seemed to be no internal struggle with Yukari, as though she was remembering something, which I was quite sure was similar to what was actually happening.

?I see?? The youkai grinned devilishly, before reaching into the folds of her frilly dress and pulling something out, a series of spell cards, which she then fanned out. Picking one from the group and replacing the others in a pocket, she lifted it to the air.

?Balance of Motion and Stillness!? She announced.

Yuka grinned, ?Easy, we know her cards; if we just exhaust them then she?ll be a sitting duck? If I?ve not killed her first.? Following that, she dived forward towards Yukari, dodging the large blue orb which flew straight for her and unleashing a series of smaller orbs at her opponent.

As the orb flew by, a symbol appeared close to Mima, Marisa and I which was our signal to move as a few seconds later, the symbol began to spew a spiral of bright blue bullets out.

As we headed towards Yuka and Yukari, I saw that Yuka seemed to be enjoying herself, flying in every direction around the border youkai avoiding the orbs and symbols effortlessly, no matter how fast or dense they were thrown at her. From a distance, we supplied some extra firepower at Yukari, hoping to break the energy of the spell card.

Noticing the extra firepower, Yukari spun around and began to aim her spell in our direction, but unfortunately for her, as the orbs were a metre or so away there was an explosion in her hand as the energy in the card shattered, causing all of the projectiles generated by it to disperse into the air.

Looking at the blackened out card, the spirit growled slightly and discarded the worthless item before holding a hand to her head once more. Quickly she jumped back through the air and pulled out another card instantly.

?Mesh of Light and Darkness!? The spirit shouted out, as soon as she spoke the final word, bright lights appeared either side of us.

Yuka looked back, ?Haru, stay sharp, don?t get trapped.? Thankfully she was thoughtful enough to tell me about the attacks, I was the only one in our little group who hadn?t fought Yukari.

Not even a couple of seconds later, the bright lights intensified before strange small lines formed all around us.

?Stay away from them.? One of my teammates said, causing me to fly back a bit since a few lines were passing through me.

Only about a second after I had moved, the lines suddenly screamed as the lines increased in size dramatically and blasted as a full powered laser, all of them, creating a huge maze around us.

As I was flying backwards, away from my almost-death trap, a searing pain raged through my back, I only realised too late that I had dodged right into another laser.

Desperately, I pushed myself forward, back into the small space without any lasers and before I could do anything, Yuka was shouting at me once again, ?Haru, watch out, incoming!?

Ugh, what now?

It was easier said than done to make out anything through the maze of red and blue lasers that were now decorated around the sky like a coloured web, but to my dismay I eventually made out a large series of bullets, also coloured red and blue heading straight at me.

As desperately as I could, I dodged the swarm of approaching coloured balls, almost flying face first into another face, but fortunately this time I saw it coming and corrected myself.

Suddenly, the mesh of beams around us disappeared and with that, I allowed myself a sigh of relief while the other three advanced forward hurling wave upon wave of lasers, flowers and various other spells. Since youkai heal at quite a marvellously fast speed, I refrained from joining in the barrage and gave myself a few seconds rest, which was ended prematurely by a shout from Marisa, ?Heads up, here we go again!?

On that signal, the lights intensified once more and a split-second later, another, different mesh had formed, followed by another wave of disguised bullets.

Luckily, I was ready for it this time and managed to find myself a much more comfortable space in the labyrinth of lasers which allowed me to dodge the bullet-swarm with ease.

As the lasers disappeared, I flew closer to assist in the counter, but it appeared I was too late, as Mima and Marisa were in front of Yukari and fired what appeared to be a Master Spark each at her propelling her backwards, right into the path of Yuka who delivered a sharp kick downwards, sending the possessed elder youkai in that direction, crashing into the ground with such force that a small amount of debris was lifted off the ground. Left behind in the air was another blackened out spell card, the one Yukari had just used, that slowly floated in the wind before vaporising as it hit the ground.

The trio laughed to themselves for a moment, only to be interrupted by a voice, it wasn?t hard to guess whose. ?Why won?t you just accept your fates and die??

?What do you think I-? Mima shouted back before being interrupted.

Yuka shouted over her confidently and taunted, ?What?s the matter? Getting scared? Running out of ideas??

?On the contrary.? The dust settled enough around Yukari to make her visible again, where she was stood with a large grin on her face, and holding her head in recollection. ?Suffer.?

The spirit?s host threw an arm in front of her causing a gap to open beside her while the grin only continued to grow more psychotic in appearance, slamming her arm into the gap we all naturally dodged in case she was trying to attack one of us, but strangely enough, she didn?t appear to be doing so.

As the four of us regrouped, Mima muttered under her breath, ?What is she up to? Stay sharp.?

Yukari cackled as she pulled her arm out from the gap and to everyone?s shock we saw she was holding none other than Remilia Scarlet by the neck who seemed rather motionless.

A steady red flow appeared to move from Remilia to Yukari, who then used her other hand to reach into a pocket once more and produce a spell card, as she held it in the air the red energies began to converge on the card, surrounding it with a slowly building red glow.

Yuka struggled to make out something, ?That card it?s? it?s? Human and Youkai.?

It didn?t take long for the building red energy to reach a white-hot intensity before there was a flash, revealing what even I could make out as a different card.

With a sneer, Yukari discarded the vampire back into the gap from which she came and shouted out, ?The brink of fate and free-will!?

[Mima]

Chapter 18

Mima growled, ?Yukari, you got it all wrong??

?W-What are you talking about?? I asked cautiously.

?She told me that the spirit?s ability was to manipulate others, how could I have been so damn foolish?!? Mima shouted.

?And that means?? I pressed further.

Mima looked at me, ?It?s a spirit, most spirits can possess others, I planned on doing so in my plan all those years back, from what we?ve seen, it?s obvious it has the ability to absorb the abilities of others.?

Before I could answer, a large high-pitched noise rung out as a circle appeared around the four of us; the circle itself emitted an evil blood-red glow and simply spun around slowly.

?I recognise this!? Marisa shouted, as normal. ?It?s just like Human and Youkai!?

Suddenly, from all directions, rows of bullets began to criss-cross towards us, fortunately their slow movements combined with a fairly light density made it easy to dodge everything.

?It?s still the same, we?ll start moving soon.?

?We?ll wha-?

I was cut off, as the ominous, blurred red circle around us suddenly jerked and began to move away from us, which obviously meant the other side was getting closer, forcing us to move around with the circle. Although things were made harder, it was still tolerable, especially with Yuka and the others whose movements I could follow.

?Now, we just wait for the spell to collapse in on itself.? Marisa grinned. ?Not so bad after-?

The witch was stopped dead by a huge crack, as everyone turned around, we found ourselves face to face with a large wall of energy.

?This is new.? Mima said in a worried tone.

Marisa grinned, ?Least we?re moving away.?

Nice of you to jinx us.

Suddenly, the circle stopped, and bullets began to bombard us from all directions, at a much faster speed and far more ferocious then before.

?Dammit! Is this Remilia?s power?? Mima growled.

?Got any ideas, Yuka?? I asked in a panic, dodging for my life.

Yuka snapped at me, ?I?m thinking!?

Just when the bullets were about to overwhelm us, there was a click and suddenly everything ceased, in fact it felt like the entire spell had simply stopped dead.

Another odd click, something was happening.

?We?re on the move again.? Mima spoke up calmly, ?Towards that wall.?

?What, we?re trapped??

Mima shrugged, ?Possibly. The spell might give up just before, or we might just go straight into it.?

A moment of uneasiness went by as we slowly closed in towards the wall, for some reason I felt like I was the most worried of the group, even though it was clear no one had any ideas.

What was the spell card again? Fate and Free-will?

?Ah.? I said out loud without noticing.

Yuka looked at me, ?You have an idea??

?Well, just a hunch, it?s of Fate and Free-will, right? What if this circle is the fate part, since we have to do what the circle does?? I explained as I thought up the idea.

?So, you?re saying we need to get out of this, easier said than done.? Mima complained.

Yuka spoke up, ?I wouldn?t be so sure. Take a closer look at our little prison.?

The two magicians flew up close to the edge and looked, ?Ah, I see.? Mima stated, after a few seconds.

?See what? ? I asked, I don?t see anything, just a red blur.

Mima grinned at me, ?I guess your eyes haven?t adjusted to things moving at high speeds yet. Anyway, there?s a fairly large gap in the circle as it spins around.?

Even so, surely if I can?t see it, there?s no chance I can get through.

Since the wall was only a couple of metres away now, Marisa and Mima both flew straight into the circle and emerged on the other side unscathed.

?That worked.? Mima commented.

?Our turn now.? Yuka said, aimed at me.

I hesitated, the reason obvious, how could I dodge through a gap I couldn?t even see.

Yuka sighed, ?Come here.?

I slinked over to Yuka who was facing the wall, after I reached her, she put her arm around my shoulder, ?Alright then, on three.?

?One? Two??

Here goes.

?Three!?

Yuka jumped forward, taking me with her, as the red field got closer and closer I found the temptation to close my eyes too much and did so, it was only after a couple of seconds that I opened them again to find that we had both got through untouched.

Yuka looked at me with a grin, ?What?s up, didn?t you trust me??

?What? No! It was just a? natural reflex.?

Yuka sneered, ?I see, a reflex I?ll have to beat out of you when this is over.?

Oh great, that?s more pain to look forward to.

Turning around, we saw the final few moments as the circle we were imprisoned in collide with the wall, not only would the energy field probably have disintegrated us, but the resulting explosion would definitely have finished us off, however that explosion also signified the end of the spell card?s energy, and the explosion eventually dispersed into the air.

?Woo, we made it.? I said with a sigh of relief.

Mima put her hand over her mouth, ?I wonder what she has planned next.?

From the dispersed explosion, the possessed Yukari emerged and flew towards us and growled, ?Accept your fate and die!?

Stopping suddenly, the spirit seemed to follow the same routine as last time, opening a gap and reaching for something.

?Don?t just stand there! Stop her!? Mima ordered, prompting a barrage of attacks from the four of us.

Magical light, flowers, lasers and stars struck the controlled youkai to very little effect, almost as though she had lost the ability to feel pain or was just so determined she persisted, either way, it didn?t stop her from producing the still body of Kaguya Houraisan from the gap and also a spell card.

?Zen Temple, I wonder how that could get worse?? Yuka grinned, ?It?s not exactly powerful.?

Rainbow-coloured energy began to be absorbed by Yukari and once again it converged on the spell card causing it to glow brightly, once enough of what was probably Kaguya?s ability had entered the card, there was a flash to signify the change?s finality allowing Yukari to announce it.

?The edge of beginning and eternity!?

[Mima]

Chapter 19

I groaned, ?Here we go again.? As my speech ended, there was a loud crack as once again, a circle appeared.

This time however, the circle was much larger in circumference covering much more than just the four of us, in this circle, Yukari was actually visible and in the circle, from a quick glance she looked to be around the middle of it, regardless the team opened fire on here with as much firepower as we could muster, better to do things now than before we?re having to dodge god knows what.

A charging sound echoed around us and suddenly a rather large laser, reaching all the way to the circle?s edge blasted from near Yukari and remained there. I began to move back, firing some projectiles at Yukari but waiting for the obvious trap that was about to occur, which soon triggered.

The laser slowly began to move towards us which caused the other three to blast backwards reaching where I was.

?Let?s move.? Mima proposed, which I thought was a good idea and started to back away from the slowly looming laser.

As we moved away, we continued to try and hit Yukari with whatever attacks we could, to mixed success, which was made worse when Yukari began to laugh and threw out several symbols which moved around different areas of the circle. Fortunately, we all knew what they were going to do beforehand and acted appropriately, and were rewarded in the fact that when they began to spew bullets against the direction we were flying, towards the laser, we were able to dodge easily.

This cycle continued to carry on as we were forced to fly in circles, while the bullet traffic was getting slowly more and more dense and less chances to attack the source of the spell, as we continued to fly, I noticed something new, another laser appeared to be forming, it was cycling around Yukari much slower than the other one, and was much shorter, but upon each cycle it seemed to be growing and growing.

At that point I realised that we were in something that could resemble a clock, with the lasers being the hands and the bullets being an optional bonus.

?Get ready, we?re going to have to start flying over that other laser!? Mima shouted back, while Yuka was happily firing another barrage of flowers towards the gap youkai.

Following Mima?s obvious advice, we quickly flew over the laser before lowering again to reduce the distance we had the fly, but as predicted, the next time the laser was higher, and then higher again, and with the ever-increased bullets flying against us, I was starting to struggle, as were we all.

?Wait a second, when?s this spell gonna end?? Marisa spoke up, it took a few seconds for me to register what she meant, but then I realised it, with the laser ever growing, soon we wouldn?t be able to fly over it, and we?d be effectively crushed between the two.

?Quickly, get Yukari!? Mima ordered with a hint of desperation, but I simply couldn?t do so, the amount of dodging for my level of skill was just too much, so I decided to make things a bit easier and drop back to fly behind the others, at least then I could just follow their movements while I helped to supply some firepower.

Thankfully, this actually worked, and minus a few close grazes and Marisa shouting slightly as a bullet hit her, following by Mima shouting to check up on her only for her to be dismissed.

?Hey, Haru!? Yuka shouted.

?Yeah??

?Hurry up, this one is going to be close!? She shouted back.

As everyone picked up the pace, I saw why, there was barely any room whatsoever between the wall and the laser, Yuka cleared it, followed by Marisa, and then Mima, my turn.

The agony that racked through my arm told me that I?d cleared the gap, but only just and catching my arm in the laser in the process, but I was through, and now wasn?t the time to worry about my arm being burnt, it?d heal eventually, the important fact was getting away and cancelling this spell before I burnt up completely.

?Just get round to the other side of the laser again!? Mima issued yet another order, which we followed; dodging through the bullets as the fastest speed we could in hope finally reaching the almost-stationary laser. That was our cue to begin our all or nothing attack, we began to hit Yukari once more, sure that she surely had to be close to running out of spell power on the card soon.

?That laser is closing in pretty quick.? Someone commented, but I tried to ignore it.

A few seconds later, the fact became impossible to ignore since it was only a couple of metres away.

?Hurry up!?

I could only hope for the best as I fired as many bullets as I could possibly muster as the laser inched towards us.

And it paid off, there was a loud crack, and the laser hit us, but fortunately in the process of dispersing, making it harmless to us, I allowed myself a moment to catch my breath and evaluate my arm, it didn?t look that bad, either I healed quick or I caught it less then I thought, only the sleeve of my shirt was particularly burnt up suggesting the latter.

To my annoyance, my moment of rest was brought to an abrupt end by Yukari who shrieked at us, ?Why do you refuse to die after all of this? Why!??

Everyone remained oddly silent.

?Fine, don?t cooperate.? Yukari moved oddly, but despite her plan, it was too obvious to see what she was doing. She had created a small gap and placed her hand in, unlike the previous times, and there was only one reason for her to be so discreet.

In a flash, Yuka flipped up and over an arm that tried to snatch her from behind and before the arm could retract, she used the hook of her parasol to pull the arm out more, causing Yukari to stumble before delivering a vicious kick to the arm, more than visibly breaking it.

Yukari yelled in pain and stared at us for a moment before speaking, ?Fine, this is it. I grow tired of this.? Yukari?s head rolled back and began to cackle, ?Embrace your death! Embrace it!?

The three others rushed at Yukari in order to stop her next card, but were promptly foiled as they ran into a barrier, as they desperately tried to break it down, which I quickly joined in to assist; we could only watch as Yukari once more dug into a gap and reached for her next victim and we all froze when we saw the hand drawn for this attack, it was too good to be luck, she had planned this.

Yuyuko Saigyouji, and Danmaku Bounded Field.

Yukari took no time at all to drain the mixture of black and pink energy from the unconscious Yuyuko and imbued the spell card with said energy causing it to shift once more.

This was the worst case scenario now, we were facing death itself and when facing Danmaku Bounded Field, or more accurate, a mutated version of it, things looked quite grim.

?Chin up, Haru.? Yuka looked at me, ?There?s always a way.?

The former Hakurei Shrine Maiden faded to a translucent form and simply grinned as she held the spell card up and shouted proudly, ?Danmaku Bounded Death.?

The customary crack occurred, marking the start of the spell card as what looked like 6 symbol familiars shot out from Yukari and began to circle us.

They simply did nothing for a moment, just circled us as though they were waiting for something, but without any signal, they began to spew out a horrid looking purple-pink colour, quite likely resembling the colour of the spirit?s glow, but my mind was in too much of a panic to clearly remember, as the bullets began to appear, Yukari turned back into a physical state and simply waved at us, but the wall that had already formed blocked our access completely.

The symbols continued to spin around and around making more and more bullets which remained stationary, looming in every direction around us.

What felt like a minute passed, and the bullets still hadn?t moved, and were still building in number, even Mima was holding her head, ?There?s no pattern to these bullets, it's just a mess.?

?I wouldn?t say that.? Yuka added, ?There?s probably a pattern to cover every single bit of area between the bullets and us.?

?Don?t say stuff like that.? Mima snapped back. ?I can?t take a hit. If my physical form?s destroyed then Reimu?s spell will go.?

There was a pause.

?Master Spark!? Marisa yelled, as she fired her stolen-from-Yuka spell towards a group of the bullets completely enveloping them, ?We?ll just blast our way out, the best way!?

Or so she thought, as the Hakkero in her hand cooled down and the gigantic laser faded from existence, Marisa was taken back to see the bullets hadn?t done much at all, especially in the way of disappearing.

?Damn. Damn. Damn.?

A few seconds later, that cracking noise of bullets coming into existence stopped, and the sight was, in a way, quite awe-inspiring, there wasn?t a single gap in the bullets, if we didn?t know better than one could have well said that we were singly inside a purple gap caused by Yukari, but that wasn?t the case, these were bullets waiting to strike, ready to invoke death on impact.

?Is this all you can do?!? Yuka shouted out, looking around. ?You?ve accepted you can?t defeat us, and you?re having to resemble to such cowardly spells to end this?!?

?Just die.? The voice called out from Yuka?s side.

?With pleasure.? Yuka grinned as she turned towards the voice and shot forwards towards the wall.

?Yuka!?? I shouted in puzzlement.

Mima shouted after me, ?What the hell are you doing??

Yuka, flying at full speed towards the wall grabbed her parasol and opened it in front of her, before shockingly slamming into the solid wall of bullets.

My initial fear of her just vanishing or a similar thing were false, as she flew straight throw, discarding her parasol towards the end and eventually breaking out and then out of view, behind the wall.

Just like that, every single surrounding projectile vanished into the air, letting us see behind the scenes as Yuka was brutally beating up her opponent, delivering a series of punches at every part of her; the spell had already been broken but Yuka was in for the victory and following an odd twitch, she performed a backwards kick to the rear of Yukari?s head slamming her head forward, followed by her delivering her knee to the gap youkai?s face sending her rotating backwards again leaving her almost horizontal.

Rising slightly, Yuka raised her leg and slammed her heel down onto Yukari?s throat causing her to spin uncontrollably downwards on a fall that was probably around a hundred metres. Unhappy with that, Yuka flew down to the falling youkai and delivered a final punch to her chest which sent the former Hakurei Maiden at a tremendous speed to the ground which, on impact caused an explosion of dust and rubble to rise; finally, it looked like the tides had turned.

As we approached the triumphant Yuka, she turned around to look at us, and smiled slightly before she seemed to lean to one side and then fell from the sky lifelessly.

[Mima]

Chapter 20

?Y-Yuka!? I shouted as I dived forward towards her shortly followed by the similar cries of Mima and Marisa.

Flying down as fast as I could, I couldn?t focus on anything except the falling youkai, forget Yukari, this was more important.

Finally I caught up with her and gently caught her so she was lying in my arms.

?Yuka? Come on Yuka.?

Nothing. I started to panic.

?Yuka! Come on! Can you hear me?! Hold on!?

?Haru?? Mima spoke quietly behind me.

I knew what she wanted to say, but the feeling of denial was just too much.

?Come on! The fight?s not over yet! You?re not going to just let her kill you again are you??

The lack of a reply still began to scramble my mind.

The last thing I needed to hear right then, was laughter, her laughter.

?Well, well, well!? More laughter, ?One down, three to go? How foolish of her to do that, just letting herself die like that.?

?Shut up! I?ll take you down myself, for Yuka!? I found myself shouting.

Yukari gloated, ?You wish, you?re nothing. Weak and useless, I don?t even why you?re here. You?ve been hit while the others have not, it?s obvious you?re just hindering everyone, that you?re the one whose fault it was for driving your love to suicide to protect you.?

?Shut the hell up!? I paused, ?That?s not true??

Who am I kidding? It probably is?

The possessed youkai laughed, ?Allow me to end your misery.?

Finally leaving the smoke screen that was the dust cloud and into view, Yukari sneered as a large gap opened behind her leaving the sky full of symbol familiars that began to spew bullets at us; it wasn?t as bad as what we?d faced before but suddenly I?d lost the will to dodge.

?Marisa, let?s go for it.? Mima spoke in a commanding voice.

Marisa asked back, ?For what??

?That spell we theorised, you know the one.? Mima spoke confidently.

?Oh! That one!? Marisa shouted happily, quite the opposite of me right now. ?Let?s go for it!?

?Right, move those two out of the way.? Mima asked. A few seconds later I felt Marisa grab the back of my shirt and pull me a good distance away, the motionless Yuka still in my arms.

Actually facing Mima now, I could see the grin on her face as she sprouted the wings you saw her have on occasion, but they continued to grow and became the colour of pitch black, and continued to grow and grow until they started to form out of control, eventually just making an impossibly large black void behind Mima and her apprentice.

There was a loud hum as even I could sense the pure energy begin to charge from the black void until suddenly, Marisa shouted, ?Here we go!? and fired a Master Spark into the brightening black void.

The charging seemed to stop for a second, before there was a loud explosion, followed by another one, and another one, almost like popcorn being cooked, the explosions started to sound more and more, seemingly from the energy behind Mima.

?Move out the way, Marisa!? Mima shouted.

Marisa hastily followed the order, ?Gotcha!?

?Here we go!? Mima slammed her arms out to the side, causing the huge exploding space behind her to practically explode in an unstable form, almost like a liquid in the direction of Yukari. As it fired, it began to solidify once more in a strange, lumped, alien shape presumably with Yukari trapped in it.

?And finally?? Mima clicked her finger causing the solidified magic energy to begin exploding all over, resulting in flashes so bright I found myself wanting to cover my eyes at times.

Eventually, the explosions began to calm down, with not much of the solidified energy remaining just a very small chunk, which then glowed white-hot before exploding in such a dramatic fashion involving light and sound that I knew Marisa was pleased.

As the various colours as a result of the final explosion subsided, I could make out the figure of Yukari blasting away to the ground from the force, Marisa and Mima noticed this too by the looks of it, since they blasted after her, I remained back, still holding the youkai who had helped me so much.

More explosions occurred afterwards, this time just from the firepower of Marisa and Mima?s ordinary magic, nothing spectacular compared to the pure obliteration of the last spell card, but Mima and Marisa knew how to use their magic well.

?M-muh, ah.?

I jumped, started by a voice in close proximity.

?I?m? I?m not done?yet.? The voice said weakly again.

The realisation hit me, ?Yuka!??

?Ah, stop shouting.? She complained, awake in my arms.

?Oh? sorry? It?s just-? I slurred before being interrupted.

Yuka spoke over me, ?Don?t bother, the end result?s?? Yuka coughed slightly, ??Not going to change.?

?What do you mean?? I asked, wanting to know the situation for myself.

Yuka gave a tired sigh, ?Just then, I was? sleeping.?

?What? Sleeping??

?Haru, face it. You know I?m dying, the instance I hit that first bullet I had death invoked upon me? It?s just a matter of time.? The weak youkai took a few breaths, wheezing slightly. ?Useless body? Anyway, as you know we youkai regenerate quickly? while we sleep??

?So you wanted to see if you could beat death by staying asleep?? I answered for her.

Yuka simply smiled and nodded.

?I presume it didn?t work then.? I mumbled.

Yuka finally managed one of her usual grins, ?Oh? it worked, I?m officially strong enough to resist death itself? but the cost would be too much.?

?Eh???

?Put it like this? I?d be sleeping for? maybe a year and a half just for? a day?s time awake?? Yuka?s face lost its grin, ?That wouldn?t be fair for me, or you.?

?So you?re just gonna die!?? I uncontrollably shouted, causing Mima and Marisa to notice us and blast over to us.

Yuka grinned once more, ?Not just yet, I have one more thing left to do.?

Mima spoke up as she arrived, ?Not ready for dying yet, Miss Kazami??

Yuka laughed, ?Not quite.? She then looked up at me, ?Haru, help me up.?

As I lifted her up and held her, making sure she could fly by herself, Mima questioned the situation once more, ?Just what do you have planned??

?It?s okay Haru, I can fly.? I let go of her and she turned to Mima, ?Do you two remember what I got from Shinki as my prize all that time ago??

?You got the ?Ultimate Magic?

Yuka grinned, ?And that is what I shall be using.?

Marisa spoke up in concern, ?Wait! You can?t use that, Shinki said it will-?

?Kill me? I?m already going that way, and I don?t know about you, but I want to go out with a bang.?

The two of them were speechless for a moment; even Mima looked quite startled, ?I see? I guess, this is goodbye then??

?I guess it is.? Yuka spoke without a hint of concern, ?Such an odd atmosphere? Oh look, our friend is coming back.?

It became apparent she was referring to the ever-persistent spirit possessing Yukari, who was flying towards us while shouting, ?Why are you still alive! You should be dead! You should all be dead!?

?Haru, take my hand.? Yuka said quietly, facing me.

?Huh, what??

?You can help me, don?t worry, you won?t die if that?s what you?re scared off.? Yuka laughed.

I linked hands with her, and as she did, I somehow felt like I knew exactly what to do next.

Is this a part of the spell?

With one hand linked, we spun around so that the approaching Yukari was to our side, and at the same time we threw our other hand out towards her.

?Creation sign! Garden of the Sun!? We shouted in unison.

The spell took no time to begin working as hordes of flowers came into existence and were controlled by Yuka who caused them to spiral around collecting more and more flowers, I on the other hand generated beams of light which I started to target the flowers created by Yuka with.

The torrent of flowers was building at what could only be described as in insane rate, within about 10 seconds I could easily say there were probably more flowers now then all the sunflowers in Yuka?s field, and there seemed to be no stop. The light I was creating was beginning to form in the centre of the spiral with the flowers orbiting around it until a mighty crash caused the light and flowers to combine in a flash leaving a rather impressive sight.

All of the flowers now appeared to contain the light energy themselves, and most even appeared to be transformed by it, a lot of the flowers were now gigantic while others radiated various colours, regardless it didn?t stop Yuka from causing the flowers to begin moving in the direction of the approaching lunatic.

As the flowers were close to impact, they seemingly activated, as some flowers began to explode, some flowers had their petals transform into beams of light, others exploded into smaller flowers which continued to attack Yukari and after just a few seconds the sheer amount of flowers made it impossible to see what was going on.

The flowers continued to mercilessly attack Yukari for another minute or so before the flowers began to slow down and rest on Yukari, who now in a weak state, was desperately trying to get them off her and failing miserably.

Once the majority of the flowers were resting on them, I noticed they began to all glow the same colour, pure white which got more and more bright until there was an enormous blast of light once again blasting Yukari to the ground, at a force even more formidable then the hybrid spark that was performed just a moment earlier. As a result, millions of flower petals were blasted into the air and slowly drifted across the sky like snow as far as you could see, but considering the sheer mass of petals, that wasn?t that far.

As I watched in awe at the aftermath, I heard Yuka say something, but it was only when I felt the weight of her hand disappear did I register what she said.

?Goodbye, Haru.?

[Mima]

Chapter 21

She was gone. I knew it this time, she wasn?t just going to wake up again, she had vanished, dispersed into the air and I couldn?t help but feel that cold, empty feeling return to my body, even if I knew this was going to happen.

?Haru? please?? Mima spoke behind me, ?Get a hold of yourself, let us all finish this, and then we can mourn.?

She was right, I had to do something, but could I anymore? I was starting to feel lethargic, and even Mima and Marisa who hadn?t suffered any direct hits were starting to look exhausted, and it?s no like a fairy tale ending is going to occur where I powered up from love and sorrow of the event just now, I was in a near-useless state.

Until we saw our opponent.

As she crawled desperately from the latest dent in the earth she had unwontedly created, it was apparent of the damage of Yuka?s final attack on her, she was now extremely battered and bruised, so to speak, parts of her clothing were cut, her arms and face were decorated with cuts and blood and all around her was an all too familiar purple-pink aura, the spirit.

?W-what is this! Why can?t I?? She shrieked into the air, in desperation. It appeared she finally learnt the nature of the trap she was in, she was scared and planned to leave her current host, but she couldn?t, and with that, it meant it was nearly over.

?Why? I? You? We? Must?? The injured youkai slurred distantly before holding her head and screaming, much like when we first encountered her.

She picked herself off the ground, ?What is it? stopping me? must not??

?It?s time you accepted your fate, spirit. You?ve endangered Gensokyo, you?ve killed my friend, you caused my death. It?s time for you to go to hell and pay!? Mima shouted, wielding her staff in an offensive stance.

?Cannot? happen, I will find-? The youkai stopped mid-speech and grinned her terrifying grin, her head to the side, staring at something.

Oh hell.

Either Yuka?s final attack, or just her death in general appeared to have physically altered the flower field somewhat, and the spirit had noticed so, since Yuka and Mima?s concealment spell still remained in place, causing a group of flowers to stand in the middle of nowhere, the edges were cut off and it obviously looked like a missing piece, and the spirit had noticed too.

The spirit burst into laughter, ?Hiding someone! I can?t? believe you nearly won through that.?

?We have won.? Mima emphasised.

?No. No no no. No no no no no no.? The spirit burst into laughter, ?I?m not finished yet.?

The spirit somehow summoned the strength to open a gap and jump in, appearing above us, ?Take this!? She pulled a spell card out of her pocket.

?Border? of Life? and Death!?

?Come on, let?s end this.? Mima said gently, as she charged forward.

The spell took no time to activate and was soon enough spewing multiple waves of bullets out at the same time.

Marisa shouted out, ?The bullets have come a pretty long way! They might end up arriving in lines so just stay between ?em!?

Ready, I braced myself for dodging, I wasn?t going to let Yuka down and get hit by another death-inducing bullet.

But it never happened.

Mima was the first to notice what happened, and almost cried in panic, ?Reimu!?

?What?? I turned from Mima to look at the bullets, and there was a large gap there between us and the bullets. ?Oh? no way??

Flipping around, my fears were confirmed as I watched the entire wave of bullets re-emerging from a second gap, behind us and thus heading right for the standing out patch of flowers that were Reimu.

?Hurry! Fly around! Stop her!? Mima pleaded as she flew along the gap to get to Yukari.

?Quick! Go! We don?t have long!? I shouted alongside her.

?Way ahead of ya.? Marisa said, finally with a tone of seriousness as she blasted after her teacher on her broom.

As we raced around, desperately trying to beat the bullets approaching Reimu, Mima and Marisa began to charge energy and opened fire as soon as they were in sight of Yukari, resulting in two more spectacular explosions.

?It didn?t work!? Marisa lamented.

Mima blasted at the gap youkai with a growl, ?It can?t end this way!?

Swinging her staff, she hit the unstable Yukari on the top of her head, causing Yukari to hold her head in pain. ?Yuk- Murasaki! Get a hold of yourself! Reimu is going to die, the Hakurei bloodline is going to die!? she followed up with another swipe at her.

Before the swing could connect with the target, Yukari opened another gap and dived in.

Mima screamed, ?No! Now what!?

?Down there!?Marisa shouted suddenly, ?By Reimu!?

I looked down, and as Marisa said, Yukari was stood by Reimu; however, the unexpected fact was that she was facing the other way, towards the bullets. With no time left, she placed both hands in front of her and cast a Quadruple Barrier, which blocked the bullets as they approached.

?Yukari did it.? I mumbled.

?For now.? Mima was quick to correct, ?Remember, she could switch at any moment. Let?s go.?

Ready to end this, the three of us rushed back down to the scene, where the last of the bullets were emerging and hitting the barrier, as we approached, I heard Yukari talk.

?Reimu, were you struck at all?? She said, in a caring, weary voice.

There was a pause that was uneasy for us all for a moment, ?No, I?m fine.? We let out a sigh of relief.

?Then, we shall? end this.? Yukari said slowly, as she pulled her hands away from the barrier, allowed the absolute final bullet to hit herself in the chest.

Yukari giggled very slightly for some unknown reason before holding her hand up and then clicking her fingers, ?Death.?

After she announced that word, there was nothing, no one moved, no one spoke, there was just perfect silence, whether it be from shock or respect, I wasn?t even sure what I felt any more.

Finally, the silence was broken by Yukari herself, the purple haze around her had almost disappeared now, ?Well, it?s over now?? She quickly and easily dispersed the spell around Reimu and sat down beside her, and they began talking, we couldn?t hear what they were talking about, but neither Mima nor Marisa seemed to be in any hurry to secure Yukari or eavesdrop, so I did the same.

About a minute later, Yukari visibly shook as she struggled to pick herself up, ?Well, what do you say?? We could hear her once more.

??I guess so.? Reimu said back to her in a half-caring tone.

?Thank you, Reimu.? Yukari smiled, and started to walk over towards us. As she was closer, she began to hover off the floor, to cover the 5 or so metres distance between us and the ground, but only a metre or so up, her power seemed to fail her and she hit the ground soon after with a yelp, it was a sorry sight.

Second time lucky, Yukari lifted off the ground and managed to stay in front of us, albeit wobbling.

?I? cannot describe how sorry I am right now, Mima, Marisa, Haru. My mistakes have put you through so much, and of course? Yuka?? She hesitated for a moment, ?There?s one last thing I have to do now.?

Flying back slightly, Yukari opened roughly 6 or so gaps and reached in, her movements suggesting she was moving things around, and as she removed her hands from the gaps and closed, them, miraculously, all around us, the pieces of Gensokyo simply appeared and slid into place, with no earthquakes or such, they just smoothly restored themselves.

?I wish I could bring her back. I really do, but it?s impossible now, I?m so sorry.? She apologized, which just made me hurt even more.

Yukari looked at the Hakurei Deity in front of her, ?And Mima, I?m sorry, all this happened since I killed you, I stole the life you cherished so much.?

?No, I forgive you.? Mima interrupted, ?I?ve enjoyed this afterlife far more than a simple human life could ever have done.?

Yukari smiled lightly, ?Still, I took your life, its only right you do the same for myself. Help yourself, leave me alone and let me suffer a painful slow death, spark me, whatever you wish.?

?You know, there?s one thing above all others that specialises in harming youkai. History.? Mima spoke in a voice that mimicked that of Akyu?s, as she reached into a robe and produced a knife.

Yukari?s eyes widened, ?Is that really???

Mima nodded, ?I?ve held onto it since then.?

?So, you?ve always planned to kill me then?? Yukari smiled.

Mima grinned, ?Something like that.?

There was a warm soundless moment, a surreal end to the hatred of the fight that just ensued, ending with Yukari twitching slightly and grimacing in pain.

Mima took a deep breath, ?Well then? Murasaki Hakurei? I relieve you of your duty to the Hakurei Shrine.?

In a flash, Mima moved and faced away from Yukari, who at the same time began to vanish into thin air as very slightly, blood began to pour from her throat where Mima had struck, and in several seconds, she was gone.

?It?s? over? at last?? I uttered, letting myself slowly drop to the ground. ?But, what now??

?Mima.? Reimu spoke from behind us, ?What you called Yukari? was that? real??

Mima hesitated for a moment, ?It was, and she was a close friend of mine.?

?I see??

An atmosphere of sorrow brushed through the field, eventually prompting Mima to speak, ?It?s over now, Gensokyo is restored, we should return to the shrine.?

I could hear the footsteps of the two humans walking away, no doubt with Mima, when she called sympathetically, ?Haru? if you need anything, you know where to find us??

I nodded slightly, and then listened as the footsteps slowly faded into the distance.

[Mima]

Chapter 22

I felt odd to finally have some peace, a bitter peace at that, I wasn't sure if I liked it, at least there was previously a danger to keep distracted about, but now there was nothing but a painful silence, and no one around other then myself, and it hurt.

?What do I do now??

I slowly walked aimlessly around the former battlefield, bruised and cratered by the impacts and attacks.

?Heh? Typical that the incident I'm involved in doesn't end happily... just my luck.?

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed something familiar, and so changed my course to head in its direction.

?Ah, this is...? I spoke to myself as I picked the half-buried object up from the ground. ?I'm surprised that this even still exists, it sure lives up to its reputation.?

I brushed the dirt off the object, and then opened it, presenting Yuka's parasol to the world in its full glory.

?The flower that never wilts, huh??

The next thought came to me naturally; it just clicked as the right thing to do. I walked over to what was, by far the largest crater and coincidently the one I believed was caused by Yuka's final display of flowery death, and jumped in.

Walking to the centre of the crater, I opened the parasol once more and slammed it into the ground, handle first.

?Well, Yuka. That's all I can do right now.?

I simply stood there for a few minutes, unable to do anything except replay the events that passed in my mind, more specifically the moment that hit me the hardest, and the more I thought, the worse I felt.

?Why did you do it, Yuka? Surely you knew you were going to die...?

?Isn't it obvious?? Another voice spoke out, one that wasn't so familiar, and that caused me to jump in surprise.

I was surprised to see, that looming over the edge of the crater, was the Judge of the Dead herself, Sikieiki Yamaxanadu, and from the silence that ensued, I found myself shouting at her, ?What's the matter? Here to gloat over Yuka finally dying??

?As if I would do such a thing.? Sikieiki frowned at me. ?I am... here to apologize.?

I was confused slightly, ?About what??

?My behaviour towards you and Yuka... I have always believed Yuka to be a selfish, uncaring youkai who simply attacked other with no rewarding merits, she lived for an extraordinarily long time, but my thoughts were that she did not deserve such for her actions.? Sikieiki continued her lecture, ?Not once, did I think she would not only fight for the fate of Gensokyo, but also throw away her life to not only save those she cared for and loved, but also Gensokyo.?

Sikieiki paused for a moment, ?I guess, to cut it short, what I am saying is that I am sorry.? She quickly added something extra, ?Of course, I should thank you as well. You also helped to save this land.?

?I didn't do much, really.?

?I wouldn't say that, I doubt Yuka's final spell would have done so well without your power supplementing it.? Sikieiki smiled. ?Really, thank you, there are a lot of realms worse than Gensokyo, and had it been destroyed, I would have missed it dearly.?

?So, wait, you saw the entire fight? How? I thought Yukari split Gensokyo apart.? I asked.

?There are other means, particularly those available to those in my field of work.? The judge smiled once more, ?I could go into more detail, but I feel it's not appropriate at this moment.?

There was a pause, and it felt like the conversation could have ended then, but I wasn't ready just yet, ?I wonder, do you know who it was that we were fighting, that spirit? What it wanted and all that??

Sikieiki shook her head, ?At this moment, we've been unable to discover anything but with that said, for her actions and crimes through history, she's been issued to a court with more authority then what I have, and I am sure they'll dig the past up eventually.? She looked at me again, ?If you want, I'll come and tell you when I've found out, and also her fate in court.?

?Sure, I guess.? I answered. ?What about Yuka??

Sikieiki quickly added after, ?I shall inform you about her too, currently, she's needed for the case against this spirit along with Yukari, so I cannot judge them yet.?

?Thanks, I don't know what good it'll do me, but I kinda want to know what happens to her.?

?It's no surprise you do, really.? She stated.

Sikieiki turned away, ?Well, it is time I left now, things on my end are rather delicate, with what just happened and the damage that could have been done, events at the courts are quite busy. So until we meet again, take care, and remember that Yuka isn't suffering or anything, she's content if not a little irritated over the lack of a physical form to start any fights.?

Sikieiki began to walk away before vanishing, once more leaving me by myself.

I turned around and looked at the flower parasol again, ?Well, Yuka, I'm going now. See you around.?

From where I was, it barely took any more than a couple of minutes to reach the flower field which was still reduced slightly from the events earlier, although most of it was still intact, since it wasn't in Gensokyo at the time.

I was quite surprised to find that the portal to Mugenkan was still open, there was a feeling in the back of my mind that it would have vanished with Yuka, since it was originally created by her, but apparently not, and fortunately that meant I wasn't sleeping on a flower bed tonight.

It was beginning to get late now, and as one would expect, the effects of the battle were starting to take their toll and my mind was starting to slow down so I drifted into the portal and down the short path to the mansion, threw myself onto my bed and fell asleep almost instantly from exhaustion, talking to the others could wait a bit.

[Mima]

Epilogue ? Former Half

I woke up the next morning feeling empty, I slowly followed my usual routine which went by normally, just the lack of that someone else made it feel completely different. As I ate breakfast, I wondered if the fairies knew what had happened, they weren't visibly acting any different, but something told me they did, maybe my pessimism.

After sitting around uselessly for an hour or so, I decided it'd probably be better for me if I left, even if it was just to visit Yuka's grave.

As she was last night, Elly was nowhere to be seen as I walked down the, once again, short path to the portal.

The sun was shinning happily down on Gensokyo who probably for the most part, had no idea what happened last night, unfortunately, I wasn't one of those, blind to the truth, I had to live with it, and it was hurting.

As I approached the large crater that contained Yuka's parasol, I was somewhat surprised to see Mima was there.

?Morning.? I said, as I jumped in the crater and walked up to her and the grave marker.

?Oh! You're here. I was just about to come and find you.?

?Oh, right...? I answered weakly.

Mima sighed, ?How are you today??

?Alive, that's something I guess.? I mumbled.

Mima once again sighed, ?I know it's tough, but you gotta pull yourself together, you can't live like this forever, you know Yuka was my best friend, you know Murasaki was too, but we have to move on, the rest of the past we've left behind, we just need to leave this now, and continue with life.?

?It's just...? I tried to speak.

?I know... I know...? Mima spoke lightly, ?You've just got to accept it.?

I remained silent, I couldn't think of anything to say.

?Well, the other reason I wanted to see you... Gensokyo is slowly starting to learn what happened with the help of manipulating that Tengu slightly...? Mima spoke up again, ?As a result we're going to be holding a party at the shrine tonight, to celebrate our victory and to remember Yuka and Yukari, I want you to come if you can, for Yuka.?

?We'll see.? I mumbled again.

?Well, I'll leave you now, we hope you'll come later.? The spirit lifted off the ground and flew back in the direction of the shrine.

I looked at the flower in the centre of the crater, and immediately I felt even worse.

?I should go somewhere else, staying here isn't going to do me any good.? I muttered to myself, and flew out of the crater, ?But where to go??

With little idea at first, I headed in the general direction of the village, but as I few, I decided that a visit to the village wouldn't be a terrible idea.

Of course, the human village seemed to have no idea of what had happened, the villagers were up to their usual activities and Keine was at the school teaching, so I decided that I'd go and visit Akyu, if she didn't know already then she'd probably appreciate being told what happened.

At the residence, I knocked on the door, prompting Akyu to shout in her usual cheerful voice, ?Come in!? to which I did.

Inside, Akyu was at her usual spot, writing something down, as I walked in, she looked up, saw me and smiled, ?Hello Haru!?

?Hey there, Akyu.? I said, trying to hide my depression.

?What can I do for you today?? Akyu asked.

 I shrugged, ?Nothing really, just wandering around, thought I'd come to see how you are. What are you working on??

Akyu grinned enthusiastically, ?This? Oh, this is about the event that occurred yesterday. I don't know if you saw it or not.?

?Which event?? I questioned.

?You make it sound like there was more then one. I mean the fact Gensokyo got separated and no one could leave the village for the entire day.? Akyu grinned.

I sat down on a chair and lay back slightly, ?I'm afraid there's a bit more to the story then that.?

?What, really? Do you know about it??

I grinned, ?I hope you've got enough ink, since this story isn't exactly short.?

Time passed as I explained everything to an eager Akyu who noted down every detail, I told everything, Mima, Yuka and Yukari's past, the spirit, how the spirit was released and everything that happened in the last few days, as I got towards the end of my story, Akyu's expression darkened as she heard the less fortunate details.

?And so, when she died, she effectively carried the spirit with her to the afterlife, where it's harmless. We split up and went home, and that was it.?

Akyu jotted down the final words and looked up at me, ?Haru, forgive me for asking but... was that, is that all true??

?Every word.?

?I am so sorry.? Akyu apologised sympathetically. ?I had no idea, you must be-?

?Please, I'm trying to keep my mind off it.? I told her frankly.

?I... I understand.? She said quietly.

I stood up, ?I'll take my leave now, there's a party regarding yesterday's events soon and I'm expected to be there.?

?I understand, I'll try to come too, to pay my respects.? Akyu spoke up, seeing me stand.

?Alright then, I'll maybe see you later then.? I nodded as I headed to leave the house.

As I approached the door, a voice shouted out from the other side, ?Extra! Extra!? Followed by the door opening at a rapid speed, through the open doorway, as I expected, was the news reporter Aya Shameimaru.

?Secret fight for Gensokyo's fate revea... led.? Her enthusiastic and fast voice slowed down as she saw me, ?Oh, it's you.?

I spoke to her as I walked past her, ?No interview today, I'm not in the mood.?

As I continued to walk, I heard Aya make say some form of acknowledgement, and I went back to my state of wandering.

The couple of hours I had spent talking to Akyu combined with my late departure from Mugenkan meant that the sky was already losing it's light which I took as a signal to began to move over to the shrine sooner rather then later.

A slow walk through the forest blocking my way from the village to the shrine didn't help much to clear my head, every time I finally seemed to have cleared my head, the cloud of sorrow would descend once more, torturing me.

Without any haste, I ascended the hill up to the shrine, near the top, I turned around and looked around, observing Gensokyo, the land that was at so much risk.

I couldn't help but laugh slightly when I saw the part in the forest nearby which was bald of trees, stemming back to that fight that took place on my first arrival, possibly the first time I got to see the sheer power that Yuka had as she managed to hold off Suika who was wielding trees for weapons.

With a melancholic sigh, I turned around and continued up the short distance remaining between me and the shrine.

Once the shrine was in my view, I saw that there was already a small number of people there, around ten, I could see Reimu, Marisa and Mima were all grouped around the front of the shrine as they usually are, with the Scarlet Devil Mansion gang on one side, and Yuyuko and Youmu from the Netherworld currently hanging around the available food, nothing new there.

As I approached, feeling rather awkward by being by myself, I saw Marisa was waving at me as she noticed me, ?Hey Haru! Come here!?

Doing as she said, I slowly made my way over to them, Mima turned to me as I approached, ?Ah, you did come after all. I wondered if you would.?

?Yeah, I thought I ought to.? I commented.

?Well, help yourself to anything, I expect more people will begin to arrive soon.? Mima said, to which I replied with a nod.

Time passed, and as Mima predicted, more people began to arrive and live in a usual party fashion, eventually, almost everyone I had met in Gensokyo was here, as I sat by those I fought with, a question entered my head, ?Hey, Remilia, Kaguya, Yuyuko, do they know what happened to them??

?I wouldn't be too surprised if they did, if they were with anyone at the time, they'd certainly have known, but it's not like there's any effects from what happened to them.? Mima lectured.

The party went by, I did very little but drink the closest alcohol and watch the events going on, which weren't much of really.

Eventually, Mima stood up and called for attention, ?Hey, everyone! Shut up for a while!? Fortunately for Mima, pretty much everyone did so. ?Now, I'm taking a little guess you all know what this party is for, but let me...?

Mima went into her usual speech mode that she does during party's at the shrine and started talking about how we fought for Gensokyo and then got onto the issue of the two who lost their lives in the progress, one thing I did note was that Mima actually addressed her as Yukari and not Murasaki, but it's not like it made much difference.

As I expected, the shrine grounds went completely silent as the last part was mentioned and a lot of awkward stares took place, but I just couldn't seem to care any more.

Once her speech was over, the mood remained light and cheerful, if not a little less than what it was before.

Nothing else happened after that for another hour or so, it was getting quite late in the evening now, but you hardly noticed due to the bright lighting of the grounds, but what broke the tedious, uneventful pattern was the appearance of Sikieiki once again.

?Haru, could I speak with you?? She asked as she approached.

?Sure, why not.? I answered.

Sikieiki looked around and motioned down the shrine path, away from most of the party, ?Can we talk over there??

?I guess so.? I mumbled as I picked myself up for where I was sat, and walked after her.

?You probably know why I am here.? Sikieiki stated once we had gained a reasonable distance from the shrine.

?I have an idea.? I answered.

Sikieiki nodded, ?It's also the reason I'm late here, the trial for your... adversary just took place, her story was found, all of it.?

?You're going to tell me it?? I asked.

She nodded, ?I promised I would, if you want to hear it, that is.?

?Of course, I want to know what I was fighting.?

?Very well then.?

[Mima]

Epilogue ? Latter Half

The story begins roughly 1500 years ago, before Gensokyo, before Murasaki Hakurei, Mima and Haruka Kirisame were even born. The main events took place in a reasonably small town located in Japan, which isn't a surprise really. Now, the village was quite ordinary, the villagers worked to sustain themselves, while there was also a family there who were significantly richer then the rest of the village, they didn't quite own the village, but one would make that mistake, but either way, the family was respected, and got on well with the other villagers.

The friendliness between the rich and poor was signified no more then by a certain girl named Kikuri who was a member of the higher-up family, but that didn't stop her from spending most of her time with the other villagers, helping in their work and such and up until about the age of 19, life remained as that.

However, as with everything good, it comes to an end, and the horrible, unfortunate fate that fell upon Kikuri was an illness that attacked her sensory system, due to the slow rate in which is took effect, followed by the fact it only worsened caused the family to believe she was possessed by some sort of spirit, priests came and went without success and it was only through the family's riches that Kikuri was kept alive.

Kikuri was kept alive, but unable to do anything, even talk, so no one could know of the pain she suffered and of her wishes to remain alive, but despite spending over a year in that state, she remained stable and... sane, for the lack of a better word.

Suddenly, one day, against impossible odds, Kikuri somehow developed a power, even unknown to her until the moment that someone touched her, at that instance, her sight returned, she could breath easier, her senses were back and then something shocked her, she saw her deteriorated body in front of her and she reeled back in shock, and as she did so, her senses faded again, it didn't take her long to realise what just happened.

The maid who had just touched her seemed to not realise what happened just then, and shortly afterwards, she did exactly the same, this time, Kikuri kept herself in control, and kept a hand on her  body and alerted her family members.

As you'd expect, there was denial and doubt at first, but as Kikuri put forward more and more facts only she would know, the family finally recognised the truth and actually accepted it.

In a... rather unethical move, the family used their riches to hire another worker, whose fate was simply to be a puppet for Kikuri. Since the hosts never suffered and went under the effects of sleeping, Kikuri had some part of her life restored, she couldn't move around due to the physical link that needed to be maintained, but she could talk, she could take in sights and generally live again.

Time passed once more, and Kikuri eventually accepted her odd life, but once again, good things end, and sometimes human beings can do terrible things...

It was getting quite late one night, Kikuri's assistant had left for the night leaving her by herself just like any other evening when, without warning, Kikuri felt herself move violently suddenly, there were no similar things after that, but soon enough, she suddenly felt her mind numbing, her thoughts slowly fading away.

The blast of regaining her senses hit her as a maid, in a panic, grabbed her, and from that, Kikuri saw the cause behind her problems, an arrow protruding from her stomach, more clues made themselves known, a smashed window, screams, fire in the distance, it was a bandit attack.

Then, the major problem happened, Kikuri died, or rather her body did but since her soul was absent from her body, it was not carried away, instead the bonds that kept her to her body were broken, and she was able to move away from her body. That freedom for her was short-lived however, since as she ran outside, she witnessed the true barbaric acts that were going on and soon enough she was confronted by the raiders, and cut down, she finally suffered death.

But that wasn't the end, as her host's life expired, her soul uncontrollably left from the body and merged with another, she was cut down once more, and again, and again, and again, she suffered countless deaths that day, and not only that but they were also the deaths of those she loved and knew and even once that was over, her soul merged with the bandits and in belief it was a malicious entity, they ended up slaughtering each other.

On that day, Kikuri witnessed her life be destroyed and suffered well over a hundred deaths, she was left in the body of the final bandit, but the trauma was too much, it had broken her mind and she gained the view that she should destroy humans so that massacre would never repeat.

There were several reports of a couple of local villages being wiped out completely, caused by none-other then Kikuri, whose state was deteriorating with every death she went though, until one day, she was confronted.

It was a member of the Hakurei bloodline, who had been tracking down the magical being that had wiped out several villages, and after a rather short fight due to Kikuri's lack of offensive capabilities, her body died, but her trick didn't work to possess her opponent, instead, said adversary opened a gap in reality and trapped her spiritual form, her soul, inside there.

This also makes sense with a statement from Yukari, who was told not to open any gaps, of course, if a member of the Hakurei trapped the spirit in there, then such advice would definitely be passed down.

?

?I believe you know the rest of the story from there.? Sikieiki finished her story.

I nodded, ?I certainly do, a tale I won't be forgetting.?

?Well, as I mentioned, the trial is over for Kikuri and the verdict was passed down.? Sikieiki adjusted her hat.

I paused a moment before asking, ?What was it??

?She was excused from the sins she committed.?

?What!?? I practically shouted.

The judge closed her eyes, ?In the end, it was the right decision, theoretically, and closest to the truth, you could say that Kikuri died the moment her body did, when she lost her sanity, she had no control over herself, no conscience, she was just an insane killing machine. It wasn't a representation of her true personality, which was the loving, caring part of the story.?

?I... see...? I mumbled, ?So she's got away for Yuka's death??

?If you want to view it that way, then yes.? Sikieiki paused, speaking of which, her trial also took place today.?

?What, Yuka's?? I asked quickly.

The judge nodded, ?Yes, her significantly shorter trial was held while the decision for Kikuri's trial was being decided, at that same court.?

?And??

?The start of the trial didn't go so well, the other judges watched her human life and then 1300 years of her attacking various humans and youkai, and since she was mentally sound, it was by her own will that she resorted to such violence.? Sikieiki began talking once more, ?The judges did note that she got better as time passed, and rather quickly she mainly only attacked those who intruded in her territory?

?I kinda figured Yuka would be frowned upon for her eagerness to fight.? I smiled slightly.

?They then got to see the other parts of her life, which showed she wasn't a truly evil person, she befriended a number of people and even adopted and cared for a certain human turned youkai.? She smiled towards the end of the sentence.

?I wonder who that was?? I asked in a sarcastic manner.

?Of course, then the end came, Yuka's notable effort to fight for Gensokyo's fate, and not only that, when the end looked imminent, when loss was the only possible outcome, she threw herself against the odds and rescued not only those she cared for and loved, but also as a result, all of Gensokyo at the cost of her own life.?

I sighed, ?Yeah, I'm too familiar with that bit.?

?That point completely reversed the case, she was regarded a hero and commended by the judges, as was Yukari who was watching, even though Yuka tried to deny such a fact. Such acts are regarded as one of the greatest deeds you could do, to throw away one's own existance willingly to save another, but it was more then that, it was an entire world.?

?And what came after that??

Sikieiki  looked at me, ?In a strange, almost unseen turn of events, the top judges requested a private conversation with Yuka, which took place, followed by a talk with Yukari, which was especially unusual since it wasn't even her trial. But finally, after a reasonably long wait even after the two had returned, the judges re-entered the court and stated they were ready to announce Yuka's course of afterlife.?

?Well? What was it??

?Well, it was...? Sikieiki paused for a few seconds, which about killed me.

Someone tapped me on the back, causing me to turn around, and as I did I was jumped on by a head of green hair, and the flash of red clothing.

?Haru!? The person shouted, in such a familiar voice.

?An instant reincarnation of her choice.? Sikieiki finished.

I don't know about Kikuri in the story, but I think my mind just broke too.

?Did you miss me?? The youkai looked at me, it was her alright, maybe a year or two younger, but there was no mistaking it, and I couldn't really believe it, neither could the rest of the attendants at the party, due to the fact it was almost silent.

?Well, yes, of course!? I replied.

Yuka laughed, ?I bet you did.?

Sikieiki spoke up, ?She was quite modest really, she had the choice to be anything even a god and even own her own realm or world, but she insisted that she just wanted to restart the life she had as a youkai.?

Yuka grumbled, ?I can't even fly yet, so that means you've got to carry me for once, alright??

?Maybe.? I spoke.

?What do you mean 'maybe'!? You better well do it!? Yuka shouted at me, unable to hide her grin.

I grinned back, ?We'll see.?

Once again, Sikieiki interrupted, ?Of course, there's one more issue to attend to.?

?Huh? What?? I asked, while Yuka unwrapped her arms from around me, and instead just around one of my arms and clung onto me.

?Oh yeah.? Yuka remembered something. ?Almost forgot about it.?

Sikieiki frowned for a moment before she looked past us and shouted, ?Komachi! What are you doing helping yourself to alcohol while you're working!??

?Sorry... boss!? The shinigami shouted back between gulps of sake.

Sikieiki shouted back, ?Where is she!?? To that question, Komachi just shrugged, which caused the judge to get flustered and began to look around.

I couldn't help but look around too, and a few seconds later something caught my eye behind a tree behind Sikieiki. ?Huh? Who's that??

?Oh?? Sikieiki turned around and looked, ?Ah! There you are! Can you come here please and introduce yourself??

From behind the tree, a girl appeared, one that I couldn't recognise,  she had rather long sand-coloured hair and wearing a pair of glasses, her clothes were rather odd, they resembled simple robes at the top, but more like an elegant dress at the bottom, all a bright purple.

As she stood in front of me, I couldn't help but be puzzled, she didn't look so happy either, more scared than anything.

It's can't be Murasaki could it?

?I... I...?

This isn't going anywhere fast.

?I-I-I...?

I felt the urge to just sigh, but managed to resist.

?I... I'm Kikuri, please forgive me for what I did!? I begged in a tone that sounded close to tears.

What.

I couldn't deny that at that moment, I was stunned at the fact the merciless spirit I had fought the day before, that took Yuka's life, was now in front of me, begging for forgiveness, but then, Sikieiki said she wasn't herself, is she aware of what she did?

As my mind suddenly went into a boggle, Yuka spoke up, ?Of course he forgives you! Don't you!?

?Uh, yeah...? I found myself saying.

?T-thank you...? Kikuri murmured quietly.

Sikieiki spoke up yet again, ?It would turn out, that when Yuka was taken to talk with the judges, she was told of her reincarnation offer at that time, the thing that made it one hundred percent sure is that she insisted that Kikuri was also given the same opportunity since her life was stolen too.?

Yuka cut in and tried to cover the story, ?Nah, it's just that she's killed me twice now, so I want to be able to fight such a worthy opponent again.?

?I see.? I said, unsurprised at the willingness to fight.

?She'll be staying with us at Mugenkan.? Yuka announced.

I tried to map out the mansion in my mind, ?What, whereabouts??

?Have you gone dumb or something? She can stay in a house near Elly, it's my realm, remember??

?Oh yeah.? I mumbled.

?And so, that is it.? Sikieiki announced. ?Hopefully the events from all that time ago are fully over now.?

I stopped Sikieiki, ?Hold on a second, there's one more thing.?

?Oh?? The judge looked puzzled.

?What about Yukari?? I asked, since her fate hadn't been told yet.

Sikieiki nodded her head in realisation, ?Oh yes, well, she's right here now.?

?What? Really?? I asked, confused.

She smiled, ?Yes. Look over at Yuyuko.? I did so, ?See that large ghost flying suspiciously close to the sake? That's her.?

?Wait, she wasn't reincarnated?? I asked.

?She was offered it, but she refused It saying she had done enough in the last 1300 years and just wanted to relax and forget about it now.?

I nodded, ?I guess that's understandable.?

For the first time in a couple of days, a pleasant peaceful silence descended around me.

?Hey, Haru.? Yuka said, still beside me.

?Yea-? I was cut off as Yuka jumped and quickly kissed me.

She laughed afterwards, ?Ha! Got you!? Before she went to run away.

Let's try it, I'm sure Sikieiki will be nice enough to resurrect me if this backfires miserably.

I reached out and grabbed the fleeing flower youkai's arm and pulled her back, causing her to give a playful yelp and once she was in my grasp, I returned the kiss she just gave me.

?Don't get yourself killed again, alright? Things were horrible without you.? I said quietly with a smile.

?I don't plan on it.? She smiled back.

?Hey! Stop making out in front of my shrine, you lousy good-fer-nothing youkai!? A ever-so-slightly intoxicated Reimu yelled.

Yuka grinned her usual menacing grin and turned around, ?What's the matter, jealous because no one likes a grumpy, gold digging shrine maiden??

?Why you little...? Reimu jumped up, and a good number of seals appeared around her, ready to attack with.

Yuka laughed and ran, dragging me with her, ?Come on Haru! This party is for me, so let's make the most of it!?

As I was pulled away from the raging Shrine Maiden, it finally dawned on me that things were finally turning back to normal. Fine, Yuka was powerless for now, but I doubt that'd stay that way for long. Also, Yukari was gone, but also her need to watch over Gensokyo was gone, or more accurately, was now a youkai with renewed sanity. I hoped that finally all the trouble was over, but then again, knowing Gensokyo's nature even without Yukari, there would continue to be freak incidents caused by residents of Gensokyo somewhere, I just planned on not getting involved if possible and to just enjoy life again.

[Esifex]

This is an excellent story. I'm not going to bother embellishing my praise beyond that; it doesn't need anything as superfluous as rampant toe-kissing.

It's very refreshing to see Yuka given some characterization, and making the narrator such a humble person was the perfect touch. His wit when dealing with his predicaments with Yuka - especially when he could've just walked away at any time, early on - are entertaining enough. The only complaint has been raised already; the run-on sentences make the flow of conversation just a little bit tricky to follow. However, after having read it from the beginning, you start to pick up on it and it resumes a normal flow.

Final verdict? Not perfect, but definitely - definitely - worth devoting time to reading.

[Mima]

Here we go. RiG4. the title may change in the future and the first chapter isn't too long but who cares? The former prologue I posted on the old forums is now... retconned as such. It's now more of a preview since the plot is still very much the same as it told.

---

Reminiscence in Gensokyo

Chapter 1

Consciousness seeped into my mind, signalling the beginning of another day just like the thousands before it. Comfy where I lay, I was unwilling for move immediately or do anything at all for that matter.

As my mind began to work off the sleep, my senses began to become more functional. I opened my eyes and went to wipe them when something caught my attention; only one arm had reached my face.

What the hell?

It became clear that I had no feeling in my arm and that I couldn?t move it which made my mind begin to ponder the answer; simply because I was too lazy to roll my head to the side and actually look at my arm.

Did my arm get ripped off or something? I don?t recall any close calls with lasers or anything.

Finally, too curious to be lazy any longer I turned to my side and smiled as I saw the cause of my arm?s numbness. Where my arm disappeared from sight, there began a pile of pink cloth and also visible were a few loose strands of a light green hair. The fact the ?mystery? thing was moving gently to the rhythm of quiet breathing removed any doubt anyone would have.

Regardless, my arm was still trapped and it was beginning to get quite uncomfortable so I was given little choice but to gently prod the sleeping youkai whilst hoping that she wouldn?t get too mad at having her beloved slumber disturbed.

?Yuka?? Hey, Yuka??

Yuka grumbling unwillingly. ?Muh? eh?? Exhaling, she seemed to show no sign of moving.

?Come on, Yuka. You?re lying on my arm, can you? you know? not lie on it??

Grumbling again, Yuka sighed slightly and appeared weak as she picked herself up slowly, allowing me to grab my numb arm and pull it from under Yuka.

Falling to my side, I returned to lying on my back and decided to remain so for a while until I could move my arm again and as soon as I could, I?d be ready to get out of bed.

?Muh?? Yuka mumbled as she dropped back down. Somehow she had spun over and was now slumped over me with her head resting on my chest, pink nightcap practically poking me in the face.

I sighed. ?Oh come on Yuka. I want to get up.?

No response.

?Fine, be like that.?

Deciding there was no real rush, I lay my head back and decided that due to the unforeseen consequences, a bit more sleep wouldn?t be that bad of a thing.

?

?

A series of thuds accompanied by the sound of glass shattering caused me to stir from my light slumber. Fortunately it didn?t take me long to remember what had happened not long ago and when I looked I noticed there was a distinct lack of Yuka lying by me.

I should have guessed it was her making all the noise.

Unenthusiastically, I pulled myself up from the bed and leapt out into the space-like void that was Yuka?s bedroom. Thankfully, the invisible floor that exists stopped me from falling any further than I needed too, allowing me to watch the rather therapeutic scenes of the astrological surroundings as I headed to the door.

Leaving through the bedroom door, I was faced with the main hall of the Kazami Mansion. Looking over the balcony that was in front of me, I couldn?t see any sign of Yuka or anything else that could have caused the noise I heard a moment ago.

The mansion hadn?t really changed over the years, the walls and carpets were still almost-sickeningly bright and often were decorated with the square pattern that Yuka sported on her dresses. A few new rooms had magically appeared for storage purposes and other random uses but nothing majorly important. With its ever-present staff of fairy maids, the mansion continued to exist in a good condition as proven by a lone fairy that was cleaning one of the two large windows that overlooked the main hall. That window was also notably the most often broken window in the house due to a number of people using it as an entrance or exit and a breakage rate of what felt like once-a-week. I commend the fairies for their ability to replace them.

?Looking for me?? A voice spoke from behind me, causing me to jump slightly in surprise.

Turning around, I found myself face to face with an irritated looking Yuka Kazami.

?Ah, good morning Yuka.? I spoke in a cheerful tone in contrast to her expression.

Yuka sneered. ?Decided to wake up at last, have you??

?I woke up before you. But then you decided to fall asleep on me.? I corrected her.

?No excuses. Anyway, while you?ve been lying there doing nothing but sleep, that television decided to break.? Yuka was quick to change the topic to what was bugging her.

?Now, the question is? did it break by itself or was the sound I heard a moment ago the sound of you breaking it.? I continued to press the youkai, knowing her personality well by now.

?Both, it stopped working so I finished it off.? Yuka grinned slightly.

I sighed at her answer. ?So basically instead of leaving it alone with what could have been an easy-to-fix problem you caused even more damage and probably made it irrepairable??

?Sounds about right, Sherlock.?  The youkai replied, her voice heavy with sarcasm.

Nothing was said for a while with just the two of us staring at each other.

?What? Are you expecting me to try and fix it or something?? I complained.

Yuka turned to face the direction of the room that contained most of the electrical equipment looted from various parts of Gensokyo. ?It wouldn?t hurt, would it?? I could tell that she was grinning a grin that said she had planned this from the beginning. ?But make yourself look presentable first.?

Obviously she was referring to the fact I was still wearing the green pyjamas that were just the same as the ones that I wore when I first lived in the mansion and so with a nod I turned to walk in the opposite direction; to head to my old room and get changed.

[Esifex]

Oh my. You're not done with the storyline, yet?
I love you. Please, continue; I'm lookin forward to this.

[Mima]

Chapter 2

A quarter of an hour or so later, I plodded back to where I had spoken with Yuka earlier though this time I was wearing my usual garb. As always, I wore a long-sleeved white shirt covered by a short-sleeved blue jacket and trousers of the same colour. Thankfully, Yuka never tried to make me wear a cravat like she did a long time ago, the closest it would get is a yellow tie but that was only if she was in the mood to torment me. Of course, when you take into account the slight similarities in our outfits as well as the matching square pattern that Yuka is associated with; it does show us to be a team? or a couple depending on who you ask.

As I had expected, Yuka hadn?t waited around for me. Presuming she had gone to massacre the TV once more, I decided to head in that direction. During my short walk, I began to think back to the events that happened in the past. Some terrific and amazing things have happened and yet this year had been very? boring so far, for lack of a better word. Of course, the greatest thing about Gensokyo is the peacefulness and paradise-like nature but the yearly disasters helped to spice things up a bit and yet the latest event is far overdue.

The fun thing about disasters is that they?re ultimately more beneficial than destructive to the world, the disaster is easily resolved and the instigators slowly merge into everyday life in Gensokyo. There was one exception however, namely a certain event that claimed the life of Yuka and also of another, the guardian and creator of Gensokyo, Yukari Yakumo. Fortunately, through some unexpected heroism from Yuka, she was granted a second life by the Court of the Dead which would explain why I?m currently in this situation involving a broken television.

Of course, that event was a long, long thirty years ago now and since then so many things have changed. People have lived, died, reincarnated, transformed and who knows what else as a result of Gensokyo transitioning to its next generation and yet despite all that my life is very much the same life I lived before Yuka was killed and yet I wouldn?t change it for the world. As a youkai, thirty years is but a small fraction of my lifespan and yet such a boon also has its downsides; particularly that of interacting with humans. A close friend, Hieda no Akyu, a girl who literally lived to record the events and inhabitants of Gensokyo passed away many years back and at a terribly young age due to a deal she made to retain her memory between lives. I hope that she takes the advice Yuka gave her once and changes the deal with the Yamas so she can live a long, full live as she wanted. Maybe we?ll meet again one day.

A voice snapped me out of my thoughts. ?Are you going to just stand around brainlessly or do something useful??

?Oh, hi Yuka. I was just thinking about the past if you must know.? I mumbled.

?The past is done with, it can?t be changed. Stop worrying about it.? Yuka nagged at me momentarily before grabbed my collar and dragging me into the room she had emerged from; the room containing the problem device. It was almost amusing how little Yuka had changed despite dying and almost facing a complete reincarnation.

Instantly I found myself speaking when I saw the TV. ?There?s no chance in hell that I can fix that.?

It wasn?t an overstatement to say that Yuka had massacred the television, which was now sitting in roughly four parts, separated in ways that aren?t meant to happen. Although more capable of handling electronics than Yuka, the concept of repairing that was far beyond me.

?We?re going to have to find a replacement, maybe Kourindou has one. There?s possibly even a chance the Kappa got managed to make some working ones now.? I proposed.

Yuka sneered unhappily. ?How useless, I don?t even know why I keep you around.?

?Because despite pretending you don?t, you enjoy the companionship?? I grinned.

?Don?t be foolish.? She brushed the matter away. ?You do get some stupid ideas sometimes-?

Yuka was cut off by the sound of the mansion?s doorbell. One thing that had changed in Yuka is that she was far more open to visitors whether she?ll admit it or not. I even went as far as talking with the mansion?s gate guard, Elly about it and she agreed that she was allowing far more people to stop by. Also evidence supporting the theory is the fact that she?d allowed two additional people to live in this dream world named Mugenkan, one of them being myself, in the last half-century. Due to the increase in visitors, I suggested the idea of a doorbell to at least try and stop people entering as they please but that doesn?t work as much as you hope with Gensokyo?s residents.

The doorbell only rung out once before there was nothing but silence as the two of us waited. After half a minute I spoke up. ?Kikuri.?

?Yes, so it is. I wonder what she wants.? Yuka pondered out loud as she walked by, leaving the room.

Kikuri is the latest person to make Mugenkan her home. The terms in which we originally met were far from pleasant since it was her who killed Yuka thirty years ago, during her attempt to destroy all of mankind? or something; We never really knew what she was trying to do but she was ready to kill anyone in her way and the fact her powers let her control anyone, including Yukari Yakumo, only made it easier. When Yuka faced the Yamas she learnt the truth of Kikuri?s story; she was once a happy and kind girl from a rich family who lived in a village or small town, friendly to all and always willing to help those in need of it. As time progressed she developed a strange debilitating illness that left her paralysed and blind but that only caused her powers to develop and she was able to live through those who touched her. The story only got worse though; when bandits attacked the town she was slain by a stray arrow and her soul, which was currently in another?s body, anchored itself there only for her to be slain again, and again, and again. The hundreds of deaths she suffered as well as seeing those she loved killed warped her, turning her into the mass of hatred and evil that we fought.

Through means that I don?t know and probably only those in the underworld know, when her soul was forced into the underworld it seemed to have been cleansed and her former personality returned. When Yuka was told about it, she personally requested that Kikuri be given the same second chance at life as her, a request that was surprisingly granted. As a result, a few minutes after reuniting with Yuka, I was faced with the one who had killed her and nearly killed me.

For someone who nearly destroyed Gensokyo, the true Kikuri is incredibly shy and reserved and especially apologetic around Yuka and I. Yuka tells her to stop being like it and be herself but I think that?s just how she is. Either way, she?s an incredibly cautious person which is why the two of us knew it was her at the door; there was only one ring of the doorbell. Quite an odd thing to notice really? but what isn?t odd in Gensokyo?

Opening the front door, Yuka came face to face with a concerned looking Kikuri. With long, sand coloured hair that flowed down to her hips and elegant pinkish-purple clothing that resembled a mixture of a dress and some robes, Kikuri stood out from some of the most colourful characters I?ve met in Gensokyo. Sitting in front of her purple-pink eyes were a pair of round glasses that seemed almost out of place; I?m not even sure why she wears them other than the fact she was wearing them when we first met and as a youkai she won?t have bad eyesight to need them.

?Miss Kazami! Miss Kazami!? She cried out in a panicky tone.

?Call me Yuka.? The green haired youkai replied, saying that one line for what must be the millionth time now.

?Miss Yuka! You?ve got to come and see Gensokyo!? Kikuri continued to shout.

Yuka scratched her head. ?Why? What could possibly be going on that could interest me??

?It?s? It?s an incident!? Kikuri shouted once more.

A malicious smirk appeared on Yuka?s face, instantly wiping away any traces of her bad mood. ?I see.?

I was quick to jump into the conversation. ?Never mind, I?m sure the shrine maidens are fixing the problem right now. It?ll be solved soon.? I was lying, but it?s better than having Yuka drag me around to get shot at by the other residents of Gensokyo.

?That?s not true!? Kikuri yelled, having still not calmed down. I knew she was about to say what I didn?t want her to say, not that it mattered, I?m sure Yuka remembers all too well anyway. ?The shrine maidens are on holiday, remember??

I quickly tried to cover my tracks. ?Oh? Er, yes. How inconvenient.?

?Well then, there?s only one option left.? Yuka spoke up.

?We?ll have to resolve the incident!? Yuka and I said out simultaneously, my voice sounding a lot more depressed than hers.

?Y-you?re going to go out there?? Kikuri stammered.

Yuka?s grin only grew. ?Certainly. It?ll be fun. You?re coming too.?

?What!? I am?!? Kikuri physically jumped back in fright.

?Of course. It?ll be fine.? Yuka was set on doing this now. I wasn?t going to do anything to stop her since it?d just result in pain.

Reaching past me, Yuka grabbed her usual pink parasol from its rack and marched past Kikuri, out of the front door.

?Come along now, we have work to do.? She cheerfully spoke out as she walked away, leaving me and Kikuri to hesitantly follow.

As we walked, I silently cursed the timing of things, particularly the absence of the usual guardians of Gensokyo. All of them.

Reimu Yakumo, once called Reimu Hakurei, was one of the greatest shrine maidens to watch over Gensokyo. After the final battle with Kikuri, a dying Yukari asked her to take over her role as guardian of Gensokyo and so about fifteen years ago Reimu Hakurei magically disappeared and a new youkai with powers similar, if not beyond Yukari?s appeared. At first she tried to make people believe she was a separate entity but that was short lived and she eventually admitted she was the same Reimu. In her place as Shrine Maiden of the Hakurei Shrine was her daughter, Murasaki; which happened to be also Yukari?s human name.

The other shrine maiden that was around during Kikuri?s attack was a girl named Sanae Kotiya of the Moriya Shrine; she eventually had twins named Ishi and Misora who assisted Murasaki to protect Gensokyo. Personally I think that she utilised her ability to manipulate miracles to have the twins in order to keep both of the gods at the shrine happy and not fighting for possession all of the time.

Of course, with three shrine maidens, an extremely powerful youkai and also the Hakurei Shrine?s goddess and her pupil actively resolving incidents, you?d expect at least someone to be on call to take care of this incident? but this isn?t the case unfortunately. A few days ago, Reimu decided it would be a good idea to take all of them and herself on holiday to an unspecified location in the human world for a week or so and knowing Reimu?s laziness she?s not going to bother checking to see if anything is going wrong in Gensokyo.

?Will you stop daydreaming? What the hell is up with you today?!? I was snapped out of my brooding by Yuka who was nagging at me once again.

?I?m fine. I?m just? wondering in anticipation what fun and enjoyment we?ll encounter in Gensokyo.? I quietly laughed. ?That?s a point. You know Kikuri, what?s actually going on??

?I-I think you had better look for yourself.? She replied quietly.

Having already walked down on the pathway from the mansion, lined with endless fields of flowers either side and also past Elly?s house. We were now face to face with the portal. The single exit out of Mugenkan, allowing us into the main part of Gensokyo.

?Well then, no time like the present.? Yuka mused cheerfully as she calmly stepped through the portal.

Kikuri quickly followed her leaving me to manage a sigh before going through myself.

The problem with Gensokyo struck me straight away, a couple of times it took me a long time to realise an incident was going on but it definitely wasn?t the case this time.

Gensokyo was void of colour. Everything was black and white.

[Satori Komeiji]

great to see your back at it

[Dizzy H. "Muffin" Muffin]

Hmm. Interesting.

[Jana]

...I want to read this, but I left off at some point in the old forum... I'll stop by this weekend and see how far I can get.