August Star in Autumn Sky

Prologue

-Two months after the Palanquin Ship Incident-

Summer has almost come and passed… funny how time flies when you aren't even looking. It wouldn't be long before the color of the leaves changed and then the land would be draped in a blanket of purest white, such is the fleeting imperceptibility of time. So thought the woman with waist-length blonde hair as she walked the path leading up to a small, nondescript Buddhist temple, warding away the vicious sun with an ornate white parasol, festooned with many red ribbons.

She hadn't made it five steps within the temple grounds that someone stepped out barring her progress with a spear. She had short, orange-blonde hair with black stripes… not unlike a tiger as she saw it, and undoubtedly possessed a ferociousness to match. The visitor's lip curled into a bemused smile. "It's refreshing to see not all door guards are remiss in their duties."

"What business do you have here?" pressed the guard, not budging an inch, her yellow eyes betraying neither fear nor hesitation.

"Just come to offer my regards to your mistress," replied the visitor, who was suddenly reminded of someone in her own service.

"It's alright, Shou," a voice spoke up from behind the guard. "I've actually been expecting her."

"Lady Hijiri…!" The guard turned and began to protest but quickly backed down, lowering her weapon. Appearing from behind the guard was a woman with long wavy hair of usual coloration, beginning as a dark purple at the top of her head before receding to light dark brown toward the ends. A gentle smile graced her face as she spread her hands out before her in a welcoming gesture.

"Anyone is welcome to this temple, be they angel or demon they will be granted the protection of Vaisravana," she glanced at the guard, Shou Toramaru, after saying this. "Though I must confess I had expected a visit from either you or your familiar far earlier than this, Youkai of Boundaries."

"You know of me, then. Well, that saves me the trouble of introducing myself, so it all works out in the end" stated Yukari Yakumo with an air of indifference as she twirled her parasol around where it rested on her shoulder and did a little curtsy. "I have been somewhat… busy lately, otherwise I would have made it a point to visit sooner."

"Likewise, I would have sought you out had I not been preoccupied with setting in. You needn't worry," said the magician in monk's clothing, Byakuren Hijiri, in an assuring tone, "I have no intention or interest in upsetting the balance of power in this world, my only purpose to provide guidance and enlightemnt to those who have lost their way in the dark."

"Perhaps you can enlighten me, then." said Yukari. "Certain rumors abound of late and I understand you have the means to confirm or deny them."

"If you are referring to the recent happenings in Makai." Byakuren said, her brow furrowing slightly. "It would be best if we moved this discussion inside. I've already taken the precaution of placing a protective barrier around the temple." She led the way up a zigzagging flight of stone stairs up to the temple and pushed the screen door to the side.

Taking a folding fan from the folds of her dress and slicing it though the air, Yukari opened a rift, ten centimeters in length, restricted in space by a pair of red lace bows. It was into the shadowy, nebulous space within that she stowed away her parasol before slipping off her shoes and entering the temple.

"The ability to create and manipulate the very boundaries of reality at will," said Byakuren, who had been quietly observing Yukari's ability, her tone relaxed yet still formal. She supposed most people would have been left in stupefied awe or stunned with terror but such a feat, but she had seen plenty more disconcerting things in her time, she herself being one of them. "What a convenient, if not frightening power. Is it with this that you formed and now maintain the barrier surrounding Gensokyo?"

"Partly," Yukari corrected her, sitting down on a cushion before a long table as a velvet-haired girl in a white sailor's outfit appeared out of nowhere without a word and set a steaming cup of tea on the table in front of them and then vanished again. "The Hakurei formed the boundary, hence the name," Yukari continued, completely unfazed by the sudden appearance and disappearance of the girl. "I simply maintain the boundary... a rather menial task by comparison."

"I see…" Byakuren said, sounding somewhat disappointed as the girl reappeared and set another cup before her mistress. "Ah, thank you, Murasa…" she said to the girl before turning back to Yukari. "Is there any way the Hakurei could create another one of these barriers…?"

"There is but one surviving member, not nearly ready enough to perform the ritual." Yukari replied. "Though her potential is great she remains immature and… unmotivated. Why do you ask?"

"A pity…" Byakuren said sadly but not altogether surprised. "In answer to your question, Madam Yukari, you are aware that Hokkai, the area of Makai in which I was sealed, was but a sliver of the vastness that is that realm?"

Yukari nodded her head silently in assent.

"In breaking the seal that bound me to that realm, another seal was inadvertently damaged; as it is we who are responsible, my disciples and I have tried several times to repair it. However this task is simply beyond the scope of our power, and I fear it is only a matter of time before it breaks completely."

"Nearly half of Makai's military force has been mobilized… it's almost as if they are preparing for a war." Yukari said leaning forward, her voice dropping its usual nonchalant tone. "Some of the races of Gensokyo have expressed concerns that they are the spearhead of an invasion force… whatever could have been sealed that they be acting in such a way?"

Byakuren paused for a moment, taking a sip of tea before releasing a sigh and answering. "Something the denizens of Makai, Gensokyo, the Netherworld, Higan… even the outside world are unprepared to face. I can only pray that when the time comes, it will not be too late."

"Too late for what?"

"To weather out the storm," Hijiri said, setting her cup down and glancing out the window before casting her eyes downward with a sigh. "For this is but the calm before it."

Chapter 1 – The Uncertainty Principle

Running.

Running for dear life, through a narrow corridor of dense bamboo trees; she could see nothing on either side, but in the sky above the waxing moon hung ominously over her head like a half-closed eye watching on impassively… almost mockingly. Something was following her. She could hear it a few steps behind, the rustling of leaves, the scratching of the ground. An occasional voice piercing the silence of the night. A childlike giggling that sent a cold chill up her back. No matter how hard she ran, no matter how fast, it always managed to close the distance. It could have easily caught her whenever it desired but instead toyed with her, like a cat to a mouse. And yet still she dared not stop.

She felt something moist; hot breath on the back of her neck, and she could feel a pressure on her back, which turned her legs into lead bricks and made even lifting her feet off the ground an exercise in futility. Something roughly grabbed hold of her wrist and pulled her back; she flailed her arms reflexively, trying to shake it off, then-

Maribel Hearn's hand struck a plastic cup, half-full of tea, which had long since turned cold, knocking it over and spilling the reddish-brown contents all over her desk as the door behind her unlocked and swung inward. Blinking groggily, she observed as the red liquid gradually soaked into a stack of assorted documents and sketches. On the corner of her desk an alarm clock dutifully droned away, the blood red digital numbers on the front reading 14:30.

Amidst all this the door swinging open and someone enters; short black hair under a velvet fedora hat, a notebook with a host of pens slipped into the breast pocket of a white button-up shirt.

"Mary, you forgot to lock up again," she said closing the door behind her.

"Quick, towel!" was the most complete and intelligible sentence the awakened girl could form in the Japanese language, glancing back with a pleading look and lifting the dripping book over her desk.

The girl who had just come in dropped the plastic bags she was carrying and hurriedly opened the door to the lavatory to retrieve a handful of white cotton towels and handed then over.

"You fell asleep at you desk again?" she asked, arms crossed, watching Maribel mop up the spill. "That's got to be killer on your back."

Stepping over to the sink, Maribel wrung out the towel and rinsed it out thoroughly before draping it over a drying rod. "I don't even remember when I dozed off."

The dreams were becoming more vivid than ever. She could still feel where that hand had gripped her by the wrist, and that chilling giggle still haunted her like tiny pinpricks in the back of her mind. She shook her head as though the memories would fly out like moths.

"I was in a forest, Renko…" she said, switching off the alarm clock and sitting on the edge of her bed. "Bamboo trees taller than a building… and there was this path that seemed to carry on forever into the dark. Someone or... something was there." she paused, realizing my hands are shaking. "It all seemed so… familiar."

"Here…" Renko said, picking up one of the dropped bags and pulled from it a can of warm coffee and pressed it lightly against the side of Maribel's face, an action which made her jump slightly in surprise. "I picked this up at the convenience store, thought you might want it… couldn't find the usual kind. Sorry." disregarding her warning, Maribel took the can eagerly pulling the tab and tipped the contents it into her mouth. Her nose wrinkled at the bitter taste, far stronger than the kind she typically bought from the vending machines behind the dormitory. Ever the one to be prepared, Renko deftly removed the can from Maribel's hand and replaced the space it formerly occupied with her own. Taking a tentative sip, Maribel found this one, with a faint hint of vanilla flavoring, far more palatable.

"This isn't so bad is it?" Renko said, sitting down beside her friend, sipping from the can. "Though I still say a café is preferable in the long run… no matter how hard they try or how far technology advances they can never seem to lose that all-so subtle taste of aluminum."

"Coffee from an orbital café would be nice." Maribel smiled and wrapped her hands around the can feeling the warmth transfer to her cold palms. The season must be changing to fall… the air was becoming cooler and she could see the leaves outside her window were a beautiful shade of red…

"They're happening more frequently now aren't they?" Renko said, finally confronting the elephant in the room. "These dreams…"

"And more vivid, too… it's like I'm there. I can smell the air, feel the wind, hear the sounds around me." She shivered slightly. "And that presence, it's like a darkness that's reaching for me, trying to tear the life away from me."

"It's all right, Mary, it can't get to you now." Renko said, suddenly putting a hand over her friend's shoulder, and squeezed gently. "Would you like to cancel the club activities?"

Maribel turned to her and smiled. "It's not like I'm going to be afraid of the dark from now on. We're still going, just as scheduled."

Renko nodded, but something in Maribel's eyes betrayed the fears she would not give voice to.

The afternoon passed like a fleeting breeze on a hot day, nice while it lasts but over all too soon. The end of Maribel's last class was signaled by the sound of the professor stiffly shutting the cover of his book and the students chair's scraping the floor as they got up to shuffle out of the door. The sun was beginning its slow plunge towards the horizon, staining the clouds madder red.

Gathering her books and notes into a neat pile, she slipped them into the satchel on the floor next to her seat and picked it up as she stood, stretching her stiff limbs as people walked by with tired looks.

She passed through the door out of the classroom and into a hallway, down to a flight of stairs and then out a pair of double doors into the courtyard outside, where she waited on a stone bench. She was about to check the time on her cell phone display when she caught a figure racing down the cobblestone path out of the corner of her eye. Renko stopped just a little bit in front of her, her face flushed. Maribel waited for her to catch her breath before putting her phone away and said in a mock-reproachful tone.

"You are exactly one minute and thirty-two seconds late."

"I'm perfectly on time." Renko said, holding a bag containing bottled green tea and packaged onigiri from the university co-op store in one hand and flashing a peace sign with the other. It seemed she'd just come back from getting rations for the evening's expedition. "Still feeling up to it, Mary?"

"After listening to Professor Morita's monotone voice drone on about Queer Theory for half an hour?" Maribel replied, shaking her head and placing a reassuring hand on her friend's shoulder. "I could use a nice walk to stretch my legs out."

"In that case why don't we go to that one shrine?" Renko pulled a small notepad from her pocket and flipped it open. "The Hazama Shrine. It's not too far from here."

"Sounds good to me," Maribel said, picking up her armbag and slipped the strap over her shoulder while she watched Renko press on the keys on her cellphone as she sent a text message to someone. It was a habit she usually followed before embarking one of their expeditions.

They walked the stone path up to the campus gates and Maribel waited for Renko to unlock her bicycle before they passed through the gates and followed the narrow street left, looking back occasionally to make sure there weren't any cars coming up from behind them. Renko walked beside her bicycle while Maribel looked up at the darkening sky.

After a while trees began to line the roadside and the road itself became a steep incline and to the side of the road Maribel could make out a single toori gate, worn with age and neglect, marking the entrance to a shrine.

Sitting beneath one of the pillars was a small black cat cleaning one of its feet until it heard their approach, and it leapt into the underbrush without making so much as a sound. But before it vanished, Maribel saw something that made her stop and blink.

"Renko." She said, tugging on her friend's sleeve. "Did you see that?"

"See what?" Renko asked, bringing her bike to a stop and turning to her. There was hesitation in her voice

"The cat over there…" She pointed to where it had been sitting.

"Sorry," Renko frowned, peering toward where Maribel pointed. "I might have seen a shadow move, but nothing else."

"Oh," Maribel sighed quietly and shook her head. "Maybe it was my imagination." But even though she said that, she could not get it out her mind. That cat… before it jumped away she was sure she saw something that couldn't have been possible.

The cat had two tails.

Garnet Moonsong sat on a smooth, naturally polished stone near the edge of Misty Lake, watching the sunset with an air of growing unease. The fairies had been growing increasingly restless of late, and being a greater fairy herself, she could feel the changes that had been occurring better than perhaps anyone could. She could feel it in the movement of the air, as one whose domain was linked with the air; a child of nature as her kind was often described.

Thrice a bell tolled in the clock tower of the crimson mansion on the other side of the lake as the sun sank beneath the horizon, plunging the land of Gensokyo into a cold darkness lightened only by the countless stars and the pale glow of a half moon, reflected over the water's calm surface. The change came quickly; hundreds of tiny orbs, glowing with uncanny phosphorescence, lit up and danced lazily around her. It was a beautiful, if unearthly sight.

"Enjoy'n the view?"

Garnet looked up, pulled away from her reverie, as another fairy descended from the sky and landed on the water, which crystallized beneath her bare feet with a low cracking sound.

"Cirno…"

Garnet gave the other fairy a sidelong glance from her perch. Her short light blue hair, adorned with a plain green bow and her dark blue dress with its red ribbon suggested a certain simplicity about her, but behind her icy blue eyes the flames of passion burned. Her icicle-shaped wings beat excitedly on her back as she gazed upwards, hands placed firmly on her hips.

"Don't ye think it's a bit little dangerous ter be play'n out at night? All the other fairies've run off hide'n in that mansion."

"I know… they can all tell something bad is about to happen."

Cirno smirked and caught one of the glowing orbs on the end of her finger; it froze solid instantly and dropped into the lake with a hollow plop. "Then I'll be here teh protect yeh."

Garnet smiled. A lesser ice fairy protecting a greater fairy? Who would have thought? "Thank you, Cirno… but I've actually been thinking about going to the mansion as well," she saw Cirno's sneer and quickly added. "Not to hide; I'm going to find the sorcerer of the Voile library. She'll know why the air feels so dense of late."

Cirno thought over this for a moment before nodding. "In that case I'm go'n with yeh… but lemme get this straight, I ain't serv'n no one no tea or call'n no one 'm'lady'!"

Maribel walked the perimeter of the Hazama Shrine, flashlight in hand, casting its narrow band of light over anything that looked interesting, but aside from a few stone tablets with weathered engravings there was little worth taking notice of.

A series of audible shutter clicks informed her that Renko was taking another set of photos somewhere nearby. She shone her light in the direction of the sound, illuminating her fellow club member, who was holding the viewfinder of a high-tech looking camera to her eye. Renko looked up from the camera and waved.

"You getting hungry?" She asked, letting the camera hang by the strap around her neck.

"Maybe a little bit."

"Well I'm starving," Renko said, looking for the stump where she'd left the bag with their provisions. Upon finding it, she pulled out the bottled tea and tossed one of them to Maribel, who caught it awkwardly and opened it to take a brief sip while Renko unwrapped one of the onigiri.

"So… have you seen anything interesting?" Maribel asked screwing the cap back on her bottle.

"Won't know until the images have been processed," said Renko, after finishing her meal and washing it down with a mouthful of tea.

"I was just thinking... This spirit photography, or whatever it is, isn't really scientific, is it? Pseudo-science at best maybe. But not what I had in mind for a hard-broiled physicist.

"Hard-broiled?" Renko gave out a burst of laughter as she was drinking, nearly spewing some of her tea on the ground. "Ha! You think way too highly of us, Mary. Actually, scientists may be more superstitious than anyone else on Earth."

"How's that?" Maribel asked doubting.

"Well, as you learn more about the processes of the universe, more aberrations appear; for every question answered, two new mysteries take their place. Ours is an existence walking the borderline of certainty and doubt, theory and probability. By our reasoning, the existence of a multiverse is within the realm of possibility."

"Like fighting a hydra in the dark, huh." Maribel laughed to herself.

"What do you think about all of this, Mary?" Renko asked, glancing sidelong at her friend in the darkness, "I've got a hard time figuring you out sometimes. You're sort of a closed book."

Maribel was silent for a moment, looking down at the bottle in her hands. "Have you ever woken from a dream only to realize you are in another dream… a dream so real you could almost believe it was real. And then you begin to wonder… was the dream you woke up from really a dream? Am I the butterfly or am I Maribel Hearn…? I'm slipping Renko… every day feels like I'm getting pulled closer and closer to the dream."

"Mary… if there's one thing that scares me, it's the thought of you going somewhere I can't follow." After a long pause Renko took a deep breath and, grasping one of Maribel's hands she looked at her friend gravely. "There's… something I need to tell you. After I graduate, my parents want me to…"

She stopped in mid sentence, looking off at something over Maribel's shoulder. "Mary, what's that?"

"Huh…?" Maribel, taken aback by Renko's suddenly seriousness, glanced back at whatever Renko was seeing. Behind them, hanging in the air was what could only be described as an opening – a six-centimeter long crevice in the middle of the air through which an eerie light was pouring. "You can see that?"

"Yeah," Renko nodded slowly. "What, what is it?"

"I don't know." Maribel said, standing up. Slowly, cautiously she walked towards it, holding her hand out, bathed in the pale light. "It's… sort of beautiful, isn't it?"

"Mary, if you don't know what it is, maybe you shouldn't get too close to it." Renko tried to put a staying hand on Maribel's shoulder, but the other girl was drawn towards the light like a moth. Looking through the crevice all she could see was brilliant light… pulsing… formless. Somehow she could see the silhouette of a figure walk towards her, holding her hand out to reach hers.

For a moment Maribel wavered and began to draw back, but in that instant the shadowy hand reached forward, its fingers entwining with hers, and shortly before she slipped out of consciousness she could hear a voice speak two words into her ear.

It's time.

Everything was consumed by darkness. It felt as though she was falling.

The ground was cold and wet, and she could feel that the back of her dress had been thoroughly soaked. At first she simply tried breathing; a task that was harder than she had though at first, as that filled her lungs was dense and humid, mixed with a faint scent of smoke. Next she attempted to move each of her sore limbs, starting with the smallest digit and then moved down until she tried her legs. At last she opened her eyes and was greeted with the night sky filled with more stars than she could ever remembered seeing.

With the help of her arms, Maribel lifted herself gently to an upright position, wincing slightly as a dull pain coursed down the center of her back, and she took a good look at her surroundings. The shrine was gone… she was alone in a forest of bamboo, illuminated by pale moonlight.

Was this just another dream? It was so real and yet everything felt so unreal…

"Renko…?" She slowly pulled herself to her feet and began searching the immediate area for her friend. "Renko… where are you?"

She started down the path, regardless of not knowing where it would lead her. It was well-maintained and easy to follow, which led Maribel to believe that perhaps someone might be living nearby… maybe she could ask for help there, wherever there was.

With this in mind she trudged on determinedly despite her sore legs, calling out for Renko and staying mindful of her surroundings and a growling rising from the pit of her stomach. She had forgotten to eat lunch and the only thing she had eaten recently was one of the onigiri Renko had bought. From the corner of my eye she spied a light moving and jumped slightly, only to realize these were fireflies, no less than a hundred of them, dancing around her in the forest; eerie, yet strangely beautiful at the same time.

Absorbed by this light show around her she almost didn't hear the sound of a voice further down the path… something that sounded much like sobbing.

"Renko…?" She called out and hurried toward it as fast as her legs would allow.

What she found was not Renko but a young girl standing there sniffling, trying to wipe the tears from her eyes. She was surprised at first by her hair; short and golden blonde with a small red bow tied at the side, but she knelt down in front of her and mopped up her tears with the back of her hand.

"Are you lost?" Maribel asked at first in English. "Did you get separated from your parents?" But the girl simply looked up with a confused expression.

"Big Sister uses strange words," the girl said in Japanese between her sobbing, and this time it was Maribel's turn to be confused. "Rumia doesn't understand her at all!"

"Are you here all by yourself?" She rephrased her question in Japanese this time and the girl's eyes lit up with recognition. "Where are your mama and papa?"

"Rumia doesn't know," the girl said, moving slightly closer. "It's scary… Rumia can't find her way through the dark all alone."

"Actually, I'm looking for my friend, too," Maribel said. "There must be a house or something up ahead. Maybe if we go there we'll be able to find someone to help us."

"So… what Big Sis's saying is that… she's all alone too?" the girl said, taking another step closer. Something was wrong; a thick, impenetrable darkness was forming around the girl. It swirled and twisted around her like a cloud of black ink that had been spilled in the air.

"Yeah," Maribel replied, feeling a sudden chill up her back and took an involuntary step backward.

The girl stepped into a narrow band of moonlight and her eyes glowed red like softly burning embers as she cocked her head playfully to the side, her mouth distorted into a monstrously wide grin, revealing a pair of fangs crusted with dried blood.

"So, you're saying that no one's gonna come for you if you scream?"

Maribel couldn't even find the voice in her to scream – she stumbled backwards a while before finding her footing and broke into a full run, her heart pounding as though it were trying to escape, her legs screaming in protest but pushing on nonetheless. She could hear the girl's giggling voice several feet behind her.

"Is this a game of onigokko?" she asked in a cute, sing-song voice. Maribel didn't dare look back to see how far away she was. "Does that mean Rumia's the oni? Can she eat you if she catches you?"

"Wake up, wake up, wake up…" Maribel muttered to herself as she ran blindly through the pitch black darkness, towering stalks bamboo flashing past on either side. "None of this is real. It's just another dream. There's nothing to be afraid of!"

"Is that so~?"

A pair of glowing red eyes pierced the darkness mere inches from her face and Maribel felt a sickness in her stomach as she realized where the girl had been - floating upside down above her the entire time. She knew then that running was pointless, and yet she couldn't stop her legs from moving, spurred forward now by thoughts of being eaten alive. Small hands seized her, and she could feel the girl's hot breath, the wetness of her tongue, and the sharpness of her fangs as they scraped against the skin of her neck.

Maribel screamed, flailing her arms wildly and somehow she managed to knock the girl away, only to hear a giggle in the distance behind her and broke into song.

"Little lamb is lost in the woods, doesn't know where to run to~! Leave her alone and she'll run home, straight to the cooking fire!"

She saw a light up ahead; not light like the fireflies but firelight. The narrow corridor of trees widened into a clearing, and at the center of the clearing was a lone figure of what appeared to be a teenaged girl with waist-length hair sitting atop a pile of bound bamboo, carving a small piece of bamboo with a knife. Hearing the approaching footsteps she looked up from her woodwork and sighed.

"Can't you two keep it down?" she growled, throwing her tool into the ground blade-down. "It's already this late, y'know."

"You've got to get away from her! There's this little girl that's chasing, only she's not!" Maribel said urgently running towards the woodcutter. "I mean she is chasing me but she's not a girl! Not human!" As she came closer to the light she could see that the other girl's hair was silvery white and her eyes blood red. Maribel froze in her tracks. "And- and- you're…"

"Starting to get annoyed - you didn't think all that shouting wouldn't wake up half the youkai in this forest, did you? You don't put a lot of value on your own life, do you?" The girl glared at her. "Don't tell me you don't know the rules?"

"Rules?" asked Maribel helplessly, wishing any of this would start making sense.

"Tch, you're not from around her are you? Get behind me!" she said suddenly, grabbing Maribel by the wrist and pulled her behind her back before she could so much as form a response. "When the time comes, be sure you declare me as your second… don't ask questions just do it!"

"I don't even know your name!" Maribel cried.

"Mokou of Fujiwara!" the white-haired red-eyed girl said. "Now stay behind me if you don't feel like being the dinner of small-fry!"

"What-?" Maribel began to ask but Mokou hushed her with a harsh 'shh!'and narrowed her eyes with what might have been a sense of anticipation towards the path from which Maribel had just come.

"Talk later," she said bluntly. "Here it comes."

The blonde girl emerged giggling from the shadows of the bamboo trees, held aloft by a pair of black, smoke-like wings. "Ooh, Rumia doesn't remember ordering anything for desert." She said. "Not that she's complaining, Rumia was getting sick of rabbits every night."

"Doubt you could stomach me." Mokou said venomously, cracking her knuckles. "You'd just end up getting heartburn."

"Oh, is that so? Only one way to find out." she answered, rising higher into the air with arms outstretched, her eyes falling on the girl hiding behind Mokou. "But first… comes the entrée!"

The girl pulled something resembling a black playing card from one of her sleeves, held it high over her head. "Darkness Sign: Demarcation!"

There was a flash, and the card appeared to hover over the girl for a moment, spinning on one corner before vanishing into a black mist. Then the darkness came. A wall of black rose up around the clearing, forming a barrier one would undoubtedly become hopelessly lost in should they ever attempt to cross it.

"Say it now!" Mokou hissed down at Maribel.

"M-mokou of Fujiwara will be my second!" Maribel cried out, not knowing what was about to happen.

"Aw, why'd you have to go and ruin-"

Mokou didn't wait for her to finish. Reaching into her pockets with both hands, she pulled out a handful paper talismans like the kind Maribel saw all over Shinto shrines; the same kind Mokou had sewn into the fabric of her baggy red pants and tied into her silver tresses. Then, without matches, lighter or anything of the sort she set them ablaze and threw them towards the girl in a fanlike spread. The black-clad girl, small in stature, deftly maneuvered through the spaces between the flames and countered with a flurry of slashes from her claw-like fingernails, which Mokou avoided easily by leaning out of the way, then responded with a savage sweeping kick that sent the girl spiraling through the air.

"Moon Sign: Moonlight Beam!" the girl shouted while upside down, after managing to stop her chaotic spinning. Doing a 360-degree turn in midair to face Mokou, she materialized a myriad of glowing blue orbs around her which fired rays of dazzling white light that arced across the clearing, cutting through bamboo stalks as though they were nothing but paper. A pair of fiery wings erupted from Mokou's back, scorching the fabric of her shirt as she propelled herself into the air to avoid the rays, landed sideways against one of the taller trees, and then used it to catapult herself towards the girl.

Taking the fight to close quarters, all the blonde girl had to her advantage was her size to help her duck and weave though Mokou's relentless attacks, still laughing as though it were nothing but a fun game they were playing. "Old bat can't aim, can she~?" she sang gleefully.

"You're a determined little shit, I'll give you that!" Mokou said, holding her hands out, palms spread. Flames sparked and flickered around them and then flew out toward their mark, just barely grazing the girl but getting close enough to singe the fabric of her black dress. Mokou closed the distance once again, not letting up for a moment. Each swing of her arm and swipe of her leg was wreathed in flame, and as they clashed it appeared to be more like some kind of exuberant dance than any fight Maribel could imagine.

As sudden and inexplicably as it had appeared the wall of darkness around them shattered with a flash of light and decomposed into mist. Seeing this, the girl's eyes filled with a mix of frustration and disappointment.

"Looks like it's your loss," Mokou said holding a defensive stance with a pair of talismans in both hands. "You chose to follow the spellcard rules. Withdraw now, or answer to the shrine maiden later."

Open hearing this threat, the girl's expression almost immediately changed to one of abject terror and without uttering another word, she turned about in midair and vanished into the night sky, her black wings flapping soundlessly.

"Doubt that'll keep her at bay for very long," Mokou muttered. "Her kind lives for the hunt and little else." She turned around and slapped her hands to her sides, brushing away ash and soot. "Well, that was exciting and all, but I suppose you've got a lot of questions right about now. Something along the lines of 'where am I' or 'what was that' and 'oh my goodness, why did some cute little girl just try to eat me'?"

Maribel could only nod once, stiffly, her eyes fixed on the silver-haired girl.

"I'll start with the easiest and most obvious, and we should probably start walking, the gods only know what else might come looking for a midnight snack." Mokou said, walking around her camp to pick up a few things and put out the fire, which was already on its last legs. "Yeah, I can leave it like this overnight, no worries."

She led the way out of the clearing and back on the path, carrying a small pack on her back. "Okay, let me break it down for you now… you're not home anymore, you're not even in your own world. Welcome to Gensokyo."

Maribel looked up with a start. Gensokyo, the land written of in legends? A regular Shangri-La as some would put it. The world she had been striving to reach ever since she had entered college and not a minute after she had found it something was trying to make her its snack. She wanted to laugh but could quite find the nerve to do so.

"Youkai, ghosts, fairies, magicians, all those things 'n more live along aside humans. Not peacefully, mind you. Youkai hunt humans for food and humans hunt youkai to quell their numbers. You're one of the luckier ones."

"So that girl- was a youkai?"

"Yeah," Mokou shoved her hands in her pockets as she walked. "Must've had you figured as easy picking running 'round aimless like that. Who were you calling for anyways?"

"My friend, Renko" Maribel said. "She was right there with me when- Y-you don't think she was…?"

"Who knows," Mokou cut in with a dismissive wave of a hand. "Not every road leads to the same place. Either way, you need to get to the Hakurei maiden. She'll get you back to where you belong."

"Not without Renko!" Marbiel jumped in front of Mokou and stopped in her tracks, trying her best to look resolute.

Mokou looked at the girl before her with weary eyes.

"You've already cheated death once tonight, don't push it," she shoved Maribel aside and continued walking. A moment later she seemed to regret it and sighed, turning to face her, walking backwards with her hands in her pockets.

"Sorry. Not really good with new people. Or any people. Look, you've been through a lot. Get some rest. Sleeping outside is one thing for me, but for you it's another matter. There's a house up ahead, they'll probably let you stay there. We're," she paused, searching for the right word. "Acquainted."

With that said she turned back to the path and silently led the way ahead. Several minutes later Mokou looked back at her with a puzzled expression.

"We haven't met before somewhere, have we?"

"I don't think so." Maribel said uncertainly. "I think I'd remember, probably. My name is Maribel, by the way, I'm a university student. What- uh, who are you? What do you do here?"

"Me?" Mokou gave her a harsh laugh and an answer that sounded like it had been repeated before over a hundred times. "I'm just some health nut who owns a yakitori stand. Nice to meet you."