A/N: Thanks again to Achariyth1 for beta-reading this chapter as well. You work miracles. Hope you all enjoy this chapter.

Disclaimer: Touhou Project and all its affiliated characters are property of Team Shanghai Alice(ZUN).

Note: This fic contains lesbian/yuri/girl-on-girl/ content. If you are offended by such material I ask you to please stop reading here.

Part Two: Keine, Drumming Doubts

'What is love in history? Why, nothing more than an emotion used to permit atrocities.'

What history often tries too hard to do is uncover the truth. A task that some stubbornly refuse to acknowledge is impossible. Too many years have passed, anyone who knew what might have been real is dead. All we have left are tales, documents and books. Things too easily subject to change by the very beings that create them.

History is filled with lies. Of victors glorifying themselves whilst disparaging their defeated enemies. Everyone sings songs of hunters, valiantly defeating the savage lion. Yet when a lion kills a human it is called slaughter. Until lions have their own historians, the hunt will always glorify the hunters. Such is the truth of history.

The life of a yeoman is plain, far too ordinary and uninteresting to consider to write about and as such parts of history will always be lost. When last was the history of a man who was born in a village that no longer exists, who lived in a house that no longer exists, next to a field that no longer exists, who fell in love with a woman who no longer exists, raised a family that no longer exists, then died, told?

History often overlooks the little things, often overlooks a certain unexplainable, uncontrollable emotion.

Poetry, is oft closer to true history than documentation is. For poetry acknowledges and identifies this force and notes its mortal affliction on the entire world.

No-one knew the capriciousness of history better than I did. For within me I hold the power to change what was. I have the power to 'eat' history hiding and concealing it or morphing and creating it as I see fit. With such an ability the world is mine to make and fiddle with.

However as a historian there was no way I could ever do that! Nope. My powers were only to be used to help protect the village and those I care for. If I used it in any other case I'd be destroying everything I stand for. The revelation of the one true history is my goal.

With the help of persons such as Lady Akyuu, at the very least Gensokyo's history could be kept correct and to the fact. The Hieda family was a great help both in allowing me material for my lessons and for letting me often take home some books for my nightly reading material.

History fascinates me in a way I struggle to describe and I strive to spread this fascination of what once was in our world to others, to uncover the reality not the illusions. The chance of meeting someone who lived a thousand years ago willing to be my friend who experienced history first hand was one I absolutely could not let slip through my fingers.

I could never have known this fated meeting would bring me something far more irreplaceable than satisfaction for my curiosity, something history often overlooked.

Something a little like love.

'Of all the fires, love is the only inexhaustible one.' —Pablo Neruda

Mokou was always faster than me; I would never catch up with her.

You see, Mokou often tried too hard to hold herself back, trying to maintain some semblance of refined dignity, but, more often than Mokou would care to admit, she wavered and her impulsive, hot-headed self emerged. It was a charmingly childish side of her I'd come to love. As strange as it may sound, and I can't tell you why but… I liked it when she ran ahead of me. Watching her back as she ran, her purely white hair chasing after her in the wind of her motion was a view I never thought I would enjoy so much.

"Mokouuu!" I yelled after finally managing to ascend the shallow hill. I scampered off to her side looking around for the reason I was brought here. "What did you want to show me?" There was nothing all that impressive anywhere around here. There was just a single lifeless tree.

I got slightly ticked off for a moment. Had she really brought me all the way here for nothing? And I had a lot of work I needed to get through. Turning on my heels I huffed, both from lack of breath and irritation. My mouth opened, lips and tongues poised to form a word.

And then my lips shook and my tongue receded to the darkest recesses of my mouth. Like being hit in my gut the picture before me forced all the air from my lungs, leaving me inelegantly searching for the breath I needed to ask the question that was reverberating throughout and bouncing off the edges of my skull.

"Mokou, what's wrong?" The girl started, a look of shock and surprise on her face that resembled my own. Except from her eyes tears poured forth. They shone upon her pale cheeks, twinkling like stars. Surely, I thought to myself, her tears are the most beautiful I've ever seen. People when they cried were supposed to be ugly, tears were horrid and wretched things so when you cried you weren't supposed to look pretty.

But Mokou looked more resplendent than I had ever seen her before. Her cheeks reddened to cherubic perfection, rosy lips parted slightly and quivering, crimson eyes puffed up and deepened. Her glimmering tears appeared as if their progress might be halted by heavenly hands, fractions of centimeters before the earth, to be ushered up shepherded higher and higher into the sky to find a place amongst the billions of bright, eternal shining stars.

This is the first time I've seen Mokou cry, I realised. That was the most alarming thing of it all. As lovely a sight Mokou struck, my heart was tugged every time a tear fell from her cheeks. Mokou was crying since the first time I'd met her and I couldn't figure out why.

"I-I wanted to show you…T-to show you." There was a deep profound hurt I'd never heard in her voice as she stumbled over her words. When she turned to me and called my name in a pained voice, her sore eyes looking straight into mine, I felt an intensity of alarm tinged with crushing suffocation that overwhelmed all other sensations.

My instincts kicked in and as Mokou fell into my outstretched arms I welcomed her embrace. For reasons I had yet to know, the immortal girl in my arms cried, and cried and cried. In response I squeezed harder, and harder and harder. Soon amidst her shaking, mumbled words began to seep into her harsh sobs.

"T-tree…bloom…e-ever s-since I…"

I nodded and stroked her hair trying to piece together her broken speech. Into her ears, regardless of whether or not she could hear me I whispered sweet nothings, I kept my tone soft, my words smooth and slow. Calming.

"I-it's guh-gone. Thuh-the tree and it's always b-been here!" It didn't seem Mokou was consciously registering anything I or she said, but she was calming down and that's all that mattered. Her words were making more sense now and I was beginning to figure out the situation and the source of her sudden and radical outbreak.

Yet, just as everything was beginning to clear, a new storm appeared. Her tears became an uncontrollable torrent, flooding the contours of her face. This storm was fuelled by some renewed notion, some sudden realisation. Mokou wept and I lost track of the amount of times she repeated herself. Her fragile composure fractured into great, gulping sobs. For these moments she became so hysterical I wasn't sure she knew what she was saying.

Months from now when the words Mokou said that day played themselves over and over in my head, I would be certain that it wasn't her speaking, but a deep part of her subconscious.

"A-and soon, K-Keine's going to die and leave me all alone!"

Ah, I thought with sudden, monotonous clarity.

How obvious. I must be getting old. Energy drained from my limbs and I fell, bringing Mokou along with me, down to the earth. Peculiarly quiescent, I relaxed against the tree. I urged Mokou into my chest, hoping the deep, secure drumming of my heart would somehow reassure her that, at least for this moment, I was here, I was alive.

How many years do I have left? I wondered as the steady rhythm of my heart ingrained itself into Mokou's mind. I don't know much about my curse. I barely know any of the exact conditions of being a were-hakutaku. I will outlive several generations of humans…but I don't think I will outlive any pure youkai. How much longer will I live?

I unwound my arms from Mokou's willowy form. Her fingers curled into the folds of my dress as she sunk, sluggishly reposing herself upon my lap. Finally the well of tears within Mokou dried up, her sobs becoming hollow, her shaking shallow. Until with one last broken intake of breath, the sudden shower of rain ceased completely.

Looking down at this immortal human, the one who had carved an irreplaceable part in my heart, I shook my head.

Not long enough.

I looked away from Mokou, pondering at what best to say. I won't live forever. But Mokou will. And, if she does so will her memories of me, so will my history with her. If Mokou lives forever, so…will I.

And I really did believe that. Both this tree and I will one day only be memories to Mokou, but within her memories we'll both still exist. Alive and at our most beautiful moments, our wondrous history and a small part of ourselves will remain immortal within Mokou's heart.

I will live on forever in Mokou's heart.

I can't think of anything better.

Finding my answer I said: "Paint me a picture."

"What?"

I chuckled at that.

Smile, Mokou. Let's make sure the memories I leave you with are all happy ones.

'For you see, each day I love you more. Today more than yesterday and less than tomorrow.'

How did you tell the difference between one bamboo stalk and the other?

How did you tell which direction was north when the stalks were so tall they blotted out almost all of the sun's light?

How, once you strayed from the trodden, dilapidated path and you possessed the innate sense of direction akin to a rock, could you find your way back?

The answer to all three of those questions was: You can't.

I gazed into the distance, trying to scan through as much of the prison bar like stalks as I could for anything that bore the slightest resemblance to a path. When my search quickly proved fruitless I began to look for the colours red and white.

Lowering the basket I was carrying onto the earthen soil I stretched outwards and began to massage my stiff shoulders. I sighed, more in annoyance with myself than anything else. I'd managed to get lost once again within the labyrinthine forest of green poles and barely discernible trails.

Well, no worries. She'll be here eventually.

The simple fact kept my should-be-frantic heart calm. Beaming rays of sunlight flickered through the gaps of the forest to illuminate the world around me. Ambling my way towards a patch of enchanting light I inhaled the subtle, mellow scents of the earth. Magical daylight tickled my skin, permeating my body and soul, warming my heart like a benign caress.

I began to hum, low and mellifluous, letting the tranquility within me rumble throughout.

I let my thoughts flow, reflecting on a lot. I'd just finished getting some more books from Lady Akyuu so I had my evening reading planned out. School was off for a couple of weeks as well which meant I had even more time to relax… Oh, and there's that wedding too.

Thoughts of dinner occupied the spaces of my mind; I'd just received some vegetables, a bag of rice and meat from the villagers. That didn't leave for the widest variety of meal choices. I pondered what to make trying to keep in mind my other dinner guest. Perhaps I could ask Mokou to bring some red-bean paste. Then we could make manju!Also with the start of school break maybe we should celebrate a bit and have some beef teriyaki?

My mind became occupied in the pleasant imaginations of the dinner to come, filled with praise from Mokou and the charming image of the phoenix-like girl wolfing down any and all food I brought her. "She'll probably burn her tongue again, that airhead," I chided her aloud to the silence. Of course I did always serve her the food a little earlier and plenty hotter than normal, just so I could see wince and cutely stick out her tongue in that special way of hers. Not that I would ever admit to it out loud.

I wonder if Mokou's ever been to a wedding before. My throat continued to reverberate as I hummed and thought over all of this. When I think about it… huh, how strange… What I realised was I didn't really know all that much about Mokou, well more specifically her past. All I knew was that she was most likely part of a grand noble house, and was related to Kaguya through some happenstance thousands of years ago. She was an ordinary human in terms of lifespan and ability, but then one day, many, many years ago she drank the Hourai Elixir and became immortal.

She must have been so lonely… I'm glad we're friends now. A solitary existence, cut off from the world.

In that respect,t I believed that in a little way that's how Mokou and I were alike. What I didn't often acknowledge was that I was also lonely until I met her. Before her I didn't have anyone I could call a friend. The villagers were always nice to me, and I loved them. Yet, there was so much I couldn't talk about with them. So much I wanted to say and let out but if I talked to them about my problems it would only be seen as a sign of weakness, causing confusion and disquiet.

When I'd become cursed and everyone around me started to grow old, their skin becoming heavy and loose, bones brittle and stiff and their hair greyed to a dull sheen of colourlessness. Once that had happened I began to panic, I was terrified.

But the villagers calmed me, I loved them and so they loved me.

"You should be happy!" They all told me in a thousand different ways. Thus I was. I was given more time than I could have ever wished for, the chance to know all the history of Gensokyo and the power to protect them. At the time I was content.

I didn't know it then but a part of me had become hollow, decrepit from disuse. I'd become so attuned to my role as teacher and saviour that that was all I was. A protector from the darkness, a teacher of profound knowledge. An insurmountable distance had grown between myself and the villagers. And I just let it happen, or rather it was an inevitability I could never have stopped, even if I'd known.

The very fact that in my mind I called them 'the villagers' was proof of it! It was no longer my friends or the people I care about. Just the villagers. I loved them and they loved me. However they no longer understood me and what I was and I quickly discovered that I no longer understood them.

To them I had become a symbol, an icon. They no longer saw me as one of them and I no longer saw myself as one of them either. They were all my children in a way.

I'd lost the me that wasn't a teacher, the me that wasn't a protector. I'd lost the part of me that represented me as a person. I lost my own, personal idea of who I was, so affixed in the role I'd adopted. There was no my life, but Keine's life.

However, there came a night where in this very forest where I stumbled upon a lonesome girl. That girl was Mokou.

All the old parts of me I'd forgotten about were found by Mokou. They were gathered up, the aged, dusty, crumbling pieces I'd cast to the abyss. By themselves they were insignificant, but Mokou found them all, repaired them and built a pile next to the frozen portion of my heart. The pile grew from a dismal mass to a towering mountain.

With a click of her fingers, a shimmer of her smile, and a second of her laughter, a spark was formed which fell and ignited the pile. The hungry bonfire of who I was licked and spat at my heart in a wild fury, roaring its dissatisfaction, thawing out the dilapidated part of me. As the blaze reached a crescendo Mokou threw herself into the inferno. The flames erupted as if reborn, feeding off of the magmatic fuel that was Mokou. My heart was then not only thawed but kindled anew.

Once the fire died only ashes remained… but phoenixes rise from their ashes.

That was how Mokou changed me. That was how she transformed my lonely one-dimensional life into a wondrous spectacle in which every day brought out another part of me I'd never known I'd lost.

"Keine?" A voice intoned curiously, pulling me from my introspection. I turned, already upturning my lips. "I heard somebody humming so I thought I'd follow it and here you are. Did you get lost again?" She chuckled and stood with her hands on her hips, eyes twinkling.

"I was looking for you actually," I began to explain making my way towards the wicker basket of foodstuffs. "But yeah, I was following the path but then it just kind of vanished. I thought tonight we should eat at your place. I want to celebrate the starts of the holidays with a big feast." I held up the basket and shook it.

Mokou took in my words with an ever-growing grin on her face. "Sure. Ah, will you be staying the night?"

I nodded. "Probably."

Mokou scratched her cheek sheepishly, looking oddly bashful. "Well I haven't done much cleaning lately so my place is kind of a mess. Also Kaguya came over yesterday and we kind of got into another big fight and in the whole process all my spare futons were burnt so…"

"I don't mind sharing the futon with you, Mokou." A slight rush of exhilaration coursed through me as I said those words, warmth invaded the surface of my cheeks and the tips of my ears.

"Oh alright! Great. Good. Fantastic. Just needed to make sure you know, that you were okay and all with sleeping together," she laughed tensely, eluding direct eye-contact with me. Clearing her throat, Mokou yawned as if suddenly exhausted. Stretching and trying to maintain a semblance of cool indifference she said, "I'm cool with that. Doesn't bother me at all."

I turned my head and tittered in amusement at Mokou's flustered rambling. With sudden intensity Mokou thrust out her arm towards me, palm opened and tight in strain. "Let me carry the basket for you." I beamed at her and nodded, passing the parcel onto her. She gripped the basket and seemed to test its weight before nodding. "Let's go."

I thread my fingers together behind my back and followed Mokou's exact footsteps throwing my legs forward in an exaggerated swinging motion. Mokou shook her head in exasperation but the edges of her mouth betrayed her, curling up ever slightly.

We walked in comfortable silence, both listening to the genuine tunes of the forest, the wafting of the wind, the crunch of our feet on the soil and the tweets of birds taken to the sky. I maintained a steady distance from Mokou, always two strides directly behind. Again, I noted to myself. Again I'm watching her back, transfixed by the placid swaying of her alabaster hair.

A question presented itself to me in bold, gigantic letters and unable to resist the small piece of knowledge I might gain of Mokou, I asked it. "Has your hair always been white?"

Mokou pivoted on the balls of her feet so that she was facing me. She walked backwards with surprising efficiency keeping her eyes locked on me. "Hmm, nope. I was born with black hair, it wasn't long either. It used to be really short." She used one hand to show me where her hair used to be, just above her shoulders.

"So it became white? When was that?"

"Loooong ago," she emphasised the long part with her eyes and a dip of her head. "It was after I drank the Hourai elixir… Probably because I'm human my appearance was changed unlike Kaguya or Eirin. I've actually never given it much thought. I just got used to it, you know." Mokou shrugged nonchalantly, nodding her head in affirmation.

"I guess it being white feels more natural for you now." After all, she's lived far longer with her hair being the colour it is now than she had ever lived with it being black.

"Well it's better than if it had remained black. Then I'd look similar to Kaguya." She stuck out her tongue distastefully, clearly showing her displeasure at the thought. "Hmm… it does suit me though, doesn't it?" She asked with a wink and sly smile.

I was about to chuckle my reply when I noticed a sharp dip in the path ahead. I cried out to try and warn Mokou, who at the moment couldn't have possibly known of the impending disaster. Yet, with what appeared to be a completely unconscious effort the phoenix-girl hopped once, right over the dugout obstacle.

I was so flabbergasted by Mokou's stylish evasion that I then fell prey to the very hurdle of which I'd tried to warn her. Inertia kicked in as the ground I was walking on dipped and I stumbled, as elegantly as a cow. I flailed my arms like a frantic windmill but it was hopeless, I was already falling. I closed my eyes and prepared to hurt.

I should never have even worried.

Before I'd even fallen far forward Mokou was there. Our forms melded together as she encompassed me. "Woah, careful, clumsy." My head was nestled into the crook of Mokou's elfin neck, nose pressed against her ivory skin. She smelt slightly burnt, like the scorched logs of a reveling campfire.

"Th-thanks," I mumbled into her body. I closed my eyes, taking in the sweet sensations of the moment. "How did you know it was there?"

"What? The ditch?" I squeezed a yes, not wanting to change any of the dynamics of our current position. "I…uhm…just knew really. I know almost everything about this forest. I've been here a long time and I guess I just learnt everything about this place. It's partly why I became a guide."

I bit my lip, I wanted to know more about Mokou. Yet, I was afraid to bring up her past for more reasons than I could care to count. The curiosity however was like a wailing beast trapped inside a cage demanding sustenance, satiation.

I whispered into her ear, my voice trembling. "You know, Mokou…I didn't know it or maybe I did but never questioned why but I was lonely until I met you. Which makes me wonder…how your life must have been before you met me. When I met you, you were alone… I didn't want to think about it and so I never asked because I couldn't imagine what life must have felt like but I want, no I need to know. What was your life like before me? What did you do? Were you alone for all that time? You haven't always been alone…have you?"

For a moment…nothing, all I heard was the faint resounding drum of Mokou's heart against my ear. Then I felt her chest rise and Mokou exhaled a heavy sigh. "Jeez, Keine, what a depressing topic." I scowled at her words and immediately felt guilt for changing the mood so precipitously. Now look what I've done.

"Well let's see," she uttered whilst ruffling my hair. For the most part –and this came as quite a surprise to me, making me feel overly self-conscious – Mokou seemed completely unperturbed. We parted from our embrace and instantly my body became colder where it no longer touched Mokou. Scratching her head she considered what to say.

"It's all fuzzy and I don't remember much. Back then time kind of just…flowed and went on. To answer your one question though… yeah I was alone for the most part."

She shoved her hands into her pockets and gave a noncommittal shrug. "It was easier that way really. It freed me of a lot of unnecessary worries and allowed me to just go on. Before when I was living outside Gensokyo I was an anomaly. People who don't die at all are scary to most folks so I was ostracised and anyone I did manage to get close to just…withered away."

Mokou kicked her boots against the floor, sending a mix of dust and greenery into the air. That's when I realised her disinterest in the topic was just an act of false bravado. "Well anyway so trying to go about living normally just wasn't going to work so for two or I think three hundred years I just sort of wandered. Just drifting from place to place, never stopping or settling down. Trying to keep away from all the people who hated me."

"I must have circled Japan over a hundred times then. After that it was my wild stage." Mokou smirked however to me it looked almost like a grimace. Her expression quickly became one of regret. "You would not have liked me back then, Keine. I broke just about every law you can think of. I stole, I wrecked places, I fought over and over with humans and youkai. I was worse than the worst delinquent child you've ever had to deal with. I did anything just to keep myself entertained. I'm…not proud of the things I did then. I lost myself, the sight of who I was and had no image of what I wanted to be. All I wanted to do was stave off my boredom, I didn't really care how."

She looked at me and gave a hollow smile in an attempt to falsely reassure me. "Anyway that went on for another three hundred years or so until it was no longer fun and everything just got boring again."

"The next part of my life is the haziest. It's when I most regretted becoming an immortal. I thought that I was going to go insane from the boredom. There was nothing, no human or youkai that kept me entertained anymore. I just sort of… lived. I was like a parasite almost. Never doing or saying anything just feeding off of the land trying to get by, because that's all I could do. All I knew how to do was live. So eventually I appeared here, in Gensokyo. After hundreds of years I learnt that Kaguya was still alive. I didn't know what to feel initially but then I learnt she was also stuck in the same mess I was in and I was ecstatic. Someone was experiencing what I was feeling. Someone was suffering like I was."

"After that well you know the gist of it. We killed each other over and over. I don't expect you to understand, it was pointless for the most part but that's what we did." Mokou sighed emphatically, once again shaking her head. I racked at my brain trying to find something I could say that would express my apologies, reassurances and comforts.

"Thank you, Mokou. I can see how reluctant you are to talk about this, I'm sorry." I brushed my hair over an ear, providing her with a warm smile. "It sounds like it was tough, you're strong, Mokou."

In response to my words she brightened, her whole demeanour transforming from reticent and sombre to dizzying brightness. She beamed at me, the widest, most giddy stupid smile. "No need to worry, Keine. After all I've met you, and since then it's been the happiest time of my entire life!" She scratched the back of her head and laughed gracelessly, her laugh was filled with such a volume of mirth that I quickly became overwhelmed.

I began to sniffle and my lips trembled ardently. I must have made quite a comedic picture for most people but the face I made seemed to terrify Mokou.

"Ah! K-Keine, what's up? D-don't cry oh please I didn't want you to cry! That's why I never told you before. I knew you'd react this way." The panicked girl motioned towards me and started to desperately pat at my tears with her sleeve.

I cracked a shaky smile up at her. "No that's not it."

"And soon, Keine's going to die and leave me all alone!"

Those words that had haunted me since that day, replayed themselves for the thousandth time within my head. Mokou…

"Th-this is also the happiest I've ever been, Mokou. I love you! I love you, Mokou! Mokou, I love you!"

Three times.

Shock, confusion and an emotion I couldn't decipher flashed across her face. "K-Keine…"

I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.

Warm fingers slid across my cheek, tracing my tears to their source. Mokou tutted, settling on an expression of bemused pacification. Gazing solidly into me, her red eyes met mine and she pressed our foreheads together.

"Yes yes, Keine. I love you too." Her face erupted, mouth set once again into that stupidly eclectic grin of earlier. In fact it was bigger, as if the restraints tying her already impossibly wide smile had been removed. In her uniquely endearing, childish way she squealed, "I love you!"

No three words could have caused an equal amount of gratification… and anguish.

"No matter what has happened. No matter what you've done. No matter what you will do. I will always love you. I swear it."

The air was lightly tinged with the faint, rustic scents of wildfire. It was a common smell around Mokou who always smelt of burnt wood. Having lived in her little two-room cottage for as long as she had, the aroma had now seeped into the very foundations of the quaint building. The wood, tatami mats and paper doors all mingled with that distinctly ashy smell. After her latest scuffle with Kaguya, even more was charred and a lot was broken.

I sidestepped the mess of wooden debris, traversing the little gap from her front room – which seemed to have suffered the most damage – to the back. Perhaps it was part of Mokou's partially reclusive nature but her place was sparsely decorated and equipped with only enough to get by, cooking fire, pots, one bare wooden table, a vegetable garden and space to sleep. It was devoid of any luxuries and certainly came across as a cute, simple, humble home.

I'd just finished washing the dishes and came in to find Mokou splayed defencelessly across the floor, rubbing her belly in satisfaction. She was dozing softly and I was a little amazed at how little time it took her to get comfortable, or the fact that she could be comfortable at all in this mess. Just the very sight of all the tears in the paper, cracks and splinters in the wood and burn marks on the floor caused me to grow anxious, it was also extremely irksome.

"Come now, Mokou. Don't fall asleep on your own, and especially in such a sloppy position." I stood over her, leaning forward and casting my elongated shadow over her. "Jeez, at least let me lay the futon out before you doze off."

"Ah, sorry, sorry," she yawned stretching out her limbs like an awakening puppy. "It's just your food was so warm and delicious and I ate so much that I just felt really sleepy." She sat up, lazily eyeing at me.

I huffed and wiped the black ash which had collected at the back of her head. "How can you fall asleep in this mess, Mokou! We need to clean up. It's unhealthy for your body and your minds wellbeing!" I am a firm believer that healthy and organised surroundings are the creators of a healthy and organised mind. In short, if you lived in filth, you were filth.

"Come on let's just get the futon and sleep, I don't have the energy to clean right now."

"Absolutely not. We're not getting a wink of sleep until you at least clean up this room!" I put my arms under hers and heaved up her light form. I then gave her a moderate, yet firm push towards the largest heap of rubble. "Get rid of it."

Mokou gave me a look as if I'd just forced her to swallow a vat of her own bitter bile. "I almost want to throw you outside," she spat out gazing at me with incredulous slit eyes. I stared back, not backing down from the challenge. Realising that she'd lost, Mokou gave a deep, heavy sigh as if her soul were pouring out of her body and with hyperbolic ministrations got a hold of her broom and began to freshen up her place. I pretended I didn't notice that she was constantly muttering curses of indignation underneath her breath.

Meanwhile while the room was finally getting spruced up in the late evening by its neglectful owner I grabbed a pair of my sleeping clothes I always kept spare at Mokou's place and quickly shimmied into them. I threw my hair back over my shoulder and shouted a question to Mokou in the next room, "Hey where's the futon?"

"Top drawer, second cupboard on the left," she responded with barely restrained venom.

Humming unconcernedly to myself I found the aforementioned cupboard and procured from it the desired item. Even this is a little burnt! I noted in shock. Mokou…you're incredible. I trotted back into the room and stood back, impressed with the improved state of the room. "This is incredible, Mokou! Life could actually survive in here now!"

"Oh, keep quiet."

I giggled at Mokou's hostility, "I'm just teasing." I moved over towards the centre of the room where there was a reasonably clear spot of floor and began to lay out the futon. When I was done Mokou was completing the final bit of her cleaning, sweeping the mess out her door.

"There. I'm done. Happy now, Keine?"

"Yes. Doesn't your head feel so much clearer now that you're not surrounded by so much clutter?"

Mokou placed the broom back against the wall and shut slid close the paper door. "I s'pose…." She groaned, still vexed.

"You know you wouldn't have had to clean up all of that if you'd just controlled your temper and not fought Kaguya, Mokou. Honestly that's the part of you I just don't get. You're such a good person but whenever Kaguya's brought into the picture it's like a switch in your head goes off. What happened between you two?"

Mokou's response was to grunt and shrug. "I'm going to go change quick," she told me dodging my enquiry. I exhaled a hefty breath of air. Shaking my head I thought just how peculiar Mokou could be, her peculiarity was justified however. Yet that didn't stop it from being so intriguing. I burrowed underneath the futon pressing the shape of my head into the pillow as Mokou re-entered the room.

I smiled at her and pat the spot next to me on the futon where I'd already laid out her pillow. With stiff body movements Mokou made her way towards me and slipped into the futon beside me. "Sorry for the tight squeeze," she apologised as our bare knees scraped across one another.

"Not at all," I reassured her reaching out my fingertips as a test to see just how close Mokou's body was to mine. When before I had fully extended them I felt the brush of her smooth pyjamas, I realised, too close. Already I could feel the pulsating heat of her hot body. I tried to act as if this were natural for me. I mean we sleep on each other's laps all the time, but there was something different about this, it was the intimacy.

Trying to hide my embarrassment, I began to speak. "So you never answered my question."

Confusion flickered across her face, "What question?"

"When I asked what happened between you and Kaguya." It was apparent from her facial expression that she did not want to talk about this, especially just before bed.

"We are not talking about her just before I'm about to sleep. Absolutely not."

"But…"

"No but's, Keine. I've already made you cry once today, and I don't feel like talking about stupid things again."

"This isn't stupid though!" I complained, pushing myself up to rest on one arm. "This is important. I want to know why you two keep hurting each other and why you hate her so much. Look at what you did to your house! It was like a bomb went off and you act as if it's a normal occurrence, as if nothing weird happened! That's just abnormal, Mokou."

"Look even if I did explain it to you, you wouldn't understand."

"Then make me understand, Mokou. You always use that excuse. What won't I understand about it? Even if it's really complicated, or really stupid, can you at least make the attempt to make me understand? Can't you see I'm worried about you?" I extended my hand and tightened it around Mokou's.

"Why?" She asked, a look of absolute befuddlement on her face. With that question for the first time that I can remember since the day I first met her I felt I didn't and never would understand Mokou. No matter how hard I tried. "You know I can't die so what's the big deal? You've been really funny today, Keine. Getting lost in the forest, you've done it before but not recently. You know exactly how to get to my house. Then you were asking about my hair and my past, now all of this. Something's up."

Th-there's nothing going on. I haven't been funny." I tried to defend myself.

"A-and soon, K-Keine's going to die and leave me all alone!" The words echoed endlessly.

"You have been." She got up so that she was sitting on her knees, freeing her hand from mine. "To be honest with you, you've kind of been annoying, Keine. Forcing me to talk about things I don't want to talk about and do things I don't want to do. All this confrontation as well and you're whining over the stupidest things."

"All I'm doing is showing that I care for you! I j-just felt I needed to know more about you is all. I didn't mean to force you or sound like I was whining."

"Well that's what it felt like," she said shrugging nonchalantly.

"I told you I was just looking out for you! You're acting like a real spoilt brat." I scrunched up my fingers on the hem of my clothes. If it weren't for the added layer I'd probably be drawing blood.

"I'm not. I'm telling you that the thought is nice and all but you don't have to worry over me so much. You're just unnecessarily causing yourself stress. Hey, come on stop you're crying again." Mokou leaned forward, probably intending to touch me.

"Well of course I'm going to cry if you're going to be so insensitive!" I ripped the futon from Mokou in petty fury. I rolled it into a ball and then chucked it at her. "If you didn't want to talk about any of that stuff then you shouldn't have okay! I wouldn't have pushed you into doing it and you know it! And you're asking me why I care but isn't it obvious? I told you I loved you didn't I? That's why I care and it's why I don't want you to always fight with Kaguya! I don't want to see you hurt at all!"

That isn't all though, but how could I tell you the real reason. How could I tell you I'm so afraid of leaving you alone? That I want you to at least have someone with you. A constant in your life. Kaguya will always be around so maybe if you make friends with her then you won't… you won't have to be so alone when I die. I want to tell you that but I can't. Because if I do then won't it be like giving up on us? If we both acknowledge that fact then how can we live happily together!?

Those thoughts had been eating away at me ever since our talk in the forest. Perhaps that explained my radical behaviour. I tried to hide it, those bitter beliefs gnawing at my insides but I couldn't. It almost seemed as if all this happiness I was providing her would cause a multiplied degree of sadness when my inevitable end arrived.

"Keine…"

"You love me as well don't you? So surely you can understand not wanting to see someone you love in pain, not wanting to hear about them fighting all the time, not wanting them to be alone. And surely you'd want to know why they keep doing that to you. Why they keep making you sad and worry about them but they're so thick they don't even realise it!"

I wiped the salty tears from my cheeks, feeling a little ashamed at my outburst. "Come on, even an idiot can understand something like that…"

"Yeah. Even an idiot like me can understand that," Mokou said whilst wrapping the soft futon around my shivering form. Threading her hands through the folds she placed them atop mine. "I can be a real brick wall sometimes."

I nodded my agreement. "An absolute moron."

"I deserved that. I'm sorry. It's just I suppose today you…wait it sounds like I'm blaming you if I say that. Uhm… let's just say today I was reminded of times I'd rather forget and it kind of bugged me. So do you think maybe we can talk about Kaguya another time? She's a topic even I'm unsure of. Maybe when we're both not so high-strung we can talk about it?"

"Okay."

"Sorry again. I guess…I'm still getting used to this you know? And it's a little hard for me to adjust the way I think to include how others might actually be feeling about me. I'll get there." I nodded slowly, beginning to unwrap myself from the futon. Scratching the back of her head, Mokou sat cross-legged and yawned.

"You're really tired, huh?" I intoned, catching the contagion and yawning myself. I wiped at my eyes trying to remove the heaviness that was pressing down on them.

"Yeah, today's been more exciting than I'm used to."

"Well," I began to say, straightening out and repositioning the futon over us both. "Let's fix that." We lay down both facing the other. My eyes directed at Mokou's, hers looking into mine. I caught my red-tinged reflection and smiled bashfully.

"Just promise me one thing, Mokou."

"Sure, what is it?"

"Promise me you won't get in another fight with Kaguya, please no matter how much she annoys you. I want you to swear you won't ever fight her again. Okay?"

"Fine I promise… but only if you also promise me one thing," she said with an air of thoughtfulness around her. I nodded, beckoning her to continue. "Promise me you'll forgive me for tonight, and to be patient with me… Even if I'm being really, really stupid. Just, stay with me."

I was touched by her sincerity and guilt-ridden words, without any hesitation at all I was already nodding my agreement. "I've already forgiven you, Mokou. And you don't have to worry I'll stay with you forever."

"It's a deal then." She confirmed beaming at me. I beamed back at her, hiding behind the falsity of my little white lie.

Forever…

With that I closed my eyes and slept.

'If a thing loves, it is infinite.'

Or at least, I tried to. I turned and rolled over in an attempt to find slumber however the arms of Morpheus this night were prickly and unwelcoming. My mind was running at a frantic pace and there was no way to slow it down. After several minutes of my tossing and turning Mokou spoke up.

"Can't sleep?"

"Yeah," I replied.

"Too much stuff on your mind? Same here, even though my eyelids are so heavy my hearts beating really fast and I'm feeling all nervous and everything."

I laughed in agreement with her and our shared reasons for insomnia. "Mokou?"

"Yeah?"

"You're really old."

"Eh!" Her voice penetrated the veiled cloak of subtle silence. "Come on, Keine, don't start telling me that. I already felt embarrassed enough at my age and now you're telling me straight out that I'm old. I know I am, I don't need any reminding." She shifted her position with a sigh. "In terms of age though, Keine's like a baby to me. I should be calling you my itty-bitty little Keine-tan."

"If you call me that with such a grin in front of my class I'll never have their respect again. Also…You're the one who's itty-bitty."

"For some reason that feels like an attack of my pride. Or rather you've definitely wounded it."

"It's alright, don't worry. I think they're better small, I like them more that way."

"They're? What are you talking about now? I think we're on a different page here, you pervert."

"I'm not a pervert! I'm merely stating facts."

"Ahh of course, my little Keine-tan is still innocent. Let's hope she stays this way and doesn't become tainted by the impure!"

"Tainted by the impure? Who are you so rudely calling the impure?"

"Oh you know, old perverts, pubescent boys and whatnot that want to take advantage of your childish naïveté."

"My childish naïveté? That's quite something coming from someone as immature as you."

"I'm not immature, I just like to have fun. Immaturity and choosing not to be serious all the time are two different things, Keine. Which of course you'd know if you'd had all the experiences I've had in my long lifetime. Until you experience those things you're a child in my books. No matter how old and adult like you try to act."

"What kind of experiences are you talking about?"

"I think the very fact that I have to elaborate on that shows you just how right I am. You're not Keine-sensei but Keine-tan!"

"Or the very fact that you have to elaborate shows just how vague you're being. I think your brain fell asleep a long time ago ahead of your mouth. You've been speaking nonsense."

"Oh, ho, ho. Would you like for me to explain further then, my little innocent child? It's quite simple really my Keine-tan is inexperienced in cases of adult experiences."

Finally catching on, I blushed and felt like an idiot. "H-how would you know that!?"

"It's easy to see, Keine. Look how easily you're getting flustered. And you certainly haven't been able to develop a relationship that hasn't been platonic. Also even when a guy is trying to hit on you, all his hard thought innuendo goes flying over your head… Or are you telling me I'm wrong?"

I couldn't see it right now in the pitch black darkness but I knew it was there, a wide, obnoxious smirk plastered all over her face. "I-I'm not."

"Thus the pure maiden admitted her charmingly innocent naïveté. Well that's alright, Keine. I like you more that way."

Chewing on the tip of my thumb I found I had to ask: "…Does that mean you have experienced… those things?"

"Well," she shrugged. "I might have, I might not have."

"That's not an answer."

"Of course it is. There's the chance I have and the equal chance that I haven't. Of course I'm telling you you're still a child for having not experienced those sorts of things so if I haven't then I'm just being a hypocrite."

"So you have?"

"Does it really matter? I mean it certainly wouldn't be strange if I have. A thousand years is a lot of time, loneliness and boredom were constant adversaries of mine and it would have been like killing two birds with one stone. It would have been natural for me at a stage to have at least given it a try or two."

"Of course I could have also thought it would have been a waste of time. I might not have seen any point in participating in such an act with someone who will at some point or another, for one reason or another fade out of my life. I was also trying to avoid people at many points. The longer you haven't, the easier it is not too. So it's entirely possible I haven't."

There was a strange sort of cold anticipation gripping at my chest, like Mokou was going to say more. That she was going to clear the doubt the…frustration from my mind. Yet the silence stretched on with neither of us saying a word, even our breathing became reserved and soundless.

"I know I said I didn't want to talk anymore. But I felt it was only fair. "Do you think it matters, Keine? If you do, I can tell you."

"No," I whispered, trying to find more strength to nourish my voice. "It doesn't matter."

"Okay."

Slowly encroaching its way across the insubstantial gap between us Mokou's hand crept, edging nearer and nearer until now it embraced mine. Our fingers intertwined, I squeezed tightly, holding and feeling the undoubtable presence of Mokou. With wordless acceptance we both settled into our new position. The night's noises surrounded us.

"Thanks."

If you remember me, then I don't care if everyone else forgets me."

I should have seen it coming. It had been one of the worst days of my life, the entire day had been a forewarning, a chain of events portending a shocking finale. Of course I'd thought to myself as each little trouble was met: It can't get any worse than this. Such thoughts however would undoubtedly lead to a karmic rebalance in which each woe was soon overshadowed by the next, the universe's cruel sense of humour.

The nights rest had been less than satisfactory as had the previous night's been. I stayed up all night marking the children's latest test and preparing notes for the next lesson. I'd also spent time constructing a method in which I'd try to coax one of my latest children, a mute traumatised by youkai, to speak. It was my first time dealing with someone who'd lost their ability to speak due to trauma however I believed that the first word would be the hardest and that every word afterwards would require twice as little effort until eventually they were speaking like they'd used to.

I'd actually gotten the idea for it from another student one day when she had denoted to give me the silent treatment. It relied on getting the child excited so that they forgot their previous inhibitions. The thing was I knew most kids' buttons and how to get them excited, for this child I didn't and so slowly over the course of multiple sleepless nights I'd formulated a plan.

The basics of my plan were to hang up a series of numbers, one to ten, I'd point to one and ask: "What's this? Seven. What's this? One. What's this? Four." And so on. I'd get the child to point at each number and put some just out of her reach so that she'd have to jump to reach them, therefore increasing the fun. I'd start of slow then go faster and faster, increasing my pace and causing the child to jump even more frequently until I believed they were absorbed enough into it that when I asked: "What's this?" And stayed silent they would fill in for me and shout fervently, "Ten!"

As a test I'd asked Mokou to try it with strict instructions not to talk at all or she would not eat. The results were as I anticipated and Mokou went to bed on an empty stomach. I liked to think of this method as a sort of mental sleight of hand. With all of this planning I was very much awaiting the next day to test my ingenious method.

However on the morning of the worst day I'd fallen asleep over my desk, as it was still the rainy season the damp chill of the air. I woke up shivering, chilled to my bones and without being able to walk more than three steps without sneezing. I'd decided to soldier on and endure the sickness. Which I can now identify as a terrible idea.

With my hands clumsy and shaking, it took me several minutes to get dressed and the small breakfast I had prepared ended up being consumed by the ground. That was also when I first noticed the major ant infestation which had situated itself behind the kitchen window, oh and of course there was rot in the wood from the constant moisture.

Wanting to beat a hasty retreat and deal with housing problems later I exited the house forgetting to wear a shoe and only realising my mistake when my foot smashed a beautifully round and brilliantly pungent dog turd. There was also a cat stuck in a tree that no matter how I coerced it, refused to come down.

Now not to be late I rushed back and then to school, thus forgetting the tests I'd just marked and the numbers I'd planned to use on the mute girl. My morning started off horribly and it wasn't helped by the fact that the dog stink seemed to cling to me like a perfume. The kids had noticed my odour and were constantly mumbling, throwing glances back and forth noting my disheveled appearance.

This led to no-one wanting to listen to me and an uncalmable fervour possessed the children. They were impossible to quiet down, Kirin was pulling Shiina's hair threatening to cut it, two boys had gotten into a fight over a piece of stationary, the mute girl, Hanabi was being constantly harassed by an older girl and looked to be on the verge of tears. All the while I was coughing, wheezing, sneezing and disappointed in myself.

Any attempt I made to restore peace only caused chaos. When I grabbed Kirin and shouted she jump and reflexively snipped the scissors, causing a whole chunk of Shiina's chestnut twin-tail to be taken off. While I tried to calm Shiina who was screaming bloody murder and trying to prevent Kirin from gluing her hair back on, the tussling boys came over and knocked Kirin over who thus squirted glue into her own eyes.

In the resulting maelstrom in which I tried to juggle the very impossible task of scolding the boys and trying to quiet both girls I had of course forgotten about the unobtrusive Hanabi who was now a sobbing mess.

I sent all six children home early.

That was the first time I thought my day couldn't have gotten any worse, which it then of course did. At lunchtime – which I'd called half an hour early as the class was beginning to suffocate me – several children were playing by the river bank. The incessant rain had caused the river to rise and water to flow at a torrential pace. Too busy feeling sorry for myself and mind too occupied with thoughts of Mokou I never noticed until the kids began screaming in panic that Sora had gotten too close to the river and was now being swept away by the raging current.

The fear, panic and stressed caused by that situation almost killed me right then and there. I dived in and battled with the stormy river, Sora's head was constantly bobbing up and down gasping for breath whenever he was above water. I managed to grab hold of him and pull him out of the river. However my dress had torn and there was a large, bright red gash on Sora's leg. He was hyperventilating and there was a glossy sheen of blue on his hypothermic lips.

I called an early end to school and spent the afternoon with his parent nursing him until I felt he was in a stable condition. When my nerves had lessened somewhat I was approached by Eirin, who had helped tend the dying boy. With a motherly smile – which only heightened my feelings of embarrassment – she sent me back home as I was, "looking in worse shape than Sora." Which did in no way elevate my grim mood or improve my self-image, after all I looked worse than the kid who almost died.

On my way home, I fell in the trap of a certain icy fairies latest prank, leaving me bathing in mud like a pig. Naturally Aya was also there to commemorate my moment of grubbiness eternally on camera!

I went home and cleaned myself, removing the mud from my hair and underneath my nails.

When I went to do my shopping I ran into Suika. She was busy in her latest bout of intense alcoholism and stumbled her way towards me. Grinning briefly her face quickly turned a sickly green hue and she ended up puking all over me.

There was no more hot water when I got back home, I stank and took a cold bath. Now I really was sick.

That was the second time I thought my day wasn't going to get any worse. I wonder now if had perhaps not thought that and not thought of Mokou as the only solution to brightening my day, if that would have prevented what happened next.

I started on the all too familiar path that would lead me to her. Be it that some part of me already felt there was something amiss, or that I just wanted to hurriedly see her I walked at a brisker pace than usual. Most likely because of my brisk pace I missed the first signs of trouble, the uncanny silence, the heavy smoky air and the gloomy atmosphere.

Not to mention how occupied my thoughts were with Mokou. I'd been questioning myself over and over and the relationship that existed between us. Why did Mokou say the things she did on that night? Was she trying to tell me something? If so what? I'd been concerned over how she'd acted the things she said about me and of her past. I questioned on the happiness I was bringing and the hurt I would cause.

Back in reality there were no physical signs to show that anything was wrong, it was all sensory. Until I walked right into it, the devastation and destruction. Uprooted stalks sprawled all across the forest floor, craters littered my vision like zits upon a teenager's face, scorch marks, slashes of dark red and. The visual overload caused all the other information to only later reach my brain. Slowly the sound of weeping filtered into my brains. I turned to look at the source and began to run. Dread causing my stomach to sink like a rock in water.

No! She promised. Mokou promised me!

I found her drenched in her own blood, so thickly coated that her shirt had taken on a reddened shade and the entire fabric of it seemed to be congealed with the crimson life's liquid. There were no wounds, yet somehow I knew I'd missed her resurrection and the blood I was seeing was most definitely hers.

She was beating at the floor, smashing her fists into the ground uncaring of the nicks and cuts her hands suffered. Constantly pounding, pounding, pounding. Denting the ground with her rage. All the while she was crying, the rare occurrence once again shaking my world.

"Mokou! Mokou!" I lunged at her arms, stopping her self-mutilation. "Stop! Mokou stop it!"

Eyes trembling she looked up at me as if seeing a ghost, her mouth quivering in sorrow. "Keine?" Her voice was crackly like dried wood and grated against her throat. "Keine!" She enveloped me in a crushing hug and in what was becoming an all too often occurrence one of us began to comfort the other. The stink of blood wafted into my nose.

It was clear how tired she was, linking that information with her cracking voice it was easy to see she'd been crying for a long time. Unable to hold my disappointment back I asked, "Why, Mokou? Why? You promised."

"It's because Kaguya doesn't get it!" She roared right into my ear. "I tried to hold myself back like I've been doing for a long time now but she k-kept at it! I didn't want to fight her and she could see that! She doesn't get it, she likes being immortal! She loves it and I can't stand that!"

She dug her fingers painfully into my skin, her face sunk into my chest and she heaved exhaustedly. "She just doesn't understand. She thinks it's funny how much I hate this! She laughs at me for it! Can't she see how lucky she is? She has that rabbit with her; she always has Eirin with her. She always will and I have nobody! Nobody!"

"That's not true, Mokou. You have me." I said to her soothingly. Knowing full well that wasn't what she meant.

"Yeah but not forever…" She mumbled slowly, a sleepy drawl seeping into her words. "Why does she get to be so lucky? God I wish I was her, I wish… wish Keine… didn't have to…"

DIE.

"There, there." I comforted her in a shaky voice, as her eyelids fell closed and she collapsed from exhaustion. When I realised she was sleeping and that my breaking point had been reached on this most terrible of days, sick, irritated, exhausted, sad and stained I began to quietly sob.

Weeping softly to myself I cradled the sleeping immortal in my arms, pressing my face in her bloodied hair.

Weeping softly to myself I wiped the tears from her eyes, then wiped mine which had fallen onto her face as replacements.

Weeping softly to myself I briefly considered running away from all of this, from this pain and impossible love.

I don't ever want to leave you, to cause you hurt.

What can I do, Mokou?

'Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, love leaves a memory no one can steal.'

The sun's shine struggled to peak over the horizon, its insipid rays battling desperately to illuminate as it sunk ever deeper. I walked briskly, my feet carrying me onwards and my head was already planning what to say. Reaching my destination, I took a moment to reflect, breathing in deeply. Gripping the door, I slid it open.

"Oh, what a surprise seeing you here," Kaguya exclaimed looking past me to the hallway. "You didn't bring along that ungrateful miscreant did you?"

"No. She's at home resting."

The princess shrugged uninterestedly, continuing to bat her fan. This was not my first time meeting Kaguya, nor the first time I was at her home. Eirin and I generally had village matters that coincided quite frequently with her being the closest thing everyone had around to a doctor and me being a chief and educator. The Lunarian and I got along quite amiably, both complaining about the rough, brash natures of our associated immortals and working together when there was a need.

However the sole aim of my visits had never been Kaguya, during all other occasions I would merely express a greeting to Mokou's arch-rival before continuing on my way. All the knowledge I had of her was garnered either through a tea-time chat with Eirin or an enraged rant through Mokou. As such I could only base my opinions of the moon princess on what the two have told me, and as can be expected I often got two opposite sides of the coin.

"Eirin's over in the fields gathering herbs. You know where the fields are right? Should I call Tewi to escort you?"

"No, it's alright. I'm not here for Eirin. Today I'm here to talk to you." She raised an eyebrow in interest, and leaned back further into the cushions surrounding her.

"Well it's not something unexpected. I assumed sooner or later you'd want to talk to me about her. She's not a terribly interesting topic, in fact she's rather bland, but I've got nothing better to do. What do you want to say?"

The apathetic tone of her voice and her dispassionate approach towards me was something of a turn off for. That and the fact that I was her guest and she had yet to offer me a seat showed me the sense of self-righteousness I'd picked up from my conversations about her.

I got down on my knees and with as much respect as I could muster I placed my hands down before her, bowing entreatingly. "Please can you stop fighting with Mokou and become her friend!" I pleaded raising my voice in desperation.

Whilst carrying the comatose form of Mokou home I considered what I could do next and the one option that presented itself most pressingly to me was to find Mokou an immortal that she could befriend. Eirin and Kaguya were the only two that fit the criteria and while I was sure Eirin wouldn't really mind it was Kaguya I needed to convince. I needed to make sure she would stop trying to fight Mokou and instead make peace with her.

"Please! You and Eirin are the only two people like Mokou and I need you to become her friend!" I repeated my request, raising my voice even higher to assure Kaguya of the seriousness of my wish. I kept my face down waiting for a reply and the one that eventually graced my ears was of breathless laughter.

I looked up to see her covering her lips with her fan and body juddering in restrained laughter. I waited patiently attempting to quell my rage. Eventually she stopped trying to restrain herself and sniggered outright.

"That's exactly what I expected you to say, but it's still so much funnier hearing it come from your mouth." She told me with an unnerving change of demeanour, already reverting back to her previous state of what seemed to be perpetual ennui. She flicked open and closed the fan in her hands with an aggravating clack. The way in which she repeated the constant motion reminded me of the way kids would do similar things when bored.

"Why not?" I shot at her. "Why won't you try and become friends with Mokou? Can't you see she's lonely, why do you continue to make her life miserable? Can't you just stop the fighting? It's been hundreds of years already! Surely there's no more enjoyment to be found in it! Surely it's just a bother now!"

Kaguya sat back, looking completely unbothered by my aggravation. She patiently waited for me to finish speaking before saying, "Have you conversed with her over this matter? I doubt that she would condone what you're attempting to do. She despises me, not that I mind the feelings mutual."

"Look, Kaguya. I know that Mokou would probably shout my head off if she knew I were here talking with you about this, but can you please try and see things from my point of view? Mokou's unhappy, she's unhappy with her immortality and I think that what she needs is a constant presence in her life. Like you, only it has to be a positive one. Not one as negative and destructive as it is now. She needs a constant positive presence and only you can do that!"

She smirked haughtily, "That's such a boring solution, don't you think? Tell me what do I gain from this arrangement? I have no desire to associate myself with the girl outside of our fighting. I will begrudgingly admit that our fights are the most entertainment I get around to these days, why would I want to stop that?"

"Stop calling Mokou 'her', or 'girl'. Her name is Mokou!"

"I'm well aware of what she calls herself. I've known her far longer than you have. I know more about her than you think. I just don't see a reason why I have to identify her; we both know who we're talking about."

Biting my lip I held back the angered retort I would have shot back. If I wanted this to work I had to remain pleasant and unbothered. "If you know so much about her then why won't you help her, I think you pretend to know what she's going through but in reality you have no idea. Mokou said it herself you don't understand! You always have Eirin with you and always will, you don't understand the loneliness she feels…the…the…you never see what she's like outside of your fighting."

"This is what annoys me most about you mortals. You take one look at us and what we are and assume you know all about us, the way we think, what we feel and what we need." She stood up, the folds of her splendid yukata pooling at her feet. With refined grace she motioned across the room to stand at window, gazing out at the orange painted sky.

With the way the light hit her I became entranced at her beauty, the shocking pure white of her skin, the dark, lightless shade of her raven hair which cascaded down her back and past her butt in straight, lustrous excellence. It now really seemed as if she were a princess come right out of a fairy-tale.

"You don't know us. Mokou hated it at the beginning of course because of the loneliness. However, later, much later there arises a much larger problem than loneliness. One Eirin and especially I discovered quite early on. Temporarily that problem has been fixed for Mokou, thus she latches on to the isolation but that's not the real problem here."

"You misunderstand my role in her life. You say you want me to help but I've already helped her, far more than you have. Tell me, Keine, you seem to think you understand us immortals. What do you think the biggest problem we face is?"

"I…uh…well…" I stuttered, falling over my words and failing to construct my thoughts into sentences. In a timespan less than a minute Kaguya had managed to take any understanding I believed I had of immortals and made me doubt it all. Unable to produce a satisfactory answer I only shook my head.

"Well, let me tell you then," she announced with a final clack of her fan. "It's boredom. Boredom, the loneliness soon fades until you barely recognise it. After that the problem is how to keep yourself entertained. How do you go about having fun? Everything becomes old very quickly."

"It's the boredom, not the loneliness that drives you insane. I've been battling with bouts of constant boredom for a millennia now, lately though it hasn't been so bad. The outside world has invented something called video games. Have you played any? They're really quite something but you look like the old, classical type. You seem like you would rather stay up reading dusty old books in candle light. Which is quite sad really, videogames are so much more fast-paced, challenging and fun, and just as you've finished the one two more have already come out. It's fantastic. Eirin sometimes refuses to go out and buy them for me; she thinks they're bad for my image."

"Can you imagine it though? Some of them called RPG's are even like interactive books, but where you can decide the course of the story. It's phenomenal! Doesn't it sound magnificent? That's the one area where humans beat Lunarians, their innovation for lucrative entertainment. There's this one specific game, a bullet hell called Tou―"

"Kaguya." I spoke in a very brisk tone, trying to derail the current conversation and bring it back on topic.

"Right, well an amusing distraction, but this too shall pass. More on us immortals, AS I said earlier. The boredom not the loneliness drives you insane. Without something to keep you entertained, a goal or drive in your life you have nothing. Take it from someone who's experienced it first-hand."

"Do you know what she was like when I found her? She was barely recognizable as human. It was a pitying sight and so I decided to intervene. It was sad to see someone reduced to the state that she was, I'll spare you the grisly details as you seem soft-hearted but believe me she was one of the worst things I've seen in my thousand years alive."

"She attacked me, do you know that? In fact in every fight we've ever had she's always the one to throw the first punch. I simply respond. We fought for days the first time round, killing and dying countless times over. The bit of earth we were fighting on became unrecognisable and do you know what Mokou did at the end of it all? She laughed, hysterically. It went on for ages her laughter, she seemed half-mad at that point to me. Racketing, full-body uncontrollable laughter. When I left she was still laughing. And the very next day she came to me again and we fought again, as well as the day after that and all days following."

"I managed to have fun as well so I didn't entirely mind and I figured I'd help give the poor girl some sort of entertainment in her life. She needed that more than anything, more than a pet, a friend, a lover. She needed to cut loose and have some genuine fun and so I provided for her."

"Only after we started fighting did she start to become who she is now, she built a house, self-proclaimed herself a guide of the bamboo-forest and began to justify to herself, and to you I believe why she fought me. Hatred for me refusing her father, hatred and blame at me for being the one to send her father off on an impossible task that he never returned from, hatred because I was the one who ruined her life. That's what she says, but it's not the truth. The truth is she was bored and wanted to have some fun."

"Do you understand now, Keine. What it is I did for that girl? The taste is bitter in my mouth when I say this but I saved her. I rescued her from her greatest immortal dilemma." Sighing deeply, she placed the paper fan down and turned to look at me with an almost pitying expression.

Unable to think of anything else to say and still trying to process all of the information I astutely remarked: "I… don't know what to say."

Kaguya rolled her eyes and walked back to the pillows she was lying on earlier. My legs were throbbing from the uncomfortable position I had remained in and so I repositioned them to give them more air. "A simple thank you would suffice."

"…thank you."

"I have to say I feel sorrier for you than I do for Mokou. Look at what she's done now, making someone as kind and lovely as you fall for someone like her."

"E-Excuse me?" I blustered out.

This seemed to amuse Kaguya whose lips began to creep into a wide leering grin, "You really are as cute as Eirin says. She was right, you don't even realise it yourself."

"I…uhm…" I articulated, trying to prevent the blush from rising onto my face. All the while Kaguya was giggling.

"How old are you? You look old enough to be able to recognise when you're in love with someone. Or is this your first time being in love? How adorable you are."

The demeaning tone she used on me, one similar to the one I reserved for speaking with toddlers served to rile me up. "I-I'm not! I mean this isn't…" I spoke, Kaguya quirked her brow in persistence, trying to edge me on to some sort of epiphany.

"I won't spend my time teasing you, you'll come to your own realisation when the time's right. The sooner the better for you both, after all you only have a limited amount of time to be together." She fell back down into her cushions, nestling herself back into the multitude of fluffy, soft-looking pillows. She cast a sidelong glance at the door. "It's getting late and I have plans with Eirin. So, because I like you I'll help you out a little bit."

I grit my teeth, my inflamed cheeks were making me hot and uncomfortable. As much as I now just wanted to leave I couldn't until I'd at least achieved something. "What is it?"

"I'll give you some advice. Forget everything you think is good for her, at this stage I think the only person that knows what's good for her is herself. You came here today because you were worrying about what would happen to her after you died, and I'll be honest with you. She'll probably forget you. This is forever we're talking about, I don't know how important you think you are to her but I guarantee that after a hundred, two hundred year max she won't even be able to recall your face, your voice, or anything about you."

"She'll change and adapt to living life without you, it's what she does. I know no-one wants to accept something like that, accept the fact that they'll just fade into obscurity but the truth is often the hardest to swallow. So don't even give the future a thought, it'll only depress you and cause unnecessary stress. As I'm sure it's been doing lately."

I remained silent but felt my muscles tense in objection, what she said was and true I found myself actively rejecting what she was saying. Parts of me screamed at me to protest to and say otherwise, but a smaller voice inside me whispered, listen, listen, you don't know anything. You never have, she's right, listen, listen.

"Right now the only thing you should be thinking of is the present. What you can do for her now, what you can do for both of you that's going to make you happy. I know it bothers you so I'll stop picking fights with her, but if she comes looking to me for trouble I'm not going to hold myself back, and I certainly won't become her friend. But for the time being, while you're alive I'll step back and let you have her. So don't hold back."

"Excuse me." A voice quickly interjected as the paper door slid open. Into the room came Eirin donned in her typical red and blue cloth. She turned to look at Kaguya and frowned. "I'm sorry about this, Keine, but Kaguya loves to talk."

"Ohh, and how long have you been eavesdropping on us, Eirin?" The princess tittered, straightening her posture by the slightest amount.

"Long enough to know how overwhelmed Keine must be hearing you speak so cynically," the Lunarian shook her head at Kaguya and turned to me, smiling regretfully at my bewildered expression. "I'm so sorry for all this, Keine, you must be having a really rough day. From what I picked up you must be talking about Mokou, correct?"

"Yes."

She made her way towards me, affectionately placing a hand onto my shoulder. "Well then I believe what Kaguya was trying to say in far too many words is you shouldn't worry about her future. Instead you need to worry about her now and the kind of memories you'll leave behind. Will they be memories of regret? Or will they be memories of love and happiness. The kind she'll always be able to look back on with a smile on her face."

"Don't listen to Kaguya, if you truly love her and she truly loves you. She will always remember you. You believe in the power of memories don't you?"

I nodded.

"You've always had the answer then, but gotten too caught up in the one thing you can't change. All you need to do is ensure that the memories you leave behind will be good ones. I'm certain that all Mokou wants is your love, and that all you want is hers too."

And that was the simple truth.

SECOND PART END