Chapter 2
Emerging Threat

Yuugi threw another one of the things in the direction of the Palace of the Earth Spirits, but it was blasted back past her. "Watch it, will you?" Utsuho said as she flew up beside Yuugi.

Yuugi turned to face Utsuho. "What are you doing over- wait, you're… Utsuho?"

"I thought I'd lend a hand. You seemed to want me to, given how many of these things you've been throwing into my home."

"Your home? So… you're behind that 'haunted house' business?"

"So not the time for this!" Cirno said as she flew past them, sending ice spears at one of the things.

"Cirno's right," Utsuho said. "We can talk later."

Yuugi nodded. "Okay, then. I can take these. You two go help everyone in the city."

"If you're sure you can handle it."

"I am. Oh, and I'll try to stop throwing them into the Palace."

"Don't worry about that," Utsuho said. "We can repair it easily. Do what you have to. Cirno, follow me!"

"Two more, incoming!"

"I see them," Cirno said. "Spear 'em?"

"Works for me." Utsuho and Cirno launched ice spears at the two approaching enemies until they 'burst', as the two of them were calling it. "That didn't take much," Utsuho observed. "I guess those ones already took some damage."

"Not as much as the one we finished off after Yuugi threw it into the Palace, though."

"Which isn't surprising. Not counting us, she's easily the toughest person down here. More coming from the side!"

"I sense them. Let's fry 'em."

There were three this time. They came in at ground level, weaving through the wrecked buildings. As soon as they came into view, Cirno and Utsuho hit them with stars until they burst.

"I'm not sensing any more of them here," Cirno said.

"Neither am I. Let's sweep the rest of the city."

My name is Utsuho.

For me, it began with an attack on the power plant. I don't know why so many of the things came to the plant; from what Cirno told me later, it didn't sound like nearly as many had attacked the fairies. But that's what happened.

I suppose I was lucky. If I'd been alone, the things would've killed me. And without me, the power plant would likely experience catastrophic failure. To prevent that, I had to shut the plant down. I wouldn't have had enough time to do so if not for their sacrifice.

They were all there. Satori, Koishi, Orin, everyone. They held the things off while I shut the plant down. I'd intended to join the fight when I was done, but there wasn't much of a fight left. Satori came to me just as I finished. She was badly injured, and she told me that most of the others were dead. What few remained were still fighting, but there wasn't any hope. Satori told me to run. I wanted to bring her with me, but she said she wasn't going to make it anyways. Then some of the things came in, and she stood up against them, giving me time to run. I wanted to stay and fight, but I knew there were too many. If I'd stayed, I'd have died, too.

Satori told me to go back to the Palace. She told me to hide there. And then she told me one last thing.

"I can't read them," she'd said. "They don't have minds."

I ran. I didn't have a choice. I hated the fact that I could only run away and leave Satori behind, but staying would only have gotten me killed along with her and the others. I had to run.

As I headed for the nearest entrance to the underground, I collided with another. She said her name was Cirno, and she was running from what sounded like the same things I was running from.

As soon as I saw her, I knew I didn't want to be alone, so I brought her with me. She was carrying a body. Once we reached the Palace, she told me that it was the body of her friend, Daiyousei. She told me that the things had been killing faries, and that the fairies they killed weren't resurrecting. That's why she had Daiyousei's body with her; she wanted to believe that Daiyousei could still come back.

We hid together in the Palace. One thing we needed to do was dispose of Daiyousei's body. Cirno didn't want to, but I think she'd finally admitted to herself that Daiyousei was permanently dead. We took Daiyousei's body to the Blazing Hell and placed it in the fires there.

For Cirno, it was her final goodbye to a friend she'd never thought she could lose. For me, it was my final goodbye to the ones I'd lost. I kept seeing them in place of the dead fairy. Satori. Orin. Everyone. They were all dead now.

As Daiyousei's body burned away, Cirno and I made a decision. We resolved to train ourselves, to develop our powers as much as possible. Because the things would most likely show up again, and when they did, we weren't going to run.

We had a lot more time to train than I'd expected. We made periodic recon trips to the world above, although we were careful to remain undetected. We never found any sign of the things, but our resolve did not waver. We kept at our training, developing our powers far beyond anything we could have expected.

The things have finally returned, but this time, Cirno and I are ready.

Yuugi found the two of them once the battle was over. "Thanks for the- what the-?"

"Don't worry," Utsuho said. "It's trapped." And it was. It was incased in ice and frozen to the ground. It was struggling to free itself, and would have succeeded before long if Cirno hadn't been keeping the ice whole.

"You captured one of them?"

"I don't think we can keep it," Cirno said. "I'm having to focus on keeping it trapped. Otherwise, it'd break free quickly. But Utsuho thought we should get a good look at one of the things."

"A good idea."

The three of them leaned in close. "It just looks… wrong," Yuugi said.

Cirno nodded. "Yeah. Almost like one of those… what did you say they were called, Utsuho? Many-somethings?:

"Mannequins," Utsuho said. "And you're right; it does remind me of them. But at least those have things that are at least recognizable as features, especially facial features like eyes and ears. But this… thing is different. Look at it; it's completely featureless. It has the same basic body shape, but… nothing else."

"Am I the only one having trouble telling what color the thing is?" Yuugi asked.

"No," Cirno replied. "I've noticed it, too. I can't tell if it's a dark red or a dark blue or a dark whatever. It's like it changes, but… without changing. The change seem to actually happen; you just see what would be the new coloration after such a change."

"It's always very dark, though," Utsuho said. "It even makes yellow hard to tell from black."

"You almost can't tell unless you're looking very closely," Yuugi said. "They all looked black during the battle; you have to look close to see any difference."

"Man," Cirno said, "what are these things?"

"I don't know, but at least we fought them off. Thanks for the help."

"We should be thanking you," Cirno said. "It could've been trouble for just the two of us, since we'd just worn ourselves out."

"You didn't look worn out. And you, Utsuho, you were fighting just as well as I've ever seen you."

"You haven't seen me in years," Utsuho said. "Things can change in that much time."

"Elaborate, please."

"This isn't the first time I've seen these things," Utsuho explained. "The first time was years ago. They showed up at the power plant, a huge number of them-far more than were here. I'm the only one who made it out alive. Satori and Orin and everyone held them off long enough for me to shut the plant down, but... they didn't survive. Satori told me to run, to come back down here and hide. And she said… she said that these things don't have minds."

"Wait, what? How's that even possible?"

"How should we know?" Cirno remarked.

"Good point. Anyways, Utsuho, you were saying?"

"I ran into Cirno on my way back," Utsuho continued. "She was running from the things, too. That's another thing; they kill fairies. Permanently."

"This is starting to get crazy," Yuugi remarked.

"Tell me about it. Anyways, the two of us came down here and hid in the Palace."

"That's when you all disappeared."

Utsuho nodded. "I figured that if anyone thought about it, they'd assume I was gone, too. And I knew that it would be at least a while before anyone came poking around."

"And when they did, you did your haunted house thing to scare them off. But… how did you do some of that stuff? I actually saw that last group a year ago get thrown out. How did you do that?"

"We spent the years training. We've developed our powers substantially. It turns out the abilities we knew of were only a very small part of what we could potentially do. The two of us have come a very long way."

"I see. So you spent the time training, then. Let me guess; you intend to fight the things this time."

Cirno nodded. "We do. We're not going to run away this time."

"Are you going up above, then?"

"We are." Cirno turned back to the imprisoned figure. "But first, let's finish this one off. Who wants it?"

Yuugi answered by breaking through the ice and beating the shit out of the thing until it burst. "Done."

"All right, then," Utsuho said. She turned to Cirno. "Okay, we need to rest before we head up there. We'll go tomorrow. You know what we'll have to deal with once we get up there."

Cirno nodded. "I know."

"What do you mean?" Yuugi asked.

"When people learn that I'm up there," Utsuho explained, "they're going to react badly. They won't like the fact that I'm much more powerful now, not after what happened when I originally gained power. They'll already be suspicious of me. Then add in the fact that Cirno and I disappeared after the first attack, only to reappear in tandem with the second."

"You're expecting opposition."

Utsuho nodded. "When we go up there, we'll have more than just the things to deal with. The default response to a problem in Gensokyo, current or potential, is to beat the crap out of said problem. And they'll see me as a potential problem. When we go up there, we'll have them to deal with as well as the… things."

"Hey, not a problem," Cirno said. "That's why we've worked on new spellcards, right? They'll come in for danmaku battles like always, and we'll beat 'em."

"Ideally. Keep in mind, however, that they won't necessarily engage us in danmaku battles. We can still fight them off without killing them, but we will have to hurt them. And among them may be people you know. Are you sure you can do that?"

"Yes already. That's the 213th time you've asked me that; I get it."

"Well, good luck, you two," Yuugi said. "I'm not sure what we'll do without you if these things attack again, though; I don't think we would've won that without your help."

"Then see if you can find anyone to come down here for the time being," Utsuho said. "You know Suika, right? Try asking her."

"That's a good idea, actually, although I'd hate to leave even briefly; the people here won't have even a small chance against another attack without me here. Although I could probably find her quickly… or maybe send someone out to get her… well, that's my concern, not yours. Goos luck up there, you two."

"Thanks," Utsuho said. "Good luck to you, too."

"I can feel them already," Utsuho said. "There are only a few of them, though."

Cirno and Utsuho had recovered from the previous day's training and battle, and were ready to head back to the above world. Unlike with their scouting runs, this time they were using the main entrance. Remaining unseen wasn't a concern this time; although they'd rather their presence remain unknown for as long as possible, their objective wasn't exactly conducive to keeping a low profile.

"They're still around the entrance," Cirno said. "Are they planning another attack on the underground?"

"We don't even know if these things can plan at all."

"But there has to be some reason for their actions."

"Thought isn't required for a reason," Utsuho said. "Natural instincts are proof enough of that. Although we probably shouldn't assume that these things have instincts. We're going up against a complete unknown here; we shouldn't make any assumptions about the things."

"Yeah. Anyways, I don't sense anything else in the area."

"Neither do I. All that's around here right now is a few of the things. We'll charge out and take care of them quickly. Although remember that these are likely fresh, whereas the ones we fought yesterday were already in battle by the time we joined in. We found yesterday that these things can take a good bit of damage, and these ones won't have taken any of it already."

"We'll be fine," Cirno said.

"Most likely, but we should still be careful."

"Yeah. Are you ready?"

"I'm ready," Utsuho said. "Let's do it."

Cirno and Utsuho flew out of the opening, taking the enemy completely by surprise. They landed on opposite sides of the opening and went to work. Cirno blasted her targets with a storm of fire and ice, sending ice spears at them as well. A couple of them closed in on her, and she reacted by forming several ice blades and spinning them rapidly around herself. When the things staggered back, she sent the blades flying into them. Another came at her, and she sent ice spears at it. And then she dropped a huge block of ice on it.

Utsuho's approach was somewhat more direct. She ran up to one and punched it, adding a nuclear blast to the impact and sending the thing flying. As others came at her, she took them out with a combination of physical and magical attacks. But when a certain one came at her…

Cirno finished off her opponents, then turned towards Utsuho. Utsuho had finished, as well, but she had a trio of the things encased in ice as Cirno'd done with that one the day before. And she was visibly shaken.

"We've got another complication," Utsuho said as Cirno came up beside her.

"What is it?"

"Take a look at these three." Utsuho indicated one of them. "This one is like the one we examined yesterday. Completely featureless. But look at this one," she said, moving to the next one in line. "Take a close look; this one's different."

And it was. It was still mostly featureless, but…

"It's a fairy," Cirno said.

"Yes. The differences are minor enough that you wouldn't notice without taking a close look at it. I actually froze this one because I thought it was the 'normal' kind, like the one we looked at yesterday. But it's not, so I froze that other one. I wanted it for comparison purposes, because come take a look at this one."

The third one looked closer to the first one, but the face had signs of basic features such as eyes. They weren't there, but there were things that should have been them. But the most noticeable difference was… "What's with the cat ears?"

"Look closer," Utsuho said after a pause. "Look at the sides of the head."

Cirno moved in closer, and soon saw something that had to be what Utsuho was referring to. "Those are where ears usually are. Is this supposed to be two sets of ears?"

Silence.

"I've seen it before," Utsuho said eventually. "And… it doesn't look like her-none of these things could ever look like a real person-but it looks like… like it's supposed to look like her."

"Like who?"

"Orin."