Day OO/XX, late Reimu Hakurei's room, Hakurei Shrine,

It's me, Aya Shameimaru. It's been some time since I've written a diary and thought today was the perfect opportunity to start again. Satori, the only other person that's not dead and trying to eat me suggested it would be good for my psyche. After all that's happened I think she's right. You see, I was under house arrest for three days, just because of this silly little thing. Pheh, this is why I don't like being around the other tengu. They are just so stiff. Anyway, the day I was set free I immediately went outside and headed straight to the Hakurei Shrine. I met Hatate, spanked the bitch yet again, and then something terrible happened. Monsters came and ate her, though she did curse me just before croaking, which was kind'a hilarious. Well whatever, I came to the shrine, fought a lot of smelly decaying youkai and fairies, which I now understand should be referred to as 'zombies', met Satori, fought Reimu and...

Anyway, me and Satori have been stuck in this shrine for three days now in hopes of meeting other survivors, and we just found out some of the food from Reimu's supply is rotten, which means we only have supplies for a day or two. We have decided that, regardless of our original wait-and-see plan, tomorrow morning we'll be going on with the other plan, the one for solving this incident; Reimu's last request. Something about this cauldron and spilling, and... I didn't fully understand. Reimu was talking funny. Still, BEFORE we head out to Remilia's mansion, Satori suggested we first go to Kourindou so that I can get supplies for my camera. The flash does kill those zombie things good, but I do need batteries and film for it to work, so yeah, I guess it's a good idea that we go there first. Dammit, I'm sure we'll have to fight more of those smelly things on the way, but there's no other choice. Well, I guess that's all for now. Oh, and just between you and me, that mind-reader is really annoying. She keeps reading my thoughts and doesn't let me say a word. It's so damned annoying. I want to kill her. ...But if I did that then I'd be all alone, and that would be much worst. At least she offers company, and-

"That's very kind of you miss Shameimaru. I do like you too." casually says Satori as she leans to the tengu's right while glancing over the written record being printed on the typewriter.

Aya twitches with surprise; a vein pulsates on the left of her forehead, then wraps her arm around the satori's neck and furiously mutters "what the hell! Stop invading my privacy you mutant mole!"

Poor Satori struggles to remove the tengu's arm from around her neck and avoid getting chocked to the death but when she fails to do so, she pleas "Ack! Ghack! Sorry! I'm sorry! C-can't breathe!"

The girl shrieks when the tengu starts pulling on the string from her third eye that connects to her head and screams "ah, aahh-aaarrgh~ Hurt! That hurts! That REALLY hurts! Stop it!"

"Maybe I can close that eye of yours so you'll stop reading minds," furiously growls the tengu as she tugs harder on the string, then shouts "OFF WITH YOUR EYE!"

"That's NOT funny! Now please, let me go-oo~!" cries Satori as tears from the pain dangle under her eyes, and all she can do now is continue apologizing in the hopes that Aya will forgive her and let her go.


And so the third day and night feel as though passed by in the blink of an eye, and in the early hours of the fourth day the unlikely duo, wearing green backpacks, walk out of the shrine and look back at the building that's kept them safe so far.

Pain fills the tengu reporter as she stands three feet away from the porch and stares at the shrine silently, and in her face is a hurt look that worsens as she says "well, this is it."

"I don't believe this will be the last time we'll see this place miss Aya." softly says Satori as she keeps an arm's distance from the tengu reporter.

To her surprise, the tengu calmly replies "Reimu is dead. I killed her, remember? I'm not coming back here ever again." then watches as said girl turns slowly toward the back of the shrine.

"Let me say goodbye to her" says Aya while turning her torso around to show the satori youkai a pained smile, but no matter how hard that tengu tries to hide it a stubborn tear still escapes her right eye and quickly flows down her cheeks.

The satori nods and says "I'll accompany you." and walks after Aya, though keeping a good distance away.

There is a rustle from the bushes to the left and Satori immediately prepares herself for an attack, but nothing happens.

She looks to the tengu to ask her if she heard that noise as well, but it is obvious she didn't, seeing as she continues on her way toward the red column at the back of the shrine.

Satori ignores this, thinking it was probably the wind, and that's when a stray though "...RUN AWAY..." crosses the girl's mind.

She gulps; many thoughts of her own are now rushing in front of her mind as though in search of a course of action to take, but her train of thought is immediately halted the moment she lays eyes on the pile of zombie corpses she and the tengu girl had made four days ago, and notices that something seems different about it.

Meanwhile, Aya stands at the front side of the broken column, unable to find the courage she needs to take those extra steps forward and look at Reimu's corpse directly.

"I'm so sorry Reimu, but I can't do it!" whispers the tengu while staring at the column.

Inside her mind she hears Reimu's voice, saying "and here I thought you were this all-mighty tengu. How disappointing my friend. Well, go ahead and leave, you big black chicken. Don't pay any respects to me. I'll just haunt you later and poke your guts in your sleep as payback!"

This thought, though self-created, is frightening enough to make the girl shiver and make her face turn dark blue.

She gulps and yelps "must pay respects!" and takes one long and quick step forward, then gasps and exclaims "Reimu? Wh-where is SHE?"

The underside of the column is now empty, save for the blood of the maiden and the imprint of her body left there after being crushed.

From the pile of corpses several feet behind, Satori calls "hey Miss Aya, could you please come over here for a minute?"

The tengu girl quickly shouts back "Reimu's gone! Her body's not here!"

Over at the pile the satori maiden gulps and exclaims "I'm getting a very bad feeling! Let's go out of he-"

Corpses from the pile fly several feet in different directions after zombie Sunny roars and bursts free from the pile then bends over and jumps toward Satori like a wild beast.

Aya calls for the youkai girl and quickly moves to save her, but the satori is quicker and flashes a bright light from her third eye directly at the fairy.

Sunny roars in pain and falls on her stomach several feet behind the satori girl, and as quickly as she thuds she gets on all fours and takes to the sky, roaring as she flies toward the back of the shrine.

"Are you alright?" asks the concerned crow, to which the satori girl shakingly replies "y-yes I'm fine! Let's just get out of here!"

Aya looks back at the column, then back at Satori, repeats her indecisive head-turning, then finally asks "wh-what about Reimu? If that thing's alive, then- OH SHIT!"

The satori youkai runs toward the tengu and screams with fright as the many bodies of the thought-to-be-dead zombies start rising, then one-by-one many others start waking up too, moaning and hissing at the now back-to-back girls.

After four days of silent peace the song of moans returns to the Hakurei Shrine, and with it the odd brown mist and the horrible stench of death.

"Let's get the heck outta here before-"

The floor starts to tremble rhythmically along with loud booms, all the other zombies start running or flying away toward the front of the shrine, the booms the closer and closer, then the rhythmic trembling and the noise stops.

The girls shiver and whimper as they turn their attention to the storage house, and it explodes right before their very eyes.

A massive green head with missing patches of skin on the nose and under the semi-bearded chin rushes furiously toward the girls.

Its teeth have become sharp, its gums are rotten and ooze some yellow pus with coagulated blood, and its bloodstained beard is falling off bit by bit.

"GENJIIIIII!" screams Aya as she grabs Satori and jumps to the left to avoid the giant house-sized turtle's snapping bloody mouth, and as quickly as they can the girls scramble to their feet and run away from the turtle once more, leaving it to take a giant bite off the ground.

"FLY!" exclaims the satori youkai, and she and the tengu kick off the ground and distance themselves from it as fast as they can, but quickly find their progress stopped to a grinding halt.

So many flying zombie fairies and youkai block their path that they all look like one massive net, however the girls see this as a simple setback when compared to the giant shell-less turtle with the missing patches of skin on its body stretching its rotten neck and snapping its now-blood-covered teeth at them from behind.

With resolve in their eyes the girls get ready; Aya takes her camera on her right hand while Satori takes her third eye and aims it forward with both hands, then the tengu shouts "just break through! GO-GO-GO!"

The small flash from Aya's camera knocks at least seven zombies at once, but the powerful flash from Satori's eye knocks at least twenty of them with ease.

"You little cheat!" cries the tengu at the satori, who looks a little strained and whispers "help."

Having used so much power for that single attack, Satori Komeiji plummets toward a pack of hungry zombies, though is quickly picked by her new tengu friend who exclaims "bad move! Oh, you're light! Time to move!"

She wraps her left arm around the purple-haired girl's waist and takes several pictures to break through the horde of monsters waiting for them, and after she feels they are far away enough she looks back at the shrine.

The gigantic zombie turtle has thrashed the entire backyard of the shrine, and thankfully, instead of chasing after them, is completely distracted with the magical shield protecting the now-safe house, biting hard against a semi-invisible barrier around the building and roaring after being pushed back.

The smaller zombies aren't falling for that though, and are chasing after the girls as they make their escape.

A flash knocks another five near-by zombies, saving Aya's gorgeous calves once more, and then the tengu sighs with great relief and irritably exclaims "why do they want to eat my legs so badly?"

From her left, still held safely, Satori flashes yet another group and says "maybe they want some drumsticks. Please don't let me go. This flashing thing is still a little hard on me."

The tengu gives her a very curious look to which the youkai says "please trust me. Focus on flying and I'll focus on them."

Honestly there is no other choice, so the reporter turns her attention at flying toward the Forest of Magic, while the satori defends them from any zombies that might, and WILL get too close.


Their flight to the forest is quite an eventful one, but Satori, though tired, managed to keep herself and Aya safe from the zombie fairies, and now they arrive at a large clearing near the entrance of said forest, where a medium-sized house with a massive glass dome on its blue roof rests undisturbed.

This is Kourindou, the antique shop, and where the reporter will hopefully be able to restock on batteries and film.

As soon as they land in front of the building, the tengu places the youkai next to herself, and allows herself to be used as support for the exhausted satori.

"I think *breathe* I'm starting to get... the hang of this." says Satori almost out of breath.

Aya glances at her partner in a rather unfriendly manner, then resumes scanning the area and the building for any possible enemies, then stares at the skies.

The odd clouds covering the sun have become darker, thus blocking out more of its bright rays, and the unnatural sparks of energy around them have become violent.

"It's getting darker." casually comments the tengu girl while still staring at the clouds, then turns her attention to Kourindou and asks "don't you think it's a little too quiet?"

The satori knows she's been ignored rather bluntly, but she blames her powers for that knowledge and understands the bird-girl's still miffed about the whole mind-reading thing.

Not wanting to irritate the tengu she keeps this knowledge to herself and says "y-yes, it's been getting quite dark. ...And I agree with you. It's far too quiet. Something must be up." then straightens up and dusts her shirt, signaling she's as ready as she can be.

The tengu nods and says "well then, let's go." and she and the youkai take slow and cautious steps toward the store.

The door creaks softly as it's gently pushed open all the way, then Aya enters cautiously with her camera ready, followed by the jumpy Satori whom nervously looks around as she enters the building.

The store is dark, but not as dark as the shrine's living house was, mostly thanks to the crystal dome on its top.

The front has two shelves, and while one is littered with rather useless-looking things, the other has been completely knocked down and its contents have scattered all over the ground.

Other than that the building looks like it's been uninhabited for some time, evident because of the coat of dust collecting on top of all the furniture and store goods, and the spider-webs forming on the corners.

"Let's check the back," commands the tengu after making sure the store is clear of any monsters.

The satori girl nods and even though she rather just place a protective ward on the building just to be safe, but regardless of how she feels she keeps close to the reporter while following commands, even when she is as nervous as herself.

They walk past Rinnosuke's desk and walk into the right door, right into the dark, cramped and small corridor leading to the bathroom and bedroom.

"I-i-it's so d-dark." whispers the nervous satori girl, to which the tengu equally nervously whispers "n-no choice. I-if there's something here I rather flush it out now."

The floor below them creaks as they make their way through the corridor, both breathing hard through their noses in order to keep up with their hard-beating hearts.

They reach the first door leading to the bathroom; Aya takes the doorknob, looks back at Satori, then gulps hard before whispering "ok, I'll open the door now. I-if anything moves you flash its damned eyes off!"

The purple-haired girl nods rapidly, though the tengu is unsure if that's her nodding or if her violently-trembling body is causing her head to bobble around.

Regardless, she nods back and slowly opens the door, which creaks for a second just before opening completely.

At the end of the unnaturally dark room is the large wooden bathtub, there's a dirty mop leaning against the wall to the left of the tub, and at the room's entrance there are what look like a set of the owner's spare clothes on top of a hamper.

"Good, nothing here." sighs Aya, then the mop tips over and she and Satori scream while flashing the room repeatedly, then the satori girl stops and shouts "it's ok-it's ok, it was just the mop!"

Having flashed the room so much allowed the girl to take a better look around and see there was nothing; though the tengu is still so shaken up she's clenching her teeth hard and taking an occasional picture with her camera, just to be on the safe side.

It takes a whole minute for the tengu to finally calm down and stop taking pictures, though can't close her mouth due to her need to breathe hard and fast through her teeth while her heart threatens to burst right out of her chest.

"Next door!" exclaims the freaked-out tengu, to which she and her partner walk out of the bathroom and unwisely rush to the bedroom door.

They stand in front of that door and the satori youkai calmly says "on three", then the tengu shouts "THREE!" and tackles the door while screaming.

She's gotten so nervous her wings have popped out of her back which tear a bit of fabric from her shirt, and now she kneels on the ground with her camera held high, her wings spread, and a terrified look on her face.

"Empty," calmly says Satori.

Aya looks around and progressively breathes slower as her heart settles, and now takes a better look at the strangely empty room.

What little light shines from outside enters through the two windows at the corner, but other than the tatami flooring and the slightly-opened closet, there's nothing else of interest.

"Th-the closet!" nervously exclaims the tengu when she sees something sparkle within it, then cautiously approaches it.

After a gulp, the girl grabs the door and pulls it open, yelps and jumps back, and aims her camera forward while trembling and turning her head away.

The satori youkai slowly uncovers her ears and opens her eyes, and softly says "i-it's ok Miss Aya. It's only clothes."

The tengu girl slowly opens her eyes and turns her head toward the closet, then wipes her sweating forehead while letting lose one loud and long sigh of relief.

"I-hit's just clothes." chuckles the tengu while loosening her grip on her camera, then her smile brightens up as her chuckle becomes an excited giggle.

"W-what is it? What did you find?" asks the satori maiden, even though she already knows what the tengu girl found.

After rummaging for a bit under the hanged blue and black obi shirts Aya pulls herself out of the closet holding a silver rectangle with a black lens on its center.

She hugs the item while giggling excitedly, then says "this is Rinnosuke's digital camera! Oh-ho-hoo~! He taught me how to use it but never let me try it."

A wry grin takes the tengu's face as she chuckles maliciously and says "well, now that he's not here, I'm sure he won't mind me taking it~."

The satori maiden sweats and chuckles nervously while reading into the devious girl's heart, and though able to see the selfish thoughts she manages to calmly say "ho-how wonderful for you."

Meanwhile Aya is turning the camera on and checking every detail of it, finds a small blue card in it that reads 4GB and says "whoa, four giga- erm, somethings. Whatever; this thing's huge. I'll be able to take many wonderful pictures and post them on my paper. Of course, that's AFTER we solve this incident. This'll be GREAT! You and I will-"

While the tengu continues her elaboration on how perfect that camera will be for scoops, a thought crosses Satori, who calmly asks "do you know where the food storage is?"

"-and then, after we're rich and famous I'll-the wha?"

The tengu girl's bubble bursts quite abruptly and her face completely changes from excited reporter to frightened child, then chuckles nervously before managing to say "oh, heh that's right. The kitchen should be on the other door. L-let's go there now."


The girls exit the bedroom and walk into the narrow corridor again, though leave the bedroom's door open so that some light can shine through.

As they walk past the open bathroom door Aya freezes up, looks inside the dark room with a horrified stare, the shrieks and jumps on Satori's back.

"KYAH! What do you think you're doing-OOF!" screams the poor satori before falling flat on her chest.

The crow tengu jumps on her feet then turns the satori around and exclaims "there's something in there!" while pointing at the bathroom.

Both girls enter the dark bathroom one more time, and thanks to the bit of light coming from the bedroom they can see all within, which is the fallen mop next to the bathtub, and the fallen spare clothes near the entrance.

Disregarding the tengu's reluctance to mind-reading, Satori sighs irritably and says "you just felt a draft! Look, there's nothing in here, now let's go to the kitchen and take as much food as we can."

Aya nods and shakingly says "g-good idea. L-let's do that and l-ll-l-LEAVE!"

At the kitchen the girls find a well-preserved supply of fruits and vegetables along with some rice, and a bottle of sake the tengu girl immediately confiscated for herself.

"Hold still please." says the satori maiden as she stuffs some bags of rice inside Aya's backpack, then proceeds to fill her own backpack with carefully packed produce... and that's when it finally hit her.

"Those clothes at the bathroom's entrance... They were placed on TOP of the hamper, yet when we went inside the second time-"

Even though she's not done the satori closes the backpack and places it on, and hurriedly says "let's get out of here right now!" to which the tengu eagerly nods to.

They walk out the kitchen, rush past the dusty desk, run past the shelves, and as soon as they exit the front door they feel their bodies being electrocuted repeatedly while keeping them in place.

The undead Reimu, whose right eye now dangles from the socket, smiles as she hovers down in front of the girls, shows them a pair of charms on each hand and as soon as she lands she bends slightly and slides her hands up their shirts until they are firmly placed on each girls' chest.

A powerful jolt of energy causes both girls to grunt, then Reimu growls "no more flying little piggies."

She flies ten feet off the ground while holding the paralyzed girls by their chests, tosses Satori to the left, takes a spell card on her free hand, then growls "this is for the crushing, you bitch!"

She places the spell card right between the tengu's eyes and roars "Yin-Yang Desecration Orb!"

A massive black orb with blood-red outlines grows right on the tengu's head, and though she tries to scream the searing and freezing pain drains her of the strength to do so.

Her body lies sprawled on the floor of Kourindou, and there's a large hole on the roof now, probably where she came through, but that's all the semi-conscious girl can make out at the moment.

The zombie maiden rushes through the ceiling's hole, lands a vicious knee on the tengu's stomach, and quickly bites her right shoulder while the girl jerks her body forward from the impact, making the reporter arc her weakened body backward and scream out loud in pain.

The blood of the tengu sprays all over the deceased maiden's face as she tries to rip a good chunk of skin off the girl.

Aya screams and squirms but is still too weak and stunned to manage to push the monster away, and out of desperation the tries punching the back of the sweet-smelling zombie.

Tears flow down her eyes due to the unending pain, she feels what little consciousness she has left leave her as her sleeve is ripped off, then sees a powerful flash before her eyes, and then relief fills her.

"AYA! Are you alright? Speak to me!" cries out Satori as she flashes Reimu a second time.

The zombie maiden screeches as she covers her face and jumps back, knocking the remaining shelf against the nearest wall, and while the items on it fall from the tilted display, the zombie maiden jumps behind the desk.

The satori rushes to the tengu to try and aid her wound, but quickly finds herself chocking in the mighty grip of the zombie maiden, who growls "Gods Binding Circle!"

The zombie's hand is surrounded by a black mass and a red circle forms right under the satori.

Even being chocked the girl screams when a mighty blood-red beam rises from the circle and both burns and freezes her entire body.

As soon as the spell ends the zombie maiden turns the weakened moaning satori maiden around and grips tight enough to make her neck crack, then winds her back and rams her through the tilted shelf three times before said shelf turns to wood chips.

Again, she turns the satori girl around with ease, holds her by the shoulders and admires the bloody mess and bruises on her face, stretches her bloodied lips to a smile, opens her mouth wide and leans over to the satori's neck, then stops.

Her bloody smile disappears, and then the maiden looks behind herself, grunts with frustration, then tosses Satori to Aya's left, spilling some of the packed fruits from the satori's backpack and wheezes "you will play the game and reach the eeeennnd. There I will feast on both.", then flies away, hissing as she does.


The reporter is not really certain how long she's been out, but by the time she wakes up it's already night.

Through the hole on the roof Aya can see how those unnatural clouds in the sky, which look creepy enough during the day, seem to take life and move about at night, like eerie cloaked ghouls patrolling the night skies in misty vessels.

She looks to her left and finds Satori lying on the floor next to her, and breathing, to the tengu's great relief.

Her eyes adjust as she resumes looking around, and then finally decides to sit.

She groans softly as she gets up and she immediately remembers her shoulder and quickly pats it, though gently.

"Healed," whispers the surprised tengu when, other than the ripped-off sleeve and the bloodied fabric, her shoulder is perfectly fine.

She looks around the store some more now that her eyes have adjusted, and quickly notices a pair of feet slowly making their way from outside, visible through the open front door.

The girl gulps when she looks at the decaying figure of Rinnosuke Morichika as he moans and slowly walks over toward the store, going straight for her and the satori maiden.

He wears his blue and black obi as per-usual, but it's so stained in blood it almost look completely black, and half of his head is missing its skin, plus what little hair is left on him looks dry and about ready to fall.

His glasses look ominous in front of his white orbs for eyes, and his mouth oozes what looks like black balls of blood.

Aya tries to scream but fails, and automatically kicks herself backward, then notices Rinnosuke winding himself backward.

As if knowing what's coming next, the tengu screams "SATORI!" and impulses herself to fall on top of the girl and use the momentum to roll away together.

A mere second later one of those black blood balls splats right where the satori was just a moment ago and starts fizzling and slowly eats through the wooden floor.

The tengu girl whimpers while breathing through her mouth and kicks herself backward with the satori still unconscious on her lap, and makes sure they are out of sight of the open door after bumping against the wall.

"Satori! Satori, wake up! PLEASE WAKE UP!" screams the desperate tengu while gently slapping the girl's face.

The satori moans as she slowly wakes up, then grunts and winces when the pain from the beating she got reaches her.

The tengu gently brushes her fingers through the bruises on Satori's forehead and cheeks and whispers "wha... what happened to you?"

Aya screams with fright when she realizes three zombie fairies have entered the building through the front door, but quickly composes herself, takes her camera on hand, and takes two quick photos, flashing the fairies to their temporary deaths, and that's when a terrible knowledge hits her.

There's something banging on the bedroom's window, moans, hisses and lamentations surround the entire area, and now it seems zombie Rinnosuke has decided to enter the building himself, and to make matters worse, some flying rotting youkai foxes are entering through the broken ceiling.

The tengu takes a picture to rid of the semi-skinned foxes and watches as their bodies splat on the ground where she and the satori lay before, splashing coagulated blood all around themselves.

Her camera starts rewinding, and the satori girl is still struggling to wake up, Rinnosuke has them on his sight and is winding back again, so Aya grabs Satori once again and jumps away as fast as her legs allow her.

The black blood ball splats on the floor a second after the tengu jumped away and the zombie now moans with frustration; or at least seems that way.

He turns over to the girls once more, and although Aya's camera has just stopped rewinding and has no film, the tengu takes the photo while shouting "stop trying to kill us you stupid four-eyes!"

The flash comes out, surprising the girl, and as soon as it hits the zombie half youkai he gurgles as he falls and that black coagulated blood oozes out of his mouth, sizzling on the floor as it eats through it.

The tengu looks at her camera with surprise and says "well, I learned something new just now. Don't really need the film. But what good's a photo without FILM! Scoops are worth nothing without proof!"

The window at the bedroom crashes, but the tengu girl ignores it and furiously rummages through her pockets for new film for her camera.

There is a bright flash in the room, followed by several thuds, and when the reporter looks to her left she sees the satori with her arms around her third eye and looking back at her in disbelief.

"This is no time for that miss Aya!" exclaims the satori as she gets up on her feet, then extends her arm to the tengu to help her up and says "just use that digi- um, di-gi-tal one! The new one!"

Feeling a little stupid the tengu smacks her own head, finishes preparing her old camera, then pulls the digital camera out of her pocket and aims it at the door as she turns it on.

"Here they come!" shouts the tengu when several greenish ghouls and a zombie fairy enter rush to the door.

She takes a single photo, and the flash from that camera is so intense all the monsters that entered the building immediately drop on the ground around Rinnosuke.

"That was awesome!" exclaims Aya.

"Let's get out of here while we can!" shouts Satori, and now the girls run out the door, using zombie Rinnosuke's decaying body as a doormat, and when clear of the building they jump to the air and fall straight back down.

"WHAT THE HELL!" screams the tengu, to which Satori excitedly replies "the charms!"

Both girls hop on their feet, slightly pull down on their shirts, and can see a charm placed directly on their skins underneath all their clothes.

"What do we do what do we do?" rapidly asks the nervous tengu.

Before the satori can answer the sounds of laments echo closer to the girls' location, apparently coming from behind the shop, and somehow these laments affect the youkai girl the most.

She covers her ears and starts to cry, and out of apparent despair she screams "JUST RUN!"

The second the girls run into the forest, a grand total of five lamenting spirits chase after them.

Spirits are common in Gensokyo, but never like these. All are translucent green and lament almost incessantly, hissing on rare occasions.

The two males wear hooded cloaks, have glowing red eyes, and carry with them bloodstained swords, while the females have their hoods down, allowing their snake-like long hair flow with the wind, they have no actual face but do have a mouth, have large sharp fangs for teeth, and their nails are long and sharp enough to skewer an oni.

These spirits chase after the grounded girls into the trees and let out a loud lamenting wail the second they disappear from the clearing.

Aya and Satori run as fast as they can through the thick woods, and find themselves flashing desperately as more zombie fairies and youkai try to get them.

"Run! Run and don't stop! Flash them but don't stop!" desperately cries the satori maiden.

"Why? What's wrong? Why are you crying like that?" nervously asks the tengu.

The purple-haired girl sobs, slows down to cover her ears again, and then shouts "I'M SCARED! OKUU! ORIN!"

The black-haired tengu skids to a stop and rushes to save the terrified satori from two naked zombie fairies, which are missing large chunks of skin from their bloody bodies, flashes them out of the way, then grabs the girl by the arm and exclaims "this is NOT the time to break down!"

The wailing laments reach the girls and Satori's face turns blue from fright, her limbs lock in the fetal position, and though paralyzed, her tears flow uncontrollably, and it's at this very moment when Aya's own selfish side surfaces.

"Leave the crying bitch and run! You're better off without her! JUST MOVE!" she thinks to herself, but then catches herself thinking such things and screams "what the- ...WHAT THE HELL AM I THINKING?"

The laments get stronger; both girls start losing their heads and now find themselves at the mercy of five mutated spirits who continue lamenting without stop, even though they surround the girls.

Anger rises within the tengu as she lays her eyes on the satori, and thoughts of murdering the youkai rush to her mind.

She grabs the terrified girl by her hair, stares into her blank eyes, then says "why not? She's just another bitch that's getting in my way. Nobody will miss-"

"Okuu~! Orin~! Koishi~! Koishi please~!" softly cries the satori girl while lost in her own fears; and Aya stops.

The spirits float closer, they surround the girls in an enclosed circle, eagerly raise their hands and swords, and swing with all their might.

The tengu screams and drops on her back, takes her old camera, and takes a picture.

Everything is clam, the area around the girls is completely clear of any monsters, and now Aya lies with her arms and legs spread face-up on the ground next to the crying satori, and allows her eyes to slowly close on their own, not caring whether they will be attacked or not anymore.


"Hang in there sis" says the blurry image of Koishi Komeiji, with her grayish-green hair and her yellow and green clothes slowly burning away as Satori's own consciousness rushes back to reality.

"KOISHI!" screams Satori when she springs up from the ground, and breathes heavily through her mouth as she sits on a patch of grass while recovering her bearings.

It's still night, they are in the forest of magic, it is eerily quiet save for the gentle blow of the wind, and slowly she remembers all that has happened to that point; and then she remembers Aya.

"Why should we go on, huh?" asks the tengu, who sits just a few feet to the right on a rock while looking at the frightening sky.

She looks at the satori youkai and asks "why should we fix all this? Why not let things be? Let them kill us for all I care, it's just not worth it."

The bright smile that usually fills this girl's face is gone, and replacing it is the look of despair and hopelessness that threatens to consume the satori as well.

She quickly picks up on the tengu's self-destructive thoughts, but before she can say anything about it, Aya jumps to her feet and waves her fists around while shouting "ARGH! MORE OF THEM? GO TO HELL ALREADY! DIE, JUST DIE YOU FREAKS!"

Two blurs, one whitish, the other blue, zip through the surrounding area, giggling vilely while stalking their prey and unsettling the already stressed nerves of the girls.

Satori gasps then shouts "IT'S THEM!", and rage quickly takers her as she readies herself to flash these monsters to hell.

Aya prepares the digital camera and scowls while moving backward to join the satori.

Once they are back-to-back the tengu says "this is futile, but hell will freeze a hundred times over before I let these things take my life!"

Satori smiles when the tengu's thoughts completely turn around to something far more admirable than self-destruction and says "yes, that's right. Miss Aya let's fight these things, if not for others then for ourselves. Let's show them we are better than they are."

The tengu girl smirks and nods, then raises her camera; and not a second too soon.

The white blur zips from the tengu's right and tries to tackle the girl, but she takes the picture and the blur immediately rushes back to the trees.

The digital picture reveals it's none-other than Luna Child, and she's missing her hat, her white dress is stained with dried blood on the back, her eyes seem to glow white, and her bloodied mouth is missing the lower lips.

"Fairy trio!" grunts the tengu as she prepares for another attack, then she and the satori push themselves together when one of the fairies cackles.

A raspy voice echoes in the area as she says "pretty words from tasty eye-girl~!"

Another raspy voice, this one a little more high-pitched adds "I wonder if she'll taste as good as the bird?"

"OKUU!" exclaims Satori, whose face turns bright red with fury as she demands "what did you do to her? What happened to Okuu?"

The two zombie fairies giggle again, this time sinisterly enough to send chills through the girls' legs up to their very heads.

There is a long pause, all sounds stop, then a tree explodes to the left and the girls now find themselves pinned to the ground and pushing back on one surprisingly strong fairy each, both snapping their teeth as they attempt to eat the faces off their targets.

On top of satori is Star Sapphire, whose hair has become hard and dry, her lips are missing, showing off her bare blood-stained yellow teeth, and her entire blue and white dress is stained in fresh blood.

The fairy doesn't struggle much with the satori and manages to mimic a smile with what skin is left dangling around her mouth, and with her raspy high-pitched voice says "one bite and you join Okuu with us."

The monster giggles as she allows the satori to see Okuu's cape around her waist, tied with one of Orin's ribbons, then says "they screamed, called to you in delicious way! *Hiss* You scream too, no?"

Satori's mind drifts, and images of Okuu, her raven-black haired hell crow youkai, and Orin, her red-haired dark-dressing kasha youkai, flash right before her very eyes.

She can hear them calling her name happily, smiling and laughing and enjoying their time with their master Satori, but the images suddenly flash and the last she sees of her pets in her mind is a coughing kasha and a vomiting hell raven, and can hear their death screams as they are devoured alive.

"NOOOOO!" screams the satori maiden when she uses her blind rage to push the zombie fairy off and showers her with intense flashes that kill off more zombie fairies over a good distance away.

"OKUU! ORIN!" screams the girl as she grab the zombie Luna by her back and throws her against the body of Star, then showers them both with more intense flashes, pulls a spell card form her pocket and shouts "Recollection Terrifying Hypnotism!"

A curtain of lasers, large bullets, and massive magical orbs shower onto the unmoving bodies of the decaying fairies, and even though they get pulverized repeatedly, the satori maiden continues to blast them relentlessly.

Aya finds herself jumping behind the rock she was sitting on a few moments ago to avoid getting caught by the distraught satori's attack, and from it she shouts "cut it out! You're going to blast ME, you idiot!"

As soon as it had started the spell stops, and the sound of explosions is replaced by loud sobs and sniffles.

The tengu peeks over the rock with caution and can see Satori kneeling next to the ashes of the fairies, embracing a bloodstained cape and a red ribbon while repeating the names of her pets.

"Crap, there's no time for this." thinks the tengu as she gets out of hiding and walks over to her companion.

Now she too wants to cry when she sees the purple-haired girl crying so much while holding to those pieces of clothes as though she were holding her beloved pets.

At first the tengu thought of pulling the satori on her feet and forcing her to move, but seeing this pathetic scenery has changed her train of thoughts, and now feels she could cry too.

"Crap, I can't do it! Think Aya, think! Uuu, I'm no good with pep-talks but..."

The tengu leans closer to Satori, places a hand on her shoulder, which is met by the pained girl's own hand and sudden grip, then smiles as friendly-like as she can and happily says "l-look, i-it's not bad. You, um, can always get another pet, right?"

Of all the bad choices of words she could have picked, she chose the worst possible ones, and now the satori girl cries so loudly that her voice echoes annoyingly far.

The tengu panics and jumps away, then shouts "Sorry, sorry! I didn't mean it like that! It's just-"

"Shit, I made it worst! That poor girl! I can't leave her like this, but we cannot linger either. That's it, I'm going to have to carry her!"

Again she approaches the satori and says "I'm sorry; just please calm down. Come on, I'll carry you for a while," then leans over to pick the girl, but she stops when she notices the ashes of the fairies expanding like a bloody meat mound.

Her face loses all color when the creatures revive looking quite lively, but their new appearance is the reason the poor crow tengu is unable to even whimper.

Star's head is on top of a dripping mass of rotten flesh and her wings and one skinny arm take the left side, while Luna's eye-less head is on what should be the creature's stomach, and she moans loudly while seemingly trying to escape from the new hideous form.

The monster swings its arm and smacks the girls with the back of it, sending both flying away backward.

Aya's heart races as she scrambles on her feet while Satori slowly gets back up, sniffling and cleaning her face with her sleeves and still embracing her pet's clothes, and says "fla-flash together."

The tengu silently nods, but the satori girl is aware of the acknowledgment, so she prepares her third eye while the tengu raises her camera.

Star's head gurgles and spits out a disgusting smelling yellow fluid that drips on Luna's head, causing her to moan louder and forcing the body to somehow move forward, though slower than a snail's pace.

The girls refuse to give it the chance and flash it thrice at the same time.

Both heads roar loud in pain, the body starts to sizzle, and slowly turns to a fleshy puddle that smells like a hundred rotting rats in a clogged sewer.

The tengu and the satori rapidly step back to avoid being touched by this vile liquid, and just like that it evaporates within seconds, leaving two separate naked bodies of the zombie fairies on the ground.

Again, the area grows quiet and only a loud whoosh in the sky can be heard.

Aya, once again approaches Satori, kneels next to her, gently grabs the cape and ribbon, and softly says "I'll put these in your backpack, but when I do we have to start moving. It's just a matter of time before we're attacked again, and I rather we find somewhere safe before that. Understand?"

The youkai nods and allows the tengu to take the pieces of clothes.

She places them inside the backpack, helps the grieving girl on her feet, and without saying another word they move forward.

Before disappearing into the trees Satori softly says "thank you for helping me," while looking down to the ground, and although the tengu prefers to keep quiet and keep moving, she thinks "you're welcome," as gently as her mind will allow.


Their walk through the forest is a tense, yet uneventful one.

Surrounding them is the symphony of moans of the many zombies and whatever else is out there, along with an unnatural whooshing from above that's so loud, it muffles the thud of their steps.

"Come on, I think I know where we are," says Aya while glancing behind at Satori, who looks about ready to drop with grief again.

The girl's eyes are baggy and bloodshot, her lips are stiff, and even her short hair seems to be drooping down with depression.

Completely devoid of any hope the satori bluntly asks "and you really believe Miss Marisa is alive? And if she is, you think that selfish brat will actually help us?"

"Please stop reading my mind" politely thinks the tengu, and then says "well, Marisa may be a pretty selfish human, but even she is decent enough to help someone in need. ...Sometimes."

"Well then let's hope she's decent enough to eat us and not rape our bodies while she does!" angrily replies the youkai.

The tengu remains silent and turns her attention forward once more, hiding the awkwardness she's feeling at the moment.

The rest of the way, though short, is awkwardly silent, and after forcing their way through an unnaturally tall bush the girls enter the clearing where Marisa's house is.

The house rests at the center of the clearing, it is quite large in size, some windows and part of the roof are taken over by thick vines that seem to have grown tentacle-like stems that flail about for no visible reason, and again, the inside of the house looks dark.

Aya sighs, feeling her heart get heavy with the sensation of defeat, lowers her head, and says "I guess I got my hopes up for not-"

"Normal brainwaves? There's someone in that house, and she's actually thinking coherently!" exclaims the satori, cutting the tengu off in an attempt to raise the girl's spirit, feeling a bit guilty of trying to drain the tengu from what little hope she was clinging to.

Said tengu girl raises her head again, a giggle escapes her as her lips stretch side-to-side to form a smile, then says "finally, a break! Can you tell who it is?"

From the bushes and trees behind the house the girls are being watched, and whatever has set its attention on the survivors hisses and growls unfriendly-like, and moves around slowly without disturbing any leaves from the bush it hides in.

It can hear when Satori says "I-it's Marisa! She seems to be as lively as ever!"

The stalker hisses long and softly, and then rushes away from the area, making some powerful gusts and a loud whoosh that linger after it's long gone.

"What's that?" anxiously asks Aya while she and Satori hold hands with fear.

A tear escapes the satori youkai's eyes when she starts to tremble, and after taking a big gulp and settles her heart back into her chest she whimpers "please no more attacks. I can't take another one. T-too many! It's too much!"

The reporter frees her left hand and pulls on the satori while saying "come on! Let's hurry inside! I'm with you on this one, I'm NOT in the mood for another attack right now!" then rushes forward, tackles the door open, glances around the darkness as fast as she can, pulls Satori inside, then closes the door with haste.

The inside of the house is dark, and since it's still nighttime even youkai eyes fail to see the surroundings; that is until a set of lamps hanging from strategic points in the house light up on their own.

"It's even messier than you remember," casually says Satori, and quickly finds herself being held by her shoulders and shaken by Aya, who roars "stop. doing. THAT!"

The floors in the house have always been littered with piles and piles of all kinds of 'collected' junk stolen by the witch, but at least there was a visible path where a person could walk before.

Now there is so much junk than that even the steps to the second floor look like a deathtrap waiting to happen.

As they look at their surroundings, the tengu starts feeling strangely uncomfortable and her hearts starts beating a little too hard for her taste.

Slow thuds come from the second floor and the jumpy tengu immediately releases the satori and shivers as she looks up the stairs, ignoring the thud and the complain by the youkai girl after she falls to the ground.

"Get up" whispers the tengu as she takes slow steps back to the door, then trips on some rock and falls on her butt, then quickly notices when the satori stuffs a black tube in her backpack's side pocket.

The thuds from the second floor stop when a familiar, yet slightly different frame stands tall on top of the stairs, and with a raspy tomboyish voice Marisa calls "oi! Who's down there? Don't touch my stuff, ze!"

"Marisa!" exclaims Aya. "Finally, a familiar voice that's not trying to kill us!"

Unlike the tengu, Satori looks terrified at the figure of the witch, and breathes rapidly through her teeth as she kicks herself backward until she reaches the wall.

The tengu stares at Satori for a moment and softly asks "what the ma-a-a?" then looks up the stairs and the shock of what she sees causes her tokin to flip right off her head, twist once in the air and fall to the ground as she finishes "-TER?"

The witch takes a step down and the tengu girl gulps and whimpers while taking her tokin and attempts to crawl away.

Marisa sighs with frustration and says "look, I know my hands look icky and all that, but really, it's nothing to be so damned afraid of."

Neither girl is able to answer as they stare at the witch, both out of the fear that's taking away their breath, and now their instincts of self-preservation start to kick in.

They stare horrorstruck at the girl, unable to believe their rotten luck.

The witch's hair has fallen off completely, her face is completely dry and her skin is stuck on her very bones, printing them outside the seemingly decaying flesh.

Her eyes look slightly normal with an actual irises, but being two orbs hanging in the center of two black holes doesn't really appeal to the sight, and from what the girls can tell this witch hasn't even looked at a mirror yet, thus is unknowledgeable of her current state.

Though she acts friendly the girls fear the witch might turn on them, and at the same time neither is sure if it would be wise to tell that girl about her current looks in case she's friendly.

The bony witch reaches the bottom stairs and manages to literally crack a smile and says "jeez, how rude. I guess I should start wearing gloves or something, but considering everyone's a zombie now... Hey wait! Why aren't you guys zombies?"

Satori's answer is a nervous peep, then she and the tengu quickly get on their feet and shower the witch with flashes while shouting incoherently.

"OI, OI! OW, OW, OW, OUCH! Dammit, STOP IT!" screams the witch while she covers her eyes with her skinny arms.

"Stardust Reverie!" she shouts, and several stars fly from her hands straight at the nervous girls, knocking them on their backs while the skeleton-witch furiously flails her arms in the air.

"WHAT THE HELL IS YOUR PROBLEM YOU SICK FLASHING BITCHES!" exclaims the girl while Satori and Aya slowly get on their knees.

The skinny witch rubs her eyes with her bony hands and walks away, mumbling curses at the girls and says "stupid side-effects aren't WORTH immortality." under her breath.

The surprised tengu scrambles on to her feet and asks "wait, sorry! I mean wait, are you going to try to eat us?"

Still kneeling on the ground the satori says "I'm sorry, I should have read your mind sooner, but I was so frightened, I-"

"Frightened?" asks Marisa, then lifts her bony arms and wiggles her skeletal fingers and asks "because of these? Gimmie a break you cowards! True, the immortality potion I... we made had that odd side-effect on everyone, but at least didn't make me a mindless zombie, for some reason."

"So THAT'S the cauldron Miss Reimu talked about! Kirisame, how could you?" exclaims the satori youkai while looking frightened toward the witch.

Aya looks back at the youkai and asks "what is it? What about the cauldron."

Marisa's raspy groans sounds like a raging gurgle, and while face-palming says "dammit, I REALLY hate that girl."

The purple-haired girl hurriedly gets on her feet and exclaims "she tricked everyone into making an immortality potion for herself! It went wrong and that's why all of this has happened!"

Her hands shake with fury as she finishes "that's why Okuu and Orin are dead.", then gulps loudly and lets out a sob, and cries "that's why WE are suffering like this!"

"Listen, that was just a side-effect of the experiment! Look, I'm immortal now! Just give me a bit and I'll find a way to fix-"

The bony witch cuts her own sentence when she notices the hateful glares from the tengu and the satori, sighs, then says "bah, attack me all you want! Even if you burn me with those damned flashes I'll just keep coming back again and again!"

"You selfish brat!" exclaims Satori, then Aya grins almost too mischievously and asks "so Marisa, tell me something. Have you seen yourself in the mirror lately?"

The witch stares at the tengu while managing to slightly raise her left eyebrow, then asks "what are you talking about?"

The tengu takes her fan, swings it to create a strong gust, and in doing so reveals a tall mirror covered with a cloth to Marisa's right, then shouts "now look! Look at the truth Kirisame!"

The witch lowers her arms from her face while exclaiming "you insane bird, what the hell is your-", then takes a look at her reflection on the mirror and stops moving.

"Heh, I'm sure that you'll work on that remedy now, right?" asks the tengu while grinning victoriously.

Satori is doing her very best to suppress her desire to attempt to murder this skeletal human, but after looking deeper into the witch's mind she explodes with fury.

"YOU! So SELFISH and so proud of being such! You disgust me! Even after you saw the villagers and all those youkai and fairies, you don't CARE! You still don't give a shit!"

Aya has to step in and get in the satori's way to prevent her from using a spell card, then keeping a stern look on the witch she says "I bet you'll want to reverse all this right now. You'll want your pretty looks back, and while you're at it you might as well fix all of this."

Marisa remains standing as she was, staring straight into that mirror and focusing only on herself.

She manages to take a few stiff steps straight toward the mirror and holds it by the sides, then gargles as she breathes through her mouth.

Satori and Aya watch the girl with caution since they are unable to read any emotions from the girl as she is, and seems her mind isn't doing much either save for thoughts of hair.

"GET DOWN!" shouts the satori youkai, and she jumps on the tengu to knock her down, avoiding decapitation by the large mirror as it flies toward them.

The witch's screams mix with the crashing of the mirror, then both girls roll toward the exit and avoid more flying junk as well as green sparks.

Marisa screams like a deranged psychopath while covering her face and shooting all manner of spells and bullets from her aura field all around the house, while at the same time emanating so much energy her junk takes life and now flies around the house, threatening to harm the unlikely duo.

"WE HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE!" screams Aya so that Satori can hear her over the witch's screams and the loud crashing of items all round them.

The satori youkai rapidly crawls to the door, and now the lights inside the house flicker rapidly, making everything more confusing for the girls.

Something blunt strikes the tengu on the neck, but she is too desperate and anxious to care much for it now. All her attention is on getting the hell out of the house.

The girls reach the door but Satori can't grab the knob long enough to pull it open, so Aya pulls the girl away, grabs that doorknob, and even though she's cut by shards of glass several times she pulls on that door until it's fully open and quickly crawls outside, followed promptly by the satori, who gets struck by the door on the butt just as she exits through it.

After they are outside and at a safe distance away from the thundering house, the satori girl holds her back-seat and exclaims "that really hurt!"

The tengu looks at the back of her hands and winces at the burning pain from the cuts, shakes the excess blood off, then says "you were right about that girl Satori."

There is a moment of pause, the tengu girl sniffles, and though smiling she cries "what now? We can't fly, everything wants to kill us, and the culprit of this mess is no help. So what now?"

The girl lets out a loud sob while the satori looks away.

The tengu pats the back of her own neck to make sure whatever hit her didn't break anything, and promptly finds that very thing that hit resting inside the collar of her shirt.

It's a surprisingly large Tiger's eye stone, but not really caring for such things the black-haired girl thinks of throwing it away, but instead, for some inexplicable reason, she reaches into her own backpack, places the stone within, then sighs and looks to the house where Marisa screams as she rages on and destroys everything inside.


The night has turned cold, the girls are feeling exhausted, and to make matters worse it seems the blood from Aya's cut hands is attracting attention to them, and thus both move as fast as they can while keeping their guard up.

They walk between a cluster of trees and unnaturally large mushrooms and flash to the left when what looks like a large two-faced gorilla with a rotten stomach tries to rush them.

The monster falls down on its back and makes a loud crash and a strong tremor, then the smell of its rotting guts reaches the girls.

The tengu has to cover her mouth to avoid herself from throwing up, but ends up staggering to the cluster of trees to her right to dispose of that sour substance.

Satori isn't as lucky and ends up returning in front of herself, though much less than the tengu.

After wiping their mouths with the back of their arms the girls glance at each other, run forward as far away from the smell, then drop on the ground to catch their breaths.

"We *pant* have to get out of these woods," says the satori girl as she holds her chest.

She looks up at the tengu and notices the exhaustion on the girl's face, then realizes her own when her vision becomes a bit blurred.

But they can't fall asleep here, they have to get out of the forest as soon as they can, and then she smiles when an idea reaches her, and says "i-it's Marisa. H-her mind is messed up. Sh-she's blaming us Miss Aya! We have to get out of here."

Though she talks as though the witch was after them she still tells the truth, and heavens know whether or not that witch will eventually start chasing after them out of some idea of retribution.

The tengu manages to get on her feet, and out of fright she says "let's move! If she catches us now she's going to torture us."

"Don't you mean kill us?" asks Satori while struggling to stand up, then notices the look of fright in Aya's eyes as the tengu shakes her head and says "that sadistic bitch? She'll probably rape us before killing us."

The satori girl gulps. Though she knows this is a blatant lie she feels there is more truth in those words than she can realize.

The sound of flesh being impaled repeatedly nearby reaches the girls and unsettles their nerves, then the reporter whimpers "what was that?"

The satori girl shivers while slowly looking around and with a high-pitched whimpering tone she says "I don't know."

They don't give it much thought and start running away from the source of the sound.

They can hear constant hissing coming from behind the trees and bushes, and constantly switch directions to run away from those, but somehow end up running closer toward the source.

The hiss becomes a growl; something is about to attack.

The girls find a dirt road and Aya exclaims "here! We can follow this path and escape."

The satori nods and runs alongside the tengu, and now both girls are flying through the air, their ears start ringing, their vision blanks the second they feel their bodies touch the hard ground, and now lie on their backs for a few moments while their senses return.

"Uuuh, what happened?" asks the tengu while slowly sitting up and rubbing her eyes to recover her sight.

Satori turns around to stand on her arms and knees and coughs, then looks forward and can see a blurry black spot on the ground in front of her, then says "I- I think we were shot. M-miss Aya, can you hear me yet?"

The satori feels something tapping her hard on the hip, shakes off her confusion and looks behind herself, and sees the tengu facing a twelve-feet tall white spirit with blood-red eyes.

Both girls now share a terrified look on their faces as they look at this spirit, smiling dearly at them while hissing.

Satori manages to turn her body around again and stand on her feet without taking her eyes off this new creature, then readies her third eye when she notices the tengu girl preparing the digital camera.

Aya gulps and whispers "that's the spirit that hangs around the shrine. Sh-she loves teasing Reimu. Um, Mima, I think she's called."

The evil spirit has now become something more, as even her long bushy hair has become as white as her whole exposed body, and all but her eyes glows an eerie pale green light.

Though a bit eerie, this spirit retains her skin and shapely body, making herself look appealing to the eyes, though still seems strange when one notices her knees and below are one thick ghostly tail.

She smiles dearly at the terrified girls and waves at them while echoing a giggle.

The tengu girl is already turning around to run away but her progress is abruptly halted when several extensions of Mima's ghostly tail sprout from the ground like a bed of spikes, and on some of these there are zombie fairies already impaled or trapped by coiled tail-tips, and there's even other green-glowing spirits trapped by these spikes as well.

When Aya turns around to regroup with Satori she realizes these tail-like spikes have surrounded the area, destroying any hopes of escaping the girls may have had.

The spirit giggles once more and gently lifts a hand toward the girls.

They wince and take a few steps away, the tengu raising her camera while whimpering with fright, and noticing this, the spirit twitches and retracts her hand.

She looks around herself and all her tails, smiles widely and shows her long fangs to the girls when she spots something to her right, then she leans over and grabs one of the impaled zombie fairies.

The fairy groans as she tries to break free from Mima's grasp, and fails its arms around even when the spirit squishes the exposed gut of the zombie, apparently for amusement, then she presents the bleeding fairy to the girls.

Aya gulps and thinks "what does she want with us? Satori, what should we do?"

The purple-haired girl looks at the tengu with both surprise and helplessness and shrugs, then whispers "t-try not to move too much. M-maybe she'll let us go."

What comes next makes the girls gasp with fright.

Mima takes the captured fairy and stretches its neck, places it closer to her mouth, then takes a large crunchy bite right off the zombie's throat, and the fairy kicks and flails furiously before finally stopping for good.

Its blood gushes out and sprays all over the spirit's face, and now said spirit smiles as she chews on her meal, ignoring the blood and bits of rotten flesh dripping down her lips.

The unlikely duo's faces turn black and green when the spirit offers them the zombie fairy in a friendly manner, and edges them to take a bite.

Both girls shake their heads to decline the gracious offer made by the spirit, then Mima giggles, shrugs, and opens her mouth unnaturally wide to take another bite off the fairy, this time taking half of its whole body in one go, ignoring the hands that were bitten off in the process and bounce once on the ground.

The girls are naturally disgusted by this even though they are youkai, but at the same time they start lowering their guard when to them it seems this spirit truly means them no harm.

While the spirit finishes her questionable meal, Aya nudges Satori and thinks "let's get out of here. Just walk past those tails and we should be fine, I hope."

"Something's different" whispers the satori as she raises a hand to point at the glowing spirit woman.

After finishing her meal Mima licks her hands as though she were some sort of cat, and as soon as she's done cleaning the blood off her fingers she yawns and stretches her arms over her head, then lets her arms flop down.

She looks at the girls with that friendly smile, slowly frowns with sadness, then waves as them and closes her eyes, immediately falling asleep.

The tengu wants to turn around and run away at that very instant, but it's already too late.

From behind Mima's ghostly body comes the sound of hissing and growling, and a second later six Mima heads with snake bodies grow from the spirit's back, each showing a different emotion.

The angry head to the left growls at the girls while the sad and the hungry heads to the right hiss loudly, the calm head to the left just stares uncaringly toward them, and the other two heads above the rest, happy and bashful, giggle amongst themselves.

When those top heads stop their giggling and turn their attention to the girls, all six heads hiss at the same time and lunge straight at them, stretching straight from the sleeping spirit's back.


Aya and Satori flash simultaneously and force the heads to split up and miss them, then the tengu growls, shivers violently, then screams out of rage.

She chases after the heads on the left while screaming like a raging maniac and ignores the satori who shouts "WAIT! Don't leave me alone!"

The tengu flashes the angry and the bashful heads until they slam against a tree, then shouts "YOU WON'T TAKE ME WITHOUT A FIGHT!", then glares furiously at the calm head and its annoying neutral stare.

The purple-haired girl gets slammed on the stomach by the sad head and gets her arm bitten by the hungry head while she recovers.

Before it breaks her bones in half the satori maiden manages to flash the heads and free herself, then jumps away before the happy head rams itself on her head while giggling.

She flashes all three heads and manages to scare them far away enough for her to take a look at her arm.

Nothing. There is absolutely no damage done to her arm, not even a tear on her clothes.

Knowing the answer to this riddle the satori girl looks at the reporter as she fights with the other three heads and shouts "they're an illusion. We have to wake the main body if we want to get out of here!"

Aya is trapped by the calm head, which has coiled its snake-like body around the tengu and is constricting her to the point of breaking her body, or at least that's how it feels to the girl.

"AAARGH! It feels-AAH- REAL TO ME!" screams the tengu as the snake squeezes the life out of her.

The angry and bashful heads take the opportunity to try and take a bite out of the girl, but she manages to free her hands with her camera and flashes them, making them lose their balance and slam against each other.

Satori jumps over the laughing happy head's body and flashes the sad head away as she makes her way to the tengu, but gets smashed on the face by the hungry head, which progresses to taking a bite out of the girl's forehead.

What a horrible sensation it is to have that thin flesh on your forehead bitten off by a set of blade-sharp teeth, even if it is an illusion, a game of the mind, it still hurts.

With this knowledge in mind the satori youkai gets back on her feet and continues her way toward the tengu while recovering from the pain, but once again stops when that annoying happy head gets in the way and laughs.

She flashes the snake-like illusion with her third eye and as it roars in pain she resumes her race toward Aya, but quickly realizes she is too late.

The tengu fights hard against the bashful and angry heads while still constricted by that annoying calm head, but it's had enough of her and her constant fighting back so it squeezes her harder and makes her groan with pain.

The reporter feels as though every bone and internal organs in her have just been crushed into a mixture of dust and mush and has stopped moving due to the mental strain.

In reality she is just fine and she's even holding her camera tight, but her mind is so broken she thinks she's dying slowly.

She aims those blank eyes and that strained face at her partner and softly says "help me," and finally collapses just as the snake-like creature sets her back on the ground.

Their job with the tengu is done, and now all that's left is the satori maiden.

The purple-haired mind-reader is now facing off against six heads, but instead of being frightened the exhausted girl stares back with pure hatred at these creatures and says "so you want to play mind games with ME, huh? I'll show you... I'll show you why I am the most hated youkai in HELL!"

The creatures don't seem to care, especially that calm head, and lunge forward with their mouths wide open, ready to take a bite off that delicious-looking live girl in six different places.

A spell card flies in front of Satori's third eye, she closes her scowling eyes, focuses power around her chest, then opens her eyes, her chest expands a bit, and she shouts "Memory Sign, Traumatic Lifetime!"

Using her own frustrating and traumatic experiences, Satori's third eye glows with abnormally intense light while large oval light-blue bullets shoot from the concentrated energy on her hands and third eye.

All six heads roar as the light and the bullets burn their eyes and snake-like bodies, and after just three seconds of this constant punishment their roars turn to screeches, and every single one of them retract and hide behind the main body.

The satori's spell continues for ten more seconds, and after that very last second when the spell cancels, the exhausted girl rushes to the main body and shouts "WAKE UP!" then slaps the spirit on the face.

All six heads whimper and disappear into the spirits back when Mima starts to yawn and stretch her arms as she starts waking up.

Satori rushes to the tengu, drops on her knees between her and the spirit, then shouts "GET UP AYA! You are fine! Your body is just fine!"

The tengu girl moans softly and blinks her empty eyes twice, recovering the light in them, then slowly moves her head around and asks "are you hitting on me?"

Mima giggles again, getting the satori's attention, then waves at her.

The mind-reader glares back at the spirit and shouts "we're both alive and well! We didn't fall for your traps. Now go away!"

The spirit frowns as she looks at the girls, notices that they are just sitting on the ground, and then sniffles.

Her tails sink back down underground along with all her prey, then Mima sniffles, sobs out loud, and in a quick and sudden turn she takes flight toward Marisa's house, creating a whooshing gust of wind that follows after her departure that remains for a bit.

The tengu looks around in a daze and holds her tokin on her head so it doesn't fly away, and after the wind dies out she says "so that's the thing that was outside Marisa's house."

Satori remains sitting in place and doesn't reply, so the tengu angrily says "hey, you're supposed to say something now."

The mind-reader stares at Aya with a drained face and whispers "you're safe," and falls to her left, where her head bounces off the ground twice.

The tengu girl worriedly calls "S-Satori? Satori, wake up!" and when she touches the girl's shoulder to nudge her, she realizes the purple-haired girl is literally drained of all energy.

Aya gasps with surprise and scrambles on her feet to pick up the girl, and then quickly notices the moaning and roaring zombies are getting closer to the area.

"Oh shit! Oh-no-no! Guh, I'm going to have to rush it!"

She grabs her partner and carries her like a princess; a seemingly dead princess; places her camera in front of the satori's body, then runs down the road as fast as her feet will allow her.


She breathes heavily through her mouth as she runs with what's left of her strength and with the satori on her hands.

Around her she can hear the bushes rustle, twigs snap, and the moans and hisses from the nearby zombies as they chase after their prey.

Aya raises her camera, along with Satori's head, aims it to the left and takes a picture just as a zombie youkai rabbit jumps out of a bush, and knocks it out with ease.

She aims the camera forward and snaps another photo, and the powerful flash takes out three zombie fairies that were scrambling toward them.

She exclaims "get the hell out of my way you smelly moving turds!", then aims her camera to the left again and snaps the photo of a large zombie youkai bear that's missing the right half of its face and the skin of its back.

It roars with a gurgle as it rubs its face with its bloodied paws, then gets on all fours to chase after the girls, though doing so makes its left eye pop out of the socket and roll away.

The tengu girl manages to jump high enough to turn around and shout "no time for you! DIE AGAIN SMOKEY!", then takes the photo and turns around once again, grinning after hearing the large creature crash on the ground.

"WE MADE IT!" exclaims the girl when they reach the clearing where Alice's white house with the blue roof is.

Aya smiles when she lays eyes on the house, but screeches with pain and falls to the ground.

Because of her momentum, she and Satori roll several times before stopping on their stomachs, then the tengu clenches her teeth and breathes hard through them.

She grabs her left leg and squeezes her thigh to suppress the pain coming from the horrendously large gash on her calf.

She looks toward the trees behind her and sees one of those youkai rabbits with blade for ears, and a new kind of horrible creature.

This one looks like a mixture of a rabbit-sized youkai boar with two madly barking heads that ooze black drool, has thin cat-like bodies so decayed its skin is literally hanging on by a thread of some sort of mucus, and its legs are thin, though has one large claw growing on each one of the front paws.

This creature's left paw is covered in fresh blood, so now the tengu knows where to aim her camera at and temporary kill with extreme prejudice.

She ignores the pain and grabs her camera, but the moment she aims it both monsters hop away at ridiculous speeds and use the trees and their branches to bounce around like a pair of acrobats.

The girl whimpers when she misses all the shots she takes, then out of frustration she shouts "stop moving around so damned much!", and hops back on to her feet, unaware that her calf is perfectly healed already.

She moves around and bends her body to avoid the monsters' attacks while trying to flash them, but they always seem to move just as she takes the picture.

Furious, Aya takes her fan and shouts "you bitchy hoppers can bite my tail-feathers!", then makes a powerful tornado in front of herself, traps both monsters in it, and takes four pictures, even though both monsters yelped after the second shot.

The tornado dies down, both monsters drop dead on the ground, then the tengu smiles quite viciously and says "you don't mess with the tengu!"

She chokes, her body convulses, then she gags and drops her fan and camera.

The clawed creature faked its death to trick the girl and has jumped on Aya, stuck it's left claw into her right breast, and before she can recover it opens its mouth to take a bite.

The girl recovers in time to punch the creature between the faces and knocks it out of herself, winces from the pain and kneels, takes her camera from the ground, then takes six more pictures of the monster, making sure it yelps its last before stopping.

She sobs as she holds her breast and winces when she moves her hands away.

The girl breathes a few times through her mouth as she summons strength to herself, takes her fan from the ground and places it behind her back under her belt, then grabs Satori again, lifts her over her left shoulder, and walks slowly toward Alice's house.

The girl kicks the door open and staggers inside, reaches the living room's elegant sofa and drops the satori on it, then turns around and removes her own backpack.

Her vision blurs as she rummages inside the pack and takes out one of the wards Reimu gave her.

She stands up, her wound is healed, yet she's still strained and exhausted, and she can feel it as she staggers back to the front door to close it, then places the ward on the wall, ignoring the burning shock it gives her when it activates.

She breathes through her mouth, drops on her knees, then allows herself to fall face-down on the floor, then drifts out of consciousness as soon as her exhausted body touches the floor.

Outside the house the sun rises once more, but those unnatural clouds prevents its light from shining through, and although it is now supposed to be daytime, it's so dark and gloomy that it might as well just stay as night.


Characters, Spell Cards and Scenarios belong to ZUN -Team Shanghai Alice-

Satori's "Memory Sign, Traumatic Lifetime" was derived from "Memory Sign, Brain Fingerprint".

Reimu's "Yin-Yang Desecration Orb"was derived from "Holy Relic, Yin-Yang Sanctifying Orb" and "Gods Binding Circle" was derived from "Divine Arts, Demon Binding Circle".

JUN 29 2011

Written by

Willie G.R.


A/N:

I feel I made this chapter darker than the first one, and that's good. I mean, I do love comedy, and do like adding some funny moments here and there, but this fiction is of dark nature. Well... zombies and all that. Eh, whatever, I'll start working on other fics now and come back to this one soon. Being honest here I am enjoying THIS fic a little more than the Sukima series. Maybe I just needed a break from them? *Shrugs* Oh, and thanks for reading all the way down here. Kirisame appreciates it.