Approaching the strange wraparound border of the Yakumo residence, Reimu wasn't sure what to expect. It was still almost disappointingly prosaic. As she crossed some invisible line, the shifting landscape settled into a single option, and she found herself floating in the air above Gensokyo. She hadn't thought to choose the closest point to the shrine. She was kilometers away, actually.

Without thinking, she started toward the shrine. And then, she remembered, No longer suitable to be the shrine maiden,and altered her course. She didn't want to see the shrine. Not now. She would have to eventually, whether she accepted Yukari's offer or not. Right now, she really did just need a chance to clear her head.

It was early evening, and from the air, Gensokyo was streaked with long shadows cast by the setting sun. The sky was packed with fat, puffy clouds. They weren't likely to start dumping rain on her head, and they made a nice ceiling, mottling the landscape below with shadows and providing a backdrop so she wasn't quite so obvious in the empty sky. The setting sun lit everything with a buttery warm light that helped her relax, and the air was just warm enough to to keep her from getting cold as she flew. All things considered, it was a perfect evening for this kind of thing.

She briefly considered stopping in to visit somebody, but what would she even say if she did? She needed to get a better handle on her situation before she dragged somebody else in. Had Yukari even told Marisa and Sanae that she was still alive? She assumed so. Ran had sent Marisa to get Eirin, so she'd probably come back and seen her being treated. She hoped that Yukari hadn't told them the details of what she'd done. It was the kind of news that she felt she should break herself.

Without an objective, Reimu flew a lazy, meandering course over Gensokyo. After dropping some altitude to skim over the treetops along the slope of Youkai Mountain, she circled around the peak and flew back outward at a random angle. It took her across Genbu Ravine, then along the river for a kilometer or two, across the plains, and over the Forest of Magic. Soon, she was drawing close to the barrier again. As the shrine maiden, she'd needed to know every meter of its length. Normally, trying to cross it would just result in her being turned around, pointed back into Gensokyo without ever seeming to turn. She'd long ago lost any interest that she might have had in purposely experimenting with the effect, so she'd gotten used to stopping short of it.

Today, though, she pushed forward, flying well past the point where she'd normally turn back. Slightly unfamiliar terrain came into view as she headed into the farther outskirts of Gensokyo. When she finally hit the barrier, the change was instant. The gentle breeze was replaced by the calmer air of Yukari's personal pocket universe. She found herself looking down at the house, viewing the front from an angle, with a treetop only a meter or two below her feet.

She knew what she needed to do. It had always been obvious, really, but she'd been avoiding it.

She and Yukari needed to have a talk.

When Reimu walked into the house, shortly after sunset, she was prepared to meet Yukari inside the door. What she didn't expect was Chen, laying on the floor in the main room. There was a paper in front of her, and judging by its repetitive contents, she was practicing her writing. She seemed deep in thought, with her tongue sticking out the corner of her mouth in concentration as she worked. Only when the current character was completed to her satisfaction did she look up at Reimu. "Oh. Hi!"

"... hi."

From her current location, Reimu could see most of the house's communal area, but Yukari and Ran were nowhere to be seen. Before she could say anything, Chen continued. "Lookin' for Lady Yukari?"

"Yeah. Do you know where she is?"

"This way!"

Before Reimu could reply, Chen sprang to her feet and scurried off through the house. She was surprisingly fast, dropping to all fours for short bursts of speed and leaping around furniture. Reimu had to hurry after her just to keep from getting left behind. At the far end of the room, Chen leapt into a hallway and rebounded off the wall with a kick of her feet. Reimu scrambled behind her, and nearly plowed into the wall as she made the same turn. "H-hey! Slow down!"

Already at the far end of the hallway, Chen did another ninety degree turn and ricocheted into an open doorway. Reimu was done running, though. She slowed down to a fast walk. It couldn't be that much farther, after all, and she didn't want to start her conversation with Yukari by stumbling into the room, out of breath.

The doorway proved to be the last one, anyway. The room on the other side was the most eclectic one that Reimu had seen in the place. Most obvious was the bed, a massive structure that was half as large as some of the smaller houses that Reimu had seen, with posts rising from the corners to hold gauzy violet sheets overhead. A mixture of star charts and faded photographs—some color, some looking much older—covered one wall. Beneath them, a desk held a stack of ancient-looking books, with a kiseru sitting on top, alongside coins, dice, and a small bowl of dried rice. Several vases and pots lined the walls. A weathered trunk sat at the foot of the bed. Despite all of it, the room felt remarkably tidy. It was crowded, but in a lived-in way. The arrangements of somebody who'd had years to put everything exactly where it needed to be.

Or, since it was Yukari, more like decades. Centuries, possibly.

When Reimu entered the room, Yukari was seated on the trunk at the foot of the bed. Chen was already in front of her, tilting her head around appreciatively under a vigorous ear-petting. Yukari continued this for several seconds before she said, "Thank you, Chen. Why don't you go back to your lessons now?"

"'kay!"

Chen walked back out of the room rather less energetically than she'd entered. Not until the door had closed behind her did Yukari look up and meet Reimu's eyes, giving a slight smile. "You came back faster than Ran had predicted. How's your stomach?"

With everything else, Reimu hadn't even thought about her injury over the past few hours. One hand drifted over it before she could stop herself. "It hasn't really bothered me." Remembering Yukari's blood-soaked dress, she added, "Um, how is yours...?"

"Much better than it was a couple of days ago." Yukari seemed pleased by the question, but in the aftermath, her eyes flicked over Reimu again, and Reimu couldn't help but feel like she was being analyzed. "Why did you come back? You didn't seem happy with the situation earlier. Was Ran really that persuasive?"

"... kind of. She showed me her memories. This wasn't really something you had planned, right? It's a sacrifice for you too."

"It has its dangers, yes."

Reimu nodded. "I guess that's it, then. Even if there wasn't anything else to say, I felt like I owed it to you."

"Oh?" Reimu's eyes had strayed downward as she spoke, but she would still swear that Yukari hadn't moved a centimeter. Suddenly, though, the youkai was behind her, leaning over her. She was close enough that Reimu could feel her breath against her ear when she said, "Why, is that genuine gratitude that I hear?"

A furious blush flooded into Reimu's cheeks. In one motion, she stepped away and whirled around to face Yukari. "Do you really have to do that?!"

"Reactions like that only ensure that I'll continue to do so." Yukari was smirking, seeming a little too pleased with herself, but took a step backward to give Reimu some breathing room. "... since you're here anyway, do you want to hear what I'm proposing?"

Reimu still felt the contrary urge to say 'no' and storm out, but she didn't have much to benefit from it. After seeing Ran's memories, she felt obligated to hear Yukari out. "... it couldn't hurt."

"Mmh. Wonderful." Yukari closed her eyes for a second. When she resumed speaking, she adopted a more businesslike tone. "I'm happy with Ran as a shikigami, but she has her weaknesses. She's programmed for divination, computations, and domestic chores. She's a wonderful administrator and assistant, but her combat programming is incidental. It's hardly the best that a shikigami could aspire to."

"... so, what? You want me to fight people for you?"

"Essentially, yes. It wouldn't be particularly different from what you're doing right now. You could continue to resolve incidents and fight youkai who disturb the peace. You'd just be doing them under my direction, and occasionally fighting other targets of my choosing."

It sounded too simple to be true. Reimu studied Yukari's face for any hint that she had some ulterior motive. "What kind of other targets?"

"Anybody who tries attacking me, mostly. Occasionally, people who are trying to disrupt Gensokyo's balance in subtler ways. Not every incident is as obvious as blocking out the sun with red mist. Some of them require choosing targets more carefully than the Hakurei shrine maiden might, for example."

Yukari had sounded amused by Reimu's question, which had left Reimu prickling to begin with, but the last bit had really pushed her over to outright annoyance. Even so, the offer still sounded suspiciously good. There was no hint of using her for... whatever kind of wicked scheme Reimu had been fearing. She wasn't even sure. "Do you really need somebody just for that kind of stuff?"

"Not on a regular basis, no. When I do, it would be nice to have available. And it meshes nicely with your abilities, I feel. When I don't need your services, you would be free to do whatever you want. Visit your human friends, nap every day, take up a new hobby... although you would have to behave with a little decorum. As a shikigami, you are my representative. I couldn't have you getting into drunken fights in the middle of the village."

"I don't think that's going to happen," Reimu said tersely.

As usual, Yukari beamed at getting a rise out of her. "To put it simply," she said, growing more serious again. "Ran serves as my hands and eyes around Gensokyo. She monitors developments, manages day-to-day affairs, and handles situations that require a delicate touch. I would like you to be my teeth and claws. You will be my weapon. The final argument of kings, hmm?"

The last phrase didn't mean much to Reimu, but the rest of the explanation gave her plenty to think about. Between this and the earlier conversation, she was feeling emotionally exhausted, but her senses still felt as sharp as ever. Maybe it was something to do with the shikigami thing, for all she knew. Walking across the room, she settled onto the chest. Her eyes drifted closed as she tried to correlate her thoughts, and that too, she found surprisingly easy. She could pull the memory of any fact that had come up in the conversations with perfect clarity, forming them into lists and seeing the relationships between them with a mere thought. That had to be part of the changes. It was useful, but strange enough that she elected not to use it for now. It still felt like she was missing basic facts, but she was too overwhelmed to even know what to ask. One question did come to mind, though. "... what about the shrine?"

"What about it?"

"I... can't be the shrine maiden anymore, right?" It was hard to say. It didn't feel real. "What's going to happen? Will there be another shrine maiden?"

"Of course. The next shrine maiden has been training for several years. It will take some time for everything to get sorted out, but I've already informed the village elders that you're no longer suitable."

Reimu cringed. All of the implications threatened to drag her down into despair again. Yukari seemed to sense this, and stayed quiet until Reimu spoke up again. "Do I need to move out, then?"

"Within the next week or two. You can live there until you've reached a decision. If you decide to move here, you can have the guest bedroom. Of course... there is also the matter of your surname."

"Huh? What about it?"

"You need to change it."

"W-what?"

"'Hakurei' is as much of a title as it is a name. I suppose you might be able to keep it if you retire to the village, but taking you as my shikigami while still holding it would... send the wrong impression to some factions. They're already going to be suspicious of me for taking a former shrine maiden into my fold. If it looks like I'm trying to usurp the legitimacy of the Hakurei name, things might get unpleasant."

"Great..." It sounded like a flimsy excuse, but Reimu did know that youkai ate up that kind of symbolism. Whatever. She'd already changed her surname to Hakurei when she became the shrine maiden anyway. Compared to everything else, it was a minor footnote, but an annoying one. She pushed that to the corner of her mind for now. She could worry about that if she agreed to this whole mess. "So what happens if I agree? You'll... put more things in my head?"

"More software, yes. There are some other details that I suppose you should be aware of going in. You're already a youkai now, but the changes will become obvious quicker. I can't make any guarantees about what will happen. I'm sorry. Every youkai develops differently. At the very least, you should have a much longer life span and be immune to most mortal diseases and poisons... not bad, hm?"

"Urgh. What else?"

"Hmm, well, I'm sure you've already noticed the changes to your mental capabilities. Those will get more pronounced. You'll gain some of my knowledge of sorcery, a little divination, improved fighting capabilities, several of my abilities... I'm still considering the details, but it should be quite an upgrade. Assuming you're willing to think of it like that." Yukari smirked, and walked over to sit on the trunk next to Reimu. "... it will also bind our souls further."

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

"Mmh, it's hard to explain, even though Ran and I have been like this for centuries. Practically speaking, it gives each party a sense of the other's well-being and emotional state, along with the ability to send messages mentally. Less tangibly... a general sense of empathy and communion. As long as the two parties going into it are compatible, it's usually described as a very positive experience."

"And what if they aren't?"

"'Short and catastrophic' would be a fair description," Yukari said dryly. "Why, do you really think that we're so different?"

"You're a youkai and I am. Um... was. The Hakurei shrine maiden. That's about as different as it gets."

"Hmm. I wonder. Do you have any other questions?"

"I... not right now. Maybe later." Reimu sighed and idly brushed her hair back. At home, she only ever wore it down when she was sleeping or sick. Now, it was constantly bothering her, tickling at her shoulders and poking into the edges of her vision. First thing to do when she got home was put her hair in a bow, where it belonged. "I have enough to think about already."

"Then I have a question for you, if you'll humor me."

Reimu shrugged and leaned forward. "It can't hurt to ask."

"Why do you think that I was willing to take you as a shikigami? You've said yourself that it was risky."

Reimu wasn't sure what she'd been expecting, but it wasn't that. It certainly sounded like a loaded question. "... I'm not sure"

"We'll call it a riddle, then. I'll tell the answer when you give me your decision." After reaching over to pat Reimu's hand, Yukari rose off of the trunk. "Take your time and decide what's right for you. I'm confident that you'll make the right choice."

"By which you mean working for you."

"My, so cynical. But no. I'll trust in your judgment." Yukari turned to face her again, and with a sincere smile, said, "Reimu, whatever you decide, you're always welcome in the Yakumo family homestead."