Sorry for the late update. School has started for me, so I've had really little time recently to deal with stuff other than schoolwork. Hope you enjoy this chapter.

The others are still being written for, but because this has been sitting around for a while now, I thought I'd post it first. Those looking forward to seeing what Hayate was doing, I'm sorry… You'll have to wait for the next chapter.

Fate swung around, twisting her torso as she just avoided a bullet to the waist. She turned her head back, watching intensely for openings in the wall of bullets bearing down on her.

…There.

Jumping into the mess, she once again twisted and flailed, allowing the bullets to whiz by her to little effect. As she reached the ground, she saw the target, a small tree, and sprinted toward it, arm outstretched, just reaching it –

- An amulet hit her in the back. Fate flew forward unceremoniously to the ground.

"Homing bullet, that one. Always watch the patterns – just because they've all passed doesn't mean they can't still hit you."

Fate cursed slightly under her breath, rubbing her sore back as she turned to the sky, looking at the figure smiling serenely down at her.

Fate had asked Reimu to explain what these spellcards were and how they worked.

"You should learn how to beat them," Reimu had said.

"That's an essentiality to survive here."

Well, at the rate she was going, she'd be better off taking her chances with death in the massive forest than death at the hands of the sadistic shrine maiden.

Reimu landed in front of Fate and offered a hand. Taking it, Fate soberly stood, the strain from the training finally getting to her. She could barely last ten minutes before tiring now.

"You've been improving real fast, honestly. You may have a natural talent for this, you know? Using all your senses at once – sight, hearing, touch – to sense the bullets around you – duck."

…Duck?

Reimu sighed, put a hand on Fate's shoulder –

- and pulled her face into the dirt.

"Mmf?!"

Fate turned her eyes up, staring indignantly at Reimu who was now lying on the ground with her. Reimu gave a sheepish grin. Then the sky exploded.

With the distinct crack of superheating air, a surge of boiling heat rushed over Fate, forcing her eyes into a squint. Through what little sight she had, she could just make out a massive beam of full-spectrum light – a mere half metre above her. For some wholly unknown reason, an image of Nanoha surfaced in her mind.

As the light slowly faded along with the image of the smiling, "let's-be-friends" face of Nanoha, Reimu stood up, dusting the front of her outfit where she had lain in the dirt.

"Hello, Marisa. Lovely seeing you today."

Fate, following Reimu's line of sight, turned her eyes onto the silhouette of a young woman, backlit against the sun's light.

"Yo, Reimu. That the rumoured outsider?"

"Yeah. Gossip doesn't usually move that fast, though. How'd you hear of it?"

"A certain crow was flying over the shrine. Soon as she caught wind, she hightailed it to base fast as she could."

Marisa pulled a rolled out newspaper from somewhere in the depths of the folds of her skirt, tossing it at Reimu. With nary a cursory glance, Reimu parried the paper projectile, transiting it straight into the shrine where it lay in a pile of similarly rolled, completely unread newspapers.

"One day, I'm gonna take that book and stuff it down that damn bird's beak."

The crow was a metaphor… right?

"So, Reimu, we having a spellcard party for our new entrant?"

"No, Marisa. She's still learning. All you do is throw fireworks at people and hope it connects, anyway."

"I resent that description. Anyway, that's not why I'm coming here. I've got someone else that our friend here might know." Marisa stepped aside.

Fate's eyes widened.

"Caro! Erio!"

Marisa smiled.

"They're good, these kids. Managed to fight the firebug off all on their own."

Reimu muttered an approval. Fate was now in the process of smothering the two younglings to death.

"Ah, youth."

"Shut up, Reimu, you're only eighteen."

The piercing sounds of metal striking metal echoed dolefully over the field of sakura. Yuyuko sat on the roof of Hakugyokurou, blissfully sipping at a cup of strong sake. Interspersed with the strikes was a light melody, at once enthralling yet excessively lonely – like it cut right through to the heart.

Lunasa pulled out the last note of the tune, ending the song with a flawless vibrato. She lowered her violin and turned to Yuyuko.

"Is it alright, leaving the two of them alone?"

Yuyuko giggled slightly, then went back to watching the sakura.

"This is Youmu's fight. I should give her some freedom to do as she likes, don't you think? She does cook me dinner every night, after all."

She raised her cup to her lips.

"Besides," she said, casting a sidelong glance at the battle in the distance, "doesn't hurt to let her lose once in a while, anyway."

Lunasa was taken aback. She took a closer look at the battle – no, it was clear, Youmu was definitely the better swordsman.

"Ah, but you see, just swordsmanship doesn't matter here. This is the clash of two different schools of battle – you can't evaluate them on just one factor. Look closer – how are they fighting?"

Youmu handled her sword with finesse, her strikes swift and steady, her body in constant motion. Signum's style, on the other hand, was halting and seldom followed through, constantly moving back and never gaining ground. Yet, the two were fighting on equal terms; the match had dragged on for well over five minutes, and neither side was visibly losing steam.

"Ah, but that's where you're wrong. The style differences are obvious, but not because Signum is inferior. Youmu's Kendo background means she constantly keeps both hands on her sword, and with her years of training her strikes have been honed close to perfection. Yet her movements still hold irregularities – see, that arc there was swung too wide just for a bit, and that stroke was a bit too heavy."

At this moment, Signum pushed forward suddenly, her hands shooting out toward Youmu's face. Youmu dodged the attack, and moved in again.

"See? That was the opening for Signum to attack. While her sword handling is indeed inferior, the style she's using appears to be rather Italian, or perhaps German – grappling, punching and pushing are essential parts of their swordplay. The sword often plays little part – see how the sword dangles from her hand? – besides initiating and parrying strikes. She doesn't have to be as worried about being cut – her armour more than makes up her defense against light strikes."

"Did Youmu not say, though, that the things her sword cannot cut are next to none?"

"You see, while Youmu's strength lays in her sword – the Japanese katana, tediously quenched and struck and folded to perfection – Signum's strength, if I guess correctly, lies in her armour. Even though Hakurouken and Ryoukanken are indeed strong enough to cut through diamond with nary a scratch, she doesn't have the leverage at that distance to strike with enough power to break through the opponent's defense. Without her 200 yojanas, she can't bring out the full extent of her power. Besides, that fighting system is one heavily based on impregnable defence."

Another strike rang through the silence. This time, though, it was Signum's blade that had struck one on defence. The tides had turned.

The match was over in barely another two minutes. Signum had won. The two of them lay on the ground, breath shallow as both fighters attempted to catch some air.

"You're really good, Youmu."

"Same to you."

"That was a rather interesting match."

Youmu shot to her feet. "Mistress Yuyuko! I was – I – "

"It's alright. Signum, was it?"

"Yes. How did you know my – "

"These things are elementary. I am the Princess of the Netherworld, after all. Eyes of Death – ever heard of them? You can see the names of all mortal beings. Rather handy, you know. Stops the monkeys from making off with Yukari's apples once in a while."

Signum had no idea who Yukari was, and why she had apples that monkeys would want to steal, but that was not an important issue. Having stood up, she now bowed to the self-proclaimed Princess.

"Thank you, Princess Saigyouji, for allowing me the pleasure of sparring with your servant. It was an extremely enlightening process. I have never met one with as much capability with the katana as her."

"Of course, she's trained for almost two hundred years, but I can see you've had even more experience than that. Please, call me Yuyuko, everyone does. I see that Youmu has mentioned me before. Would you like some peaches?"

"Sorry?"

"Ah, excuse me, I'm slightly peckish – I feel like a bit of fruit right now. Youmu, would you be so kind as to cut a few peaches for us? I'd like to know more about how Signum here ended up in such a place."

"Yes, Mistress Yuyuko."

Youmu ran off. Yuyuko turned, and motioned for Signum to follow. This she did, falling into pace just behind the Princess.

It was silent for a while. Then Yuyuko spoke.

"Youmu has never had a match with one who uses another system of swordsmanship, you see, so she has a very bad lack of experience with adapting to a defensive style like yours. I can tell, though, that you've fought with many different styles of combat."

"Indeed, I have. It's part of the job, after all."

Yuyuko laughed – a small, tinkling laugh, like the sound of windchimes in the morning breeze.

"What an interesting job you must have. A soldier, I presume?"

"Something like that. Special Operations, you could call it."

"I can see why they'd choose you. Ah, there's the gate."

The white pagoda that Signum had caught a glimpse of while they were walking had now come into full view. The bright sun bounced off the contours of the building, throwing numerous highlights upon the sakura trees that flowered all around her. The cherry blossoms floating in the air only added to the sense of tranquility – and mortality – of the entire place. Signum stood in silent contemplation of the very fragile quality that embodied this place – the Netherworld, Heaven, whatever people chose to call it.

Slowly, the gates swung open. Yuyuko turned her head back and smiled.

"Welcome to my humble home. Please make yourself comfortable."

Therein ends another chapter. It's been what, almost a month since the previous one?

Once again, thank you for reading this! I'll be uploading next chapter as soon as I can!