Kotohime and the Battle of Misty Lake
"…so that's where I've been," Kotohime finished. The princess idly lifted a hand to brush an errant strand of hair back into place. "A fun trip, detours notwithstanding, but I'm peeved it took me so long to get back."
The samurai sitting nearby slowly shook her head in astonishment. "You get into the most interesting trouble," commented Meira.
Gensokyo's sovereign and chief of police was sprawled atop a hill on the outer limits of the realm's only proper human village, her long red hair and flowing purple robes spread all over the grass while she watched the clouds drift by and the gnarled old tree above her hiss and sway in the breeze. The handsome, purple-tressed woman next to her sat with uncharacteristic ease, red and white robes crinkled, her sheathed sword propped up awkwardly by the ground as she took responsible pulls from a sake bottle.
They could've been catching up in a bar or somewhere, but considering where she'd been lately, Kotohime decided that it was a good time to be outside, enjoying the warm sunshine and fresh air.
"More than that, I'm surprised nobody seems to have noticed I was gone," the policewoman continued, giving her friend a meaningful frown. "Obviously you and the others managed to pull together and keep Gensokyo from spiraling into chaos, but I was anticipating a little more relief upon my return. Didn't anyone try to find me? Not that I needed rescuing," Kotohime added hurriedly.
Meira gave her a patient look. "You never told anyone where you were going beyond some sort of secret rescue mission, remember? I had no idea you even went to Makai until a certain Miss Louise appeared one day, asking if you had made it back safely."
The princess blinked with pleased surprise. "Aww, really? I'll have to send them a fruit basket or something. Anyway," she went on, "I left behind a note explaining everything, just in case-"
"I only found the note by complete accident," Meira protested. "You'd been using it as a bookmark."
"A bookmark… oh, that's right. Well." Kotohime abruptly broke into a leer. "I wonder what a nice and proper lady like you was doing looking in a book like that?"
"And the note turned out to be in Chinese," the samurai snapped, her features composed but her cheeks flushed.
"Well duh. Didn't want just anybody to be able to read it."
"I don't know Chinese, and when I took the note to Miss Meiling for translating, we learned you don't know it either!"
Kotohime crossed her arms. "It was an older dialect, I'm not surprised it tripped you up," she pouted.
Meira sighed, letting the issue go. "Your family was worried, of course-"
"So what all did I miss while I was held captive between worlds?" Kotohime asked suddenly.
Meira took a deep breath, recollecting Gensokyo's more significant events and trying to decide the best way to relate them. She'd been dreading this ever since learning of Kotohime's return, but hadn't been able to devise a way out of the situation beyond hiding.
Starting small seemed safest. "Miss Michiyo had her baby, turned out to be twins. They're all doing fine."
"Awesome."
"Mister Bayushi died, hurt himself cutting down a tree and bled out before they could get help from Eientei."
"That sucks. He was nice."
"Yes. Funeral was decent, good turnout." Meira wordlessly passed over her sake, and Kotohime sat up and lifted the bottle towards the horizon as a sort of salute before pouring a cup's worth onto the grass. "Occasional youkai attacks, mostly harmless," the samurai went on after being handed back her drink. "Reimu and Marisa spent a few days chasing some sort of smoke monster in the village. I got to help Miss Keine and the firebird fight a bastard of a boar youkai near the bamboo forest. Though Keine said that it was really a wereboar, and such creatures are becoming more common in that area for whatever reason."
"Contrary to popular perception," lectured Kotohime, "Mokou is not actually possessed by a phoenix, nor is she a phoenix herself."
"There's been some reports of a mujina running around," Meira continued, "but nobody's figured it out if it's a real one or just a tanuki. And Togashi says he saw a shirime, but…" She allowed herself a slight smile. "I didn't look very hard for it. He was probably drunk."
The policewoman guffawed. "Understandable. Though if we do find one, we should catch it and dump it near the kappa, just to mess with them."
Meira shot beer from her nose as she choked mid-drink.
"Yoink," Kotohime said mildly as she took the jug from her unresisting friend, who was furiously rubbing at her face with the red-patterned sleeves of her white robes. "Enough youkai stuff, what about criminal activity in-town?" the policewoman asked after taking a sip, leaning forward slightly as she gave Meira a concerned look.
Meira cleared her throat, hopefully getting rid of the last of the beer. "Kodama and his boys tried to start a protection racket," the swordswoman reported. "Mr. Morichika tipped me off, I confronted them, they decided to fight, and I offered to cut off a finger or two if they wanted to play at yakuza," she finished with a faint, satisfied grin. "They've been behaving themselves ever since."
Kotohime gave her a shocked stare. "You broke them up?"
Meira frowned. "Of course. Why?"
Gensokyo's police chief flopped back onto the grass, groaning. "I was gonna do that! That idiot had been talking about 'kicking things up a notch' for months! I was looking forward to infiltrating their criminal lair and everything!"
"Sorry," the samurai said with a slight shrug. "You weren't around, they were causing trouble, and someone had to do something."
"And now I don't have anything to do," Kotohime complained.
"There are worse ways to spend your time than relaxing on a hill," Meira said placidly, retrieving the jug and taking a slow sip, enjoying the slight buzz without letting it progress to full inebriation. She was dodging the major issue, of course, but she held out hope that Kotohime wouldn't ask-
"And what else?" the princess asked.
Damn. "Well…"
"Look, I'm a cop, I know when someone's lying by omission." Kotohime gave Meira an uncomfortably intent stare. "Something happened."
The samurai swallowed. "Something, yes."
Kotohime went very still, her face an expressionless mask. "Hit me," she ordered.
"There was… an Incident."
The princess' eye twitched. "Go on."
"Or two."
"DAMMIT!"
Meira sighed and handed over the bottle, which Kotohime started chugging like she had a grudge against its contents. "The most recent one was… I'm not sure what they'll call it, the Festival of Duels? The Mask Incident?"
"Please let it have been lame," Kotohime begged after coming up for air.
"It was… pretty spectacular," Meira admitted, making Kotohime groan. "After everything that had happened over the past year or so, people were getting affected. Some became more hedonistic, I think is the word, living for the moment, throwing lots of parties."
"I like parties," grumped the princess.
"But you could tell that there was something seriously wrong with the village," Meira continued. "Naturally, Gensokyo's spiritual leaders tried to improve morale, but the way they went about rallying people's spirits turned out to be dueling each other."
"I like danmaku duels," grumbled the police chief.
"Well I say 'duels,' but these were more like brawls. As though they thought they were competing in some sort of popularity contest won through strength of arms."
"I like fighting tournaments," groused Kotohime. Then she gave the samurai a sidelong look. "So how'd you place in it?"
"Don't be absurd," scoffed Meira. "I am not one for such vulgar displays of power."
"Not good, then," the princess murmured.
"What?"
"So what's this have to do with masks?" asked Kotohime.
Meira quieted down, and wordlessly reached for her drink. After taking a sip, she continued in a more subdued tone. "As I said, the revelry lasted all day… but late at night, people would go out, shambling around in sinister white masks like the walking dead. It seemed to me that they were looking for something, but whenever I drew close to investigate, it felt..." She shuddered and took another pull from the bottle. "It felt like I was being smothered. By an unnatural surge of utter despair. I could find no way to overcome it, and was forced to retreat," she admitted.
Kotohime had rolled onto her belly to listen with her chin propped up in her palms, eyes wide. "So what was going on?" she asked, spellbound.
"Some manner of youkai that could manipulate emotions. From what I hear, she was trying to find her mask."
"Oh." The princess blinked. "That was all?"
"Telling it to someone else, the story sounds less disturbing, I will admit," said Meira with a slight smile.
Kotohime pushed herself back into a sitting position. "And did she ever find it?"
"I think the p- I think someone made her a replacement, but I'm not sure," Meira answered. "I only heard about it secondhand after things suddenly calmed down."
"We probably could've avoided the whole Incident if I'd gotten around to setting up a lost and found," sighed Kotohime. "Well, what was the other one?"
"It happened shortly after you left," Meira explained. "A multitude of spirits appeared one night, drifting towards the Myouren Temple. Some Taoists had been sealed beneath it, but awakened that night. Our major Incident-resolvers gave them the traditional Gensokyo greeting, as you term it."
The princess cocked her head in puzzlement. "That's it? They woke up?"
"They woke up, immediately got into a fight, and then settled down."
"And you call that an Incident? Didn't they do anything else? Steal a season, blot out the sun, blow up the Hakurei Shrine donation box, anything?"
The samurai shrugged. "Not to my knowledge."
Kotohime seemed to cheer up. "At least that Incident was lame. Barely deserving of the title, really."
Meira swallowed, her mouth suddenly dry. "There was the matter of who led the Taoists."
Kotohime waited patiently.
"She was… she claimed to be…" Meira closed her eyes, knowing that her next words would set terrible things in motion, but resigning herself to her fate as being the one to say them to Kotohime. "The Taoist leader claims to be the crown princess of all Japan, returned from the grave to lead us."
After an eternity of silence, Meira finally opened her eyes. Kotohime had gone absolutely still, a terrible serenity on her face. Just when Meira was about to ask if she was alright, Kotohime pushed herself to her feet and, without another word, turned to walk away.
"Where are you going?" called Meira.
"To get my claidheamh-mòr," Kotohime replied without looking back.
Meira sighed and drained what was left in the bottle.
-x-
-2-
After that episode, Meira had half-expected Kotohime to make another extended disappearance, but to the samurai's surprise she bumped into her at the market the next morning.
"…has a good color to it, but I dunno, do you have any that are rounder?" Kotohime was asking a man selling produce. She noticed Meira approaching and gave her a brief nod of acknowledgement before resuming the search for the perfect cabbage.
"You're back?" Meira asked in astonishment.
"I know it'll take time to get used to me being around again, but I assure you that I'm here to stay," replied the princess. "At least until I decide to leave again," she clarified.
Meira watched in bemusement as Kotohime paid the vegetable vendor for a particularly spherical cabbage, then without looking tossed it up and over her head to land in the open-topped wicker basket she had strapped on her back.
"Two points!" Kotohime announced with a grin. "Now, do you know anyone around here who sells coconuts?"
"Ah, no, sorry." Meira decided to give her friend an encouraging smile. "I am happy to see you haven't done anything rash. After yesterday, I was expecting you to have a confrontation with the Taoist leader." She immediately realized what a risk she'd taken, that perhaps Kotohime had gotten distracted, so that Meira was now reminding her of that task.
"Oh, that? Went pretty well," said Kotohime brightly. "We talked-"
-x-
Toyosatomimi no Miko hurled herself backward as the five-foot length of sharpened steel hissed through the space she'd just been occupying, fumbling for her shaku even as she wondered if it would be enough. The invader had burst upon her like a thunderbolt, ranting and swinging her brutal weapon that clashed so strangely with her refined attire, doing her best to decapitate Miko even though she'd never seen her before.
Where had she come from? How had she penetrated the Divine Spirit Mausoleum's defenses? And what was she screaming about? 'Can be only one' what?!
"My prince!" cried Mononobe no Futo, dear faithful Futo, as she sprinted into the battlezone, long sleeves flapping, her eboshi toppling from her grey hair in her haste, her girlish face twisted with worry.
"Stay back!" snapped two voices at once. Miko traded a surprised glance with her opponent, whose blazing red eyes blinked once before her face split into a savage grin. "This doesn't concern anyone but the pretender," the pompous intruder announced.
"And I can deal with this maniac myself," Miko assured her loyal servant – both her loyal servants, for Soga no Tojiko had silently drifted into position behind the interloper, her ghostly form going unnoticed. Without a word, Tojiko nodded and rose towards the ceiling, visibly forcing her temper back in check. Her dark green dress blended in almost perfectly with the shadows above.
"Can you now, missy?" The intruder's smile widened as she brandished that unfamiliar two-handed sword. "Think you can take down Gensokyo's princess on her home turf?"
"You are the invader here…" Miko trailed off when the nonsensical words she had heard registered. "Princess?" she repeated. How was that possible? She'd studied Gensokyo before her awakening, and thought she had the measure of its major figures. Yet somehow this woman had-
Raised her two-handed sword above her head and charged, screaming as if possessed-
Miko's eyes narrowed, she stowed her shaku, and she reached for the hilt of her own blade as she shifted into a crouch. When the intruder had taken five strides forward, Miko swiftly drew her tsurugi, loosing a blinding lance of light.
The intruder's sword broke with a ringing chime, followed by a thud as the severed blade hit the floor. Its wielder stumbled to a halt, staring at the smoking hilt still clutched in her hands.
Miko sheathed her weapon, straightening to glower at her would-be assailant. "This battle is over. Remove yourself from my presence before I-"
"Neat trick," the intruder grudgingly admitted. Then that fierce grin returned to her face, she dropped her now-useless hilt, and folded her hands into her sleeves, withdrawing two glass bottles containing some sort of glowing purple mixture. "But I've got a few of my own!" she shouted, as she flung the bottles at Miko-
-x-
"Talked?" repeated Meira flatly.
Kotohime nodded. "Yeah, really got to know each other." She wordlessly held out an arm to stop her companion from walking into a pair of running children as they continued their journey through the stalls of the marketplace. "Good bonding experience."
-x-
"What did you DO?!" Miko bellowed.
"Oh like it's my fault your pocket dimension is flimsy as wet paper," the intruder replied, raising her voice to be heard over the howling and screeching.
Whatever was in those bottles had exploded with shocking force, blowing through not simply the walls of the Divine Spirit Mausoleum but apparently Senkai itself, resulting in a dark, ragged tear on a wall that now seemed warped and bent strangely, sparking with colors that made Miko's eyes water. From it a vicious wind tore at the twin tufts of Miko's platinum blonde hair and her pink and purple dress – her majestic cape had already been claimed by the void – but far worse was what the hole was spewing forth.
A swarm of nightmares spilled into the room, misshapen creatures that seemed to have been made from several buckets' worth of assorted seafood, all chopped to pieces and reassembled into horrifying new shapes. Miko's sword flashed and slashed through chitinous mandibles and boneless limbs, and though the monsters went down easily, there seemed no end to them. The nauseating tide was steadily driving her and the intruder back.
Miko ducked under a swipe from a slimy claw just in time to see some horrible jointed forelimb descend to pluck her head from her body, only for it to be batted aside by a solid blow from the intruder's jitte. The fiery-haired woman shot her a fierce grin-
And Miko surged upright, spearing some sort of shrimp-frog before it could take advantage of her unlikely ally's lapse in attention.
"Fine, we're square," the other woman said unconcernedly.
"What do we do?" Futo wailed from somewhere beyond the sea of horrors. Her terror – more for Miko than for herself – was almost overwhelming, though it couldn't quite drown out the kaleidoscopic jumble of wants and urges coming from the intruder.
"Stay back! Do not engage!" ordered Miko. So far the horrors seemed intent on herself and the red-haired woman, but if Futo got their attention she'd be overwhelmed. Miko sensed her follower's impulse to treat this latest threat the same way she did anything scary, and hurriedly added "And no fires in the mausoleum!"
"Yeah, these critters are a bit too moist to burn properly," the red-haired girl said mildly. "Also, if you've got any royal guards, 'princess,' now may be a good time to bring them over."
An overhand chop reduced a creature's cluster of eyes to a dripping ruin, and with a sound of disgust Miko kicked the maimed monster back into the mass of its compatriots, where it was soon trampled. "There's too many for swordplay," she grunted, lowering her weapon and extending a hand-
The madwoman slapped it down. "No danmaku!" she barked. "These things come from a highly thaumic dimension, anything you shoot at 'em they'll either ignore or feed on!" She punctuated her point by swinging her jitte two-handed, sending one of the smaller creatures soaring up and over the mob.
"So how do we stop them?" asked the crown prince through gritted teeth, as she cut down a pair of squamous centipedes before skewering the thing behind them.
"Behind you!" screamed Futo.
Miko froze for a critical half-second. Her sword was up to its hilt in some kind of spiny oarfish, but there was no way she could-
She heard a grunt of effort and an inhuman screech of pain, then felt a comfortingly solid presence behind her. "Bad news is we're surrounded," the strange girl reported. "Good news is that we look unspeakably badass."
Battling back to back, Miko and the intruder felled a dozen monsters in half as many seconds, clearing a circular patch of the floor around them as the corpses gradually evaporated into nauseating vapor. They could hold like this, Miko wagered, but not for long, and eventually the monsters would start to spill over – or worse, notice Futo.
"Can we win this, or do we need to withdraw?" she asked curtly, slashing at what she thought was a monster's face.
"If I can-"
"Helllloooo, crown prince!"
Miko glanced up. Another hole – a neat, harmless hole – had appeared in an until now untouched wall, and a blue-haired woman with a suspiciously innocuous smile stuck her torso through to bat her deep azure eyes at Miko.
"I was thinking…" Seiga Kaku finally noticed what was going on, paled, and then without another word spun around and disappeared, closing the hole behind her.
"That was weird," the girl behind Miko commented. "Anyway, if I can get close enough to the breach to toss another magiplas bomb into it, we'll be fine."
"That would work?" asked Miko, unable to disguise her suspicion.
"It's like dented metal," the strange woman assured her. "A good whack from the other side will knock the barrier between worlds back into shape."
The prince took a deep breath, forcing herself to trust that the person who caused this problem knew how to solve it. Then a thought struck her. "What would lightning do to these things?" she asked as a spray of ichor hit her shoulder from behind, accompanied by an inhuman shriek of pain.
"Dunno, I mostly work with explosives. Maybe the slime would help conduct it? Worth a shot!" her unlikely ally said brightly.
"Tojiko, clear us a path!" Miko bellowed. At once there was a deafening thunderclap as a concentrated lightning storm tore through the interior of the once-serene mausoleum. Flesh swollen with unwholesome fluids ruptured, plates of chitin exploded, and monsters died by the score, so that for a moment the press of bodies against the two combatants eased. "GO!" the prince shouted, as she and her comrade charged across the carpet of hideous corpses-
"No, I'm leading!"
-x-
"And in the end," Kotohime said after paying for some carrots, "I think we reached a nice accord."
"Even though you looked ready to murder her when you set out?" asked a suspicious Meira.
The princess shrugged, smiling. "Isn't that how it goes? Violence, tea party, reconciliation?"
-x-
"-so I don't see our titles conflicting," Kotohime explained, staring intently down at the table, jitte raised and ready to strike.
"That's welcome news," Miko murmured into her steaming cup of tea.
"For one thing, you were crowned nearly a millennium and a half ago, so you've been out of the succession for quite a while." The self-proclaimed princess gave her a brief, sympathetic smile. "It's a common problem for immortal noblewomen, you should ask Mokou about it. Another thing-"
Kotohime lunged forward as Tojiko stuck her incorporeal head through the table's surface, the ghost's face twisted in a comically grotesque leer, but the blow was too slow and the jitte clunked against the wood a split-second after Tojiko's unruly pale green hair had passed through the wood.
"-is that everyone thought you died, so the crown was passed on normally," Kotohime continued as though she weren't playing an extremely childish game with a fog-footed ghost girl. "I'm not sure-" clunk! "-what the precedents are, but you could try to challenge the current sovereign for your crown back. I mean, I'm no lawyer, but I do have a whip." Clunk!
"A prolonged legal struggle would undermine the majesty of my return," mused Miko. She nodded her thanks as a serenely smiling Futo refilled her cup.
"The biggest thing is that Gensokyo is-" clunk! "-over a hundred years old now. Technically it was a part of Japan when you ruled, but nowadays it's practically its own-" clunk! "-almost got her, country. My country, to be more specific." Kotohime looked up from her game to give her host a stubborn look.
Miko spread her hands. "I'm not pressing any sort of claim over this land. I'm merely here to provide what leadership I can, as needed."
"Damn straight." The princess swung her weapon again, but stopped herself mid-strike, then smirked down at Tojiko. "Thought you'd make me smash the sugar bowl, huh?"
The ghost crossed her eyes and retreated through the table again.
"And, even if all these points weren't valid, one fact remains. You're listed as a prince," Kotohime concluded. "So there's really no conflict at all."
"That has caused a bit of confusion," admitted Miko.
"I can see why you did it, though. Useful in certain situations." Clunk! "Like trousers. But yeah, I remain Gensokyo's princess, and if you really felt like it you could be Gensokyo's junior prince."
A tea cup rattled in its saucer as Futo suppressed her desire to strangle their guest. Miko gave her faithful servant a look silently urging patience. "Junior?" she asked in a neutral tone.
"I was here first," Kotohime pointed out. She sighed, stowing her jitte, and looked apologetic. "Things would be different if we married, of course-"
Miko had picked a very unfortunate time to take a drink.
"-and while I can see the advantages of such a union, I don't think now's the time for it," the self-proclaimed princess explained. "I'm trying to stay available in case a foreign power wants to secure an alliance."
The crown prince finally managed to breathe again. "An alliance?" she croaked.
Kotohime nodded, flashing a brief, brittle smile. "The burden of nobility, as I'm sure you're well aware. Our love lives are subordinate to power politics, the needs of the nation, all that. Still," she considered, "it'll all be worth it if I can find someone to help us put the Lunar Capital in its place. Those guys are rude."
Tojiko was sniggering under the table. Futo and Miko exchanged a look.
"Oh hey, can I keep the tea bags?" asked Kotohime.
-x-
"So you're friends now?" asked Meira.
Kotohime stopped mid-step, her gaze somewhere distant. "Well… we're not enemies." She flashed her samurai companion a predatory grin. "But if the royal succession comes into question, we'll just see what happens, eh?"
"I see," Meira lied.
"Anyway, that's all in the future," Kotohime went on with a careless wave of her hand. "I learned something very valuable from our new Taoist neighbors. You didn't mention it, but apparently the Buddhists were seen with their flying ship during that battle tournament incident."
Meira blinked. "Oh, that's right."
"The flying ship that everybody thought had been converted into the Myouren Temple. Yet when I checked, the temple was still there. So," Kotohime grinned, "either they've started up a shipyard or are duping legendary items, the how isn't important. My point is, they are clearly operating an aircraft without a license."
"Oh no…" The swordswoman's hand went to her temple almost automatically.
"Which means that I get to confiscate myself a flying ship!" Kotohime was practically glowing with excitement. "Just imagine! The majesty of Gensokyo's princess aboard her flying royal barge will surely shake off the hopelessness gripping the land-"
"That was already resolved," Meira ground out through clenched teeth. "You just got back and you're already charging into trouble. Lady Byakuren may have some odd views, but she's set on helping people, in her own way…" she trailed off when she realized Kotohime had already left.
-x-
-3-
Kyouko Kasodani sat on the steps of the Myouren Temple, enjoying the morning sun as she tried to improve herself.
She wasn't a youkai of much skill – at least beyond voice projection and memory, she was a yamabiko – so her contributions to the temple were limited, for the moment. While Ichirin (or more accurately Unzan) did the heavy lifting and Shou helped with the preaching, Kyouko did her best to keep the place tidy, some of the cooking, and any other odd jobs.
But she kept her ears open, trying to learn through listening, and she felt like she was on to something. Knowledge was accumulating, piece by piece, building towards an avalanche of enlightenment, crashing down from the peaks of understanding to crush the valley of ignorance.
Or something like that. Her upbringing didn't leave her with many good metaphors, Kyouko lamented.
During quiet moments, like now, she could study. "…out of kindness and pity, turns the great dharma wheel," the yamabiko read aloud, gazing down at the scroll in her lap. She paused, looking back up at the sky while letting the words echo in her mind… only to find the sentence colliding with questions. What had Miss Hijiri called Miss Ichirin? 'The wheel that guards and is guarded?' Was that a reference to this dharma wheel?
Kyouko shook her tangled teal hair, trying to keep focused. She knew that if she kept repeating the passages, she'd eventually understand them. "The Brahma woman kindly saves her kin. Enlightenment flower takes beings across the stream of confusion…" She trailed off, thinking again. Was Miss Hijiri the enlightenment flower? Sometimes when she was battling, the monk would make big lotus flowers appear as part of her danmaku attacks. And she was a savior of youkai. But the verse said 'kin,' so was Byakuren considered a youkai? How would it know? Was all this prophecy?
The yamabiko realized she was staring at a tree with her mouth hanging open, and flushed in embarrassment, her furry brown ears drooping. Then she rallied, one of Miss Hijiri's lectures echoing in her mind, her insecurities fading. Kyouko rolled up the scroll, closed her eyes, and focused on a mantra.
"Li po li po di," she chanted. "Qiu he qiu he di, tuo luo ni di…" It was kind of catchy. "Ni he la di, pi li ni di, mo he qie di," she continued, putting a bit of a beat to the nonsense words. "Zhen ling qian di, suo po he!" Yeah! And then Mystia would loose a ripping guitar solo-
Kyouko flinched. Those weren't good thoughts, Miss Hijiri had scolded her about the band. But Kyouko couldn't help but wonder if punk rock really was a negative influence, or if perhaps Miss Hijiri's tastes in music were a couple centuries out of date…
A flesh of purple and red in her peripheral vision caught Kyouko's attention, and she shunted her doubts and troubles aside, rising to her feet. It was time to fulfill her other job, the one she was uniquely qualified for.
"Good morning!" she called.
The visitor jumped, but quickly smoothed the rumples of her purple robes. "A good morning indeed," she replied as Kyouko stepped onto the front path. "You must be the new girl," the redhead went on. "An echo youkai, right?"
"An echo youkai, right," Kyouko nodded, smiling brightly.
"Adorable." The woman looked past her, at the temple's dark interior and still grounds. "The place looks empty, are you the only one here?"
"I'm the only one here."
"Heh." The woman smiled. "You like to repeat what others say?"
"I like to repeat what others say," agreed Kyouko with a cheerful shrug.
"Pretty simple-minded, aren't you?"
"Pretty simple minded, aren't you?"
The woman's smile turned mocking. "I'm a bit of an idiot."
"I wouldn't say 'a bit.'"
"Ha, you got it wrong!" exclaimed the rude visitor with a triumphant look. It quickly faded. "Hey-"
"All the senior priestesses are out on an aerial tour, so I'm sorry to say the temple is closed for the morning," Kyouko reported. "They should be back in a few hours. Now unless there's anything else, I'll get back to my studies. Good morning," she said as a dismissal.
With that the echo youkai busied herself with gathering up her borrowed scroll, pointedly ignoring the visitor, dimly wondering if it was time to sweep again. Autumn was still a while away, but there'd been a lot more leaves scattered about ever since Miss Mamizou came over.
But the red-haired woman didn't leave. She peered thoughtfully at the temple's door, and Kyouko didn't like the look in her eyes. "Since I'm here, maybe I could have a look around-"
"No," Kyouko said firmly. "Good morning."
The woman smiled, but shifted her stance so that her hand was close to whatever weapon was belted to her side. "Hate to say it, but either you let me in or I practice my intrusion skills."
The little yamabiko's eyes narrowed. She had enough to deal with, and she refused to let Miss Hijiri down any further by allowing this troublemaker to ransack the place after Kyouko had been entrusted with keeping it safe. She took a deep breath, her ears fluttered briskly-
"GOOD MORNING!"
When Kyouko opened her eyes the other woman was gone, though a few falling leaves from a nearby tree suggested her exit trajectory. She smiled with satisfaction, listening to the thundering echoes of her outburst gradually fade, then noticed the twigs and dust her sonic eruption had knocked onto the temple path. With a sigh, Kyouko went to fetch a broom.
-x-
Hijiri Byakuren tried to think of the Palanquin Ship as… well, a "gimmick" would be rather crass, as would "publicity stunt." Better to call it something that made the Myouren Temple unique, a feature. Something like a relic, perhaps?
Since arriving in Gensokyo, the Buddhist nun had been surprised by the number of its denizens who were capable of flight. But one had to admit, being able to cruise through the sky aboard a flying ship was a quite different experience.
It wasn't a matter of "join my temple and ride this boat," more like "free boat rides and spiritual guidance." If she could treat Gensokyo's people to a breathtaking view from the comfort of a sky-plying vessel, that was a good deed in itself. And if they were receptive to her message while enjoying that view, so much the better.
But… Byakuren frowned slightly as she looked down at the panorama of green and blue serenely drifting under the ship, a ship that was also her admission of a mistake. She shifted her gaze to the vessel's prow, where a short-haired figure in a white sailor's uniform stood with her back to the rest of the crew and passengers, one foot resting on the rail, elbow on her knee, chin propped up in her hand as her unruly black hair swayed from under her cap.
Minamitsu Murasa had been a fearsome ship ghost, preying upon travelers who strayed near the wreck she was bound to. Byakuren had fashioned a vessel for the phantom to captain, a vessel that was subsequently used to build the Myouren Temple. The monk had rejoiced after freeing her friend from an existence of death and violence… until Minamitsu had fallen back into old habits and started attacking people near water again. As a ghost, she needed a purpose to tie her to the material world, and without a ship to haunt, Minamitsu had returned to the life she knew best.
It had broken Byakuren's heart, crushed her confidence. She was trying to help youkai escape the cycle of animosity with humans, and had once considered Minamitsu one of her success stories. So she'd used a similar spell as the one that created the original Palanquin Ship to make this duplicate from some lumber provided by Ichirin. Byakuren smiled at the memory of Unzan ripping trees from the ground as if they were carrots…
The smile faded as she admitted the third reason she'd made this ship. She could easily ascend to this height by herself, and enjoy the same view and quiet tranquility, true enough. But if she did so, whenever she closed her eyes, even to blink, in that brief, eternal moment, she was hanging in a dark void.
Like Hokkai.
It was a weakness for her to want a solid surface under her feet, to "ground" herself even in the air. A monk of her rank should be far beyond such bodily concerns, should never have been bothered by her dimensional prison in the first place. But Byakuren knew she still had a long journey towards enlightenment.
"Miss?"
She shook herself out of her reverie, smiling warmly at the gangly teen unsuccessfully hiding his nervousness at being on a ship crewed by youkai. "Yes, Yoshida?" she asked
"Um, I had a question," the kid ventured.
Please be about Buddhism, please be about Buddhism- "You can ask me anything, Yoshida, that's what I'm here for," said Byakuren with a bright smile.
"Um." The youth gulped, glancing guilty over his shoulder as though he were afraid his father was going to catch him. "This ship, right? You made it with magic?"
The monk-turned-magician hid her disappointment. Instead she nodded, setting her hair swaying – most of it light brown, but her crown was tinged purple following her long imprisonment in a demon world with a peculiar atmosphere, and she found the result too appealing to correct. "It was nothing but a more powerful version of a simple shaping spell," she explained. "Coupled with some enchantments for flight and the like."
"Right." The teen licked his lips. "I always wanted to be a magician, see, make something incredible like this. But my mom and dad would never approve…"
Byakuren listened to the boy pour his heart out, paying full attention to his forbidden hopes and dreams. But a part of her despaired of getting through to anyone if they never looked past the magic – and youkai – that surrounded her spiritual efforts. Maybe the ship had been a mistake after all.
Minamitsu suddenly stood upright. "Somebody's on us," she reported.
Byakuren looked around. Though no one was visible, she took the captain's word – the former ship ghost had a profound connection with her vessel of choice. Which was actually an encouraging sign that she was becoming properly bonded to this new ship, come to think of it.
"Where?" asked Byakuren.
The captain turned, her teal eyes looking somewhere in the distance. "Beneath… she's-" The youkai winced. "She's digging into the hull with something, hooks or the sort." Byakuren thought she could hear thuds and grunts of exertion, coming closer.
She nodded at her followers, then smiled at Yoshida and her two other passengers. "I'm sure it's nothing to be alarmed about," she said, "but it seems we have an unscheduled visitor. Rest assured, regardless of his or her intentions, we will do everything in our power to keep you safe."
Yoshida gulped again, while the two young ladies who had been having a whispered conversation with Ichirin Kumoi paled and moved towards the middle of the deck, their backs to the mast. The human-turned-youkai stayed close to one side of them, her expression serious under her midnight blue hood, while Shou Toramaru stood guard on the other, calm and composed even as she held her spear a little tighter.
The thunking became louder, interspaced with muttered curses and complaints, and a second later a red-haired head popped over the side of the vessel. The woman looked up – was she wearing an eyepatch? – and grinned triumphantly before pitching forward and landing face-down on the deck, her purple robes pooling around her like a bloodstain.
Byakuren was moving immediately, rushing to kneel at the girl's side as she helped her flip over. "Shou, fetch some water, please," she said curtly. The tiger-patterned youkai nodded and hurried belowdecks.
"I'm fine," the woman wheezed. "Just… a bit out of shape…" she managed to shift to a seat slumped against the boat's railing. The passengers and crew started to relax.
But not the ship's captain. Minamitsu strode over, glaring down at the intruder. "Why were you tearing up my boat?" she demanded. "Can you not fly?"
"Sure I…" the woman mopped sweat from her brow with the voluminous sleeve of her robes. "Of course I can. But these things have to be done properly."
"These things?" Byakuren repeated, puzzled.
The strange girl nodded, then gratefully took a flask of water from Shou, and downed a long gulp. "Much obliged, thanks. Yeah, had to make the right impression. Speaking of which…"
Abruptly the woman leapt to her feet, perched precariously on the ship's rail with one had steadying herself on the rigging. The other was suddenly brandishing a thick, curved sword.
"Yarrr!" she shouted. "The Dread Pirate Kotohime is here to seize yer vessel! Now stand down or I'll send thee to Davy Jones' Locker!"
"You're not a pirate," Minamitsu said flatly.
The Dread Something Kotohime narrowed her visible eye. "Am so," she insisted. "Got a cutlass, eyepatch, and wicked scar," she insisted, pointing the tip of her weapon at some crossed lines on her cheek that, upon closer inspection, looked to be done in ink.
"I've sunk pirates," the captain continued. "They didn't mess around like this. They boarded boats, took what they wanted, and killed without fuss or fanfare. And I never heard them talk like you."
"No respect for the classics," Kotohime muttered. "Fine." She ripped off her eyepatch and carelessly tossed her weapon to the deck (where it made a sound more like painted wood than metal). "You saw through my disguise. I'm actually a police officer."
Byakuren and Minamitsu exchanged a thoroughly confused look. "Is that supposed to be better?" the captain asked.
"Not for you, because you're operating a Class M aircraft without a license," Kotohime declared. Then she seemed to reconsider. "Wait, I'm getting ahead of myself. Do you have an aircraft license?"
"I was not aware that we needed one," Byakuren said slowly.
"There, got that cleared up. Like I said, you're flying illegally, and I get to confiscate your vehicle," the other woman said brightly, clasping her hands in anticipation. She turned to Minamitsu. "So does this thing have keys, or what?"
Someone cleared his throat nervously. "Miss?" Byakuren turned to see Yoshida stepping forward. "You need to know, this lady? She's a bit… odd," he warned quite unnecessarily. "In the head," he clarified.
"I know where you live, Yoshida Terasaki," Kotohime said with a cheerful smile.
Byakuren's eyes narrowed, and she smoothly shifted position to better interpose herself between the intruder and the boy. "I will happily cooperate with any legitimate authorities," she announced, "but I will not tolerate you threatening peaceful worshipers."
"Then you ought to hurry up and evacuate the ship so I can confiscate it," countered Kotohime.
"No," said Minamitsu. Byakuren looked over at her friend in alarm – the ship ghost's eyes were shining an otherworldly blue-green. She had a rather vivid memory of a stretch of sea lighting up that exact color, before-
"Capital! You're now resisting arrest, and therefore my opponent!" The self-professed policewoman drew some sort of truncheon from her sash and flourished it at Minamitsu.
"There will be no fighting on this ship!" rang out Byakuren. She could sense more than see Ichirin and Shou behind her, urging the other passengers below and out of danger.
"So you're surrendering after all?" Kotohime flashed them a dangerous smile. "It's one or the other, I'm afraid."
It would be easy, and very satisfying, to lunge forward and punt the woman off the Palanquin Ship. But Byakuren was determined not to have stories of a battle on her vessel start circulating around the village, that would only hurt relations with Gensokyo's human denizens. "Are you sure combat would be wise?" she asked, trying to appeal to reason. "You're quite heavily outnumbered here."
That seemed to get through the woman's delusions, and she slowly lowered her weapon, taking in the three youkai and the magically-enhanced woman arrayed against her. "Good point," she admitted. "Right, we're going to need to set up an order of battle, with captain lady last. You other three, figure out who's going first and all that. Tradition demands that we start with the weakest and work our way up-"
Byakuren opened her mouth to start a tirade, but Ichirin held up her hand like she was asking a question. "Excuse me?" the nun asked, fighting to suppress a smile. "There's five of us, actually."
"Five of…" Kotohime frowned and did a finger count of the women arrayed against her, until at Ichirin's gesturing she turned around.
Filling the sky off the flying ship's starboard side was a mass of light purple stormclouds sculpted into a muscular male torso, arms, and bearded head. Unzan rumbled like frightfully close thunder, his eyes flashing like ball lightning.
Kotohime stared up at the apparition for a long moment. "Pink," she said eventually.
Then a giant fist, wispy as vapor but quite solid, scooped her off the deck in one quick movement. The nyuudo spun around once, twice, then pitched his captive at a sharp angle towards the ground.
"Ichirin! Unzan!" Byakuren snapped. She hurried over to the ship's railing, Unzan quickly drifting out of sight, his face darkened in a blush.
"What?" said Ichirin defensively, keeping a brave face while tucking a strand of her sky blue hair back under her hood. "She was dangerous!"
"She was erratic and aggressive, but that doesn't mean she was a threat," Byakuren lectured while peering at the lands below, but of course there was no sign of the alleged policewoman, and no telling where she could've ended up. "You may have seriously injured her."
"Unzan didn't throw her that hard," Ichirin protested.
Byakuren sighed. Violence was no way to solve problems – a viewpoint that was causing her no small amount of difficulty now that she lived in Gensokyo. But, on the bright side… "Did our guests observe our disagreement?"
Shou glanced back at the ladder, then shook her short gold-and-black hair.
Thank heavens for small favors. "Then let's reassure them that the disruption is over and the tour may continue, should they decide to stay," Byakuren said.
Minamitsu's behavior was both encouraging and alarming, and Ichirin's assertiveness was quite unlike the normally reserved girl. In retrospect it had been a mistake to let her participate in those 'religious battles.' But, Byakuren decided, she shouldn't let one small incident ruin the whole day.
Hopefully it had shown that Kotohime woman the error of her ways.
-x-
Kotohime stared up at the dust swirling in the sunbeams coming through the new hole in the building's roof – and the hole in the floor under it – as she reclined on her cushion of broken timbers in the building's beer cellar. She couldn't help but feel disappointed by recent events.
A man's head poked into sight, a man she hadn't seen for a while, who looked distinctly unhappy to see her again. "I've lost track of how long it's been," said Mizushima, the tavern's owner, without preamble. "Months without anyone dying at a table, or anything exploding, or anyone falling through the ceiling. No bar brawls, or loose monsters, or anyone vanishing from their seat. People stopped calling me Meiunjishaku. It was getting boring," he said bitterly.
"If you want boring, go get a job in the outside world," replied Kotohime patiently. Then she reconsidered. "Wait. No birth certificate, no legal identification… okay, if you want boring, go become a homeless undocumented worker in the outside world. Which actually sounds pretty exciting," she concluded, smiling. "Roughin' it in the urban jungle! Fights over food and sleeping space, giant rats in the sewers, fend off evil corporations trying to capture you for human testing-"
"Months without any nonsensical conversations!" Mizushima snapped, red-faced.
Kotohime sighed, reaching down a sleeve. "Months without a royal stipend for damages or other expenses?"
"Months-" The bartender barely managed to catch the clinking pouch Kotohime tossed up at him. After pouring a shining pile of coinage into his open palm, he swallowed whatever vitriol he'd been about to spew. "That's a very good point, actually."
"Damn straight. Beer me."
"Coming right up, Your Highness."
As the barman scurried off to find refreshments, Kotohime pondered her situation, something she couldn't help but notice tended to happen a lot after she'd fallen into somebody's basement.
Granted, she was still recovering from her adventures in other dimensions, but she was forced to admit that even at full power, the youkai and not-quite-humans of the Myouren Temple might be more than she could deal with. The magician-monk was quite formidable in her own right, moreso if paired with any one of her henchwomen. Facing them all at once, in retrospect, was a bad move. Kotohime could try to divide and conquer the Myouren forces, but the group was so tight-knit that it didn't feel feasible, and anyway she wasn't feeling patient enough for such a campaign of psychological warfare.
But, she thought with a smile, who said she had to face them alone? It was time to even the odds.
-x-
-4-
Meira made her way towards the establishment's bar, nodding at the one or two patrons she recognized, stoically accepting the intrigued stares of others who noticed her sword and garb. It was a nicer diner on the village's main avenue, a quiet place Meira visited when she didn't feel like eating fried gristle at her usual pub or putting up with some of its rowdier patrons. She'd never seen Kotohime at this place, which was why Meira halted midstep when she saw her sitting at a two-person table.
The princess raised her cup and smiled. "I won't tell Mizushima if you don't," she said with a wink.
"What are you doing here?" Meira asked before she could stop herself. She hadn't meant to sound so accusatory.
"Planning session," Kotohime shrugged. "C'mon, let's grab a bigger table," she said as she slid out of her seat, holding a drink in each hand. Meira, feeling caught in the other woman's wake, followed her to an unoccupied four-person booth.
"Oh, are you expecting someone?" asked the swordswoman as she sat down.
"Expecting a lot of things," replied Kotohime vaguely. "First I'm thinking food, we'll see what happens afterward."
A waitress came by, orders were placed – apparently Kotohime was feeling especially hungry – and then Meira succumbed to her morbid curiosity about what had happened the day before. "How was your encounter with Lady Byakuren?" she asked.
The princess chuckled ruefully and took a drink. "In my defense, I am a bit out of practice," she said. "But I'll admit, it was a solid defeat. I'd be writing my death poem if I were a samurai," she finished with a sigh.
"From the showing she gave during those battles, I can imagine," Meira nodded. It had been… annoying, to see a purported magician performing such overwhelming close combat attacks. It almost made one question why people bothered forging swords anymore. She tried to shake off her doubts, keeping focused on keeping Kotohime out of trouble. "I can only hope you've learned your-"
"So since brute force failed, I'm going to use my brain," Kotohime declared cheerfully.
Meira's heart sank.
"The secret is to meet the enemy on even terms," Kotohime explained, leaning forward eagerly. "Ship-to-ship, badass crew to badass crew. I'll be captain, of course, but there's still plenty of positions available. For you I'm thinking-"
"Excuse me," Meira interrupted, holding up a hand. "You said ship-to-ship?"
Kotohime nodded.
"Which means you'll have your own ship."
Kotohime repeated herself.
"Which is what you wanted in the first place."
Kotohime blinked in confusion. "Anyway," she continued as though Meira had said nothing, "I'll be assembling my own crew of awesome warriors to do battle with Team Buddhism. You'd be a perfect marine, since you've got a sword-"
"Why on earth would I help you attack those people?" Meira wondered out loud.
Kotohime smiled. "Because you have nothing better to do?"
"I…" Had vaguely planned on doing some laundry, perhaps spending the evening cooking a big meal she could nibble on for the next couple of days. But instead of admitting that, Meira rose from her seat, shaking her ponytail angrily. "No. I'll have no part in this."
Kotohime watched her friend abruptly leave the tavern. "Left before her food turned up," she noticed. Then she turned to the woman sharing her side of the table. "So how about you? In or out?"
"Why do flowers only put their pretty parts above ground?" Koishi Komeiji wondered, chin hovering just over the table as she watched condensation trickle down the sides of her glass, her green eyes narrowed in concentration. "It's not fair to the people who live underneath it, all they get to see are roots."
"You'd get a little sailor hat," the police chief suggested.
"Hat…" The pale-haired girl looked about suddenly, frowning with worry, before dipping beneath the table and coming up with her black bowler hat. "Got my hat!" Koishi beamed, pointing at it in case Kotohime didn't understand.
"Guess you could stack the hats on top of each other…"
"Everything's over and under each other," the satori muttered, annoyed. "Heaven-Gensokyo-Home. Too tall. There's not enough room to the sides." Koishi adjusted her headgear until the brim hid the puckered scar on her hairline over her left eye, then fussed with the dark blue orb attached close to her body by what looked disturbingly like veins.
"I'm actually counting on that. You wanna be first mate?"
"I never know what I want," the other girl shrugged.
"Positions are still negotiable, and as the first crewmember you'll have your pick of them," Kotohime reassured her. Then she noticed the nervous-looking waitress hovering nearby with a tray of food, doing her best to avoid eye contact. "Oh hey, wanna split Meira's lunch?"
-x-
The tofu hadn't been cheap – but then what was, in this economy? Anyway, the salesman had assured Kotohime that it was top-of-the-line, high-quality stuff. A shame she wouldn't be the one enjoying it.
Kotohime instead set the wrapped brick of coagulated soy milk on a tree stump in the center of a small clearing, then deliberately turned her back on it and counted to ten. When she turned around again, there was a woman sitting on the stump, albeit a woman with nine bushy, golden-furred fox tails arrayed behind her. So not a woman at all, then.
Ran Yakumo was in her usual white dress and blue tabard, a two-tailed hat presumably concealing her ears. Her hair was precisely the color of her tails, her eyes a deeper shade of yellow, and her slightly pointed face was regarding Kotohime impassively even as Ran chewed a mouthful of tofu. The kitsune said nothing, waiting patiently for Kotohime to make the next move.
Kotohime bowed. "I need to speak with your owner," the princess said, folding her arms behind her back as she addressed the shikigami of one of the most powerful entities in Gensokyo. "Preferably sooner than later, if you'd please."
Ran nodded slowly, her vulpine gaze still locked on Kotohime's. "I shall attempt to contact her," she said, her tone matching the respect the woman had shown her. "That is the most I can promise."
Kotohime held her breath, wondering if she'd be seeing some youkai magic. But to her disappointment Ran instead re-wrapped her snack, reached into a pocket, and withdrew something that looked like a very small, very flat television. She pressed its glowing screen a few times and held it close to her face.
"Master, I-" Ran was cut off by what sounded to Kotohime like faint scratching. "No, that's- Yes, but-" The shikigami shut up for several seconds as an extended string of gibberish came out of the device, stoically accepting the digitized abuse. "It's Kotohime, master, she wishes to speak with you. Shall I put her on?"
"That won't be necessary," came an older woman's voice from behind Kotohime, forcing her to clamp down the urge to jump.
Yukari Yakumo was leaning out of one her trademark anomalies in space-time, amber eyes glinting with faint amusement as she pocketed a device identical to the one Ran was using. The ageless woman was in a conservatively-cut pantsuit, the drabness of its colors only enhancing her natural beauty and vibrancy. With her hands freed, she went back to fixing her blonde hair into a neat bun.
Kotohime arched an eyebrow. "A party?"
"I should be so lucky," Yukari sighed. "Faculty meeting. Always a bore, but miss too many and there goes your tenure."
The princess nodded. She had suspected for some time that the youkai of boundaries lived a double life in the outside world, but wholeheartedly supported anything that kept Yukari too busy to cause trouble in Gensokyo. "I won't keep you long. All I need is a ship."
The gap youkai looked mildly surprised by that, and leaned back, a slow smile spreading across her face. "Not a typical request. But, it could be done. Did you have a particular one in mind?"
"One appropriately-sized for the Misty Lake," Kotohime said. "Big enough for five to eight women to fight from in an intense naval battle. Robust enough for combat and certain modifications. I'd ask for a purple color scheme, but I can always repaint it later, so whatever's fine."
Yukari nodded, looking somewhere in the distance. "Steel-hulled, ironclad, or wooden?"
"Oh, wooden, definitely."
Another nod. "Any preferences on its design? Country, time period?" asked Yukari.
"Not choosy."
"I think I've found something you should enjoy." Yukari turned her gaze back on Kotohime. "But by now, one might think, the person asking for a boat would be explaining how she expects to pay for it."
Kotohime smiled. "I've thought about it. I have no possessions you couldn't take without me even being aware of it. I can't offer you a favor or task in repayment either, since you're under the impression that I still owe you one."
"A not unfounded impression," Yukari pointed out.
"All I can offer in exchange," Kotohime continued, spreading her hands, "is an epic confrontation the likes of which Gensokyo has never seen before. A battle to stir the spirit and inspire the soul, that will make people weep at the beauty of its violence."
The gap youkai tilted her head, considering, and then matched Kotohime's smile. "You're telling me that my act of charity will be its own reward. A sentiment I'm sure your intended opponent would agree with."
"Something like that, yes."
"And what is power if not to be used frivolously?" Yukari pondered to herself. She nodded, reaching a decision. "The ship will be waiting for you when you next return to the lake, Your Highness."
Kotohime unleashed the unrelenting courtesy of her most flowery and formal bow. "Much obliged, Your Gapness."
Yukari smiled enigmatically and vanished into the darkness between dimensions.
-x-
'Super Youkai Warhead' was a bit of a strange moniker, Nitori Kawashiro decided as she drifted lazily along with the current in the cool depths of the river. The 'youkai' part was obvious, 'super' even more so. But why 'warhead?' True, Nitori was fantastic at devising state-of-the-art non-magical munitions. But wasn't her optical camouflage even more impressive? Any idiot could make a bomb, even humans managed it.
The kappa gazed up at what scattered sunlight managed to penetrate the surface of the water, her blue hair swirling about her like river weeds, her similarly-hued dress billowing as if she were in freefall. At least nobody considered her extending arm to be her most noteworthy invention. Not that it wasn't awesome. Exteeeending aaaaarm.
Maybe the nickname was a pun, like she was a 'war-head,' someone always thinking about violence? What a base slander. Sure, her backpack had enough ordnance in it to level a small town, but she made plenty of non-lethal stuff. And it wasn't like Nitori was the most violent youkai in Gensokyo. Someone was probably spreading rumors. Out of jealousy, obviously. If she was a kappa, anyway. A human rumormonger would be fearing Nitori instead, and for good reason! Not that she was a threat to humans. She loved humans! They were so… charmingly simple, when it came to purchases. Easily-distracted. A certain childish innocence…
Something splashed onto the surface of the river right above her, snapping Nitori out of her drowsy mental rambles. Her bright blue eyes narrowed as she peered up at the object, which looked very much like a cucumber. The conclusion had no sooner formed in her head than her arm had lunged out to grab the gourd, which turned out to be tied to a length of fishing wire.
And then, before she knew it, Nitori burst from the water to land backpack-first on the riverbank, her arms and legs kicking uselessly, for all the world like a turtle flipped on its shell.
A beaming face caused a momentary solar eclipse as a red-haired woman leaned over the stricken kappa. "That was a lot easier than last time! I mean, you didn't even think about it, you just grabbed the bait-"
"Who are- why-" Nitori stuttered, trying to sort out the mixture of anxiety and anger that came from being accosted by the stranger, fighting the urge to flip on her invisibility system.
"Kotohime, Princess of Gensokyo," the woman said with a showy bow. "And I'm wearing Kevlar panties, so don't even think about it."
With a grunt of effort, Nitori tipped forward to land heavily on her rump. "Never heard of you," she muttered, then started wringing the water out of her pigtails.
"Well, sometimes I'm out of town," explained Kotohime. "For a longer time than I planned," she added, frowning. "So I miss all the fun stuff," she finished, scowling.
"And you went kappa fishing, because…?"
"I need an engineer," the woman replied, bouncing on her feet, instantly going from mopey to uncomfortably energetic. "I've heard good things about you, Miss Kawashiro, and think you have some qualities that will be particularly useful for this position."
Nitori started to relax a bit, pleased that this unwanted attention had come about for a good reason. "Well, I am a genius, and always happy to help a human-"
"Though you weren't my first choice," Kotohime admitted.
Nitori's good mood proved fleeting.
"She keeps hiding behind the couch when I come by," the woman went on. "And then my second choice hasn't been seen in ages, and I have no idea where to look. Wait, you haven't seen any tanks lately, have you?" she asked.
The kappa engineer could only shake her head.
"I bet she's gone underground, I've been meaning to do that survey... Anyway, I'm here, you're here, so things have worked out after all," Kotohime declared, clapping her hands cheerily. "I'm assembling an elite crew for some nautical adventures, and was hoping to make you the ship's engineer."
Nitori chewed her lip, talking off her green cap for a moment to scratch her head. "A boat? Hate to admit it, but us kappa aren't known for our ship-making. Never had a need, obviously."
"Not to worry, you'll be just as qualified as the rest of the crew," Kotohime assured her. "The boat's been taken care of, I just need you to give it your characteristic flair. I won't insult you by giving you blueprints: simply do your best job implementing my ideas and make sure everything keeps working for an evening."
Nitori pushed herself to her feet, swaying dangerously due to the boulder-sized pack strapped to her back. "That's all well and good, but I expect to be well-compensated for my work. So what's your offer?"
"I can provide the raw materials, but that's probably not what you're asking. I suppose I could give you money. Or…" Kotohime reached down a voluminous sleeve and withdrew a clear glass bottle filled with a nearly-transparent greenish liquid.
Nitori took the offered beverage, arched an eye at the unfamiliar label, and twisted its metal cap open with a surprising snap-hiss followed by a strange fizzing as the liquid inside seethed with bubbles.
"Make sure you hold on to that," Kotohime said, nodding at the bottle's detached top. "Wouldn't want to litter, plus it's valid currency in post-apocalyptic scenarios."
Instead of replying, Nitori gave the drink an experimental sniff. Then her eyes widened and she nearly chipped a tooth in her haste to start chugging.
Kotohime shook her head sadly. The kappa's racial addiction to cucumbers was one of the great tragedies of her time, and here she was, encouraging it.
Eventually Nitori had to come up for air, gasping for breath before letting lose a surprisingly deep belch. "Where did you get this?" she wheezed.
"Limited-edition run from outside the border," Kotohime explained. "Guess you could say it fell off the back of a truck, through a dimensional boundary, to end up at a secondhand shop in a fantasy land, where it was purchased by a magical princess. I've got a fridge full of the stuff that's yours once the mission is complete."
Nitori's hands started shaking just thinking about it. Then she did a double-take as her would-be employer's words caught up with her. "Wait, what mission? The improvements to your boat?"
"And the battle to follow," said Kotohime.
The kappa engineer had to think about it. This was highly irregular, and she deeply resented being captured and subsequently bribed by her love of cucumbers. But… well, she'd never set foot on a boat before, and what other kappa could boast of having tinkered with one?
And that cucumber drink was the best damn thing she'd ever tasted.
"I'm in," she said, hoping she wasn't making a terrible mistake.
Kotohime beamed. "Capital! Meet me at the Misty Lake once you're prepared and we'll get to work. In the meanwhile, try not to go through this down payment too quickly," she added. From somewhere she'd pulled a half-dozen of the fizzy drinks held together with a flimsy cardboard carrying case. Nitori had to fight the urge to tear them out of her hand.
She focused instead on savoring her first drink as she watched Kotohime fly away. This 'Pepsi' brewery sure knew what they were doing, Nitori decided. And if she could reverse-engineer the recipe, and get a monopoly on this stuff, well. 'Super Youkai Warhead' had a certain something, but 'Boss Kappa' had even more.
-x-
It wasn't like Meira was worried or anything. She knew the kind of trouble Kotohime could get into and subsequently stumble out of, and if half of what the woman had told her about her recent adventures was true, Kotohime on a boat was no cause for alarm… or at least, was probably no worse than some of the Incidents that made up Gensokyo's recent history. At any rate, Meira certainly wasn't interested in getting involved in Kotohime's latest weirdness, she had enough to deal with trying to ensure her fellow humans could live in relative normalcy while surrounded by monsters.
But it had been a while since Meira had patrolled near the Misty Lake. As one of Gensokyo's self-appointed guardians (if one often overlooked and certainly under-appreciated), she had a duty to keep informed of the latest developments, to search out any potential threats to humanity and neutralize them before they fully developed (because of course it wasn't like she could ignore the problem until the last second and then fly around aimlessly only to blunder into the culprit). Who knew what creatures lurked at the bottom of the lake? And what if the vampire who lived nearby was up to something?
The strange noontime mists that gave the lake its name had cleared by the time the roaming samurai emerged from the simple trail used by fisherman from the village. Meira paused for a moment, letting her eyes adjust to the sunlight after marching through the shady woods ringing the body of water. She took another step forward, then halted again when she spotted what was floating off to her right.
There was a ship on the water – and not one of Gensokyo's rare fishing boats, but a proper oceangoing vessel incongruously plopped onto a small, freshwater lake. It was only fifty feet or so long, with a tall central mast and a shorter one towards the rear, on the upraised back part of the ship. The sails were triangular rather than the squared sheets of canvas Meira had seen in picture books, and not rumpled or textured either. A foreign boat? From where? And how?
Before she knew what she was doing she'd taken flight, drifting slowly over the cool blue waters to where the ship was anchored. The boat was barely bobbing, its rigging and sails flapping slightly in the breeze. If there was a flag designating the ship's nationality, Meira couldn't see it, which was just as well since she knew nothing about the banners of the outside world.
She landed next to the boat's pointy end, tensing slightly in case it started bucking beneath her feet, and looked around. There wasn't anyone on deck, but Meira could hear banging coming from below, and an animated conversation from up ahead. The samurai cautiously walked forward-
"Hi there!"
-and nearly jumped out of her skin when something fell out of the sky right in front of her. Meira's sword was in her hands in an instant, as she confronted-
"I'm Yamame!" The girl said. She was swaying upside down from a tangle of rigging, skirt flipped as far as her elbows, bloomers on full display. Her wild grayish-green hair hung like moss from her head, a manic grin was on her face, but her green eyes were uncannily lifeless, almost like a doll's. "You're not a fly, though," she added, then righted herself and started climbing back up the ropes like she'd been born to do it.
Meira boggled for a moment, shook her head, and continued on, calming quickly. Once she passed under the central sail she saw the source of the conversation she'd been listening to, a purple-clad woman and a much shorter figure standing up on the main deck near the wheel.
"-no question, I'm the captain. First mate's already taken, but you could – Meira!" With a single bound, Kotohime cleared the upper deck's guardrail to land expertly before the samurai, an exasperated look on her face. "Why weren't you here a couple hours ago?"
Meira took a half-step back without meaning to. "I'm sorry?"
"It was awesome," Kotohime gushed. "The lake was all misty, and you would've walked up to the shore and peered into the murk, thinking you'd seen something, and then the wind would shift a bit and you'd see me standing all heroically on something, and then the fog would clear to reveal my magnificent flagship and I'm up on the bow or mast, posing…" She swiped at her eye. "Beautiful," she whispered.
"I was-"
"Think you could come back later, in case it fogs up tonight?" asked the princess.
"-walking and, what?" Meira glanced down, noticed the naked blade in her hand, and quickly sheathed it, unsure when and why she'd drawn it. "Where did this boat come from?" she demanded.
"I was wondering that myself," shrugged Kotohime. "Name on the front is gibberish, Go Esperagua or something. Doesn't matter, it'll be the HJMS Utterly Indestructible as soon as I find a paint brush." She broke into a toothy grin. "Think a shark mouth would look good?"
Before Meira could answer, a blue-haired head poked into sight over the railing of the main deck. "Who's that?" an apparent little girl asked.
"Ah, yes, introductions." Kotohime cleared her throat. "Cirno, this is Meira, samurai. Meira, Cirno, strongest fairy in Gensokyo."
The fairy darted into the air, her blue and white dress ruffling from the sudden movement and her icicle wings glinting in the sunlight. She landed heavily to stare up at Meira from somewhere around belly height, arms crossed and big blue eyes narrowed as she sized the samurai up, a nine-year-old pretending to be a street tough. "I bet I could take you," Cirno decided.
Meira didn't know what to say to that. Laughing would probably cause trouble, so she focused on maintaining a serious expression. "I am certainly in no hurry to fight you," she replied diplomatically.
Kotohime was watching them both, rubbing her chin as she thought. "I'm having trouble deciding which of you to make bosun," she admitted.
"What makes you think I'm a part of this?" Meira asked-
Overlapping with Cirno saying "I'm only staying on this boat if I'm the captain!"
Kotohime sighed, sinking to a knee as she placed her hand on the fairy's shoulder. "Look, we're friends, but the fact of the matter is that I'm the princess around here. And it wouldn't do for anyone to outrank me on my ship."
Cirno scowled. "But it's my lake!"
"Only close to the shoreline," Kotohime countered. "Right now we're in international waters."
The fairy pouted and looked away, only for a grin to quickly spread across her childish features. "Fine. Then I'll just have to find my own boat!"
"Oh come on," Kotohime said uselessly as the little fairy took wing and sped off. She sighed. "That's a blow. She's small and feisty, and I was rather counting on her to balance the Myouren rat if they decide to bring her. Guess you're boatswain, then," she decided, nodding at Meira.
"I haven't agreed to anything," the samurai stubbornly insisted.
"And yet here you are," replied Kotohime with a faint smile. "C'mon, I'll give you the tour, introduce you to the rest of the crew." She proudly marched along beneath the mainsail, Meira trailing with less enthusiasm. "I think you've already met our first mate," the princess-police chief-ship captain stated, gesturing skyward.
Meira looked where she was pointing and was surprised to see a pale-tressed girl in a rumpled orange-yellow blouse over a green dress, arms stretched out from her sides as she balanced along one of the poles supporting the ship's main sail, somehow climbing up the sharply-angled strut. "I don't believe so, no," the samurai said, feeling a bit of déjà vu.
"I've got Koishi serving as lookout for now, but I'm sure she'll be in fine form once the fighting starts," Kotohime continued. She led Meira around a rectangular portal emitting loud sounds of carpentry, to the upward-curving narrow part of the vessel. "And this is the bow? Prow? The something," the ship's captain shrugged. "Since I'll be commanding from the back, figured your post could be up here."
Meira gave her 'post' a full inspection, which took all of a second. "And what would I be doing?" she asked, satisfying her curiosity at the risk of encouraging Kotohime.
"Well, you know. Nautical stuff. Use your sword against boarders if we're in combat. Otherwise, make sure we're pointed the right way, I guess?"
The uncertain pause that followed was interrupted by a crack from below and the slosh of water. Within seconds, there was a definite angle to the vessel's deck.
"Ship's sinking!" a woman called out from overhead. A bewildered Meira glanced up to discover someone on the mast above them, a pale-haired girl she'd never seen before-
"And that would be our fourth crewmember," Kotohime said without concern. She hovered back to the opening in the deck, not even attempting to balance on the rapidly-sloping deck, and peered down the short, steep flight of wooden steps into the ship's shadowy interior. The water was almost to the ceiling, but Meira could see a light within it, along with a dark shape. "All heads above water!" the captain ordered.
The light shifted, then abruptly splashed to the surface, temporarily blinding Meira. When her eyes adjusted she saw a soggy pigtailed head poking out of the water, some sort of technological lantern shining from her headband. "Kind of in the middle of something, boss," the girl said reproachfully to Kotohime. She might have sunk back a bit after noticing Meira, or maybe that was the rising water level.
Kotohime scratched her nose. "I know you're new to ships," she said, "but their key characteristic is that they go over the water."
The girl blinked, looked down, seemed to realize she was up to her chin in liquid, and colored slightly. Then with an almighty roar the water seethed around her, rapidly draining away. In a few moments the ship's hold was dry, save for a rectangular section missing from the hull, through which the lake glistened but did not spill.
"Sorry boss," the girl said sheepishly. "Was installing the-"
"Classified information," Kotohime cut in quickly.
"-and well, we barely notice the water," she finished, shrugging. She kept avoiding eye contact with Meira.
Kotohime noticed and shot her companion a teasing look, which Meira did her best to ignore. "This is our Chief Engineer, Nitori Kawashiro," she said. "A kappa, as you may have guessed."
Meira nodded, silent and impassive. The bulky green backpack and blue dress were a dead giveaway – if she didn't know any better she'd say the river folk had an official uniform. At least this was one of the more civilized youkai, shirikodama aside.
"And this is my old friend Meira," Kotohime continued, slapping Meira's back with annoying informality. "She will be our bosun once she admits that she's interested in seeing how all this turns out."
Nitori did a double-take at Kotohime's unsubtle stressing of the pronoun. "Oh! I thought – um." She quickly turned around, fumbling for some presumably stainless steel tools. "I'd better get back to work," she mumbled.
She'd tried different haircuts, Meira mentally lamented, stoically enduring Kotohime's leer as they emerged back into the sunlight. But cutting it short to try and bring out her features only made things worse, while leaving it long and unbound was no better than the ponytail – worse, really, since it got everywhere during a fight. She wasn't quite desperate enough to resort to some strategic padding, but what else could she do? Slather on some mascara? Swap out her robes for an impractical skirt? Dye her clothes pink?
"Wait a tick," Kotohime said suddenly, floating down through the hatch and out of sight. From the top of the steps, Meira heard what sounded like a lock being opened, and then the entire lower deck was briefly bathed in an unnatural pinkish glow. "Just as I thought," Kotohime said happily, as she moved back into sight and onto the main deck.
"Do I even want to know?" asked Meira.
"I figured they were waterproof, ever since I dropped a vial in the tub, but it never hurts to make sure." Kotohime was tapping her chin, staring at the ship's hull, then she caught Meira's stare. "Our secret weapon," was the most she explained.
Meira ambled over to the side of the ship, resting her hands on the rail, feeling the vessel bob slightly and the uninterrupted breeze in her hair, listening to the gentle slap of water against the hull, enjoying the view of the deep blue lake and surrounding forests of Gensokyo. It was a unique experience, and not an unenjoyable one, if she were honest.
"I am a little concerned you have so many of these 'secret weapons' available," the samurai not-really-joked, glancing back at the ship's captain.
"It's the boat's fault," Kotohime declared, folding her arms and leaning against the mast. "She'll serve our purposes just fine, but she arrived completely unarmed! Hence the modifications."
Which didn't at all address Meira's concerns, but she knew better than to press the issue. Anyway, something else was bothering her. "You were talking about the crew," she started slowly.
Kotohime gave a politely patient look.
"You said there were four crew members," continued Meira, "but I only count three."
"You mean you're not staying?" asked Kotohime as though her birthday had been canceled.
"I didn't say that," protested Meira quickly, and she immediately realized the trap she'd fallen into.
Kotohime's smile could have been normal manic happiness or that triumphant look she got in the rare event she outsmarted someone. "Well, I said four," she explained, "but recruitment's still open. We'll just have to see who else turns up," she finished unconcernedly. "In the meantime," the princess continued, clapping her hands, "let's set up some deck guns!"
Meira sighed, wondering if she could subtly sabotage the weapons, before unhappily concluding that Kotohime would be sure to notice. If the girl knew anything, it was gunpowder. "Surely you don't need them to defeat Lady Byakuren?" she asked, appealing to reason.
"Of course not, I've got something else planned for her." Kotohime pulled some sort of metal brace from somewhere and started testing its placement on the ship's guardrail. "But we'll need all the firepower we can get if we want to survive long enough to fight the Myourens." She saw the confused look on Meira face and flashed a dangerous smile, tilting her head towards the distant shore, where the windows of a red manor shone in the sunlight.
-x-
"She's on my lake!"
Patchouli Knowledge, magician, scholar, and all-around troubleshooter for the Scarlet Devil Mansion, looked up from the yellowed tome in front of her and sighed. At this rate she'd never finish that translation.
The annoying thing was that the library entrance was hundreds of feet below her, since she'd reorganized her collection into a more vertical configuration. Now all its shelves lined the walls of a titanic tower, occasionally interspaced with multi-story windows, free-floating globes of light, or gravity-defying platforms supporting desks, chairs, and lamps. Patchouli was still getting used to the arrangement, and while it added a new hassle to dropped books, it did mean that there were fewer places for, say, thieving witches to hide.
The set-up also meant that the complainer must have saved her rant during the long ascent from the entrance, until she neared the platform Patchouli was currently working on. That took a unique mixture of immaturity and patience, which meant the magician could've identified the speaker even if she hadn't recognized her voice. The only surprise was that she was up this early.
Remilia Scarlet burst into sight over the edge of the platform with an unnecessary downbeat of her bat-like wings, her pink dress ruffled from the speed of her flight. She rode out her momentum in an arc and landed easily right next to Patchouli, red eyes blazing, pale blue hair in disarray, her childish face twisted into a jealous scowl. "In broad daylight, even, in a huge boat! A brazen trespasser-"
"I wasn't aware we'd laid claim to the lake," interrupted Patchouli as she swiveled her chair to face her friend, smoothing the wrinkles of her pale purple... well, she wouldn't call them pajamas. House robes.
"Our mansion's right on the shore, isn't it?" snapped Remilia, folding her arms.
"And I'm sure there's a fairy colony or two along other stretches," Patchouli countered, smiling slightly. "Should we recognize that ice fairy's claim, if she presses it?"
That earned a glare from Remilia, but vampire or not, after a hundred years it had quite lost its effect on Patchouli.
"Or were you thinking more in terms of legal documents?" continued the magician, starting to enjoy yourself. "I don't recall you buying a deed to this property, much less the lake next to it. Though of course we must have since you claim-" At which point Patchouli's voice gave out and she was interrupted by a coughing fit.
Remilia hurried to hand her a nearby cup of tea, which Patchouli took gratefully. "I don't care if it's 'legal' or not," Remilia pouted as her friend drank. "It's a flagrant provocation, and I won't stand for it."
Patchouli set the tepid refreshment down, taking a moment to concentrate on breathing. She hadn't spoken in hours. "Perhaps we should start over?" she wheezed. "Who is 'she?'"
The vampire girl smirked, an expression made disconcerting by the fang tip protruding through her lips. "You went through all the trouble to make these windows, but you haven't looked out of them lately, have you?"
"They're mostly for light," Patchouli admitted, rising slightly out of her chair to look around. Her current seat was situated halfway up the nearest quartet of windows, each situated equidistantly around the tower, and each displaying one of the cardinal directions as viewed from the mansion's central clock tower – a relatively minor enchantment compared to the structure of the library itself. Sure enough, through the window overlooking the lake Patchouli could see a good-sized vessel bobbing in place.
"It's that Kotohime person," said Remilia. "I'd almost forgotten she existed, when suddenly she starts paddling around in my lake."
"I don't see oars," Patchouli said mostly to herself. "The boat looks anchored, in fact."
"It's a calculated insult," the vampire continued, wings snapping in irritation.
"So is that all she's doing, sitting on a stationary boat?" asked the magician.
"For now, but she's clearly up to something," Remilia huffed. She continued to stare out the window at the sunlit lake, eyes narrowed in suspicion.
Patchouli waited to see if the rant would continue, then asked "So why did you need to tell me about this?"
Her friend turned, suddenly smiling. "You're going to make me my own boat, of course! My claim on this territory has been challenged, and I shall respond in kind."
"Of course," the purple-pajama'd practitioner of magic sighed, sticking a bookmark in the tome she had been working from, and reached for one of her spellbooks.
"And show some enthusiasm," Remilia added, still smiling. "This should be a unique test of your abilities."
Patchouli didn't respond, instead flipping through the yellowing pages covered in arcane formulae and diagrams, feeling a quiet sort of nostalgia as she browsed past old spells she hadn't used in decades. "The bulk of the work will be an application of floramancy, fairly straightforward, I should think," she thought aloud. "If you want an 'authentic' vessel, adding nails and such would require just a bit of metalshaping. I'm sure Sakuya can come up with canvas and rope…" Patchouli had to admit, the project was beginning to sound like an interesting challenge.
"You can do it, then?" asked an eager Remilia.
Patchouli responded with an insulted glower. "The only difficult part will be the design, and I'm sure I have something on shipmaking somewhere."
"Won't you get hurt by the water?" a younger girl's voice inquired.
Remilia's jump of surprise was a sudden blur due to her vampiric reflexes, then she took a few steps around Patchouli's desk to look down at the figure on the floor next to it. "What are you doing here?" she demanded.
Flandre Scarlet was stretched out on her belly, chin propped up in her hands, stick-thin legs kicking slightly, her unusual wings protruding from her back like wrought-iron light fixtures dangling with multicolored crystals. "Been here," she replied without lifting her capped head, as she turned the page of the book in front of her.
"Flandre asked if she could come in to pick out some reading material," Patchouli explained. She looked down somewhat sheepishly. "She's been so quiet, I forgot she was here."
"She doesn't damage your books?" asked Remilia warily.
The other vampire looked up to glare at her older sibling, brushing a clump of her pale yellow hair out of her red-on-red eyes. "Why would I do that to Patchy? Anyway, they've got pretty pictures in them." She went back to her book. "This Iron Bosh guy makes funny drawings."
"Hieronymus Bosch," Patchouli corrected.
Remilia gave her a look, then returned her gaze to her sister. "What did you mean about the water?"
"Rain and streams hurt," Flandre explained, eyes glued to the printed image of an intricately-detailed painting. "Otherwise I'd go out and play more often. So the lake should hurt too, right?"
Patchouli gave her friend an inquisitive look, and was quietly gratified to see Remi looking uncomfortable. The vampire disliked discussing her weaknesses.
"It's a lake," Remilia decided after a moment's thought. "Not running water. It'll be fine. After all, our ancestor was able to sail to England."
"I think you're getting the historical voivode and the fictional count confused," Patchouli murmured.
"What if I stirred the water up?" pondered Flan out loud, smiling into her book.
"Still wouldn't count," Remilia snapped immediately, before looking at Patchouli for confirmation.
"Even if it did," Patchouli added, "I think a weather control spell would override the existing conditions. Thus rain wouldn't be an issue either."
"Wish you'd use those spells when I want to go out to play," grumped Flandre. "Every time I try, it starts raining."
Remilia and Patchouli exchanged a glance. "In the meanwhile," the librarian said, "we should work on your ship design."
"Yes, the design," Remilia repeated, her eyes glowing like the ruddy sun setting in the window behind her. "Crimson sails, and a scarlet hull. A snarling gargoyle on the prow, the Scarlet crest on the flags-"
"I was referring to what type of boat you wanted."
"A proper ship," Remilia said promptly. "Big, tall, masts like tree trunks, sails like white leaves, like…" The vampire girl trailed off, suddenly looking somewhere very far away. "We went to a port city once, Antwerp… or was it Amsterdam? But all the ships in the harbor, it was like a floating, snow-covered forest." She smiled wistfully. "Flan actually cried, she didn't know what it was."
"I did not!"
"You were pretty little," Remilia shrugged. "I'm surprised you remember it."
"I remember it better than you," Flandre countered, "because I never-"
Patchouli closed her spellbook and rose to her feet, then off them, drifting serenely over the edge of her reading platform to look down into the well-read abyss beneath. "This way, if you please, Remi," she interrupted to forestall an argument. "Let's find a ship worthy of you."
"Of course. Flan, don't break anything," the vampire ordered her younger sibling. As she and her librarian descended, Remilia asked "Shouldn't your familiar be helping us?"
"She said she had family in town and requested a few days off," Patchouli replied. "Sadly, the difference to my library's operation has been negligible." She'd been a bit curious about what kind of family Koakuma was visiting, but decided that if it was outside her library walls, it wasn't her business. Unlike building ships, evidently.
-x-
-5-
What afternoon remained was passed uneventfully, or as uneventfully as could be expected on a ship commanded by Kotohime.
While Meira helped install mounts for the iron tubes that Kotohime dubbed deck guns, the ship would creak and tilt alarmingly as the kappa working below sawed holes in the hull to make room for more mysterious devices, while Kotohime bounced between the two crew members offering commands and what she considered helpful advice. The highlight was when Kotohime dropped a weapon that blew a hole in the rail when it hit the deck, giving Meira a retroactive panic attack when she remembered gazing down the barrel of a similar device.
But after the sun sank behind the clouds lining the horizon, Kotohime announced she was done for the day and sent… someone, Meira's memory was fuzzy on the subject for some reason… off to run errands and pick up food, and the princess retired to her cabin. Which was to say, the only cabin on the ship.
This left Meira feeling quite out of place, as she had no desire to get in the way of whatever the kappa was doing, not to mention suffer another flustered stare. So after pacing the deck for a few minutes, mentally arguing with herself over whether now'd be a good time to go home, she found herself standing before the door leading to the small cabin on the rear of the ship.
Meira knocked once, didn't hear a reply, and so tentatively eased open the portal. "Kotohime?" she asked.
It took a few seconds for Meira to be able to make out anything; the room's only illumination came from a candle flickering in a glass and iron lantern on the captain's desk, and a few orange beams of cloud-shrouded sunset that made it through the quite smudged glass windows taking up the far wall. A high-backed chair was positioned between the desk and windows, currently facing away from Meira. The room felt surprisingly claustrophobic, the warm darkness oppressive.
"Your Highness?" she tried again. Sometimes the phrasing mattered.
The chair turned ninety degrees – how in the world had Kotohime gotten a swivel chair on this old boat? – to reveal Gensokyo's princess slouched within, her deep purple robes a shade of black in the dismal lighting. Her face was almost completely cast in shadow, save for the pale flesh around her lips.
"What is it?" Kotohime answered softly.
"I just…" This was ridiculous, Meira realized, she had no reason to be intimidated. The swordswoman set her jaw, straightened her back (and felt a few stray hairs brush the low ceiling), and took a breath. "I've played along so far, but just what do you hope to accomplish with this? You have got your boat, isn't that enough?"
"Patience, my friend," was Kotohime's placid reply. "This is merely the first move in a longer game."
"I… think I understand some of it," Meira ventured, still off-balance from this somber, conniving Kotohime. "You did say that you wanted to fight the Myouren Temple ship-to-ship. Obviously, you now have your ship. So are you expecting the sea ghost to be drawn to you, something like that?"
Kotohime's lips quirked into a faint smile. "Gensokyo is a powder keg," she lectured. "Magical beings consider it their refuge, but it is in actuality a prison. Youkai strong enough to control wide territories, powers that once ruled kingdoms, are now crammed together in a part of Japan small enough to be forgotten by the rest of it. With the choice between coexistence or extinction, a status quo can be reached, but it is a tenuous peace, where a single spark can ignite a conflagration of conflict."
Meira nodded slowly, wondering whether Kotohime had practiced this speech. "And this boat is a spark."
The princess barely inclined her head in acknowledgement. "Even as we speak, the lady of the mansion on the lakeside watches jealously, wondering why she never thought to build a ship to patrol 'her' waters. Soon she will move against us, attempt to outdo us, if not destroy us. And like a rock tumbling down a mountainside, her actions will inspire others. Her own rivals shall investigate and be drawn into the conflict. And then, my loyal samurai, whether the ghost is drawn by the ships, or the monk to the battle between them, the Myouren Temple shall fall into my trap."
Meira took a half-step back, bewildered. "That's how it will all happen, is it?"
"I have foreseen it," Kotohime replied confidently. Her smug smile faded as she added "But in case that doesn't work, I sent out invitations."
-x-
You're Invited!
to the
1st ANNUAL
GENSOKYAN PRINCESSES'
FLOATING FREE-FOR-ALL!
When and Where?
Tomorrow evening at the Misty Lake!
What Should I Bring?
A boat and your finest warriors!
No need to RSVP, just come get some!
Reisen Udongein Inaba stood nervously at attention while Eirin Yagokoro scowled down at the note in her hands. The silver-haired woman's usually ageless and wise features betrayed a most rare emotion: bafflement. It was at the same time frightening and gratifying to see that there was something her master didn't know how to deal with, Reisen reflected.
But her other superior had no such concerns. "I never knew Gensokyo had something like this!" gushed Kaguya Houraisan. Perhaps the most beautiful woman in the world, albeit one not native to it, she was pacing back and forth across one of Eientei's chambers in excitement, her pink and red robes swishing on the living room floor, her shimmering waist-length black hair swaying as she walked. "I always thought its people were content to fly, but here we're being invited to some sort of floating party on the lake!"
"I, er-" Reisen flinched as Eirin and Kaguya's gazes fell upon her, but Eirin softened the look with an encouraging nod. So the lunar rabbit nervously cleared her throat, brushed some strands of long lavender hair out of her face, and explained "I think 'free-for-all' actually refers to a battle, Your Highness."
Kaguya blinked. "Oh? Are we being challenged to a duel?"
"I do not believe so," Eirin answered slowly, folding her arms in front of her quartered red and blue nurse's uniform. "From the way it's worded, my guess is that every princess in Gensokyo would be eligible to participate."
"Like I said, 'free-for-all,'" Reisen agreed.
"Except Her Highness is the only princess in Gensokyo," Eirin continued. "So the scenario is entirely nonsensical."
Kaguya smiled warmly at her guardian and dearest companion. "Don't be so hard on Kotohime. If she wants to be a princess, I see no reason to argue."
"She's insane."
The Lunarian princess' smile only got brighter. "Are any of us in a position to judge?"
A pair of floppy white ears poked into sight from behind the room's couch, making Reisen and Eirin start.
Kaguya followed Reisen's gaze and brought a dangling sleeve to her chin. "Ah. My apologies, Tewi, I didn't see you."
"No offense taken," said an unconcerned girlish voice, and the ears disappeared.
Reisen noticed Eirin's eyes narrow slightly, and shared her master's annoyance. Another little reminder that the earthbound rabbit could escape detection as she moved about the halls of Eientei, even though Reisen had been half-consciously monitoring the room's entrances for potential dangers, and Eirin had surely been doing the same. Granted, Tewi wasn't a threat... at least, not most of the time, there was her so-called 'pillaging mode' that-
"Regardless of who is or isn't a princess," Eirin decided, not adding 'or insane,' "I'm not sure why we're expected to own a boat. Gensokyo is hardly the place for one."
Kaguya actually looked crestfallen, yet still breathtaking even when her rich brown eyes were downcast.
"Where did this Kotohime got hers, then?" Reisen mused aloud.
The princess perked up at that, tilting her head quizzically before looking towards the sofa again. "Tewi?" she asked.
The pair of floppy white ears poked up once more. "Reisen did it," was the automatic reply.
Kaguya shot the accused a brief smile before continuing. "Do you know where someone in Gensokyo would get a boat?" she asked politely.
With a blur of motion that made Reisen reflexively shift into a combat stance, the other rabbit backflipped over the sofa, landed, spun on her socks and smiled innocently at the room's occupants. Tewi Inaba was short, clad in a simple pale pink dress, and her dark hair was thick and curly, so in just about every respect she seemed interchangeable with the other childish youkai rabbits running around the forest... save for the fact that they took orders from her, and had apparently been doing so for longer than the bamboo forest existed. On rare occasions, Reisen saw in the Earth rabbit's eyes a sort of timeless wisdom she usually associated with Eirin Yagokoro. Which made Tewi's usual behavior all the more annoying.
Tewi smiled brightly. "I'm sure a fisherman could put together a raft for you if you paid him enough. Or you could try and charm him and get it for free." She nodded at the other rabbit. "If you don't feel like going yourself, put Reisen in that miniskirt, see if he has a thing for-"
"Tewi," Eirin said patiently.
As if she hadn't been saying anything before, Tewi began pacing back and forth, her hands clasped behind her back just above her poofy white tail. "Gensokyo has no shipyards, so any vessel larger than a fisherman's boat would have to be imported," she lectured. "The obvious example is the quasi-Buddhist's shrine-boat. Since Kotohime didn't succeed in her attempt to capture said boat, she's-"
"Huh?" interrupted Reisen. Then she grimaced as Tewi stamped on her foot.
"-probably gotten Yukari to provide one," the half-pint rabbit girl continued without breaking stride, her carrot pendant jiggling with each step. "So I suppose that's one avenue of inquiry."
Eirin and Kaguya traded a look. "Let's save that for a last resort," the princess suggested.
"I thought as much," Tewi said with a brief bow, before resuming her pacing. "The other option would be to find another vessel that has passed through the Border 'naturally,' so to speak."
Eirin frowned. "But the odds of that happening would be…" She stared at Tewi for a long moment. "How long have you had one?" she demanded, eyes narrowed.
Tewi smiled guilelessly, but her sparkling dark red eyes seemed to convey approval. "Long enough to get it shipshape. She's a vintage yakatabune, a real beauty."
"Oh, how wonderful!" Kaguya clapped her hands in excitement, the room brightening with her smile. "It's been centuries since I was last on one! They're marvelous vessels," she added for Reisen's benefit, "like a floating entertainment room."
"Not a warship?" the lunar rabbit asked, failing to disguise her nervousness. If the invitation was for a battle... She tried to phrase things delicately. "Are you sure that's appropriate for this event, Your Highness?"
"With you and Eirin at my side, why wouldn't it be?" replied Kaguya. And though she was still smiling, still radiantly beautiful, there was an edge to that smile that Reisen usually saw when Fujiwara no Mokou was around.
Eirin hadn't turned her attention from Tewi. "Where is this boat?"
"In a safe location," the rabbit said calmly. "But I can have it at the Misty Lake by tomorrow evening, easily."
Eirin held her gaze for a few seconds, but Tewi didn't even flinch. "Then," she said, turning to her beloved princess, "it seems all we have left to do is prepare for the occasion."
Kaguya clapped her hands and beamed at Reisen. "Right! We'll need you looking your best for the battle, so let's get that dress jacket out…"
The lunar rabbit felt her ears droop. "But it's summer," she protested.
"It'll be cool in the evening, doubly so since we'll be over water. Now come along!"
Reisen offered no further resistance as Kaguya dragged her towards her bedroom. This wouldn't be the first time a Lunarian princess used her to play dress-up, and Kaguya usually left her with a few shreds of dignity. And really, there were worse things to be than someone's living doll. Reisen knew that all too well.
-x-
"Okay, it was funny the first few times, but I'm starting to get tired of it," declared Kotohime, waving a half-eaten chicken leg around like a staff of office. "And it's going to be important to work together once the battle starts."
Dinner had been a pleasant surprise, some roast poultry, assorted greens and genuine foreign bread from… somewhere, delivered by someone. They'd crammed everyone around the table in Kotohime's cabin, marveled at the crude metal dishes and eating implements before digging in, but just when Meira had started to relax, Kotohime had gotten upset about something.
Now Meira was fighting to keep her composure, and flustered that she couldn't quite remember why she was being criticized. "I'm not sure-"
"Ah!" The princess cut her off with a decisive slash of her finger food. "Attend. Look to my right, aaaand…" Meira obligingly turned her head, then jerked in surprise at the sight of the curly-haired woman sitting next to Kotohime. "This is Koishi," continued Kotohime. "Koishi. Say it with me."
"Koishi," Meira mumbled like she'd be dragged back through time to Keine Kamishirasawa's school. The girl waved cheerily in response.
"She's a satori, as you might have noticed," Kotohime went on, gesturing at the other woman's strangest feature, a round object resembling a tightly-closed eye connected to her by artery-blue cords looped loosely around the outside of her clothing.
"I was, but now I think I'm a ghost," Koishi said brightly, her face smiling but her eyes disconcertingly empty. "Not many people notice me. I must've died at some point."
"But she's closed her third eye, so instead of her reading your thoughts you can't read her everything," the police chief continued.
"Sometimes I make friends, but then they get big, and they're not friends anymore," observed the strange girl. "I guess ghosts don't get to have friends."
"And that means whenever you turn your attention away from her, you forget she was ever there," finished Kotohime. "The overall effect is similar to Nitori's cloaking device, just you know, disturbing."
"Maybe that's why ghosts are always trying to kill people," theorized Koishi, hand hovering over the knife lying on the table in front of her.
Meira blinked, trying to wrap her head around the situation. "So how are you and Miss Kawashiro immune to this?"
"I am an S-rank esper," Kotohime said reproachfully. "And Nitori probably has some ocular augmentations that allow her to-"
A pair of blue pigtails swayed as Nitori hurriedly shook her head, gulping down another forkful of salad. "Nah, I was looking over Marisa's shoulder when she fought Koishi the first time. I think once you know she exists you can remember she exists, or something like that."
"Oh that's right, I do have friends!" Koishi said excitedly. She wiped her knife off with her napkin and set it down on her cleared plate, then continued to smile guilelessly at the three other women at the table.
Kotohime cleared her throat. "Well, we'll just have to see. Meira, is there anything on the back of the door?"
The samurai obligingly glanced over her shoulder at the shadows projected on the cabin wall. Wait, there was one too many… she shook her head and looked back to Kotohime.
"And can you name all your fellow crewmembers?" the princess asked, giving her a shrewd look.
Mentally, Meira sighed, but sometimes it wasn't worth asking questions. "Yourself, myself, Miss Kawashiro, and…" she blinked in confusion, then almost fell out of her seat at the sight of the woman next to her at the tiny table.
Kotohime scratched her chin. "Let's get a nametag."
-x-
Taoism was all about using knowledge to improve oneself, seeking enlightenment not to escape from the material world, but to master it. In this case, Toyosatomimi no Miko would settle for figuring out just how Kotohime had managed to unleash a tide of nameless horrors in her living room.
Miko was settled at her desk, earmuffs off, listening to the reassuring silence of the sleeping Hall of Dreams while she stayed up in search of a scroll with the knowledge she sought. Getting to Senkai wouldn't have been too difficult, of course, though it was surprising that someone as unstable as the self-proclaimed princess had figured out the trick with the cracks. But the events of the previous day – or two days ago, if she'd stayed up later than she meant to – raised disturbing questions about the stability of the sealed world Miko had created.
She went over the text she had used to craft the ritual, in the off-chance that she'd missed something when she had read and re-read the fading script prior to casting the spell, but nothing helped. Miko sank back in her chair with a sigh, reluctantly admitting that she probably lacked the theory behind the magic. Or maybe she had done something the ancient sages never anticipated? Was it safe to create a pocket dimension within another pocket dimension? Everything she had learned assured her that there was infinite space to work with if one knew where to look, but Kotohime's attack showed that perhaps some of that space was already occupied.
Miko grimaced. It'd be weeks before she'd have her appetite for seafood back.
"My, you are working hard. You didn't even hear me coming!"
Miko hadn't time to turn before a pair of hands were on her shoulders with mildly annoying familiarity. "Or you've gotten better at sneaking, master," she replied, taking a renewed interest in the texts before her. Without looking back at her visitor, she added "I've heard fewer complaints about an impossible thief as of late. I'd like to assume that you've seen the error of your ways, but perhaps you've merely become more subtle-"
"Oh, you're no fun!" Seiga Kaku huffed, swinging herself around to hover beside Miko's desk, arms crossed over her teal dress. "I toil for years giving you the best education a crown prince could ask for, and here you are with nothing but criticism for me."
Miko smiled thinly. "I had a proper welcome for you ready the other day, but you ran off before I could deliver it."
"You seemed busy," said Seiga, waving a hand as she tried to disguise a brief shudder.
"Don't worry, Futo, Tojiko and I all survived. Your retreat didn't doom us to a grisly demise."
The hermit sniffed. "I never had any doubt - after all, I'm the one who trained you. But you seemed busy with a guest, so I left you to it. I was being polite, really."
"I'll be sure to extend the same courtesy should I ever find you in such a situation," Miko replied. She carefully kept the smile somewhere between genuine and sarcastic, held it for a second beyond what was comfortable, and then decided to get to the point. "What brings you to Senkai, anyway?"
"As a matter of fact, it's related to the other day." Seiga landed next to Miko and placed a piece of paper atop the scroll on her desk.
Miko's brow furrowed as she started reading, and ended with a confused frown on her face. "Is she inviting us to a naval engagement?"
"No," the Chinese hermit said with relish, "she is not inviting you. I found this invitation on the door of a charcoal-burner's hut, but no similar message has been delivered to Senkai."
"Charcoal… ah, that would be Fujiwara no Mokou," Miko nodded. "I wonder how she'd feel if she knew you had stolen her invitation?"
Seiga's blue eyebrows arched in exaggerated surprise. "I'd be more concerned for this Kotohime, facing the wrath of a crown prince who learned she'd been snubbed like this! Inviting the nobody daughter of a clan whose only claim to fame is from marrying into proper royalty-"
"Take care whom you insult, Seiga Kaku," snapped Miko.
The hermit froze in mid-tirade, sensed the affronted anger of her former pupil, and broke into a guileless smile. "The ladies Mononobe and Soga are both learned and exceptional individuals who would be remarkable even if they had no association with a prince of your stature, of course," she soothed.
Miko turned back to her desk, carefully rolling up the scroll for storage. "What are you expecting me to do with this invitation that is not meant for me?" she asked tiredly.
"Get out there and show these pretenders what real royalty is," Seiga all but commanded, any pretense at friendliness gone. "There is only one ruler of Gensokyo, and she isn't the type to try and host an idiotic boat show."
"But she should attend one, it would seem," Miko summarized. She rose and carried the scroll back to its rack, carefully slotting it back into place. "I hear your concern," she said, facing her associate, "but do not share it. If I respected Kotohime I would be polite enough to not attend her festivities without an invitation, and if I disliked her I would have no reason to attend in the first place."
Seiga cocked her head so that her twin hair loops flopped about, not bothering to hide her bafflement. "You would let her insult stand? Whatever happened to 'punish the evil and reward the good?'"
"'Harmony should be valued and quarrels should be avoided,'" Miko countered, smiling thinly. "A principle Gensokyo seems to have forgotten, I'm finding, but perhaps it's up to me to lead by example."
Her fellow Taoist stared for a moment, then arched her back and extended her arms in a stretch. "Well, I can see you have a thicker skin than I would in this situation. But," Seiga continued, "you may want to talk to your subordinates."
Miko frowned. "I see no reason to inform them. This matter that does not concern us, nor is it worth making our concern."
Seiga spread her hands in exaggerated helplessness. "But I've already spoken with them, earlier this evening. They sounded quite adamant that you should attend this boating event."
Miko glared for a long moment, but now that she'd given up on her research, she was suddenly feeling the lateness of the hour. "We'll discuss this later," she promised, striding out of the room without any further farewell.
The problem, she reflected, was that Seiga had run out of things to do. For years she had worked with them to both unify the country and surpass human mortality, and to her credit Seiga Kaku had been an asset during those efforts. But now that Miko and her followers had transcended life and death, Seiga no longer had a purpose, a scheme to follow, and it was becoming increasingly clear to Miko that Seiga with free time was cause for concern. Perhaps distancing herself from her former mentor was a mistake. Perhaps the Chinese Taoist needed more supervision.
Hopefully Futo and Tojiko would see reason, or at least follow Miko's directives regarding this boat event. They usually-
Deep in thought, Miko almost collided with the creature when she rounded a corner, a woman with a blank-eyed stare, stiff stance, grayish skin, and a paper charm hanging from her forehead. The jiangshi had no reaction beyond a slight tilt to her head and a groan of "Huh?"
Miko fumed, then shouted over her shoulder "And take your pet corpse with you when you leave!"
-x-
"…and then they made me their chief," said Kotohime with a wide smile. "I stuck around for a few days, didn't have the heart to tell them I already had a land to rule. Waited for the next monster attack, faked my death in the explosion that killed it, then went in disguise to my own funeral."
The captain and her crew were lounging about on deck, drinks in hand, ending the evening in inane conversation, at least when Kotohime let the others speak. It was, Meira admitted to herself, an enjoyable waste of time. The starry sky above was mirrored in the calm waters below, creating the illusion of floating through the sunless heavens, and the gentle motions of the ship were soothing rather than uncomfortable. Slumped against the ship's railing, treating herself to a little more liquor than usual, Meira found herself at peace with the situation.
Mostly.
"And after that, Meira what's the name of our fourth crew member?" snapped Kotohime abruptly.
"Koishi," sighed Meira, glancing up at the satori, who had fashioned a swing for herself in the rigging and was swaying like a pendulum. "I think I can remember her now, really. I've gotten her name right every time you asked for the past half hour. I wish you'd stop."
Nitori took another pull of her own drink, a glass bottle of something blue-green and fizzy that Meira was mildly curious about. "So how'd you get back?" she asked Kotohime suspiciously. "I don't know much about oceans, but that sounds like too far to fly."
Their captain grinned. "Sea turtle. One of the 'islands' happened to be an aspidochelone big enough to support a comfortable ecosystem on its shell, but small enough that it probably wouldn't be missed. Woke her up, explained where I needed to go, and she was all too happy to shuttle me to Japan." She took a sip of her beer and winked. "The tricky part was the Panama Canal, of course."
"You're making some, if not all, of that up," declared Nitori, folding her arms.
"The difficulty with Kotohime's stories," Meira informed the pigtailed kappa, "is that her factual adventures are often as incredible as her fabricated ones."
"I do not fabricate," Kotohime retorted. "Exaggerate, yes, prevaricate, yes. But never formulate."
"For instance," Meira went on, smiling slightly, "a sea turtle would be one of the least farfetched things Kotohime has ridden. She once entered town saddled on the back of a pig."
"Which worked great once I got that carrot on a stick," Kotohime pointed out.
"And then there was…" Meira frowned as an old memory suddenly stirred. "Didn't you used to ride around on a little cloud?" she asked Kotohime.
The princess looked startled, then tapped her chin with a finger, thinking. "Oh yeaaaah," she said after a moment. "Um. Yeah, I did."
"But?" pressed the samurai patiently.
"I don't think I was feeding it enough," Kotohime admitted. "I came down for breakfast one morning and it had broken out. Never saw it again."
"That… doesn't sound like cloud-like behavior," Nitori said, giving Meira a worried look.
Meira felt the back of her neck crawl. Other memories were coming back, memories that she suspected she may have consciously tried to forget, of a "cloud" marked with unpleasant red lines like blood vessels, and protrusions similar to roots or mandibles hanging from beneath it. "Maybe it's for the best," she said quickly, taking another drink and mentally stuffing those memories back into their little box.
"There aren't many clouds underground," came Koishi's voice from above them, distorted slightly as she continued to pump her legs and swing back and forth. "I like them. This 'sky' of yours is pretty too, but sometimes it's nice to have something over your head."
"And on that note…" Kotohime rose from her seat and stretched somewhat theatrically. "I think-"
"Is that why all you surface folk wear hats?" Koishi asked suddenly. She'd leaned back until she was looking at them upside down, her own headgear impossibly attached to her head. Then she frowned. "Except you two," she said accusingly, pointing at Kotohime and Meira.
"Sometimes a hat is a state of mind," Kotohime replied. "Anyway, I think I'll be turning in, ladies, and I'll advise you to do the same. Tomorrow's gonna be a big day, after all," she grinned. She favored them with a bow, then turned and began walking towards her cabin – the cabin.
Meira pushed herself to her feet, feeling the boat unexpectedly move beneath her, which may have had more to do with her recent alcohol intake than the lake they were floating on. "So, should we meet you here tomorrow-"
"Huh? Oh no, I got you some hammocks," replied Kotohime. "Part of the authentic naval experience. They're all set up and waiting below." She gave a sort of wave before slipping into the captain's cabin, where there was presumably a real bed.
A moment later and Meira was inspecting what she was expected to sleep in, what looked like a fishing net strung up between the wall and a pillar of wood.
Nitori gave her 'hammock' an experimental poke, setting the cords bouncing. "So is she serious, or is this a prank?" she asked Meira.
"No, she was serious," replied the samurai with a little more confidence than she actually felt. "Whether or not this will work as intended, however…" she trailed off with a half-smile, earning a grin in kind from the kappa. Good, she'd stopped blushing every time their eyes met.
"You have fun with that," Nitori said, reaching into her enormous backpack, rummaging for half a minute, and finally withdrawing a shiny, shapeless lump of material. She unrolled it on the floor, hit something on the side, and with a sudden hissing that made Meira reflexively put her hand on her sword hilt, the sheet began to stretch and grow, quickly becoming a rectangular pad about the size of a person. "Inflatable mattress," the kappa explained proudly.
"I thought kappa would rather sleep in the water," admitted Meira.
Nitori wrinkled her nose at the very notion. "It's like houses, you know? Some are nice enough, but others you'd rather pitch a tent in the woods than sleep in. This lake, uh, how to explain? There's holes in the walls, something moving in the attic, and a worrying smell under the floor."
"I see."
The youkai engineer took off her hat and unceremoniously plopped backwards onto her inflatable bed, withdrawing a journal from her pack to page through by the light of the glass lantern swinging from the ceiling.
Meira shrugged, then remembered she was nearly forgetting someone. "And what about you, Miss Koi… shi?" She trailed off as she turned and saw the satori girl lying on the floor against the ship's hull, legs tucked in, head resting on her arms, reducing her to a tangle of unkempt hair, frilly dress, loose sleeves, and that bizarre vein-like thing that wrapped around her body. There was something very catlike in how Koishi had fallen asleep, but she looked peaceful enough, already quietly snoring. Cute, even.
So Meira turned back to her hammock and considered her own options. She had a perfectly good bed waiting for her just a short flight away, assuming she had the energy to make it that far. If not, she had a perfectly good bed waiting for her a moderate and potentially dangerous inebriated hike through youkai-haunted woods away. Not that she couldn't handle that on her own, but… Meira rubbed her chin. If she stayed on the ship, she'd be on hand first thing in the morning in case Kotohime started doing something unwise. Yes, it only made sense.
The samurai spread out the web of netting as best she could, unbuckled her swords, and gingerly sat down, ignoring Nitori's attempts to inconspicuously watch the show over the top of her book. The hammock gave under her body weight, but it mostly held its shape, so Meira pivoted and eased herself down as the strange bedding shifted and sagged around her until she was fully reclining.
It didn't offer nearly as much support as a proper sleeping mat, but aside from the fact that she felt like a fish being hauled out of the water, Meira wasn't actually uncomfortable. The way the hammock swung could even be relaxing.
She smiled to herself and closed her eyes. Every now and then, presumably due to the laws of averages, Kotohime had an idea that worked.
-x-
-6-
Hammocks were stupid.
The clang of metal on metal was what woke Meira, but the first thing she noticed after regaining consciousness was her aching back, as a night spent with her spine bowed outward caught up with her. Then all those beers jumped in, allying with the banging sound and the back aches to launch an overwhelming assault on Meira's well-being.
Eyes screwed shut, Meira managed to swing her legs around and sit precariously in her sleeping net, massaging her temples.
"Uh, sorry to wake you," came Nitori's voice through the pain, "but Kotohime insisted that I get started as early as possible."
"That sounds like her," Meira said thickly. She finally managed to open her eyes to see the kappa sitting near one of the ship's walls, all manner of strange tools around her as she worked on... Meira couldn't begin to guess. The only thing she recognized was a half-finished bottle of that greenish drink the youkai had favored the previous night.
"There was something else," Nitori added sheepishly. "She said the minute you woke up, you needed to get above deck so you don't see any classified material."
"That also sounds like her," Meira sighed.
She lurched to her feet, staggered to the stepladder, and after failing to land her foot on it, gave up and took the air for a moment. Meira choked back a curse when the sunlight hit her eyes.
"Oh good, you're up," came Kotohime's unconcerned voice.
A purple and red blur gradually resolved into a self-proclaimed police chief, sitting cross-legged on the deck with her hands behind her back, her shoulders wriggling strangely.
"Nitori actually started working a while ago," Kotohime went on, talking casually even as she contorted and flexed and rocked back and forth on the deck. "You must've really been out of it."
"What are you doing?" Meira asked, a bit more harshly than she meant.
"Waiting for Koishi to come back with brunch," the other woman replied. "Sent her to procure us a meal from the Scarlet Devil Mansion," she added, nodding briefly towards the Western-style mansion visible on the far shore.
Meira waited a moment to see if any further explanation was forthcoming before giving up. "I hope she specifies that they cook food fit for humans," she said.
"Huh?"
"I'd rather not eat a vampire's breakfast," Meira clarified.
"Oh, I meant 'procure' as a euphemism," said Kotohime.
Meira blinked, then arched an eyebrow. "You call yourself a police officer and you send a subordinate to steal food?"
Kotohime tilted her head back, chewing on a strand of hair even as she maintained that strange seated position. "Suppose we all went over and knocked on the front door, explaining that we're a bunch of weary visitors-"
"But it's still morning, we're the opposite of weary."
"-who don't have any breakfast," the princess went on, glaring at Meira. "Naturally, it would be only proper for the mansion staff to provide us with a charitable meal. Are you with me so far?"
"Reluctantly."
"Then," Kotohime concluded, "really we're helping them do a good deed, but without bothering them and wasting their time. Cutting right to the compassionate act of handing over food."
"Much like how pickpockets collect alms the giver doesn't know she's giving," Meira nodded.
Her companion didn't pick up on her intonation. "What are you talking about?"
Meira sighed and decided to move on. "So what about the pose? Is that a meditation position?" she asked.
"Oh, this?" Kotohime grinned. "Training. A policewoman should never carry any handcuffs she herself is unable to escape from."
Meira gave the other woman a moment to put action to words, before asking "So, can you-"
"I'll have it in a sec," Kotohime said confidently.
Meira shook her head and turned away, focusing on the weather. The sunlight and fresh air seemed to be revitalizing her, and her aches and pains were fading to be replaced by hunger. Despite the awful start, it was turning out to be a beautiful day. She was admiring the clear blue sky as she spotted an inbound flyer.
"Is that our breakfast approaching?" she asked, pointing.
"Guess this proves you can remember her properly," said Kotohime, rising to her feet and walking to join Meira at the ship's railing, hands still behind her back.
Within a minute the dot had grown into Koishi, dress and loose sleeves fluttering around her as she flew toward the boat, dangling a bulging sack beneath her that looked to be an appropriated tablecloth. "I found food!" she gushed upon landing, setting her burden down with remarkable care.
"Who needs a cook when we've got an invisible quartermaster?" said Kotohime cheerily. Then she leaned toward the open stairway on the ship's deck. "Yo, Nitori!" she called. "Grub's up!"
"Busy!" was the annoyed reply.
Kotohime paid their absent crew member no further attention, already focused on the food. "And what do you have for us, Miss Komeiji?"
The pale-haired girl with the unsettling green eyes untied her bundle and spread it out on the deck, in the shade of the main sail. "Like a picnic," she said to herself, "except everything about it is wrong."
Against Meira's expectations, a set of covered plates and platters unfolded along with the fabric, their contents secure despite their airborne journey.
"Got some meat," Koishi said, briefly lifting lids to reveal their still-steaming contents, "and some other meat and some goopy stuff and most importantly-" she picked up one particularly large tray, which turned out to be overloaded with thick rectangular sticks of golden bread heavily coated in white powder "-French toast!"
Meira arched an eyebrow. "The only thing on the menu you recognize?"
"Yeah! Sis used to make it for me," Koishi explained, already halfway through one morsel. "Hey, does anyone know what 'French' is?"
"Type of seasoning," Kotohime said absently, eyes half-closed in concentration. Then Meira heard a click, and a huge grin broke out on Kotohime's face as she finally brought her hands forward, rubbing her wrists. "Knew I'd do it before breakfast," she congratulated herself.
-x-
The meal was a good start, regardless of what Kotohime had in store for them, or what exactly they were eating. Meira didn't think she tasted blood or entrails, but then again she wouldn't know. She almost asked her youkai dining companion before deciding to err on the side of politeness, and also because the satori ate nothing but that 'French' toast dunked in syrup.
Anyway, the sausages definitely tasted like pork. Or perhaps beef.
"So," she said slowly after finishing, "where do we go from here?"
Kotohime burped behind a dangling sleeve and gave Meira a funny look. "I already told you, we stay here and the bad guys come to us-"
"I meant to ask what your plans were for the rest of the day," the samurai clarified.
"Oh. Well, I'll be captaining as usual, Nitori still has a bunch of work to do that I'll also be supervising, and Koishi..." She trailed off as she noticed the satori staring off into the distance. "Is on lookout, evidently," Kotohime finished.
"Watching the fairies," Koishi clarified, not looking away.
Meira twisted in her seat. There wasn't anyone over the water she could see, so she scanned the lake's shores, trying to penetrate the treeline, but couldn't find anything. Then she spotted distant movement, a dark spot against the sky. "Oh, there," she said, pointing for Kotohime's benefit. "Good eyes, Miss Koishi."
"Mmm? No, that's Reimu," the satori said, sounding bored.
Meira hurled herself at the open hatch leading below deck, tucking and rolling when she hit the bottom of the stairs and flattening herself against the hull, hopefully in the shadows and out of sight. A moment later she noticed Nitori, sitting cross-legged on the floor under the hold's lantern and up to her elbows in some hunk of metal. Before the kappa could open her mouth Meira held up an emphatic finger for silence. Nitori must have seen the look on her face because she stayed quiet.
Her heart pounding in her ears, Meira listened for any-
"Ah, Reimu!" came Kotohime's voice from above. "Glad you could join us. As a non-princess you are unfortunately disqualified from participating in this evening's events, but I'd be happy to have you as a referee. It's a purely ceremonial position, since of course anything goes-"
"What's going on here?" the Hakurei shrine maiden demanded.
"Didn't you hear? I'm hosting Gensokyo's first proper naval battle," Kotohime proclaimed proudly. "All the other princesses are coming over later today and we're going to blast the hell out of each other."
"Why?"
"'cause I invited them to, and they're too polite to turn me down."
"So what is this, a spellcard duel?" Reimu asked suspiciously.
A pause. "For a loose definition of 'danmaku,' yes?"
"Ah, whatever. Guess it's okay if nobody else gets blasted."
"Not that I needed your permission, but I'm happy to have your cooperation."
Reimu snorted at that, and Meira could hear footsteps on the planks above her. The samurai hoped the vaunted Hakurei intuition didn't work through wood.
"Breakfast?" Kotohime offered.
"Already ate. Wait, why are there three plates out but just you-"
"And me!" Koishi spoke up happily.
"Gah! Don't do that!" Reimu scolded.
"And Nitori's down below, but she's busy so don't bother her," Kotohime ordered.
"Should've known she'd be involved in this," Reimu mused while Meira sagged in relief.
"While I'd love to be a charming hostess," Kotohime continued, "I should probably be getting back to the battle preparations. But you're free to come back later and enjoy the show, of course."
"Meh."
"Aww, c'mon. I certainly intend to put on a good performance, and I'm sure the other princesses will step up." Another pause. "Also, there will be refreshments provided to any spectators, courtesy of the crown."
"So when's this thing start?" Reimu asked immediately.
"Sundown, but you'll want to come early to get the best seat."
"Yeah, sure." There was no farewell, no obvious sound accompanying a shrine maiden taking flight, but Meira sensed Reimu's departure all the same. She closed her eyes and let her head fall back against the hull, letting out a slow breath as she forced her heart to stop racing. After a moment she glanced up and saw Nitori staring at her, eyes half-cocked.
"Do I even want to know?" the kappa asked.
"No," Meira said firmly, and marched back up the steps onto the ship's deck.
Koishi was seated at the breakfast blanket, tongue out as she concentrated on trying to stack their purloined cups atop each other. Kotohime meanwhile had disappeared, until Meira spotted the open door to the cabin and a purple shape standing before the room's desk, furiously writing by lamplight.
"I like to think I'm good at improvisation," Kotohime said without preamble as Meira approached. "Though it does lead to more work for you."
The samurai blinked. "Excuse me?"
"Well, obviously I need to stick around to direct Nitori, so I can't run back to the village to do some-" Kotohime abruptly spun around and shoved a piece of paper into Meira's hands. "Shopping," the princess finished.
Meira glowered. She had been on the verge for thanking Kotohime for her handling of Reimu, too.
"So take that to the Princess' Crown," Kotohime continued, "and tell them to get the ball moving on tonight's refreshments. If Mizushima complains, assure him that he'll be generously compensated. Though if he doesn't complain, save me some money, eh?"
Meira looked down at the hastily-scribbled note in her hands, considering. While she resented being Kotohime's errand-girl, this did have the upside of giving her an opportunity to go home and put her affairs in order. Since Kotohime would be at work all day, it was probably safe to leave her alone for now, so Meira could take her time getting back to the boat-
She was mildly annoyed with herself for not even contemplating not returning. Damn her sense of duty.
Meira sighed. "It shall be done."
"I should hope so. Otherwise Reimu might come by during the battle and start asking where the beer is, eh?" Kotohime said with a grin.
-x-
Mizushima read Kotohime's message again, expressions of confusion and suspicion fighting for mastery of his face. "Figures," he grunted.
Meira said nothing, standing patiently at attention.
"Crazy b-" the bartender caught himself just in time and cleared his throat. "Kotohime disappears for basically forever, then she crashes through my roof a day or two ago, and now she's already doing what, hosting some sort of battle?"
"A naval engagement, I believe," said Meira.
"Some of the guys were saying they saw a big boat on the lake yesterday..." Mizushima sighed and massaged his forehead. "Is it too much to ask that she pace herself?"
"It would seem she is making up for lost time."
"Great." He drummed his fingers on the bar. "It's not a matter of not being able to fill the order, understand, and I know she can pay. It's just - well, you've known her the longest, Lady Meira. What are the odds this is gonna end with me on fire or something?"
Meira wished she had a simple assurance for the man, but she strove for honesty, and therefore had to stop and think for a moment. "My understanding is that you would be on the sidelines, well away from the expected combat on the lake. So in theory you should be in no danger."
"'cept Kotohime's involved," the man pointed out.
"True," Meira conceded. She suppressed a sigh, and added "If it is any reassurance, Reimu is expected to be present."
"Oh, Miss Hakurei's gonna be there?" Mizushima relaxed a bit. "That changes things."
Meira very carefully kept the scowl from her face.
"I mean, she put up a good fight during those duels, won me a fair bit of money," the man said. "And if half of the rumors about her are true-"
"You'd be surprised what those stories leave out..."
"Huh?"
Meira realized she'd spoken out loud. "Nothing," she said, furious at herself for blushing slightly. "Just... make sure you get everything ready. Kotohime wants the evening to go a very specific way, and you know how she can get when things don't work out like she wants."
"Yeah, yeah..." Mizushima checked his instructions again, then glanced briefly at the tavern door. "Guess I'll close for the day, no sense trying to run the bar while putting this together. And with an order this size, I'm kinda curious how many people she thinks will come. Maybe I ought to get the word out, eh?"
"Isn't it better to minimize casualties?" Meira deadpanned. The bartender laughed at that, but she wasn't really joking.
-x-
Meira left Mr. Mizushima to his work and took a leisurely detour home, justifying it on the basis that there was little she could contribute to the ongoing ship preparations. Plus, she needed to be in top form to keep the evening's entertainment under control. Frankly, it'd have been irresponsible for her not to take a nap, have a bath, grab a late lunch, do some chores around the house...
Once she had stalled for as long as she felt she could afford to, Meira checked on Mizushima on her way back to the lake, just in time to see him and some men finish loading up a small oxcart with some kegs of ale and what looked to be a portable stove. She was vaguely dismayed to see a group of the bar's regulars hanging about, evidently prepared to follow the beer to the lake, as well as a few people she didn't recognize who had gotten caught up in the excitement. But, what could she really do? With spell card duels as common as they were, the people of Gensokyo were conditioned to seek out and watch entertaining displays of formalized violence.
And if Kotohime caught word that Meira had been trying to encourage people not to see her little boat show...
So it was that the sun was nearing the horizon by the time Meira returned the Misty Lake, flying slowly and cautiously in case of any shrine maidens. It was only when Meira was coming in for her landing that she noticed some additions to the ship. There were now metal hatches just visible on the thing's waterline, and more to the point-
"Why is the boat all wet?" she asked no one in particular upon landing on the dark, shiny deck.
"Oh, you're back," said Koishi. Meira turned to see the satori girl seated on the stepladder leading to the upper deck, wringing out her socks. "We just sank twice while you were gone, that's all."
"But we also caught fire twice, so it all evens out," Kotohime said cheerily as she emerged from her cabin. "And Patchy's waterproofing spells worked so the battle plans are safe, and - oh wait, how'd it go?" she asked Meira, as though finally remembering why she'd sent the samurai away.
"No complications," Meira summarized succinctly. "Everything's on the way. And it looks like you'll get your audience after all."
"Sweet."
Meira held her tongue for a moment, before surrendering to her curiosity. "You made some battle plans, you said?"
"Oh yeah, I've been busy too," Kotohime said, gesturing for Meira to follow her back into the captain's chamber.
She fiddled with the room's lamp, gave up, and snapped her fingers, conjuring a soft white light that hung in the air just over her shoulder. It revealed that the small table was covered with sheets of paper, maps, and drawings, but the biggest piece on the top layer was some blue parchment covered in white lines and text.
"It's largely a thought experiment, of course," said Kotohime. "We don't have the industrial base to properly build one – yet – and I'm working off memories of their vessel rather than a proper set of schematics. So I doubt it could cross dimensions, but I'm pretty sure this baby could achieve orbital superiority, and maybe even launch an interplanetary assault. Pretty good, eh?"
Meira stared down at the indicated mess of lines and scribbles, a drawing of… she couldn't begin to guess. "I thought you said you'd been planning," she said slowly.
"Oh, got those done hours ago." Kotohime gestured at a stack of papers, then slapped Meira's hand when the samurai reached for them. "And they're classified! Never read anything you wouldn't be willing to disclose under torture," she scolded.
Meira frowned. "So you have plans, but you're the only one who knows them."
"Yep."
"Which means that for all we know, you will be making up your orders on the fly," the samurai concluded.
"Now Meira," Kotohime said with her brightest smile, "why would I need to do something like that?"
"A-hem," came a voice from below.
Meira looked down in bewilderment to see a light shining up from a small round hole cut in the cabin's floor, through which some sort of black string or cord protruded.
"I'm comin', I'm comin'," Kotohime muttered. She knelt down and grabbed the cord, then started pulling it up through the hole, straightening to direct it to a second hole in the room's ceiling. "We're wiring the intercom," she explained for Meira's benefit. "Nitori will be down keeping things running during the battle, and we need a quick way to communicate."
"I... see," Meira lied.
"It's just a bit of applied technomancy, no more dangerous than the internal combustion engine or the intercontinental ballistic missile," Kotohime assured her. "Now hold this."
While the samurai held the end of the line against the hole in the room's low ceiling, Kotohime scampered out the door. It only took a few seconds for Meira to feel the tug and hear the princess tell her "Got it, thanks."
By the time Meira joined Kotohime on the top of the ship, the other woman had stuck the line into a thin metal box able to fit into the palm of one's hand. There was a big red switch on the top and a round opening on the side covered in some sort of fine mesh.
"Testing, one-two?" said Kotohime into the thing, holding it close to her mouth as she hit its switch.
"Read you loud and clear, boss," came Nitori's voice through it, small and strangely distorted. "I'd say a job like this deserves a celebration." Meira recognized the snap-hiss of one of the kappa's strange beverages being opened.
"I'd say you need to pace yourself if you don't want to blow through your paycheck in a week," warned Kotohime. "What do you need help with next?"
A distorted crackling sound might have been a burp. "Don't," said Nitori. "I'm putting on the finishing touches. Another pair of hands would only get in the way."
Kotohime frowned at the empty air in front of her, then shrugged. "Just so long as you're ready when the fighting starts," she declared before hanging the box in a bracket stuck to the side of the ship's wheel. The princess then turned to Meira. "You didn't see anyone else coming in, did you?"
Meira could only shake her head no.
"So why does it feel like..." Kotohime trailed off, eyes distant, frowning slightly. She abruptly turned to their fourth crew member. "Still with us, Koishi?"
"I don't know who this 'Koishi' is," the satori replied as she finished tying her shoes, "but everyone keeps mistaking me for her, so I play along."
Kotohime's scowl deepened, and she hopped down to the main deck and stalked over to the ship's railing, leaning forward to rest her hands against it, hunched almost as though she were trying to track something by scent.
Meira was starting to feel uneasy. She moved to follow her friend, unsure what had gotten the princess so agitated. "Koto-"
"Shh!" The ship's captain held up a finger while she seemed to listen intently, then burst into a wide smile. "Ah. There they are."
"What-"
"You've been battling Gensokyo's bad guys for even longer than me, right?" the princess asked.
That really depended on how much of Kotohime's early history had come from the bottom of an alcoholic beverage, but Meira said "Yes" anyway.
"Got some good instincts, then? Keen warrior senses?"
The samurai opened her mouth to answer, grasped Kotohime's meaning, and instead stepped forward to mimic the princess' earlier posture, staring intently ahead. The water was dazzling, a rippling, fragmented reflection of the slowly sinking sun, and nothing else was visible on the lake's surface. But…
"The sounds are wrong," Meira murmured. There was the steady, gentle lapping of the water against the ship's hull, the occasional ruffle of the breeze, a few buzzing insects, and… something missing. A mostly-still body of water shouldn't make much noise, but there was nevertheless a conspicuous absence of the sound of a lake not far from them.
"Now to be fair, if she hadn't had her silence them, we'd have detected them even earlier," Kotohime declared, reaching down one of her sleeves to withdraw – oh, wonderful, one of her homemade explosives.
"What do you-"
But Kotohime was already lobbing her payload.
Meira had just enough time to look away and close her eyes before there was a tremendous bang, a flash, a surprised shriek from Koishi, and a chorus of girlish squeals-
And when she opened her eyes there was another vessel floating close nearby, of a quite unconventional design. It looked like someone had taken a large iceberg, inexpertly nailed wooden planks to the top of it to make a crude deck, then stuck a long tree branch into its top to make a mast. Except "flagpole" was a more accurate term, Meira realized with a slight smile, since there was no… perpendicular bit, whatever it was called, or rigging to make a proper sail, so instead there was a big white sheet flapping loose in the breeze. Maybe it was meant to be a flag, it seemed to be covered in doodles and illegible characters.
Given the ship's slipshod design, its crew came as no surprise.
"Aww, you saw us!" Cirno complained loudly, scowling ferociously at them with her hands balled on her hips. "I was gonna ambush ya!" Behind her, three other fairies were pushing themselves to their feet, furiously rubbing their eyes and ears.
Kotohime smiled, then nodded at Meira. "Cirno you've met, but from left to right we've got Sunny Milk, with outstanding warrants for trespassing-"
The red-headed fairy in the red-and-white dress shook her head, making her side-braids waggle, and gave Meira a defiant look.
"-Luna Child, a notorious coffee bean bandito-"
This fairy was in a mostly white dress with some black trim, and wore her blonde hair in a half-dozen thick spiraling ringlets. She tried to give a dignified sniff, but just managed to avoid toppling over as the iceberg-boat she was standing on bobbed in the water.
"-and Kaguya-lite there is Star Sapphire, who as far as I know doesn't have a criminal record, probably because she hasn't been caught yet."
The remaining fairy did indeed look like a shorter, less breathtaking version of Eientei's princess, and wore her dark brown hair in a similar style, though her dress was primarily a dark blue and foreign-styled rather than imitating Kaguya's pink kimono. She gave Meira a brief smile as her eyes shifted about, as though she were planning an escape route.
"And together," Kotohime finished, "they're…?"
"The Three Fairies of Light!" chorused the fey threesome, though Meira noticed that Sunny was doing her best to drown out the others, Luna started a second late, and Star only mouthed the words.
"My crew," Cirno corrected firmly, putting a possessive hand on Sunny's shoulder.
The red-headed fairy whirled, scowling at Cirno. "You said we'd work together, not that you'd be the captain!"
"I'm the strongest, so I'm the boss," the ice fairy said matter-of-factly.
"Yeah, that's usually how it works," Kotohime agreed. "Well, it looks like you've got a nice habakkuk here, Cirno. But there's a problem," she went on reluctantly. "Tonight's event has a heavy 'princess' theme, and while I hate to be exclusive-"
"What about the Myouren Temple group?" asked Meira.
"You're getting too far ahead," Kotohime replied with an irritable handwave. "The all-princess naval battle comes first, then the pseudo-Buddhists fall into my trap."
"I don't know how that rabbit in the bamboo forest catches people in her pit traps," Koishi mused from somewhere behind Meira. "I thought everyone could fly?"
Cirno crossed her arms to glare at Kotohime. "I'm not getting on a boat unless I'm the captain, and I'm not letting you guys play on my lake if I can't too."
The crews of the two ships – or rather, one proper ship and whatever the fairies were riding – exchanged nervous glances while the captains' eyes locked, one refusing to back down an inch, the other adamant that the evening proceed as planned.
Meira took a breath. "Perhaps a compromise could be reached?" she suggested in her most formal tones. "Arrange for the fairy ship to come for a later-"
"By Jove, I think you're on to something," Kotohime declared, eyes widening. Before Meira could say anything more, the princess leapt into the air to touch down delicately on the crude deck of the ice ship. While the three themed fairies retreated, Cirno stood firm, glaring up defiantly, but this didn't seem to bother Kotohime. Instead she drew her jitte with a flourish.
A cocky smile spread over Cirno's face. "We gonna fight now?"
"Hold that thought." Instead Kotohime lightly tapped the fairy on each shoulder with her truncheon, much to Cirno's confusion. "By the authority invested in me as Gensokyo's chief princess and chief of police, I dub thee Princess Cirno for the purposes of determining eligibility to participate in naval battles for the duration of this evening," Kotohime solemnly intoned.
The three other fairies looked awed, or perhaps annoyed, while Meira mentally shrugged. But Cirno seemed unimpressed. "So? I'm already the strongest, what's anything else matter?"
"Style counts, my dear," Kotohime said with an affectionate ruffle of Cirno's sky blue hair. "Plus it means you can wear a crown if you want."
Cirno beamed, tapped the top of her head, and with a faint crunching sound, a hoop of jagged ice settled onto her brow. "Right," she announced, turning to her crew, which caused her new circlet to slip off and shatter onto the deck.
"And now you know part of the reason I don't bother," Kotohime said with a gentle smile. "The battle starts at sundown, Acting-Princess."
Kotohime hopped back onto her own ship, while Cirno pointed cockily at her soon-to-be-opponent. "I'll show you there's only one boss of this lake!" the fairy promised.
And with that… Meira wasn't sure how it worked, the fairies' "ship" had no functional sail, and there shouldn't be a current in a lake, right? But somehow the iceberg with some planking nailed to the top of it began to drift away.
"And we'll show her that being boss of a lake doesn't, isn't as good as…" Kotohime frowned, tongue tripping over her words. "Show her that the boss of a kingdom beats the boss of a lake? Show her that…" Her nose wrinkled with annoyance. "Damn, I don't have a snappy comeback for a comment made by Cirno."
Meira let the inanity wash over her, remaining outwardly placid as she rested against the ship's railing. The sky was now a glorious gold, the sun was crouched low over the treeline, half-veiled by a band of clouds, and with the intermittent breeze it was shaping up to be an exquisite summer evening.
And yet… despite the calm, Meira couldn't help but hide a shiver of anticipation. She wasn't getting swept up in Kotohime's excitement, of course. It was just that it'd be a relief when this "battle" got started.
-x-
-7-
There were a few open areas on the shore of the Misty Lake, places where there was enough room between the treeline and the water for people to do things. One spot, on the edge of the lake closest to the human village, had been cleared several generations ago to serve as a launch for small boats, though Gensokyo's fishermen had since learned that you couldn't leave such vessels around unattended if there were fairies about. Since carrying a boat from the village to the lake was such a chore, and there were easier ways to get fish, the launch didn't see much use these days, but citizens kept the area free of saplings just in case, or perhaps out of tradition.
But now, the place was buzzing with activity.
Reimu Hakurei touched down close to the water, detached white sleeves and dark brown hair settling around her as she strode forward. The men nearest her straightened up and offered quick bows. "Good afternoon, miss," one murmured.
The shrine maiden took a closer look around. A bonfire was being constructed in the center of the clearing, and as Reimu watched a teenager dropped another load of dead branches onto it. "What are you doing here?" she asked no one in particular.
The nearest man - it was Mashashi or something, wasn't it? – froze in the act of sanding a bisected tree trunk so it could serve as a simple bench. "Uh, we're getting things ready for the party," he explained. "Have you heard? There's a boat-" he pointed at the lake, in case Reimu was a complete idiot "-and around sundown it's gonna do stuff with other boats. And I guess we drink and watch?"
Reimu took another look around. Two boys were tying ropes between the surrounding trees, and there was a clump of paper lanterns waiting to go up. And good grief, there were more people arriving, walking off the trail through the woods to spread a blanket on the grass-
"You're letting kids come?" Reimu blurted when she realized what she was seeing.
Masami or whoever looked surprised. "Uh, should we not be?"
He and the nearest handful of workers visibly recoiled from the scowl on Reimu's face. "I guess I'm babysitting this evening," she grumbled, folding her arms.
Fantastic. She'd just wanted to drink and watch Kotohime blow up, but now she was on guard duty. Of course the self-declared princess would invite a bunch of non-combatants instead of the people Reimu usually socialized with. And since none of those people had turned up, now the burden was on Reimu to-
"Mommy, what's that?" one of the rugrats cried out, pointing. The refrain was picked up by others, and soon everyone was standing, craning their necks, trying to get a good look at the other vessel gliding into view.
-x-
It was much shorter than Kotohime's boat, much lower to the water, and much simpler. Its front end was pointed and angled slightly upward, its rear was more blunt but rose into a proper near-vertical tail, and in the middle was basically a tiny one-room house, complete with angled roof, walls, lanterns, windows and doors.
There were two or three little rabbit girls in pink dresses perched on the front, watching the water go by, while a taller figure in a modern tie and jacket stood at the back, laboring to nudge the vessel forward with a long pole. And in the well-lit interior of the ship's enclosed room, sitting on mats around a table, were even more rabbits and a person who, Kotohime was forced to admit, was the most beautiful princess in Gensokyo.
But, she added to herself, at least she still outranked Lady Houraisan. It sure was handy, being a princess and a police chief.
Kotohime strode over to the railing of her own vessel and waved at the newcomers. "Ahoy, fellow princess-captain! Glad you could make it!"
Her Lunarian counterpart turned to give an order to her oarswoman, and while the rabbit in the jacket sweated and cursed, the yakatabune ponderously swung around and moved closer as Kaguya leaned through her cabin's round window. "Ahoy indeed!" she replied brightly. "Thank you for inviting us to this novel event!"
It was nice to have someone enthusiastic about her plans, Kotohime reflected. Koishi was just kind of there, Nitori was only in it for the soda, and Meira was a bit of a killjoy. She ought to hang out with Kaguya more, Kotohime decided. Then she remembered how much she disliked being upstaged, and how easily Kaguya could grab onlookers' attention just by standing still and breathing.
"Don't thank me just yet, we haven't started the fight!" Kotohime replied aloud. Both princess-captains laughed, but Kotohime was subtly eyeing the soon-to-be-enemy vessel. Very open deck, only flimsy cover from that living room in the middle, completely unarmed, one rabbitpower propulsion system… her smile grew wider.
Then Kotohime took a closer look at one of the women still seated in that floating living room and had to reassess her appraisal. The silver hair and red-and-blue-quartered, constellation-studded dress could only mean Eientei's resident doctor was coming along for the festivities, and the Lunarian was staring right back at Kotohime with a disconcertingly calculating expression.
"A pleasure to see you as well, Lady Yagokoro!" Kotohime added, since it was usually wise to stay on a deity's good side. She got a cool nod in response.
"It seems we arrived early," Kaguya said, idly tucking strands of her shimmering black hair behind her ear as she looked around. "As hostess, do you have any instructions for us before the battle starts?"
Kotohime over-theatrically shrugged, to make sure the people on the nearby boat could see the gesture. "None in particular," she called back. "Though if this it were me, I'd be putting my vessel through its paces, getting my crew warmed up. Especially if I was new to the sea."
"Lake," Meira muttered from behind her.
"An excellent suggestion," beamed Kaguya. The princess turned towards the rear of her boat and gave some orders Kotohime couldn't hear. The oarswoman in the jacket, tie and miniskirt heaved her shoulders in a sigh and continued her struggles to move her ship forward.
Kotohime waved cheerily as the yakatabune laboriously pulled away from her own whatever-it-was. "I hope the other princesses are better prepared," she said around her smile. "That dinky little dingy won't last a minute against our dreadnought."
-x-
The arrival of the second boat caused no small amount of excitement among the audience, as it proved that something more was happening than a strange ship sitting at anchor on the lake. But as it became clear that the promised event wasn't starting yet, the audience's attention waned, especially once the refreshments arrived.
A small oxcart abruptly burst into the shoreline clearing, shaking and shuddering along the lousy road, and earning shouts of delight when people spotted the barrels of booze in the back. Within minutes the kegs had been tapped and the first drinks were making the rounds, while the smell and sizzle of pub food cooking on portable stoves filled the air.
Reimu scowled down at the amber liquid being offered to her, and reluctantly pushed it away. "Not until I'm sure Kotohime isn't trying to kill us." The serving girl shrugged and moved on, and the shrine maiden sighed and turned back towards the water, tapping a foot, waiting for the first disaster to strike.
This had Yukari all over it, she decided, and it didn't take any knowledge of borders for her to tell. The obvious question was what the youkai of boundaries had to gain from this, assuming she wasn't acting on whimsy once again-
She turned almost the same instant someone called out "Yo, Reimu!"
A broomstick bearing two blonde women swung smoothly down for a landing. Its rider wore a black dress, white apron, and pointy black witch's hat, while the sidesaddle-sitting passenger was in a frilly white caplet over an ultramarine dress the same color as her eyes, head bare save for a simple hairband. The latter stepped off with a dainty sniff just before the driver hopped off her broom and swung it up to rest against her shoulder, smiling hugely as she approached Reimu.
"So were you invited, or are you trespassing as usual?" Reimu asked.
"I go where I'm needed, not where I'm wanted," Marisa Kirisame replied with a wink and a tug on the frilled brim of her hat. "Also, I heard there was beer, thought Miss Misanthrope here could use some loosening up."
"What?" Alice Margatroid took a half-step back and scowled at the other magician. "You said we were meeting Patchouli for a study session at the mansion."
"She had to cancel," shrugged Marisa. "Got sucked up into this whole 'battle' thing. Figured since you and I were already headed this way-"
Alice rolled her eyes and turned away, arms folded. "So you thought you'd just drag me into some surprise social event? I'm not even dressed for a party!"
"You're wearing the same outfit you always do," Reimu pointed out. The same was true of most notable figures in Gensokyo, of course – ease of identification was important in a land with so many aerial battles.
"And I didn't bring any money for dinner-"
"Hear the beer's free, and for the rest I've got a five-finger discount," Marisa said.
"-and I don't know what all this is about anyway," Alice finished.
"Kotohime's showing off her new boat," said Reimu.
"Oh, is that all?" scoffed Alice. She over-dramatically shaded her eyes to peer at the dark shape amongst the sparkling waves of the lake. "Indeed, it is a boat! Look at how majestic it is, floating there not doing anything. Truly, in all my life I have never seen such a wonder."
"If you think your heart can take it, check out Kaguya's dingy," said Marisa, grinning.
"Incredible! Not one, but two wooden constructs bobbing about on the water! Can I go home now?" sighed Alice.
"Sure, but I'm sticking around," Marisa said without any sign of annoyance. "I never turn down free booze, and odds are good that something's gonna catch fire before the evening's over."
"Hopefully not us," said Reimu. She spotted a simple wooden bench between the unlit bonfire and the lake, and decided it would do for a seat.
"But I guess if none of this interests ya," Marisa went on as eased herself down next to Reimu, nodding back at Alice, "you could go make another batch of puppets or whatever."
"They're dolls," the puppeteer muttered. She picked at some lint on her capelet, looking at the dark treeline in the direction of the Forest of Magic, but after a moment Alice took her place on the other side of Marisa. "I guess I should make sure you don't do anything stupid, like get your own boat or something."
Marisa looked up at the darkening sky and groaned. "Aww, man! Why didn't I think of that?"
"I think Kotohime intends this to be a 'princess-only' thing," Reimu offered.
"I bet if we dug around in the junk heaps long enough we could find a crown at Marisa's house," said Alice.
"Why would I need one? Kotohime never wears one," protested Marisa.
"Because you are possibly the least princess-like person in all of Gensokyo, and would need all the help you could get to convince anyone otherwise," Alice stated dryly.
"Well that's just unfair," Marisa countered, "the moon princess over there sets the bar pretty high-"
"Kotohime acts more like a princess than you do, and I once caught her staying up all night to build a treehouse near my cottage. And by 'treehouse' I mean 'five wooden planks nailed haphazardly to a tree.'"
"Oh, so you're saying I need to act more eccentric? Normally you yell at me when-"
Reimu felt herself relaxing, regardless of the upcoming battle. She was so used to the Marisa-Alice Squabble that it was almost soothing to listen to, like rain on the roof at night.
-x-
"Mmm."
Meira looked at Kotohime. "What is it?"
"Fairies," the princess grunted, slowly panning her gaze around the lake. Meira did the same, and quickly realized there was no sign of the fairies'… iceberg, or whatever.
"They must have turned invisible again," Meira decided.
"I'd do the same if I were them, goodness knows the poor things will need all the help they can get to stand up against us. But," Kotohime went on, "I'm gonna be upset if a contestant's ship runs into them and sinks before the battle starts."
"Shall we warn the others?"
"Of course not!" said Kotohime with a wide grin. She watched the nearby yakatabune struggle to make an about-face, its jacketed helmswoman straining with the maneuver. "That'd ruin the surprise. And they're going so slow a collision probably wouldn't do any damage."
Meira only hmm'd and flexed her shoulders, still feeling unexpectedly tense in light of the coming event. The sun had disappeared behind the hills and forests ringing Gensokyo. It wouldn't be long now.
Kotohime noticed the gesture and smiled, then seemed to consider something and frowned. "I may have miscalculated," she admitted. "Here we are about to go into battle, and I haven't eaten since brunch, and there's no time to send Koishi to procure some more food."
"I had a late lunch," Meira assured her.
"I didn't ask." Kotohime drummed her fingers on the ship's wheel, then brightened. "Now how did it go… in mani ylem!"
Something bonked the back of Meira's head, and she instantly whirled as her hand went to her sword hilt. But Kotohime merely bent over and picked up…
"A plantain?" asked Meira.
The other woman peeled the fruit with the biggest grin on the face. "Banana," she corrected. "Oh how I've missed you, magical conjured banana," Kotohime told her meal, before taking a huge bite.
Meira decided not to inquire further, and went back to admiring the scenery, but immediately noticed that something was wrong. A sliver of sunlight was just visible between the red skies of the horizon and the deepening purples above, but inky black clouds were crawling inexorably from the other side of the sky toward the setting sun, deceptively quickly. Yet what faint breeze there was came from the wrong direction.
"Well," declared Kotohime, "looks like it's game time." She tossed the peel of her snack into the water. "Quick, help me with the lanterns."
As Meira rushed about, using a meager burst of magic to light the iron-and-glass lanterns strategically positioned on deck, she noted someone similarly starting up a bonfire on the lakeshore, while others in the audience lit paper lanterns. While this let her see the... surprising number of people, actually, gathered to watch the evening's events, it didn't do much to improve visibility on the lake.
"If you are planning on putting on a show," she said to Kotohime, "these are hardly the conditions for it."
"They won't last," the other woman said confidently. "It's dramatic as all hell, but what's the point if no one can see how awesome you are?"
"I'm sorry?"
"Any minute – ah, there," Kotohime said, gesturing skyward. The clouds overhead were parting like curtains to reveal a patch of a night sky and a shining full moon, an unnaturally large and red moon that turned the water into a lake of blood.
"An illusion of course, the full moon is still a week away, but impressive all the same," admitted Kotohime.
"Boat!" came Koishi's cry from above.
Meira did a double-take. In the excitement of the sudden darkness and ominous red light, she had somehow completely missed the other ship gliding over the lake towards them.
It was much taller than their – than Kotohime's vessel. Its deck was twice as high off the water, the ship was at least half again as long. Its main mast, of four total, was tall enough to support three consecutively smaller sets of rectangular sails. A line of round protrusions along the flanks were probably gun barrels, and certainly bigger than the weapons Meria had helped Kotohime set up the previous day. The ship was either painted red or made from some ruddy wood, its sails a vivid crimson and marked with an emblem that looked to be some kind of winged spear. Mist, tinged red by the unnatural moon, clung to the vessel's lower hull and trailed in its wake, making the whole ship seem like a vengeful spirit. The snarling monster carved onto the ship's bow certainly didn't help matters.
Kotohime merely observed the development with a calm, pleased smile. "I'm sure Miss Scarlet has had that thing ready since yesterday, but of course you don't debut a ship like that before sundown."
"Her boat's bigger," Koishi observed as she drifted down to stand with the others.
"Bigger, slower, more ponderous," Kotohime replied. "Easier for us to hit."
"Oh, we're going to fight, then?" asked the satori, bouncing on her heels.
The captain-princess shot Koishi a smirk. "C'mon, do you really have to ask?" Kotohime then reached down a sleeve to withdraw a shiny brass cylinder, which extended with a series of clicks into a long tube with a glass lens at each end. Peering into the narrower part, she slowly panned her gaze across the opposing vessel, and frowned.
"Trouble?" asked Meira.
Kotohime put the instrument between her palms and pushed it back to its original size. "She has a hat," she pouted. "Why didn't I think of that?"
-x-
"I almost went with the tricorne until I realized, I don't need to be wearing gutters on my head!" said Remilia Scarlet, once again making minute adjustments to her felt semicircle of a hat, worn "fore-to-aft" in what the vampire assured her attendants was the proper style of an admiral.
Sakuya Izayoi's expertise didn't include 19th century naval uniforms, so she decided to defer to her mistress on the matter. The hat certainly matched the outfit – with Patchouli's help, Remilia had devised a full uniform with trousers, boots, a jacket, shiny buttons, brocade, frocking, all various shades of red. Whether the outfit matched its child-sized wearer, well… the Scarlet Devil Mansion's head maid decided to keep her opinion to herself. The important thing was that the Lady Scarlet was having a grand time, pacing and preening behind Sakuya while the latter stood at the wheel.
"And I decided not to wear it in the original style because it just looks ridiculous going from ear to ear, like a strong breeze would knock it off your head," Remilia continued. "I draw the line at plumes and feathers, too. Useless frippery."
Sakuya eyed the dozens of the mansion's fairy staff, who had been given matching red sailor's uniforms and told to man the ship. The fairies of course had no idea what to do, and were idling about on deck or playing in the rigging while Patchouli's enchantments handled everything but steering. But Remilia had insisted the ship had to have a proper crew, much like how the Mansion had to have a full serving staff.
"And you certainly aren't one for pointless decorations," Sakuya said mostly to herself. She could feel her mistress' glare on the back of her head.
"I feel a bit out of place," the ship's other 'officer' complained, perhaps not-so-coincidentally deflecting Remilia's ire away from Sakuya. "The color fits, but that's about it," said Hong Meiling. The gatekeeper's uniform was indeed identical to her usual clothing, but recolored a slightly darker red than her hair, much like how Sakuya's standard French maid outfit had been given a similar glamour by Miss Knowledge.
Remilia put her hands on her hips. "Well, what's the point of hiring a Chinese guard if nobody can tell she's Chinese?" she asked sarcastically.
"You kept Miss Sakuya in her normal clothes, though," Meiling pointed out. "I bet she'd look great in a kimono," she added with a grin towards the woman in question.
"Again, what's the point of having a Head Maid-"
"Do you have any orders, mistress?" Sakuya interrupted, growing weary of the banter.
Management issues momentarily forgotten, the vampire girl strode over to the ship's railing, drumming her fingernails – long enough that a less polite observer would call them talons – while she considered. "Make a circuit of the lake," Remilia announced. "Give them a chance to surrender. If they look aggressive, or if we return to our starting point without hearing of their submission, we shall teach them the error of their actions," she finished with a toothy grin.
Meiling shifted uncertainly on her feet, and given the ease she'd been moving about on the ship until now, her discomfort certainly wasn't due to her new posting. "As you command," she said unenthusiastically.
"Don't you dare go soft on me, Meiling," snapped the vampire girl. "I know you like her, but that Kotohime is dangerous. I shouldn't have to remind you what she did to the mansion last time she visited." She thought for a second, then added "And Sakuya."
"I'll be properly careful, mistress," the head maid calmly assured her.
"And this time I'm along to look after her," added Meiling, winking at Sakuya. Highly inappropriate on-the-job behavior, the maid mentally complained. Then the gatekeeper popped her knuckles, beginning to stretch and limber up. "You're right of course, Miss Scarlet. And knowing Kotohime, she'd be insulted if we didn't give her our best shot."
"And though I am loath to miss an opportunity to repay the woman for her insults, in this case I am happy to comply with her wishes," Remilia announced grandly. She took a sip from the ruby liquid in the wineglass she'd gotten from somewhere. Sakuya guessed that captains weren't supposed to drink on-duty, but those rules presumably applied only to alcoholic beverages.
-x-
"Now that's a boat," one of the watching villagers commented.
"Eh," another shrugged. "It's foreign though.
"Guess we're supposed to root for the little one, then?" a third wondered.
"Given who's crewing them, I'd prefer a three-way K.O.," declared Marisa as she slipped past, headed away from the shore and toward the refreshments. She wanted to grab some snacks before the show fully started, and hadn't gotten the chance on the way in.
As it was, Marisa got there in time to witness an argument. The man who had been cooking and giving the orders was doing his best to loom over a girl in a subdued apron and headscarf that didn't quite conceal her pinkish hair, not that the feathered wings sprouting from her shoulders didn't give her away as a youkai. Behind her was a woman-portable food cart, completely unattended and unsupervised, but not containing anything worth looting, Marisa knew from experience.
"-and I was the one the princess selected to cater this event, so you can just fly away, birdie," said the man with a fluttering motion of his hands.
Mystia Lorelei might have trembled a bit, or maybe she was shaking with indignation. Either way, the youkai girl held her ground, jutting her chin defiantly. "Your idea of food is greasy, fried poultry," she spat. "I'm giving people a choice of something nourishing and healthy."
"Lampreys," sneered the man. Then he noticed Marisa, the hat, the dress, the broomstick, and his eyes widened. "Hey, you're that magician, Kirisame?"
"Only when convenient," Marisa replied breezily. Mystia finally noticed her and took an involuntarily step back, causing Marisa's smile to widen.
"And you exterminate youkai, right? So blast this one," the man ordered.
"I'm not causing any problems, and don't want any trouble," Mystia said quickly.
"So leave!" the man snapped.
This was probably one of them 'moral choices' she heard some people talk about, Marisa decided. Luckily for her, she'd lost her morals years ago, so she got to pick whatever decision she felt like. And tonight... well, she had little reason to like Mystia, but the night sparrow hadn't just made the mistake of trying to give Marisa a command.
The witch folded her arms and tried to adopt the expression of stern disapproval she'd seen so often on Alice. "Who're you exactly?" she asked the man.
"Mizushima. I own a tavern back at the village."
"Never heard of ya. So what are you complaining about? I thought tonight's refreshments were courtesy of Her Highness, so surely you've already been paid? Why's it matter that birdbrain here is trying to compete?"
"Er." The barman cleared his throat. "The drinks are paid for, but the snacks are extra." He noticed some of the muttering coming from the crowd of would-be customers. "Hey, a man's gotta make a living!"
"All he has is pub food, pickled things and those disgusting fried chicken chunks," Mystia retorted. "I'm offering a quality meal at a reasonable price."
"Oh right, like anything your grill spits up is gonna be better than one of my appetizers," Mizushima countered.
"And," Mystia went on, speaking louder so the crowd could hear, "my wares are famous for improving a customer's night vision-"
Marisa only sighed and shook her head. "I think both of you are missing the real issue here: how much are you willing to pay me to side with you?"
The two vendors stared at her, then at each other. "Now just hold on a minute," Mystia began-
"What's going on?"
The ring of onlookers parted to admit two newcomers, one a prim and proper woman in a blue dress and pagoda-shaped hat, with rich brown eyes and long blue-tinged gray hair, the other a tomboyish albino girl in an ash-colored shirt strutting along with her hands in the pockets of her baggy red suspenders, paper talismans studding both it and her ankle-length hair.
The woman in blue, Keine Kamishirasawa, halted with her hands on her hips, sweeping a cool gaze over the frozen argument. "Well?"
"She wants to sell her food, but Kotohime already hired me to cater this," Mizushima said, pointing a finger at Mystia and sounding more like a sullen boy than a small business owner. "And she's a youkai-"
Keine turned to glare at Mystia. "Are you going to cause trouble?"
"No ma'am," Mystia said meekly.
"Alright then." Keine nodded. "You two stop bothering each other and stay on opposite ends of the clearing."
Mizushima tried to rally. "But-"
"What was that, Soshi?" the schoolteacher said sharply.
"Yes, Miss Kamishirasawa," the man said almost automatically. He looked almost embarrassed as he slumped back to manage his stall. A pink-faced Mystia offered a quick bow to Keine and scurried off in the other direction, glancing back over her shoulder at Mokou once or twice. The show over, the crowd began to form lines, just as many favoring Mystia's grill as Mizushima's.
Keine frowned at the bartender. "Still a bully who doesn't play well with girls," she said mostly to herself, before noticing Marisa again. "And what are you doing in all this, Marisa?"
"Who, me? Just tryin' to get a drink," Marisa said with a grin. "What about you guys, here to join the brawl? Got a bamboo raft or something shoved down your trousers?" she added with a nod towards Mokou.
"Didn't know I needed one," the immortal noblewoman shrugged, her eyes on the lake.
"Mokou and I only heard about this event when we were trying to decide on dinner," Keine explained. "I thought it sounded dangerous, and I'm a little worried so many people are here for it," she said, gesturing at the crowd of observers sitting or standing as they watched the lake.
"So eat it," Marisa recommended.
The were-hakutaku glowered at her. "That's not how my power works."
"So get hot pants here to burn the boats."
"Absolutely not!" Keine said sharply, but Mokou grinned.
"So have a beer and let Reimu worry about it," Marisa finished. "That's what I was trying to do, but you people keep-"
"Oh, Reimu's here? Come along, Mokou." And with that the two newcomers hurried past Marisa without a second glance.
The witch was briefly annoyed that her friendly rival's presence put others at ease in a way that her own didn't, before deciding that she was still thirsty and had wasted too much time already. Marisa looked back and forth from the beer and snack stand to Mystia's cart. It wasn't a question of appetite or which would cost less, but a matter of who seemed to be paying the most attention at the moment...
-x-
Kotohime surveyed the scene on the lake, standing tall and proud, hands gripping the wooden railing of the boat's upper deck, hair swaying slightly in the light breeze.
"Well, you have your… opponents, I suppose," Meira said reluctantly. "What happens now?" The samurai leaned forward to try and make eye contract. "Hello?"
The ship's captain had her eyes half-closed, a faraway look on her face, as though she was listening for something. "There are indeed many princesses here," she murmured, "but all of them? No, not yet…"
"I think Percy's stuck to her bridge," Koishi said, leaning against the rear railing and looking down at the water. "And she'd be happier being jealous of us having fun than she would be up here."
"True," Kotohime nodded, then she briskly clapped her hands. "Very well! It is time to begin the festivities!" She spun on her heel and walked to the ship's wheel and picked up that boxy communication device. "All hands on deck!" Kotohime spoke into the object. "C'mon up, Nitori."
"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming," came the kappa's voice, scratchy but distinct.
"You too, Koishi," Kotohime added.
"Do you think the land gets jealous of the water?" Koishi wondered, ignoring both her captain and the two enemy ships as she continued to stare down with her chin propped up in her hands. "The water gets to move around while the land stays still. It's boring staying in the same place all the time," she added.
Kotohime sighed and met Meira's gaze. "She's a formidable opponent, really," Kotohime insisted. Then she started herding the satori – and Meira, despite her protests – down the steep ladder onto the main deck next to Nitori. When everyone was arranged to her satisfaction, the three crew members standing at what might pass for attention if viewed from the shoreline, the princess took a deep breath.
"Ladies," said Kotohime grandly, "we stand – bob gently – tonight at a precipice. Or possibly over one, I'm unsure of the topography of the lakebottom. At any rate, after tonight Gensokyo will never be the same. It will have entered a new age of warfare, an era of timber, canvas, and steely-eyed women. The spectacle of the battle that is about to unfold may quite possibly replace the spellcard rules as our country's favorite way to resolve disputes."
Meira and Nitori traded an incredulous glance.
"So," Kotohime continued, pounding one fist into her palm, "I want you to remember a few things. First, whatever happens, I am the captain, and you obey my orders. Second, I am the captain, which means your performance reflects on my leadership abilities, so don't mess up or I'll get mad. And third, try not to thrash the others too quickly, we've got to keep the battle going until the Myouren Temple gang takes the bait. Now, any questions?"
Meira cleared her throat. "I was wondering-"
"That was a trick question, loyal officers never doubt their orders," interrupted Kotohime with a glare. "First Mate Koishi, you may punish Probationary Boatswain Meira as you see fit."
"'kay." The satori rounded on Meira, giving her another disconcerting mouth-only smile. "You lose fifty points, and have to give me your next dessert!"
Meira looked back and forth between the two madwomen, seriously considering making a run for home while there was still time, and trying to ignore Nitori's snickers.
"Harsh but fair," nodded Kotohime approvingly. "Chief Engineer Kawashiro, begin the power-up sequence," she commanded.
The kappa actually threw a salute, the little brown-noser. "Aye-aye, captain! Shifting to battle mode!" Nitori scampered out of sight belowdecks, and within seconds an ominous hum began to rise from beneath their feet as Meira felt a faint tremor through the deck.
"First Mate Koishi, if you would be so kind as to give the signal?" Kotohime nodded at the ship's tall pole thing.
"Oh, that, sure!" Without further word, Koishi leapt into the air to zip up to the top of the ship's mast, where… Meira blinked. At some point while she'd been gone, someone had installed a bulky box at the top of it. A box with a bunch of strings hanging from beneath – no, those were fuses-
"This ought to get their attention," Kotohime said to herself, a grim smile on her face.
There was a brief flash from the top of the ship, then a dozen or more overlapping hissing sounds…
-x-
-8-
Most of the people who didn't engage in danmaku duels on a regular basis jumped in surprise at the sudden sequence of shrieks and bangs coming from Kotohime's boat. But once the explosions started, and the air above the Misty Lake filled with sizzling, multicolored motes of fire, some of the onlookers began to clap approvingly, while the children in the audience cheered and screamed at the spectacle.
Alice set down the cup Marisa had brought her as she looked up quizzically. "Where on earth did she get that many fireworks?"
"Probably stockpiles them like you do your dolls," Marisa conjectured.
"Should we be worried about what else she has stockpiled, then?" asked Keine from her seat behind them, next to Mokou.
"Couldn't hurt," said the witch before taking another sip of her own drink, half-consciously plotting a course through the curtains of fire filling the air. A pretty enough attack, if a bit showy… distractingly so, even.
No sooner had that thought come than a particularly strident sequence of rockets exploded into white, red and purple sparks that formed a crude image of Kotohime herself, oriented towards the other ships, her simulacrum tugging on an eyelid and sticking out her tongue. That got a good laugh from the crowd.
"Childish," Alice tsked.
"Wait for it," Reimu advised.
Then came one last rapid fwoosh-fwoosh-fwoosh of rockets, but these weren't coming out of the top of the boat, and certainly weren't shooting skyward…
-x-
"Incoming!" Meiling cried.
Sakuya tore her attention away from the insulting figure in the sky just in time to see a barrage of flaming projectiles arcing down towards the Scarlet ship. Whistling and screaming in a more threatening manner than the earlier fireworks, the rockets sent up huge plumes of water as most of them missed their target. But one exploded right on the bow of the ship, causing the sails to briefly turn a shade of orange and the fairy crew to squeal in fear.
"Take evasive action!" Remilia snapped, and Sakuya obligingly yanked on the wheel, angling their vessel away from Kotohime's, though the barrage seemed to already be over. The little vampire captain stalked over to the ship's railing, hands clasped at the small of her back but her twitching bat wings betraying her agitation. "Damage report," she added.
Meiling nodded and traversed the length of the ship in a single bound, took a few seconds to survey the prow, then flew back to the captain's deck. "Forecastle's scorched but solid, couple of fairies got blown up but are already back, no fires," she said briskly.
"Hmmph. A paltry result for such a sneak attack." Remilia's lip twisted in a toothy sneer. "I'll cede you first blood, Kotohime, but if you hope to win this fight you'll have to do much better than that. Sakuya!"
"Yes, mistress?"
"That's 'aye, captain.'"
"Yes, mistress." Sakuya said, suppressing her grin with practiced ease.
Remilia grumbled something to herself, then snapped "Bring us around for a broadside. They rained fire upon us, now we shall return it!"
"Very good, mistress," Sakuya said placidly as she spun the wheel once more. It was marvelously responsive, probably magically so. Patchouli had explained that the vessel was enchanted to sail at the speed its captain wished regardless of the wind, and it could similarly fire at Remilia's command. Sakuya had asked her mistress if she wanted to steer as well, but Remilia had given her such a look. Presumably she needed someone else at the helm for the same reason she had all those fairies cluttering up the deck in their sailor's outfits.
-x-
"Not too bad a start," Kotohime said, pushing the now-empty rocket rack down the trapdoor it had sprang from.
Meira frowned. "Only one of your attacks-"
"Our attacks, Meira, get with the team."
"-actually hit the target, and did no detectable damage," Meira stated.
"It was pretty, though," Koishi said, staring up at the smoke slowly dispersing in the night sky above them.
"And you never start with your strongest stuff," Kotohime pointed out. "That was just the pistol going off at the start of the race."
"And now the Scarlets are coming this way," said Meira, gesturing at the massive ship bearing down on them.
"Which means we begin the delicate art of naval maneuvering!" Kotohime announced. She positively skipped her way up to the ship's wheel, spun it once for style points, and then locked her delicate hands on it. She bared her teeth in a competitive smile as she took another look at the enemy's actions. "Trying for a broadside, eh? Fat chance!"
Meira pulled herself up the steep flight of steps to the upraised rear deck, watching as Kotohime rolled the wheel back and forth. The police-chief-turned-captain frowned, wrenched at the wheel with a bit more vigor, then let go and stepped back, a speculative finger to her lip as she thought.
After a few moments Kotohime looked up. "Hey, Meira?" she asked. "Do you know how to make the ship go?"
The samurai kept her face an impassive mask while her hair tried to stand on end at the sight of the Scarlet cruiser, and the row of cannons now pointed their way…
-x-
A thought occurred to Sakuya Izayoi. She was an absolute novice when it came to naval warfare, but she had no small skill with general ballistics, and while a throwing knife was quite different from a cannonball, she felt she could make a good estimate where the latter would end up if fired. She also had well-developed spatial awareness, as did anyone who did well in danmaku duels.
As such, it seemed to her that their ship, while easily the most impressive and dangerous vessel on the Misty Lake at the moment, stood – floated – quite a bit taller than their rivals. Since their cannons could not to her knowledge aim down, this presented a natural problem when it came to hitting those other ships. Furthermore, their current position on the lake meant that while they were parallel to Kotohime's vessel, they were also parallel with the gathering of lights and onlookers on one stretch of the shoreline, to say nothing of the Scarlet Devil Mansion on the opposite side of the water.
Sakuya cleared her throat. "If I may, mistress-"
Remilia made an overly-dramatic gesture that she probably saw in a comic book. "FIRE!" she shouted.
And the ship, enchanted to obey her commands, did just that.
-x-
Marisa later swore that Reimu stood up even before the flash of the cannons firing, and had a paper charm between her fingers before the boom of the reports had sounded. The result was that the danger was dealt with before anyone else was aware of it.
One second everyone was marveling at the rocket barrage fired at the Scarlet ship, the next there was a glowing, golden, rectangular barrier humming in the air in front of a miniature sun, and then the second after that a misshapen lump of ruddily-glowing metal thudded onto the shore at Marisa's feet. Nobody in the crowd of spectators gasped or screamed this time, not after the fireworks and rocket barrage. Instead there was a low murmur of alarm as the nearest watchers realized the close call, or noticed the clouds of disturbed, squawking birds rising from the forest to either side of the clearing.
The witch blinked and took a closer look at the thing laying in front of her, which was gently hissing while bleeding off the heat generated from its sudden stop. "Okay, what?" was all she could say.
Next to her Alice shifted uneasily, setting aside her empty cup and trying to reposition the locked grimoire she always carried with her so that it covered the stain her spilled drink had left. "Good catch, Reimu," she said with feigned calm.
"Idiots," the shrine maiden hissed. Without looking back she took to the air, a red-and-white blur rocketing towards the Scarlet ship.
"So wait, did the vamps just try to shoot us?" Marisa asked, still feeling a bit left behind.
"Us, the trees, and their house," Mokou said unconcernedly, standing up and leaning over Marisa's shoulder to look at the halted projectile. "Huh. Been a while since I've seen cannonfire."
"I think I'll be happy if I never see it again," Keine managed. Then she noticed a kid who had wandered over to poke at the cannonball with a stick. "Don't touch that!" she scolded.
-x-
Patchouli Knowledge tried to keep her hands from shaking, and focused on taking deep, steady breaths. Unfortunately this almost triggered an asthma attack, but the net effect was to sufficiently distract her from her brush with death.
With one hand over her mouth as she tried to resist a wracking cough, she let her book fall out of her lap, and stepped away from the pile of smoking kindling that had been, just a few seconds ago, a desk. She nearly stumbled and fell before she remembered she could fly, and so Patchouli floated over to the library wall.
Sure enough, there was a jagged hole not just in the window, but in the walls of the demiplane she had made into her library. Motes of red-purple energy fizzed and sparkled, flying skyward in defiance of gravity, as a space taller and wider than the tower wrapped around it was reminded that such an arrangement should be impossible. It was fortunate, Patchouli mused dazedly, that the windows were illusory, or else she'd have been filleted by the glass shards blown along in the cannonball's wake.
On the floor nearby, Flandre looked up from her latest picture book to make a face at the librarian. "So when I break something I get grounded, but it's okay when Big Sis does it?"
"N-n-n-" Patchouli swallowed, forcing her teeth to stop chattering. "No, I'll be having words with your sister," she promised. Then she remembered how many guns she'd installed on the galleon. "After I survey the rest of the damage," she amended with a sigh. Giving spacing and spread, and depending which of the cannons hit her tower, she could be looking at a half-dozen or more holes in the mansion… "After I get a drink," she corrected once more.
Of all the times for Koakuma to be gone. The little imp could return with a glass of wine fast enough for Patchouli to suspect her assistant had a stockpile in the library somewhere.
-x-
Sakuya rather liked these rare moments when Remilia was caught off-balance. For a few heartbeats, the maid saw on her employer's face the look of a child who had been playing with a ball and was now confronted with a broken window – which in a way was exactly what had happened. Remilia Scarlet's imperious manner made her easy to follow, but these little humanizing instances were what made her likeable.
Nearby, Meiling sucked on her teeth in shock for a moment, but rallied. "W-well!" she announced with an uncertain smile. "The cannons definitely work! And the good news is the manor's outer walls are still intact."
Remilia finally closed her mouth. "That wasn't supposed to happen," she said petulantly.
"Miss Knowledge enchanted the ship to obey your commands, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the guns will hit what you want them to when you tell them to fire," Sakuya pointed out.
But the little vampire captain was barely listening. "Is that Reimu?" she asked excitedly, her superior night vision detecting an approaching interloper before anyone else on the boat. By the time Sakuya had turned about, the shrine maiden was upon them, hovering just off the stern with her arms folded, her hair, bow, detached sleeves and skirt all gently swaying in the light breeze.
"What were you thinking?" Reimu asked bluntly.
Remilia straightened to her full height (which took little effort) and strode to the ship's railing, radiating a supreme confidence at odds with the friendly fire incident that had just transpired. "Ah, Miss Hakurei, wonderful for you to join us this evening!" she said grandly. "Are you here to do battle, or will you be spectating?"
"You nearly hit the bystanders on the shoreline," said Reimu. "I don't care if you blow your own house up or blast each other, but if you put anyone else at risk I'm going to sink your new toys before things get out of hand."
"It will not happen again," Remilia promised smoothly. "Please convey my apologies to the audience, as well as my assurances that the rest of the night's entertainment shall make up for that faux pas."
Reimu mouthed the unfamiliar words with a puzzled frown, then shrugged. "Whatever. Just don't make me catch any more cannon balls." Without waiting for a reply, she flew back just as suddenly as she had arrived.
Despite the scolding, Sakuya thought Remilia looked pleased that, one way or another, she was getting attention… or perhaps attention from the right person. "Your orders, mistress?" the maid prompted.
The little vampire spun around so fast that she left her hat behind, and had to catch and correct it before it spun off her head. She flashed Sakuya a brief 'you didn't see that' look and strode to the opposite side of the deck, nearest Kotohime's boat. "Swing us around to cut across the enemy's front."
"As you wish, mistress," Sakuya said without hesitation, working the wheel once more.
Remilia broke into a wide, predatory smile. "This maneuver is called 'crossing the T.' Ah, it makes sense if you're familiar with the Latin alphabet," she added for her crew's benefit. "By cutting across the nose of the enemy ship, we will evade its weapons, while being able to bring our full firepower to bear."
Meiling coughed politely, and at her employer's impatient gesture asked "Given how our last attack went, are you sure-"
"I didn't say we'd be attacking with the cannons," Remilia said.
-x-
"And there she goes," Reisen said half to herself as she watched the shrine maiden fly back towards the shore. "I'm guessing they got a scolding."
She'd abandoned the oar to confer with her superiors after the guns had gone off - or more accurately, she'd dropped it while she had what felt like a minor heart attack. Gensokyo was about the last place she'd expected to hear the thunder of artillery again, and the sound reminded Reisen how grateful she was that she hadn't heard it for so long.
But apparently Reisen was the only one actually stressed out, much less worried. The rabbits probably didn't know any better, while through the window, Reisen could see that Eirin and Kaguya were still sitting at the low table in the ship' enclosed deck room
Eirin gave a low hmm. "But the Scarlets' galleon is moving into an attack position, so it would appear that the 'battle' is still on."
"Oh, good! I'd hate to be sent home so soon after starting," Kaguya commented, calmly refilling her mentor's cup of tea.
"I don't think this pleasure craft is going to have anything to match that cannon barrage," Reisen said glumly.
The three of them considered her words, then simultaneously turned their heads toward Tewi, who was sitting outside the room, nonchalantly dangling her feet over the side of the boat.
"I might have added a few surprises," the earthbound rabbit admitted without looking back at them. "Just let me know when you want 'em."
"Thank you for your preparedness, Tewi," Kaguya said with a brilliant smile. "We'll see how events progress before we take advantage of your offer, however. In the meantime," she went on, turning to address Reisen. "Move us to intercept the other ships," she ordered. "This is no time to be stationary."
Reisen suppressed her groan, resigned to her fate as the ship's propulsion system. "I'm running out of lakebottom to push against," she warned. "If we get any further out of the shallows-"
"Arrangements will be made," Eirin cut in calmly.
Reisen didn't ask why, if her mentor had a means of moving the boat, she was leaving Reisen to strain herself pushing it forward with a long length of wood. Instead she swallowed her sigh, walked back to the stern, and nudged the Eientei vessel a little closer towards Gensokyo's first naval battle.
"I bet this would be easier if you lot weren't weighing us down," she muttered to two Earth rabbits lazing about nearby.
-x-
-9-
"This is no time to panic," said Kotohime.
"This is an ideal time to panic," Meira insisted tersely. "That most certainly was not danmaku, and given what their weapons did to that mansion, if they'd hit us-"
"Their arrogance will be their undoing," the police captain princess said, still wrenching the ship's wheel back and forth without effect. "Miss Scarlet was compelled to pick a big, tall boat, but if we close to point-blank range their guns will be unable to target us."
"Except for the fact that we're currently stationary," ground out Meira.
"Flat-boat is moving closer," Koishi commented as casually as though she were discussing the weather.
"And now we're surrounded," Meira sighed.
Kotohime turned back to check, shrugged, and gave the samurai a puzzled frown. "When did you become such a scaredy-cat?"
"This has nothing to do with fear, this is about not, not getting blown up before your great plan comes to fruition!" said Meira desperately.
"Uh huh." Kotohime didn't sound convinced. "You're awfully skittish for someone who's been fighting since before the spellcard rules."
That's because spellcards or no, danmaku didn't blow through brick walls with a force that would turn this stupid boat into kindling in a single shot, Meira didn't shout. Instead she tried to play along. "They're moving into an ideal firing position!" she said as earnestly, but calmly, as she could.
"And you're displaying shockingly low confidence in my abilities as captain," Kotohime continued. "First mate Koishi, keep a weather eye on the bunny boat."
"'kay," the satori replied, not looking up from tracing the wood grain of the railing with her fingertip.
Kotohime bent over slightly to squint along the length of her vessel. "Now, which sounds better to you?" she asked Meira. "The Koto-Beam or the Yamato Cannon? I'll admit the latter is almost as clichéd as the former is conceited, but-"
Meira resisted the urge to grab her companion by the robe and shake some sense into her. "What are you talking about now?!" she all but wailed.
"Nitori, prepare to fire the primary weapon," Kotohime said into that detachable metal box.
"Sweet!" came the reply.
"Captain!" Kotohime snapped.
"No, you're the captain, I'm the engineer," Nitori answered with an audible grin.
The ship rocked as something heavy and mechanical shifted in its bowels, and then the deck seemed to vibrate with a deep, rising hum. Meira found herself instinctively clutching at something, which turned out to be Kotohime.
The princess had an enormous smug grin on her face. "Now, witness the firepower of this fully armed and operational battleship!" she cackled. As the Scarlets' ship passed directly in front of their own, Kotohime shouted the order. "FIRE!"
-x-
This time there were some cries of alarm from the bystanders on the lakeshore, mixed with an odd curse or two, at the abrupt, searing, obnoxiously pink light that briefly flared from Kotohime's boat. The noise that swiftly followed was comparatively underwhelming, and sounded almost gastrointestinal.
"More fireworks?" asked Keine, rubbing her eyes.
"I think it was an attack, except it didn't do anything," Reimu said with an unconcerned shrug.
Marisa grinned at a memory that was much funnier in hindsight than it had been to experience. "Well," she explained, "the thing about Kotohime is that she's better at making explosives than anything else, so even if she's tryin' to build something that isn't an explosive…"
-x-
"What did you do?!"
"Why does that keep happening?!"
"There's a lot of smoke down here, did it work?"
"Has anyone seen my hat?"
-x-
Sakuya realized her mouth was hanging slightly open and rapidly closed it before anyone noticed, but Meiling and Remilia were still staring with similar shocked expressions.
"Was that supposed to happen?" Meiling asked, to no response.
Kotohime's ship was still intact, but the front quarter or so was buckled and warped, as though the wooden planking had been exposed to a few hundred years' worth of sunlight and heat in the space of a heartbeat. Magenta-colored smoke was pouring from the new gaps in the deck and hull, but the damage didn't seem to extend to the waterline, and the thing was still floating.
Now that Sakuya was looking closer… "It appears that there was a cannon concealed in the ship's prow," she commented. "We probably witnessed a misfire."
Meiling chuckled. "Sounds about right. Poor girl."
"Quite," Remilia agreed. "I find myself moved by pity. Fighting at our full potential against such an inept foe would be simply unfair." She turned to address the dozens of short, winged sailors, who were keeping the ship running about as well as they had been keeping the mansion cleaned the afternoon previous. "Fairies!" shouted Remilia, rousing them from their aimless milling about. "It is time for battle! Show these fools the power of the Scarlet Devil Mansion!"
That got an enthusiastic cheer – just about anything did, Sakuya speculated that some of those fairies would cheer at their own executions. They rushed over to the side of the ship facing Kotohime's vessel.
"For the glory of Scarlet!" Remilia bellowed, eyes blazing red, arm flung out dramatically toward her foe. "Attack!"
-x-
With all the smoke pouring out of the front of the ship, the only warning of the enemy offensive came when a sudden flurry of glowing energy pellets cut through the murk and started impacting on the vessel like mildly explosive hail.
"Oh, they're attacking," Koishi said disinterestedly, even as she leapt to the air and started twisting and bobbing through the incoming fire, dodging seemingly without conscious effort.
Meira yelped and surged forward, vaulting over the railing to try and take shelter behind the mast in the middle on the main deck. She pressed her back against it, thanked whatever deities were listening that it was about as wide as she was, and listened to the sizzles and hisses as the danmaku left small, scorched holes in the sail above. The whole ship shuddered slightly under the barrage, but luckily the nonlethal attacks didn't do much more than discolor the wood. That didn't mean Meira wanted to get hit, though.
She could see Kotohime up on the rear deck, ducked behind the ship's wheel, doing her best to peek over it without taking a shot to the face. She grabbed the little metal box connected to it and shouted "Weapons, what's our-"
"Huh?" came Nitori's voice. "I thought I was Engineering?"
"You're a lot of things! Can we take another shot?"
"I can't tell, there's so much… Hang on, who's-" And Nitori's voice cut off in a burst of mechanical hissing.
Kotohime cursed and resumed wrestling with the wheel, to no visible effect. "Koishi!" she snapped. "You're going commando, board the other ship and shut down their guns."
"Okay!" Without looking back, the satori flew forward, looping and twirling her way through the incoming danmaku storm to disappear into the mist rising from the warped front of the boat.
"And what about me?" called Meira, feeling a little calmer now that she was hunkered down behind cov- now that the shock of their misfire had faded.
"Stand by to repel boarders," Kotohime ordered. "The other combatants may take advantage of our momentary inconvenience."
Meira glanced around, but could see nothing but smoke and danmaku. "I'll be ready," the samurai vowed, just managing to hide the sarcasm.
-x-
"Well this is more like it," Marisa commented, leaning forward in her seat to watch the spectacle.
Now that nobody was sending heavy ordnance their way, the 'battle' on the lake seemed to have swung back to a good old-fashioned danmaku duel, but with boats. It was both reassuringly familiar and interestingly novel, not to mention the fact that the reflective lake surface did wonders for the show, effectively doubling the visual experience. From some of the comments coming from the rest of the shoreline, the villagers were enjoying it too.
"I'm not sure why they needed the boats, though," said Keine.
"Oh dear, have we missed the show?"
The group all shifted and turned to see the newcomers. Toyosatomimi no Miko was rounding the bonfire, striding through the masses of distracted villagers like she owned the place, followed closely by Mononobe no Futo and Soga no Tojiko, as per usual. Though the latter two were in their normal attire, Marisa noticed that Miko seemed strangely underdressed before realizing that fantastically fancy cape of hers was missing.
"Oh, it's the Taoists," Reimu remarked before turning back to watch the lake.
Keine at least had the manners to briefly rise and offer a quick bow. "Good evening, crown… er…"
Miko briefly held up a hand as though tossing a trifle over her shoulder. "No titles tonight, if you please," she said with a smile. "I wouldn't want to distract from the festivities."
"Not that anyone else has noticed you're here," Marisa couldn't help but point. Miko was good, though, able to quickly clamp down on and hide her annoyance. Marisa wondered how much it would take to get her angry, and resolved to find out as soon as convenient.
"To answer your question, they've only just started, and you haven't missed much," said Alice. "Some fireworks, a rocket barrage, cannonfire that nearly killed us…"
"See?" Miko said to her subordinates, a teasing smile on her face, "There are some advantages to arriving fashionably late." But Marisa saw that Futo was watching the ongoing barrage with wide-eyed, rapt attention, torn somewhere between fear and excitement. And the one with the ghost legs was staring at Mokou for whatever reason, though the immortal didn't seem to notice or care.
"If this was an 'all-princess' boat battle, weren't you invited?" asked Keine. "Surely if anyone in Gensokyo qualifies, it'd be you."
Miko frowned, slightly. "I eventually learned that my invitation had been misplaced, and by then it was too late for me to acquire a vessel of my own."
"I have a boat, my prince," Futo pointed out.
"We could hardly fit the three of us on it," said Miko gently.
"But Tojiko would be flying," the gray-haired girl insisted. Beside her, the ghost in question tore her gaze away from Mokou and nodded firmly.
Miko gazed at her subordinates for a moment, turned to study the battle on the lake, then tilted her head back, closed her eyes, and thought. "Well," she decided after a moment, "I suppose the two of you qualify as princesses, as you're both of noble birth. So if you really want to-"
"YES!" Futo did a standing jump, pulled a long, low, one-person rowboat out of nowhere, and landed to stand upright on its deck in mid-air, bobbing slightly before rising higher. "Onward, Tojiko!" she cried, pointing forward and surging into action.
With one last glance at Mokou, the ghost rushed to follow her companion as she sped out towards the lake. Others in the crowd on the shoreline noticed and gave them a few cheers.
"And no fires!" Miko called after them, before gracefully easing herself down next to Marisa and her friends, an almost parental smile on her face. She nodded her thanks as Alice wordlessly passed her a cup. "They should enjoy this. Futo and Tojiko have been quite intent on 'avenging' my honor against Kotohime-"
"That sounds like the set-up for a stupid story," Marisa remarked.
"Most Kotohime stories are," Reimu agreed.
There was a moment of silence, interrupted by the continuing torrent of firepower coming from the Scarlet vessel, which Futo's flying rowboat didn't seem to be headed towards.
"It seemed to me," Keine said carefully, "that your friend had a grudge against Mokou for some reason. She wouldn't take her eyes off her."
"Might not have been a grudge," Marisa suggested with a grin. Keine didn't rise to it though, phooey.
"That was the Soga girl?" Mokou said, breaking out of her silence for the first time in minutes. At Miko's nod, understanding dawned on Keine's face, and Mokou grunted "Yeah, that'd explain it."
Alice gave her a look. "That's the clan your ancestor wiped out, only to be struck down by their curse, right?"
Fujiwara no Mokou only shrugged. "So they say. Won't hold it against her if she did do anything to great-grandad or whatever." She abruptly barked with sardonic laughter. "Yeah, I know."
Marisa elbowed Alice's arm. "How do you know this stuff, anyway?"
"I read," Alice sniffed. "I wouldn't live here if I hadn't studied hu- Japanese history first."
"And you would know it if you ever came to my school," Keine told Marisa sternly.
At that the witch turned away, taking a renewed interest in the display over the lake. "I had a different education," she said more to herself than anyone else.
-x-
-10-
Reisen took a break, partly because her arms were burning, and partly because she couldn't reach the lakebed with her steering oar. She walked over to where Kaguya and Eirin were still sitting in that windowed cabin on the deck, surrounded by loafing rabbits, and poked her head into the chamber.
"I can't push us any further, we're too deep," Reisen announced, only realizing when she saw the look on Eirin's face that she'd just unceremoniously interrupted her betters. The lunar rabbit cringed, but Kaguya didn't seem to notice.
"It just seems rude," the princess went on as if Reisen didn't exist.
"It makes tactical sense," Eirin pointed out. "Both opposing vessels are distracted, and one is already damaged. If you plan on participating in this naval battle, now is the time to strike."
"But Kotohime and the Lady Scarlet are engaging each other, and it would be impolite to interrupt their duel," Kaguya countered. "Better to wait our turn."
And then an arrow thudded into the cabin wall, neatly passing between Reisen's ears and making her nearly jump out of her skirt.
Kaguya arched an eyebrow, dark brown eyes glittering. "Unless we will find someone else to battle," she corrected herself.
"Avaunt!" a woman cried.
A quite small boat was hovering off and above the yakatabune's aft, supporting two women in old-fashioned attire – or rather, as Reisen looked closer, supporting one woman standing with a bow, while another hovered nearby, her feet trailing off into vapor. A ghost, then.
"Before you stands Mononobe no Futo and Soga no Tojiko, two legends from Japan's glorious past," the archer continued. "Though we have no quarrel with thee, we come to test our mettle."
"Oh, that's right, you were one of the duelists! How delightful!" gushed Kaguya. "We haven't had the opportunity to fight yet, and I'm always happy to meet new people. I am Kaguya Houraisan," she said, rising to her feet and beaming with a hand to her chest, "and this is my loyal attendant, Eirin Yagokoro."
"Charmed," Eirin said with a trace of amusement.
And I guess I'm just the bunny who pushes the boat, Reisen thought sourly when it became clear that there would be no further introductions.
"I am most pleased thou art a princess of refined bearing and civility," said Futo, "unlike the malcontent who insulted my liege by not inviting her to these proceedings – if princess she be."
Kaguya smiled. "And yet here you are, as ready to battle me as her. Life in Gensokyo is odd, isn't it?" When Futo floundered for a moment, Kaguya clapped her hands briskly, moving the conversation forward like a good hostess even though she was the one being called out for battle. "Now, it seems Kotohime is currently engaged with another guest," she said, gesturing at the two larger vessels, one of which was unleashing a torrent of firepower against the other, "so I suppose it is up to us to entertain ourselves."
"And Lady Tojiko and I would relish the chance to test ourselves against a proper princess rather than one of those pretenders," Futo concured.
"Excellent!" Kaguya motioned for Eirin to follow her as she left the enclosed lounge and stepped onto the open front deck. "I hope you will agree to some restrictions. I would prefer if you didn't involve my crew," she said, gesturing at the rabbits in pink dresses who were lounging about on the pleasure craft without taking any part of its operation, and not the rabbit who had actually been prodding the damn boat for nearly half an hour.
"Perish the thought," said Futo, looking mildly affronted.
"Additionally, you and your comrade have chosen bows," Kaguya went on, gesturing at the ghost-footed girl. "Lady Yagokoro here can respond in kind-"
The interlopers' eyes widened as Eirin smoothly drew back the string of her weapon in a test-firing, a weapon that she had not been carrying when Reisen had last looked at her mentor. It wasn't a particularly impressive bow, instead an almost ridiculously slender black thing with cheery white ribbons tied at either end of it, but Reisen had seen what Eirin could do with it.
"-but I have no such weapon, and so will be using danmaku," Kaguya finished, drawing from her robes a short tree branch bedecked with seven shining jewels. "Are those terms acceptable?"
The two hovering ladies traded a glance, with the green-tressed ghost giving an almost annoyed 'hurry up already' look to her friend as she conjured a crackling bow of electricity in her hands. "Quite reasonable," Futo announced.
"Then," Kaguya said, flourishing her unusual weapon with a challenging smile while Eirin aimed her bow at Futo's face and drew back the string without much effort, "let us begin!"
Reisen had a hunch that Eirin could have ended the engagement in about a second, possibly even with a single arrow. But as usual the Lunarian genius was holding back, and merely loosed a shining white projectile a heartbeat after the other girls started moving, so that it flashed harmlessly past Futo's head. The girl in the flying boat, meanwhile, responded with a blue-white blazing arrow of her own, while the ghost launched a few crackling projectiles that looked like, but were too slow to be, lightning bolts. And after that Reisen was torn between her lingering annoyance and her interest in watching the show.
It wasn't quite as overwhelming as what Kotohime or the Scarlets had done so far, but the paired match between the Lunarians and Taoists made up in skill and style what it lacked in quantity. After all, any fairy could fill the air with magical projectiles, but this was a case of three archers (and Her Highness) taking careful shots while avoiding incoming fire.
The Taoists had the distinct advantage of having more room to maneuver, and arced and swooped through the sky above the yakatabune, raining their luminescent projectiles down like meteorites. Kaguya and Eirin were confined to the narrow deck of a flat ship, wholly lacking in cover, yet were sufficiently skilled as to be able to dodge the incoming attacks while returning fire. Reisen wagered the Lunarians were the more stylish of the combatants – they sidestepped and lunged, spun and twirled, Kaguya's long hair and flowing robes making it seem as though she were putting on some traditional dance, only waving her jeweled branch rather than a gohei. Eirin wasn't as visually impressive, but while Kaguya moved with a careless ease, the ageless scientist was reacting to her partner's movements, simultaneously forming a counterpart to Kaguya even as she kept herself out of harm's way and returned fire against the Taoists. Overall it looked to be a fair fight in that nobody had been hit but there were a lot of impressive near-misses.
Reisen observed all this without any feeling of tension – she and the Earth rabbits weren't involved, and she wasn't worried for her masters. So she watched the arrows zip back and forth, joined by occasional multi-colored streams of Kaguya's danmaku, and wondered what this engagement counted as. It wasn't an "official" spell card duel, though danmaku was involved and magical arrows were flying fast and furious, but neither was anyone making a serious effort to kill each other. Maybe it was like those religious battles from earlier? Or even like the time Reisen herself had ventured forth after those earthquakes-
Her thoughts were interrupted when the princess managed to land a solid shot against the rear half of Futo's flying boat, the barrage of magical projectiles knocking it about and causing its pilot to cry out in fear, losing her hat as she dangled by one hand before remembering she could fly.
"Aha!" the princess announced gamely. "A hit for me, I believe!"
"Very good, Your Highness," Eirin murmured while sighting down her arrow. Futo boosted herself to land on her hands and knees in her boat, but when she lifted her head Eirin took a potshot at it, forcing the noblewoman to duck down with a squawk.
Kaguya giggled and unleashed another torrent of jewel-like danmaku into the boat, spinning it in place and further upsetting its occupant.
"Do something, Tojiko!" the pinned woman cried.
The ghostly girl's eyes flashed, the dark skies above boomed with thunder, and she lunged forward, loosing a barrage of crackling lighting arrows. "Have at thee!" she shouted.
Kaguya laughed and spun to avoid the attacks-
Eirin took a precisely aimed shot-
And the blazing silver arrow struck Tojiko square in the forehead. The ghost squealed in pain as the projectile tore through her, pulling a brief trail of vapor after it as it exited the back of her head. She stopped to hover in the air, clutching her skull.
"Eirin!" gasped Kaguya, "That was uncalled for!"
The Lunarian scientist straightened out of her fighting stance, lips pursed with mild annoyance. "I was rather expecting her to dodge that."
"That's no excuse," Kaguya snapped. "This is just a battle, nobody was supposed to get hurt."
"It won't happen again, your highness," sighed Eirin.
"That's not good enough, apologize to her for-"
Tojiko, face now twisted from fury rather than pain, suddenly shouted, and a proper lightning bolt slammed down from the sky into the yakatabune's front-
Directly into Kaguya.
The princess spasmed violently for an instant before flopping bonelessly to the deck. Some of the rabbits began to murmur excitedly, while Reisen couldn't help but grimace at the shocked expression now spreading over the ghost's face.
The flying boat bobbed lower, its occupant staring wide-eyed at the wisps of smoke rising from Kaguya's singed robes. "What hast thou done?" Futo croaked.
"Um…" Tojiko drifted over to her comrade. "I didn't mean to do that. Is she hurt?" she asked hesitantly.
Eirin was already kneeling over the fallen princess, and Futo and Tojiko relaxed at the doctor's unconcerned demeanor. "No," Eirin assured them, "you killed her."
Two simultaneous shrieks accompanied the boat wobbling in mid-air as Futo struggled to stay in control. "She's dead?!" squeaked Futo.
Tojiko kept darting about, as if trying to determine which direction she should flee. "I didn't – she couldn't – I didn't mean to-"
Their panic was interrupted by a quiet and dainty cough, and a sudden stirring of the form in the pink kimono.
"Good heavens," Kaguya said as Eirin helped her to her feet. "I do believe that's a first. Fire, impalement, and poison I've been through, but I can't remember ever being struck by lightning."
"How was it?" asked Eirin politely.
The princess paused in the act of smoothing her slightly-frazzled hair. "Hmm. A lot like burning to death, but condensed into an instant. And easier on the clothes. I wouldn't choose it over drowning or freezing, but it's one of the better ways to die, I'd say, if you want a lot of pain over with quickly."
Futo's mouth was hanging open in shock. "What are you?" she asked before she could stop herself.
"Now, now, we already traded introductions," Kaguya chided. "More importantly, we have not traded blows, which strikes me as unfair." She looked up at the pair of Taoists, her breathtaking smile hardening into something fierce, her eyes flashing. "My turn."
-x-
-11-
The Scarlet broadside had only gone on for about a minute when it was suddenly interrupted. Pale red explosions from the far end of the ship made Sakuya momentarily wonder whether another enemy rocket attack had started, but then she noticed that the bursts of firepower were shaped almost like-
"Roses?" Meiling blurted out from nearby. Well, as the gardener, she would know.
The danmaku barrage faltered as the fairy crew noticed they were under attack and responded accordingly, screaming and running about, giggling madly with excitement, a few loosing danmaku at random. Another crop of explosive flowers, their overlarge petals an orangish-red and glowing with golden light, detonated to reduce more fairies to sparkling clouds. But Sakuya still hadn't spotted their attacker.
"We've been boarded," Remilia snapped as she stomped away from the railing to survey the deck of her vessel. "Meiling, Sakuya, show them the folly of attacking the Scarlet Devil Mansion."
-'s boat, Sakuya didn't correct. Instead she intoned "Yes, Mistress Scarlet" at the same instant Meiling did, and lunged forward, a trio of knives already clutched between the knuckles of her right hand. With the gatekeeper at her side, she shouldered their way through the cloud of scattering fairies.
Sakuya's gaze swept the scene, trying to pierce the chaos to spot its source, and she had half a mind to start throwing knives to thin out some of the fairy chaff. She couldn't see anyone-
"Oh, hey!"
-she whirled around, suppressing a start of surprise. Somehow Sakuya had missed the girl with pale green hair and a strangely empty expression who was leaning nonchalantly against the main mast, her loose clothing wrapped in some sort of dark cord.
"You two look strong," the girl continued, adjusting the brim of her black hat. "Do you think I'm supposed to commando you too?"
Sakuya realized her upraised hand and knives were slowly drooping, and forced herself to remain on guard. There was something… odd, about this girl. She looked harmless, and Sakuya was having trouble staying focused on her, but logically she was the one responsible for… responsible for...
Even Meiling's combat stance faltered, and the gatekeeper exchanged confused looks with Sakuya. "Ah, you're the boarder?" managed Meiling.
The girl giggled. "No, silly, I'm the commando! I sneak up and give you presents, liiiike-"
She twirled and did a strange gesture, but Sakuya and Meiling were already diving in different directions as a cluster of glowing roses sprouted in the space they'd been standing, blossoming into magical explosions that rocked the boat and tossed some loitering fairies about like dolls.
Meiling beat Sakuya to the attack, lunging forward with a battle shout and flying kick. The girl cried out but seemed more exhilarated than afraid, and… Sakuya felt her jaw drop. Meiling lashed out with a series of heavy blows, nothing bone-shattering, but enough to send her foe flying. Yet every strike went somewhere the girl wasn't, and the amazing thing was that their enemy didn't seem to be actively dodging. It was more like she was twirling and dancing with herself in a way that coincidentally evaded each of Meiling's strikes.
And then just as abruptly the girl was surging ahead, wrapped in entwined streamers of red and blue energy that forced Meiling to backflip to safety-
"Take the shot!" the gatekeeper shouted.
Sakuya marshaled her power, the one that made her unique even beyond her skill with knives, or cleaning, or sleight of hand: her ability to prolong or even stall the moments between the ticking of the clock.
Sounds cut off into a sort of deep, hollow echo. Colors faded into murky blacks and grays. And all motion suddenly ceased.
Sakuya smiled to herself, reveling as always in the time stop. If Remilia ruled the Scarlet Devil Mansion, and some manner of youkai or deity presumably claimed to be master of Gensokyo, then this timeless moment was her world.
She readied her knives, imagining the look on the intruder's face when she was suddenly confronted with a wall of blades, and searched the air around Meiling for… searched for… Sakuya blinked, doubly unnerved for being unable to determine what she was unnerved about. There had been… she'd stopped time for some reason. But there was Meiling, teeth bared and brow furrowed as if in combat, and there was Remilia back behind the wheel with an intent scowl on her face, and there were a lot of fairies about, but nothing that would make Sakuya draw the knives in her hand.
She released her hold on time as though releasing her breath, face flushed with confusion and embarrassment. Color, sound, movement all returned-
And she was immediately forced to dive to the side as a barrage of pinkish streaks of energy thrust at her, spearing the deck with eruptions of flame.
The maid came out of her roll, eyes wide, knives in hand, but found only allies. Meiling's auburn ponytail was twitching and swaying like a living thing as she sought a target, but the gatekeeper reluctantly rose from her combat stance when none was forthcoming.
"What was that?" Meiling demanded.
"I don't… what was…" Sakuya watched the fairy crew continue to wheel about in the air over the ship, an insult to her lady. "You!" she snapped.
The swarm of fey instantly froze, even though Sakuya hadn't used her power.
"Stop this sorry display and return to your stations!" Sakuya commanded. "Behave yourselves until you receive further orders."
That got a chorus of halfhearted replies, but the fairies complied, unenthusiastically flying back to stand near ropes that they had no idea how to use, living decorations for the Mistress' enjoyment. About the same as when they were serving as maids, sadly.
"There, that's settled," Meiling declared with a slight smile, though Sakuya thought she looked worried about something. "Knew you could whip them back into shape."
"I can only imagine what got them so worked up," Sakuya sniffed, ignoring the praise as she led her coworker back to her mistress' side.
Remilia glowered at them through the spokes of the ship's wheel once Sakuya and Meiling had hopped up onto the rearmost deck. "Everything settled now?"
"Yes, mistress," Sakuya reported with a curtsy.
"Good. Then we'll continue…" Remilia's frown deepened, as though she was trying to remember something important.
After a few moments, Sakuya politely prompted "Mistress?"
"Why am I thinking of Flan all of a sudden?" Remilia murmured, before shaking herself out of it and scanning the lake once more. "We shall continue on our circuit," she declared. "Kotohime's vessel has been disabled, and it is time to move on to other prey."
Sakuya almost thought she saw movement out of the corner of her eye, but knew better than to let herself be distracted.
-x-
-12-
"Well done, Koishi!" greeted Kotohime when their commando returned from her mission.
Meira could hardly believe it – the satori had flown right into the teeth of the Scarlet ship's barrage, set off some sort of flower-shaped explosives to silence the attack, engaged some of its non-fairy crew, and returned without so much as a scratch or scorch.
"Big Sis called me that one day at the hot springs," Koishi said wistfully.
"The Scarlets have been disabled, and are now limping away from the battle," Kotohime declared. "Or at least they're trying to," she amended with a fierce grin. Then she grabbed the little box connected to the wheel's stand. "Nitori, weapons status."
"I think you'll want to come down for this," was the bemused response.
Kotohime frowned. "That bad?"
"No, we've got a stowaway."
The princess arched an eyebrow in surprise, met Meira's gaze, and wordlessly indicated for the samurai to follow. Meira kept a hand on the hilt of her sword as she followed Kotohime belowdecks, and it was a sign of the situation's seriousness that Kotohime barely snickered when Meira's scabbard bumped off the sharp flight of steps and nearly made the samurai stumble.
The air in the ship's belly was filled with wisps of thick, faintly-glowing, pinkish smoke that smelled of hot tin, but Nitori could be seen leaning against a wall, eyes hidden by goggles, while nearby was… Meira was unfamiliar with the lad, a boy with close-cropped green hair, a white shirt, baggy black shorts, and a black cape. He was utterly ignoring everyone else, crouched on his hands and knees as he slowly followed something along the floor.
"Well this is an unexpected pleasure, Miss Nightbug," Kotohime announced.
Meira's breath caught in her chest at the horrified realization that she had just made the same mistake that had haunted her all her life.
"I have no idea how she got in," Nitori confessed with a slight shrug. "Looked up to grab a screwdriver and there she was, crawling around."
"No, this is all on me," Kotohime sighed. "Sent our lookout on a raid, so naturally we get infiltrated. So, what brings you to my ship?" she asked of the intruder.
"João here," Wriggle replied without looking up. Now that Meira looked closer, the boy-ish girl sported a pair of insectile antennae protruding from just over her hairline. And she appeared to be following, nose almost to the wooden floor, a beetle of some sort. Meira relaxed slightly. A youkai, but a nonthreatening one so far.
"Heya, João," Kotohime said with a little wave, completely unironically.
Wriggle paused, watching closely, and without looking up stated "He says 'ei' back."
"Cool." Kotohime scratched her chin. "Well, normally I'd have my fearsome crew cut you to ribbons for trespassing – try to look fearsome, guys," she added in a stage whisper for Meira and Nitori's benefit, "but given how the night's gone so far I'm more inclined to shanghai you."
"I don't know what that means," Wriggle said without much interest, or looking up from the bug working its way towards the boat's walls.
"It means welcome aboard, First Officer Nightbug!" Kotohime declared with a wide smile. Meira suppressed a sigh, certain that the newest crew member already outranked her.
"'kay."
"Now, you're kind of cool and logical, perfect for the ship's science officer," Kotohime continued. "So first test is, can you do this?" she asked, holding out a spread hand and shifting the fingers in an odd way.
Wriggle blinked slowly, carefully rose to her feet, and held up a hand to mirror Kotohime's gesture, though she had to manually position her fingers with her free hand. "Like this?"
"Yeah, keep practicing, that'll be an important part of your job along with telling me when things are 'illogical.'"
"Insects aren't known for their reasoning skills," Wriggle warned her new captain.
"Oh that's fine, it's my job to ignore you anyway," Kotohime said with a careless wave of her hand. Then she turned to Nitori. "That reminds me, how's your Scottish accent?"
The kappa's pigtails swayed as she cocked her head. "The hell's a 'Scottish?'"
"Never mind, get back to getting our gun going. C'mon, ladies, let her work," Kotohime said as she led Meira and Wriggle back up the ladder and onto the deck again.
Meira took a deep breath of the fresh night air and looked around, taking stock of the situation. The Scarlet dreadnought was holding its fire, but slowly circling past their vessel, towards the Eientei group's pleasure craft. While she had been taking cover from the Scarlet barrage, Meira thought she'd seen some danmaku rising from the latter, but right now there didn't seem to be-
"We didn't have that 'thunder' thing either, back home," Koishi said from right behind her, making Meira jump.
"Indeed?" the samurai said in an attempt to hide her surprise.
"But I guess oni are just as good at making noise," the strange girl decided. "I think the rabbit folks were fighting someone."
"Oh?" Kotohime perked up, ignoring the non-sequitor. "I thought so too, but I don't see a fourth boat."
"That's because you aren't looking up!" a young woman shouted from, yes, above them. Meira's hand flew to the hilt of her sword – a small flying rowboat was swooping down on them, bearing a gray-haired but young girl in a very old-fashioned long-sleeved outfit, who happened to be pointing a shining bow at them. Behind her floated a figure with light green hair and a dark green dress, another bow that crackled with electricity in her hands, while her feet faded to wisps of vapor.
Kotohime's eyes gleamed with excitement. "I should have known! The false princess' flunkies, here with unfinished business, I wager?"
"Here to repay your insults!" the girl in the boat called back. "We-"
"Excuse me, should I be doing anything right now?" interrupted Wriggle.
Kotohime gave a quick shake of her head. "No, this is between me and them." She drew her jitte, flipped it around, and held it with her wrist bent so it extended straight from her forearm, her index finger on its tine. "Let's settle this!" she exclaimed, leaping forward to run down the length of the deck, firing purple bursts of danmaku out of the tip of her weapon while making "pew pew pew!" sounds. The two airborne attackers moved to keep pace, sending magical arrows streaking down to slightly discolor the wooden floor, and abruptly Meira and her fellow crew members had been abandoned.
"So is this normal?" asked Wriggle after watching Kotohime and the two interlopers blast away at each other for a moment.
Meira tried to look confident and reassuring for the newcomer. "Don't worry, this is fairly typical. Though if you want to leave, she probably won't notice or even remember you were here."
The insect youkai seemed to consider that, but shrugged and leaned against the captain's cabin. "Don't want to fly through this and it's still stinky below."
"Suit yourself." Meira turned to her other companion. "And how are you doing, Miss Koishi?"
"Watching what isn't there," the satori replied, staring intently at a patch of water near the Scarlets' ship.
-x-
"The Taoists have entered the battle," Sakuya noted as they passed Kotohime's vessel, which was currently the site of a sea-to-air engagement with a smaller, flying boat. The maid squinted, but could only make out two airborne figures. "It doesn't look like that prince of theirs is here, though."
Remilia arched an eyebrow. "'Prince?' I could have sworn he was a woman when we watched him battle." She shrugged the issue aside. "I suppose those in power get to be whatever gender they feel like-"
"ATTACK!" a child's voice bellowed.
A veritable wall of magical projectiles slammed into the side of the Scarlet vessel, followed by another, and another, waves or curtains of red and blue and golden fire that lit up the night like the firework display that had heralded the evening's battles. There wasn't any particular pattern that Sakuya could distinguish, or perhaps there were too many attempting to go on at the same time.
At any rate, the attack did next to no actual damage to the ship beyond burning tiny holes through the sails. But the fairy crew squealed and shouted, some falling prey to danmaku while the rest responded in kind, increasing the projectiles surrounding the ship by several orders of magnitude. With so many small fireballs filling the area, Sakuya wagered that from the shoreline, the audience may lose sight of the Scarlet vessel entirely – and that her mistress would not be happy about this.
Remilia simply watched in open-mouthed shock as her ship and crew once again dissolved into chaos. "What is this?" she demanded.
"Oh, it's Cirno," Meiling said unconcernedly. "That ice fairy."
"Is that supposed to be a boat?" choked Remilia after following the gatekeeper's pointing finger.
Sakuya did a double-take – there was now an iceberg bobbing in the water off their port bow, onto which someone had haphazardly hammered enough wooden planks to suggest a deck and attached a wooden pole as a mast, though it only seemed to be supporting a flag. Any other details were washed out by the storm of danmaku coming from the child-sized figures riding the ungainly vessel.
"Interesting," she murmured mostly to herself. "How did they manage to conceal themselves?"
"If I had to guess, Sunny Milk." Meiling jerked her head to the side just enough to avoid getting hit by a pellet of magical energy. "She can do a pretty good invisibility effect, and one of her friends can do silence. Cirno's probably working with the three of them for this."
Sakuya gave her coworker a surprised glance. "How ever do you learn these things?"
Meiling's eye twinkled. "I'm the gatekeeper, it's my job to stand out front and talk to people."
"No," Remilia corrected, "right now you're part of this ship's crew! And I order you to get the rest of our crew back under control and put an end to this farce! I did not go through all this trouble just to fight some stupid fairies!"
The gatekeeper held up an apologetic hand. "If I may, Mistress Scarlet? It doesn't look like their iceberg is moving, so we could just sail out of range."
Remilia's eyes narrowed. "Allow me to present an alternative strategy."
-x-
"You call yourselves fairies?! C'mon, show 'em what you've got!" Captain Cirno challenged her crew.
She, Sunny, Luna and Star were hunkered down behind some icy barricades Cirno had thrown up on the edge of their ship, taking what potshots they could between ducking to avoid enemy fire. True, there were a lot more fairies on the vampire lady's boat than there were on the ice ship. And yes, with each wave of return fire, the ice barriers grew pockmarked and shrank under the withering magical bombardment. And it was also a fact that the barricades threw off the ice ship's balance so Cirno had to constantly add more ice to the other side of the deck to keep things level enough to fight from, and then more ice to the other other side of the deck to compensate when the ice sheets melted, and so forth until she barely had time to contribute to the actual shooting.
But none of that mattered. The odds, the facts, all of that ran counter to one undeniable truth: that Cirno was the strongest, and could beat anything.
She just wished her associates would stop dragging her down.
"We are showing them what we've got!" Sunny Milk insisted while crouched behind her portion of the floating battlement. "It just doesn't seem to be doing anything!"
"So shoot harder!" replied Cirno in exasperation. "Geez, do I have to do everything for you?!" To prove her point, she waved a hand and added a fresh layer to the ice wall.
"Could ask you the same question," muttered Star Sapphire. The black-haired fairy had an cagey look about her, Cirno noticed, the kind she often got before making a surprise disappearance. Plus, she was hardly shooting anymore, that was another warning sign.
"Yeah, I think-" whatever thought Luna Child had been about to share didn't make it from her lips before she slipped on her icy footing, sprawled face-first onto the deck out of cover, and immediately exploded after taking a half-dozen danmaku shots.
Cirno eyed the glittering cloud of reforming fairy with disdain. Maybe this was stupid – not picking a fight with the vampire lady's boat, but doing so with these three mischievous lightweights. Cirno could've done all the fighting herself, so what was the point of bringing others along to hog the glory?
She took a deep breath to bellow some more encouragement at her crew and offer them another of her brilliant strategies, when Sunny asked "What's that?"
The middle portion of the big ship was already aglow with a variety of colors as its fairy crew fired back at the ice ship, but now there was another light shining from it, a blazing crimson radiance just over the blunt end. Then there was another flash, and a barrage of big, red-white fireballs trailing what almost looked to be spatters of blood arced up over the lake... and began to plummet down toward the ice ship.
Cirno narrowed her eyes at the incoming barrage. "Sunny," she said slowly, "maybe you should make us unvisible again-"
-x-
Remilia clenched her upraised fist as her attack struck home, seven or eight enormous magical projectiles that exploded just under the water's surface, creating sprays of blood-colored water that were nearly as tall as the Scarlet vessel. When the last had detonated, there was no sign of the ice 'ship.'
Meiling let out a low whistle. "Nice shooting, mistress."
"It was but a small taste of my power," the vampire said, unable to hide her cocky smile. "This is a naval battle between ladies of refinement, and no place for fairies."
Beyond the ones on this ship, Sakuya didn't add. The barrage coming from the Scarlet cruiser gradually slowed as the fairies realized that their rivals had just exploded. Some offered polite applause at Remilia's display.
"Your orders, mistress?" the maid-turned-helmswoman asked.
"Continue towards that second ship," Remilia commanded, eyes still gleaming with satisfaction. "I am eager to see what fight they can offer us."
"They look awfully small, though," Meiling said as she peered ahead. Then she drew back. "Oh."
"What?" the vampire demanded.
"It looks like the folks from Eientei. The princess, the doctor, and a bunch of rabbits."
Sakuya and Remilia traded a look, Remilia's smile widening, Sakuya unable to fully conceal her grin.
-x-
-13-
"So much for the fairies," Meira said with a wince.
"That's the trouble with Cirno, she doesn't know when to back down," Wriggle agreed with a little nod that got her antennae bobbing.
"Oh, you know her?" the samurai asked, putting more polite interest into the question than she actually felt.
"Sometimes she comes by to play," shrugged Wriggle. "I think she's still convinced I'm a fairy too," she added, frowning slightly.
"That is quite magnanimous of you," Meira replied, raising her voice to be heard over the shouts and explosions coming from the front of the boat. At Wriggle's puzzled look, she explained "A lesser woman would be gravely insulted for not being shown the respect she deserved as a dangerous youkai."
"Ah, well." Wriggle slowly rotated her outstretched hand as that beetle she had been following crawled a circuit around her sleeve. "I'm used to dealing with things with bad memories, so I don't try to correct her anymore."
"Sometimes," Koishi mused, "I think I hear a girl crying, but I can never seem to find her. I wish I could cheer her up."
Meira watched Wriggle's eyes flicker to the blinded satori, but couldn't quite read her expression well enough to tell whether she was really noticing the girl. Interesting. Was this how she had looked earlier, or was Wriggle's bug-like background to blame-
"Hey!"
The three idle women turned their gazes back to the front of the ship, where Kotohime was glaring at them with her hands on her hips. "You are not giving your captain the respect she deserves!" she scolded. "What is the point of coming out here if no one can witness how awesome I am? I may as well still be out of Gensokyo!"
"Princess," Meira started.
"Captain!" Kotohime corrected sharply.
"Captain, then," the samurai sighed. "Shouldn't you be focused on your battle?"
"What do you-"
Before Kotohime could turn around, Futo and Tojiko loosed the shots they had been aiming for the past several seconds. They were floating just over head height, one was a weightless ghost, and the other was stabilized somewhat by a flying boat, but it was still an impressive feat of marksmanship. Both arrows, one blazing with blue fire, the other crackling with electricity, embedded themselves in the deck to either side of Kotohime's feet.
The princess-captain lurched and swayed, but didn't move – she'd been pinned to her ship by the hem of her robes. The two Taoists aleady had another set of arrows aimed and ready.
Kotohime set her jaw and looked up defiantly. "I suppose you think you've won?"
"Verily," drawled Futo. "Mayhaps now would be a time to apologize for the insults thou hast brought against my liege?"
The princess folded her arms into her sleeves, still displaying no fear. "I already fixed the planar breach, and my conflict with thy liege could've been avoided if she'd better communicated whether she was a prince or princess. And more to the point, I never apologize."
Futo squinted as she sighted down her shining arrow. "Art thou sure about that? Now may be an excellent time to start-"
Kotohime shouted and thrust her hands out, and then Meira was reeling from the sudden burst of sound and light. From their cries of distress the Taoists were just as surprised, and when her vision cleared, Meira saw Kotohime's empty robes forming a purple puddle on the deck-
Next to her, Koishi giggled. "Sometimes I do that too," she admitted in a whisper before suffering another fit.
-and then someone whistled. Kotohime, clad only in her underclothes, had her fleet planted on the ship's exterior as she hung over its side by one of the deck guns Meira had helped install the previous afternoon, now swiveled around to face inward.
"Your mistake was assuming I would let a little thing like modesty get in the way of victory!" the princess called. And then there was another tremendous bang and flash of light as a cone of sparks and danmaku burst out of the gun's barrel.
Tojiko was caught in the center of the blast, and the fog-footed ghost girl was swiftly blown far into the sky with a yelp of indignation. Futo couldn't quite manage to get out of the way, and the rear of her comparatively tiny boat was reduced to kindling, leaving her to spin and crash onto the larger ship's deck. She groaned and slowly pushed herself to her hands and knees, then looked up and noticed Kotohime at the far end of the rail-mounted light cannon, now aimed down at her.
"It'd be really undignified to get shot by a half-dressed princess," Kotohime suggested.
Futo yelped and leapt into the air after her comrade. "This isn't over!" she promised as she disappeared into the night sky.
Kotohime frontflipped over her weapon to land on the deck, and strode over to retrieve her outer layer of clothing. "I should certainly hope not, the objective still hasn't arrived," she said mostly to herself. Then she noticed Meira coming over. "I made new nemeses!" she added happily.
"Should I be worried that you can shed your clothes in the blink of an eye?" asked Meira, not bothering to hide her disapproval.
"I've also rigged my robes to self-destruct if needed," Kotohime replied distractedly. "Did I miss anything while I was fighting? Any sign of the airship?"
"The vampire blew up your fairy friend, and no."
"Damn it all." Kotohime stomped her way over to the hatch leading belowdeck. "Nitori! Guns yet?"
To Meira's surprise, the kappa actually stuck her head up. "I could try and get the firing mechanism fixed within the hour," Nitori reported, seeming unusually subdued. "But there's not much else I can do with the barrel at this point, it's all warped to hell. We'd need a miracle to get it firing prop-"
"I would sooner scuttle my ship!" snapped Kotohime, suddenly red-faced. "I will not tolerate her showing up to steal my battle again!"
Eyes wide at the sudden outburst, Nitori gave Meira a questioning look, but the samurai could only shrug in helpless confusion.
Kotohime sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "You know what, forget the guns, work on getting us moving. I'm tired of everyone striking at us with impunity, it's time to get punitive."
The kappa glanced at Meira. "So by moving, do you mean-"
"I can't get the sails to work, so we'll have to go ahead and deploy the rotors instead of saving them for a surprise speed boost," Kotohime said coolly, her gaze also flickering toward Meira for a moment. The samurai did her best to ignore her crewmates' unsubtle efforts to keep her in the dark.
Nitori saluted. "Aye-aye, cap'n."
Kotohime sulked for a moment, but then Meira could see the moment the idea occurred to her, when Kotohime instantly switched from annoyed to cheerful, "Officer Nightbug!"
The insect youkai jolted, carefully closed her fingers around the beetle in her palm, and pushed herself off the wall to stand upright. "Yeah?"
"It's time to start pulling your weight," Kotohime declared. "According to your dossier, your superpower is controlling insects, correct?"
Wriggle nodded, somewhat wary.
"Not entirely impressive, but one of those abilities you can get a lot out of if you're clever," the princess continued. "And now's a time we could use some reinforcements. I think I remember reading about some demonic mites, for example?"
Wriggle blinked, slowly. "Oh. Um." She didn't look embarrassed, she just turned away for a moment, chewing her lip thoughtfully.
Kotohime hissed in vexation. "Akyuu, you have failed me for the last time."
"Oh no, no, she didn't exaggerate my powers or anything," Wriggle insisted. "It's just, I can only command insects that are already present, like meu novo amigo João," she said, tapping her closed hand with her free fingers. "And those mites are… rare," she finished.
The ship's captain nodded curtly. "Fine. So, what do you have to work with now?"
Wriggle looked up and away, listening to some sixth or seventh sense. "Well…" she said distantly. "We're in the middle of a lake, so… a lot of mayflies..."
"Mayflies."
"Yeah. And water striders, some dragonflies. Lake bugs."
Kotohime stared for several heartbeats, then smiled. "Okay then. Get those bugs a-buzzin', unleash a mild annoyance upon our foes. Every little bit helps."
Wriggle shrugged, and continued to look focused on something only she could see or hear. "Alright."
"As for the rest of you…" Kotohime gave Meira a long look, then patted the samurai on the shoulder like a sympathetic grandmother. "Don't worry, we'll find a way for you to contribute soon."
-x-
Reisen gulped as the Scarlets' ship bore down on them, a towering shape of dark wood and red sails. The hugeness of the approaching vessel really underscored the smallness of the yakatabune. And its slowness. And its helplessness. Even the rabbits who had come along for the ride were subdued and quiet, staring up at incoming ship with wide eyes.
But while it looked frightening, the Scarlet ship – a carrack, circa early 15th century, Spain - wasn't actually attacking, Reisen realized. If it had intended to fire it would be presenting its cannons, and it wasn't on course to ram them. She briefly paused in her rowing to rub her temple, fighting back a sudden headache before continuing her futile efforts to outpace the other vessel.
"I can't imagine how they'd board us given our size difference," Kaguya declared with undisguised excitement. "What ever could they be planning to do to us?"
Reisen glanced back over her shoulder, and her eyes began sweeping the ship's railing, scanning for threats and tracking movement almost automatically – oh, this was not helping her headache. But among the mass of fairies she saw someone, that gray-haired young maid. She was stalking along, walking slowly and purposefully towards the front – bow – of the carrack.
"Reisen," Eirin ordered suddenly, "keep us apace and even with them." Reisen blinked with surprise as her master left the cabin, drawing her bow as she made her way to the yakatabune's front deck. Through the window the rabbit could see Kaguya sitting placidly at the table, smiling as she waited for the show to start.
As Reisen continued to nudge the pleasure craft along, sweeping a blunt pole as though it were an oar and somehow still propelling the ship with it, the Scarlet maid took her place at the prow of her own vessel, gaze locked on Eirin. Reisen saw glinting steel in the woman's hands, and then her eye was drawn to the glint of the false red moon on Eirin's arrowhead.
She wasn't sure who attacked first, only that Eirin suddenly spun to one side as a blur of silver streaked past, and loosed her shining arrow the instant her motion ceased, with less than a second to reaquire her target. Then Eirin was moving again, sidestepping a second knife while she drew her bowstring, causing a shining sliver of moonlight - proper, pure moonlight - to materialize in the shape of an arrow that she promptly fired back at the Scarlet carrack.
It was a dazzling display of agility and marksmanship, especially since a part of Reisen was trying to track each oncoming knife and determine how Eirin should dodge it. The rabbit tried to make her eyes unfocus, viewing the spectacle rather than interpreting it, admiring the glowing silver arrows as they blurred across the lake like shooting stars – or tracer rounds – for that knife-throwing maid to dodge. She – Sakuya Izayoi, human(?), age unknown – was capable of stopping time, Reisen knew, but Sakuya didn't seem to be taking advantage of that ability, and was instead twirling and leaping just as well as Eirin.
In fact, Reisen realized, it didn't seem like a battle so much as a competitive display. Especially once the two combatants starting shooting each other's projectiles out of the air.
One of the awestruck rabbits yelped as a deflected knife tumbled end-over-end to bounce off the deck just next to where she was watching the show. "Apologies," Eirin said tersely, not sparing a glance as she continued to send arrows toward her opposite.
"Perhaps the rest of you will be safer inside the cabin with me?" suggested Kaguya, still seated at the low table in the yakatabune's enclosed deck room. Then another deflected knife streaked through one open window to embed itself, vibrating, in the opposite windowsill. "Or perhaps not," Kaguya amended.
Through it all, Reisen did her best job 'rowing" their ship forward to match speed with the carrack, but the towering warship was simply faster. Yet this barely impacted the duel between Eirin and Sakuya – the Scarlet Devil Mansion's maid slowly strode the length of her vessel even as she traded fire with the scientist on Eientei's yakatabune. This inevitably brought some of the fairies crewing the larger ship into the crossfire, but Sakuya paid them no heed, nor did Eirin stay her hand. Reisen counted at least a half-dozen – eight – bursts of glittering light as Eirin's missed arrows temporarily killed some fairies, but they were nearly outdone by all the sparks and flashes coming from the arrows and knives bouncing off each other in between the two boats, like electricity crackling between two banks of dark clouds.
Eventually, Sakuya reached the rear of the carrack, having danced and battled her way across the length of the ship without getting hit or missing an opportunity to attack. And at some unspoken signal, both she and Eirin abruptly held their fire. As the Scarlet ship continued to pull away, Reisen could just see the knife-throwing maid flourish one of her blades in salute. Eirin replied with a curt nod as she lowered her bow.
"Simply incredible!" gushed Kaguya as the rabbits started applauding. The princess rose from her seat to lean out of the cabin window. "Did you enjoy yourself?"
"Sometimes it's good to be challenged," the older woman said, smiling slightly.
"And yet you make it look so easy," Kaguya replied, before turning her attention back to the other boats. "Ah, it seems that Kotohime's battle with the latecomers is concluded. Shall we approach her next?"
Kaguya technically outranked everyone on the ship, but the question was still directed to Eirin, who turned and nodded back at Reisen. "Set course to intercept," she commanded.
The lunar rabbit suppressed her groan and wearily started working the pole once more, waggling the stick in a way that, thanks to her master's magic, somehow turned the boat around. And as if her aching muscles weren't enough, now she had to be careful not to breathe in bugs – for some reason the lake's insects were really swarming all of a sudden. Reisen grunted with annoyance and jerked her head to dodge a dragonfly that buzzed past – a bullet ripping through the air just past her ear-
Reisen fought to keep her breathing steady as her adrenaline spiked and her heart sped up. Oh, this could be a bad night.
-x-
Nearly invisible in the moonlight, thousands of insects seethed just above the surface of the lake, as if imitating the noontime mists that gave the body of water its name. Mayflies rarely swarmed like this outside of a mass hatching, to say nothing of the skates and other bugs, but they obliged the command of their queen. This proved to be their undoing.
Though the combatants above the lake barely noticed the cloud of insects, things below did. And while it was a little late for a feast, the Misty Lake's fish decided to make the most of this unexpected buffet. Fish began to jump out of the water to snap up the bugs, first by ones and twos, then dozens. The fish too big or lazy to launch themselves soon realized their smaller kin were serviceable meals, and that added activity caught the attention of larger predators, and then the creatures that fed on those predators, and so on from the surface all the way down.
In short, Wriggle had given the Misty Lake's food chain a firm tug.
In the muddy, darkest depths of the lake, something woke up.
-x-
-14-
"Did you have a good time?" asked Toyosatomimi no Miko as her companions returned, bedraggled and lacking the boat one had ridden off on.
"These people are crazy!" Futo complained. She'd lost her hat somewhere, and though her eyes were wide, she looked more outraged than scared, Marisa wagered. "One of the women we fought on the yakatabune turned out to be some sort of unkillable undead monster-"
Behind her, Tojiko rolled her eyes.
"-and then that Kotohime blasted us with some manner of siege engine!"
Miko arched an eyebrow. "'Unkillable?'"
"Tojiko did it!" said Futo quickly.
Stretched out on the grass nearby, Fujiwara no Mokou broke into a wide smile. "Maybe we can get along after all," she murmured.
Next to her, Keine gave a little sigh of disapproval. "Miss Houraisan is an immortal who can recover from even a fatal injury," she supplied for Miko's benefit.
"I think most of us here have killed her at some point," Marisa said cheerily. "She usually puts up a pretty good fight, too. You should take her for a tumble sometime."
The former ruler of Japan leaned back slightly, her face carefully blank. "I see. So, my companions may be accidental murderers, but they are at least in good company?"
"I'm not sure any of us are all that good, to be honest," said Reimu distractedly.
Marisa snickered, and most of the other ladies in attendance gave her friend indignant glances, but Reimu was unaffected, her attention still on the battle on the lake. The Scarlets' big ship was circling around for another run, Kotohime's boat still hadn't moved, but the Eientei pleasure craft had turned and was now advancing on Kotohime's vessel…
So why was Reimu's gaze not focused on any of them?
-x-
"Poor little bugs," Wriggle said without much emotion as she watched fish leap out of the water through clouds of her kin, or take snacks of opportunity while evading the bigger fish hunting them.
"It was for a good cause," Kotohime assured her, giving the insect youkai a friendly pat on the back. "Their deaths may give me a fleeting tactical advantage, once Nitori gets the engines working so we can fight!" she finished with a shout towards the hatch leading belowdeck that made Koishi and Wriggle jump.
"I work better without being yelled at!" came Nitori's cracking response over the little metal box.
"I think I'm gonna take João home now, before things get worse," Wriggle announced, hands gently clasped around the beetle she'd befriended.
"Yeah, sure," Kotohime said distractedly, still fuming. She didn't even look up as Wriggle took to the air, a greenish luminescence surrounding the lightning bug youkai as she darted over the lake like a shooting star.
Meira tore her gaze away from the sight, trying to stay focused. She ought to be watching the other ships, but... something was bothering her, a niggling sense of wrongness. Her eyes kept drifting towards an empty patch of water well away from the circling ships. It wasn't something she was seeing or hearing, and it wasn't the absence of something like Cirno's invisible ice boat.
So why was her blood quickening as though danger was approaching?
-x-
"Now," Kaguya said excitedly, as she leaned out of the cabin window to eye the ship in front of them, "what do you think we should hit Kotohime with?"
Reisen saw Eirin look down and consider the bow she still head in her hands, but her master turned her gaze elsewhere. "Tewi?" she called.
Both Lunarians jumped as a pair of floppy white ears rose into view right next to Kaguya. "Da?"
"Ah, there you are," Kaguya said brightly. "If I remember correctly, earlier you said that you had some weapons available?"
"A weapon, yes," the Earth rabbit admitted. Then she slid out the cabin door, strode to the front of the ship, and thumped the heel of her bare foot against the deck.
Something made an answering sound from the foredeck, and Reisen had to lean far to one side to see around the obstructing cabin. A false panel had slid aside, and as she watched a metal hoist rose into view with a series of clanks. Dangling from chains was a thick metal cylinder nearly as long as the rabbits were tall that flared out slightly at its rear end, immediately recognizable as a-
"Where did you get a torpedo?" Eirin demanded.
"I think the better question is why wouldn't I have a torpedo?" Tewi countered.
Reisen tried not to look too closely at it, lest her mind start supplying her with technical information about the munition, but the thing looked at least fifty years old, yet still in good condition. Really, it wasn't much of a surprise given what other military surplus Tewi had come up with before. It just went to so that what was "good luck" for the little rabbit tended to be bad news for everyone else.
Eirin opened her mouth to continue her haranguing, but noticed that Kaguya was bent over and examining the weapon with almost childlike delight.
"There's something charming about it," the princess decided. "It has a rugged lack of sophistication to it, a sort of brutish determination. Much like Mokou!" She straightened up and looked back at Tewi. "How does it work?"
Tewi shrugged. "Make sure the boat is pointed at something you don't like, pull lever, watch the fireworks."
"Your Highness," Eirin said, "perhaps this weapon is ill-suited for this engagement? It looked like Reimu gave the vampire brat a lecture for bringing lethal firepower to the battle."
"But Miss Scarlet endangered the noncombatants, which will not be a problem with this weapon," Kaguya declared. "It should be fine." Without waiting for Eirin's assent, she grasped the firing lever… and ended up straining and grunting against it in a quite unladylike manner, unable to so much as budge it.
Eirin shook her head in stern disapproval. "I've been letting you get too soft, neglect your exercise," she sighed, and strode over to the mechanism. With a burst of effort, she yanked the crude firing lever back.
Something clicked and clanked, and little blades on the rear of the projectile began to whirl. Reisen watched as the torpedo rolled down its metal railing to splash into the water, immediately shooting forward, a line of frothing wake extending from the yakatabune to Kotohime's vessel...
-x-
"Bunny boat just shot something at us," Koishi reported, as casually as though she'd just seen a bird fly by.
Meira spun with Kotohime, turning their attention to the pleasure craft. There was no obvious spread of danmaku coming their way, but as Meira looked past the clouds of insects and darting fish that had characterized the lake as of late, she could just make out a disturbance as something skimmed along just beneath the surface… heading directly at them. Some manner of underwater ballista bolt?
"Meira, you're our security officer," Kotohime stated, "say 'incoming torpedo.'"
"Is that what it is?" the samurai asked.
Kotohime gave her such a look.
Meira sighed. "Incoming torpedo."
"Like you mean it!"
"It's getting closer," observed Koishi, elbows resting on the ship's guardrail as she propped up her chin in her hands.
"Shouldn't we be doing something about it?" asked Meira. She was trying not to feel nervous, but whatever it was, it was approaching fast.
"Well, normally it'd be a simple matter of turning so that it passed us by, but…" Kotohime shrugged and spun the ship's wheel to no effect, then picked up the little communication device attached to it. "Say, Nitori, do we have engines yet?"
"Just a few more minutes!" came the reply.
"Real close, now," supplied Koishi.
"Shields up!" bellowed Kotohime.
"What?" asked Meira. The samurai did a double-take – Koishi had donned a mask from somewhere, the visage of an almost child-like Buddha with closed eyes and an optimistic smile on its face-
Then there was a tremendous crash and the whole ship seemed to jump in the water, and Meira's head thudded against the deck.
Once the offending lights had faded with the worst of the pain, Meira unsteadily pushed herself to her feet. Kotohime was doing the same, pulling herself up by the ship's wheel.
"Damage report," their captain ordered.
"Banged my knee," Koishi giggled. She was sitting against the guardrail, mask slightly askew, and clutching one of her legs. "Now it's all tingly and funny."
"I'm fine," Meira stated, but Kotohime wasn't paying attention.
"Nitori, what's our status?" the princess asked the detachable box. She frowned at the silence she got as a reply. "Chief Engineer Kawashiro!"
"Um… well, it hasn't exploded yet," came the kappa's unsteady voice. "And-" there was a sudden liquid rushing sound "-I've stopped us from taking on water. So I guess once I patch this new hole in our hull, I can get the engines going back on schedule." An audible gulp. "Unless this thing goes off at some point."
"Make it so," Kotohime ordered. Then she reconsidered. "The engines, I mean, not the explosion."
-x-
There was no way in hell that Nitori was touching the shiny, rounded metal snub that was protruding from a broken patch of hull. Sure, it wasn't ticking or anything, and it hadn't exploded on impact, but she knew enough about warheads not to tempt fate.
Instead the kappa exerted her will on the water around the torpedo's rear, grasping it well away from the payload or arming mechanisms, and gently tugged it back and out of the vessel. Nitori sagged in relief as the warhead tumbled away into the dark depths of the lake, dismissing a flicker of guilt that it might still be dangerous. It wasn't her problem anymore.
That done, she turned to one of her toolboxes, unpacking and unspooling a sheet of special material she had brought along for this sort of thing. It really was quite ingenious, a quick-sealing, waterproof design that could patch leaks and keep a construct together, thanks to the fine mesh that provided the structural support-
The kappa dropped said sheet when she turned back to the hole she was about to patch and met the shining sapphire eyes of the girl looking through it.
Her face bore an expression of mixed shyness and concern, and she flinched and recoiled at the eye contact. Her hair was dark blue and cut to keep it from floating in front of her face, if Nitori's own experiences were anything to go by, and her dark green robes were similarly worn tight to keep them in place. But her youkai nature was obvious thanks to the strange, fin-like ears poking through her hair, and especially the sleek silvery tail extending from her robes.
"-" she said, her words distorted and unintelligible as she pointed down urgently.
"Huh?" Nitori gaped for a moment, then realized she was being stupid and stuck her head through the hole and into the water.
The mermaid recoiled, a hand going to her throat in shock. "What – oh! You can breathe…" She settled down, taking in Nitori's backpack. "You must be a kappa."
"And you're part fish," the engineer replied, trading one obvious observation for another. "Didn't know there were merfolk in this lake."
"Yes, well…" she tugged at her sleeves, looking away for a moment, then clenched her fists and added "That's what I'm here to warn you about! There's worse things down here too, you know? And all this racket could wake them up!"
Nitori couldn't help herself. "Worse than a mermaid?" she smiled. "Oh dear, we'd better watch out."
The girl's red face clashed badly with her outfit and hair. "L-look, I'm trying to be helpful! I was just sitting quietly at home when all this started, and I could've covered my ears until it all went away, but I came all the way up here to try and help-"
"Fish girl," Nitori laughed, "you need to taste the air more. Up here there's a vampire, couple of immortals, some religious types and a demolitions expert all blasting each other. Compared to that, a sea monster isn't all that impressive."
Oh good grief, she looked ready to cry. Or maybe she was already, it was hard to tell underwater. But the mermaid clenched her fists and turned it into a pout. "Fine!" she sniffed, quite a trick for someone breathing water. "Get yourselves eaten, see if I care! And when your ships all sink, maybe I'll find something more interesting in the wrecks than your corpse!"
"Certainly more interesting than your sea monster," Nitori replied with a grin.
The mermaid harrumphed, twirled in place, and thrashed her tail as she dove down out of sight. Nitori rolled her eyes and pulled her head out of the water and into the ship, resuming the hull repairs.
Lake folk. Never going anywhere, a worldview that ended at the surface above them, and breathing the same water all the time just couldn't be healthy. Nitori tried to quell her doubts about whatever whatshername had been trying to warn her about. She'd never found anything alarming in the depths of the kappa pools, much less the river bottom. It wasn't like the lake could be that much deeper, or more dangerous…
-x-
-15-
Keine leaned forward, squinting as she tried to discern distant events. "Did the Eientei boat just attempt an attack? It looked like it fired something through the water at Kotohime, but nothing happened."
"Hmm," said Reimu, still staring out at an unoccupied stretch of lake.
Marisa shot her friend an inquisitive look, but then realization dawned. "Uh oh. Border senses tinglin'?"
The shrine maiden nodded curtly, distracted. "Something's coming through-"
A sudden breeze tossled the hair and hats of the spectators, a fragrant wind that evoked memories of past flower viewings, and bittersweet recollection of years long past, lives since passed. A billowing cloud of cherry petals swirled in from a far shore, obscuring part of the lake, before suddenly rising – no, they were butterflies now, hundreds of pink forms that seemed to glow in the pale moonlight. And as they rose towards the heavens, they revealed a trio of vessels gliding towards the other ships.
The new boats were proper Japanese vessels, similar to the yakatabune but obviously made for war, with more cover on deck to fight from. All were wrapped in white fog that clung to their occupants like a burial shroud, crewed by dark and menacing figures clutching bows or swords… save for the shining woman in brilliant blue and white robes standing at the lead ship's prow, her pink hair the color of the recently-departed butterflies.
"Nice entrance, Yuyuko," Marisa admitted. She shaded her eyes unnecessarily as she peered at the newcomers. Yep, nearly lost among the dreadful warriors was a slip of a girl in a green and white dress, staying close to her mistress. "Looks like she's got Youmu with her, but I can't figure out who the rest are."
Reimu folded her arms, a disapproving scowl on her face. "Ghosts from the outside world. All that messing with the border when there's some perfectly good spirits already in Gensokyo."
Alice tried not to look too interested. "What kind of ghosts?"
"Who cares?"
-x-
"-from the Taira clan, which was more or less wiped out at the Battle of Dan-no-ura at the end of the Genpei War," Yuyuko Saigyouji lectured. "It's said that even today their spirits haunt those waters – or they would if they weren't with us right now – while the crabs of the Shimonoseki bear their grim visages on their shells." The ghostly princess of the Netherworld pursed her lips at the thought. "Youmu, it's been too long since we've had crab for supper." She glanced away from the prow, looking back over her shoulder at her silent subordinate. "Are you listening, Youmu?"
"Yes, Lady Yuyuko," was the dutiful reply, but Youmu Konpaku couldn't hide the unevenness of her voice, or how she was standing rigidly at attention but still trembling in place.
Yuyuko sighed. "Honestly, Youmu, they're little different than our usual visitors. They're just a bit more… vengeful. But you're not a Minamoto-"
The name provoked ominous moans and hissing whispers from the ghostly crewmen, as shriveled hands grasped time-gnawed weapons.
"-so you'll be fine." Yuyuko considered. "Probably. At any rate, I'm sure I can keep them under control."
"Yes, Lady Yuyuko," Youmu repeated, near tears. The young half-phantom didn't know if wearing proper armor rather than her usual green dress would make her feel any better – probably not, if even her swords brought her so little comfort. As it was, she simply tried to stay still and quiet in hopes that the crewmen, such as they were, took no notice of her.
Yuyuko's attention went back to the other boats on the lake, two foreign vessels and one rough analogue to those in her ghostly fleet. "Well, I think our hostess and fellow guests have spent enough time swinging at each other," she announced. "Quite dangerous using such weapons on other people – someone could be hurt! So," she said, turning to smile back at Youmu, "let's give them a different target, shall we?"
Youmu's heart sank. Couldn't they just sail around, try to scare the others off? She was certainly terrified of the ghosts on the ships. But despite her thoughts, what she said was another "Yes, Lady Yuyuko."
"Three of us, three of them, easy enough," Yuyuko said, nodding at the undead warriors she was commanding. "Split up and pair off, and save the leader for me."
There was another chorus of death rattles as acknowledgement, and the grim flotilla moved into attack position.
-x-
Kaguya put a hand hidden by her dangling sleeve to her chin. "Oh, my. That's quite intimidating."
Reisen was inclined to agree. From a distance, the new arrivals looked almost like an approaching storm front, a line of dense clouds lit eerily from within. But as the three ships spread further apart, she could make out more details – the lights she saw were dim corpse-lights, wisps of unearthly radiance that were to normal lanterns what the ships' wraith-like passengers were to the living. But dead or not, she saw armor, bows and blades among the crew. Though she didn't look too closely, lest she start automatically cataloging everything.
"One of the ships is moving to engage us," Eirin noted calmly, before Reisen could voice her concerns.
"I see!" said Kaguya with a bright smile. "Fending off a boatload of undead marines sounds exciting, doesn't it?"
"Probably not for the rabbits," the doctor pointed out.
Kaguya opened her mouth to object, but glanced back at the girl-like figures in pink dresses who had gone from lounging about on the pleasure craft to staring wide-eyed at the approaching ship. She frowned. "Well… if Lady Saigyouji is in command, I'm sure the enemy will be disciplined enough not to massacre the noncombatants."
The look on Eirin's face was disapproving. "Princess."
"Oh, fine," pouted Kaguya, charismatic even when sulking. "We can drop the rabbits off at the party, then come back to finish the battle."
Eirin finally looked back at Reisen, and must have seen the relief on the former soldier's face because she had to quickly hide a smile. At her master's nod, Reisen began working the oar once again, muscles straining as she struggled to turn the boat around. Reisen tried to focus on her breathing, and not on how the enemy ship was closing faster than the shoreline was.
-x-
A gleaming canine protruded from Remilia Scarlet's grin. "She sends ghosts against a vampire?" she sneered.
"So it appears, mistress," said Sakuya. "I await your orders on how to deal with this threat."
"We're certainly not going to wait for them to make the first move," Remilia said dryly. "Move to intercept and engage."
"Very good, mistress." Sakuya gave the threatening ships an appraising eye, but wasn't much worried. Whether phantom, specter, ghost or revenant, she had a knife to deal with any target.
Close by, Meiling started some quick stretches, limbering up in anticipation of what was to come.
-x-
"What are those?" yelped Sunny Milk, only to be hushed by her copatriots. It probably wasn't necessary, since they were all under a veil that hid them from eyes and ears, but there was something about the ghost ships that invited respectful silence.
Cirno and her crew stood on half of the ship they'd started with, but the mast and flag were still in place, and the ice fairy would be able to repair the damage done in a matter of minutes. She just kept getting distracted, first having to get her boat out of the way of the vampire lady's, and now having to deal with these new threats.
She squinted into the distance, noting the new ships' crews and, more importantly, who seemed to be commanding them.
"It's the ghost lady and her half-ghost friend," Captain Cirno declared, calm in the face of overwhelming nastiness. "And a bunch of other ghosts. Just a load of dead humans."
"How are we supposed to fight them?" quavered Luna.
Cirno rolled her eyes. And people called her an idiot. "The same way we fight everything!"
"Not so loud!" snapped Sunny.
Cirno only glared at the red-haired fairy's hypocra – hyper – stupidity. "I've already fought the half-ghost girl," she boasted, "so if one of me can beat half a ghost, then the four of us can beat lots of ghosts!"
The Three Fairies of Light traded uncertain glances. "You do want to fight them, then?" asked Star Sapphire.
"Of course!"
"Well," she went on, "that may be difficult if they keep moving away from us."
Cirno blinked. While they'd been talking, the three ghost ships had glided past the ice ship to advance on the other boats. What an insult! Weren't fairies worthy opponents? How dare they ignore – oh, right, the veils.
"Don't let them get away!" Cirno ordered.
The others looked at each other again. "So," said Star uncertainly, "are we supposed to-"
"Get ready!" commanded Cirno. She didn't waste any more time on words, instead focusing on willing her ice ship after her prey.
...How did the other ships manage to go so fast? Did she need to put another flag on hers?
-x-
"A challenger appears!" gushed Kotohime, lowering that brass tube with the glass end. "Yuyuko may show up late, but she totally makes up for it. She brought enough ghost soldiers for everyone!"
"Is-" Meira had to get some moisture back in her suddenly dry throat. "Is that what is coming for us?" As she watched, the incoming line of ships was spreading out, each on course towards a different combatant, with Yuyuko's flagship headed directly at them.
Koishi only sighed ruefully at the sight. "Orin's gonna be mad she missed this. So many dead people."
"Shouldn't we be doing something?" Meira suggested, trying to push back her alarm as the incoming vessel grew larger. She'd battled some intimidating threats before, but this… that gray, fog-shrouded ship, with its indistinct but menacing crew, seemed like death's ferry coming to collect them.
"Oh, yeah." Kotohime picked up her metal communicator. "Chief Engineer?" she asked it.
"The chief's stepping out for a smoke, this is the Junior Engineer," came the reply.
Kotohime didn't even blink. "Oh. Did you two get the repairs done?"
A sigh came over the device. "Job's done, what else you need?" asked Nitori.
"Engines, dammit! I'm tired of being a sitting duck, I wanna be a moving duck, bristling with weapons as I lay waste to my enemies!"
Something clunked and shifted under Meira's feet, and the ship rocked briefly before settling.
"Propellers are in position and powered," Nitori reported proudly.
"Then all ahead full! Prepare for an attack run!" Kotohime shouted, flinging her arm out dramatically.
"Aye-aye, captain!"
A sudden droning came from the ship's stern, and Meira glanced back to see the water bubbling and frothing behind them. And then her knees flexed slightly as the boat began to shudder and lurch as it finally began moving forward. "Are we dragging something?" she asked. But soon afterward, as the boat moved further toward the lake's center, the sensation abruptly ceased. "Well, never mind."
"I never do," Kotohime replied distractedly, before flashing a huge smile. "I've got a good feeling about this."
-x-
A new noise joined the muffled cacophony echoing through the lake's waters, an obnoxious buzzing even worse than the frenetic dance of predator and prey sparked by the cloud of insects on the surface. Such a racket.
There had been worse, though, and the former sleeper stopped its ascent, opting instead to return to its slumber. It ponderously swung its head around to dive-
And something jabbed it in the eye.
-x-
-16-
Meira staggered as the ship jolted unexpectedly, jerking to the side as though caught on something. A heartbeat later, the entire lake's surface bounced like a drum from some great submerged explosion of sound. The samurai glanced over the side and saw the silvery flashes of a great many fish, fleeing as quickly as possible.
Next to her, Kotohime her forehead with the heel of her hand. "That's right! The anchor! Never figured out how to retract it. Guess-"
The ship rocked from a sudden swell as something enormous surfaced between them and the incoming ghost ships, as though an island was pushing itself skyward. Meira's mind wrestled to interpret what she was seeing until a thrashing fin helped her realize it was some vast, bloated fish, albeit one larger than even that vampire brat's barge of pretentiousness. A… catfish? Nothing else had such whiskers, surely.
A fish shouldn't roar, but this specimen managed to loose a horrid gurgling exhalation that seemed to make all of Gensokyo quake, and Meira almost choked on the stench of silt and stagnant water that billowed from its toothless maw.
Koishi leaned forward, brow furrowed as though she were studying a difficult math problem. "That's a lot of fish," she decided after a moment.
The monster catfish let loose another incredible couldn't-be-a-roar, then a mighty fin thrashed and the fish lunged forward, making their ship rock from its wake as the aquatic beast began charging about in search of its tormentor.
"Probably counts as a course hazard," Kotohime said.
"Or maybe the fish is a princess too?" Koishi suggested.
"Or that."
"She must have left her crown on the bottom of the lake."
-x-
Reisen stifled a curse as the giant catfish sloshed past the yakatabune, tilting the shallow pleasure craft's deck almost forty-five degrees with the resulting wave. She heard a shrill scream of panic and looked about wildly just in time to see Tewi pulling another rabbit all the way back onto the boat.
"All rabbits, get into the central room," Tewi immediately ordered, calm and authoritative. "In case of an emergency the seat cushions can also be used as flotation devices, if you don't think you can fly to safety on your own." She looked back at Reisen. "Get us to shore as quickly as possible," Tewi commanded, her face disconcertingly serious.
Reisen turned to comply, froze in a near-panic, and met Eirin's gaze, flushing in embarrassment. But the Lunarian only gave her a curt nod, approving Tewi's orders, and Reisen sagged in relief before getting back to rowing.
"Floatation devices?" she heard Kaguya say. "How ingenious! Tewi, please show me how they work, I might want to try them out…"
-x-
The little iceberg bearing four pugnacious fairies nearly capsized as the sea monster sloshed past, tail thrashing furiously and sending a wave of lake water to crash over the deck and soak the vessel's crew.
"What is that?!" Sunny cried shrilly, furiously shaking the water and drenched hair out of her eyes.
"It's just your job to yell out stupid questions tonight, isn't it?" a sodden Star muttered.
Cirno dried out almost immediately - or rather the water on her quickly froze, slid off her clothes and limbs, and was seamlessly absorbed by the iceberg below her bare feet. She barely noticed this, and stared with rapt attention at the departing hulk. "It's that frog!" she gasped.
"What?" came three voices at once.
"The frog!" Cirno repeated. She replayed recent events in her mind and compared them with some old, bad memories: a toothless, gaping maw rushing toward her, heavy with the stench of mud and pond scum. "The one that tried to eat me!"
The Three Fairies of Light exchanged confused glances. "Cirno, that was a fish," Star explained.
"Fish, frog, call it whatever you want. I've got a score to settle with him!" Cirno made an emphatic gesture with her arms. "Forget the boats, this is personal! We're gonna get that frog-"
"Seriously, that was a fish," Star repeated.
"-and freeze it, and then smash it to bits on the rocks!" Cirno finished, flushed with excitement and thirsty for vengeance.
"So wait," Luna said slowly, "was it a fish that attacked you the first time, and you didn't know the word for it, or are you getting a fish and a frog mixed up?"
"See, that was a good question, Sunny," said Star.
A harpoon-sized ice cicle materialized in Cirno's clenched fist. "Shut up and get ready to fight!"
-x-
Sakuya stared incredulously at what had just crossed their bow, then looked over to her mistress, who had merely arched an eyebrow at the nautical abomination.
"Well I'm stumped," the vampire girl announced. "Not enough tentacles to be a kraken, and I can't think of any reason why Leviathan would be in a Shinto-Buddhist country. So what am I looking at?"
"A vile servant of Taisui Xingjun," breathed Meiling, stepping forward to grasp the railing. The timber creaked and cracked under her clenched fists.
"The what now?"
"A malevolent Chinese deity," Sakuya supplied, frowning at the gatekeeper. "But I think this is merely one of our lake's abnormally-large catfish-"
"Miss Scarlet," Meiling said gravely, "by your leave, I shall subdue this foe."
Remilia met Sakuya's gaze for a moment and smiled when the maid rolled her eyes. "Tonight is a battle between warring princesses, not scaly brutes. Very well, Meiling, remove this distraction-"
The gatekeeper leapt away in a blur, trailing multicolored sparks, just when the rampaging fish was passing the Scarlet vessel again. For one long instant all eyes were on the woman hanging in the air directly above the bloated catfish, almost in defiance of gravity. And then the lake rang with Meiling's battlecry as she came out of her flying somersault with her leg outstretched and aimed down, trailing multicolored sparks as she descended like a comet faster than a body would normally fall.
The gatekeeper impacted against her foe with an explosion of light and sound, causing another piscine bellow of rage. The fish began to thrash and roil as the redheaded figure hammered at its head with feet and fists, then it abruptly dove beneath the surface, taking Meiling with it. But from the muffled sounds and flashes of color like exploding rainbows, the battle continued.
Sakuya took in a breath. "I would hate to question milady's orders-"
"So don't," Remilia interrupted. Her gaze met Sakuya's, and she seemed unconcerned. "I have full confidence in my servants' abilities, and Meiling is no exception." She smiled. "And I wouldn't dare deny her a chance at revenge."
"I am fairly confident that the 'battle' she spoke of was the result of heatstroke," Sakuya replied archly.
"But not confident that the two of us will be enough to deal with Yuyuko's flunkies?" Remilia teased.
Sakuya only gave that insulting suggestion an indignant sniff.
-x-
Yuyuko held a hand hidden by the sleeve of her robe to her chin, deep pink eyes watching closely as a giant catfish briefly surfaced nearby, a Chinese youkai somehow perched upon its head while she loosed a flurry of punches into its flesh with staccato meaty impacts.
"We've only just arrived, and this battle has taken a turn for the bizarre," the ghost princess declared.
"What is that thing?" Youmu asked, trying not to tremble. It was scary enough just being out here, having never been on a boat before, and even worse since Lady Yuyuko decided to bring along all these horrible ghosts with her. And now there was a sea monster on the loose? She couldn't imagine what other horrors could be lurking in the depths beneath them – no, actually, she could imagine them. Youmu tried not to whimper.
The beast's tail thrashed the water's surface as the thing dove straight down, more flashes of light following it into the dark waters in a bizarre imitation of lightning in dark clouds. Youmu dearly hoped it wasn't running off to get reinforcements.
"It's just a larger cousin of what we sometimes have for supper, Youmu," Yuyuko soothed. "Just like how a man-eating giant is just a big human."
Youmu's fist tightened on the hilt of her sword. "That monster eats people?"
"Oh, not often, I imagine. Not many people go swimming on the lake, much less sailing. But," Yuyuko continued, eyes twinkling as she gave Youmu a sidelong glance, "can't you imagine it snapping up someone like a fly?"
Yes. Youmu could.
Yuyuko put a finger to her lips. "I wonder if eating it would count as second-hand cannibalism, then? Presumably it would depend on how recently it had fed on humans…"
"Lady Yuyuko," Youmu eventually managed, "if you are in danger from this beast, it is my duty to see you to safety. So maybe we should turn around-"
"Oh, we'll be fine," the Netherworld's ruler said with a careless wave of her hand. "Miss Meiling is already taking care of it, and nobody else seems concerned. So we won't be either, will we, Youmu?"
"No, Lady Yuyuko" the half-ghost reflexively intoned.
"We won't be afraid or worried about it."
"No, Lady Yuyuko." Youmu gulped, doing her best to force her disobedient body to follow her master's commands.
"That's a good girl." Yuyuko nodded at their ship's horrifying rowers, and at the unspoken signal they redoubled their efforts, sending the ancient warship surging towards Kotohime's vessel, which had finally started moving. "Now get ready to engage our friendly enemies. A good fight will keep you nice and distracted from that big mean fish… that big, succulent fish…"
-x-
"Does milady wish to fire upon our enemy?" asked Sakuya as she kept the Scarlet schooner on a near head-on collision course with the ghostly vessel coming their way.
"Not with our cannons," Remilia replied. She strode to the front railing of the raised aft section of her ship, seizing the attention of the fairy sailors lazing about on the main deck. "Soldiers of the night! Strike down our foe!" she commanded.
The fairies shouted and blurred into action, flying every which way as they took up firing positions on the deck or in the rigging, before unleashing another torrent of danmaku. At about the same time, the opposing ship closed to arrow range, and a volley of projectiles trailing cold blue flames arced up to hit the Scarlet ship, ripping through sails and rope, thudding into the deck, or blowing fairies into clouds of sparkling energy that quickly reformed into inherently expendable minions.
Or in other words, both sides were blasting away at each other without much effect. Other than putting on a good show for the people on the lakeshore, Sakuya amended.
"Now slow us down, turn to starboard," ordered Remilia, turning back to her favored servant.
Sakuya complied immediately, then glanced to the side and noted "They're turning to match."
"Naturally. Bring us to an easy stop."
Sakuya didn't have to do anything to follow this order, as the ship continued to obey her mistress' verbal instructions and quickly coasted to a halt.
"There." Remilia's eyes gleamed red as she gave a toothy grin. "Now they have no choice but to board us."
Sure enough, Sakuya heard a near-simultaneous series of thunks as heavy metal hooks trailing ropes landed on the ship's hull, dragging across the deck to lodge against the railing. There was one last volley of arrows from the opposing ship's archers, then the fairies' excited screams took on a new quality, and were joined by ghastly moans and guttural battle cries.
"Miss Izayoi, you are relieved from your post," Remilia announced. She motioned for the maid to join her in looking down on the chaos engulfing the deck.
At least a dozen undead marines were wrecking havoc among the fairy swarm, slicing at squealing, panicking fey with time-gnawed blades and barely noticing the haphazard magical counterattack. It was an almost comical mismatch, and as Remilia and Sakuya watched, another wave of ghostly warriors climbed into view to join their fellows.
But even though her ship was being overrun and her crew was being slaughtered, if only temporarily, Remilia Scarlet's grin only grew wider and more predatory. She held out her hand, there was a glow of artery-red magic, and suddenly the little vampire was holding a slim, elegant, and wicked-looking spear that seemed naturally bloodstained. It was nearly twice her height, yet she hefted it without any obvious effort.
"It's been far too long since I engaged in some close combat," Remilia declared. "I would be honored if you joined me."
Sakuya flicked her wrist, ending the flourish with a trio of knives clutched between her knuckles. She tried to keep the excitement coursing through her veins from showing on her face, but she couldn't quite hide her grin. "Of course, Mistress Scarlet."
"Now, to make this more interesting for the audience, I forbid you from using your temporal abilities during this bout," Remilia continued.
This would make things more interesting for her too, Sakuya mused. But she wasn't at all worried, and found the prospect of an 'honest' battle appealing. "Certainly, mistress," she responded.
"Then," Remilia said, meeting her maid's eyes, "let's have some fun."
And with a mixture of pride and fierce joy in her heart, Sakuya leapt into battle alongside her mistress.
-x-
-17-
Miko shifted in her seat, folding her arms. "This has become quite a spectacle," she admitted. Some of the ladies sitting near her murmured their agreement, unable to take their gazes away from the scene.
Illusory or not, the full moon hanging over the lake, combined with the lanterns on the ships, provided more than enough light to see what was going on - and somehow the effect seemed natural despite the redness of said moon. Closest to the shore was the heart-pounding chase between the Eientei pleasure yacht and its undead pursuers, and off to one side Kotohime's vessel was finally moving. But stealing the show was the largest ship on the lake, currently fending off an enemy boarding action. The spectating crowd gasped at the flashing steel on the ship's deck, oohed at the blood-red pyrotechnics that punctuated the combat, and aahed as armored wraiths were hurtled up into the sky to splash into the lake, all while fairy crew members zipped about in a frenzy.
"It's been a while since Remilia cut loose like this," Reimu observed without concern. "Good for her to get it out of her system, I suppose."
"That or she's feeling jealous," suggested Marisa. She waited until she got a few questioning stares, then explained "I was talking with Patchy one day-"
"Patchouli Knowledge, the librarian of the Scarlet Devil Mansion," Keine said in a near-whisper for the newcomers' benefit.
"-and she was sayin' how Remilia almost staffed her mansion with skeletons and other walking stiffs, y'know, to fit more with the 'vampire' theme. But Patchy talked her out of it, thought maybe us locals might object to it."
"But not to a vampire brat moving in, apparently," Alice said with an audible roll of her eyes.
"Pardon, but you say the little girl on the big boat is a vampire?" asked Futo. "She looked nothing like Lady Kaku's minion."
"She's foreign," Marisa explained, waving her hand. "They vamp differently in other parts, or something."
A battlecry rang out from the Scarlet ship, accompanied by a flare of red light that sent another handful of undead warriors scattering. Some of the watching villagers applauded.
"Wonder where that fish went to?" Reimu wondered aloud, unimpressed. "Ought to be a lot of good eating on something that big."
-x-
Reisen worked the oar as fast as she could, but there was only one of her, and a whole team of rowers on each of the ghost ships. She knew they weren't going to make it to the shore before being overrun in a tactical sense, but it was the arrow hissing over her head that made the fact real in a visceral sense.
"Stay calm!" Kaguya urged her, rising to her feet in the relative safety of the yakatabune's deck cabin. "If these are honorable warriors, they will not target the operators of an enemy craft, only their opponents."
Tewi's head rose into view next to the princess, a wide grin on her face. "And if they're not so honorable, you're gonna need a new jacket." Reisen shot her a murderous look and hoped the princess didn't mistake its target.
"Keep down, all of you," Eirin ordered calmly as she slid through the cabin doors, bow in hand. Reisen's master gave her a curt nod before moving to the foredeck of the ship. "Cut them off," she called to Reisen. "Make sure they can see me."
The lunar rabbit's stomach twisted with apprehension, but Reisen complied, angling the pleasure craft to move across the ghost ship's course. Eirin's bow flashed as she loosed a gleaming silver arrow into one of the undead archers, and as if that were a signal, a veritable storm of enemy fire arced towards the Eientei ship – but was directed at the front half of the boat, at Eirin.
Reisen tried not to feel too pleased that the enemy was gunning for her master instead of her.
It was a more intense sequel to the show Eirin had put on earlier, Reisen decided. The scientist had more room to dodge without Kaguya participating in the fight, but she also had an entire boat's worth of foes to deal with. Eirin spun and ducked, sidestepped and briefly took flight, and barely had time to counterattack.
But for all her skills, she could not dodge every missile.
Kaguya made a little sound of dismay and put a dangling sleeve over her mouth as an arrow struck Eirin's left leg with a meaty thwack. The scientist lurched and stumbled in her next step, so that a projectile that would have missed her entirely instead cut a vivid red line across her cheek. They may have looked slightly more substantial that fog, but those ghost warriors and their weapons were apparently solid enough.
"Master!" Reisen cried out. Then she glanced back at their foes – the arrows had ceased, but the ghost ship was almost on top of them. As she watched in horror, a group of armored shades leapt the gap between the two ships, landing heavily on the deck with a mixture of thumps and rattling bones.
From a distance, the undead soldiers had been imposing. Up close, they were terrifying. Their helmets and what scraps of armor they wore were blackened with age, the clothes beneath were in tatters, and their very flesh was shriveled and ragged, unable to conceal bones and sinew. An unnatural chill swept over the deck in their wake, and weak blue-white lights hung around them like the ghosts of fireflies.
Reisen gulped as she felt their eyeless gaze, and heard the horrid gurgling and groans the undead soldiers made instead of breathing. But they turned away from her, deciding she was no threat, and hurried towards the middle and front of the yakatabune. Some hustled towards Eirin on the prow, but the rest-
Some of the rabbits began squealing in terror-
The rest were surging towards the ship's cabin, having caught sight of Princess Kaguya inside. The Lunarian noblewoman squared her jaw and glared at the oncoming soldiers-
"No!" Reisen shouted, charging after them before she knew she was doing it. She body-checked one undead soldier and made him hiss and stumble, but he caught his footing and, with his comrades, slowly turned to reassess the woman they had passed.
Freezing leaden weights settled in her stomach as Reisen realized she had just crossed the line from "noncombatant" to "opponent."
The group of soldiers – five of them, seven others advancing on the secondary objective – stepped closer to her, pinpricks of cold flame glaring at her from the darkness beneath their helmets. Reisen felt her heart beating faster as she took an involuntary step back, only to bump into her abandoned pole.
The undead warrior in the lead raised his weapon – Japanese tachi, 12th century – and prepared to split open her skull. Reisen felt her body shift stance, her muscles tense with anticipation.
Terror shot through her, not because her life was in danger, but because-
The blade descended a millimeter-
She lunged forward, hitting the enemy in the chest with her shoulder-
Bourei, not a phantasm. Solid body, standard tactics apply.
The ghost staggered back, off-balance, but she was already sliding into position, her arms moving of their own volition to grab the undead soldier's wrist and twist it sharply. There was a crack as something in his undead form gave, the sword tumbled from his slack grasp, and her fingers closed around the hilt before it hit the deck without her even looking at it-
"Again, recruit. These counters will save your life someday, and you will practice them until they are as natural as breathing."
The other warriors were moving in to overwhelm her, but she spun in a low crouch, supporting her weight on her off-hand as she sweapt the nearest two enemies' legs out from under them. Her ears bounced as she rose to her feet-
Standing foes engaging, no time to dispatch the fallen.
-her stolen sword was up in a heartbeat, held two-handed to block an incoming chop. She spun to her side to dodge another blow and gave the stumbling ghost warrior a firm boot to the rear that propelled him over the side of the boat.
Target status contingent on whether these ghosts can swim, stay alert.
A third opponent was standing flat-footed, empty eye sockets somehow wider with shock at what had happened in the space of a few heartbeats. His blade was down, his attention was elsewhere, and the instant she registered this she was swinging her sword with all her might. There was something like greenish sparks as her weapon grazed the bottom of the specter's helmet, and then his head was tumbling across the deck and smoke was trailing from the stump of his neck-
Target neutralized.
She kicked the corpse of a corpse forward to crash into another warrior, ducking down while doing so in order to mask her movement. A second undead swordsman had to waste a critical moment searching for her-
Bourei or no, their senses appear on par with living humans'. Potential strategy against Yuyuko Saigyouji?
-and she lunged forward, driving her sword to its hilt into the unarmored gap around her foe's armpit. The ghost gave a ghastly groan, but collapsed the instant she withdrew the blade.
Target neutralized.
She had turned back around before her foe had hit the deck. The remaining standing enemy was staying back, sword in both hands, held low and angled high. The other warrior was still trying to disentangle himself from his headless comrade, on the deck between them.
Faster than thought, she reversed her grip on her blade, lunged forward, and came down hard on one knee, burying her sword in the entangled warrior's chest-
Target neutralized.
-prompting the other undead soldier to loose a horrible battlecry, a snarl that rose to a wailing shriek that lashed at her like a physical blow-
"You can and will endure this sound, recruit. You will learn to let it flow around you like water around a stone. You will endure it until you no longer notice it. And then we will find something worse for you to listen to, so that nothing you hear on the battlefield will distract you from your task."
-she ignored the wailing ghost and held her ground as he closed on her. When he was five paces away she feinted right, stomped the deck, and launched herself into a neat front flip. She landed just behind the dead warrior as he skidded to a halt, then she pivoted, dropped to one knee, and with both hands thrust her sword through his armored back.
The ghost spasmed, dropped his weapon, and burst into a cloud of smoke and ash.
Target neutralized.
She rose, swept her gaze over the edges of the boat in case that warrior she'd sent over the side was climbing back aboard. A quick check revealed no new threats around the princess and the rabbits – the primary objective – and she focused on the mob of enemy soldiers surrounding – the secondary objective – her master on the ship's prow. Eirin was fending three off at once, the others were trying to crowd in, which made them–
Exposed, compact, perfect targets.
She gripped her blade with just her right hand, so that her left could close save for her thumb and extended index finger. She straightened, aiming her shoulder down the thin strip of deck around the yakatabune's cabin, lifting her left arm, closing her right eye, assuming a firing stance that was more natural for her than relaxing on a couch.
"The gun is a part of you. It aims where you point. It fires your wrath. The trigger is in your mind."
Her magical energies flowed from her core and down her arm, spiraling up her finger to coalesce just off her fingertip into a shining white bullet. She aimed not for headshots, though she was good at those, or for center mass, as per standard practice, but for penetration.
The bullet cracked like a whip as it blurred through the air and tore into the targets, becoming a line of pure white light as it briefly impaled three undead warriors at once. The rearmost foe's arm came off just below the shoulder, a second lost his head and exploded into blue mist, and a third staggered and fell to one knee, presumably hit in the leg. The rest of the unengaged enemy soldiers whirled to face this new threat.
As they began surging toward her, she began pulling more energy into her extended finger, preparing a second shining bullet-
Tewi always said they looked like suppositories.
The thought, something from her, her real life, or at least the one she wanted, almost destroyed Reisen's concentration, threw her out from the nearly automatic set of responses to the threats facing her. With a flash of panic she fought to grasp that disappearing string of ingrained attacks and counters.
A ghostly warrior's sword was already streaking at her face, she desperately batted it aside with her own blade, and her other hand stabbed forward and bucked as a missile of pure magic ripped through the enemy's ghostly head like it was a dense fog. He toppled backward, smoke trailing from his neck-
Target neutralized.
One of the other undead warriors took a moment to stare in shock at the fate of his comrade, so she slashed his face apart with a quick one-handed strike-
Target neutralized.
-then shoved her pointing finger at the other threat and sent a magical bullet through his chest-
Target neutralized.
-the last of the attackers screamed a challenge as he rushed forward, trying to take her in the moment between firings, but she checked his movement with her foot in his face, and before he had time to stagger she jumped and spun, sweeping him head-first off the ship with another kick.
Two in the water now.
She straightened up, taking deep but steady breaths as she checked on her master. Eirin caught the descending blade of her last opponent on her bow, whatever material it was made of proving stronger than the ghost of ancient steel, and then there was a flash of blue-white light and suddenly she was alone. The lunar rabbit watched as the doctor immediately bent to attend to the broken shaft of an arrow protruding from her leg, her motions and demeanor businesslike and unconcerned-
Secondary objective secure.
A glance backward saw no ghostly marines left on the yakatabune, and the princess - primary objective - was still in her cabin saying something that wasn't important. But she spotted the ghost ship those marines had come from, still bearing hostile soldiers who were moving about, preparing to-
Estimated time to boarding, seven seconds.
She was running before she was aware of it, then soaring over the gulf between the boats in a magically-assisted jump, sword grasped in both hands high above her head. The ghost warriors on the enemy deck looked up, presenting a thicket of steel to greet her-
"But no matter how much we train you – and you will be trained extensively – your greatest weapon is what you were given naturally, and what our training will refine. For you uniquely embody the purity of our home, and with practice, you will be able to channel that purity in a way that destroys the mind of the corrupt. They will see in your eyes the awesome splendor of the moon, and their tainted souls will not be able to endure it."
It had actually been very easy. All she had to do was remember what she had gone through, and try to channel some of it through a glance. It was a relaxation of effort, releasing the holds she maintained to try and live a normal life, to stay sane.
She saw the ship's deck bathed in the red light emanating from her eyes.
The reactions were varied, as always. Some of the ghosts reeled back, clawing at their faces or clutching their heads. Others lashed out at things only they could see, or at each other-
Her flying kick pitched one stricken enemy into the lake-
That's three now.
-there was a semicircle of enemies facing her, swords at all angles and moving in all directions, her tachi was a shining blur in front of her as she parried and thrust and slashed and blocked-
Target neutralized. Target neutralized. Target dropped.
-she switched back to a one-handed grip on the sword so she could fire with her other hand, one bullet went through at least three at once-
Targets neutralized.
-she was ducking, rolling, whirling, lashing out with blade and boot and bullet, twisting and leaping through the mass of hostile bodies, she could taste blood and wasn't sure if it was hers or an enemy's or a memory-
She could smell the lunar dust, hear the screams of her sisters-
-her wrist flared with pain as she threw her sword through the neck of a foe - she never had mastered that move to her instructors' satisfaction. The din of battle was all around her-
It was all too much, it was not flowing around her but through her, eroding her, carrying her away, she had to get away-
Her head throbbed, her heart pounded, her limbs burned, her eyes flared, her foes recoiled, her fingers fired-
She had to get away!
She did one last spinning aerial kick, knocking back the threats surrounding her, rolled forward when she landed, bounced to her feet and turned, hands stretched before her like she was holding a brace of pistols. She loosed a storm of magic through the disorganized mass of who knew how many-
Four.
-enemies until they fell over. There was still movement on the ship, fallen soldiers attempting to rise, and the crew keeping the vessel moving, but no immediate danger.
Teeth gritted, her whole body aching with the effort, she gathered her dwindling reserves of magical energy and pulled it not just into bullets in front of her extended index fingers, but into a whole ring of shining white projectiles wrapped around her like a belt of ammunition. She ignored a wounded ghost staggering towards her, aimed both hands down, and fired as quickly as she could, spraying magical bullets until her hands felt like they were charred to the bone.
She wasn't sure whether the enemy vessel was real wood or the ghost of a ship, and in the end it didn't matter. Her barrage tore right through its deck and hull, leaving a ragged hole that rapidly filled with dark lakewater. The deck began to shift under her feet, so she leapt into the air, returning to-
The objectives.
-the yakatabune. She landed in a combat stance, eyes scanning once more for targets, arms out and fingers ready-
"I counted nine panty shots."
Reisen lurched, almost toppling forward onto the short Earth rabbit standing before her.
"Of course, I have a better angle than most observers, so maybe you didn't disgrace yourself that badly," Tewi continued calmly. "But you might want to consider pants if you plan on doing that many high kicks in the future."
And suddenly a pressure behind Reisen's eyes was lifted, the strings moving her arms and legs were cut, and it was all she could do not to collapse. "It wasn't my decision," she gasped, doubling over as she tried to catch her breath, all of the aches and pains of battle suddenly rushing to hit her like a full-body migraine.
"Oh, stop being such a wimp," Tewi sighed, before walking off to get the rest of the Earth rabbits into order.
Reisen fought the urge to risk exposing herself by punting the girl off the boat, then noticed the other two people standing nearby. Eirin's face was carefully expressionless, while Kaguya's jaw was still hanging open.
"That was… well done," the doctor said after a moment.
"Thank you, master," Reisen replied weakly, bowing. She tried to hide her wince; she was out of practice, and all those flips and rolls really hurt her back.
"But quite possibly very rude," Kaguya said, recovering. She smiled at the Lunar rabbit to take the sting off the words. "You may have hurt Miss Saigyouji's feelings, going through her minions that quickly," she said, gesturing at the enemy vessel.
Reisen looked back at her handiwork – the striken ship was seething and bubbling as it continued to sink, its hull and passengers fading into mist almost faster than it was disappearing beneath the water's surface.
"And," Kaguya went on, "no doubt all the other captains are now jealous that their crews are incapable of such a display."
"That's 'cause they're not wearing miniskirts," Tewi declared as she strode back from checking on the 'crew.' Her ears flopped as she tilted her head toward the shore. "I suggest we take advantage of this opportunity to break off."
"Indeed," Eirin nodded. She turned to give Reisen the order, opened her mouth, and caught herself, staring for a moment. She finally decided "I'll take the oar, you stay with Her Highness."
Reisen blinked. "But your leg…"
The doctor merely arched an eyebrow. Reisen looked closer, and sure enough, the broken arrow was nowhere in sight, the blood was gone, and there wasn't even a tear in Eirin's dress. The Lunarian's face was similarly unmarred and looked like it had been freshly washed.
"A-as you wish, master," Reisen bowed.
Eirin gave her a slight smile as she slipped toward the ship's rear, and Reisen gratefully slipped through the cabin door and sank onto one of the pleasure craft's mats, biting back a groan as her muscles and bones paid her back for what she'd put them through.
Kaguya soon eased herself down next to Reisen, and gave her an appraising stare that went on for longer than was entirely comfortable. "You know," the princess said speculatively, "I think samurai armor would look good on you."
At this rate, Reisen wearily observed, she might end up promoted from 'doll' to 'action figure.'
-x-
-18-
"Ho-ly crap! Did you see that?" Kotohime demanded of Meira, wide-eyed and grinning. "Bunny girl went through them like a kappa through a plate of fried pickles!"
The little metal box on the ship's wheel crackled. "I can hear you, y'know. And if you're gonna be making me hungry you better have some food!"
"It was certainly an impressive display of skill," Meira admitted, eyes elsewhere, "but perhaps you should-"
"I'm almost of a mind to catch up with them and have you fight her," Kotohime declared. "Pit your samurai skills against her miniskirt of power."
"I would look forward to such a contest," Meira replied, "but-"
"Or maybe I should just stick you in a miniskirt, eh?" Kotohime's grin grew even more annoying. "Might solve a little recurring problem of yours. Or else you'd be mistaken for transvestite instead of just-"
Meira hit her in a flying tackle, bearing the princess to the deck as a volley of ghost-lit arrows hissed through the air above them. And certainly not because Kotohime desperately needed someone to shut her obnoxious mouth.
"As I was saying," Meira ground out from the relative safety of the banister ringing the ship's raised rear section, "we are still under attack by Lady Saigyouji!"
Kotohime immediately disentangled herself from the samurai and stuck her head up, only to have to duck down again to avoid getting skewered. "Then what are you doing back here?" she asked. "Honestly, Meira, deserting your post in a battle? Get to the front of the ship and be ready to repel boarders!"
Meira bit back a snarl and rose to her feet. Lady Saigyouji's vessel was powering almost directly toward them, and as she watched the complement of archers gathered on its front sent another volley of ghostly arrows at them. The samurai tensed, watching the projectiles approach, but didn't duck – instead she lunged forward, briefly taking flight as she vaulted the railing of the rear deck and slipped through a gap she spotted.
It was much like danmaku, really, or rather a poor substitute for danmaku. There weren't nearly as many things to dodge, and there was no pattern to them, no grace or style. If it weren't for the cold ghost lights streaming in the arrows' wake, the attack wouldn't even be visually interesting. As Meira flew sideways, watching the arrows slip all around her in an adrenaline-lengthened moment, she realized once more just how lucky she was to live in Gensokyo, where battles had meaning and beauty.
She hit the deck running low, one hand on the hilt of her sword and the other out for balance, but she made it to the boat's prow before another volley was launched. It was at that point Meira realized she wasn't sure what to do next. Her orders were to repel boarders, but the enemy currently wasn't attempting that – possibly because of how the other boats had handled earlier attempts.
"So hey," Kotohime called across the length of the vessel, "weren't samurai traditionally archers more than anything? This would be a good time to reveal you know how to shoot a bow. And had a bow and arrows on you."
Another volley of guttering projectiles streaked just over Meira's head. Maybe after the next attack, she could risk popping up and replying with magic-
"Or ooh, ooh, I know! Modernize a bit! Get yourself a Tanegashima, really stand out from all the sword-swingers!" suggested Kotohime. "I bet we could find one in Kourindou, and it'd be a tax-deductible purchase!"
Meira raised her head just in time to duck down from a pair of shots loosed in her direction. Great, they weren't firing in volleys anymore, and were set on pinning her down. Did the ghosts intend to board after all? At least then she could fight back-
"Or I guess you could use one of the deck guns," Kotohime went on, continuing to shout encouragement from the relative safety of the boat's rear. "You know, those weapons you helped install, and that I just used on the Taoists? Though obviously you'll want to use a different one than that, since I never reloaded it."
Meira glowered at the metal cylinders attached to the front third of the ship, two to a side. But, even though it was Kotohime suggesting it… the samurai growled her annoyance and dove forward, rolling to take cover under the gun closest to the enemy ship, the one she thought Kotohime hadn't fired earlier.
Another flurry of arrows zipped through the air overhead as she considered the device. It was little more than a cast iron tube – which was a bit worrying, since it raised the question of how Kotohime had produced it – on a swivel mount bolted onto the ship's railing. And… Meira looked closer. How exactly did one operate this weapon? Even when helping set it up, she had seen no switch, button, trigger, pull-chain, or anything that-
"You'll wanna light it like a candle," Kotohime called to her. "Set a fire in the interior at the rear, that'll do it."
Meira grunted to herself. She supposed that made sense, given what admittedly little she knew about gunpowder. She risked rising to a low crouch so she could aim down the gun, but couldn't manage to push it around from that angle, damn it all.
She'd have to be quick then.
After ducking under the rain of arrows that her reappearance provoked, Meira surged upward in the lull that followed, grabbed the end of the deck gun with both hands, planted her feet on the inside of the ship's railing, and put her hips into pushing her end up so the tip aimed down. Lady Saigyouji's vessel was lower than theirs, and nearly on top of them. The ghostly princess herself was standing in the midst of the archers crowding the front deck, a beacon of pink and blue amidst a host of dark warriors.
Before the archers could draw their next shots, Meira grit her teeth, focused a bit of magic inside the metal cylinder clutched between her hands, just as she'd lit the ship's lanterns earlier-
Even though she was expecting it, she still jerked with surprise at the explosion of sound and light that erupted from the end of the cannon.
When Meira's vision and the smoke cleared, she saw Lady Saigyouji standing, apparently unharmed but shaking her head in confusion. The front of her ship now looked as battered as though a swarm of rats had been gnawing on it. Three enemy archers stood nearby in a similar state of amazement, while of the rest, all Meira could see were discarded weapons, scraps of armor, and a bank of clearing fog. Or perhaps that was more gunsmoke?
Meira started in surprise again at a sudden burst of giggles. She turned her head to see Koishi standing nearby, knees bent, hands to her red face.
"What?" Meira asked, suddenly self-conscious in the midst of a battle.
The satori girl pointed at the cannon, and Meira looked down at it in case it was doing anything strange, but no. It was still pointed at the enemy ship from where she held it with both hands, its end close to her hips so she could brace herself properly against the inside wall of the boat. Meira tried wrenching it slightly back and forth, but it didn't do anything then either.
Koishi collapsed onto her side, shaking with silent fits of laughter. Meira could only sigh and drop back to the deck, unwilling to spend any more time trying to figure out what was wrong with the girl. She had to do that enough with Kotohime, thank you very much.
"Good work, Meira!" the woman in question said as she strutted down to the main deck. "Your years of training in close combat were made irrelevant by the march of technology!"
Any pride the samurai felt in her accomplishment promptly vanished.
"Though you might get to use your sword after all," Kotohime warned with a cheeky grin. "'cause I have a hunch-"
"Youmu!" Lady Saigyouji snapped, her voice ringing over the surface of the lake as she flung out an arm and pointed a closed paper fan at Meira. "Dispose of this threat at once!"
Meira tensed, hand on the hilt of her blade, but… nothing happened. The undead archers on the opposing ship started looking around, mirroring her confusion.
Yuyuko lowered her arm and glanced about quizzedly. "Youmu?"
"H-here, Lady Yuyuko!" A short-cropped, white-haired head, sporting a black ribbon tied off-center, poked into sight from behind the remaining undead soldiers, soon followed by a girl clad in a green dress. "I was taking cover from the enemy attack," the newcomer insisted.
"With amazing alacrity, since you vanished before the shot was fired," Yuyuko smiled.
"Oh, I've been looking forward to this..." Kotohime walked over near Meira but ignored the samurai, waving at the other ship. "I am pleased to see you unhurt, Lady Saigyouji!"
Yuyuko made no gesture, but whatever crew or unseen force propelling her boat changed course to keep parallel with Kotohime's vessel, matching its leisurely pace while mere yards away. The ghost princess stepped forward, her warm smile completely out of place on this naval battlefield.
"I believe my crew shielded me from the blast," Yuyuko said, flapping an arm at the comparative lack of soldiers on her ship's deck. "A shame, they were rather looking forward to attacking you."
"It's better this way," said Kotohime. "Our own boat is a bit understaffed, so now we have a more even match. Princess-captain to princess-captain, samurai to samurai."
"And Koishi," Meira pointed out. "And also-"
"Shhh!" Kotohimed hissed out of the corner of her mouth, briefly glaring sideways at Meira.
Yuyuko didn't seem to have noticed, and was nodding her head slowly. "I understand. You propose we settle this through combat by champion?"
"Sure! Your Youmu versus my Meira!"
Meira frowned. "Wait, what?"
"Oh, this will be wonderful!" Yuyuko said, hands clasped just below her face in excitement. "It's so rare that Youmu gets to practice with someone who shares her interest in swordplay."
"It's settled then. C'mon over, Miss Konpaku," Kotohime said, beckoning at the girl, her face bearing a reassuring smile.
The girl in green looked from Kotohime to Yuyuko, then her shoulders slumped in what Meira guessed was a sigh before she leapt into the air with surprising speed to cross the distance between their ships and land on the front deck, mere paces away from the samurai.
Up close, this Youmu looked like a laughable opponent: fully a head shorter than Meira, a gangly body like a teenager who hadn't finished filling out, and an expression that seemed naturally out of focus or half-asleep. The only remarkable thing about her was the wisp of softly-glowing vapor orbiting close to her body, as though she was being trailed by her own personal phantom.
But then those blue eyes did focus, and Youmu offered her opponent a proper bow. "Umm… by order of my mistress, I shall defeat you in battle, noble foe."
Meira didn't know what to say to that. Her 'opponent' looked and sounded like a kid playing samurai, and Meira wasn't sure if she should be humoring her or trying to talk her out of this duel. She settled for a wordless affirmative, a slow nod, and what she hoped was a properly grave expression.
Then Youmu shifted into a fighting stance. It was an odd stance, a near crouch with her left shoulder pointed at her opponent and her blade held low in both hands, pointing out and away. And Meira felt a flicker of apprehension. If the girl had adopted a normal fighting stance, Meira could have dismissed her as a child imitating a true warrior. If she'd settled into that unorthodox position with less practiced ease, Meira could have regarded her as someone who had no idea at all what she was doing. But the fact that Youmu had shifted into that stance as naturally as breathing was… worrying.
Who had trained this girl? Was she a samurai? How could she fight from that starting stance? Most of Meira's opponents were bladeless monsters or the rare swordswoman in the village, all of whom had variations on conventional fighting styles. This was something she hadn't seen before.
Also, that was a very big sword. How could the girl hold something nearly as tall as she was, and without any sign of strain?
All of these thoughts flashed through Meira's mind in a second, and she kept her doubts from her face as she adopted a stance of her own, one leg forward, sword in both hands angled up from around her belt, a classic position that clashed with Youmu's exotic style. She shouldn't be nervous, she assured herself. This was really an opportunity to test herself, learn something new, improve her skills. And if this girl was indeed a samurai, she deserved her respect and-
"Oh, wait a sec," Kotohime interrupted before things could go any further. "Meira, you like your sword, right?"
Meira gave Kotohime a level look. Her blade wasn't an ancestral weapon of great renown, or a magical artifact of incredible power. But it was her sword, dammit. "Yes," she said simply.
"Use this one first," Kotohime went on, and tossed a sheathed sword – where did she get that? Had she been saving it for – where had she kept a full-sized sword? Meira was barely able to catch the thing in her confusion, but obligingly stowed her blade and drew the unfamiliar weapon.
"Okay, you can start now," the princess declared.
Meira had just managed to turn her attention back on her opponent before she was forced to bring her borrowed sword up to block the green-and-white blur rushing towards her-
There was a metallic chime, and something landed heavily on the deck next to Meira's sandaled feet. Meira blinked in disbelief at the short length of metal now protruding from her former sword's hilt, ending in a perfectly straight edge.
"Yeah," Kotohime advised conversationally, "you'll want to focus your energy, wrap your sword in a magical field so you can block with it. Because…?" she trailed off, flourishing her hands towards Youmu.
"The things that cannot be cut by my Roukanken, forged by youkai, are close to none!" said the young samurai as though she were reciting a script.
Meira carefully kept her face expressionless, and very calmly and deliberately let the useless sword hilt drop to the deck before drawing her own weapon. The important thing was not to panic. She wouldn't want to get hit by a sword to begin with, so what did it matter that this one was especially sharp? It didn't change anything, really.
She closed her eyes briefly, marshaling her magic and wrapping her blade in a pale purple aura. "An impressive demonstration," she conceded, nodding toward Youmu. "Now, if you are ready-"
Forewarned by the previous attack, Meira had an extra split-second to respond to Youmu's headlong charge as the girl once again rocketed forward, nearly dragging that absurdly sharp sword behind her until she was close enough to swing it with shocking speed. Meira was only just able to bring her own weapon up to parry, and thankfully the magic around it stopped the incoming blow with a ringing impact.
The two combatants bounced off each other, caught their footing, and simultaneously lunged. Youmu's long blade arced at Meira and she blocked low, high, then low again, each impact hard enough to force her to focus more on maintaining the protective magic around her sword than on a counterattack.
Meira caught an overhead chop only by bracing the end of her sword with her off-hand, and hurled Youmu back with all her strength to give herself some breathing room. The girl recovered almost instantly and charged once again, that personal ghost-light following as though it were tied to her waist-
And Meira noticed the glow around her own sword had gone out.
The samurai had no choice but to duck and roll forward past Youmu. She came out of the maneuver as quick as possible and spun around, trying to find another moment to empower her blade-
Youmu was already closing, spinning for a mighty horizontal two-handed blow-
Meira frantically took to the air, leaping up and over the girl-
And something behind her went crack.
Everyone on the two ships stared as the mast of Kotohime's boat shifted slightly, then slowly toppled over, canvas fluttering and snapped ropes streaming like ribbons as it fell overboard to splash onto the lake's surface.
In the shocked silence that followed, everyone could hear Yuyuko's sigh. "Youmu…" she said with disapproval.
"No worries," said Kotohime with a careless shrug. "Never figured out how to use the stupid thing anyway."
Meira stared dumbly at the remains of the mast, short as a tree stump and smooth as a tabletop, then looked at Youmu's sword again.
Well. That was enough close combat for one fight.
She leapt to the side, swinging her sword as though cleaving the air, releasing a trail of danmaku in her wake that arced towards her opponent. But Youmu countered quickly, blade blurring as she slashed at the air and sent rippling arcs of force at Meira, driving the samurai to break off her attacks.
Meira landed heavily on the deck in a low crouch and saw that Youmu had also paused, eyes closed, absurdly-long sword held close to her center and pointed skyward. Meira followed her instincts and started moving even before the barrage of pale blue danmaku streaked down at her, blasting the deck behind her as she sprinted. She hated to get close to that sword, but if Meira could move within striking distance before Youmu switched from ranged to melee attacks-
She shouted as she swung her sword in a diagonal chop, but Youmu ducked under it almost faster than Meira could believe. Then Meira saw movement out of the corner of her eye, turned-
A second Youmu, only translucent and faintly glowing a ghostly shade of blue, tried to take Meira's head off-
Meira put all of her energy, physical and magical, into blocking the attack, and felt her sandals skid across the deck and her arms go numb from the shock of impact-
Then Youmu rose from her crouch, struck Meira's sword and somehow twisted it right out of the samurai's hands, following up with a quick footsweep that sent Meira onto her rump.
Meira landed with a yelp a second before her sword hit the deck behind Youmu. She scrambled backwards crab-wise, eyes wide, as the girl advanced on her, swordtip aimed at Meira's throat.
"Do you yield?" Youmu demanded.
Meira's mouth wasn't working, and horrible, shameful memories were flooding back to torment her. Again! Once again she'd been trounced by a, a child! A brat playing hero!
"Do you yield?" Youmu repeated.
"Alright, that's enough," Kotohime announced, stepping forward and waving a hand in an imperious gesture.
On the boat keeping pace with their own, Yuyuko smiled. "It's refreshing to see someone gracious enough to admit defeat."
But Kotohime's grin had an edge to it. "I'm not. What I'm saying is, this duel is irrelevant, because you... are..." she leaned forward to squint at something in the water ahead of Yuyuko's boat, then finished with a satisfied "Sunk."
Meira couldn't help but trade a confused look with Youmu at that announcement. Yuyuko had just opened her mouth to say something when there was an almighty crash and her boat suddenly slammed to a halt, making the ghost woman lurch and several of her undead crew members fall prone.
"Lady Yuyuko!" Youmu cried, rushing over to grip the railing of Kotohime's ship, allowing Meira to shakily push herself to her feet.
"Throttle down, Nitori, it's time to gloat," Kotohime shouted down into the hold. A moment later the throb of their engines faded and Kotohime's ship coasted to a halt.
Meira found herself joining Youmu at the railing, and soon spied the explanation for the other ship's distress – it had blundered right into Cirno's iceberg and ripped a long gash along its hull. A shrill argument was breaking out near the point of impact as the four fairies atop the ice ship traded blame for the collision. Already the enemy vessel was sloping downward as water frothed and bubbled into the breach, steadily sinking beneath the surface at about the same rate it seemed to be dissolving into mist. Its undead crew stood still and silent as statues, in stoic acceptance of their fate.
Yuyuko's face set in a pout. "You tricked me," she said reproachfully.
"Yep! Let this be a lesson to you," Kotohime said with a sage nod of her head. "Never get so distracted by dueling samurai that you forget to check for invisible fairies."
Meira detected just the briefest grin on Yuyuko's face before she adopted an almost comically exaggerated expression of sorrow. "Then my champion's efforts are all for naught. I am laid low by base treachery, doomed to drown in the cold depths of this lake and haunt its dark waters for all eternity."
"Ooh, yeah, a double ghost," Kotohime gasped. "That'd be scary. Twice as scary as a normal ghost, in fact."
"Please don't say such foolish things!" Youmu snapped, paling. "Lady Yuyuko, if you-"
"And I suppose my servant is now your prisoner, to do with as you will," the ghostly princess went on, now standing on the only quarter of her ship above the water's surface. "I can only pray that she is still suitable for marriage when you are done satiating your cruel appetites."
Meira didn't bother to hide her reaction to this suggestion. Gods, why was everyone in this benighted country so vulgar?
"Nah, I'm not hungry," Koishi said distractedly, suddenly appearing behind the half-pint half-human. "You guys can have her if you want."
Youmu nearly jumped out of her skin. "Lady Yuyuko," she said desperately, "can we go home now?!"
The ghostly woman looked down at the water lapping at her shins. "But as the captain, I'm supposed to go down with the ship. It might even be fun, I've never explored the lakebottom before."
"They've got snacks and beer on the shore over there," Kotohime mentioned.
And just like that, Yuyuko was out of the water and floating over and past them. "Come along, Youmu," she snapped. "We've no time to waste on games."
Without a word, the half-ghost took to the air, trailing in her master's wake like an obedient puppy. That could fly. And swing an enormous sword that could slice through a ship's mast without slowing.
Meira watched them leave, then looked back at the sinking ship as it finished evaporating, still trying to come to terms with recent events. She supposed this counted as a victory, even though she felt very much like she had lost.
Then the samurai lurched as Kotohime slapped her shoulder. "Good job distracting them! You know what they say, if you can't beat 'em, keep 'em busy until someone else does." The princess then waved down at Cirno's iceberg. "I say we split that victory fifty-fifty, acting-princess-captain!"
"I was gonna sneak up on that frog!" the ice fairy called out unhappily. "Then the ghost lady ran into me!"
"Or you could say that you rammed her," Kotohime suggested. "Then it'd be a cunning ambush rather than a case of all-around incompetence."
"I guess..." The teal bow on Cirno's head flopped about as she looked around. "Whatever, time to get that frog!"
"Oh no you don't!" Sunny Milk piped in. "I'm tired of playing along with this! If you want our help," the little fairy said, poking Cirno's scrawny chest with a finger, "there's gonna be some changes around here!"
Cirno folded her arms, eyes blazing. "I don't need your help! I'm the strongest even on my ownsome! So you gotta do what I say!"
"Sounds like you've got a mutiny on your hands," Kotohime chuckled, turning away. "I'll leave you to it then. Nitori, time to move," she called.
The gurgling of the engines managed to drown out the heated shouting erupting on the faries' ice ship, and… yes, shots had been fired, Meira noticed as they pulled further away from it.
Kotohime turned her gaze to the remaining ships on the lake, the vampire's cruiser and the last ghost ship, both still locked in close combat. "And then there were two," she said with a sharp grin.
Something caught Meira's eye, and the samurai blinked, doubting her senses for a moment before realization dawned. "Three," she corrected, pointing skyward.
-x-
-19-
Hijiri Byakuren stood next to the railing of the flying palanquin ship, looking down upon the Misty Lake with her passengers and crew. "Ah, how unfortunate. It seems we've arrived late for the 'battle,'" she sighed.
"That just means we'll get to see the best part," said Mr. Sugimoto cheerily.
Byakuren gave her guest a warm smile, then returned her gaze downward to see if his prediction was true. She didn't normally make night flights, but this supposed naval battle had provided a unique opportunity. Attendance on her aerial cruises had been steadily declining over the past weeks as the novelty wore off and those who were interested got the trip over with, but when she'd heard the buzz in the village that afternoon… well, who said a Buddhist couldn't have good business sense? She'd just taken three passengers yesterday, and here she was with over two dozen, despite the late announcement of this night tour.
And whether or not they had missed the battle, the view itself was worth the effort. The trees and hills of Gensokyo were shrouded in darkness, but the ripening moon shone in the sky like a lesser sun, the stars around it twinkling like diamonds on a sable cloth. Most intriguing of all were the reflections of those stars, the lights of houses and buildings across Gensokyo. The human village was a bright constellation, but there were others – a cluster of lamps and fires on the shore of the lake across from the ruddy shape of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, a soft glow coming from deep within the Bamboo Forest of the Lost, and other, smaller lights scattered here and there, the homes of hermits and magicians. From such a vantage point, Byakuren could also see the lights tucked within the valleys and heights of Youkai Mountain, hinting at the size and sophistication of the tengu and kappa communities there, but she knew better than to draw any closer.
All of this could be seen if one flew high enough, of course, but doing so on a proper ship allowed less adept magic-users to experience the view, and with a degree more comfort. Byakuren smiled at the excited conversations coming from around her, guests pointing out landmarks or speculating on how the battle on the lake had gone so far.
The nun focused her gaze on the Misty Lake as the palanquin ship circled closer. It was easy to spot the vessels on the water, which shone almost as brightly as the moon above. There was a large, impressive foreign ship that seemed to be hosting some fierce fighting judging by the flashes of steel and flares of crimson light emanating from its deck, as well as a smaller, more conventional vessel positioned alongside it. And then there was a smaller foreign vessel all on its own, turning about-
A chorus of gasps rose from the palanquin ship as suddenly the view changed. The nearly clear night sky was replaced by dark banks of clouds, which were parted in one place to allow an overly-large, full, scarlet moon to shine down upon the waters. Byakuren's magical background offered an explanation, which was quickly confirmed when some of these "clouds" cut across the deck.
"It seems that someone has woven an illusion to make the lake 'battle' more interesting," she declared calmly. "I can detect no danger or hostile intent."
Her passengers uttered a few sighs of relief and went back to gawking.
Shou stepped in close beside her, eyes on the ships below. "I'm sure Ichirin could tell us more," she said quietly.
Byakuren privately agreed – the girl's close association with a nyuudou had left her somewhat of an expert at clouds, both mundane and magical. But her absence that evening was intentional. "Assuming Unzan didn't disagree with these false clouds and need to go home," she said aloud.
Shou chuckled and went back to mingling, working the crowd, her interpersonal skills befitting a god's representative. Byakuren checked on her other companion, but Minamitsu was still standing close to the ship's wheel, looking… Byakuren liked to believe that she seemed thoughtful and meditive. But there was definitely something different about the ship ghost, a sort of energy and anticipation that had made her eyes light up when Byakuren suggested flying over the lake "battle."
Perhaps it had been a mistake to bring her along? Byakuren clamped down on such pessimism almost as soon as it had formed in her mind. Minamitsu was disciplined and usually reliable, and besides, Byakuren was here to keep her in line.
"Captain Murasa," she said, "would you be so kind as to bring us down a little lower? I'm sure our guests are interested in what's happening on that large ship."
-x-
This was happiness, Sakuya decided as she dodged a clumsy stab, spun to the side, and whipped the blade of one of her knives across her opponent's throat.
The undead warrior let loose a rattling moan, and though the only sign of damage was a thin stream of black smoke that quickly evaporated upon leaving its neck, he nevertheless he sank to his bony knees and toppled forward, 'dying' once again. The lack of vivid red arterial spray was a bit of a disappointment from an aesthetic perspective, but on the bright side it was less of a mess to clean up later.
Sakuya gazed down upon her handiwork in a moment of glowing satisfaction, then returned her attention to the greater melee, snapping her arm forward to send another knife into the empty eye socket of a charging foe, who promptly veered off and stumbled to faceplant onto the deck.
His companion roared as he bore down on the maid, sword raised above his head, but Sakuya ducked at the last second, sliding to the side and driving a pair of knives into the back of the corpse-soldier's knees. He howled, locked in place by two short lengths of silvered steel, trying to slash at his tormentor while unable to move below the hip.
Sakuya dodged the clumsy swipe with a sniff of contempt, then launched herself into the air, front-flipping over her foe. She twirled on her toes like a dancer upon landing, then plunged a blade down into the space between his neck and collarbone, all the way to its hilt. Sakuya thought she felt a lung beneath her steel, or perhaps it was merely the ghost of an organ?
At any rate, the undead samurai wheezed and toppled backward. Within seconds the ghost was evaporating, leaving her blades to clatter onto the deck. Sakuya made a mental tally of her knives' positions, reminding herself to retrieve the eleven blades now cluttering up the vessel even while monitoring the wider conflict.
The fairy crew had given up the fight and were hovering near the top of the masts or sitting on the sails, giggling and shouting excitedly as their masters tore through the enemy. The only other undead soldiers eyeing Sakuya were keeping their distance for the moment, while the rest-
There was a flash of crimson and a shout of triumph as a pair of dark bodies were launched into the air. Remilia Scarlet was impossible to miss, a shining red star cutting through the black shapes futiliy trying to surround her. Sakuya took to the sky for a moment and maneuvered around a sheet of canvas to watch her mistress' progress – ah, the silly girl had lost her ridiculous hat!
Remilia didn't seem to have noticed. She advanced with an easy grace that Sakuya had practiced for ages to barely imitate, the vampire's every step taking her out of harm's way or putting her into position to land a killing blow. She moved with an unnatural speed that Sakuya could only match by cheating, dodging sword strikes and kicks in the split-second before they would have landed. And she fought as a god among mortals, swinging and stabbing with a lance of crimson fire, impaling her enemies three at a time to be hoisted overhead and flung flaming over the side of the ship, or bringing her weapon around in great sweeps that cleared the deck around her.
And through it all, Remilia was laughing, pale bluish hair in artful disarray, her child-sized scarlet uniform crumpled from her movements, red eyes shining in exhilaration, teeth gleaming in a challenging grin even though her foes had no hope of so much as scratching her.
…Well, vampire she may be, there was still the matter of sneak attacks. Sakuya noticed one of the corpse-soldiers surging forward to plant a sword between Remilia's leathery wings. The maid had knives clutched between both hands' fingers in a heartbeat, whirled in midair, and loosed a volley of blades that sent the attacker face-first into the deck.
Remilia noticed, turned to smile at her underling, and Sakuya had to fight to keep her face professionally composed. "A lively evening, is it not?" she called up to the maid.
Sakuya alighted onto the deck next to her, taking her rightful place by her lady's side. "For all the phantoms and ghosts present, yes," she agreed. She shifted into a battle-ready stance, eyeing the opponents standing in a ring around them. "I am embarrassed to report that I am down to my last knife, mistress."
"How careless of you," remarked the vampire, grin widening. "And now I have no choice but to similarly handicap myself." Before the boarding party could react, Remilia spun and hurled her flaming red spear, bowling at least a half-dozen undead marines over the side of the ship in pieces. She was already tearing into their comrades before they had hit the water.
Sakuya followed without hesitation – though this did mean she had to think about how she was going to fight even as she charged the nearest warrior. Her mistress had forbidden the use of her most unique ability, and spear-toss aside, Remilia had clearly stated her intentions to engage in close combat. She hadn't explicitly forbidden Sakuya from using danmaku or other magical attacks, but the maid elected to follow her mistress' lead.
She leaned back and let herself slide under the swordsman's blade, using just enough magical flight to keep herself from physically dragging across the deck and therefore dirtying her uniform, then sprang upright, whirled around, and slammed her knife into the warrior's back, quickly withdrawing the blade and giving her expiring foe a boot to the rear that sent him crashing into a second threat.
Sakuya dropped into a slight crouch, knife held low, her other arm in a naked guard. A third corpse-soldier belted out a bone-chilling war cry – or made a sound that would chill the bones of someone who did not live with a vampire – and ran at her with his sword held above his head.
It would be child's play to send her knife into his neck or eye, but Sakuya opted instead to wait for her moment. Like most of the targets she had dispatched that evening, this particular ghost didn't seem heavily-armored, so she could – yes, lunge forward before his arms started bringing the sword down, dodging left to avoid a direct collision but letting her momentum drive her right hand into his upper abdomen, angled up and behind the rib cage.
It was a shame all these brutes were already dead, Sakuya mused after the shuddering impact, as her latest victim weakly pushed himself back and off her blade, only to slump over onto the deck and begin evaporating. The textures were subtly wrong, the feel of their not-flesh under her knives was off. There was no satisfying exhalation as the hilt of a dagger forced the breath from their lungs, no rich taste of copper in the air as the battle continued, only clichéd undead moaning and the smell of sodden old clothes and waterlogged flesh.
The maid mentally berated herself for losing focus, and brought her attention back on the battle. But no enemies threatened her. They all seemed to be moving away from-
There was a crunch, and an undead warrior went flying through the air to ricochet off the main mast with another spine-splintering impact. Through a gap in the press of bodies Sakuya could see her mistress engaged in hand-to-hand combat – though the term didn't really apply, as Remilia's enemies had swords but were not putting up a fight at all.
The vampire girl was laughing with delight as she leapt up upon a dead warrior's back, then grabbed his arms with her hands, pushed off with her legs, and pulled. The limbs offered a moment's resistance before being torn from their sockets with a wet sucking sound, and the stricken undead swordsman flopped onto the deck, reduced to a pool of black smoke in seconds.
And the rest were yes, fleeing. Deathless or not, compelled by a princess of the Netherworld or not, the ghostly warriors had evidently had quite enough and were leaping over the side of the Scarlet carrack to board their own ship, or else finding a more pleasing end in the water than at the hands of the vampire pursuing them.
Interesting. Sakuya had always wondered if it was possible to terrify the undead, and here was the answer.
Remilia strode over to her, hair and eyes wild. "An invigorating evening indeed! It has been a long time since I indulged my baser instincts." She gave Sakuya an extremely toothy smile, the sclera of her glowing eyes almost as red as her pupils, and it was moments like this that Sakuya saw the family resemblance between Remilia and the young mistress. "I feel like I've worked up quite an appetite. It's a shame we didn't think to bring snacks, isn't it? And that our guests are so… dry."
"Shall I find a volunteer amongst our crew, mistress?" asked Sakuya, already knowing the answer.
Remilia wrinkled her nose. "I am not that hungry."
"Very well then." Sakuya inclined her head towards the enemy vessel, which was now pulling away from their own. "And what of our guests, mistress?"
Remilia strode over to the side of her ship, fangs protruding from her tight grin. "Starboard cannons, target the fleeing enemy ship," she commanded in a firm voice.
Sakuya felt the slightest motion beneath her feet as something shifted in the ship's innards.
"Starboard cannons, FIRE!" boomed Remilia with an outflung hand.
She had used the proper phrasing, it seemed. Rather than all the weapons on the carrack firing at once, only the half-dozen cannons able to fire upon the enemy galley did so, and they did not miss. In a split-second a medieval rowing ship was replaced with a towering plume of water and fragments of timber, the crash of its destruction swallowed up in the echoing report of the guns that killed it.
Remilia slowly lowered her arm, hand clenched in a triumphant fist, then whirled to face Sakuya again. "Ha! Ahaha! None may stand before the glory of Scarlet!"
"An excellent shot, mistress," Sakuya said with a slight curtsey.
"And I'm only just getting started!" Remilia swaggered across the deck back to the raised rear of the vessel, Sakuya hurrying to follow (and dipping from time to time to snatch up a dropped knife). "Now it's time to put Kotohime in her…"
The vampire girl stopped in her tracks, and Sakuya followed her gaze skyward. Another vessel had entered the battlefield, but it was hanging in the sky above them rather than plying the lake.
"Isn't that the Buddhists' ship?" Sakuya wondered aloud. She glanced over at Remilia, and saw two main forces at work on her face. There was the, well, bloodlust she had worked herself into by tearing apart those walking corpses, competing with jealous indignation that this flying vessel might upstage her glorious crimson cruiser.
Remilia drew her hand back, furious red light shining from between her clenched fingers, and a searing spear of crimson magic began expanding in her grasp. "Not for much longer!" she boasted, and then with a cry of effort hurled the giant, flaming spear into the heavens.
-x-
-20-
Byakuren staggered and the passengers shouted and cried out in alarm as the flying palanquin ship abruptly swung up and away from the lake in response to the flash of red light that turned the clouds above them crimson-
"BRACE FOR IMPACT!" Murasa shouted-
There was a tremendous shock, a crack of shattered timbers, a blast of heat, a blinding scarlet light, the scent of ozone and scorched wood-
And in another second, it was over.
Byakuren glanced about wildly, saw one of her younger guests sprawled out on the deck, and quickly knelt to help her to her feet. "They shot at us!" an older man said incredulously as Shou helped him up.
"Damage to the lower hull, port side," Captain Murasa reported without being asked. The ship ghost was holding tight to the wheel, aquamarine eyes distant. "We're still airborne, but hurt, slow. We won't be if another of those hits us."
That statement caused further alarm in the ship's passengers, and Byakuren saw them all looking at her, afraid, wordlessly asking if they were safe and what she could do to help them. Yoshida, Kosuke, old Mr. Matsuda, she had brought them on this tour in hopes of gaining converts, and instead had put their lives in danger-
"Is everyone alright?" Byakuren asked.
They mostly nodded, a few made subdued sounds of assent. The monk breathed a prayer of thanks, then strode over to the side of the ship, looking down on the vessel that had fired upon them. The sickening guilt in her belly faded as her face tightened in uncharacteristic anger.
An unprovoked attack. Utterly inexcusable.
She made her decision quickly, since each second of delay only prolonged the danger. Byakuren reached to her belt and withdrew her scroll, spreading it with practiced hands so that the multicolored, inhuman text hung in the air before her. The words on the sorcerer's sutra scroll raced along, reacting to her intention and seeking the proper recitation…
-x-
"Shouldn't you be doing something?" Keine demanded of Reimu.
The entire lakeside party had gone silent in shock after Remilia speared the palanquin ship, probably remembering or deducing that Byakuren was leading another tour. Even some of the mundanes were eying Reimu as though working up the courage to ask her to intervene.
"One misfire is forgivable, a deliberate attack on a civilian vehicle is intolerable," Miko said sternly. The crown prince pushed herself to her feet. "If you do not act, Miss Hakurei, then I shall."
The shrine maiden didn't respond, her gaze locked on the flying boat. Reimu was tense, but she seemed to be waiting rather than about to take flight. She started to shake her head-
A glow appeared on the bow of the Buddhists' flying ship, a ruddy red-purple glare that grew to encompass the sky around it. Intricate lines spread out like a latticed wall, a plane of alien script that intersected the ship perpendicularly. Four circles appeared in the pattern, two on each side, the bottom pair closer to the ship than the upper two, and in each the red glow intensified into a miniature sun.
"Uh oh," said Marisa and Alice in unison.
-x-
Remilia Scarlet stared skywards, uncertainty creeping across her features. "I…" she swallowed. "Sakuya, I desire refreshments. Let us retire to the manor for some tea." And without further word she abruptly exploded into a swarm of bats that flapped its way off towards the mansion.
The head maid snorted. "Very well, mistress." She looked up at the fairy crew, still captivated by the light show. "Now would be an excellent time to run away," she suggested, before seizing hold of time and slipping to safety in the gray space between seconds.
-x-
There was a crack like lightning, and then four humming beams of hellish red light were lancing down from the flying ship amidst a shower of purple and white orbs of energy. The sustained magical lasers passed back and forth to carve the Scarlet vessel into flaming pieces, while the energized spheres blasted the wreckage into splinters. The bombardment continued for almost half a minute before ceasing, reducing a proud, imposing ship to a great churning cloud of steam.
Reimu broke the awed silence that followed by slurping at her drink. "Honestly, sometimes I think she's just as bad as the vampire."
-x-
Byakuren slid the scroll back in its holder with a firm, decisive movement, then turned back to her passengers. Her satisfied smile faded when she saw the array of shocked faces meeting her gaze, and the nun had a brief flashback to the angry mobs that had come to her, many centuries past, after catching her using "youkai" magic-
Yoshida broke into a huge smile. "That was awesome," he gushed. Some of his neighbors murmured their agreement, shock fading to relief, or even satisfaction.
"Well," Byakuren said, trying not to sound too pleased with herself, "I would rather not fight, but if I must, I would have it done quickly."
"I wouldn't call that much of a fight," Mr. Fumio said, grinning as much as his remaining teeth would allow.
A monk of her stature should be immune to flattery, Byakuren reminded herself. She turned back toward Minamitsu. "Captain?" she asked.
"I think we can make it back to the temple," Murasa reported, spinning the wheel as she anticipated Byakuren's agreement and changed course. "But we're still hurt and make a tempting target."
And there was no telling what that remaining ship on the lake was capable of, Byakuren thought. Her course of action was clear. "Ladies and gentlemen," she spoke up, facing her passengers once more before bowing deeply to them. "Let me first apologize for placing you in danger. To avoid any further unpleasantness, I suggest that we disembark now and join the festivities on the lakeshore."
"Like, fly?" little Miki squeaked. "Um, I can't do that." A few others, mostly children or teenagers, murmured their agreement, and were clearly just as embarrassed.
Byakuren gave the girl her most reassuring smile. "That will not be a problem. If everyone could join hands, please?"
The monk drew her scroll again while the passengers formed a circle and linked palms. Byakuren moved into the empty space, her scroll streaming between her hands until it reached the proper spell. And none of these people were judging her for it, she exulted inwardly. There was no suspicion or fear, no distrust in their eyes. Either their lives in such a magical land as Gensokyo had made them accustomed to spellcraft, or her previous incantation had convinced them of its uses. Byakuren once again thanked providence for her new homeland, so similar to and yet so unlike the one she had left behind many, many years ago.
When the spell was complete, and when glowing golden text raced out from her hands to snake up the arms and legs of the passengers, there were gasps of surprise, not fear. And when the people the village studied the alien script now orbiting their hands and feet, their expressions bore interest or astonishment, not disgust.
"This spell will allow us to climb down from here as though the air were a flight of steps," Byakuren explained. "It will last more than long enough for us to reach our destination." She walked to the side of the ship, climbed onto the railing, and stood to face her guests, completely free of fear. "If you would follow me, please?"
There was a moment's pause, and then Yoshida, though pale-faced, stepped forward. Byakuren took his hand with a smile, and stepped backwards off the boat to stand on thin air.
The boy took a deep breath, stepped forward, and joined her. Yoshida stared down at the dark woods far below his feet and chuckled nervously. "Oh wow, it works." He cautiously swung his right foot below the invisible platform the rest of him was standing on, trasnfered his weight to his other foot, and continued the descent. "It's easier than you'd think!" he called back to the other passengers.
And with that, the rest moved to follow. Byakuren looked past the growing queue even as she helped the next passenger disembark. "Shou!" she called. "Stay with the ship, please. Just in case."
The disciple of Bishamonten nodded, lifting her spear in salute.
"I'll see you both back at the temple," Byakuren added for Murasa's benefit. The captain briefly glanced over her shoulder and nodded distractedly before returning her attention to steering. Well, her ship had just taken a terrible hit…
Byakuren hadn't specified what Shou should be on guard for, but hopefully she didn't have to tell her friend to also keep an eye on Minamitsu. The monk tried to set aside her worries as she hurried to lead her passengers to safety, and didn't look back as she joined the procession of people walking down through the air with as much difficulty as descending a hill.
-x-
"Well," Kaguya said with a slow shake of her head, "I'd say we got off the lake just in time."
Eirin had brought the yakatabune very nearly aground, close enough to the shore so that any rabbits who couldn't fly the last few yards to dry land wouldn't have to swim very far if they fell in. The rabbits' disembarkation had been hurried by a few strategic kicks by Tewi, and now the Eientei assembly was safely ashore and had been in the process of approaching the party when the flying ship's arrival, and subsequent apocalyptic firefight, had distracted them.
"I'm all for a spirited duel," the Lunarian princess went on, "but I'm not sure we have anything to answer firepower of that magnitude. At least, nothing that we brought with us," Kaguya amended.
"Unless you also had a flak cannon hidden on that thing?" Reisen muttered to the shorter rabbit walking beside her.
"Nah," Tewi replied, "it was too heavy."
Reisen stared down at the earth rabbit, but she still couldn't read Tewi well enough to know when she was telling the truth. Tewi was marching along, her attention on the crowd around the bonfire, her deceptively youthful face utterly without guile... she ought to be joking, but it was never safe to assume that.
"Good evening, everyone!" Kaguya called when she recognized some of the women sitting closest to the water.
Marisa Kirisame raised her cup. "Hail, Rabbit Team! Way to be the first to get kicked off the lake!"
A slender woman wearing ear muffs leaned forward, flanked by two others Reisen recognized from earlier. "I think the ladies Mononobe and Soga can claim that dubious honor," Miko pointed out.
"Oh yeah. Eh, they were flying over the lake, not quite on it," shrugged Marisa.
"And they put up an excellent fight," Kaguya said graciously, bowing toward her former opponents. "Good to see you Reimu, Miss Margatroid, Miss Kamishirasawa," the princess continued, and then her smile widened. "Oh, what's this? Mokou is here, but not participating? Could you not find a watercraft disreputable enough for you?"
"Princess," said Eirin in a disapproving voice.
The Fujiwara girl casually stretched and sat up from where she'd been lying on the grass next to Keine. "Glad you're here, Kaguya. We were running low on snacks, and with all the time you sit around letting others do your work for you, I'm sure there's plenty of meat on those flabby-"
"Mokou," warned Keine.
"Both of you shut up and sit down," Reimu said flatly, eyes still on the lake, "I'm trying to watch the show."
Reisen quietly marveled at how the shrine maiden's command instantly quelled the hostile energy rising from the two immortals, and without further word, Kaguya and Eirin smoothed out their dresses and took a seat on the far side from Mokou and Keine. Tewi chuckled and beckoned for the rabbits to follow her as they headed towards the tables of food and drink. For want of further instruction, Reisen eased herself down next to Eirin, quietly annoyed that nobody had anything to say to her.
Seriously, she had wiped out all those dead samurai, didn't that deserve a comment?
-x-
-21-
"You can't be serious," Meira deadpanned. "After what it did to the vampire, you still want to fight?"
"Have you forgotten the purpose of this engagement?" countered Kotohime. "Our primary objective hangs in the sky, waiting for us to reach up and grab it. We are taking that ship."
"You have a ship!" Meira shouted. "You've won this battle for the lake! Isn't that enough?!"
"That is my rightful ship, and I shall have it, no matter the cost!" Kotohime ranted back, thrusting a finger at the flying palanquin ship. "I'll chase it 'round the Norway Maelstrom! 'round the Moons of Nibia! And I'm not sure if I'm quoting the book or the movie anymore," she finished, suddenly no longer shouting.
Meira boggled for a moment. "But-"
"And I think there was a 'Perdition's flames' in there somewhere," Kotohime said with a concerned frown. "I really ought to have rehearsed."
"Looks like it's getting away," commented Koishi, the satori emerging from nowhere as usual. "Really slowly," she added.
"Like hell!" Kotohime bounded up to take the wheel, ponytail and robes streaming in her flight. "Ladies, it's time to fulfil your destiny!"
Meira hurried to follow, trying to appeal to reason. "Look, it's airborne. What are-"
Kotohime ignored her, snatching up that little metal box on a wire and speaking into it. "Miss Kawashiro?"
"What now?" was the scratchy reply.
"It is time."
"Finally!" Gods help them all, the kappa was enthusiastic. "Beginning first stage launch sequence!"
"Carry on." Kotohime slapped the button, and looked up to give Meira a cocky grin. "You might want to hold onto something. Goes for you too, Koishi!" she added, yelling down to the main deck. The satori nodded and promptly grabbed the stump of the main mast.
Before Meira could reply, the ship trembled. She could hear a mechanical clanking followed by a brief rush of water from belowdecks as something on the hull shifted. Then there was a muffled roar as the water on either side on the ship's front suddenly glowed an eye-watering shade of pink.
The lake's surface seethed and boiled, the ship continued to shake, and then Meira realized she was clinging to the railing around the steering section as the vessel's front end began to lift out of the water. The roaring sound became louder as its source cleared the water, a pair of gleaming metal cylinders - some manner of cannon? - that were spraying unnatural fire straight down, forcing the boat's prow up.
"Steady… steady…" Kotohime said into the speaker. The ship continued to incline until Meira was forced to hover to avoid hanging from the railing – which wasn't to say that she relinquished her grip. "Hold!" the captain barked.
The ear-hammering sound coming from the devices jetting magical flames lessened slightly, and the ship was still for a moment.
Kotohime hunched over, closing one eye and sticking out the tip of her tongue as she tried to sight along her boat at the ship in the sky. In the midst of it, she noticed Meira's stare and smiled. "And as for your objections, my boat is a rocket ship, your argument is invalid." Then she picked up the talk box again. "Let 'er rip!"
"Initiating final launch!" was the scratchy reply
Meira let out an involuntary whimper as the vessel began shaking violently, an even louder sound, if such a thing were possible, coming from the now frothing, glowing water at its keel…
-x-
Reimu's head had tilted to one side in utter bafflement. "What the hell is she doing?" she asked no one in particular.
"Oh! Huh. Never thought to-" Marisa flinched when all nearby heads turned her way, and made a fuss out of adjusting the angle of her hat. "I'd say she's come up with some sort of magical explosive," she explained.
Alice frowned. "So she's bombarding the water?"
"In a way," Marisa said. "Looks to me like the loony's using it as-"
"As a rocket," Eirin breathed, leaning forward slightly. "She's using a magical reaction to create thrust."
"Guess Kotohime didn't want to get Sumiyoshi involved," Marisa added with a wink toward Reimu.
"How ingenious! Or possibly insane," Kaguya amended. "Wherever did she find such a power source?" the Lunar princess wondered aloud.
Marisa shrugged. "Who could say? Ol' Kotohime always had a thing for explosives."
"The color looks awfully similar to the comet that landed at the shrine," Reimu noticed. "The one you had set off by accident, and took me days to clean up."
"It's an amazing coincidence," Marisa agreed.
-x-
"All hands, hold on tight!"
Meira needed no such order, her knuckles were white around the wooden railing, and at this point she wasn't sure she could ever let go.
The roar coming from behind her – a horrible combination of a furnace and a typhoon – seemed to reverberate through her entire body, to say nothing of the ship, while the pink-white light was so bright that Meira swore she was casting a shadow in front of her. The only thing stopping her from jumping off and flying away as fast as she could was the uncertainty whether she'd be safer riding this catastrophe out than trying to get clear of the blast radius. That and her aforementioned inability to let go of the damn boat.
And then they started to move, slowly at first, but within a second Meira was sure they'd cleared the water's surface.
"We have liftoff!" could just barely be heard coming out of the speaker.
Suddenly hovering was no longer an option, and Meira could feel her full body weight on her arms as she flapped in the air like a red-and-white flag. She was so terrified that she couldn't even scream.
"Wheeeeeeee!" came Koishi's cry from ahead. Meira's eyes were glued to the palanquin ship still hanging in the skies before them, the rapidly approaching palanquin ship…
-x-
The spectators' heads slowly tilted back in unison as they tracked the roaring, blazing vessel's ascent.
"I can't decide if this is the greatest or the dumbest thing I've seen all week," commented Reimu.
-x-
"They're attacking?" said Murasa in astonishment, as she and Shou peered over the side of her ship.
The sound was growing intolerable, a rising, furious snarl as a dark shape surrounded by a nimbus of hot pink fire shuddered and jolted as it steadily grew larger, nearer.
"They're attacking… quite fast…" said Shou slowly. "Um, Minamitsu?"
"Hold on!" Murasa had the ship moving even before she'd opened her mouth, and the palanquin ship began swinging its bow around, attempting to veer off at a right angle. The screaming rockets grew ever louder, the underside of the clouds above them took on a reddish glow…
-x-
"Prepare the harpoons!" bellowed Kotohime, her orders distorted somewhat by the shuddering vessel she was clinging to. Meira's teeth were bared in silent panic at the sounds of groaning timber and creaking wood rising all around her - they'd lost the rear mast shortly after taking flight, as the sail-supporting trunk of wood simply snapped like a twig. Whoever built this ship obviously hadn't planned for such stress, and it was a testament to the kappa's skills that the ship hadn't completely torn itself apart yet.
Said engineer's response was drowned out by the rockets' racket, and Meira could only focus on the palanquin ship filling an increasing portion of the skies ahead of them. The other flying ship – the properly flying ship – was turning away so that Kotohime's lunatic creation would miss it.
"Fire!" the captain ordered.
Something jolted their ship, and suddenly there were two strands of glinting metal flying through the air to smash into the other vessel. Kotohime whooped in triumph, the rocket-powered ship overshot its target-
And then Meira was in a whirling hell, where she could only cling to the railing with all her might and try not to be sick.
-x-
Murasa's cry of outrage overlapped with the sound of splintering wood, then there was the whoosh of the passing enemy ship, and suddenly the palanquin ship was being swung about violently.
Shou was knocked from her feet with a surprisingly high-pitched shriek, rolling sideways until she slammed up against the deck's railing. The ship's sail rippled and tore from the centrifugal forces-
But the captain remained sure-footed and steady, as though she were bolted onto her vessel. Her short dark hair was whipping about, but her hat stayed on, since losing it would be unthinkable.
The two ships were caught in a manic dance, bound by chains and orbiting each other like a pair of bolas. It took Murasa a moment's concentration to set the palanquin ship chasing the other boat's tail, but this only helped a little – the attacking vessel was simply going so much faster, dragging the palanquin ship up into the clouds in a drunken spiral.
Unacceptable. Snarling, Murasa stalked her way over to the side of the ship closest to the enemy, the white of her uniform tinged a pale green by the energies rising from her.
-x-
"Okay, we're attached!" announced Kotohime with surprising calm, given how both her feet had left the deck and she was only still aboard thanks to her grip on the ship's wheel. "Cut the engines and prepare to board and engage!"
"Whaddya mean, 'cut?'" was the reply from the speaker.
Meira saw her captain's excitement give way to annoyance. "I mean we're high enough that we don't need the main thrusters, just the ones that keep us-"
"You never told me you'd want to shut off the engines!" protested Nitori over the ship's communication system. "They're propelled by a magical reaction, I can't just stop them!"
Kotohime chewed a strand of her hair that had been blown across her face. "Any idea when they'll stop? Wait, what's she doing?" she asked no one, looking across the shaking chains to their target.
-x-
Murasa stood on the prow of her ship, heedless of its violent flight or the wind tearing across its deck, glaring balefully at her attacker, glowing an unnatural sea green in her fury. She put one foot on the railing, then gestured down over the side. At her bidding, the ship's anchor leapt up, and against any sense of physics she caught it by its heavy iron chain about halfway down its length.
With nary a grunt of effort, Murasa flexed her arm, swinging the hunk of metal nearly as large as she was in a slow arc over her head, and then another, picking up speed as she used both hands to keep the anchor spinning above her like a nautical flail. The deck creaked and groaned as she shifted her weight to keep the anchor and chain in motion, until there was a glinting metallic blur just over her head-
-x-
"Prepare to abandon ship!" ordered Kotohime.
Meira gave her an incredulous stare. "You have got to be-"
"NOW!"
-x-
With a primal scream, Murasa swung her anchor downwards through the space between the ships.
There was a pair of overlapping ringing sounds as the grapnels' chains were sheered through-
And Murasa lurched as suddenly her ship was freed, compensating for a force that was no longer being exerted against it. The other ship proceeded to roar upward into the sky-
But some shapes were tumbling from it.
-x-
-22-
Meira crashed onto the deck of the Myouren ship, rolled several yards, and ended up on her back, weakly looking up into the dark clouds surrounding them, praying to any god that was listening to make her head stop spinning. She dimly realized she should've been able to keep in the air and avoid such an undignified impact, but reasoned that she was lucky enough that she could even fly after going through all that.
Kotohime landed in a crouch next to her, then immediately bounced upright, jitte in hand and a fierce grin on her face. "Excellent," she hissed.
Koishi pulled off a similar insultingly casual landing, and her feet didn't even hit the deck. "Almost lost my hat," she said distractedly, flapping her floppy black headwear with one hand.
Which left… Meira tracked the rocket ship as it continued up and away, but no figure leapt from its deck. Then, just before it disappeared into the next layer of clouds, there was a flash and a round shape tumbled out of the vessel's rear, almost as though it had laid an aerial egg. The object wobbled for a few seconds before there was another flash, and suddenly it was dangling from a dome of cloth, slowly descending towards Gensokyo.
"Oh, good, she made it to her escape pod," Kotohime noted. "But…" she sucked on her teeth. "Doesn't look like she's coming with us. That's unfortunate. We can manage, though," she finished with a perky smile.
"And what, pray tell, will you be managing?"
Meira slowly and carefully pushed herself off the ground, studying the speaker. She was tall and lean, built like an athlete, her yellow-and-black hair cut short and untidy beneath some lotus-like ornament, her golden eyes gleaming in the dim light of the ship's lanterns. A tiger-patterned sash was tied to her waist over her red and orange dress, which in turn seemed to be covering some loose white pants and long white sleeves that allowed her plenty of movement. But the samurai's eye was drawn to the simple yet well-maintained spear she held in her hand.
By way of response, Kotohime flourished her jitte and grinned. "Why, the confiscation of this unlicensed aerial vehicle, of course!"
A second figure strode over, a shorter, thin girl in a modern-looking white sailor's uniform and hat, her expression almost as dark as her black hair. "You again?" she spat.
Kotohime gave Meira an encouraging wink. "These are Shou Toramaru and Minamitsu Murasa-"
"Captain Murasa," the girl in the uniform snapped.
"Not for long," teased Kotohime. Her good cheer faded into confusion. "You're looking a little underwomanned, though. As in, where is everyone else?"
"Miss Hijiri evacuated with our guests after we were unjustly attacked," Shou reported.
"But what about the frisky-looking nun?" demanded Kotohime. "I've got a score to settle with that cloud of hers." She started scanning the deck, as though she expected an enormous nyuudou to be hiding behind a barrel or something.
"She's back at the temple," said Shou. She smiled slightly. "I believe that her attack on you is the reason why."
"I see," said Kotohime with a sage nod. "Well, I suppose exacting vengeance with a little aerial bombardment would be a good way to test my new ship out."
The spear-carrying youkai's smile subtly shifted into something less friendly and more potentially dangerous. "I cannot let that happen."
"Yeah, whatever. The problem is," Kotohime went on, "if cloud girl is grounded, the teams aren't even," she said, gesturing at her two cohorts. "I want this ship and all, but I'd prefer it to be a legitimate victory."
And Meira saw a golden opportunity. "Well," she said, inserting more reluctance than she actually felt, "I suppose I could always-"
"Ah, my old foe!" a female voice boomed. "We meet once more!"
All aboard the flying ship turned to behold a new arrival, a dichromatic figure descending from the clouds above, surrounded by both a glowing bluish haze and a sequence of orbiting theater masks. A joyous young woman, a snarling red devil, a wide-eyed monkey - enough masks to put on a lively performance floated around the curiously-calm girl. Her hair was about the same shade of pink as her poofy skirt that vaguely reminded Meira of a pumpkin, and she wore some sort of blue jacket or blouse over it. The young woman mask was closest to the girl's face, and past it Meira could see just a hint of a challenging smile.
"Oh, it's you!" Koishi unexpectedly surged forward to face the interloper, childish excitement on her own features – and, Meira noticed with a start, in her eyes as well. "Come to challenge me for the mask again?" she asked almost flirtatiously.
A laughing god's mask floated to the fore as the pink-haired girl's belly shook with exaggerated mirth. "Of course not! I have no use for it, as I told you! No, I am here-" a fox's mask swept into position "-for vengeance! Though I have no longer have need for what you stole, I have not forgotten your crime!"
"I haven't forgotten it either!" Koishi babbled happily. "Okay then, let's fight!"
The pink-haired girl drew and brandished a polearm as the joyful girl's mask returned to its place near her head. "Come and test your mettle, mine enemy!"
And with that, Koishi and the mask girl leapt into the air above the palanquin ship, starting a running battle that quickly disappeared into the dark clouds around it.
Meira realized her mouth was hanging slightly open and quickly closed it before anybody noticed. From the looks on the others' faces, none of them had been expecting that either.
"The hell of it is, as first mate she'd have to punish herself for desertion," Kotohime said with a sheepish smile. "On the bright side, we've got even teams now! Meira, you can play with tiger lady while I bust a ghost," she finished with a flourish of her jitte at Murasa.
The samurai licked her lips, a hand on the hilt of her blade as she sized up her potential opponent. Shou Toramaru was studying her, golden eyes narrowed but her expression neutral, her posture relaxed – which wasn't to say she had put away her spear.
"I have no quarrel with you," Meira said slowly.
"But as a samurai, you will follow your master's order regardless?" the youkai asked.
Meira made a face. "She's not my-"
"Of course she will!" Kotohime said cheerfully.
"I shall make it easier for you, then," Shou went on, shifting stance so that her speartip was pointed at Meira. "I cannot stand by and watch my friend lose her vessel to pirates. You have no quarrel with me, so it would be easy for you to retreat."
Meira must have let her thoughts on that prospect show, because Shou smiled.
"But you don't want to retreat," the youkai continued. "The very thought makes your stomach turn. You are a warrior at heart, and seek to test yourself against new opponents." Her smile grew wider, and though the striped youkai didn't have any fangs, something about her bared teeth was decidingly inhuman. "How fortunate for you that an avatar of Bishamonten stands before you," Shou finished.
Meira felt her pulse quicken. This evening she had only been able to participate in one real fight, and that had been an absolute disaster, a farce. But to face a servant of the Guardian of the North in a proper duel, even if the circumstances were bizarre…
She shifted her legs and settled into a combat stance, drawing her blade. "We have no quarrel," said Meira again, "but nevertheless, I would be honored to face you in battle."
"That's the spirit!" Kotohime said happily. "You two can have a nice, friendly throwdown while us captains debate-"
There was the whumph of something huge moving through the air at great speed, and a dark blur that forced Kotohime to fling herself to the deck. Meira saw that Captain Murasa was now holding an alarmingly large anchor like an improbable club. Her eyes blazed with a blue-green light that gave her flesh and uniform a disturbing tint.
"You," the ship ghost gasped, choking on her surging emotions, "are not a captain."
"Don't let my lack of a hat fool you," Kotohime said as she pushed herself back upright. "That reminds me, when I win I'm claiming yours."
Then the princess had to leap sideways to dodge as Murasa did her best to take her head off with a lunging, two-handed swing of her anchor. Kotohime sprintined for the ship's wheel, loosing bursts of brilliant purple magic over her shoulder at her opponent, and Murasa took to the skies and responded in kind, flinging guttering balls of foxfire from one hand while she sought to close to melee range again.
Meira realized she was letting herself be distracted and quickly put her gaze back on her opponent, and was silently gratified to be the first to do so. When Shou met her eyes, the youkai arched an eyebrow. "I hope your friend doesn't get killed tonight."
The samurai barked a single, rueful laugh. "I think if anything was capable of killing Kotohime for her foolishness, it would have happened by now."
Shou's grin grew wider. "Shall we?"
"By all means."
And with that the two charged toward each other, Meira's blade held high in both hands for an overhead slice, and Shou running low, one arm forward and bent in front of her chest, the other holding the spear in a loose grip behind.
Shou stopped just in time to swipe at Meira with her weapon, the speartip hissing through the air, but the samurai spun to the right and tried a quick chop that Shou stepped back from. The youkai quickly grasped her weapon in both hands and stabbed at Meira, but the swordswoman batted the attack aside with ease, nearly knocking the spear from Shou's hands.
Off-balance for a moment, Shou quickly recovered, leaping forward and swinging her spear one-handed again, but Meira ducked and stabbed back, forcing Shou to hurl herself out of range again.
And Meira suddenly realized something – avatar of a god of war or not, Shou didn't actually know how to fight in close combat.
Yes, the tiger-patterned youkai could handle herself, and run and jump to equal any samurai, if not quite the feline predator she resembled. But she was not using her spear properly at all. Youkai or not, avatar of a war god or not, she didn't have the strength or grip to use it effectively one-handed. For goodness' sake, she was swinging what was supposed to be a stabbing weapon like it was a naginata. More than that, she wasn't taking advantage of the spear's one real advantage over most other weapons, its long reach, but was instead trying to get as close to Meira as possible, not only negating that advantage but making her weapon even harder to use.
Were Shou's youkai instincts foiling her attempts to do battle, or had she gone soft from too many years at a temple? Assuming she'd ever been properly trained in the first place-
Shou lunged again, leaping toward Meira with – ugh, what kind of grip was that? And how much force was she expecting to strike with if she had her arm fully extended like that? The samurai held her ground until the last second, then darted to the side and retaliated.
Her strike cleaved through Shou's weapon with the ringing sound of steel on steel, making the youkai scamper back after her spearhead fell to the deck.
Meira just managed to keep a cocky smirk from her face – Kotohime was evidently rubbing off on her. "My apologies if your weapon had a sentimental value."
For a brief moment, Meira thought Shou was going to snarl at her. But the youkai changed the expression to a challenging grin. "You have bested me in close combat, samurai. But," she went on, "shall we see how you fare in a more sophisticated contest?"
The youkai reached into a pocket or something, and produced some sort of glass sphere on a base, under what looked like a miniature temple roof. The thing fit easily in Shou's palm's hand, but glowed with a blue light that suggested that this was no mere ornament.
Meira's suspicions were confirmed when the hand-sized pagoda began glowing with a golden light brighter than any lantern, made a rising, humming sound, and started trying to blast her.
The samurai hurled herself to the side to dodge a series of hissing beams of light that curved with deceptive slowness after coming out of the pagoda, only to fling themselves at her at an angle, scorching the ship's deck in a line behind her. Meira landed, adrenaline spiking as her opponent suddenly became an actual threat, and had just enough time to focus her own magical energy on her blade, charging it for a few heart-pounding seconds before unleashing a fan of danmaku, five streams of white pellets, towards her foe.
Shou dodged the attacks without much effort, slipping easily between the spreading lines of offensive magic, and lifted the pagoda again. But Meira was already moving, flying through the air just over the deck, sword cleaving the air and leaving white lines of glowing power in her wake. She could feel Shou's golden, curved energy beams streaking in to just miss her, but Meira remained focused, willing her magic into danmaku and sending it towards her opponent.
It was difficult to do this while staying ahead of the attacks and monitoring Shou's position, but it looked like the youkai was dodging just fine. Meira landed for a moment and swung her sword in a flurry, projecting the swipes into magical strikes that ripped across the deck towards Shou, but the youkai was fast – she didn't so much dodge out of the incoming attacks as she did twist and duck to avoid them while otherwise moving as little as possible.
Meira saw Shou's grin widen, and couldn't help but feel that she was in trouble. So far Shou had just used one type of attack, while Meira was rapidly going through her repertoire to no effect.
As if sensing Meira's thoughts, Shou raised the pagoda once more, which began blazing red instead of blue. Finely-honed instincts sent the samurai diving to one side just before an enormous beam of humming magical energy tore through the night sky, wrapped in entwined streams of golden light that nearly set the samurai's robes on fire.
Yes, she was definitely losing this fight.
The samurai didn't have time to properly charge another attack, and could only manage a few quick ranged sword swipes before having to hurl herself out of the way of a blue-gold column of light. Meira desperately tried to think of a better strategy than trying to close for close combat-
Well, she did have that other attack.
Meira landed, turned to face her foe now standing near the ship's prow, narrowed her eyes and extended a hand, concentrating with all of her willpower. The samurai drew upon not her battle-honed magic, but the power within her blood, channeling it into a trio of sparkling, multicolored spheres of energy.
With a shout, Meira thrust her palm forward, willing the first of the orbs forward.
Shou ducked under the incoming projectile without taking her yellow eyes off of Meira, and was already lifting her pagoda to retaliate-
Meira tried to aim the second to ricochet off the deck and take Shou off-guard, but it bounced off the wrong way, disappearing into the clouds-
Her face set in a snarl, Meira sent off the last orb. It went at a bad angle, Shou's attention leaving it in a half-second when it became clear it would miss-
Meira grit her teeth, mind aching with concentration-
And the sizzling sphere of red-and-white power curved mid-flight to slam into Shou's gut.
The avatar's eyes bulged as the impact knocked the wind from her body, then the sphere exploded in a burst of energy that sent her flying, up and over the front of the ship to tumble out of sight.
It had worked.
Meira sank to a knee, panting with exhaustion and silent elation.
It had actually worked! She had controlled it, struck true! Just like Reimu with the-
"Great job, Meira!" The samurai looked up to see Kotohime beaming at her from a hands-breadth away. "Always knew you could do it. Eventually. You know, law of averages and all that."
Meira opened her mouth to reply, then noticed that while Kotohime had apparently put her duel on hold to congratulate her, Murasa had not. The ship ghost's eyes were blazing as she snapped the chain of her anchor like a rope, Meira looked up to see the hunk of metal blurring towards them, she shouted and shoved Kotohime away-
The anchor crashed into the deck next to her with a crack of breaking timber, something slammed into Meira's feet, and before the samurai knew it she was arcing up to fall over the side of the flying ship.
-x-
-23-
Kotohime blinked at the sight of her comrade disappearing after being catapulted overboard. Then she turned, put a foot down on the anchor embedded in the deck next to her, and glared at her opponent.
"Dude," she said sternly, "not cool. That was Meira's big moment, and you ruined it."
Murasa glowered at her, and Kotohime had to sidestep as the anchor abruptly rocketed out of the deck for the ship ghost to catch one-handed, her other still holding the thing's chain like it was a particularly large kursarigama.
"I have a reputation," the ghost said, "as someone who is good with people."
Kotohime arched an eyebrow. "You drown people," she pointed out.
"And engage them in conversation," Murasa said. "I've met a great many people over my existence – brave explorers, heartless killers, hapless travelers – and found ways to connect with all of them."
"While drowning them," Kotohime nodded.
"And yet, I do not believe I have met anyone as irritating-"
Kotohime bent backwards at the knees, briefly supporting herself on one hand as that enormous weight blurred through the air just above her with a whoosh-
"-as you," Murasa finished, catching the anchor. "You launch a foolish assault on my ship-"
Kotohime dove to the side as that chain flicked her way like a whip, coming out of her roll in a low crouch-
"-then you attack it with your own ridiculous vessel," Murasa continued, sweeping the heavy iron chain to the side in an attempt to knock Kotohime off her feet-
The princess hopped over the attack without much difficulty, but Murasa was airborne, the anchor spinning just over her head like a flail-
"You damaged my ship, you endangered my friends," the ship ghost spat, eyes glowing the same unnatural blue-green color that now clung to her outline like an aura. She shouted with effort and swung the anchor at Kotohime's head – an inelegant blow, but given the force behind it, style was probably optional.
Kotohime backflipped out of the way and perched on the ship's railing, steadying herself by grasping a rope as she flourished her jitte at her opponent. "So I could take a dangerous vessel away from a murderous youkai," she retorted.
Murasa lowered her weapon slightly to laugh at her. "The ship? Nothing but wood and a bit of magic. No weapons, nothing unusual about it other than its ability to fly. The only dangerous thing about this ship," she explained, "is that it's mine."
The ship ghost didn't have to make a gesture – suddenly something was snaking around Kotohime's leg, as the very rope she was holding onto starting coiling around her. Kotohime glanced up in alarm to see the rest of the ship's rigging coming at her like a nest of vipers, and realized that now was an inconvenient time to have a bludgeoning weapon.
But it wasn't a time to panic either. Kotohime focused her magic around her weapon and began hacking at the rope restaining her, cutting through it with humming purple energy so she could dodge and counterattack the rest of the rigging. Just in time, too – a roaring sound made her glance up and see a barrage of bluish fireballs shrieking her way, and Kotohime dove to the deck, rushing to keep Murasa engaged in close combat.
The ship ghost's teeth were bared with hate as she met Kotohime's charge with her anchor, swinging it with both hands as if trying to bat the princess off the ship. Kotohime ducked and lunged, but Murasa saw the attack coming and let the still-swinging anchor carry her out of reach. Quite the selective approach to weight and inertia, Kotohime reflected.
Murasa landed heavily in a crouch, spun even as she lunged to make another attack, anchor held high-
And Kotohime saw it, her moment of victory.
The police chief let total calm suffuse her, confidence and focus driving any doubt and hesitation from her mind. She nearly twirled on her feet, dancing into position, eyes half-closed from the lack of effort. The oncoming attack seemed glacially slow, and would be easy to dodge, but…
What, she thought to herself rhetorically, was an anchor but a stupidly-heavy, unbalanced, oddly-shaped sword? And what was a jitte for if not defeating swords?
Kotohime let her will and her magic flow down her arms, suffusing both her weapon and her off-hand.
Murasa leapt forward with a shout, bringing the anchor down in a two-handed overhead blow. Kotohime didn't dodge, instead shifting stance, bringing up her glowing jitte-
And then there was a ringing impact, the princess' hand twisted, and suddenly the enormous anchor was flung to the side to embed itself in the deck.
The ship ghost had all of a second to lurch in surprise before Kotohime thrust her free hand forward to unleash the magical attack she had been charging up, blasting Murasa point-blank to knock her flat onto her back.
Kotohime stood tall and dominant, her weapon pointed down at her fallen foe, a sleepy smile on her face. Murasa lay there stunned, limp, eyes wide in shocked disbelief.
"You are beaten," Kotohime stated. "There is no need to feel ashamed, you put up a valiant effort. But now it is over. Surrender your vessel."
Murasa loosed a rasping chuckle in response to the order. "Over my… dead body," she gasped, then laughed again.
Kotohime felt a moment's pause, not so much from the attempt at humor as the ghastly sounds coming from the ship ghost "Look, I'm trying to be polite," she said. "You're disarmed, you're out of tricks, and if you don't cooperate I'll just chuck you over the side…"
She trailed off when Murasa looked down, almost in surprise. Her hand had crept towards a pocket to withdraw something apparently without her realizing it, but the ghost girl seemed to reach a decision and held the item aloft in a shaking hand. It looked like a wooden ladle-
Kotohime's breath froze in her chest. "Oh, don't even think about it."
The skinny, pallid girl sprawled on the deck began to laugh, a horrid mirth that bubbled out of her throat like a hull leak. If it started out creepy, the laughter only got more disquieting as the seconds ticked by and the sounds took on an unhinged, desperate quality. Kotohime put a foot forward-
And Murasa tilted her wrist.
Gensokyo's princess had just enough time to assume a wide wrestler's stance before the roaring torrent of brackish seawater swept onto the deck, instantly soaking her robes and making her thighs and calves burn with the effort of keeping herself upright. Murasa's mad cackling took on a disturbing wet, distorted quality as the backwash flowed over her, but she didn't stop, and neither did the water.
A surge of seawater spilled over the side of the palanquin ship, but most of it tried to go down belowdecks. The ship groaned and shifted as it was suddenly forced to carry several tons of liquid, and then with a wet crash several damaged sections of the hull gave way to release the flood. The entire ship shuddered violently from the pressure and the water crashing through it, raising the very real danger that the thing would break apart.
But that was only the start of the vessel's problems, Kotohime quickly realized, her eyes widening even as droplets of salt water hit her face. She knew from her studies that flowing water had a dispelling effect on magic, and the seawater sluicing through the ship was rapidly weakening the fundamental spellwork keeping it together and airborne.
The flying palanquin ship began to fall, slowly, but with each passing second less slowly.
Murasa stopped the torrent of liquid spilling from her enchanted ladle, and pushed herself to her feet. "Now," the ship ghost chortled, "are you sure you want this boat?"
Kotohime blinked at Murasa's transformation. The ship ghost was now the very vision of choking death, of cold hands dragging victims under the water's surface: a sodden bundle of too-pale limbs in ragged fabric discolored by brine, sopping dark hair clinging to her face like seaweed, eyes glimmering like the blue-green bioluminescence of the abyssal ocean trenches.
The princess broke into a dazzling grin. "That was awesome," Kotohime gushed. "'If I go down I'm taking you with me,' right?"
"Just simple spite," Murasa agreed. She ambled over to her anchor and tore it from the deck without any great effort. Even if she looked far more ghost than girl at the moment, Murasa seemed energized, as though sinking her own boat had given her a second wind. "And I suppose the captain is supposed to go down with the ship," she added.
"Ha!" Kotohime flourished her jitte once more. "Except I am the captain by right of conquest!
"So I should just let you ride this thing all the way to oblivion?"
"Yeah," Kotohime nodded, "get off my boat."
Murasa gurgled with mirth. "Police girl, you may want to consider which of us stands to lose the most for being on this thing when it hits." The clouds drifting upwards past the side of the ship were going by faster as the vessel's flight enchantments continued to fail.
"And abandon my ship to you? Never!" Kotohime shifted into a fighting stance. "It seems our battle is not yet over."
Murasa scythed her anchor through the air once or twice as she limbered up, the much-abused timbers under her moaning at the action, and she chuckled once more, a spray of seawater escaping between her yellowed teeth. "I was hoping you would say that," she cackled.
-x-
-24-
"And here we are," Byakuren announced as she landed in the lakeside clearing. Her former passengers began to cheer upon reaching safety, onlookers on the ground rushed forward to greet their friends and neighbors, and the nun affected a polite smile for the crowd of people thanking her profusely for rescuing them.
Inwardly, though, her heart was still racing. They had been halfway down from the palanquin ship when Kotohime's vessel had abruptly leapt into the sky on a pillar of flame, rushing by close enough for the wind of its passing to buffet Byakuren and her charges. Fortunately no one had lost their footing - well, the spell wouldn't let them, but still, it had been unnerving to say the least. And as relieved as she was that nobody had gotten hurt, all the nun could think of was how her disciples were doing-
"Hijiri?"
Byakuren turned, surprised to see Shou standing before her, surprise that redoubled when she saw the youkai's bedraggled state and broken spear.
"I think Minamitsu's in trouble," Shou said quietly.
-x-
Kotohime ducked under a line of roaring blue fireballs, only to fly face-first into an incoming wave of seawater. The princess' aerial charge slowed as she plowed through the liquid, emerging just in time to hurl herself sideways and avoid Murasa's vicious swing of her anchor.
Blinking stinging water out of her eyes, ears still glugging, soaked hair plastered to her face, Kotohime bared her teeth in a challenging grin. "Nice combo!" she shouted.
"Not nice enough, since you seem to still be alive," Murasa replied, swinging her ladle in her off-hand to send criss-crossing sprays of water at her foe.
Kotohime thought fast, unleashing a stream of purple magic at the incoming attacks, earning her a blast of steam and humidity but disrupting the attempt to again slow her down, so that she was able to jet forward before Murasa was finished swinging her anchor. The ship ghost was completely open, and it was a perfect opportunity to get in a righteous smack, so it really was a shame that Kotohime ended up flying just over the captain's hat.
Dammit, the ship was falling faster. And if that wasn't enough, it looked like they'd just broken through the lowest layer of clouds.
Kotohime brought herself to the deck, effectively having to fly down in order to stay in contact with her battleground at this point in the duel. Murasa, unfairly, seemed to have no such difficulty, and she leapt high into the air to bring her anchor down in a two-handed smash that Kotohime just barely dodged.
The princess took a moment to watch a chunk of broken wood as it rose from the deck and tumbled slowly upward toward, not quite matching the speed of the plummeting boat. It made her wonder how her first ship was doing…
A chill went down Kotohime's spine, and her supreme confidence and optimism tried to smother the thought that had just occurred to her. But she was a police chief, with a keen analytical mind, and she was forced to face the facts, as unpleasant as they were.
"You've won," she conceded, stowing her jitte with a sigh.
Murasa froze midway through the process of burying her anchor in Kotohime's skull. "Oh?"
"As you may have noticed," Kotohime went on, spreading her arms expansively, "this vessel is no longer in any state to take to the air, which is why I wanted it in the first place. So there's no point to this battle."
"I told you that five minutes ago," said Murasa flatly, not adding the implied 'moron.'
"But more than that," Kotohime went on, heart heavy, "I cannot claim to be its captain. We're both quite clearly capable of fighting for the right to claim it, and willing to ride it to the bottom of the ocean. But you were willing to scuttle your ship so I could not have it, a sign of true dedication."
Murasa went very still, listening intently.
"And I? I casually discarded the ship I had solely so I could try and claim a second one." Kotohime sighed. "Were I a true captain, I would still be on it."
The ship ghost slowly lowered her anchor, the light in her eyes dimming until she no longer looked like a sea monster, but a very tired girl. "It's a bond that goes both ways," Murasa said quietly. "Like chains, shackles. The ship is yours, but you belong to her too. It's not something easily severed."
"Clearly, I have much to learn," Kotohime admitted humbly. "So," she went on, glancing about at the landscape of Gensokyo that was rapidly rising to meet them, "I will respectfully take my leave of your vessel, Captain Murasa." She threw a parade-perfect salute.
After a moment, the ghost returned it. "Any time you want another fight, you're welcome aboard," she said with a smile.
"May the last three seconds of your captaincy be enjoyable," Kotohime replied, throwing in a bow for good measure before she let herself take flight.
She didn't so much ascend as she did arrest her fall, stopping to hover in the air while the palanquin ship completed its plummet. Murasa might have smirked up at her-
And then there was a tremendous crash of wood on water, splintering timber, and a spray plume that very nearly reached Kotohime's sandals.
The princess, police chief, but not, as it turned out, airship captain, nodded thoughtfully to herself and began a slow flight towards the crowded shore.
-x-
The last few pieces of shattered wood and cloth finished tumbling onto the water's surface – the palanquin ship had all but exploded on impact. With no magical energies cleaving the air or metal striking metal, the lake seemed eerily quiet, empty. Where once a small armada had done its best to destroy itself, now the Misty Lake was free of ships, crews or captains.
With one exception.
One mast still stood, tall and proud, even if its flag was torn off. One ship still floated, for a loose definition of "ship." And one captain posed on a crudely-fashioned deck with her hands on her hips, beaming with confidence and triumph as bright as the stars in the rapidly-clearing night sky above. Her crew made have turned on her but all her opponents were defeated, so one indisputable fact remained.
"I'm still the strongest!" crowed Cirno.
-x-
Once the excitement of the rescued passengers died down, a hush had fallen over the shoreline as the spectators strained for signs of the aerial battle beyond the distant booms and flashes of blue and pinkish light illuminating the clouds from within, like bizarre lightning. All the onlookers' heads had panned down with the descending wreck of the palanquin ship, waiting for it to avert its demise, only to see it shatter on the lake's surface. They watched in stunned silence as the last pieces of debris rained from the sky onto the water, while the fairy on her ice float shouted unintelligibly from offshore.
"So who won?" asked Reimu suddenly.
Marisa threw her head back and laughed. "If you have to ask, I'd say it was a draw."
The exchange seemed to shake everyone else out of their awed silence, and soon the lakeshore was filled with conversations and chattering about what had just been seen. Some people actually applauded as if a play had just ended.
"So is Kotohime still up there?" Alice asked, peering skyward.
"With those rockets, she could be miles in the air by now," Eirin said with a slow shake of her head. "I wonder how the fool planned on getting down?"
"I can fly, can't I?"
Kotohime dropped out of the air between the bonfire and the gathering of Gensokyo's notables, hair and robes slightly sodden, but the princess had a wide smile on her face.
Reimu got off her bench and stretched. "I take it the show's over?"
"Unless anyone feels like getting on a raft to fight with Captain Cirno over there," Kotohime replied with a vague gesture. "So, what did you think?" she asked eagerly.
The shrine maiden shrugged. "Meh." Marisa snickered and took another drink.
"I rather enjoyed it," Kaguya said loftily. "This naval battle took some of the advantages of a danmaku duel and applied them in a refreshing new setting."
"Seems like a lot of effort to go through just to duel, though," Alice pointed out. "And doing it on a boat just makes things more restrictive."
"See, that's why I wanted the airship," Kotohime sighed, before looking around. "Hey, where's Yuyuko? Wait, never mind, I see her by the food. Well, thank you very much for the pleasure of your company this evening, ladies, princess, crown prince... Mokou?" she said, noticing who was reclining on the grass by Keine. "You're here after all! Did you not get your invitation? I was really looking forward to fighting you, had Nitori install a sprinkler system and everything."
When the immortal only shook her head unconcernedly, Miko cleared her throat. "I believe Lady Fujiwara's invitation may have been stolen before she could find it. I also remember hearing of other petty thefts in the village as well. Perhaps these are crimes you should investigate, Kotohime?" Next to her, Futo and Tojiko's faces went blank.
The police chief-princess' eyebrows went up, then she turned to poke a witch in the shoulder. "Did you do it?"
Marisa glowered at her. "If I'd done it, you wouldn't have to ask, would ya?"
"Right, right, I'm not thinking clearly. Thank you for the heads-up, crown prince," Kotohime said, bowing. "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to thank Yuyuko for bringing her undead warhost."
The princess turned to take her leave, only to nearly walk face-first into-
"Akyuu!" said Kotohime happily.
A slight teenager with vivid purple hair and robes of yellow, green and red lurched a bit before rallying. "Oh, you are here," Hieda no Akyuu said nervously. "Good," she said, but she didn't sound sincere.
"And you hit puberty while I was gone!" Kotohime declared, her smile growing wider. "Unless that's some strategic padding-"
The latest Child of Miare swatted aside Kotohime's hands and took a step back, face burning as the nearby onlookers snickered. "And you remain unchanged," she retorted.
"Well yeah. Immortal and all that," said Kotohime with a cocky grin. "Bet I gave you lots of great material to put chronicle tonight, eh?"
"About what?" replied Akyuu.
"About the battle, of course! Didja see when I-"
"Actually, I only just arrived," Akyuu admitted, adjusting the flower ornament in her hair. "I've been writing all afternoon, but heard there was some sort of party going on at the lake. Why, did I miss anything?"
Kotohime's good cheer drained away, her eyes half-closed but disapproving. "Hieda no Akyuu," she said after a moment, "if you take your position seriously, you should take care not to miss any events worth recording."
Akyuu found herself shrinking back again, but for non-groping reasons. "It's just that I was revising my notes from the symposium-"
"Well, I'm sure the tengu at least got some excellent footage of my awesomeness," Kotohime decided, clapping her hands and looking around with a bright smile on her face.
"Did you see any tengu?" Reimu asked Marisa.
The witch shook her head, and grinned at Kotohime. "You know how it is, there's always one around when you don't want them but never any when you need them."
"So the historian missed it and the press has failed me yet again," Kotohime summarized dejectedly. "Now in a week everyone will wonder if the Battle of Misty Lake even happened, or call it some mass drunken hallucination." But then she perked up, eyes flashing with determination. "We'll just have to hold a repeat performance and make sure we get the proper witnesses," she said with a meaningful look at Akyuu.
"There you are!"
Heads turned and conversations hushed as Hijiri Byakuren stomped forward, brown eyes flashing in indignation, two of her youkai disciples at her heels.
"What is wrong with you?!" the nun ranted, stopping just short of barreling into Kotohime. "You destroyed the flying palanquin ship, after attacking it for the second time in as many days!"
Kotohime held up a finger. "Technically, Captain Murasa scuttled it-"
"As if that weren't enough, this event you set up endangered the lives of all these people!" Byakuren barreled on, heedless. "And you call yourself a policewoman?"
Kotohime's eyes narrowed at that, but she held her tongue for once.
The nun didn't approve of that response. "Well?" she demanded. "What do you have to say for yourself?"
After holding Byakuren's gaze for a moment, Kotohime smiled and turned to Akyuu. "You know," she confided, "the upside of fighting ninja for as long as I have is that you start to pick up their little tricks."
And before anyone could react, Kotohime slapped her palms together, did something with her fingers, and abruptly vanished with a puff of smoke, leaving behind a short section of tree trunk that promptly wobbled and fell over.
Everyone in attendance gaped for a moment, then Byakuren noticed a piece of paper tied to the log, knelt down to retrieve it, and unfurled it. She only glanced at it briefly before making an exasperated noise and blurring into the air, golden text orbiting her arms and legs as she did her best to break the tengu's speed records.
Shou stepped forward, picked up the message, sighed, and read aloud "By the time you're done reading this, I'm another mile away from you."
"Right, that's enough for me," Reimu announced, starting to march away from the party.
Marisa stood up and stretched, then looked down at Alice with a smile. "Now, aren't you glad you stuck around rather than spending another evening cooped up at home?"
"My favorite part was when we almost died," the other magician said dryly. But Marisa saw that Alice's smile looked genuine, and there was that sparkle in her eye she got when-
One of the villagers screamed.
In a heartbeat, a dozen of Gensokyo's greatest warriors had whirled about and braced themselves for this new threat - Reimu had an ofuda between her fingers, Marisa's mini-hakkero was out and ready, a pair of dolls had popped out of nowhere to hang over Alice's shoulders, flames flickered in Mokou's cupped hands, strings were pulled back from three different bows - Marisa reflected that anyone causing a disturbance at this gathering must be terminally stupid.
But while the witch and her friends were still scanning for a threat, Reimu abruptly relaxed, even as a swell of water rolled in from the lake as something enormous broke the surface. Marisa took aim purely by reflex, but quickly noticed something off about the situation - the giant catfish was back, but it wasn't moving right. It was too high out of the water, and advancing in steady jerks-
"Good evening!" a cheerful voice rang out, a voice with a Chinese accent.
The enormous fish lurched forward a bit further, enough for Marisa to see Hong Meiling standing under the thing, arms up and supporting it as she hauled it out of the water as though it didn't weigh several tons. The gatekeeper was absolutely drenched and looked a little battered, but was still smiling.
"An unconventional fishing method, but I can't argue with the results," Marisa remarked, stowing her magical reactor. "Something to hang over Remilia's fireplace, eh?"
With a grunt of effort, Meiling shrugged the enormous load over to hit the ground with a tooth-rattling tremor. "Well, I thought since there were so many people here, we could cook and eat-"
"That's an excellent idea, Miss Meiling," Yuyuko Saigyouji said right by Marisa's ear, making the witch jump. Trust the prospect of a meal to get the hungry ghost to reappear.
Alice wrinkled her nose at the notion. "What, with those little portable grills?"
"That would take too long" Yuyuko said. "I was thinking the ladies Mononobe and Fujiwara could provide our heat, we could borrow some batter from the bartender and Miss Lorelei, and Youmu can bone our meal for us."
"What?!" The white-haired girl had turned up just in time to freak out at her mistress' suggestion. "Lady Yuyuko, that's a gross misuse of Roukanken and Hakurouken-"
"Oh hush, you use them like this all the time at home," Yuyuko interrupted. "Now hop to it. Though you may want to check with the cooks and see if they have an apron you could borrow," she added, eying the boat-sized behemoth on the beach before her.
-x-
-25-
With one last heave of effort, Meira rolled the - what had Kotohime called it, an escape pod? Whatever it was properly named, it looked very much like an oversized barrel, a hybrid construct of wood and metal that had evidently landed hatch-down.
The pod crushed a sapling with a snapping of wood and rustling leaves, then started rocking as its occupant wrestled with it. In a moment the small metal door swung outward and Nitori Kawashiro flung her upper body out to drape belly-down over the side as she gasped for breath.
"Thanks!" she managed after a moment.
Meira allowed herself a slight smile. "I could not abandon my fellow crew member, could I?"
"No, but our 'captain' could," the kappa muttered. Once her breathing steadied, she let herself take flight rather than risking a crawl out of the unstable device, landing next to Meira only to immediately sit down and start rummaging in her backpack.
"Kotohime does have a worrying approach to concepts such as collateral damage or acceptable losses," Meira agreed.
"Well, I guess I can't complain too much," Nitori decided, finally pulling out another glass bottle filled with that bubbly, greenish drink and taking a long pull from it. "She paid in full, after all. And it was kind of fun. Never built a rocket-boat before."
"Tonight was certainly a... novel experience," Meira agreed. She briefly studied the tangle of cloth and rope in the branches above the escape pod, then shifted her gaze toward the Misty Lake, visible through the few trees between them and the water. Nitori had crashed very close to the water, about halfway between the Scarlet Devil Mansion and the ongoing party, so Meira could see the bonfire shining in the distance. As she watched, it was joined by two brief flares of light, and Meira could hear the cheering even this far away.
"Looks like the party's still going," Nitori noted, stifling a burp. "Think we should go?"
"No," Meira said immediately.
"Yeah, I'm not one for crowds either," the kappa said, rising to her feet. "Unless they're potential customers. So I'm heading back to the mountain."
Meira nodded. "Farewell and safe travels, then."
"Yeah, later." Nitori lifted into the air, gave a sort of lazy wave, and then flew up through the hole in the forest canopy her escape pod had made.
The samurai watched her go, wondering if she should have said more. Meira couldn't have said 'it was fun' because it wasn't, and she couldn't have said she was glad Nitori was there that night because without the kappa's gadgetry, Kotohime couldn't have caused nearly as much trouble. But other than that, it had been... tolerable?
'It's been tolerable' wasn't much of a compliment, though.
Meira sighed and began to pick her way through the moonlit forest, trying to get a decent distance away from the party before taking to the air. With Reimu around, it was safer to escape by land than to take flight, the girl was shockingly adept as spotting airborne encounters-
"Hey, did we win?"
Meira spun and had her hand halfway to the hilt of her sword before she identified Koishi's voice, and just managed to keep from falling over. The girl was floating in the air behind her, belly to the ground, hat and head lower than her feet.
With no better options, the samurai gave a brief bow. "Your pardon, Miss Komeiji, I did not notice you."
"That happens a lot. It's okay, half the time I don't notice me either."
Meira stared for a moment. "...Yes. Ah, to answer your question, I suppose we won the battle but lost the war. Kotohime was unsuccessful in capturing her ship, but was able to battle to her heart's content."
"Oh, that's good! Right?" Koishi's wide smile was only faintly reflected in her eyes... but Meira decided they weren't quite as dead as before.
"It was probably the best outcome," Meira agreed, before continuing her march and indicating that Koishi should accompany her. "I am pleased to see that you survived your own battle," she said.
"Of course I did! That's how the oni do it back home, and how people do things on the surface," Koishi said matter-of-factly. "You can't fight someone tomorrow if you kill them today, after all."
"So, how fared you?" asked Meira.
The satori reached into some hidden pocket and withdrew that serenely smiling mask. "Miss Lotsa Faces fights pretty good, but if she ever takes this from me, she won't have a reason to fight me again," Koishi explained.
"And you enjoy these battles?"
"Yeah!" Koishi said, eyes bright. "They're something to remember."
Meira nodded, thinking. Tonight's events would probably be nothing more than an odd footnote in Gensokyo's history, if that. But, if she were honest with herself, she didn't really mind having participated in them. She would have prefered that things had gone a different way, of course... but, well. If it'd mean giving up her memory of blasting an avatar of a war deity overboard, she wouldn't change a thing.
She spotted a natural clearing and decided that it was time to go home. "I must take my leave now," Meira told Koishi, before giving the girl an honest bow. "It was a surprising pleasure to fight by your side, Miss Koishi. Consider me at your service, should you require assistance."
Koishi adjusted her hat, then cocked her head and studied the samurai for a moment. "Are you a boy or a girl?" she asked.
"Often the former, until someone explains the situation, then the latter," Meira deadpanned.
To her surprise, and a bit of gratification, Koishi burst into delighted laughter.
-x-
"Ah, I can see the family resemblance!" Yuyuko Saigyouji said as she waited patiently for Youmu to return with her next serving of catfish. "You definitely have his eyes. Yes, he's doing fine. When we left Hakugyokurou he was playing checkers with your grandfather."
"Oh, that's..." the villager hovering next to the ghost princess blinked her eyes rapidly. "That's good to hear. He, he didn't seem too distressed?"
Yuyuko gave her a warm smile and comforting pat on the shoulder. "Not at all. He's already joking about being terminally clumsy. Seibo has a lot of jokes, actually, only some of which are fit for this sort of gathering," she added, smile widening.
The other woman laughed. "That does sound like him. I..." she quieted when she saw Reimu approach.
Yuyuko noticed and swiveled in her seat. "Pleased to see you, Miss Reimu," she greeted.
"Aren't you forgetting something?" Reimu said bluntly, arms folded. "Such as all those ghosts you brought for the party?"
Yuyuko arched a delicate pink eyebrow. "What about them?"
"Where'd they go?" the shrine maiden demanded. "They got beat up and evaporated, or whatever, but they're still on the wrong side of the Barrier."
"Oh, we'll be fine for a couple of hours," Yuyuko said, waving a hand unconcernedly. "I'm sure they won't recover and give in to their murderous impulses until at least after supper."
Reimu's eyes narrowed.
Yuyuko heaved a sigh and rose to her feet. "Oh, very well," she said, sounding very much like a surly teenager. "I'll round them up so they can be sent home. But there better be some fish left when I get back!"
Reimu wordlessly scoffed at that - even after twenty minutes of dicing and frying, and after making sure everyone present had gotten a serving of catfish, four-fifths of the thing still lay next to the fire. Ignoring the glare of the woman Yuyuko had been chatting with, Reimu marched back to where more familiar faces were still eating.
"What are we going do with all this?" she asked as she sat back down next to Marisa.
The witch tried to reply, but since she was doing so with her mouth full, she mostly made noise and dribbled juice. On the other side of her Alice made a disgusted sound and pointedly dabbed at her chin with a napkin.
Meiling was seated on the fish's head, now separated from the rest of its body. It didn't look very comfortable to Reimu, but she supposed the choice of seat was more about making a statement. "I was thinking of hauling the leftovers to the Mansion," the gatekeeper said, nodding across the lake. "The fairies probably deserve a treat for putting up with tonight."
"That will be up to the mistress," Sakuya Izayoi announced, striding into view from - nowhere, really, she just appeared. The maid looked up at Meiling and sniffed. "It looks like you survived your battle with Taisui Xingjun, or whatever you thought it was."
"Won my battle," Meiling grinned, before taking another big bite out of her own hunk of fried fish.
"Well, don't enjoy the spoils of victory too much," Sakuya warned. The maid pulled out a delicate silver bell and rang it a few times with surprising loudness. "Your attention, please!" she called out to the assembly. "The Lady Scarlet thanks you for attending the evening's festivities, and cordially invites you to her manor for coffee, ice cream, and other post-dinner refreshments. Dessert will be served in thirty minutes. Thank you," she finished with a bow.
Reimu snorted to herself. "If Yuyuko takes too long and misses that, we might have another incident on our hands."
Then the shrine maiden felt a gentle tug on her sleeve, and turned to see Akyuu looking confused. "Excuse me, Reimu? I thought Kotohime was the one who arranged the, ah, battle."
"So naturally Remilia is trying to take the credit for it," Marisa replied.
"It's easier for her to invite everyone over for snacks like it was her idea in the first place than it is for her to admit that she almost shot them with a cannon," Reimu explained.
"I see..." Akyuu looked thoughtful. "This 'ice cream,' what is it?"
"Ground-up ice mixed with butter," Marisa said immediately.
"Something worth going to a vampire's mansion for," Alice corrected. "And I suppose there's a chance we can have our meeting with Patchouli after all," she said, giving Marisa a pointed look.
"I certainly plan on attending," Kaguya announced grandly. Reimu couldn't help but notice that the Lunarian princess had gotten through an impromptu meal of fried, greasy fish without staining her dress or getting her face dirty. She turned to the woman seated, as ever, by her side. "Do you think we should walk or fly?"
Eirin pursed her lips as she thought out loud. "I'm not sure all of the rabbits could make the flight, but we could take the yakatabune across the lake."
Next to her, a Lunar rabbit in a skirt and jacket sagged a little.
"And we won't bother to row it this time," Eirin added. "Reisen, could you help the rabbits embark?"
Reisen bowed, unable to hide her relief, and went about rounding up all the little youkai in the pink dresses.
-x-
Eirin smiled as she watched her pupil exercise her authority over the mundane residents of Eientei, which was to say that she'd probably need another's help to get them to do anything.
"Think she'll need an extra sweet dreams pill tonight, doc?" came a quiet voice from behind her.
Eirin nodded, not bothering to turn around. "Yes, double the dosage. She triggered pretty badly this evening."
"Yeah. Her normal night terrors are bad enough, I don't wanna hear her screaming after doing something like that." Tewi paused. "You know, for a people obsessed with purity, you Lunar folks do some pretty messed-up stuff."
"Does she know you're tampering with her food and drink?" asked Eirin instead of arguing or agreeing.
"Of course not," came the vaguely insulted reply. "She'd probably think I was putting something gross in it. As if I'd stoop to such lows."
"Pit traps truly are the mark of a sophisticated humorist," agreed Eirin with a hidden smile.
"After seeing her zip around like that, I wonder how she ever falls for them," mused Tewi. Eirin sensed, rather than saw or heard, the earthbound rabbit depart. Presumably because Tewi meant her to.
-x-
"So, you comin'?" Marisa asked Reimu.
The shrine maiden put down her cup. "In a moment. I want to have a word with Yukari first."
"Why, is she here?" Marisa looked about quickly, but could see no sign of-
"Here, there, everywhere," Yukari remarked as she stepped out of one of her gaps to stand behind Reimu. "You did well to detect me," she complimented, toying with Reimu's big red hair bow.
The shrine maiden shrugged her off. "What's your angle?" she demanded. "None of this could've happened without your help, but I just can't see what you get out of it."
"Isn't it enough for me to be mysterious and ineffable, as a proper youkai should?" replied Yukari placidly.
"Not when I almost get shot."
"Ah, unfortunate. I suppose you're owed some answers, then," Yukari said, leaning back and holding her chin. "Let's see: my dear friend Yuyuko got to go out on the town, so to speak. Same for Miss Kaguya-hime, of course, with the added benefit that her household's criminal mastermind was forced to expose and expend some resources that may have otherwise gone to a less productive use. Miss Scarlet has both assuaged her ego and been put in her place in a way that allowed her to save face. The Taoists were reminded of the number and power of Gensokyo's other forces. Miss Hijiri learned some things about her youkai disciples, but was seen as a pro-human force, which will help her get along with the village. A certain ship ghost may have exorcized some inner demons in a way that did not endanger the innocent. The youkai got to act like youkai. The humans got to see the fearsome powers of those youkai, but also that some of their own," Yukari nodded at Reimu, "can protect them. Am I leaving anybody out?"
"I think Mystia sold a few eels," Marisa added.
The youkai of boundaries nodded. "And of course everyone got to enjoy a… well, how did she put it? An epic confrontation the likes of which Gensokyo had never seen before. A battle that stirred the spirit and inspired the soul, or something like that."
Reimu continued to glower at Yukari. "You think of everything, don't you?" she asked sarcastically.
"That's usually the case," the youkai agreed. She smiled again. "I suppose you could think of this as a controlled detonation, an analogy I'm sure the instigator of this incident would appreciate."
"But you instigated this!" accused the shrine maiden.
Yukari's smile didn't flicker, though the woman around it began to be swallowed up by the folding gap she was protruding from. "I prefer to think of myself as a facilitator," she said. "Instigating takes far too much effort," she added before disappearing.
-x-
-26-
"…so that's where I've been," Kurumi finished. The vampire idly lifted a hand to brush an errant strand of pale yellow back into place. "An enjoyable vacation, albeit repetitive, but I'm peeved it took me so long to get back."
The little redheaded devil sitting nearby cackled and tossed her head back. "A big lake of blood? Seriously?!" laughed Koakuma. "Never mind how long they had you, all it took was a buffet to lure you in?!"
"Oh shut up," muttered Kurumi, her leathery, dark purple wings jerking in annoyance. "You wouldn't understand, you don't have the hunger…"
Koakuma noticed her friend's expression, and the teasing mirth quickly faded from her face. "That good, huh?"
Kurumi gave her a sidelong look, lips quirking into a sardonic smile so that the tip of her canines protruded. "Like I said, you wouldn't understand. Yes, it was good. Got to swat anyone who intruded, so it wasn't all lounging about gorging myself either. The only sour moments were when two brats kicked their way past, and when I woke up."
The little devil's eyes narrowed. "These brats, a shrine maiden and a witch?"
"You know them?"
Koakuma sighed and started fishing in her pockets for her cigarettes, her wings - one pair of bat-like wings extending from her shoulders, as well as a smaller set on the sides of her head - fidgeting at some bad memories. "If you can imagine, they've gotten even worse with age." She wordlessly offered one to Kurumi, but got a twisted lip in response.
"So what are you up to this century?" Kurumi asked. "Still enjoying Lady Shinki's hospitality?" The sarcasm was practically running down her chin.
"It wasn't as bad as I expected, but…" Koakuma took a moment to blow a smoke ring, then turned and gave her companion the honest, harmless smile that had gotten her into and out of so much trouble. "There was a terrible misunderstanding, and one day I found myself with an urgent need for employment elsewhere. So I took a job as a witch's familiar in the household of, you'll like this, a vampire."
Kurumi's eyes narrowed. "You don't say."
"Well, she calls herself the Scarlet Devil, but she's not a real vampire – I think she started as a human, if you can believe it. But she still has 'the hunger,'" Koakuma explained, supplying the quotation marks with her fingers to earn a proper glare from her friend, "and a lot of the stuff that bothers us works on her, but other stuff doesn't and then she has some lame weaknesses like running water, so who knows."
"Huh," was all Kurumi said to that.
"And I know what you're thinking, and I wouldn't recommend it," added the little devil. "She's got some tough flunkies, she's friends with some of the locals, and her little sister is scary."
"We've seen 'scary' before," Kurumi huffed.
"Yeah, well, Little Scarlet is the type of scary… on a bad day she wouldn't be out of place in the old country, is what I'm saying."
A sudden chill fell over the two. "And on that note," Kurumi murmured quietly, without actually asking a question.
"Still no sign, not since Shinki took over," Koakuma answered in just as hushed a voice. "Once in a great while I hear a rumor, but that's it."
The blonde devil sagged in relief. "All the same, I'm surprised you're sticking around here instead of – ah, that's right, you had your 'misunderstanding.'"
"Gensokyo's not too bad," the red-headed devil shrugged. "Not nearly as stifling as Makai. You might want to consider sticking around."
"What about food?" Kurumi asked. "My lake's gone, I'd have another vampire, or something like one, to compete with-"
"I'm sure some arrangement could be made," a voice suddenly came from above, causing the two devils to start with surprise and look up. A woman was leaning out of a dark gap in space-time, hands impossibly propped against the edges of the anomaly, blonde hair backlit by the moon hanging around her shrouded face. "After all," Yukari Yakumo continued, "Gensokyo is nothing if not accommodating, and you are not the only one with a, shall we say, discerning palate?"
Kurumi stared transfixed for a moment. "Is this-"
"She's the one I warned you about," Koakuma answered before she could finish.
"I see." Kurumi slowly and deliberately shifted her arms and legs to sit more at ease, rather than bracing to attack or flee. "And what conditions would be attached to this generosity?"
"Just a standard agreement on non-lethal combat resolution," Yukari said mildly. "As well as… well, I can only be so many places at once. Maybe you could tell me more about where you come from?"
Kurumi's eyes narrowed. "You mean the dream world?"
"That would be a start. But," Yukari added, "I'm particularly interested in your life in the 'old country,' as you put it."
Both sets of Koakuma's wings fluttered in agitation. "I'm sure Reimu could tell you all you needed to know about that sort of thing-"
"A frightened child lashing out with a yin-yang orb is not a reliable source of information," Yukari countered firmly, any façade of charm gone. "And the woman that child became is stubbornly tight-lipped when it suits her."
But Kurumi was not intimidated by the being still hovering over her. "You do not know what you ask," she said softly.
"I thought I was being very clear what I was asking for."
"And," Kurumi added, "you do not know the consequences of what you ask of me."
"I was hoping I wouldn't have to mention the consequences of you refusing to cooperate," Yukari sighed.
"And," Kurumi said finally, "you do not know how to frighten me."
"I am well-acquainted with a great many terrors, sleeping and awake."
The blood-drinking devil gave a toothy, sardonic grin. "If you knew what truly terrified me, you wouldn't have to ask your questions."
There was a long moment of silence, and then the gap soundlessly shifted so that Yukari was hovering, arms folded, level with the two devils to look Kurumi in the eye. The dimensional youkai was done glaring, and Koakuma was rather shocked to see concern on Yukari's face.
"I can protect you," the gap youkai insisted.
"No you can't," Kurumi said without hesitation.
"We can protect you. Gensokyo has a host of powerful defenders, some of whom you've met, and one of whom has already defeated your former master."
"Defeated?" Kurumi gave a brief, sharp laugh. "Why do you think I'm refusing to talk?"
Yukari gave her another long look. "I can send you anywhere you desire, if you've decided Gensokyo is an insufficient refuge against what you fear. But I would like to point out that your friend here has been more cooperative with my inquiries and still feels confident enough to stay-"
"She's an idiot," said Kurumi bluntly.
"Hey!"
"-and any information you gave us would improve our chances of protecting you," Yukari finished.
Kurumi gave another insincere smile. "Miss Yakumo, at this point I'm wondering why you're so eager to learn what I know. I'm wondering whether I should be fleeing Gensokyo as soon as possible. In fact," she said, rising to her feet. "Makai and its usurper are starting to sound appealing."
Yukari watched her without moving. "I could stop you," she said halfheartedly.
Kurumi shook her head. "I'm not the one you should be worried about stopping." She gave her companion a nod. "It was nice to see you again, ah, 'little devil.'"
"I didn't pick this place on a whim, you know," Koakuma said quietly. "I'd bet on it sooner than Makai. Plus, it's got that shrine maiden."
"But it's lacking some important other things," Kurumi countered. "The context has changed, so you should not expect the previous outcome to repeat itself." She spared one last look for Yukari. "Can I get some food before I go?"
"The humans' village is out of bonds, otherwise try not to make too big a mess," Yukari answered with a dismissive wave of her hand.
With a snap of leathery wings, Kurumi was gone. Koakuma watched her go, and almost seemed to shrink. "Wasn't expecting you to let that happen, much less let her feed," she mentioned in a somewhat subdued voice.
"She did give me some information, even if it wasn't as much as I wanted," Yukari pointed out.
"I already told you everything I know!" Koakuma hurriedly added.
"Maybe I should send you off to learn more."
With a high-pitched squeal of panic, Koakuma was suddenly a black and red blur streaking towards the Scarlet Devil Mansion.
Yukari Yakumo watched the other devil flee, and frowned to herself. Maybe it was time to look for some missing pieces.
-x-
Author's Notes
An all-princess boat-based battle royale was an idea I've had for a while - I'm not sure where it came from, but for whatever reason I was set on seeing it through. Problem was, I kept getting distracted by other ideas, not to mention that great bane of productivity, Real Life, so this absurd story idea took an absurd amount of time to finish.
I'm not entirely happy with the result, since what, 70% of the story is one extended action sequence? Even after I cut the most gratuitous stuff? Perhaps this is my The Battle of the Five Armies, for better or for worse. I actually had to map out everyone's positions and more or less storyboard the battle to keep everything straight. But while parts of it were a pain to deal with, it was also a lot of fun to just put a lot of Touhou characters in a crazy situation and see them struggle it out. Hopefully each gal had their moments, so nobody went home disappointed at how their favorite characters performed.
In terms of chronology this takes place after the events of Ten Desires and Hopeless Masquerade, but before Double Dealing Character. I know the latter also came out between now and the last Kotohime story, but I've got plans for it, see. The final section also indicates that I have plans regarding some mysterious threat, but that will be a tale for much later, and probably won't be an Adventures of Kotohime entry. I've got at least three Kotohime story ideas to deal with before I'll tackle that, so I wouldn't hold my breath waiting. Hopefully I won't get hit by any buses in the next couple of years so this foreshadowing actually goes somewhere.
Word of ZUN is that Byakuren's two-toned hair is natural, but I like the idea of it being a reaction between Makai's atmosphere and non-native lifeforms. And hey, wouldn't that be a great way of explaining two PC-98 characters' hair changes? (Marisa obviously was sent to train in Makai before Story of Eastern Wonderland and then magicked her hair back to its original color)
Koishi's ability - well, I've read inconsistent things about how it works. Something like you can remember her if you know her as Satori's sister, except in Hopeless Masquerade it seems like Reimu and Marisa don't recognize her. So I just did the best I could. Though I suppose, if Nitori remembers her from Subterranean Animism like I seem to imply, that would mean Marisa didn't team up with Alice for that one, which the Malice shipper in me can't stand... eh, it's probably not worth worrying about. Also, the Parsee "Percy" thing is not a spelling error.
I'd also like to note the role that music played in this story. For instance, Reisen's big moment is largely the result of Tutti Sound's remix of her themes from their "Everlasting Banquet" album, and similarly epic remixes from groups like WAVE helped during the writing of others characters' action scenes. I also find that "Flight" from Xenogears goes well with the first and last flight of the HJMS Kotohime Forgot To Paint The Name On.
Suppose that's it. Thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed it! Oh, and now for the obligatory post-Author's Notes stinger.
-x-
-x-
Watatsuki no Toyohime stood on the banks of a lunar sea, a perfect wind toying with her hair and dress, taking a timeless moment to enjoy the tranquility of her home.
The surf was lapping gently against the shore, the waves of the ocean more like large ripples. This meant that the water's surface was able to reflect the stars twinkling in the pale orange sky above it, as well as a particularly large shining jewel that swirled with blues, greens and white... well, 'jewel' may not be the best way to refer to the Earth, the planet was fundamentally flawed and riven with problems that the Lunar Capital had solved millennia ago.
And yet... Toyohime frowned. Her mentor evidently prefered it to the moon, as did that criminal. And her own former pet. And if she were honest with herself, there had been a certain charming something about the planet when she and her sibling paid their visit a few years back-
"Oh, you heard?"
Toyohime turned to see her sister Yorihime approaching, her pale blue ponytail moving more from her graceful stride than the local weather. "Heard what?" she replied.
"Ah, then I must be intruding." Yorihime dipped her head briefly, then gestured towards the sky at - Toyohime had to do a double-take - a shining pink star had appeared between the Earth and the lunar horizon. "The outermost stations detected an anomaly approaching this sector, so I came to investigate."
"An anomaly?" Toyohime repeated, frowning. "Why wasn't I informed?"
Yorihime took her place next to her older sibling, for once less concerned about their duties as leaders of the Lunar Defense Corps. "I said 'anomaly,' not a 'threat,' sister," she said with a faint smile. "I thought I'd save you the bother and deal with it myself."
Toyohime chuckled and turned back toward the sea, looking up at the new star in the sky. "So what's so anomalous about this non-threat?"
"It's an unidentified flying object," Yorihime explained, standing at ease but keeping a hand on the hilt of her sword. "It seems to be powered, but we're not detecting enough metal in it for it to be a proper spaceship."
Toyohime blinked. "So, like that ramshackle-"
"There's no evidence of any deities being involved either," Yorihime quickly added, "so I don't think it's a repeat of that incident. There is strong magic coming from it, however, but the strangest part is that there's no life signs aboard."
"Perhaps it's an automated probe, then."
"But if its manufacturers were sophisticated enough to make one, why would they do so out of wood?" Yorihime countered.
"Don't ask me to explain the thinking of humans, sister," chided Toyohime.
The two stared up at the pink star, which was growing steadily larger, making a dark dot at its center visible.
Toyohime pushed the brim of her hat back as she shaded her eyes. "I think it is a wooden rocket of some sort," she decided.
"No, it's not round enough," Yorihime argued.
"Perhaps its an experimental design." Toyohime folded her arms, leaning back slightly as she watched the unidentified flaming object. It was getting quite large now, and the roar of the engines was growing irritating.
Yorihime squinted. "Oh, I think I can make it out now! That's a b-"
