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X.
Blue-Eyed Jezebel 2: Covered Mirrors

"Aya," Momiji groaned as she rolled on her side, "are you still awake?"

"I can't sleep," the crow tengu said. She lay in her bed opposite the wolf-girl, under the covers and arms behind her head, piercing the ceiling with ruby irises.

"It's three-thirty in the morning. We're opening with Hatate in a couple hours. Get some rest."

As much as her body insisted on it, Aya couldn't find the incentive to sleep. Her mind was ablaze with questions and speculations, buzzing around her brain as if it were a fly zapper. She wanted to look at that picture again, capture every detail, absorb the colors, memorize the quartet of faces smiling for the camera; except Momiji snatched it from her, told her to stop fretting, concentrate when they do go to the Scarlet Devil Mansion.

But Aya did not want to wait. She wanted to go now, drag Momiji out of bed, hit the skies and crash the mansion. She wanted to wake the world, wake Sakuya, shove the photograph in her face and say to her, "You're from the Moon! You have a relative who lives in Gensokyo, relatives who may or may not be still on the Moon! This is who you are, Sakuya!"

Yet where was the proof? What else Aya did have to back it up besides a tattered photograph and the words of a woman who could be lying through her teeth? Reisen told her she was with Eirin when the doctor was exiled forty years ago, that she was somehow connected to this Emergence of Apollo which had rattled the Lunarian government. Reisen seemed to know much more than Eirin was letting on, but again what could Aya prove with mere words?

Aya faced the wall and sighed. There was no point thinking about it, because Momiji wasn't going to fork over the photograph any time soon. What good was there hiding the evidence? What good did it do to refrain from telling the truth?

Or rather, as it dawned on her like a final knell, how far would a person go to protect the truth from coming out?

Hours later, with the morning dew coating thick layers on the grass, they met with Hatate and unlocked the doors to Bunbunmaru. They refilled the ink containers and ran the color printers. They turned on the dispatch system and tested the frequencies from room to room. They opened the depository, collected the papers and reports and placed separate piles on each of their desks. The hour flew by and the sun climbed over the mountains, and it was as they were finished sorting that the number of workers started trickling in.

When everyone was situated at their stations and brought the office to life, Hatate put down the fountain pen she was writing with and said, "So, what have you two found yesterday? Anything new about the Moon?"

Aya's looked up, startled, her own pen nearly darting off the line of the form. "Wh-What?"

"What's the matter with you, Shameimaru?" Hatate asked a little too haughtily. "Why so spacey? Is this One Big Scoop already getting too big for you?"

Aya furrowed her brow. "No, of course not! It's just that, well, a lot happened yesterday and, umm…."

"A lot, eh? What have you got?"

"We have a photo given to us by an interviewee," said Momiji. She reached inside her blouse and pulled out the picture, which she handed to Hatate. Aya opened her mouth to protest, but Momiji cut her off by saying, "Take a good look at it. Those two girls on the left, do they look alike to you?"

Hatate hummed, rubbed her chin with a curious hand. She could see Aya sneaking a peek over her shoulder at the corner of her eye, but she ignored it. After a minute the pig-tailed tengu said, "Yeah, they do. They look like sisters. But I've never seen buildings like these before. Is this really the Moon?"

"I doubt even the kappa can recreate something of this majesty," said Aya. "It has to be made from metal, but where would they get it?"

"This was attached to the photograph," Momiji said as she passed the scrap over. "R.U.I., or Reisen Udongein Inaba, is our interviewee."

Hatate studied it. "Ho-hum, ho-hum, what do we have here? Hmm, 'Give this to the girl on the far left…time to stop playing games…get serious.' Huh." She glanced at Aya and Momiji. "Did something happen?"

"Like I said, a lot went on while we were out," Aya told her colleague honestly, though her mood sobered considerably. To Hatate, it appeared as if she were troubled.

"Do you mind if you lend us a few minutes of our work time?" inquired Momiji, her tail twitching restlessly behind the chair.

Hatate didn't know what to make of it. The air around them suddenly felt so tense and so thick one would not be able to slice through it so easily. "Sure. Just…don't leave anything out. After all, this is your One Big Scoop."

So Aya and Momiji explained in full detail their day across Gensokyo. They told Hatate of the kappa's attempts to recreate the Other Side's flying inventions; of Nitori's book on the history of NASA and the missions they undertook to the Moon; of the failed attack Yukari Yakumo waged against the Lunarians in the days before the Border; of the differing accounts that conflicted with Eirin's arrival – or alleged exile – to Earth from both the doctor and Reisen Udongein; of the abrupt changes in Eirin's mood whenever Sakuya was mentioned; of Reisen's episode behind the House of Eternity and the note she had placed in Aya's skirt before they left.

Hatate did not interrupt throughout the entire exchange. She nodded in the right places and hummed at the moment of revelations. However, she was frowning when the pair had concluded their findings. "It doesn't make sense. Why is Miss Yagokoro going through all the trouble to silence Miss Reisen?"

"Eirin didn't do anything of the sort," argued Aya. "She came to us after Reisen fell ill."

"That may be true, but who's to say she wanted to keep her quiet? Eirin's demeanor changed when you brought up Sakuya and Yukari Yakumo's names: once when you looked at the picture frame, and once after Reisen had her attack. The instant you said their names, Eirin went from nice to too nice."

"But she didn't have any weapons on her. How could she have attacked without alerting anyone?"

"You don't have to be direct in order to take down an enemy. A person can lay the trap and wait for that perfect moment to trigger the failsafe. There's more to instigate trouble than just danmaku and spell cards. Remember the Saigyou Ayakashi, how it would steal the souls of those who would lie amidst the shade."

"The question is," said Momiji, "what did Eirin use to attack Reisen?"

"This is preposterous!" exclaimed Aya, glancing back and forth between Momiji and Hatate. "I didn't see anything in Eirin's hands that would cause Reisen to react that way! Hell, maybe Reisen had an allergic reaction or something. Eirin did say there's a lot of dust and mold in Eientei."

"Don't tell me she's already got you wrapped around her finger," said Momiji, a tad disappointed.

"Don't tell me you believe in unfounded speculation!" countered Aya.

"Aya, a trap could have already been laid before either of you arrived," said Hatate. "And again you're right to say this is all unfounded speculation, but don't you think this needs to be followed up more? For whatever reason, Miss Yagokoro is hiding the cold hard facts. She could be leading you astray with false truths or half-truths, I don't know, but I do know there are pieces missing to the puzzle."

"So what do you expect us to do?" asked Aya. "If you're about all this and we go back to Eientei, Eirin will target us. Is that what you want?"

"You could do that, but there's no telling what will happen if she does attack." Hatate leaned back and sighed. "As much as we bicker and argue, the last thing I want is for you to get hurt. You may be armed with a hauchiwa or sword and shield, but aside from what was learned you don't know next to nothing about Eirin. She may or may not use danmaku; she might use something we have never documented or seen before."

"Then that leaves us with the Scarlet Devil Mansion," Momiji concluded. "Do you have a map, Hatate?"

"Yeah, let me get it." Hatate reached behind her with an arm, pulled open a drawer in the desk and ruffled through it. "Here," she said a moment later. "Don't forget the photo and note, too." She gave the scrolled map to Momiji and the photo and attached note to Aya. "Be careful, okay? Keep your eyes open at all times."

Aya scoffed, though there was little feeling to support it. "Nothing bad is going to happen. We're tengu, we can dodge anything. C'mon, Momiji, no time to waste."

But even as Hatate was left to her devices and divulged in her work, she couldn't help but worry for Aya Shameimaru. Between the two of them, Momiji was the more rational and open-minded. Although Aya could be professional when the situation called for it, she was passionate in every sense of the word. Unfortunately, this passion almost always led her to lose sight of her goal and diverge into a different spectrum that was unrelated to said purpose.

Her goal was a woman by the name of Eirin Yagokoro, but her purpose in the spectrum was to prove Eirin Yagokoro was not the kind of person who would lie and hunt her prey to the point of sowing unwanted seeds in a fallow mind.

Sometimes those seeds grew into trees, and sometimes tree bore fruit, fruit too sweet and too bitter to chew and swallow.

Aya may have already plucked the first of the harvest, and Hatate feared for her.

They landed outside the premises of the Scarlet Devil Mansion a couple hours later, treading the dirt road leading away from rolling fog and cloud which marked as a border to the Misty Lake, home of the fairies. Most of the time was spent in silence, but they spoke in clipped tones, trying to formulate a proper course of action that would allow them into Lady Remilia Scarlet's good graces and speak with Sakuya. Perhaps Lady Scarlet would grant their request from the get-go, or maybe chase them off the property with a slew of tengu-hungry youkai, who knew. Aside from wanting to build a ship to the Moon, Sakuya had never mentioned what her mistress was like, so both crow and wolf decided it would be best to take as professional an approach as possible when meeting the head of the manor.

Several minutes went by. They approached a grove of trees that were evenly parted on both sides of the path. Farther up ahead it branched off in twin curves hugging massive brick walls and stone pillars that stretched high into the sky. A metal gate gleamed between the outer walls of the mansion.

"I wonder how long it took them to build this place?" Aya asked aloud. "It's so big~"

"You think everything is big when you're not flying," said Momiji. "But anyway, we're here. Don't do anything that's going to jeopardize this scoop."

"I might as well not be breathing, then."

"You know what I mean."

They crossed the distance and stopped in front of the gate. Leaning next to it against the wall was a tall red-haired girl in green tabard and loose white pants. Her arms were folded under her bosom and her chin bowed, the beret on her head slipped over her eyes. From her was the faint sound of snoring.

"Huh, would you look at that," said Momiji as she stood in front of the girl. "I don't think I've ever seen a guard asleep on the job before."

"That's good," said Aya. "We can sneak inside."

"What did I just tell you ten minutes ago, moron?"

Aya rubbed the back of her neck, chuckling. "I'm kidding, I'm kidding. Let's just wake her up and ask her to let us in."

Momiji nodded, then lifted a hand and shook the girl by the shoulder. "Excuse me, miss? Wake up, miss, you have visitors. Wake up. Hey." The girl snored on.

"You're being too docile, Momiji," said Aya. "Here, step aside and let a real master show you how it's done." Momiji scowled, but she stepped aside. Aya positioned herself directly in front of the red-haired girl, shoulders back, legs apart, arms akimbo. Then she took a deep breath, leaned back, lunged forward like a spring and shouted: "OI! WAKE THE HELL UP! THE WORLD IS ENDING AND THERE ARE BLACK HANDS POPPING OUT OF THE GROUND! THE SKY IS RED, GHOSTS ARE FLYING THROUGH THE AIR, AND ONE-EYED ELDRITCH ABOMINATIONS RUN BACK AND FORTH AMONG THE TWISTING BRAMBLES! YOU BETTER COLLECT ALL THE GEMS OR ELSE!"

"…What in Sojobo's name are you rambling about?" Momiji asked with the most confounded look.

Aya shrugged. "I dunno, but I figured it would give her a shock. Guess not." She looked at the girl, and still the girl snored on. "Say, what if I tried slapping her?"

"No, Aya."

"What about tickling her? I can pluck a feather from my wing and dust her nose."

"No, Aya."

"What do you want me to do? I'm being nice here!"

"Well if shaking her and yelling in her face don't work, we should just wait for her to wake up."

"That could take hours! I don't want to wait all day for answers!"

"I can wake her up~" sang a high, childish voice. Aya and Momiji snapped their attention to the source above their heads. A girl sat cross-legged on the pillar the guard was leaning on, hands wrung in their laps and her body rocking forward and backward. A pair of unusual wings twitched lazily behind her, for instead of membranes there were six crystals, each one a different color and glimmering in the sun like a rainbow. The girl smiled down on them. "Hello, neighbors~"

"Hey there, kiddo," said Aya, tipping her hat to the girl. "Whatcha doin' hanging up there? If you keep swaying like that, you're gonna fall."

"That's okay," said the girl. "I can fly. I haven't flown in a long time~"

"That must suck, doesn't it?"

"I like to suck the film off eyeballs…or was it the strawberry jelly off toast? I can't tell, they both taste the same."

Aya blanched. "Wait, what?"

"What about what?" the girl countered innocently.

"Anyway," Momiji interjected. "What's your name?"

"Flandre. Who are you?"

"I'm Momiji. This is my partner, Aya."

"Momiji~" the girl rolled the name off her tongue. "Aya~"

"Yeah, those are our names," said Aya.

"Momiji-ji-ji-ji-ji-ji-ji-ji~ Aya-ya-ya-ya-ya-ya-ya-ya~"

"Yeah…." Aya scratched her cheek.

Momiji shifted from one foot to the other, looked to the left, looked to the right.

"You make my teeth itch~" said Flandre.

"I'm sorry," said Momiji.

"Can I chew on you?"

"Um, no, you can't. Sorry."

"No, I am. You see, I never had dog before. I hear it's quite a delicacy."

Momiji's tail tucked itself between her legs.

"Dear Jesus God in Heaven," Aya murmured incredulously, but she cleared her throat and said as steadily as she could, "Say, um, Flandre, we came here to talk to Sakuya, one of the maids who work for Remilia Scarlet. You think you can go inside and ask Lady Scarlet if it's okay to let us through?"

Flandre's wings perked up. "Oh, you know Sakuya and big sis?"

"Big sis? Remilia?"

"Yes, yes, I didn't know you knew big sis. She didn't say anything about you, but Sakuya talks about you. Just a little bit – not a centimeter, not a millimeter, but an inch. That's not so bad, but that's all."

"So, uh, what d'you say? Will you talk to Lady Remilia for us?"

"Mmmmm…no."

"What? Why not?" Aya blurted. "You're not doing anything!"

"I know," said Flandre, "but I'll get caught if I go back inside, and big sis will be very mad if she sees me. So no, I will not ask for you."

"Oh, come on! What did you do to piss her off?"

"Aya, settle down!" Momiji whispered harshly.

"My room is in the basement," Flandre told the girls, obviously ignoring Aya's outburst. "It's pretty big, but I was getting restless pacing the floor and counting the tiles on the ceiling day after day. I was looking through some old books Patchy gave to me, and I found this magazine called Tumblers Today. It's supposed to be about picking locks, and there are a lot of locks on the door. So I tried to pick them, but I must have done something wrong because I broke the locks in half, but that's okay because I got to stretch my wings and fly figure-eights over everyone's heads."

"Why do you live in the basement, anyway?" Momiji asked, truly curious.

Flandre's smile widened. "Because everybody says I'm just plain crazy…or maybe they're the ones who are crazy. Sanity, insanity, what's the difference?"

"Just let us in already," Aya said exasperatedly.

"Do I look stupid? I said I'm not going to—"

"For the love of Sojobo!"

"Aya, please!"

"But I said I'd wake her up, remember~?"

"Eh?" Both girls saw Flandre pointing down at the sleeping gate guard. "You can?" they asked simultaneously.

Flandre's mouth opened to expose a wild, happy grin. "I can. I can wake up Meiling for you~ It's very easy~"

"How?"

"Like this." The girl grabbed part of the wall on her side and, with a jerk of her arms, tore a brick from the masonry. She took it in both hands and lifted it above her head.

"What are you doing?" Aya shrieked.

"I'm going to wake Meiling up," said Flandre. "That's what you want, right?"

"Dropping a brick on her isn't the way to do it!" Momiji cried. "You'll hurt her!"

Flandre shrugged. "Meiling's had knives thrown at her. A brick should be the least of her worries."

"Think of the repercussions!"

"I don't need repercussions…or is it leopard cushions? Oh well, it doesn't matter." Flandre let go of the brick. "Whoops~"

CRACK! went the brick, and upon impact it split in two and fell to the ground.

Aya and Momiji nearly screamed, but their new acquaintance, the gate guard Meiling, beat them by hitting the dirt and yelling: "Please don't hurt me, Sakuya! Have mercy! Eh? Where am I?" She blinked rapidly and glanced around, then turned her head and saw two pairs of feet in front of her. "What the…?" She raised her gaze, meeting Aya and Momiji's shocked eyes. "Oh…hello there. What's with those faces? You look like you witnessed something terrible."

"Jiji and Yaya wanted to come inside, Meiling, but you were asleep," said Flandre, hands again in her lap and wings flapping to and fro. "They couldn't wake you up, so I helped them~"

"Jiji? Yaya?" Meiling glanced at the crow and wolf tengu. Then, "Wait…Flandre, what are you doing outside?"

"YOUNG MISTRESS!" called an angry, rasping voice. Meiling picked herself up and with Aya and Momiji they looked beyond the gate and saw a purple-haired girl sprinting toward them. Her head was bent and she emitted a dry, wheezing rattle. "How…how dare you…elude my grasp! Just wait…wait until I…I…by the Gods…." She stopped, doubled over, and hacked some more.

"I see you were having your routine nap again, Meiling," said another, calmer voice. Sakuya Izayoi strode passed the ailing girl and halted between the gate and the pillar which Flandre Scarlet sat on. "Care to explain what is going on?"

"I would if I could," said Meiling, "but I think you should ask these fellows here. They saw more than me!"

"Sakuya!" said Aya, brightening at the sight of the blue-eyed maid. "You remember us, right? Aya and Momiji, the ones who were at Miss Kirisame's house, or what was left of it!"

"It's only been two days, but yes I do remember you both," said Sakuya. "If Meiling is incapable of providing a summary, perhaps you can do better."

"We want to talk to you," said Momiji, "but the gates are closed. We tried to wake Miss Meiling from her slumber, but Flandre…well…."

"She dropped a brick. On her head," Aya concluded. "It hurt."

"I've had worse," Meiling assured her.

"And I should like to give you worse for the trouble you have left to these girls," warned Sakuya, "but I will let this slip once. Miss Inubashiri, you say you wish to speak with me?"

"Yes, it's very important."

"Well, if Milady grants you permission, then—"

"I…I don't mean to interrupt, Sakuya," the violet-haired girl who had yelled at Flandre earlier wheezed, "but Remi said she's been expecting them."

"I don't recall her saying so."

"Don't worry about that. Here, take 'em inside. Meiling, you go with them and clean up, you got blood running down your face. As for you, young Flandre, cease your gargoyle imitation and come with me. I'm putting you in a separate room until the locks are replaced and reinforced."

"Can I bring Tumblers Today with me, Patchouli~?" asked Flandre Scarlet.

Patchouli's cheeks flushed cherry red. "No, you may not! God's blood, I made a mistake…giving it to you. I'm going…to make sure…I burn...every single copy…I can find in the library. Oh, where's my inhaler…when I need it?"

"Allow me to escort you," said Sakuya to Aya and Momiji. She unlocked the gates and closed it behind them. "Meiling, you best do as Patchouli says. Patchouli, where does Milady want these two?"

"She said the main dining hall. She should still be there."

"Then we shall go there. Miss Shameimaru, Miss Inubashiri, please follow me."

"Farewell, neighbors~" said Flandre as she watched over her shoulder the tengu leave. "Until we meet again. Say hello to big sis for me~"

"We will," said Aya, who gave the younger girl a warm smile. However, once they were climbing the steps to the mansion's entrance, she said to Sakuya, "How can you put up with her?"

"Flandre is Flandre. Interacting with her is like playing a game of chance, and it would seem your chances were in your favor."

"Has she always been that way?" asked Momiji.

"Milady has mentioned once that she was not so. Many a century ago, she was just like you and me, but time has broken her in more ways than you can imagine. Nonetheless, that is a different story for a different time. You are here to speak to me. Once we are seated, you will have my full undivided attention."