"I think I'll hit Makai next," Mokou said suddenly between mouthfuls of rice.
Reimu turned to her with a look of sheer terror, though she attempted to hide it. "That - that is not the best idea, Mokou."
"Why is that?" Mokou asked as she looked to Reimu through the corner of her eye. "Is it hard to get to or something?"
Reimu spun herself around so she looked at the far wall away from Mokou, avoiding eye contact. "It's not hard to get to, but it's a bad time-er, season, to go to Makai is all. Why don't we go to someplace else. Theres still many places to get your blessings from around Gensokyo, right?"
Mokou narrowed her gaze at Reimu. She had heard that Makai did not have seasons, so Reimu was obviously attempting to make something up. But if that was the case then she would have to find out why, and do it carefully. "Well, we hit Hakugyokurou and Higan yesterday. The only places left to hit other than Makai are the Myouren shrine, the Moriya shrine, and the Palace of the Earth Spirits, right?"
"You forgot Eientei and the SDM." Reimu said casually as she turned back to Mokou. "Why not hit them today instead of Makai. It'll be much easier, right?"
Mokou shivered as she thought of how much 'easier' they would be. "Oh goody, a homicidal princess and homicidal vampires in the same day, that's a great idea."
"A miko shouldn't be so sarcastic, Mokou."
"I fail to see how I'm being sarcastic here. Kaguya is plenty homicidal."
"Remilia is not homicidal, she just has a superiority complex."
"I meant the sister, not Remilia." Mokou explained flatly.
Reimu glowered at her. "Flandre was bad once, but she's much better now. You have met her, have you not?"
"Yeah, once. She blew me up, laughed when I regenerated, then kept blowing me up. I barely had a chance to say stop in between explosions." Mokou explained, causing Reimu's face to red from embarrassment at the situation.
"Ei-either way. Makai is a bad idea, so let's hit the SDM at the least. You'll need to get a blessing from both Remilia and Patchouli anyway." Reimu said quickly, trying to keep the conversation going to ward off her embarrassment.
Mokou let out light sigh as she placed her bowl and chopsticks on the table. Reimu was being heavily adamant on this, and there was no chance of her winning. "Fine, let's go."
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Mokou stood before the cold black iron bars of the Scarlet Devil Mansions front gate and blinked. As she had seen once before, the mansion looked completely still. No noise aside from the sleeping gate guard who lay on the ground nearby, of course.
"Should we wake her?" Mokou asked as she pointed to the gate guard.
Reimu floated over and circled the gate guard for a moment before shrugging. "I wouldn't, it'd make more trouble, and she can be a hassle when she actually gets into a fight."
Mokou nodded and stepped up to the gate, placing her palm on its center.
CREEEEEEEEEEEK!
Mokou, and even Reimu, cringed at the sound the gate made as it was pushed open. Nails on a chalkboard didn't even compare to it.
Glancing over and worrying about whether the gate guard had woken up, Mokou looked to find the her somehow still fast asleep. Letting people walk in through the gate, and sleeping through such a loud noise, had to break at least a dozen rules Mokou thought to herself.
The walk from the gate to the mansion front door was both only momentary and completely devoid of action. Even when she stepped up onto the doorstep not a thing happened. It happened when she touched the door itself.
As Mokou touched the solid wood door to knock she felt a deep feeling of danger and leapt backwards. As her feet left the steps the door exploded into pieces and giant teal crystals sprouted from within the doorway. As Mokou landed a dozen feet back she looked to see a semi familiar figure step over the crystal and into the early morning sun.
Patchouli Knowledge wore her usual purple robes, but not her hat, allowing her long purple hair to flow freely in the early morning breeze. She gazed at Mokou without showing a fleck of emotion, and raised her hands to her. Torrents of water balls flew out toward Mokou with dangerous precision.
Working on instinct Mokou leapt to the side, dodging the torrents of water as she gained a free opening. Until many lasers pierced up from below all around her, reaching high into the sky as their girth began growing. Reacting quickly Mokou shot up into the air, dodging the light cerulean lasers as she went. Reaching the lasers apex she turned her attention to the ground, just in time to witness Patchouli chanting loudly to herself before screaming.
"Fire Metal sign, Saint Elmo's Pillar!" Patchouli screamed violently, conjuring a massive ball of flame as she did. The fireball flew across the yard until it was directly underneath Mokou, and then fell to the ground. There it exploded violently sending a massive column of fire up under Mokou faster than she could react, the flames engulfing her completely.
Patchouli stepped away from the mansion and looked up at the burning column of fire. "Is that it?" she said to herself.
Mokou smiled. She had only met Patchouli a few times and had never seen her display her power, but now she knew what was going on. Someone of Patchouli's skill would not try to use fire on her. Unless she was testing her, that is. Patchouli was attacking her not out of spite or anything similar. She was attacking to test her skill, just as Yuyuko had wanted to see her skills.
Reaching out to the fire itself Mokou clutched her hand and the column of fire broke into cinders instantly. As the cinders fell to the grass like rain Mokou fell with them, speeding to the earth with haste. At the last second she flipped herself around and landed on the ground, her one foot landing in front of the other hard. A wave of bright white fire exploded outward from Mokou's foot, coating and covering the entire mansions lawn, but not igniting it.
Seeing the flames approach Patchouli quickly squinted and summoned up a short wall of teal crystal in front of her, the flames breaking upon it. With a smile Patchouli prepared to lower the crystal and attack again, but the wall of crystal cracked and exploded. Patchouli fell backwards, knocked by the shard of crystal, and looked up to see Mokou lowering a flame coated leg from what was likely a high angle kick. Looking on as Mokou stepped towards her Patchouli smirked and slowly got up, brushing the debris off of herself as she did. "Not bad at all, definitely a pass."
"So it was a test!" Reimu yelled violently from the sidelines as Mokou smiled and stopped before Patchouli.
"I thought it was likely a test. No one who knew of me would try using fire against me."
Patchouli smiled and picked up the book she had been carrying, making sure to check if it was damaged or not. "I wanted to test that. As the new Hakurei some people will think you have the same skills and spellcards. It seems that will not be the case."
"You could have just asked for a match."
"If I asked you would not have been fully into it. I needed to see how you reacted on the spur of the moment. You'll have my blessing, but would you like to come inside first? I should at least repay you for going along with my selfishness." Patchouli said with a gesture to the now devastated doorway.
"Then I shall accept your apology for selfishness." Mokou replied with a nod as she then followed patchouli inside, Reimu floating along behind.
Walking through the Scarlet Devil mansion Mokou looked about at the numerous fairy maids doing their jobs, and not even motioning to her or Patchouli in any way. Almost two dozen fairy maids later they came to a set of large double doors which Patchouli promptly threw open (with magic) and stepped through.
Mokou had never been into the Voile Library, though she had heard stories about it. A library where all knowledge could be found and nothing was out of reach was the most common one, and now that she was inside she believed it. A vaulted ceiling easily many stories high. Bookcases almost as high as the ceiling. Massive chandeliers that illuminated all around them high above, and even an impossible to deny smell of old lost knowledge filled the entire room.
"Pretty overwhelming, isn't it?" called a new voice as Mokou gazed up at the massive shelves around her.
Looking down she saw a large circular table sitting in the middle of the library. Upon it sat many piles of books and scrolls, and before it sat the familiar blonde haired figure of Marisa Kirisame. Unlike how she had always seen her, Marisa was not wearing her usual full length dress, but instead was wearing a shot black skirt, devoid of any kind of frills or pattern, her large black hat was nowhere to be found.
Patchouli walked over to the table and took a seat a few feet to the side of Marisa, motioning to the third and only, untaken seat at the table as she spoke. "Is Koakuma not around, Marisa?"
Marisa smiled as she grabbed a book from the pile in front of her and opened it up. "I figured you'd bring Mokou in for some tea once you were done, so I asked her to go make some for us all. How did it go?"
"It went rather well," Patchouli stated before turning to Mokou and bowing her head slightly. "I Patchouli Knowledge, the One Week Magician, grant you, Mokou Hakurei, my blessing. May you protect Gensokyo well."
Mokou returned Patchouli's gesture with a quick and short bow. "Thank you, I shall."
Marisa nodded with a smile as Koakuma stepped up beside her and placed a tray of tea on the table's only clear side. Without a word Koakuma poured three cups of tea, placing one in front of everyone before quickly walking away.
"So how are things going for you then, Mokou?" Marisa asked calmly after she took a sip of tea, then proceeding to drop almost half a dozen cubes of sugar into it.
Mokou turned her gaze to Marisa and nodded. "It's been fine, Patchouli hasn't been the first to test me, and I'm coming into my new abilities well enough, I think. Though I still look forward to working with you should an incident arise."
"Ha, that's good! I look forward to working with you as well, unless I'm the one making the incident!" Marisa joked with a laugh.
Mokou smiled at Marisa's jovial thinking, but her smile did not last. Looking around she spied Reimu sitting atop a nearby bookcase, gazing at Marisa with a look of sorrow and worry, tears slowly slipping down her face. "Marisa."
"Yes?"
"I hate to ask this but, are you doing alright? About Reimu, I mean."
Upon hearing Reimu's name Marisa's face went from happy to morbid as she avoided both Mokou's and patchouli's gazes. "I want to say that I am, but I'm really not. Reimu was my best friend, and we had known each other since childhood, since before I left the human village." Marisa explained as tears formed on her eyes. "I always thought we'd be together forever, the best of friends protecting their home as long as they could. But I honestly never expected I'd see Reimu die."
Mokou watched as Marisa was now bawling her eyes out uncontrollably. But before she or patchouli could do a thing Reimu hopped down from the bookcase and landed behind Marisa, wrapping her arms around her. Marisa stopped crying immediately as her eyes went wide. Her hands went up and place themselves on Reimu's, though neither she nor Patchouli could see them. Marisa sat like this for many, many moments before letting go of where Reimu's hand were and wiping the tears from her eyes. "I- I think I'll be able to deal." Marisa then said quietly with a small smile. Reimu let go of her dear friend and floating over to Mokou's side solemnly, the barest fleck of a smile appearing on her lips.
Minutes later Remilia would enter the library, and would promptly challenge Mokou to a fight. It would be the late evening by the time Remilia was satisfied and would give Mokou her blessing.
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Reimu wandered about outside of the shrine, the bright moonlight shining down through her form.
"You have to let go, young one. If you keep avoiding your feelings they will only rot."
Reimu turned to see the familiar short form of the old turtle Genji lying on the grass before her. "So you can see me huh, Genji?"
Genji bobbed hi head. "Of course, young one. And as I said, you have to stop avoiding your feelings, or they will rot."
"What do you mean, Genji?"
"Your spirit is accompanying Mokou, and as such it is not in the line. By accompanying her outside of the line your spirit can be affected by events and your emotions. If you keep denying your feeling and do not do away with your negative feelings, they may rot and take you with them." The old turtle explained as he slowly turned and began shuffling away, leaving Reimu alone again.
She now knew what the old turtle had meant, though she did not quite understand the comment about rotting. But she wasn't ready to deal with that yet. She was able to help Marisa and say her silent goodbyes to her, but Alice would be an entirely different story. And she wasn't ready.
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Sanae walked up and down the approach to the Moriya shrine, sweeping off and leaves or bits of dirt as she went. She had to make herself look busy and no longer hateful, the opposite of how she felt. "Granite, you are there, yes?"
"Indeed I am, dear." Granite answered from within her emerald pendant in her sweet and calm voice.
"Are you alright or-?
"Yes I am fine, Dear, thank you for your worry. After so long with not a soul around I am quite happy just being near someone who can understand where I am coming from and can hear me. And don't worry, I can begin helping you prepare to fight the Yakumo whenever you are ready."
"I am ready, how do we begin?" Sanae asked with a hint of anger in her voice. She wanted her revenge.
"Good. Then the first thing we shall need to do is to gather you some allies and forces to fight her with. Do you think anyone in Gensokyo will be willing?"
Sanae shook her head a bit as she continued sweeping. "I doubt it honestly. We're on our own."
"You're not on your own, you have me with you, dear. And there is always a way. The simple answer is that we seek out allies elsewhere, outside of Gensokyo."
"Huh! But that-!"
"It will be fine. If you cannot allow us a way to leave I believe I shall be able to."
"That's not what I meant. Won't Yukari know that we have left?"
"It is nearly the winter season, yes?"
"Yes."
"The Yakumo will likely be asleep then, allowing us to leave and garner allies from outside."
"But will we find anyone outside of Gensokyo?"
"Of course we will, dear. You told me you lived outside for much time, so you of all people should know that youkai live elsewhere as well."
"I've never seen youkai outside of Gensokyo."
". . .I see. Do not worry, dear. We will find them one way or another. We will have allies yet, I guarantee it."
Authors note: I apologize for the delay on this chapter; I literally I misplaced the entire folder of chapters so I totally forgot about it for a while. Hopefully it won't happen again. There will be only a few more chaps of Mokou getting the blessings but as I'm sure you can tell things are moving well, and I hope you enjoy this chapter.