Chapter 10
Borders

"So it went well, then," Levia said.

Quite a few people had been waiting when Nue and Yuugi arrived in Facade with Sechs. Fyra had cleared out the crowd quickly by citing various rules, until only she and Levia were left. She then embraced Sechs quite passionately.

After that, Sechs and Fyra took the trio into the palace, where Sechs went off separately as Fyra showed the three to the guest quarters. After she'd left, Nue and Yuugi filled Levia in on the events at the temple.

"Very well," Nue said. "I found what I was looking for, and Sechs was there, too. I also learned that I had no idea how much was lost during the decline of magic before Gensokyo's separation. Once this is all over, I'm bringing Byakuren here. Any magician would love to have a chance to study a place like that."

"Something which is quite understandable. Many, of course, would want to use any knowledge gained from such studies for themselves, but I do not believe Byakuren is one of them."

"Even I know that," Yuugi said.

There was a knock on the door. Yuugi was closest, so she opened it, revealing Fyra. "Well, hi there. Finished showing Sechs your affection?"

"What?" Fyra said. "I- I- um-"

Yuugi laughed. "I'm just having a little fun."

"Oh."

"You do care about her, however," Levia said, "and she about you. That much would be clear to me even without your earlier display of affection."

"Well, yeah," Fyra said. "We are engaged, after all."

"I see."

"Really?" Yuugi said. "There aren't any rules about who royalty has to marry?"

"There are several," Fyra said, "and I meet all of them. There's no rule that royalty has to marry royalty, though. We don't have any other royalty, so that would be a pretty stupid rule for us to have."

"Oh, yeah. That makes sense."

"Anyways, as per Rule #69,004, Princess Sechs extends an invitation for you to dine with her tonight."

"Well, sure," Yuugi said. "I don't see why not."

"Yes," Nue said, "we will come. Levia here has certain requirements, though."

"She is correct," Levia said.

"Oh?" Fyra said. "Well, we can certainly accommodate that. What are your requirements?"

"Plain meat, uncooked, living or freshly killed."

"Got it," Fyra said. "I'll let the kitchen staff know." She exited the room. "See you at dinner!"

While living underground, Mokou had only very rarely visited the human village. She'd been there a couple times since leaving the underground, but only briefly. Most of the villagers did know who she was, though.

The layout of the village hadn't changed much over the years, but that didn't mean she knew where Nue and Byakuren lived. So she headed for Keine's home, instead.

Keine was sitting out front when Mokou arrived. "Hey, Keine."

"Mokou!" Keine got to her feet. "It's good to see you."

"Good to see you, too," Mokou said. "Nice to be around an actual friend for a change."

"An old friend, maybe. It's been quite some time sincne we've done anything more than exchange basic pleasantries."

"I've been... distracted."

"Yes," Keine said, "Nue and Byakuren told be about your, um, current situation."

Mokou sighed. "Let me guess; you're gonna tell me the same thing everyone else has, right? That Utsuho's the one who did it, not me, that I'm guilty only of not trying to stop it."

"It doesn't sound like I need to. You seem to have said it for me. And I won't talk about it if you don't want to. Although I will say that if 'everyone else' has been telling you the same thing, that might just mean there's merit to it."

"No," Mokou said, "there's not. I'm just as guilty as she is."

"She put Kaguya in there, Mokou, not you."

"It's my fault, too. I could have stopped her, Keine. She would have listened to me. All I had to do was tell her not to, and she wouldn't have."

"You know the desire for vengeance better than anyone else, Mokou, so ask yourself: do you really believe that?"

Mokou was silent for a while. "I'm looking for Nue," she said eventually, showing Keine the black object. "I think I have something she may be interested in."

"That's... yes, I think she will be. Where did you find that?"

"In the forest. A Shade dropped it. And not a normal Shade. Several times larger. I don't think anyone's seen one like that before."

"Nue ran into some sort of monstrous, grotesque one at the Aerie the other day."

"Mine wasn't 'grotesque'," Mokou said. "It was still humanoid, just a few times larger than other Shades."

"Hmm... I should inform Ari of this."

"She's been looking into these objects?"

"Among other things, yes. You want me to deliver the object for you?"

"I don't see why I couldn't do it myself," Mokou said. "I just don't know where Nue lives."

"Ah, of course. I'll take you, then. Although it's just Byakuren there at the moment; Nue's away right now."

"Looking for more of these things"

"Yes. She's in Facade at the moment."

"That's the kappa's new city, right? Way out in the desert? Seems an unlikely place to find Shades."

"Their queen was claimed by the Black Scrawl," Keine said. "Nue was hoping their research into the disease would point her in the direction of one or more of the objects."

"Ah. Yeah, that makes sense. Well, I'll just give it to Byakuren, then."

"Very well," Keine said. "Come with me, then. This way. And along the way, you can give me a little more detain on just what's been going on with you."

"As long as I can ask about how things are going for you."

"Fair enough."

"All right, then, where should I start?"

"Well, things changed for you about a month ago, right? When the Shades attacked the underground. That's when you left the Palace of Earth Spirits, I believe. Why don't you start there?"

"All right," Mokou said. "Yes, that's when things changed. I don't know what happened to Utsuho, but after the attack, she was... different. That's when she started going on about breaking out of Gensokyo and taking vengeance on the Lunarians. She went crazy, and after a few days of that, I just walked out, told her that if she wasn't going to be the woman I loved any longer, then I wasn't going to stay. She barely noticed, I think.

"So I came back above ground. My old house in the forest wasn't there any more, but I found a place that was both intact and unoccupied, so I moved in. I spent the time readjusting to living up here, and trying to figure out what I was going to do next, because I wanted the old Utsuho back, and I didn't want to let her do what she planned to do to the Lunarians. They weren't a part of anything, and if Utsuho attacked them, it would be only because she'd been unwittingly dragged into my feud with Kaguya, so it was my responsibility.

"And you decided to start by freeing Kaguya."

"I didn't expect it to contribute much," Mokou said, "but I couldn't think of anything else. And I'd realized that it was wrong to do what we'd done to her. Before, all I'd done was kill her. What Utsuho and I did, though, not even she deserved. So I got her out, brought her above ground.

"Utsuho showed herself above ground the day after that, so I went to confront her, and Kaguya came, too, even though I didn't want her too."

"That's the fight Nue and Byakuren saw."

"They only saw the end of it, but that Levia woman attacked Utsuho after we went down. But yes, that was that fight. After that, Kaguya and I went to Seafront with Byakuren's group, and..."

"I must thank you, Nue," Sechs said, "and you as well, Yuugi. I do not think I would have been successful in the final trial were you not present."

"The trial would've been easier if you were alone," Yuugi said, "and you did a hell of a lot in that fight. Don't underestimate yourself."

"I try not to, but I also try not to overestimate myself. And yet, I fear I did exactly that in thinking I could pass the Trials."

"You mead it to the last one on your own," Nue said. "And Yuugi's right about how well you fought. I don't think even Reimu could've handled that sort of fire as well as you did. You might actually have been a real threat to her in a danmaku battle."

"You may pay me too much credit. I have heard of what prowess she had in that area."

"The stories tend to exaggerate a bit," Nue said. "It's true that she never lost a danmaku battle, at least as far as I know, but she wasn't quite at the level the tales portray. Quite a few of Gensokyo's more powerful residents gave her a run for her money, myself included. Of course, that was before the witch showed up and they double-teamed me."

"The one known as 'the black-white'?"

"Yeah, her. Almost as skilled at danmaku as Reimu was. Her patterns were generally simpler than Reimu's, however, as she favored the brute force approach. She had enough force to pull it off, though. Anyways, yeah, I think at the very least you'd have probably been Reimu's most challenging opponent."

"I am skilled when it comes to evasion," Sechs said, "but I have not the same level of ability when it comes to offensive danmaku."

"You probably would if it were still in common use."

"Hmm... well, perhaps. We will never know for sure, though. Anyways, you have my thanks for your assistance."

"Don't worry about it," Yuugi said. "We were gonna go in there anyways."

"I thank you regardless."

"Celestial-types?" Mokou said.

"Yes," Keine said as the two of them walked through the village. "Tenshi was understandably unnerved when she realized it. She went back to heaven after the attack to inform her people."

"And she hasn't been back yet?"

"No. Which is expected. It's been getting harder for her to get away for a while now, and the news of celestial-type Shades can only have made the situation worse. It may be a little while before she can make it down here again."

"Didn't you say they've only been attacked, like, once? Why are they freaking out, anyways?"

"First of all, that attack was in many ways worse for them than any attack on this village was for us, as back then when the Radiance happened, Tenshi and Iku were pretty much the only celestials who were any good in a fight. We've long been used to a world with dangers, but heaven has always been a safe land. Being attacked shook them up significantly."

"Yeah, but they haven't been attacked again, right?"

"No, but the Scrawl has claimed one of them, and will soon claim another. Again they see that their land is not safe from the ills that plague ours."

"And here we are, having to worry about thinks like Shades every day."

"Yeah," Keine said. "Speaking of which, is there any chance you could remain in the village for a while? I told Nue and Yuugi that the village would be fine until tomorrow even without them, and I think it will, but some of the people are worried. Having you around would be reassuring. Could you stay here until they return?"

"Oh, hell yes. Get me the hell away from Kaguya."

"Why are you with her, anyways?"

"Because she won't leave me the hell alone. And starting earlier today, because I need her help."

"You... need her help?"

"I have to fight Utsuho, but I don't want to kill her. I'm not used to fighting for real without going for the kill."

"Ah, so you're training yourself. And you need Kaguya because she won't die when you make mistakes."

"Yeah. But that doesn't mean I have to like being around her. So yes, I'll absolutely stay here for the night. I'll need a place to sleep, though."

"I have room for you."

"I knew you would."

Keine came to a stop. "That's Byakuren's place, right there."

"That one? Larger than I expected."

"It was already there when she and Nue took up residence in it, just... suddenly unoccupied. They do make use of the extra space, taking people in when needed much as they did at the temple. Although that need has been arising much more rarely since the Radiance. One thing that happens when so many people die: there are suddenly a lot more available places to live."

"A 'benefit' we could do without."

"Undeniably," Keine said.

The two of them walked up to the door, and Mokou knocked. A few moments later, Byakuren opened the door. "Ah, Keine. And... Mokou. Hello."

"Are you all right?" Mokou said. "You look... well, not all right."

"Do not... worry yourself. I am fine."

"The pain's fairly bad right now," Keine said, "isn't it?"

"Yes. I... try to hide it, as I do not wish to... worry people, but... I often fail. It should pass soon."

"Well, this'll be quick," Mokou said. She held out the object. "I found this after dealing with a couple Shades in the forest. It looks like the things on that tablet Nue has. I thought I'd drop by and deliver it."

Byakuren took the object. "Nue is... not here right now, but I am sure she... will appreciate it."

"Hey, no problem."

"Mokou's going to stay with me until Nue returns," Keine said. "I thought having someone else of her level of power around would help reassure the villagers."

"I don't think it necessary," Byakuren said, "but I am sure the villagers will appreciate... it."

"It also means you don't have to take action yourself if the pain's too much."

"I appreciate the... gesture, but please, Mokou, do not... feel as though you need to trouble yourself on... my behalf."

"I'd have agreed anyways," Mokou said.

"I see."

"Well," Keine said, "I don't think we have any further business with you, so we'll leave you be."

"I am sorry I was in this condition when you... came."

"It's not your fault," Keine said. "See you, Byakuren."

After some more searching through Eientei, Kaguya returned to Mokou's house to find it empty. She's not back, then. Decided to stay in the village tonight, then. I kind of expected as much. Probably a good thing, too. Keine'll probably say the same things about Mokou's actions that I have, and she's a long-time friend of Mokou's. Maybe she can get through to Mokou. Or make some amount of progress, at least.

Kaguya looked around the house. Well, guess I'll make myself at home.

The night was uneventful.

Nue dreamed of Byakuren, of the days before the Black Scrawl threatened to claim Byakuren's life. A happier time for them, despite the problems brought on by the Radiance. She slept well.

Yuugi dreamed of slaughter, of all the Shades she'd killed and all those she soon would kill. She slept well.

Levia dreamed of the end of the world, the end she'd been born to bring about. The end that was forever lost to her. She slept well, comforted by the scenes of the destruction that was to have been her purpose, even though she knew it was a purpose she could no longer serve.

Kaguya dreamed of Eirin, and of Reisen, and of Tewi, of all the residents of Eientei. Of the strange, twisted location Eientei had become swallowing them up, some never to be seen again. The dreams did not disturb her sleep; she had become used to unpleasant dreams back when she had recently been exiled.

Byakuren dreamed of Ichirin, Murasa, and Shou, her lost companions who had done so much for her. She dreamed of Nazrin and Nue and herself dying, and awoke, partly in fear and partly because the pain had returned. It took her some time to return to sleep, but when she did, her dreams were pleasant ones, fond memories of her long-lost brother.

Mokou dreamed of her time together with Utsuho. Then she dreamed of her father, angry at her for abandoning her vendetta against Kaguya, and of Kaguya, seeking vengeance of her own for her five hundred years trapped within a sun. Then she dreamed of judgment, of being confronted with her sins. Her sleep was fitful.

Keine dreamed of Tenshi. She slept well.

After their morning meal, Sechs and Fyra took Nue's group to the palace entrance. "You're leaving, then," Sechs said.

"Yeah," Nue said. "I still have three more pieces to find, and I'm sure Yuugi's eager to hunt more Shades."

"I have my gauntlets to pick up from Nitori, too," Yuugi said.

"Farewell, then," Sechs said. "I hope you will gain visit our city. You will always be welcome here."

"I think you can count on seeing me again, at least," Nue said. "Once all this is finished with, I'm going to take Byakuren to the temple."

"So we will see you at that time. I look forward to it."

"Yeah, I'll need to go with you. Unless Yuugi feels like coming with us, but I think we could find time to visit you regardless. So I'll see you then."

"And congratulations on your upcoming marriage," Yuugi said.

"Thanks," Fyra said. "Maybe we'll invite you to the wedding."

"Hopefully I can bring Byakuren then," Nue said. "Thank you for the hospitality."

"You are most welcome," Sechs said. "Farewell."

"So," Mokou said, "when is Nue getting back?"

Keine, across the table from her, chuckled. "Eager to get back to the forest? I thought you wanted to get away from Kaguya for a while."

"I'd certainly rather not hve to go back to dealing with her, but I can't neglect my training with her. There's no telling when Utsuho's going to show herself again, so I can't afford to waste any time."

"I see."

"I have to do this, Keine. I'm not going to kill her, but I am going to stop her. I want the old Utsuho back."

"I understand," Keine said. "When the time comes to fight her, let me know. I'll stand with you."

"No, Keine," Mokou said. "I'm glad you're willing to, but it's too dangerous. I may be immortal, but you're not."

"I don't think you should fight her alone," Keine said. "I'm aware of how powerful she is."

"I am, too, but the risk to your life is far too high."

"Then you should ask someone else. You said Kaguya wants to fight her, too, and Kaguya is immortal."

"No."

"I don't think you'll succeed on your own, Mokou."

"Then I'll just try again. It doesn't matter how many times I have to try; sooner or later, I will win."

"And you won't accept Kaguya's aid because...?"

"Do I even have to tell you?"

"Well," Keine said, "you said you're not going to pursue your old grudge against her any longer, so that's not the reason. Given your feelings on what you and Utsuho did to her, I'd say the reason you don't want to accept her aid is fairly clear to me. It's not for my benefit I want you to say it, Mokou."

"If you know it so well, then why don't you tell me?"

"Guilt."

The resulting silence was eventually broken by Mokou. "I don't need to hear that from you."

"Because you've already heard it, or because you've realized it yourself? Well, either way, if you don't want me to say any more, then I won't."

"I already get this sort of crap enough from Kaguya. I don't need it from you, too."

"You and I are long-time friends. Kaguya has until recently been your life-long enemy. You could easily dismiss what she says, but hopefully hearing it from someone who you know cares about you will help you realize that there's merit to it. But if you want to hear no more, then that is all I will say."

"Good."

Yuugi split off from Nue and Levia as they neared the human village, continuing to the mountain to retrieve her new gauntlets from Nitori. Levia went to announce their return to Keine, while Nue went straight home to Byakuren.

Byakuren was seated as Nue came in, but immediately got to her feet. "Nue, welcome back."

"Good to see you, Byakuren," Nue said. "You doing all right?"

"For the moment, yes."

"That's good. Anything happen while I was away?"

"No attacks, if that's what you're asking. Mokou stopped by, though."

"Mokou? Why was she in the village?"

"She still is, actually. Keine asked her to remain until your return in order to help reassure the villagers. But she originally came to deliver something. She had a black object."

"The ones I'm looking for?"

"Most likely, yes. I set it on the table over-wait a minute, where did it go? I set it down right over there."

"It's probably I the tablet already," Nue said. "Unless someone or something has hold of it, the objects are drawn into the tablet when it's close enough." She produced the tablet. "Yes, there's another one on it now."

"So that's five."

Nue returned the tablet to the nether. "Six, once we pick up the one Yuugi has at her home."

"Two left, then. Where is Yuugi? At the tavern?"

"Actually, she's heading to Nitori's. Her gauntlets should be ready, so she's going to pick them up. Levia's here, though. She's letting Keine know we're back."

"I see. Are you going to be leaving again once Yuugi gets back?"

"Not today," Nue said.

"In that case, have a seat and tell me about Facade. I have never had a chance to visit the kappa's new home."

Nue pulled another chair over and sat down. "It's a strange place, though an interesting one. Although it's the Barren Temple that would draw your interest. It was built by the ancient Oni as a final test for new Devas, and they did things with the place that are impossible as far as anyone today knows. To start with, the entire structure is infused."

"Really? Then the ancient Oni knew how to perform infusion on a large scale."

"Yeah, but that's not the crazy part. That much we know to be theoretically possible, even if we can't do it. The crazy part is the level of awareness the place sowed. We knew going in that it had observational capabilities, as each trial is adjusted based on your performance in previous trials. And when we realized it had been infused, we assumed that was what allowed it to make the adjustments. But then I decided to test how much it would let you repeat the same tactic over and over, and..."

Keine opened the door. "Ah, Levia. You've returned."

"Yes," Levia said.

Mokou got to her feet. "Guess that means I'm done here."

"I was not expecting you to be present. What business brought you here?"

"I found one of the objects Nue's looking for and dropped it off with Byakuren. Keine asked me to stay in the village until you returned in order to help reassure the villagers of their safety."

"And now you are going to attend to other business. Despite your conflicting emotions, you are determined to succeed at whatever your goal may be."

"Don't you start," Mokou said.

"Ah, " Kenie said, "that's right. You have empathic abilities, don't you?"

"Mokou bears the scent of hatred," Levia said, "but-"

"Just shut up already!" Mokou said.

"Very well. You are already aware of your feelings, anyways. You simply have yet to truly accept it."

"Whatever," Mokou said. She pushed past Levia and flew away.

"...Right," Keine said a few moments later.

"You bear the scent of concern," Levia said. "You care about her."

"I do."

"Then I shall tell you this: the hatred Mokou bears is towards herself. She bears regret for past actions, and hatred towards herself for what she did."

"I gathered as much. I've known her for quite some time, after all, even if it's been a while since we spent time together. But I don't think there's anything more I can do to help her."

"Then you and I are in agreement. But do not be too worried; I believe she is beginning to come to the realization of what her emotions truly are."

"As do I. I don't need empathic abilities to know her feelings."

"I see. Well, you now know that we have returned, so I have no further business here. I shall take my leave."

"Okay," Yuugi said upon entering Nitori's workshop, "just what, exactly, are you working on there?"

"Something for me to use," Nitori said, not bothering to look up. "Don't worry; your gauntlets are done. I finished those before starting on this."

"Decided to go with Mitori, then?"

"Yeah," Nitori said. "Maybe not every time she goes in, but she's right; there's no reason I can't make something that'll let me fight those robots as well as she does. One second... there." She set her tools down. "All right, let me get the gauntlets for you. Let's see... I think I put them over here." She started rummaging through a pile of... well, stuff; Yuugi had no idea what most of it was. "Ah-ha!" Nitori pulled out the gauntlets. "Knew they were in there somewhere."

"Okay, how did you manage to bury those like that when you just finished them?"

"Careful practice." Nitori walked over to Yuugi and handed her the gauntlets. "Here, try them on."

Yuugi did so. "Nice fit. Flexible, too. Probably won't hurt dexterity."

"They've got good shock absorption, too, and they're a lot harder a material to be hit by than even your fists, so they'll make even your punches hit harder. Also, see these? You can slide these spikes down to the front, concentrating the force of impact into their points for maximum penetration. They can be adjusted individually, too, so you can position them differently or only have one or two down at a time instead of all four. The gauntlets also have these extendable blades on the side, if you need to cut something. I know you don't use much magic, but since you infused the gauntlets, they won't interfere with any magic you do use. And, of course, you can place them in the nether, and they will form already on your hands when you call them out."

"Sounds good. Thanks."

"You and Nue rescued my sister. You're not the one who should be saying 'thanks'."

"I'm saying it anyways."

"Fair enough."

"But yeah," Yuugi said, "these are good." She placed them in the nether. "Fine work, Nitori."

"Of course it is. They don't call me the best for nothing."

"Well, I guess I'll head back to the village now. Say 'hi' to Mitori for me."

"Sure thing," Nitori said. "Bye."

"...left Facade fairly promptly, and returned here."

"You're right," Byakuren said once Nue had finished. "I would like to visit this "Barren Temple'. We should invite Alice and Patchouli along as well."

"Alice might come," Nue said, "but I don't think there's anything that can get Patchouli out of that library."

"She is rather reluctant to leave, yes, but if anything could draw her out of the mansion, the level of lost magic you found in that temple is certainly it."

"Yeah, maybe. So, anyways, that's what I've been up to. What about you? You said things were fairly uneventful, right?"

"Indeed," Byakuren said. "Aside from Mokou's visit, the only truly noteworthy thing that happened was Nazrin's return yesterday."

"Oh, she's back? She found Ran?"

"Yes. Well, Chen, actually, but thanks to the shikigami bond, it was effectively the same as finding Ran. She told me about it shortly after telling Mira. According to her, Ran's going to be paying Mira a visit this evening."

"Ran's coming to Mira? Not the other way around?"

"Yes. Apparently, where she and Chen are living now is far enough from here that it would take Mira most of a day to get there, and the same amount of time getting back, far too long for Mira to be away from the shrine. So Ran will be coming to the shrine."

"I see."

"What of you? Are you going to be leaving again?"

"Not today," Nue said.

That evening saw Mira sitting outside the shrine. Pretty uneventful day, really. Probably true for the village, too, unless Nue's group decided to do more Shade hunting. Probably not, though. I'd guess Nue chose to spend the rest of the day since her return with Byakuren. Yuugi may have gone Shade hunting, since her goal is more to kill them than to find those objects Nue's looking for, but she's likely back in the village by now, too. Don't know about Levia, but I'd guess she was either in the village somewhere or with Yuugi. But regardless, Mira's own day had been uneventful. So far, at least. Depending on what she has to say, Ran's visit may prove interesting. Mira was currently sitting outside while eating, so that she could see when Ran arrived. And given that I've just sat down for dinner, she'll probably be here right... about... now. And sure enough, she noticed two figures in the sky approaching.

Mira got to her feet as Ran and Chen landed. "Welcome. Thank you for coming."

"Think nothing of it," Ran said. "You are, after all, the Hakurei maiden. Looking after the barrier is your duty, and as the only person alive who knows more about it that the Hakurei clan, I am more than willing to provide what aid I can. I cannot actually affect the border, as what little manipulation I once could do was only through my bond with Yukari, but her passing does not diminish my knowledge."

"Good," Mira said. "Let's get down to business, then."

"Can we have some food first?" Chen said. "I'm hungry."

"There is food," Mira said, "but business comes first. I am postponing my own meal, as well."

"Be patient, Chen," Ran said. "Nazrin will have told her that we'd want accommodations for the night."

"She mentioned you might be spending the night here, yes," Mira said, "and I do have food prepared, but I am going to insist on speaking about the barrier first."

"Oh, fine," Chen said. "Just try and be quick, all right?"

"I will take as much time as is needed, no more and no less. Now, Ran, how much did Nazrin tell you?"

"She said you felt a change in the barrier," Ran said, "and that you suspected it may be reverting to the state it held prior to Reimu's death."

"That's right."

"Yukari did manage to say before she died that the barrier would likely revert to its prior state eventually, but I do not know when this is to happen. And given that I cannot sense the barrier myself, I'm afraid I cannot say for sure that the reversion is beginning."

"Yes, you can." Mira affixed a paper charm to Ran's chest, and a matching charm to her own. "I'm going to focus on the barrier. The charm should allow you to feel it as well while I'm doing so."

"I see. You're quite well-prepared."

"I'm quite aware that it was only through Yukari that you could sense and affect boundaries. I knew you would not be able to directly sense the barrier. Did you really think I'd ask you to comment on its state without having found some way around this? Now, quiet for a while, please." Mira focused on the barrier for a few moments. "There." She removed both charms. "What did you get?"

"I haven't actually had an opportunity to sense it since Yukari died," Ran said, "so I'm afraid I'm not sure what it's felt like since then, but... well, it is changing, I'm sure of that much. And there did seem to be a sense of reversion."

"So it is returning to its prior state. All right, then. Now for some contingency planning."

"Contingency planning?"

"Yukari had to step in when Reimu died," Mira said, "because there was no other Hakurei able to assume the role of the Hakurei maiden. Yukari's not alive anymore, so there's no backup plan if that happens again. With the state the barrier has been in since then, it would easily have remained stable for some time even without a maiden, but if it's reverting, this cannot be relied on."

"I suppose that's true. I'm not sure what could be done, though."

"Try and think of something. I, meanwhile, will begin to take steps to ensure that the current situation is only temporary, that there will always be a descendant of the Hakurei line available to assume the role of maiden. It's quite simple, really; all I need to do is make sure I have as many descendants as possible." She grabbed what remained of her dinner and began quickly finishing it. "There's food for you two inside, and your rooms are ready. Spend the evening however you want. Just make sure not to disturb me and my guest when I return."

"You're having another guest?" Chen said. "Who?"

"The first willing man. You two make yourselves at home; I'm going to go find someone to get me pregnant."

Yeah, short chapter, I know, but I thought these scenes fit better in a separate chapter rather than tacked onto the end and beginning of the previous and next chapters. Besides, the last one was long enough already, and the next one, well, I don't really want too many scenes distracting from the main focus.

So, anyways, not a lot of action this chapter. Some character development, though. I especially liked the dream bit. I found it a very interesting way to get a look at characters' mindsets, and in just a couple sentences for each character, too. I hope you all found it interesting, too, especially since I may well do it again.

So Yuugi has her new gauntlets, Nue's spent some time with Byakuren, and Levia's weighed in on the Kaguya/Mokou situation. Oh, and Mira decided to solve the potential-barrier-destabilization problem by having as many kids as she possibly can. So yeah.

Anyways, next up is the Forest of Myth, which should be interesting.

Also, I would like to once again thank everyone who's reviewed the story, and also to encourage all of my readers to do so for this and future chapters.