6 Icicle Sukima

by WillieG.R

After a chain of events, a new and odd kind of sukima is created, though it's unstable and unreliable, but could be someone's salvation. Does it have anything to do with the odd light-blue haired twins, or this new visitor from elsewhere?

10. Chapter 10

It is now dawn, the crown of the sun is starting to peek its waking light over the mountains, and the expected guest hasn't arrived to the Hakurei Shrine.

Suzaku perches on the shrine's roof just above the donation box with Suika lounging to her right and taking gulps from her gourd, yet keeps looking sternly toward the large red gate.

She corks her gourd and looks to the bird, the red vermillion bird nods then takes flight to the south-west, keeping her flight-path aligned with the shrine's stairs.

"Well, I certainly hope I'm not doing this to entertain that old hag, or I'm asking mom to seal-wait!"

The bird's line of thought is halted when her gaze is met with a peculiar sight.

A young light-blue haired boy is making his way up the shrine's stairs, and doing so with great effort while trailing some blood behind him.

Suzaku squawks and quickly dives, then telepathically calls "little boy! Hey, little boy, what do you think you are doing-? By the powers, it's Leon!"

Realizing who the 'guest' is and how damaged his body is, the Bird of Vermillion reveals her claws in mid-dive and grabs the boy's shirt over the shoulders, the only place on his body without wounds.

He struggles to free himself from Suzaku's claws, but when he look up and see her he relaxes, even though being carried like that is hurting him a lot at the moment.

He sighs then winces, but quickly composes himself and weakly says "Miss Suzaku. Th-thank you," then winces again and groans "hurts."

The red bird hurries up the stairs, reaches the top in record time, and helps the boy land as gently as possible on the left side of the porch on the shrine building.

The moment the boy sits and leans against a wooden beam to his right the vermillion bird worriedly asks "young man, what happened to you? What were you doing out there on your own at these hours?"

Suika jumps down from the roof and observes the wounds on the boy's body as he lets his head rest against the wooden beam and pants as though having run a marathon.

The left leg has a simple scratch, his right arm and leg seem to have been gripped by something with sharp claws, his face is full of scratches, but the one wound she flinches at is the one gash going across his chest and stomach.

Regardless of the pain he feels, the boy smiles as he struggles to rummage through the pocket on his left, groans as he pulls Patchouli's rolled letter, then takes in as much air as his battered body will allow and says "letter, for Miss Rei-urg, Reimu. From Patchouli my love."

Though drunk, the little oni's voice comes sternly as she says "oi, better go get Reimu."

"No, please. L-let-let her sleep," pleas the weak boy, resting his arm with the letter on his lap, and after breathing in enough air he finishes "I can wait right here. It's no-no problem."

"No little one, it's no bother! Mom won't mind if it's an emergency," says the red bird as she rushes toward the door before the boy can debate some more.

After the bird somehow opens the sliding door and enters, the drunken oni offers a tiny sake cup fillet to the brim to the weak boy.

He raises his head to meet the friendly oni's eyes and reveals a small cut on his neck, yet he smiles as he accepts the cup with his right hand, balancing his shoulder and head to keep from dropping on the wooden floor.

The boy exhales as the alcohol warms his entire body, then Suika softly says "you're pretty strong for a human. Drinking sake so eagerly with all those wounds on 'ya."

The boy smiles after returning the cup and leaning against the beam again, then says "but I'm not a-" then Reimu walks out the doors with Rika behind her and Suzaku on the maid's shoulder, and all attention falls on them.

The maiden sighs after looking at the young boy and looks sadly at her maid and the bird, then slowly shakes her head.

The shrine maid moans softly and lowers her wings, then Reimu returns her attention to Leon and asks "so what happened? Why did you risk yourself to come here, and at night of all the worst possible times?"

The boy smiles again, raises his shaking arm and offers the rolled letter to the maiden, then weakly says "important letter ...from Miss Patchouli."

As she accepts the letter the maiden can't help but look at the boy with pity, and before she can say a word he says "please, don't be mad at Maeria. She was just hungry. Poor thing was so. very.. hun-gry..."

"My lady, what's happening?", cries the shrine maid when Leon's body begins to glow and his eyes start to close.

Reimu calmly shushes her maid and prevents the oni from getting closer, tells them to watch, and they all do just that as they boy's body slowly turns to dust from head to toe along with all his clothes, and now all that remains of Leon of Kori is a sparkly mist cloud next to the wooden beam and ice dust neatly piled on the floor.

The maiden expels her breath after witnessing such a event and begins a prayer, Rika begins to sob loudly while holding Suzaku's head against her cheek, and Suika turns her head away to hide her depression.

After she's done praying, Reimu opens the letter, reads it quickly, then presents it to her maid with an annoyed stare and says "well, it's better he didn't find out what was on this."

The oni tries peeking at the letter, then the maiden lets it fall on the floor next to the pile of ice dust, so she, the shrine maid and the vermillion bird can read "Please keep him away from me for as long as you can."

Anger takes the oni, going from the pit of her stomach to the crown of her head, and as she flings her fists around she shouts "that book-loving bitch! Sending him to his death just for this? I got a good mind to-"

She stops her ranting when Reimu lifts her hand to her, and with a calm smile on her face she says "don't worry girls. I'll take care of this matter myself. Heheh, don't you worry about it."

All three present sentient beings feel relieved to hear Reimu say she's taking care of this matter, but can't shake the feeling of dread coming from the maiden's deathly smile and ominous glare.

---

Later that morning, after the sun is halfway over the mountains and breakfast has been consumed, Reimu walks outside and takes a deep breath while stretching her arms over her head.

Rika, Suzaku and Suika follow the maiden outside, and after the oni is out of the shrine, the angelic-winged maid turns around, stares at the empty toothed clamp-traps with cushions on the teeth, then sighs and closes the sliding door, making sure to lock it before turning around.

As she turns her eyes gaze upon the mist and ice dust left by Leon on the porch and twitches, but manages to suppress a sob to look calmly at her mistress.

Reimu sighs, face palms and says "stop doing that! Don't hide those emotions or it's going to bite you on the butt... and your friends' too."

A tear escapes the maid, a sob comes out as soon as she opens her mouth, then the oni-girl pats her back and says "there, there. Have some sake."

"Sorry *sniffle*, but I'm weak to alcohol, and I am on duty, so," respectfully declines the maid with a pained smile.

"Suit yourself," casually replies the oni before taking the offered cup and drinking its contents, while at the same time the maiden grins and asks "and where do you think you are going?"

Rika bows and flaps her wings, mixing the cute feather-fluttering with Suzaku's shadow while she flies in the sky, then raises up again to meet her mistress' eyes and says "I'm coming with you to Miss Remilia's mansion. What Miss Patchouli did is inexcusable, and I wish to give her a piece of my mind."

The shrine maiden grins and slightly raises her hand, but stops when the maid straightens up and holds her own cheek while saying "of course, I also want to go there to make sure little-sis Koa wasn't involved. If she was, I'm going to have to discipline her again."

"A-ha-ha-ha... I see," nervously chuckles the maiden, noticing a strange glow coming from her maid's right hand.

Mentally discarding that image the shrine maiden continues her approach to Rika, places her hand on her maid's shoulder, then smiles naturally while saying "oh, but you have something else to do today. A search, if I'm not mistaken."

The maid's eyes suddenly sparkle, her face brightens up, her small wings spread and seem to vibrate with excitement, and whimpering happily she asks "you mean...?"

"That's right," says the maiden in a bubbly tone while still gripping her maid's shoulder "I won't hold you back for today. Go search for Byakuren and make sure she gets back home. I can tell you are genuinely worried about her anyway."

The angelic girls light-blue eyes sparkle with stars that could enhance the night sky, she cups her hands under her chin, her smile widens, and her wings start flapping harder and faster.

She looks to the sky at the vermillion bird as it circles above her and says "ALRIGHT! Thank you so much my lady! You are the BEST!"

In her excitement, she takes off to the air and joins Suzaku, looks down at her mistress, then waves her hands while calling "thank you again Miss Reimu! Please feel free to summon me if you need me! I'll be going now so, bye~!"

After the cute and busty maid eagerly flies away, the drunken oni walks to the shrine maiden's side and says "boy, that girl is just too cute. So Reimu, are you alright- oh, I see."

She promptly prepares another cup of sake and hands it over to the red and white.

Underneath Reimu's nostrils flows a slow stream of blood that drips down her chin while she looks up to the sky with an elated and sparkly smile on her face.

She subconsciously accepts the sake cup from the oni, drinks it down at once, the blood disappears from her face, her expression returns to calm, and feeling refreshed she returns the cup and says "alright, now that my HP is restored, I'm off!"

"Oh, that's right," mouths the girl just before taking flight, then turns to Suika and says "don't forget about that favor, ok."

The oni salutes the maiden with that childish smile covering her face to acknowledge Reimu, and promptly after, both girls take off to the air to different directions.

Immediately after rising above the trees the shrine maiden squeals with glee when her eyes fall upon the sight of Ail, Cirno and Sanae flying toward her same destination over the distance.

"Ugh, that girl is with him, again! What is she, his girlfriend or something?"

After saying this to herself she shrugs and says "well, whatever. I'll just go over and say hi to Ail. Say Rika, how abou-oh right... I'm alone here."

Sighing in defeat, the red and white maiden stays her course and scratches her plan of getting closer to her man-prey, thinking it would be more prudent to attack stealthily instead of going for a head-on attack while on her own.

---

Meanwhile, Alice, Shanghai and Hourai arrive to their home at the Forest of Magic and immediately feel a little overwhelmed by a mysterious energy.

"Oh dear," whispers Alice. "What's happening. Shanghai, Hourai, can you guys feel that?"

The red-dressed tiny-girl drops on her mother's right shoulder, and while hanging there like a rag she says "maybe we left that book open again."

The puppeteer chuckles after recovering from the energy wallop and says "no, no, that thing only works if we sing the incantation," then whispers to herself "not that we're going to try that again..."

The blue-dressed tiny-girl, seemingly unaffected by the energy points toward the house and shouts "mama Alice, a stranger is sitting in front of the door!"

Hourai lifts her head to stare along with the puppeteer magician and her tiny sister at the boy sitting in a meditative pose in front of said house's door.

The youkai murderer's face seems to be filled with pain and confusion.

Beads of sweat roll down his forehead as he trembles and winces, then stops everything, places his hands on his knees and breathes deeply through his mouth, then opens his tired and hateful eyes.

"Excuse me, are you lost?" curiously asks the magician, who is already leaning close to the boy while her two tiny daughters fly by her sides.

The boy looks up at the blue-eyed girl and mumbles "more youkai."

She straightens up and turns her head away as she says "hmph, such attitude! Got a problem with youkai?"

The boy sighs while thinking "come on Drake, you've already messed up several times. Don't screw up now," then uncrosses his legs and says "I'm sorry, I meant no offense. Miss, would you happen know a Miss Alice Margatroid?"

The puppeteer magician grips her grimoire around her left arm and tenses her right hand before asking "for what purpose are you looking for her?"

Her two daughters stop fluttering around and hover stiffly over their mother's shoulders, readying themselves for attack.

Noticing the girls' tension the boy stops his attempts of getting up and remains on his knees.

He looks up at Alice, relaxes his hateful stare into a more friendly look, then says "my name is Drake Starstriker. I come to request for Miss Margatroid's assistance in repairing a most priced garment."

The girls relax immediately and their expression change completely, and with welcoming smiles the puppeteer says "then you have come to the right place. Come on in , you can show me this garment inside, Mister Starstriker."

Sighing with relief in his mind, Drake stands up and bows his head just slightly, then follows the girls into the house.

The house's interior is beautifully adorned, fit for a lady of Alice's elegance and reputation.

The living room has a large three-person couch and a pair of matching single couches facing each other from across a glass table that rests in the center.

On the backrest of each seat are matching hand-made cloths with red rose buds motifs, on the table sits an empty, but elegant pot, and there is a large bookshelf with some spaces between books resting against the outer wall.

The windows are all adorned with delicate cream-colored curtains, or at least it seems that way from where the boy is standing, and the kitchen and dining room are medium-sized, quite comfortable for a single person.

He can see a round table with matching chairs in the center of the dining room, but before he can observe more Alice calls for him and signals him to sit on the large three-person couch in front of the farthest edge of the center table.

As soon as he sits he is served tea and cookies on trays by several dolls, then notices many more dolls, most of them similar to Shanghai in appearance, cleaning the many books and adornments in the house.

"Well, this is a rare sight. Dolls doing housework without causing havoc," says the boy with a tone of admiration.

Proud of her skill, the puppeteer magician chuckles and says "thank you. It's not as easy as it looks, but I can manage my girls quite well. Now..."

She takes the single seat to the left of the room where a cup of tea awaits her on a tray that's balanced on the seat's armrest, and after taking her cup and placing it on her lips, the stares at the boy with wonderment.

The two tiny girls each take a seat on the armrests beside the magician and join their mother in staring at the boy while each enjoy a square cookie from their mother's tea tray.

Understanding their sights, Drake rummages through his right pocket until he finds and pulls out his ruined bandana, then places it on the table next to the tea and snacks he is yet to accept.

Alice raises an eyebrow and says "I see. This is a rather complex garment. Whomever made it must have been exceptionally skilled."

The boy nods and calmly says "so you understand why I seek your aid. This can't be sewed back that easily. I needs-"

"To be sewed with precision while embedding a fixed amount of magic into each thread so it doesn't disintegrate or explode while being repaired. It also requires a similar fabric to the original, which I just happen to have," interrupts the witch, genuinely surprising the godling.

She places her half-filled teacup on the tray and picks the bandanna, then looks at the boy and says "you understand a job like this requires a lot of materials, time, concentration, and all leads to the fact that-"

"I never expected this job to be done for free my lady. Please name your price and I'll do what I have to do in order to pay for your services," interrupts the boy while staring at Shanghai, who keeps giving him cautious glances.

The puppeteer magician smiles, her eyes brighten up, and while keeping them locked on her guest she calmly says "alright then. Bring me the materials I will list on this piece of paper and you debt will be paid."

As she says this a pair of dolls bring her a piece of paper and a pen and she scribbles furiously on said paper, then hands it to Hourai who flies toward the boy and hands the list.

"I'll need plenty of each of those. I will be using many for the repairs of this magical garment. Oh, and the blue-spotted mushroom are very rare, so if you could get me at least five, that will be greatly appreciated."

After Alice finishes speaking, Hourai stands next to the boy and says "oh, and when hunting mushrooms you need to be careful! There is this rude witch that hunts them too. She makes mama angry all the time!"

A skillfully maneuvered thin string wraps itself around the little girl's arm and the magician pulls her little daughter back.

While Shanghai scolds her sister, the blond magician face palms and groans "she's right though. Marisa can be a pain. Just be sure NOT to tell her those are for me and she should probably leave you alone."

"And if not?" asks the boy.

The puppeteer grins, then casually says "then you will have failed, and will have to try again. She's no pushover, that Marisa, so be careful."

Somehow, Kasen's voice echoes inside Drake's mind as she sternly says "please don't go killing her!"

He sighs, stands up, then walks toward the door while saying "I'll be careful my lady."

---

Meanwhile, Ail, Cirno and Sanae fly over the mountains east of the Misty Lake, when the dense one asks "hey Cirno, if you wanted to stay with Rika so badly, why did you come with us?"

The little ice fairy stops to think, then the boy and his maiden girlfriend also stop and stare.

They both twitch when the fairy's face starts turning pink and drool starts dribbling down her left cheek, and then she looks at the couple.

"That deliciously beautiful angel with such soft cushions inside her shirt. Oh how I love that! So soft and squishy, and she's so warm when she hugs me and squeezes me with those angelic pillows."

The fairy swoons while thinking more and more about Rika and her assets, places her hands on her cheeks while giggling, then says "ah, if I could just stay with her forever I'd be so happy! She treats me so kindly and doesn't call me an idiot when I mess up. And... those yummy squishy pillows. Ooh, and those soft angel wings!"

She giggles yet again and screams "kyaaaah~! I want to marry miss Rika!"

Somewhere over the land of Gensokyo, Rika's sword suddenly glows bright pink, startling her and her bird familiar.

"Master, what just happened?" asks the Bird of Vermillion, to which Rika holds her sword and just shrugs as a response.

Back over the mountains, the little fairy opens her eyes and stares at the frightened and surprised looks on Ail, Sanae and now Phredia who sits on Sanae's shoulders, then sighs and says "but I made a promise to you. You are also nice to me Ail, and you took care of me before, so I will help you if I can."

Recovering his usual calm face, the boy smiles and dares to fly closer to the perverted little ice fairy, pats her head, and says "you are a very good girl Cirno."

He twitches, grabs the fairy, then hurries over to the blue and white maiden, grabs her hand, then dives with them toward the large mansion resting hidden under the mountain's small lake.

Before they can ask, the boy points to the sky hurriedly says "it's Reimu," and now the party of three and a half stand in front of the gates of Yuka's old mansion, though look around for the mentioned maiden, which they cannot see.

"Tch, why hide? I could have just easily kicked her butt," growls Sanae while dusting her skirt.

The dense boy chuckles nervously as beads of sweat roll down his forehead, and turning his body toward the door while keeping his nervous face aimed as his girlfriend he nervously replies "yeah, I rather we avoid any unnecessary conflicts today."

"I have to go and search for Budou after this," sternly continues the dense boy while turning a cold face toward the door and knocking hard.

After half a minute passes the ice fairy sighs and says "how rude. They should have answered a year ago!"

Ail, Sanae and Phredia raise an eyebrow while looking at the confidently annoyed ice fairy, but none can find words to correct the unnatural words that have just been spewed.

Fortune smiles when from within someone finally answers "alright, alright, I can hear you out there. Hold on," and now several clacks and jingling metals can be heard right behind that door.

"Alright, this key unlocks this, and this one... um isn't this for the cuffs and-, never mind."

The voice of Yuka Kazami, the beautifully hazardous flower master from the Garden of the Sun, can be heard as it slowly goes from slightly irritated, to severely annoyed.

She can be heard mumbling furiously about keys and locks and what they do, and along with a furious rattle her now raging voice worries the two somewhat-humans outside.

The rattling gets more and more loud, then "ARGH! Screw this, I never liked the locks anyway."

"GET DOWN!" screams the boy, grabbing Cirno and jumping toward Sanae.

"Original Master Spark!"

The front door to the mansion flies to the sky the second the party hits the ground for cover, then the flower youkai walks out with a content smile on her face and saying "welcome, welcome. I was expecting you to come sooner Ail. I'm so disappointed in you."

The woman has short wavy green hair adorned with a sunflower on the right side, deceivingly friendly-looking red eyes, and wears a thin pink unbuttoned shirt, matching pink brassiere, a long plaid red skirt, and a pair of red shoes.

"Welcome to Mugenkan my dear guests," sings the master of the mansion with a deceivingly sweet voice, raising her hands in a welcoming manner, then quickly notices her guests are cowering on the ground and with a curious face she asks "what are you doing down there?"

The dense boy grunts as he gets up with a mind to scold the flower youkai, but after seeing her open shirt and that silky-looking bra his face turns tomato red and turns around to look at the ground.

"What's the matter now?" impatiently asks the flower master, crossing her arms under her ample womanhood and rapidly tapping her foot on the floor.

The blue and white maiden holds the boy's shoulder and coos words of comfort, then turns her head around to Yuka with a furious scowl and exclaims "hey, stop being indecent and cover yourself up!"

"Well," seductively whispers the woman, and taking slow steps toward her guests she purrs "I'm so sorry for wearing my clothes the way I want to wear them while in my own house."

She then turns her attention to Cirno and gleefully asks "oh, the little ice fairy. Have you been freezing flowers again?"

The fairy is understandably frightened and hides behind the frowning maiden.

Looking at this scene, flower master Kazami flaps her hand in the air while sighing, then says "just think it's a bikini or something like that."

Ail's body twitches, he stops breathing, then turns around and moves his mouth, though no words come out, then Sanae strikes the back of his head with her gohei knocking him to the ground, and exclaims "Ail-kun is perverted only for me, or ELSE!"

The flower youkai giggles mischievously, then casually comments "oh my, seems he has a thing for big breasted green haired women."

"I HAVE LONGER HAIR!" shouts the maiden, making the green haired youkai smile and say "well, someone's on edge," but that smile is swiftly erased when coos and giggles echo from inside the building.

The flower master face palms and sighs, almost sounding like a low growl, then the ice fairy asks "um, what's wrong?"

Yuka opens her eyes to reveal a vicious red glow on them, then softly roars "them again!"

One last bubbly giggle escapes through the blasted door of the mansion, then Elly, the eternal loving gatekeeper, peeks her head outside and smiles as she says "Lady Yuka, we'll be in the pool again, but you can call me if you need-oh my! Guests! I'm so sorry!"

The girl jumps outside, her blonde curved-up hair bounces, then she aims her sparkly yellow eyes toward the maiden and the fairy, bows, and says "welcome to Mugenkan!"

She wears a long red dress with a pink capelet, brown boots, a pink sun-hat with a red ribbon around it, and now she looks around herself and her shapely body as though searching for something.

"Here you go sweetie," says a somewhat raspy voice from within, and now a buff hand gives Elly her long scythe.

She turns toward the hand and giggles while accepting her weapon and says "thank you darling," then grabs that hand and pulls an old but buff kappa with a brown shell.

Even Ail stands up to enjoy the sight of the frustrated Yuka while her servant happily presents her kappa boyfriend to the guests.

"Everyone," calls the blonde girl "this is my boyfriend. Please say hi to him."

The old kappa has a thick white beard, short and smooth white hair, a bald spot on the crown of his head, narrow eyes, wears a golden necklace with a sun medallion, and a long white robe that covers his muscular body.

The kappa raises his hands and casually says "hey," and for some odd reason the seems to annoy the flower youkai even more, to the point that her cheeks puff up as she attempts to suppress her frustration.

Ail, having recovered from the sexy surprise, wants to say some distracting words to the flower master, but jumps back when she snarls.

She quickly gasps with a smile, reaches in her pocket, pulls out a hand-sized square box, then pulls out the bearded man with glasses known as Lester Wilson and forces him to stand all lovey-dovey beside her.

"Eh, what's goin-? Whoa, Yuka!"

The man takes a bit to understand the position he is in, and with a wide smile on his face he immediately wraps an arm around his dream woman's waist.

Although she twitches, although she wants to rip this man's arm off, her desire to make Elly jealous is stronger, so she ignores him and loudly says "oh, that's right, I found myself a boyfriend! Look Elly, look how he holds me so lovingly!"

The gatekeeper is currently rubbing noses with her kappa boyfriend, but she manages to register Yuka's words and looks to her master and the lucky bastard.

She stares for a moment, the left side of her lip stretches into a smile, then casually says "oh, so you did. Congratulations Miss Yukarin!"

She gasps when she remembers the gawking guests and bows while saying "oh, I'm so sorry! Please dear guests, come this way," then turns to her kappa man and says "darling, could you wait of me at the pool? I have some work to do."

The old kappa bows elegantly, grabs his girl's hand, gives it a soft kiss, then romantically says "I'll wait for you my sweet princess," making Elly swoon and flap her face with her other arm.

"Yuka-san," purrs the lucky bearded man, unaware that the flower youkai's plan has failed and her rage has escalated to dangerous levels, then unwisely pinches her left bun.

Cirno notices the move by the man, her cheeks turn pink, and with a bit of drool dribbling down the corner of her mouth she whispers "yeah, I'll do that with Rika."

The pile of bloody body parts that once was Lester Wilson lies on top of a hospital mattress while Eirin and Reisen give him some pitiable stares, then Kurumi wipes the blood she drank from the man on the way there and says "yup. He acted the 'boyfriend' part only too well."

She then rubs her chin and glances upward while in deep thought and says "come to think of it, the ice fairy was pretty traumatized by the whole thing," then shrugs and finishes "and I thought it was funny."

---

Meanwhile, Reimu arrives to the Scarlet Devil Mansion and casually greets Meiling as she walks through the gate.

"Ah, Miss Reimu. The mistress is sleeping, so please try to make your visit brief," warns the friendly gatekeeper.

The shrine maiden smiles, giggles and bows her head, then says "don't worry, I just need to give a message to a certain misbehaved librarian."

The green-vested girl stares estranged at the shrine maiden but decides to shrug it off and continue her peaceful, boring and silent gate keeping.

Inside the library Patchouli growls while trying to read a large book she holds in front of her face, yet she seems very unsettled and is obviously unable to read.

"Leooooon~! LEEEEOOOOOONNN~!" desperately calls Lina from the third floor, and when she quiets down the library settles down and peace seems to return, then tables and chairs can be heard tumbling all over while the girl calls for her brother again.

Koakuma walks over to her mistress' side, places an elegant cup of tea on the side of the table, then looks toward the source of the cracks and thumps, sighs and says "she already searched the whole mansion and still can't find him."

The purple librarian twitches, then mumbles incoherently while sinking half of her face into her book.

The doors to the library bang open and Reimu calls "Patchouli~! Where are you? We have to talk~!"

The purple-haired librarian takes a deep breath and sighs long while thinking "and he's back. Well, there goes my peace."

"Ah, Miss Reimu! We're over here," calls the little devil, then yelps when the light-blue-haired girl hugs her from behind and wines "I can't fine Leon anywhere! Where is he?"

"So you didn't tell her. Why am I not surprised?" says the red and white maiden the second she appears from behind the maze of bookshelves.

Patchouli, Koakuma and Lina turn their full attention to the shrine maiden, but the magician flinches, chokes, turns back to her book, then sinks her face in the pages as though trying to get herself inside of it.

"Tell us what?" demands the little devil while getting between her mistress and the guest.

The Kori girl looks into the maiden's eyes and demands "you know where Leon is?", then places her hand on her chest to express a sigh of relief and says "oh thank goodness! I was so worried!"

The shrine maiden nods, keeping a stern face while looking at the girls in front of her.

She takes a few steps forward, ignoring Koakuma's threatening glares, then stops when she is right next to Patchouli and coldly says "yes, I know where Leon is. But so does this purple cutie over here."

Shocked eyes turn straight toward the librarian and the little girl agitatedly demands "what does she mean by that Lady Patchouli? You told me he was exploring the mansion!"

Reimu takes the letter from within her left sleeve and says "she sent him on an errant to my shrine, to deliver this letter to me," then she tosses the piece of paper so it opens on the table for all to read and says "a rather important errand, one might think."

Lina approaches the letter immediately after it opens and reads it out loud "Please keep him away from me for as long as you can?", then looks at the red and white maiden and whispers "I... don't understand."

Sighing while rubbing her forehead the maiden says to herself "there's never an easy way to say these thing," then takes a deep breath and softly says "Leon is dead. Murdered by the hands of a wild youkai."

"WHAT?" yelps the ice girl with a dignified tone, and launches herself toward the purple-haired magician, fists raised for retribution, but is caught by the little devil, who asks "Miss Patchouli, what is the meaning of all this?"

The purple bean sprout twitches, but keeps her face buried inside her book and doesn't answer.

Instead, Reimu taps the ice girl on the shoulder to get her attention and says "I'll answer that for you. See, from what I can tell, she though doing what she did would give her the peace and tranquility she needed to read her precious books. She thought that a boy WITHOUT the ability to FLY or use MAGIC could make it to my shrine safely AT NIGHT and on his OWN and stay there all night seeing as I couldn't deny him shelter."

She casually walks beside the devil librarian and the ice girl and holds their shoulders, possibly to comfort them, then walks over to the magician's side.

"However, being the smart girl she is, Patchouli couldn't get that peace," says the maiden while brushing the back of the purple bean sprout's head, making the girl twitch stiffly.

The maiden grabs the book from the top and says "and now, after having her consciences peck at her all night for making such a terrible miscalculation, she finds out her intuition was right, that she should have gone after him, and now she's sorry."

"Isn't that right Patchouli?" asks the maiden as she lifts the book to reveal the librarian shedding silent tears behind cover.

Though revealed, her state of shock prevents her from moving, and with her tears flowing without stop, chocking her as she tries to halt them, and with great effort she manages to say "but he... was supposed to come. He... is supposed to come back. T-to be here."

She finally manages to move, looks to Reimu with confusion and asks "why isn't he here? Why did this happen?"

The maiden sighs and shakes her head, keeping her face stern all the time, then looks back at the magician librarian and asks "why did you knowingly send him to his death?"

"No! I didn't, I just-"

The purple-haired girl tries to find some way to justify her actions, but quickly finds none and just slumps and cries "I'm sorry! I messed up. I wasn't thinking."

"So much for Knowledge," monotonously says the maiden as she turns to the exit.

"Hey, you don't have to rub it in her face like that," exclaims the little devil.

She rushes to her mistress and coos some comforting words, and from the distance the maiden coldly says "well, I did my duty. I'll be headed ho-"

"Wait, Miss Reimu, let me come with you," calls Lina after rushing behind the red and white.

The maiden hides a victorious grin, and doing her best to sound cold and uncaring she says "why? To look at the pile of ice dust and mist left at my porch? I see no reason why."

"Lady Patchouli is truly sorry, so I supposed I c-"

The red and white maiden has jumped behind the girl and covered her mouth, then whispers "shh, don't say it now. Let's just leave it like this, for now."

Though weakened by grief, the magician stands up and with a cracking voice says "please, let us come too. I sh-should at least pay my respects. It's... the least I can do after what I did."

She sniffles and lets out a held back sob, then the shrine maiden sighs, still hiding her smile, then says "alright then, you can come."

Afterward she gently pushes Lina with her, and when Koakuma is about to ask the maiden says "I'll be going on ahead with this one. You know the way to the shrine, so just catch up to us after you're ready."

"Now come with me little lady. Let's go to my shrine," sweetly says the red and white maiden while guiding the girl to the dual doors, leaving the crying librarian and her concerned assistant to their preparations.

The second those dual doors close behind them the Kori girl turns to Reimu and asks "why didn't you let me tell them?"

The maiden chuckles, gently pushes the girl down the corridor, then says "come on, let's have a little chat."

Hidden in the shadows, Sakuya glares toward the shrine maiden, and though for a moment she appears as if she is going to attack, she closes her eyes and sighs, then disappears from sight, leaving behind three game cards that fall promptly after appearing.

---

Back at Mugenkan, in the deepest and darkest parts of the mansion, Ail and Sanae scratch their heads while inspecting a large blue magical circle with a pentagram in the middle, runes inside the bordering circle, and seven well-known paper seals with a certain shrine maiden's handwriting on them.

The boy groans inward while staring at the seals with frustration, then opens another gap that does open a door to the dream realm, but none of the girls from the other side can cross it.

"Ail, you promised! Why are you torturing us like this?" cries Gengetsu while pounding her fists on the seemingly open gap.

"I'm trying, but Reimu's seals are really tough to work around," sighs the boy.

"And for some reason my own seals can't even counter these, even for a moment," growls the aggravated blue and white maiden.

"Um, sis, I need to use the bathroom," cautiously whispers Mugetsu.

Kana places her nose on top of the dream maid's own nose, smiles dearly, then casually says "I'll give you a massage if you do it right here."

From inside and outside the gap, the boy, his girlfriend and angel-winged dream demon simultaneously shout "use the toilet!", after noticing that the blonde maid was about to obey the poltergeist.

Meanwhile, several feet behind this amusing scene is a red couch with one depressed, open-shirt Kazami, Cirno on the flower master's lap, and Phredia on said woman's left shoulder.

"...and then I moved here to escape that guy," softly says Yuka while combing the ice fairy's hair with her hand and saying "I left my flower fields unattended and thought I would find peace here, but then there's the pool, a perfect habitat for a kappa," and then she groans.

The two fairies don't seem to mind listening to this woman go on and on about how she wants nothing more than to escape those two disgustingly lovey-dovey love-birds but can't think of anything to succeed in her quest, and then it happens.

"Um, Miss Yuka, why don't you leave them in the pool and go back to your flowers?"

The ice's fairy's obvious suggestion hits the flower youkai's stupid-button so hard she spasms as though she has just been hit on the head with a bat.

She grips the fairy's arms gently but firmly, turn her around, then smiles disturbingly wide and says "you are a little GENIUS!"

She lifts the fairy and thanks her with one kiss on the face after another, ignoring the little ice spirit's pleas for release and the gentle ear-tugs from the elf fairy on her shoulder.

"Alright, I think I got it!"

Ail's exclamation distracts Yuka, to Cirno's luck, then the boy and his girlfriend scream as something explodes.

"DAMMIT REIMU!", shouts the boy.

"Stop shouting, you idiot!", shouts Sanae.

"Hey, don't shout at me!", shouts the boy.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I just thought you were capable enough to do this!", shouts the enraged girlfriend.

"Oh! Oh-ho-HO! Well I don't see you coming up with anything helpful, miracle girl!", shouts the boy.

"You're asking for it whiny coward," growls the maiden.

The flower master and the fairies stare dumbstruck at the scene before them, then Yuka giggles and says "maybe we should do something to cool them off, don't you think?"

Cirno gasps with a smile and excitedly says "ooh, ooh! I can do that," then raises a spell card.

At the amusing sight, the dense boy and his maiden girlfriend stand on their hands and knees and press their faces against each other in a challenging manner.

Their faces and hands, and the ground around the still-open-but-useless gap are all full of burn marks while the seals all look like new, and from within the gap Gengetsu stares at the quarreling couple with disgust and sighs "look, just forget it. Thanks for trying though."

The couple seem to ignore the girl as they snarl and growl at each other, pushing each others' forehead with their own as though fighting over dominion, and then they lock lips and start to kiss, disgusting the winged dream demon and making the poltergeist and maid-dressed dream demon shriek excitedly.

The passion only lasts until the little ice fairy shouts "Freeze Sign, Perfect Freeze," and now the two lovers are frozen inside a thick sheet of ice, standing on all fours while passionately locking lips and looking shocked.

Gengetsu and Yuka laugh hard at the sight, then Mugetsu and Kana shriek again.

Ail's gap starts opening and closing on its own several times until it finally opens up with a loud *VWOOM* and looks like a network of ice with unblinking eyes inside.

The flower master smiles as she stares at the gap with interest and says "oh-ho-ho~. This is something you don't see every day."

From within said gap the three dream girls rush right out, flying erratically as they excitedly head straight to the mansion's exit, shouting "finally, the real world!"; "Can't WAIT to see the sights!"; "I wonder if there are any available men around."

The ice gap closes, the girls' voices fade away in the distance, Cirno, Yuka and Phredia stare flatly toward the fleeing girls' fainting voices, then the green-haired woman sighs with annoyance and says "pheh, how rude! They didn't even offer me their loyalties!"

She takes a quick breath, smiles naturally, then says "it's alright. Come girls, let's have some warm tea to celebrate. After today I am going back to my pretties and leaving those disgusting lovers drowning in the pool."

The ice fairy cheers, not fully understanding what's just been said, while Phredia looks a bit distressed, but just accepts the invitation and takes flight beside the woman, leaving the shrine maiden and the dense boy trapped in the kissing ice to thaw out with the own heat of their love.

---

Outside the two mansions it's already midday, and while flying over the open fields between the Forest of Magic and the Human Village Rika sighs with frustration after hours of searching for Byakuren without success.

"Rika-sama," casually says Suzaku "why don't you use the special eyes?"

The maid looks puzzled at her familiar, but quickly catches up and exclaims "hey, why didn't I think of that sooner! Someone like Miss Hijiri should be easy to find like that!"

The vermillion bird wants to grin mischievously, but settles with turning her head as though gesturing an eye-roll.

The busty angel-winged maid closes her eyes, her wings grow, her sword turns colorful, her eyes look like the daytime sky with clouds drifting lazily behind her pupils, and as soon as she finishes activating her Soraogan mode, those eyes of hers start glowing faint light-blue.

To Rika's eyes the world looks slightly different, but it's just what she needs.

She can see people, spirits, youkai, and other kinds of creatures as flames that represent their natural affinity.

For example, she can see Suzaku like a giant fiery flame with a gentle aura around it, and the sight is so impressive the maid flinches.

The bird looks puzzled at the shrine maid and asks "is something wrong Master?"

The girl nervously shakes her head and with a nervous smile says "oh, it's nothing. Nothing at all, hahaha," then looks to the ground for signs of Byakuren's flame.

"Fairy, fairies, Miss Mokou," and so she continues to casually list until she sees a red flame with a white center, a dark purple flame, and a greyish-pink flame and says "ah, there's Kyo, Medicine and Luna, headed for the clinic. I wonder if they're ok."

"Um, Rika-sama, please focus," says the vermillion bird while starting straight at her master.

Rika gasps and exclaims "there she is," and points toward the Forest of Magic's western edge.

There she can see an orange flame next to a bright pure white flame that shines strongly, then dims down and suddenly intensifies again, moving back and forth between trees as though zigzag-pacing.

Fortune smiles on the maid and her familiar as they are now close to the location and begin their swift descent.

Under the trees in the forest, Byakuren nervously paces about, making her anxious pacing into a game by passing between bushes and rocks in a zigzag and walking around a random tree to restart her pacing game.

As she does this she speaks to herself as though having a conversation.

"You should stop horsing around and just go there Hijiri!"

"But what if the girls don't want me back?"

"But what if they DO want me back... um, I mean you!"

"That's true, but I just left them. Oh, they must be mad."

"They are not mad Byakuren, they love you and they want you back."

She stops her pacing and her talking, looks around herself as though expecting something, but nothing happens.

She sighs, turns around to resume her pacing, then twitches at the sight of Rika Onkamikami standing with a smile on her face and Suzaku on her shoulder.

The shrine maid bows slightly and says "Miss Byakuren, thank the gods I have found you at last. Hurry, come with me to the temple and we-EH!"

When she raises her head she notices the saint standing stiff with a wriggled smile on her face and tears flowing out of her shocked eyes.

"AH! Byakuren-san, why are you crying? I'M SORRY! I didn't mean to scare you," cries out the maid in an attempt to calm the magician monk down.

Moments later the maid and the magician sit next to a tree where the winged girl gently holds the saint's shoulder and back and softly asks "I'm so sorry about that. Are you feeling better now?"

The woman sniffles and cleans her face with the back of her right sleeve, and with a natural smile on her face she nods and says "yes, I'm sorry for the trouble. I'm just no good with surprises."

"Oh, but that was such a rare sight, miss," happily says the red bird while pecking a dried tree branch to life, creating a new possible house for the woodland creatures.

The maid keeps her attention on the magician monk, then softly asks "so, miss Byakuren, what are you doing here? Don't you know the people at the temple miss you?"

The woman gulps and immediately looks away from the angelic maid, then nervously says "I-I er, not sure if I should, um, yet."

Before the sweet maid can speak any encouraging words to dear Byakuren, from the bushes behind their area a girl whispers loudly "oh sure. Man, what a stupid woman. If you wanna go, just-"

The leaves rustle and the girl says "uh-oh, I think they just heard me."

Rika and Byakuren are now on top of the voice's source, a young-looking girl with long bright orange hair tied with a white ribbon on the lower part which she keeps hung on her shoulder, bright red eyes, holding a small baton, and wearing a yellow cap, a green shirt with short yellow sleeves, yellow shorts, and a pair of white socks and red and white sneakers.

She glances over to each girl, sweats, then nervously says "erm, don't mind me, I'm not really here. You cannot see me."

The kind monk smiles and softly says "well hello there Miss youkai."

The orange-head twitches, smiles wriggled, then nervously says "um, I-I'm not a youkai, I swear! Y-you got the wrong person!"

The shrine maid extends a friendly hand toward the youkai girl and sweetly says "it's alright, we won't hurt you, but you should know it's rude to overhear someone else's conversation."

"GYAH! Get away! You're going to seal me again, like that shrine maiden did," screams the youkai girl while jumping away from Rika's hand and onto Byakuren's arms.

The well endowed monk welcomes the embrace and snuggles the lucky orange-head between her breasts, then proceeds to gently comb the side of her hair while softly whispering "there, there, it's alright. Nobody is going to seal you."

The lucky youkai girl finds herself unable to resist the soft warmness of the magician monk, her cheeks turn a bit pink, her whole body relaxes, and after a long sigh she just succumbs completely.

"There now. What a good girl you are," softly comments the monk, and after combing the girl's long hair and plucking out a few leaves and twigs, she asks "say, would you like to come with me to the Myouren Temple? It's a wonderful place where both human and youkai coexist. You'll be welcomed there as a friend."

The cute appeased youkai can't seem to speak, so she just nods and closes her eyes.

After seeing this the shrine maid takes the opportunity and says "you see Miss Byakuren? No matter what that mean old Drake said, you are meant to follow the path you have chosen."

The gradient-haired woman twitches and gasps, then rapidly ask "how did you-?", but before she finishes the question Rika stiffly says "that boy, he claims to be a god, but so far he seems to act like an overpowered bully. Just like-"

The maid looks away to the ground with a pained look, closes her eyes and shakes her head.

"Miss Rika, what's the matter?" concernedly asks the monk, still holding that lucky girl who smiles as though she's trapped inside a wonderful dream.

The angel-winged maid lifts her smiling head to the monk and says "sorry, bad mental image."

She quickly clears her throat and continues "as I was saying, Miss Byakuren, the people at the temple want you back, and you just showed yourself how wrong that Drake was. Come on, let us return to the temple, back to your home. I'll go with you if you want."

The monk magician looks at the completely relaxed youkai girl still held against her body and notices the happy smile on the girl, then thinks "by the spirits, she's right. And this, this was the answer I was looking for!"

Tears of joy slowly flow out the monk's eyes, and even the overly-relaxed youkai girl lifts her arm to wipe the nearest tear off and says "d-don't cry miss. You are too pretty for that."

The gradient-haired woman chuckles as she looks at the worried faces of the youkai and Rika, then sniffles and says "The Buddha never left me! The answer was right there, but I didn't see it."

The shrine maid lifts her hand, welcoming Byakuren to walk with her, then the monk nods then happily cries "please, come with me to the temple. I-I'll feel much safer," then accepts the warm and friendly hand.

As they fly out of the forest with Suzaku close behind, the maid says "hey, Miss youkai, you haven't told us your name."

The sweet and friendly monk yelps and exclaims "oh dear, where are my manners. My name is Byakuren Hijiri, and this is Rika Onkamikami, my friend, and that is Suzaku, her familiar. May I please know your name so I can address you properly?"

The extremely lucky youkai dangles her relaxed legs while the woman continues to hold and embrace her, and in a dreamy tone of voice she sighs "Oooorrraaaange~!"

Orange, the surprisingly luckily uninteresting youkai, is now headed toward Myouren, her soon-to-be new home.

---

Later that day, Reimu arrives to her shrine with Lina, followed promptly by Koakuma and Patchouli, the latter having puffed and bloodshot eyes from all the crying.

"Well, here we are. Let's get on with it," sighs the red and white armpit maiden while nudging the Kori girl toward her brother's remains.

And there they are, just as she left them on the wooden porch next to the support beam for the roof flaps, Leon's icy remains.

The little girl growls inward after seeing the state her brother was left in, while the purple-haired magician gasps along with a sudden twitch and starts to shiver while involuntarily placing her hands over her mouth.

Looking on with uncaring eyes and speaking with an equally uncaring tone of voice the shrine maiden says "well, go ahead and mourn him, or whatever. Just pick up after yourselves after you're done."

"REIMU!", furiously calls the little demon. "How can you be so heartless, you demon maiden?"

Patchouli sobs and chokes on her own voice, yet manages to hiccup "how can. you be. so. so uncaring. Re-Reimu? Y. you're suppose. to be a. shrine maideeeen~!", and ends up letting it all out in a loud bawl.

"Lady Patchouli, calm down," calls Koakuma before turning a hateful glare to the maiden and growls "look what you did now you heartless-!"

She turns to look at her mistress again and softly says "c-calm down, it's alright. I mean, you did send him to his death, but it's-", thus causing the magician to bawl louder.

The shrine maiden casually shrugs and says "hey, don't call me heartless. I'm not the one that sent him running around at night for no reason."

"MUKYUUUU~"

The magician's eyes have become small wiggly white orbs, her mouth is opened wide as her laments flow out of her heart, and even with the little sexy devil trying to comfort her the magician continues to cry like a heartbroken child.

Lina approaches the cruel shrine maiden and whispers "miss, I think you're laying it on too thick. Just look at her go."

Reimu stares with a bit of pity toward the bawling magician and her now crying assistant and thinks "wow, I didn't think she was this sorry about that. Still looking at them both cry like that is kind'a cute."

She looks down at the ice girl who sternly says "I know what you're thinking. Stop that."

The sadistic red and white chuckles softly, looks into the girl's eyes, then nods and says "alright, I think she learned her lesson."

The two librarians stop crying after barely hearing what the maiden said, and although they want to ask what exactly the two girls are talking about, they decide to keep quiet and watch the Kori girl approach her brother's remains.

"What a mess," mumbles the girl as she cups her hands around the mist, then the cruel sadist shrine maiden says "I thought you needed to learn a lesson Patchouli, but seeing you cry like that makes me believe you already have."

The sobbing girls look at the somewhat mean maiden and Patchouli whines "wha-? What are you talking about?"

Reimu winks her right eye as she smirks, then points toward the ice girl.

Lina is focusing magic around her hands as she gestures a mimic-shape of her brother around the mist and the ice dust, then a glowing light-lime frame with Leon's shape forms.

The mist and the dust start mixing inside the frame, they twirl and spin around like a powerful snowstorm, and in a sudden burst of cold Leon's body appears leaning against the wooden beam, but for some inexplicable reason his clothes appear next to him and flop on the floor.

The boy moans as he slowly wakes up, slightly opens his eyes, stretches his arms, then softly asks "mmm, is it morning already?"

Patchouli Knowledge grabs the boy by the face and gives him a peck-kiss right on the lips, then drops on top of him with a strong embrace while crying "you're alive, you're alive, by the spell you're alive! I'm so sorry, please forgive me! Please, please!"

When the ice boy finally regains his bearings and notices his love embracing his naked body, his face turns red, his hair stands on end, his eyes bulge with shock, then he shouts "Pa-Pa-PATCHOULI my love! Wait, I'm not clothed! What's going on? I said wait!"

"No! Leon, I'm so sorry~! I only wanted you gone for the night! I never wanted you to die! Please forgive me! I'm not a bad per-BERLGH!"

The sudden relief, mixed with the excitement and guilt-screaming proves too much for the purple-haired magician and ends up coughing an unholy amount of blood on the floor next to her and the boy, and falling semi-conscious on his bare lap.

"Wait, what's this?" nervously shouts the boy "um, my love, this is rather inappropriate! Um, you need to get off now! ...SIS!"

Reimu can't help but laugh at the ironic sight while Lina helps her brother out, and although wanting to laugh at such irony too, the relieved demon librarian approaches the maiden and asks "you knew about this? Wh-why did you put us through all that then?"

The maiden finishes her laugh with a giggle and says "you are the only person that unmoving library actually socializes with, and that has made her cold and uncaring. Or at least I thought that was the case."

Koakuma giggles after watching the boy bashfully cover himself up while his sister orders him to dress up, then the maiden continues "after what she did to this boy I wanted to punish her with some guilt, and maybe wake her up from that solitary world."

Both maiden and demon giggle after Leon cries because he can't put his shirt back on, claiming he's in front of Patchouli, then the maiden finishes "but I can see she's already awake, and that she was faking being cold. But I still had to punish her."

The sexy little demon stares at the shrine maiden, then at her magical mistress and the Kori twins, then smiles and says "you can be so unforgiving sometimes."

The shrine maiden shrugs and casually says "eh, it's all part of the game."

"You would know plenty of the game of violence, Miss Hakurei," says a familiar boy's voice from behind the girls.

"Ail~" sings the happy maiden while turning around, then she can see Sanae right next to the boy and her tone changes to dangerous when she says "and the green girl. Gee, that's great."

---

Ail, Cirno and Sanae with Phredia on her shoulder stand beside the shrine's entrance, and while the two fairies look fresh and content, the couple look a bit worn and wet, probably from having to thaw out of that ice.

The two shrine maidens lock eyes as they prepare to attack each other, but the dense boy quickly jumps in between the two and angrily shouts "whoa there, stop this at once! We didn't come here for stupid squabbling, we just came here because Cirno wants to go back with Rika, and to ask you if you can help me flush Mima out of hiding."

The Hakurei Maiden smiles sweetly toward her favorite man and says "I'm sorry but Rika's not here. She's out looking for Byakuren, but I can take care of this little one for her until she's back."

To Cirno, Reimu's sweet smile looks like the ominous grin of a dark demon with thunder and lightning effects on the background, so she cowers behind Sanae's skirt, whimpering and trembling.

The maiden somehow stands with her face a mere inch away from Ail's and seductively says "but you know, I could take care of you if you want."

The dense one lives up to his name and scratches his chin while in deep thought, then casually says "but I'm not a kid, Reimu."

The blue and white maiden pulls the dense boy away from the red and white, presses his head against her chest, and angrily says "quit that or I'm going to have to get serious, Reimu! Ail-kun is MINE."

A vein pulsates on the Hakurei Maiden's forehead, then from behind Koakuma says "um, sorry for the trouble Hakurei. It's getting weird now, so we will be leaving, so, um, thanks."

The group watches as the little demon carries the ghostly-paled-faced half-dead Patchouli and takes fight, and then Leon asks "seriously, what happened? I only remember falling asleep, then nothing."

Lina chuckles and says "it's alright, let's just go home and rest," then she grabs her brother under his arms and lifts to the air with ease.

Shortly after they leave, Flandre jumps out of a nearby tree with a camera around her neck and an audio recorder on her hands and says "come on, they're getting away! I don't want to miss Patchy's recovery! She might kiss him again!"

Aya flies right out of the tree with a video camera on hand and says "ayayayaya~ So scandalous! I wonder how far she'll go! Will we see a home run?"

The maidens, the fairies and the boy remain in place and watch in silence as this particular scene unfolds in front of them, then Ail approaches the aggressive red and white and says "hey Reimu, about flushing Mima out of hiding-"

Sanae screams in pain and when the boy turns around he sees a strange green magical circle under his girlfriend's and similarly colored electric bolts coursing through her body.

Phredia was lucky enough to get away in time and continues to pull Cirno away from the trapped maiden, in case the ice fairy tries something foolish.

"SANAE!" Ail, on the other hand, rushes straight to his girl with great concern after hearing her scream like that and watches horrorstruck as her skin turns pale.

Without thinking, the boy throws his hands in to assist the girl.

Reimu clicks her tongue and mutters under her breath, and the magical circle beneath the blue and white dispels, allowing the maiden to fall limp on her boyfriend's arms.

"Sanae, are you alright?", desperately calls the boy, who is so agitated he doesn't notice he's feeling his girl up as she hangs on his arms.

It doesn't last long as the green-haired maiden lifts a contorted raging face, snarls at the black-haired maiden and rushes to attack.

"No, wait! Sanae, Reimu, stop-" shouts the boy, but his words fall on deaf ears.

The shrine maidens quickly lock hands and push against each other, growling and snarling like wild beasts.

"That was a really nasty trick, you sick bitch," grumbles Sanae.

"I got plenty more where that came from, green cow," grumbles Reimu.

They push each other back with all their might and end up several feet away from each other, take to the skies, then resume their battle with one danmaku shower after another.

On the ground, Ail sighs and face palms, looks at the fairies and sighs "seriously, why are they fighting so much?", then rummages through his pocket for a spell card and flies six feet in the air after taking one out, then hovers below where the two girls' bullets meet.

He raises the card and shouts "Light Sign, Within the Jewel's Core!"

Seven blue and white stars with eight pointy edges form around the boy, then each star starts spinning and shooting one of their edges at random.

The shot pieces fly at the speed of light toward the girls, each trailing small blue spikes that fly straight, mixing up with the ones already flying around and making it look like a scattered mess.

The girls shout "hey, what's the meaning of this?", then quickly scream when each is pierced and burned by countless tiny pointy spike bullets.

After getting blasted several times over, the girls fall unconscious to the ground and somehow land safely on their backs.

Ail flies after Sanae, kneels beside her, places his hand on her forehead, then she wakes up, scowls at the boy and angrily exclaims "what's the big idea! Why the hell did you attack me, you idiot!"

"SANAE," shouts the boy, getting his girl's attention, then he sighs and calmly says "Sanae, please go home. You need to rest."

"WHAT?" shrieks the girl with surprise.

"Ail, we haven't found Budou yet, and I promised you I'd stay with you all the way! Oh, it's Reimu, isn't it? Grr, when I get my hands on her-"

The boy's silent smile calms the raging girl down, then he gently combs her bangs to the side, kisses her forehead, then says "I'll be fine. You, however, need to rest. You haven't had a good night sleep for a while now."

A blue gap opens up to the right and quickly shows the Moriya Shrine's living room, then the boy softly says "I don't know what's going on with you an Reimu, though I admit she's acting damned weird, but if it's her that is worrying you then don't."

Sanae looks into the boy's eyes and remains staring for a whole minute, not even noticing Phredia returning to her shoulder.

She smiles, stands up with Ail's help, and after a quick kiss on the lips she turns toward the open gap and says "I'll have a treat for Budou and for you when you return home."

The girl then walks into the gap while the dense one waves and says "I'll look forward to that," then can't help but smile goofily while staring at his girl's back while she walks.

The gap closes, Cirno stares with worry at the boy, then he asks "you want to go back to the lake?"

"I promise I'd take care of her while Rika returns" calmly says Reimu from behind.

The dense one turns around and casually asks "what about Mima? Do you know how can I lure her out?"

The Hakurei Maiden wants nothing more than to jump on this boy and eat him with kisses, especially now that her rival is gone, but one look into his eyes tells her that would be a very bad move, especially when she's so tired.

She smiles at him and sighs, places her hand on her waist, then shakes her head while looking at the ground in front of her feet.

---

Meanwhile, at the Myouren Temple grounds, one happy-looking yamabiko youkai sweeps the path to the large building while contently singing "and so, miss Byakuren returned to her home, spanked the captain and petted the tiger, then gave me the bowl with rice and fish, and-eh?"

Kyouko turns around when she hears a couple of feet tap the ground, and when her eyes explore the visitors she gasps with excitement, raises her brown yamabiko ears, then turns around, cups her hands and her hears start vibrating as she excitedly shouts "IT'S BYAKUREN! HIJIRI-CHAN IS BACK!"

She turns around with that overly excited smile of hers and giggles as the saint-like monk bashfully says "hello," then notices Rika and Suzaku and turns around to shout "and she came with Miss Rika-chan and Suzaku~!", then she turns around again, notices Orange still blissfully embraced between the monk's womanhood, then turns around again and shouts "and she brought a flaming lesbian!"

Knowing that 'flaming' bit meant her, the orange-haired youkai pushes herself from Byakuren's wonderful embrace, walks over to the yamabiko, then angrily shouts "who the HELL are you calling a lesbian you screaming gremlin!"

Kyouko looks up at the newcomer, then angrily says "to the perverted girl holding on to Byakuren-chan like that?"

The mentioned monk, the shrine maid and the Bird of Vermillion can see a multitude following after the eager Shou, Nazrin, Ichirin, Unzan and Kogasa, while the arguing newcomers continue their debate.

"Hey, just because I liked a hug doesn't make me a lesbian," declares the orangey-themed youkai.

"Besides," she continues while bending forward "I happen to have had a boyfriend in the past, something a little girl like you can't possibly understand."

"Wait, are you trying to steal a kiss from me? But I'm not into that!", cries Kyouko while nervously getting away from Orange.

The baton-wielding youkai gasps and straightens up, then points at the cute yamabiko and angrily says "look, I am NOT A LESBIAN! Wait, you're trying to pick a fight, is that it?"

Byakuren and Rika giggle at the sight, then the monk says "aww, how sweet. They're already such good friends."

The girls scowl toward the woman and exclaim "we're not friends, we're fight-"

A pair of silvery washtubs crash on the two quarreling girls' heads, making a powerful clang upon impact, then disappear after bouncing once on the ground.

As the Myouren girls and the multitude arrives, Byakuren picks Orange and embraces her again, cooing "aww, how unfortunate. And you were getting along so well."

Rika bends down and picks the whimpering Kyouko, then coos "aww, there now, it's alright, I got you."

Both youkai simultaneously relax, their cheeks turn pink, and as if synchronized, they both adjust their necks to place their heads on the embracing girls' breasts.

Meanwhile, after reaching the spot where the washtubs fell, Shou looks up to the sky and casually comments "but the sky was clear. Why is it raining?"

She then turns her sight down and looks at Byakuren, then smiles, slightly bows her head, suppressing her desire to jump on the monk, and says "welcome back Lady Hijiri."

Feeling a little shy, the Youkhrist nervously bows her head and says "i-it's good to-to be back Shou."

From her bosom, Orange points at Kyouko and speaking like a drunk she says "hah! N-now whoze-whose the lezbian."

From Rika's bosom, Kyouko glowers at Orange and speaking like a sleepy three-year-old she says "I'm not les-lesbian, m-meanie girl."

The multitude stares in disbelief at the blissful quarrelers, but nobody says a thing, then the monk magician smiles and sounding a bit more eager she says "oh that's right. Girls, this is Orange. I invited her to stay with us, is that alright?"

Ichirin and Unzan look at each other, and with a serene look and soft voice the hooded girl says "of course. We trust Lady Hijiri's judgment."

Kogasa closes her right eye and stick out her tongue, making herself look cute in the process and says "more victims for me to surprise!"

Nazrin looks away with a flat stare while swaying her tail around and casually says "whatever. More hands to help, another mouth to feed. No biggie Miss Hijiri"

Shou can't remove her eyes from the magician monk, and though overwhelmed with emotions she calmly says "w-we're just so glad to see you again. Right guys?"

The saint can't help but smile and shed a tear of joy when the multitude cheers once for her return, then her expression changes to concern as she asks "hey, where are Nue and Mini-chan?"

Somewhere at the Youkai Forest, Nitori seems a slight bit uncomfortable as she reaches the river's edge and asks "a-are you sure? Really, I'm ok on my own. A-and there's nothing I can't handle on my own form here."

To her right, the perverted Captain Murasa pants hard, her cheeks remain red, and she keeps eyeing the kappa's thighs while saying "oh no, no, no~! I can't let you risk your life on your own after being so kind to one of our own. I will gladly keep you company until you fall asleep so I can take your-keep you safe as payment!"

The little kappa thinks hard for a moment, looks around herself, then smiles wide with a giggle and says "alright then. As long as I'm not taking your time or anything, then it's ok!"

Back at the temple grounds Byakuren and Rika are cheered upon and treated with great respect, particularly the shrine maid for being the one who brought the Youkhrist back, even though she humbly requests to be treated equally.

Even Suzaku is being cheered upon, and as they slowly make their way back to the temple, the disappointed Orange and Kyouko pout while dragging from behind, then the yamabiko grumbles "fine, I'll stop calling you a lesbian."

To that, the orange-haired youkai grumbles "yeah, whatever. Thanks."

They both sigh and hang their hands as though depressed, then say "she let go of me too soon."

They suddenly twitch and look surprised at each other, point at one-another and shout "LESBIAN!"

Not paying attention to the arguing girls Byakuren looks at the tiger youkai and concernedly asks "Shou, what about Nue? Why didn't you tell me about-"

And there, up the stairs and looking outside from the doorway is Nue, holding herself up with a crutch under her right arm, covered in bloodied bandages and growing new wings.

The monk yelps and quickly takes flight, rushes over the crowd, then lands right in front of the surprised nue youkai and softly asks "Nue, what happened to you?", while placing her fingers on the girl's cheek

The black-haired girl quickly turns around with a frightened look, but Byakuren grabs her, quickly but gently turns her around, places her warm hand on the nue's right temple, then softly asks "what happened to you?"

Strong emotions run through Nue, strong enough to destroy a human, as she thinks of her battle with that godling, how she thought she'd be kicked out after the magician in front of her left, how she blindly attacked that boy without thinking of anything other than her revenge, and tears start piling up under her right eye and moisten the bandages around her left.

She gets a light embrace from the kind magician, and though able to contain her sobs, her tears continue to flow, and even so she remains quiet as she thinks her revelation could turn this sweet woman against her.

---

Meanwhile, at Eirin's Clinic, Kyo and Luna sit beside each other on one of the beds, like good little children, while the Lunarian doctor finishes reading through a small piece of paper on a wooden clip-board.

Reisen stands to her master's side with her ears lowered and giving everything in the room a pitiable look, and Medicine with Su-San hovering over her shoulder, stands in front of her two humans with expectancy in her eyes.

"And it seems you two are just fine, oh and it's fine if you two want to get naughty tonight," casually says the doctor with a rather peppy smile on her face.

"YES!", exclaims the silver-haired hottie, while the muscular boy blushes and grins silently, probably thinking something lewd.

The puppet youkai scowls at the doctor and demands "hey! Don't give these perverts any more ideas! I'm already having nightmares while awake thanks to them!"

The Lunarian happily gestures toward a large bottle filled with white pills and says "I have some Butterfly Dream Pills, guaranteed you'll have pleasant dreams or your money back."

"How much?", immediately asks the poisonous girl.

"Ten yen a pill," casually replies the doctor while smiling ever so peachy.

"I'LL TAKE TWENTY!" savagely demands the sleep-deprived doll with bloodshot eyes intensified, fists clenched and fangs bare, and so the doctor happily hands her a small envelope with the order as soon as the money exchanges hands.

Ignoring Medicine and her antics, Kyo casually points to the Moon Rabbit and asks "and what's wrong with Reisen? She looks down."

"And we haven't heard or seen whispers of Tewi, or any of the rabbits," says Luna with concern.

Eirin's face locks up with confusion for a brief moment, then manages to answer "it's... a rather complicated story-" but before she can speak more Kaguya quickly enters the room while saying "Eirin, allow me."

She walks closer to the trio and angrily says "yesterday a boy by the name of Drake Starstriker came by the mansion."

Hearing the boy's name does not bring any happy thoughts to the visiting trio and the muscle boy quickly asks "what did that bastard do now?"

"Ah," sighs the princess. "I see you have crossed paths with him. Very well, it should make things simpler."

During a short pause for the princess to get her breath, Eirin tugs Reisen's sleeve and angrily whispers "you will stay here and listen."

Kaguya looks coldly toward her guests while she remembers, something rarely seen by visitors, and says "he came here by mistake, he took our hospitality for granted, taunted Tewi, then viciously murdered two of my rabbits when they tried to defend her."

"Kyo, Luna, and you too, Medicine," snaps the Moon Princess while glancing at each, then says "I sent him off with a warning and promised to hunt him down, but my rabbits are no match for him and we need to find Tewi. Would you three please search for him and bring him to justice for us? You will be rewarded if you succeed, of course."

The boy hops off the bed and smiles, the youkai puppet stand in front of his leg and glares, and the woman on the bed crosses her gorgeous legs and chuckles mischievously.

"We'll do it," says the boy in a cold tone "but not just for Eintei. We also have our own reasons for doing this, but now that it's been requested, I believe we can squeeze it in our top to-do list."

The princess' face relaxes as a smile and a relief-chuckle escape her, then, looking more like herself, the girl bows her head only slightly and softly says "thank you."

She glances over to her subordinate and her lunar rabbit pet, then says "I'll continue looking for her, then. Rabbits die when they get lonely after all."

Reisen gulps but remains silent, and Eirin simply nods and replies "you are most kind, princess."

On their walk home after leaving the clinic, Luna clings to Kyo's shoulders and asks "so how are we going to do this honey?"

"I don't really know," replies the boy while giving his woman a naughty stare and sickening Medicine, then continues "but I think you and I are overdue."

The woman chuckles mischievously, but before she can answer a small voice calls "hey!"

The trio turn their heads to the left and see Tewi Inaba walking out from between bamboo shoots with a dreadfully scornful look in her eyes.

She approaches the party, takes of her carrot necklace off, then hands it over to the boy and says "I am too weak to face him on my own."

Medicine casually says "hey, your master is looking for you."

"I DON'T CARE!", barks the rabbit, swinging her right arm in the air like a makeshift blade.

She looks up at Kyo and says "that insufferable man is powerful, but with all the luck that thing has sponged off me I think you have a fighting chance."

Before anyone can speak, the rabbit youkai is already running back to hiding, and before jumping into the bamboo she stops and coldly says "make him pay for what he's done! Bring us his head if you can."

With that, the party find themselves on their own again with a lucky trinket held on the open palm of the spiky-haired boy.

The couple suddenly turn back to each other, chuckle while closing their faces in, then Medicine cries "but it's too early for this!"

Out of desperation, the youkai puppet grabs one of her Butterfly Dream Pills, swallows it whole, then drops on the floor almost immediately, sleeping with content a smile on her face.

Kyo sighs, picks up the girl with an annoyed stare, then looks at Luna, smiles again, then says "let's get her to bed."

The girl quickly adds "then we'll get to our own," making her man blush and steam through his ears and nose

---

At that very same moment, in the darkest reaches of the Forest of Magic, Drake walks about with a backpack provided by Alice, evident by the pink color and frilly threads knitted around the borders, full with the materials she requested.

Of course, having rented that backpack at the last moment cost him a slight increase in the number of materials to gather, though this does not seem to faze him.

While walking he reads through the list "twenty yards of cave-spider threads, check."

At a well known cave entrance leading to the subterranean, the blonde spider, Yamame Kurodani, runs around her moist domain while frantically shouting "but I left one here! And there was another here! Where are my webs at?"

"Twenty-four ounces of butterfly fairy dust, check," continues the boy, while somewhere in the forest, a trio of butterfly fairies fly past Marisa's house, sobbing and crying about their wings turning all white.

"Blue-spotted mushroom, only got two of those, and a bottle or two of arsenic, check," finishes the godling.

He looks around himself while still holding up the list and casually says "huh, to think that arsenic I got was a happy accident," then an impossibly large and furry bear appears before the boy and threatens to slice him with its claws.

Drake stares flatly at the monster while it roars, he lifts his right hand, then the giant bear turns slightly translucent and fizzles like a bad television image.

He bends his fingers toward the image of the bear, his hand begins to glow, then he turns his hand upward, clenches his hand into a fist, then three little girls scream as they are forced out of a nearby tree and fall in a pile in front of the boy's feet where the bear was.

The one on top wears a white dress with black ribbons, a pair of brown shoes, a white mop-cap with black ribbons on her curly blonde hair, has a pair of crescent wings floating around her back, and has brown eyes.

The one in the middle wears a white and red dress, a yellow neckerchief, a pair of black slip-on shoes, a headdress on her golden hair, which she ties into twin pig-tails, has a set of straight wings floating around her back, and has light-blue eyes.

The one on bottom wears a blue dress with long white sleeves and shoulders, a pair of brown cross-laced boots, long flowing black hair adorned by a frilly blue ribbon, her butterfly-like wings float just over her back, and has grey eyes.

The three mischievous fairies of light moan as they struggle to get up, then the one in the middle grunts "urgh, I can't feel my wings."

The boy glares at the three fairies for some time, and while he does he remembers how on many adventures before a trio of fairies, either the size of a human adult or child, would assist him greatly.

He suddenly smiles at the sight, sighs with great relief, then says "finally, trustworthy allies in this monster-ridden world."

The fairy trio look at each other in confusion while still in a pile, and none is able to come up with something to say to this matter.

At the very same time, over the clouds in heaven, Suika walks after Tenshi, apparently arguing over something the celestial is not interested in discussing.

"Just go down there already. You know you want to," taunts the little oni while walking after the celestial.

Quickening her pace, the blue haired celestial growls inward and grumbles "busy. Go away."

Suika stops, she looks at the stubborn celestial with a drunken and childish stare, then jumps toward her target, tackles her to the ground, then grabs her right hand and slams it flat on the surprisingly solid cloud and wile smiling says "don't lie to an oni. We don't like that. Now tell me the truth or I'm doing something nasty. And oni don't lie."

Tenshi struggles hard for her freedom to no avail and the drunken oni grabs her pinky and starts pulling it up while saying "and after this I'm playing bull again. Do you like it when I play bull?"

The eldest daughter whines while shaking her head, her face turns blue when fear and the pain from her pinky start mixing together, then she cries "alright, alright, you win! I'm mad at her! I'm really mad at her!"

Having already gotten off the whining celestial, the little oni sits on the edge of a cloud to look down at Gensokyo while drinking, then says "Reimu was right. So if that's the case, then-"

The cute, flat-chested celestial sit next to the oni girl, sobbing softly as she does so, then says "she hurt me! I protected her from those idiots and kept her company and, and. Grr, and she pins me as one of them! It's just not fair! I am her friend!"

The cute oni smacks the celestial on the chest with her gourd offering her a drink, and while Tenshi gulps down that liquid as if it were water Suika says "right, then I'll give you Reimu's message. Ahem, I quote 'Although I don't really like the idea, please set aside your selfishness and come over to see Rika. If you don't she's going to get sad again, and then I'll have to seal your ass and drag you back here myself,' unquote."

Handing back the gourd, the surprised celestial asks "did she really say all that?"

"Oni don't lie," repeats the drunkard.

The celestial looks down and obviously spots her special shrine maid friend, evident in the glow in her eyes, then Suika sighs loud after taking a big gulp and adds "she also said that if you didn't want to go back down no matter what, she'd comfort Rika on her own and make her the bride's maid for her wedding with Ail."

The oni is surprised to see the blue-haired celestial is gone from her side and quickly turns her torso.

Before she can ask or say anything the celestial roars "I'll be there tomorrow, first thing in the morning. I'm sorry I won't go today, I just don't feel like it."

"Just remember," warningly says Suika, "if you make me look like a liar I'm coming up here and taking you down there MY WAY, you understand what that means, I hope."

Hiding her eyes under her hat, the celestial turns sideways and nods, then continues on her way back home.

---

Back at the Forest of Magic, Drake sits on the ground in front of the mischievous, lying, fairy trio, and pointing at each girl he says "so, Luna Child, Sunny Milk, and Star Sapphire. Hm, nice names."

The golden-haired Sunny raises an arm and casually says "we are the three fairies of light."

"And we can grant wishes to humans who are nice to us," adds the black-haired Star with an eager tone of voice.

"Haven't these two learned that lying leads to trouble?", thinks the blonde-haired Luna while glancing at her companion.

"Wishes to humans, hmm," repeats the boy sounding suspicious, then asks "then why were you trying to scare me with that fake bear?"

The three fairies twitch, then the nervous blue-eyed fairy replies "th-that wasn't ours, really."

The boy can see they are lying, especially when beads of sweat form up around their little foreheads.

He sighs, smiles warmly, then says "you don't have to lie to me, I'm the good guy. Was someone after you? You can tell me."

The fairies twitch again and huddle up, then the black-haired girl whispers "he's not falling for it. What should we do?"

The nervous blonde sighs and says "I say we leave. He looks very dangerous and I much rather not make him angry at us."

The peppy goldy-locks groans with frustration then whispers "leave it to me girls, he'll fall for it. Just don't say a word and let me do the rest of the talking. And Luna, don't let him hear that whooshing!"

The fairies break the huddle, look deceivingly sweetly toward the godling and Sunny says "we have decided that we will grant you a wish to prove we are saying the truth. Is there anything you wish for?"

"Can you make me a god already?" eagerly asks the boy.

A large drop of sweat rolls down the side of the three fairies' heads, then the red and white fairy chuckles nervously "he-heh-er, that's a bit out of our league. Anything else you can think of?"

"Hah, I guess I really did ask too much," thinks the boy before sighing "well, how about you help me find five blue-spotted mushrooms."

Star softly claps her hands together and eagerly says "that sounds reasonable."

Sunny raises her fist in the air and cheers "that's an easy one for us!"

Luna flaps her wings, leans slightly forward while holding her hands together and softly says "we can do that."

Then the peppy golden-haired fairy grins, and with a mischievous tone of voice says "come closer so we may grant you your wish mister Drake."

The boy smiles and chuckles to himself, stands up, and right as he takes his first step, form his left a girl shouts "GET'EM, GET'EM! We're making liar stew today!"

"Is that so~?" asks another girl, then the three fairies shriek and take to the sky after Rumia and Agava come rushing toward them with crazed faces and hungry looks.

Rumia, the deceivingly silly darkness youkai, has short blonde hair, red eyes, has a red ribbon tied to the right of her head, and wears a black vest over a long-sleeved white shirt, a long black skirt, and brown shoes.

Agava, the surprisingly mean-but-kind shadow youkai, has long black hair that reaches down to her lower back and is tied to a ponytail with a black ribbon, has dark-blue eyes, and wears a tight thighless purple ninja suit that enhances her already-enhanced womanhood, an open sleeveless black vest, a long black skirt with a slit on the side, and a pair of furry brown boots, as well as her red amplifier bracelet.

The shadow youkai points upward and shouts "don't let them escape," then she and the cute youkai of darkness take flight after the fairies.

Their path is blocked by Drake who threatens them with those glowing magic siphoning hands of his and threateningly says "so you're the ones threatening the fairies! Prepare to die creatures of the darkness!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! Hold on there boyo," exclaims the shadow girl as she and her cute partner skid to a stop while in mid-air.

"We just saved your butt and this is how you thank us?"

Rumia looks at her busty partner and says "aww, you are such a good girl. It makes me wanna HUG YOU!"

The godling looks slightly confused at the girls and almost lowers his guard, but quickly raises his hands again and barks "LIES! Your playful act won't fool me!"

The darkness youkai frowns and shouts "hey, stop shouting. And we are telling the truth here."

"Sure we like playing pranks," casually comments the sexy shadow youkai, then she points down to a dark hole between where Drake and the fairies were, large enough for the boy to fall through and says "but at least we don't go over the edge like those fairies."

The boy's eyes tremble when he notices that deep hole and the sharp rocks at the bottom of it, not dangerous enough to kill immediately, but any human that falls in there would either die a terribly slow death by bleeding, or be saved of death but lose a couple of limbs instead.

He lowers his guard completely and asks "but... you are monsters. Why did you help me?"

The darkness girl slowly shakes her head while clicking her tongue, while at the same time Agava face palms and groans, then says "you gotta work on that xenophobia kid. Things are not always what they seem in this place."

The girls fly past the godling to resume their chase of the fairies, but before they are out of sight the curvy shadow turns around and shouts "that hole is full of those mushrooms you need boyo! Just be careful with the weird energies currents and the funky smell in there!"

Drake slowly descends while thinking "but the fairies. They were good allies before, and the monsters were enemies. But the monsters are the allies now? I ...I don't understand."

He looks to the hole the fairies had hidden from him with the intent of having him fall unprepared and unaware, then looks up to the sky at the two dark girls and bites his bottom lip while lost in deep thought.

---

Later at noon, above the poisonous flower fields on the Nameless Hill, Ail stares suspiciously around the area, feeling Mima's presence is close by.

"She's here, yet I cannot see her," he says to himself while looking around.

"Reimu was right. I would have never found her if I hadn't asked for her help."

He takes out a large lilac talisman with a maze-like pattern drawn on it from his pocket while saying "and to think this only cost me three minutes of straight bone-crushing hugging. What was that Reimu thinking anyway? My ribs are still sore."

The dense one closes his eyes, thinks of Budou and Mima, then the talisman flies out of his hands, drops like a saw-blade toward the flower field, then stops just above a particular flower bud that appears to be glowing faintly.

Before the boy can react the talisman glows and the flower bud bursts with a loud plop, and Mima and Budou are force out of hiding.

"Argh, dammit! Premature revelations!", shouts the angry evil spirit while holding on to the cute bat youkai with one hand on holding her right eye with the other.

Said little youkai smacks her lips while slowly looking around, then moans loudly and weakly says "are we there yet? I want my papa."

She then notices Ail in front, whines as she reaches for her papa, then cries "papa, I'm sorry~! I didn't mean all those things," then rapidly falls asleep on the spirit's arms.

"Found you," declares Ail as he bravely raises a spell card, then defiantly says "you either give me back Budou or I'm going to take her from you by-Tch, HEY! What's wrong with her?"

Casual and uninterested, Mima flaps her hand twice in the air and calmly says "spirit energy withdrawal. She just needs a nice meal and she'll be fine. You just happen to have caught us before I had the chance to give her just that."

The boy's spell card glows as he glares with rage toward the evil spirit and everything turns black.

He feels strange, as though his whole body is stiff and almost impossible to move, yet he refuses to give in, and that's when his eyes adjust.

The Nameless Hill's silhouette is there but the flowers are all gone, the sky and ground are all pitch black, a few purple shades reveal some form of background, and flying in front of him, holding her crescent moon staff and sporting three pairs of violet demonic wings, is one pissed-off-looking, yet smiling Mima with a powerful aura around her.

He tries to move his hand and quickly learns his spell card is gone, he tries opening a few barriers so that his body feels lighter but nothing works, instead he feels sharp pain taking him.

The evil spirit laughs as her eyes glow green, then she says "you're strong kid, but like I said before, you ain't Yukari. Heck, even Reimu could kick your butt if she wanted to."

"What the hell do you want? Budou," grunts the boy out of despair.

"Relax, jeez," exclaims the evil spirit. "I'd never purposely harm that sweet little girl. Though I did wake her youkai instincts. I never thought she'd be THAT much fun."

Ail tries to shout a very rude insult, but all he manages to do is grunt.

The sexy evil spirit before him giggles, then says "flattery will get you nowhere. Now, seeing as we're here, why don't we get down to business. First off, dear boy, what did I ask of you a few days ago? What EXACTLY did I ask of you?"

He tries speaking, but all he can do is grunt, then the spirit girl smirks and says "whoops. Too much," then waves her arm at the boy and sings "all better now~!"

The dense boy quickly curls up after feeling relief from all that magical pressure, then Mima curiously says "odd. Reimu can take that much and doesn't even flinch. Are you sure you're a man?"

"Grr, shut up! And where is Budou now?", angrily asks the boy shortly after uncurling.

He now finds himself face to face with the magical monster while she grips his neck, her grin looks terrifying with those jagged teeth and those sinister eyes with demonic black and white pupils don't help the boy settle.

"She is FINE! Now answer my damned question before I murder you," hisses the clearly-aggravated evil spirit.

The dense boy's nerves turn to jelly and with a ghostly pale face he nervously says "eh, um, y-you asked me to s-stay away from Reimu f-for a few days."

In an instant he's free again and Mima has turned away, and in her usual calm and playful voice she asks "and did you?"

"Yes," desperately replies the boy.

"WRONG!", screams the demonic spirit with her voice echoing loudly after suddenly turning around and growing ten times her own size, adding a slithering snake tongue to her already terrifying appearance.

"You went BACK in time and interacted with her younger, more naive self! Even after I CLEARLY asked you to stay away from her for DAYS, not go back in time and flirt with her!"

The boy stares with shock to the woman and can only stammer while his mind races with questions, then finally manages to peep "b-but-"

"OH, I KNOW, YOU IDIOT!", screams the terrifying spirit. "Many of us know what you did, how you affected the flow of time just by being there! How you attracted Sariel to the shrine using all that magic without even thinking! How you saved Reimu when she was SUPPOSED to save herself! None of it can be undone! You ruined EVERYTHING!"

She recovers her usual size and speaks with a normal, but aggravated tone of voice, "and seeing as the Enma brought you back here that must mean she must be cooking one HELL of a punishment for your actions. As for me, I used Budou to get to you! You got it too easy you enlightened idiot! I wasn't going to let that happen!"

The enraged spirit slowly flies back to her initial position while the boy stammers, being too nervous to be able to form normal words, and before allowing him to make up one the evil spirit turns around and says "that said, it now comes to this. You will fight with me. You will use everything you got and I will hit you back with everything I got. A fair warning, your shield spell won't protect you, and you only have about seventeen percent chance of beating me. I suggest you dodge what I throw at you and endure."

A cold chill creeps over the boy's spine, his mouth dries up, his vision blurs, and after his body settles he realizes he is holding his spell card again.

Mima grins viciously, chuckles softly, then says "by the way, I won't be using spell cards this time. I'm sorry Ail, I know I owe you for freeing me and all that, but I can't let this one slide just like that. Now..."

The boy gulps, a single tear escapes his right eye when the realization of what he's done hits him, then he screams.

His body feels like a hundred spears have just pierced his skin, followed by a thousand needles that enter his blood-stream and flow in and out of his whole body, and then everything stops.

He falls to the dark nothingness below, weakened by the unfair punishment just received, then the spirit calmly says "no, not yet. I'm not done with you yet," and encasing the boy in a magical sphere she lifts him back up and forces him to take flight.

"Look below you," softly commands the woman, and so the dense boy weakly does so.

His eyes expand dangerously when below himself he sees the very same magical circle Reimu placed under Sanae only a few hours before.

Mima smiles after looking at the boy's face and says "she learned that one from me. A deadly spell that can damage the target's mind if not released soon. She used it against your girlfriend, and don't be surprised if she tries it again. Or perhaps she'll try something more lethal."

Worry, despair, disappointment, anxiousness, all flow through the boy's being, forcing him to cry uncontrollably as he whimpers "why?"

The spirit face palms with a groan and says "you are as dense as a ball of lead. Enough talking! Time for your spanking!"

And with hands and staff glowing with pure energy, the evil spirit lunges at the boy with all her rage.

---

That night, at the Myouren Temple, Byakuren tends to Nue as though tending to a human child, feeling guilty of the youkai's current condition, thinking it's all because she left as she did, which is half-right.

The nue, on the other hand, feels guilty for what she's done, what the woman is doing for her, and is considering telling everything to the monk, yet she fears what might happen to her if she did.

"Open up~," sweetly whispers the monk magician as she takes a spoonful of soup to the youkai girl's mouth, all while Ichirin removes the stained bandages around the undefined one's head.

Nue stares at the spoon with disinterest, tears start flowing out her eye and recovering socket, then shouts "enough! I don't deserve this!", and slaps the spoon right out of Byakuren's hand.

"Nue," whispers the woman in shock. "What's the matter?"

The nun taps the black-haired girl gently on the head and says "apologize to lady Hijiri. Being sick is no excuse to be rude!"

"I went after him," barks the wounded girl before anyone says another word.

After a short pause the Youkhrist, who looks terrified at the thought, asks "Nue-chan! Why would you do that?"

"Because that bastard scared you away! And with you gone I thought-"

The cute nue can't help but start crying mid-sentence while saying "I thought I'd be kicked out of my home again! I wanted revenge, so I went looking for him!"

Byakuren scowls, growls inward, then coldly asks "was he the one that did this to you?"

Nue nods, the monk's face turns red, she smacks her own thighs as she stand up and grumbles "that boy! I got a good mind to let him know how much trouble he's caused! I am going t-"

She looks down after feeling a tug on her skirt and sees the cute teary-eyed Nue Houjuu looking up at her with fright, and when she has the monk's attention she cries "d-don't! He'll kill you, like he almost did to me! He absorbs magic from the body like some sort of sponge or something!"

She grabs the magician's dress with both hands as though begging the woman to sit down she slides those hands through the fabric while nervously saying "he-he's brutal! He doesn't care about our rules, he aims for death! B-but that siphoning of his has a limit! He-he lost an eye when he sucked too much from me! B-but don't! He will hurt you, and then it's going to be my fault, and-"

Nue is now in the warm embrace of the uncommonly kind saint and manages to relax while the motherly woman rubs her back, using her own magic to restore the youkai's wings while saying "it's alright, I'll stay. I'll stay here and make sure you recover. But please, don't think that just because I am gone that means you have to leave. You do so only if you want to."

"Nobody will kick you out of your home Nue. These people aren't like that," calmly says the woman while the youkai sniffles like a child.

"Just promise," softly says Byakuren while gently pulling herself and the nue from the embrace, "if there ever is a next time, stay here and be a good girl. Wait for my return."

She stares at the woman's angelic smile, her cheeks turn pink, her lips wriggle, then she lunges forward to give the saint a hug of her own while bawling "HIJIRIIIII! I'm sorryyyy! I'll never do that again!"

The Youkhrist smiles, returns the embrace with her own while rubbing the nue's head, and from behind them Ichirin nervously waves both hands in front of herself while mouthing the word "not now."

Just outside the door Unzan, Shou, Nazrin and Hatate hide their peeking heads behind the wall to look at the video recorded in the tengu's cell phone camera, plus the many pictures taken of Nue crying like a human child.

"That's so cute," whispers the tiger youkai with blushing cheeks that match that of the Nyuudo.

"Now remember," sternly whispers Nazrin, "if you want us to keep quiet about your collection of Rika's underwear photos, you will get us EACH three copies of these photos, and a copy of that video!"

The twin-tailed tengu girl growls inward before furiously whispering "I got it already! I'll, like, get you the stuff! Just give me a few days, ok?"

Shou sighs contently and whispers "Nue-chan and Byakuren-san, such a marvelous-meep!"

"Marvelous meep?", asks the youkai mouse while looking at the cloud, the tiger and the crow, and then she looks to her right and the angry smile on Lady Hijiri's face.

Outside the temple Orange ad Kyouko sweep the last bit of ground left to be cleaned while arguing about being, or not being lesbians, then from within the walls they hear "GYAAAAA~!" "NOOOOO~!" "HAYEEEEE~!", and jump into a mutual, frightened embrace.

---

To be continued...

Characters, Spell Cards and Scenarios belong to ZUN -Team Shanghai Alice-

Ail, Phredia, Budou, Agava, Kyo, Luna, Leon, Lina and Drake were created by Willie G.R.

Ail's "Light Sign, Within the Jewel's Core" spell card was created by Willie G.R.

Rika Onkamikami and Suzaku were created by Snapshot 2010

Special appearance by Lester Wilson

Written by

Willie G.R.

AUG 5 2011

---

I took too damned long and doesn't seem I'll improve my speed. I can only hope I do. This time it was my lack of motivation (and the PS3). Seriously, it took me three weeks to recover enough motivation to actually continue with Icicle Sukima. Take notice that, although not liked by some, I am ALSO working on Undying Gensokyo, a horror fic. The reason I mention this is because while I write these two main fictions I won't be able to work on Spell Cards and Keyblades (the crossover for Kingdom Hearts and Touhou, for those who don't know), but rest assured I AM writing down notes for the chapters so as soon as I am done with either Icicle or Undying, I'll immediately work on the crossover.

Now then, I hope this chapter helped clear a few things that obviously confused a few people before. Though I DID mean to cause confusion, I also meant the events to be a good laugh, which worked. But now it's time to both laugh AND get serious. Seriously. Wish me luck for the next chapter, cuz the spirits know I'll need it. Also I hope you enjoyed the addition of the PC-98 girls Kana Anaberal, Mugetsu, her sister Gengetsu, and Orange. Their participation will remain minimal for the time being. I just wanted to get them into this Touhouverse of mine, and with that accomplished I shiver with anticipation of the EVILS I will cause them (or that THEY will cause to others).