Chapter 2: Compromise

At the Lunar Capital, things were just about as hectic as the Earth. The moon princess, Watatsuki no Toyohime, was preparing for her arrival on Earth. The climatic last battle of the Lunar War ended in tragedy for both sides: Majority of the Lunar Defence Corps' moon rabbit soldiers were killed, as well as a large number of Lunarian soldiers and citizens. In addition to that, a conspiracy to assassinate the princess was uncovered when Lunarian Royal Guards investigated a prison that was attacked during the battle. It just so happened that the leader of the Lunarian Blademasters, who was also the leader of the Lunar Defence Corps, had kidnapped the pet moon rabbit of the Watatsuki sisters, and performed horrendous experiments on the rabbit, so that when returned, the rabbit would be brainwashed and kill the princess. As a result of this, Princess Toyohime had the Blademasters disbanded, its leader executed, and her younger sister, Watatsuki no Yorihime, reassigned to lead the Lunar Defence Corps. Of course, the results were much worse for the Earth: The Earth Expeditionary Force was completely annihilated during the battle. There were no apparent survivors; they were wiped from existence.

The Earth bluffed about sending another wave, and the Lunarians fell for the ruse. In actuality, the Earth could not afford the men and materials to continue the war if it went on like the final battle. The Lunarians, however, were more affected in terms of morale rather than materials; they felt that they could not lose any more precious Lunarian lives to the attacks of these impure Earth humans. And so it was agreed upon by the United Nations and the Lunar Capital that the war would end. The peace treaty would take place on the full moon, when the Lunarians could descend to Earth.

The Watatsuki sisters were alone in a meeting room in the Lunar Palace. The walls, the furniture, and everything else in the palace was extravagantly elegant, a perfect mixture of the old Asia's arts and the new world's technology. Toyohime, the princess, wore a blue dress over a white blouse, and had long, golden hair, and golden eyes. Yorihime, the younger sister, wore a similar outfit, though her dress was red. Yorihime had light blue hair, tied in a ponytail with a yellow ribbon, and brown eyes.

"Are you sure everything is going along just fine? I don't want to be assassinated, at least not down there, where my pure blood will be corrupted by the filthy earth." Toyohime was getting paranoid. This was her first time in a peace talk. The last time the moon took full military action was when an army of youkai attacked the Lunar Capital roughly a thousand years ago. She wasn't princess back then, but she knew that the Lunar forces just destroyed them, and then continued living in peace. This time was different; this was a formal war, which was almost exactly the same as any war, but further complicated by unneeded treaties and nonsensical politics. Instead of fighting until destruction, two sides fight until they don't want to fight anymore and then bombard each other with ridiculous 'peace conditions' until an agreement is made. The Lunar Capital had no experience with this. How could they? There is only one civilization they could possibly have this kind of war with, and that 'filthy' civilization is the one they're about to talk to.

After thinking thoroughly and enduring pokes by her older sister, Yorihime finally answered, "Yes, I do believe you will be fine. Nobody on Earth who knew of your arrival would even dare come close to you. You can defend yourself, sister. Just because you are a princess does not mean you should be weak, or seem weak. You've laid waste to their armies. If anything, they should fear you."

Toyohime smiled, then said to her, "Thanks for the advice. Anyway, can we go through the plan for the full moon again?" Yorihime spread a number of papers and maps concerning their plan for the peace-talks. "Sister, we do not want the Earthlings to suspect anything, so instead of making you appear out of nowhere, you, the ambassadors, and your guards will be taking the royal stealth ship to the site. It still fits within the conditions of your arrival, as the site is secure, and only the best optics and sensors can detect your ship as it approaches. All of the Earth's facilities housing these technologies have been seized by their governments to prepare for your arrival. Using the ship gives them a good reason to believe that only you and your escorts arrived on Earth, and will make the Earthlings cross out the possibility of other means of transit between Earth and the capital." Toyohime nodded in approval as Yorihime paused.

"After your landing, the watchers will all keep their eyes on the sky for anything else from then on, which will let me and my men infiltrate the planet with much more ease. While you have your peace treaty, we will use the gate to the mountain summit and from there, search for your pet rabbit, if she's still alive, the Half-Breed, and maybe, if we're lucky…Eirin."

The sisters both nodded at each other. They both understood the plan. They were about to leave the room and have some tea, but Toyohime stopped, and asked, "Sister, what is the strength of the forces you are bringing with you?" to which Yorihime replied, "I will send a vanguard of Lunar foot soldiers through the gate first to scout the area and ready the summit for my arrival. After that we will transport our main force of a hundred royal guards, and me. We will then begin our search. It won't take long with our tracking equipment."

Toyohime, curious, asked, "How exactly does the tracking equipment work?" Yorihime smiled, and then answered, "It's quite brilliant, actually. Anyone that has ever stepped foot on the moon capital will have some moon dust stuck on them. Some of it is so fine and pure that it will never fall or wash off from a person. Of course, it can't apply to those on the moon's surface, for everyone there wears suits; the dust can't get to the body. Eirin, Reisen, and the mysterious half, who we now know as 'Sakuya,' have all set foot on the moon capital. Now, all we have to do is track the dust, and that's exactly what the machine will do."

"Brilliant indeed. But do you really think it's worth risking the lives of all these Lunarians?" said Toyohime, remembering the reason they agreed to the peace talks in the first place. "You know I do, Toyohime. It's for the best. Besides, we can't take the moon rabbits. There are just too few moon rabbit soldiers now. That and the fact that I ceased production of spears and swords for the moon rabbit arm of the Lunar Defence Corps and replaced them with bayonets on their plasma rifles to save materials. The survivors and new recruits of the moon rabbit arm are all in the process of being trained using all the new reforms in tactics and weapons I implemented. I feel using moon rabbits now will only deter and endanger the mission. The few veterans will be confused over the old and new doctrines, and the new recruits are still unfit for military operations."

"You make it sound as if this operation is very dangerous," Toyohime told her sister, who replied, "It is, potentially. No one will suspect us should your part of the plan go well. These humans are easy to fool." Toyohime's face turned a little more worried as she recalled something. "Yorihime, what about the Tale of the Bamboo Cutter that the humans tell? Doesn't that story imply a gateway through the mountain?" A troubled look then appeared on Yorihime, who thought for a moment, smiled, and told her sister, "Oh, you don't have to worry about that. I'm sure these humans that are so full of themselves and so reliant on logic, technology, and reason, will dismiss the story as pure fantasy. In the end that will prove their undoing. Besides, their version of the story is false. Princess Kaguya never returned from her exile; the Lunar Ambassadors all disappeared….Eirin disappeared."

"Alright, that's enough, sister. We tell more stories tomorrow. I'm hungry. I hope we still have peaches," Toyohime said happily as she walked out of the room, followed by her sister. "Just remember, Yorihime, finish your business before I finish the peace talks. Technically, we're still at war, so your little operation is allowed to happen, until I finish. After that, I'm picking you up, and we're going home.

Yorihime nodded. "Understood, princess."

Back on Earth the following night, the Scarlet Devil Mansion became livelier as the sun went down, and the vampires woke up. Flandre's past experience have made her a little…unstable, couple that with her destructive power and you can get some very nasty results. Fortunately, Flandre agreed to be locked in the basement under the library so she wouldn't destroy any more innocent people and she has been there ever since the end of their vampirism 'incident.'

Remilia constantly throws night parties just for herself and the mansion's inhabitants, slowly whittling away the Scarlet Family's fortune. The Scarlets used to be a very rich family, but ever since the vampire incident, no more money was being earned, so the fortune started to slowly disappear. Now, the mansion earns money by selling the nice red roses that grow on their garden.

This night was a rather quiet night for the mansion. Remilia was tired and bored; she just wanted to eat, perhaps read a little, then go back to sleep. As Sakuya served Remilia's dinner, a thought came into Remilia's head. "Sakuya, why don't you just call your friends at the observatory? I've been living since the 1500s and even I know how to use a phone."

"Well, my lady, it isn't that simple. Hans and Eric are in hiding. I'm in hiding. We don't know who could be watching us or trying to find us. A simple phone call between us could break the silence we've been trying to keep. If someone finds out, we could all be in serious-"

"Miss Sakuya! A phone call for you!" said Antoine, a servant of Remilia, as he ran into the dining room. "No. You can't be serious..." Sakuya said to herself in terror. Sakuya ran towards the phone to hear Eric's voice on the line. "What the hell are you doing, Eric? The whole reason I visit you instead of call you is so we don't get found!"

Eric, unaffected by Sakuya's words, started speaking, though in a slurred and barely comprehensible voice, "Uhhh…..well…Hans told me you were looking for a mountain in this tale…..uhhh….I asked some of these villagers, and some pointed me to a 'fushi-no-yama' or something…and something about a 'Mountain abounding with warriors.' I think it's the same thing….yeah…I can't really tell you much because I'm no good at Japanese…More sake, please…."

"YOU'RE DRUNK! How am I supposed to believe a single word of what you're saying?" Sakuya was furious. She saves his life from a Lunarian prison and he risks rotting in another prison by calling her?

Eric, still unaffected by Sakuya's anger, replied, "Errr…well….just…just believe me….errrgh." There was a click, and the phone call ended. "Damn it. Let's just hope no one was monitoring that." After Sakuya finished cleaning up, she went to bed, a little worried, because her search was going nowhere, and that phone call could potentially give them two enemies to worry about on the Full moon.

Sakuya lay sideways on her bed, staring out the window, unable to fall asleep. She was anxious, tired, and a little scared. She wondered why she just agreed with Eirin when she gave her a mission. She wasn't her superior anymore. Those days are long gone. Why did she get herself into this mess in the first place? She wasn't involved at all. It's just that Eirin convinced her that it would save many people. Yes, it did, but now everything risks backfiring on her. Sakuya calmed herself, shut her eyes, and whispered to herself, "What's done is done. You can get through this. Two more nights."