Dirty Laundry in an Elevator
Her eyes fluttered. Consciousness faded in and out, never far enough for her to fully awake and face the situation or to escape down into oblivion. Instead, she was held in limbo.
Part of her was aware that she was in incredible pain, but that was such a common state of being that it was hardly worth mentioning. There was also something wet and slimy being draped around her neck. She probably should be concerned about that, but her thoughts were so scattered that it was difficult to care.
Then something jabbed into her and sent an electric shock through her skull.
Mokou's eyes snapped open, and she started gasping. She was sitting on one of the upper branches of a very tall tree, just beyond the border of the Bamboo Forest of the Lost. Her body was a wreck: legs and arms broken and bound in such a way to prevent them from healing, face a bruised mess, she was covered with her own blood, and unless she missed her guess…
She glanced down and scowled. Her stomach had been split open, and the grey coils of her intestines had been pulled out.
"Smells, doesn't it?" Kaguya said cheerfully. The Lunarian Princess was standing on the branch next to her. Mokou's intestines were in her hands, and she was busy looping them around a higher branch. "Seriously Mokou, what have you been eating?"
Mokou eyed Kaguya's activities. She noticed that the end of her digestive tract had been cut, and her intestines were now tied around her neck in familiar fashion. "Really?" she croaked. "Lynch me…with my own intestines?"
"Hey, I've got a free evening with nothing better to do, so why not try a little arts and crafts?" Kaguya gave her grisly noose one final tug and nodded in satisfaction. "Well, I think that should do it. Score in my favor."
"For…for now." Mokou grinned, exposing her broken and bloody teeth. "Be seeing you soon."
"Just like always, huh?"
"Yup. If there's…if there's one constant…in your life…it's that I will always be there…to hurt you…and kill you…" Mokou let out a rasping laughing. "No matter…what…I will…always hound you. And…you me. We're…soul mates…in a way."
Kaguya's smile disappeared. "And to think, I was wondering if I was going too far." With that, she kicked Mokou off the branch.
The noose tightened around her neck, cutting off her air. Mokou swung back and forth, unable to do anything about her predicament. Well, no, she could still incinerate the tree she was tied to, or generate enough heat to keep her afloat. But at this point, it was honestly just easier let herself die. Eventually, her body would wise up to the fact that her insides were not living up to their name and start unlooping and retracting her intestines, causing her body to fall. And from there, she would be able to heal normally.
And then she would get her revenge. The score would be evened, and Kaguya would die in great pain, just like she always did. it was an endless circle of violence, one that Mokou intended to keep spinning for as long as she was able. Three hundred years, and she was still going strong.
Despite the loss of oxygen to her brain, Mokou still managed a smile. She had something to look forward to, after all. Then her eyes fluttered, and…
…consciousness faded in and out. Mokou twitched, grimaced, and slowly forced herself back to full wakefulness. It was tough going, but she was well accustomed to the struggle.
When her senses finally returned, she found herself in the oddest position. She was upside-down, sprawled against one corner of Kaguya's elething, with her legs spread out against both walls. Her vision was still filled with spots, and she was sporting a massive bump on her head.
She idly wondered if she had died. It was something that happened so often, it was sometimes hard to tell if an injury had been fatal or simply meant she was going to be walking funny for a few minutes. She doubted that such was the case this time though, as smacking her head was hardly enough to dispatch even a normal person.
Gingerly she straightened herself out. The bump on her head screamed obscenities, but compared to the agony she lived with almost every day, it wasn't even worth acknowledging. She tested herself for broken bones and dislocated joints and found none.
Head and Body had likewise ended up in similar positions. Head was sitting slumped with her cheek pressed against the wall, while Body was lying with her face pressed against the velvet floor and her butt sticking in the air. Mokou found herself lamenting that she had never come across Kaguya in that position in the past when that damned truce wouldn't have gotten in the way of such an opportunity.
Easing the cricks out of her neck, Mokou said, "All right, everybody up. Looks like the worst has passed."
Head cranked open one eye just enough to glower at her. "You know, every time someone says that, they're practically begging fate to come up and kick their head in."
"No kidding," Body mumbled. Her voice sounded kind of funny. "I thought you knew better than…Ah hell." She sat back on her haunches and spat a couple of bloody white things into her palm. "Damn it, I knocked out some of my teeth."
Mokou was pleased to note that her bump was almost completely gone. "So? You'll grow them back."
"It's the principle of the thing." Body pocketed the teeth and looked around. "What in the world happened, anyway?"
Head shifted her legs into a more comfortable position. "That seems obvious. We told the elevator to go down further than the cable would allow, so the floor opened up and we got dropped into freefall."
"Really?" Mokou sat down against the corner she had been sprawled against. "Except for that beginning part, it really doesn't feel like it. I mean, where's the vertigo?"
Head shrugged. "I don't know, maybe we got slowed down. But we're definitely descending. I can feel that much at least."
"Ah." Mokou concentrated and decided that Head was right. "Okay then. Better make sure it gives us a soft landing, because otherwise we're going to end up as a spectacularly bloody mess."
"Wouldn't be the first time," Body smirked.
"No, but that doesn't mean I want it to be the next."
"Point," Body sighed. She turned to Head. "You know, we have to start wording things more carefully."
"Yes we do," Head agreed, and that was the last thing anyone said for some time.
After they had been falling for a few minutes, Body said, "I wonder what's going on outside."
Mokou shrugged. "Check and find out."
"How? There's no windows, and I am not opening the door to-" Body cut herself off, grimaced, and said, "Okay, no need to say anything. Fine." She stood up and pressed her hand against the mirror.
"Make sure it's one-way," Head advised. "We don't want something nasty peeking in."
"Like that would stop them," Body muttered, but she complied. The backs of the mirrors dissolved away, becoming windows.
The view outside was somewhat disappointing. From what Mokou could tell, they were falling gently through a thick, grey mist. Through it, no shapes could be discerned.
"Well, that's kind of useless," Body observed. "Not to mention dangerous. If something decided to come eat us, we wouldn't know until it started chewing."
"You're really not getting this whole 'godlike control' thing, are you?" Mokou asked.
"We're not in my imagination anymore, you tit," Body snapped. "I can control the elevator, and that's about it."
"Tell that to the fortress we're heading for," Mokou responded. "And…" Her brow furrowed. "Wait, did you just call me a tit?"
Over in her corner, Head rolled her eyes. "Out of all the awful things we've called you over the years, and that's the one you take offense to?"
"I'm not taking offense, I just think it's…uh…"
The rest of her thought trailed off. Something was moving in the mists. She could see light in the distance, faint at first but growing in strength. And in the light, shapes were moving.
"Crap," she bemoaned. She readied herself for violence. "It's happening already. All right, get ready for…Huh?"
The mists opened up, and Mokou found herself staring at, not Rumia or a bloodthirsty nightmare, but a dark-haired man with smiling eyes playing with a young girl in a sunlit garden. From the look of things, he was trying to show her how to fly.
Mokou sat down very suddenly.
"Huh," Body said, tilting her head to one side. "Wasn't expecting that. What is it?"
Mokou swallowed. Her mouth had gone dry, and she found speaking to be difficult. "I-it's me," she stammered.
"Who, the guy?" Head said in bewilderment. This earned her a smack from her twin.
Mokou was too numb too take offense. She just watched as her father shared with her six-year-old self the secret to flying.
"Miss the ground," she muttered. Then she let out a small laugh. "My gods, I still remember."
"So, that's you, huh?" Body observed. She watched the memory for a few moments before commenting, "Huh. You were a cute kid."
"And her dad doesn't seem so bad," Head remarked. "Hell, he's almost likeable here. Makes you wonder what happened."
"What happened?" Mokou repeated. She chuckled without humor. Her head lolled around so that she was smiling at the two Kaguyas. "Well, let me tell you…"
Almost as if on cue, the memory was again enveloped by mists, which then opened again, revealing the very memory Mokou had been about to discuss. Which made sense in a way. This was her subconscious, after all.
Again they were watching Mokou as a child, this time a few years older. However, the scene was not at all pleasant. Silently, the three of them watched as Mokou stumbled in on the ravaged body of her dying mother and had her questions brushed off by her distraught father.
"Well, that was kind of harsh," Body said as the young Mokou was dragged away from her mother's room. "How old were you?"
Mokou grimaced and stood up. "I dunno. Nine, I think."
"So, that's what turned your dad into a complete asshole?" Head asked. "Your mom dying? Seems kind of an overreaction of you-erk!"
Head had suddenly found her breath cut off as Mokou's forearm rammed into her windpipe and shoved her against the elevator wall.
"Whoa!" Body immediately leapt to her twin's defense. "Ease up, Pyrobitch! She was just asking!"
Though she didn't break her glare, Mokou allowed herself to be hauled away from Head, who started coughing. "That?" she said, yanking her arm away from Body's hands. "That alone? Oh no. Not by a long shot. Helplessly watching the love of his life wither and die was just the start."
The memory was replaced by another, this one similar to the last. This time, a preteen Mokou stood horrified with the remainder of her family as the parcel containing her brother's severed head was opened.
"This only happened a few years after," she said, crossing her arms. "Imagine, everything was going great. He was living the perfect life: head of a wealthy and respected family, had a beautiful wife that he loved dearly, three kids that were crazy about him, lah-dee-fucking-dah." She turned her head to lock eyes with the two identical figures of her hated enemy. "And then, in the space of about three years, half of his family, gone." She snapped her fingers. "Like that. Loses his wife to a disease he can't stop, and his oldest son is brutally murdered by his political rival, just to make a stupid point! Sort of thing tends to make a guy bitter, you know?"
She looked away. This whole trip had torn the scabs off of one old wound after another and ripped open scars. The encounter at the field of corpses in particular had ravaged her emotionally and spiritually. In a way all the blows she had taken had been beneficial, in that she could now relive these dark stains on her past without being reduced to a sobbing mess.
"Of course, that wasn't the end of it," she continued. The memory was still playing, showing her surviving brother talk her out of seeking revenge. "If it were, he might have healed, we might have gotten better. But the Sonozikas-"
"The Sonozikas?" Body interrupted, looking perplexed. "You mean those twits that run the Human Village?"
Mokou sighed. She swore she had told Kaguya about her family's disastrous rivalry with the Sonozikas half a dozen times by now. The Lunar Princess's attention span had always been lacking. "The same. They hated us, we hated them back. They're the ones that had my brother killed, and kept trying to bring us down after. My father became paranoid for our safety. We were rarely allowed to leave the estate, and then only with lots and lots of guards." Her lips twisted in a snarl. "Of course, in my case, it was only delaying the inevitable."
This pronouncement only got her blank stares. Body coughed into her hand and said, "Uh, what?"
"What, I never told you?" Mokou said, acid dripping from every word. "I was dying."
A beat went by, and then, "WHAT?"
The mists closed, but instead of opening to reveal a new memory, they thickened, grew dark, and started to swirl violently around the elevator. A faint rumbling like distant thunder shook the elevator.
"I was dying," Mokou said again, taking no notice of the change in climate. "Just really, really slowly. You know the disease that killed my mother? Yeah, it was hereditary. Only affected the women in my family though, passed along from mother to daughter. My mother was lucky she lived as long as she did. Me? I wasn't so tough. Everyone thought I'd be dead by twenty-one."
Mokou slammed the blunt of her fist into the elevator door. The suddenness made the Kaguya twins jump, and her fist left a small impression in the metal.
"As I grew older, I could feel it growing inside me," she said. "Eating away at my insides. Small of course, it always started small. And slow. But when it decided to go for the kill, you knew. My mother went from being simply delicate to falling to pieces in the space of a month."
Head looked like she was at a loss for words. She kept fidgeting uncomfortable and shooting pleading glances at her twin, as if begging her to say something for her. Body obliged.
"Wait," she said, her brow rising in realization. "So the reason your dad wanted to marry me was…"
"Half his family was dead," Mokou said flatly. "And he was due to lose his daughter in a few years. And with all the assassins the Sonozikas were sending after us, who was to say that my remaining brother would survive?" Her snarl increased in sharpness. "And then you came along. A bonafide Princess from the fucking Moon. Drop-dead gorgeous, had a miracle worker as your sidekick, and most of the province wrapped around your finger a month after your arrival. And oh yeah, completely and utterly unkillable."
"So that was what that was all about?" Body demanded. "Your dad started courting me because I couldn't die?"
"My idea, actually," Mokou said. She enjoyed the way the twins blanched at this new bit of information. "Yeah, and to think, you might have been my stepmother."
"Not bloody likely," Head hissed.
Mokou shrugged. "Yeah, I know. The game was rigged. Wish I knew it at the time, would have made everyone's lives a lot easier."
"And yours a lot shorter," Body pointed out.
Mokou acknowledged this with a nod. Behind her, the mists opened to show another Mokou, this one near the physical age she was now, bitterly confessing her disappointments to her brother. "Like I said, a hell of a lot easier." She sighed. "Anyway, he failed your stupid wild goose chase, like everyone else did, and I thought that was going to be the end of that." She snickered. "So imagine how I must have felt when I found out that the last bit of the same miracle drink that gave you your immortality was in transit to be dropped into a volcano."
Body growled. "Stupid son of a bitch of an emperor. He had the nerve to get all pissy when I wouldn't marry his seventy-year-old ass, and when we sent him the rest of the elixir, hoping to make amends, he throws a godsdamned hissy fit and tries to chuck it into a volcano, just to spite me!"
"No kidding," Head said with a roll of her eyes. "I mean, what kind of idiot throws away something like that, just to make a point? It wasn't like we needed it."
Mokou shrugged. "Maybe he didn't much care for the idea of being seventy years old for the rest of eternity."
"Then he should have looked us up! Eirin could have done something to fix that!"
"Did he know that? Besides, the guy's been dead and dust for over a thousand years. Get over it."
"Kind of hard to," Body seethed. "Seeing how the results of his idiocy have plagued us for the last three hundred plus years." She took a deep breath to calm herself. "But fine. So, that's the real reason you stole the elixir, huh? Didn't want the disease to kill you?" She shrugged. "Okay, fine. I guess I can respect that. But that doesn't explain-"
"No," Mokou said, her voice a low growl. "Not for me. Anyone but me. My father, if he would take it. My brother. My father's new wife, if I could persuade him to take one. Somebody. Just so he wouldn't have to be alone."
"Really," Head said, her voice a flat monotone. "Well. That plan went straight to Hell, didn't it?"
Mokou nodded. Across from her, the mists opened up, revealing a horrified Mokou staring at the still body of Iwakasa, who bled from wounds she herself had inflicted.
Like so many of the lives she had taken or ruined, this one had been completely unintentional. Even after all his men had been devoured by an unexpected mountain god, Iwakasa had still been determined to carry out his duty and destroy the Hourai Elixir. Obviously, Mokou had been dead set against that plan, and they had quarreled. Things had gotten confusing after that, and given the ordeals they had endured, neither of them were quite in their right minds. Not that changed anything; Iwakasa had still ended up dead and Mokou had fled the area, the elixir in hand. Mission accomplished.
What a shame that she had to then have her ankle twist out from under as she ran down the mountain. And how unfortunate that, as she had tumbled down the slope, she would become inflicted with a nasty head wound that had refused to stop bleeding. And how unlucky she had been in that the smell of blood had attracted the attention of a wild spider youkai, who had descended upon her in hopes of an easy meal. And wasn't it just tragic that she had severely underestimated the amount of elixir that the deceptively large bottle had contained, leading her to believe that even if she were to use it to save her life, enough would be left over to be presented to her father? And if only someone had told her exactly how the elixir worked, that the three panicked sips she had taken would complete the process, not only healing her body and burning away the disease she had received from her mother, but also binding her soul to her body forever.
The memory was playing out behind the Kaguya twins' backs, so they couldn't see it. This was for her and her alone. She stared at it with steely eyes until the mists closed again.
"Yes," she said. "All to Hell."
Body frowned. She leaned in a little closer, her eyes narrowed as she studied Mokou's face. "Your dad didn't exactly take it well when he found out, did he?"
Well, Kaguya may be a royal pain in the ass, and she may come up with some incredibly dumb ideas sometimes, but wasn't stupid. For one, she could read Mokou like a book. "No, he didn't," Mokou said. She sat down and folded her legs. "Not at all."
"Not surprising," Head said. She stood right behind her twin with her arms folded. "And while I'm tempted to just chalk it up to him being pissed that he didn't get to be immortal, it was a little more than that, wasn't it?"
Mokou smiled a sour smile. "Well, why don't I just show you?"
Directly above her head, a new scene started to play out. Mokou didn't need to see it to know what was happening. In it, her father, now looking and acting closer to the angry, almost cruel man that had been tormenting as of late, was marching through the Fujiwara manor and dragging Mokou by the hair, which, once nut brown, was now almost bleached white, a side-effect of the elixir being consumed by a "lesser being." Mokou was screaming and pleading with her father, begging him to forgive her.
"No, please!" her tiny voice cried, audible even through the glass. "I'm sorry! Please, Father!"
Fujiwara no Fuhito didn't seem to even hear her. His eyes were burning with an anger so intense that it looked like madness. Maybe it was.
"Wait!" she said, trying to pull back. "I did it for you! I swear, it was meant for you! I never meant-"
That finally got his attention. He stopped his stalwart march toward the front gate and turned to glower hatefully at his sobbing daughter, whose hair was still clenched in his hand.
"For me?" he growled. "You did this for me?"
Then he struck her: a savage backhand across her face that stunned her into silence. She gaped up at him, moist eyes wide with shock.
"You stupid, stupid girl!" he all but roared at her. "You think I wanted this?"
With that, he hauled her out to the front gates and shoved them open. From there, he threw his daughter out like a bag of trash.
As she lay weeping in the dirt, Fuhito loomed over her. The sun was at his back, turning him into a menacing shadow, full of rage.
"For the love I once held for you, I am letting you go," he said at last. "You were my daughter, the light of my eyes, and that must be acknowledged. But now…" His fists clenched, and raw power crackled over his knuckles. "Now you are not. You've become like her!"With that, he turned and stormed back through the gate, though not before leaving her with one last parting shot. "Never return."
And the gates slammed shut.
In Mokou's mind, the sound of them was much louder, much more resonant that they were now, though the glass probably had something to do with that. She sat and watched as the Kaguya twins stared with expressionless faces as their mortal enemy was thrown out by her own father.
Mokou waited for one of them to say something.
Finally, one of them did. "Well," Head said, her face still blank. "That was kind of horrible."
"Yes, it was," Mokou said, her mouth still lifted in that acrid smile.
"He was really that pissed about not winning?" Body asked. "That he flipped out about anything that resembled me?"
Mokou shrugged. "What can I say, Kaguya? You have a way of making people hate you."
The twins exchanged a look, but neither of them raised the bait. Mokou watched their faces as carefully as they had watched hers. Though they both wore blank masks, she could still see something stirring in their eyes, something she was not accustomed to seeing from Kaguya.
Empathy.
Well now, wasn't that something?
However, the trip down memory lane wasn't done yet. Above her head, nineteen-year-old Mokou was still crying as she half-ran, half-stumbled away from her former home. Once again, something caught her foot and she fell. And once again, it ended with a very important encounter, one that would change her life forever.
As the mists replayed her conversation with the witch-woman, Head wrinkled her nose. "Hold up," she said. "That woman. Something about her rings a bell."
Mokou's eyebrows rose. "Wow, you actually recognize her? I'm impressed."
"Who is she?" Body asked. "She does seem familiar."
"Oh, no one all that important," Mokou said. "You know her as Madam Mima."
Both Head and Body made choking sounds of surprise. "M-M-Mima?" Head gasped. "You mean that freaky ghost that's always hanging around Hakurei Shrine?"
"Yeah, and didn't she get declared Hakurei Shrine's representative or something?" Body asked, turning to her twin. "Around the same time we were made all official? What was that dumb name they had for it?"
"Ringleader?"
"Yeah, that's it." Body looked again at the memory and shook her head. "So, that's her, huh? She gets around."
"That's her," Mokou confirmed. "Back when she was still Human, over a thousand years ago." She snickered. "We actually ran into each other soon after I entered Gensokyo."
"Really now. Did she remember you?"
Mokou nodded. "Yeah. She congratulated me on a job well done and complimented me on having absorbed a Phoenix. And then she did me a favor."
"Yeah? And what's that?"
Mokou showed her teeth. "She pointed me in your direction."
Any sympathy Head and Body might have been projecting died right there and then. Replacing it was an aura of cold. "Oh, did she," Head said frostily.
"Yeah. Said she owed me one for taking out the trash."
"That so." Head glanced at Body. "You know, I'm thinking we'll have to make a little visit to Hakurei Shrine once all this is over."
"Oh, I agree," Body nodded. An angry scowl twisted her face. "Though I can't help but wonder how she knew we were there at all."
Mokou leaned back against the wall and stretched her legs out. "You really don't know a whole lot about Madam Mima, do you?"
Head blinked. "Not really. Why?"
"Heh. You ever hear of the Magician's War?"
"Yeah. Who hasn't?"
Mokou's dead smile took on a little life, becoming more of a smirk. "Well, that was her."
"Huh? Which part?"
"The whole thing."
"Oh." Head looked troubled. "You know what, maybe we'd better just let that one slide."
Through the window, the memory continued to play out, as the witch-woman Madam Mima consoled the distraught Mokou on the one of the most appealing advantages immortality brought. Specifically, vengeance.
"And so it begins," Head said as Mokou rushed off to bring a cup of Shiva to the men who had decapitated her brother.
"Pretty much, yes," Mokou said, allowing the memory to fade away. She didn't need it anymore. "First those mercenaries, and then I paid a visit to Sonozika himself."
Body put her hands on her hips. "You didn't do a very good job of it then, seeing how his descendants are pretty much running the Human Village now."
Mokou shook her head. "They're descended from his youngest son, who was like three at the time. Think what you want about me, but I wasn't about to assassinate an infant."
"No, just murder his entire family."
"Nah. Just his father and three oldest brothers," Mokou said with a wry smile. "The ones actually involved in the feud. But even so, I never claimed to be a saint."
This earned her scowls from the Kaguya twins. "And to think, I was starting to feel sorry for you," Body said with a shake of her head.
"I dunno," Head put in. "If anything, I kind of pity her more." She motioned toward Mokou. "I mean, look at her. Mima probably did more damage to her than we ever did."
Mokou's smile disappeared. "What?"
"Let's face it, Mokou. You may have gotten your vengeance, killed everyone who hurt you or your family, but so what? You killed a lot of people that would have been long dead anyway, caused a lot of pain, and…" Head blinked. "And come to think of it, that's what happened to that one coast town, isn't it? Kama…Karma…Kamehame…"
"Kamakura," Mokou said, her eyes narrowed.
"Right! You went after those pirates, and things got out of hand, didn't they? Probably some stray fireball hit a pile of wood, and before you knew it, the whole city was alight!"
Mokou said nothing. She just glowered.
"Yeah, I thought so," Head said. "But you kept going. Went after Sonozika and paid him and his sons back. And since you were probably feeling so guilty for losing control at Kamakura, you stopped with that. Told yourself that you weren't so bad, that Kamakura was a one-time thing, just a bad accident. But what then, Mokou? What happened after you had your vengeance, huh?"
Now Mokou was on her feet. Her eyes were glowing, and the air around her shimmered with heat. Noticing this, Body gulped and leaned in to whisper into her twin's ear. "Uh, maybe you should ease up a bit. The elevator's kind of small, so if she goes full inferno on us-"
"Shut up, I don't care," Head snapped. "We're long overdue to have this conversation anyway."
"Oh, are we?" Mokou said with a sneer.
"Damn right, we are!" Head thrust a finger at her smoldering rival. "You couldn't handle it! You couldn't handle being immortal! You had no family to go back to, no real home, and you got all your revenging done the first day. So after that, what was left? You weren't about to strike vengeance against you dad, so you had no drive, no purpose, no reason to keep on living. But you didn't have much choice in the matter, did you? You had to just keep on existing, unable to move on, unable to start something new. Must have tried to off yourself a hundred different ways, huh? Each one more thorough than the last. Except none of them worked, and you just got more and more scared."
"Keep talking, Houraisan. See what happens."
Head did just that. "So when you finally wound up in Gensokyo and Mima told you that the princess who rejected your dad in the first place was still kicking around, you must have been so happy. Because now you had someone to take revenge on again! And again, and again, and again. But for what, Mokou? Because I was there? Because it was my elixir that you stole?" Now Head's eyes were starting to glow with power of her own. "Or was it because of what your dad said, about you becoming like me? He saw me in you, and rejected you for it! So you saw me as something as something evil and hateful to be destroyed, didn't you?"
Mokou let out an audible growl.
"Ha! I'm right, aren't I?" Head said triumphantly. "I'm not the one with self-loathing issues, you are! You've hated yourself for centuries, tried to destroy yourself over and over, and when you couldn't, you focused that anger on me, like some-"
Mokou thrust her hand out, palm first. It hit Head in the center of her chest and white-hot fires swept over her body, cooking her down to the bone in seconds. Head's roasted skeleton dropped to the floor, surrounded by the ash of her flesh and clothing.
Breathing heavily, Mokou stepped back from the ruin she had caused. Her body trembled. "You have something to add?" she said to Body, who was staring at her twin's remains with an expression of horror. "Maybe some whining about the truce?"
Body's eyes flickered up to Mokou. The remaining Kaguya had suffered first degree burns and was sweating from the heat, but was otherwise all right. "Not at all," she said.
"Good to hear." Mokou returned to her corner and sat back down. She leaned back, took a deep breath, and closed her eyes. Ugh, it smelled like cooked Kaguya. Normally that would be a scent to savor, but inside of a cooped box it was a bit overpowering.
Then Body said, "But she is right, you know."
Mokou slowly raised her eyelids, but otherwise she didn't move. "What ever happened to 'Not at all'?"
"Changed my mind."
Mokou shrugged. "Okay." She held up her hand and ignited a ball of flame over her palm.
"Oh, so scary," Body sneered. "Crispify me if you want, it wouldn't be the first time. Or thousandth. But it won't change the facts."
"That right?" Mokou didn't move to attack, but she didn't snuff out the fireball either. "And what facts might that be?"
"You heard them already. From her." Body pointed to the pile of bones and ash, which was just starting to stir. "Your feud with me was never really about me, not originally. You didn't hate me, you just hated what I represented. I'm like your twisted reflection…or you're mine. Whatever. Point is, you can lie to yourself about how I've wronged you all you want, but truth is, before we met, I never did a thing to you."
Mokou gritted her teeth. "Bullshit."
"I didn't! I never even knew you existed! You did it all yourself! Except you can't accept that, so you make up stupid, asinine excuses about how I screwed you over, screwed your dad over-"
"You sent him on a wild goose chase!"
"Yeah, I did!" Body shouted at her. "But newflash, Mokou: I sent everyone on a wild goose chase, and you damn well know the reason why!"
Sighing, Mokou closed her hand, extinguishing the fire. "Yeah. Lesbian."
"Oh sure, that's part of it, but even if I wasn't…" Body hunched down in her own corner. Hands curled into tights fists and face contorted with anger. "They just wouldn't leave me alone! I had just been exiled, didn't really want to get involved with the locals-"
"You mean the primitive, backwater savages," Mokou corrected.
"I…fine. Yes, I mean all you filthy monkey people. But give me a break, I'm a Lunarian. You know the sort of stuff I grew up with."
Mokou shrugged. "Fine, whatever. So you wanted to make the drooling natives piss off, so you made up some pointless game to make them chase their tails in circles. Probably got a few laughs out of it, too."
Body rolled her eyes. "And again with the…augh. Looks like I'm going to have to do with after all."
"Do what?" Mokou said, frowning.
"Start from the beginning. It's the only way we'll get anywhere."
Mokou rolled her eyes. "Oh what, now I got to hear your life story too? Don't bother, I already know it. One day, little Princess Kaguya got sick and tired of not being important, so she and her best buddy in the whole wide world decided they could change that by making her live forever. It didn't work, and they got kicked down to Earth. Things got weird, and then she met me. The end."
Cold fury sprung up in Body's eyes. Mokou found herself taken by surprise by how hateful they looked. This wasn't the usual vengeful rage or spiteful annoyance Kaguya usually directed her way. This time, she had truly offended her rival, on a personal level.
Despite this, Body's voice was low and controlled, if still dangerous. "Don't you dare belittle it," she said. "And seeing how you just made me sit through your life story, you owe it to me to sit through mine."
Mokou quirked an eyebrow. Then she glanced toward the squirming lump of charred flesh and pointed a finger at it. A spear of flame shot out, interrupting Head's resurrection attempts and sending her back to square one.
"All right," she said to Body. "Fine. Talk."
Body looked like she was about to protest this latest violation of the truce, but she thought better of it. "Well, you're right about one thing. I wasn't important. At all. Sure, I lived the life of luxury, but that didn't change the fact that I had no real power, no real say over my life. Sure, the servants did whatever I wanted and people bowed down when they saw me, called me 'Highness' and 'Princess' and whatnot, but it was my father they were respecting, not me. I was little better than a nobody. Everything I did was carefully monitored and controlled, and the gods forbid I pursue any interests of my own."
Just as they had for Mokou, the mists provided a visual backdrop for Body's story, though in her case the mists didn't part. Instead, Mokou saw shapes and silhouettes moving through the thick clouds, showing a young child that she presumed to be Kaguya being told off by someone that was obviously Eirin Yagokoro. This was followed by young Kaguya getting told off by some sort of military officer, by someone she presumed was an older sibling, by a lady dressed like a noble, by a man dressed like clown (or so it looked like to Mokou. It was probably just some stupid fashion favored by the upper crust of Lunarian society a thousand years ago), and so on, until the images of Kaguya being lectured started to overlap. Clearly she had been quite the handful when she was a child.
"Yeah, I know," Mokou said, shrugging. "Which got your panties into a twist and made you want to throw a coup by becoming immortal." She frowned. "You know, I never really got how that was supposed to work."
"Like I said, don't belittle it. Do you have any idea what a princess actually is?" Body shook her head and chuckled. "A genetic party favor, to be married off to one of my father's noble buddies and pop out babies for him until the equipment stops working. Not exactly a fate I was especially looking forward to."
Mokou nodded. "Because lesbian."
"Yeah, there's definitely that. Plus, you know, the whole not having a say in it, being treated like a piece of property, having to watch my step for the rest of my very long life for fear of disgracing my husband and my family (and let me tell you, the list of things that might cause that happen is looooooong)." Body shuddered with revulsion. "And then there's the problem that Duke Hoshimaru was an absolutely slimy son of a bitch."
That made Mokou blink. Now this part she was unfamiliar with. "Wait, who?"
"My betrothed." Body's smile dripped with acid. "Didn't know about that part, did you?"
Mokou hadn't, though upon reflection, she supposed that it made sense. Kaguya had been of age after all.
A figure came into view above Body's head. It was that man that looked like a clown. While still shrouded by the mists, this time his features were distinct enough for Mokou to make out a tall, rakish body with long, spindly hands, and a gaunt face with fat lips and leering eyes. His hair was long, white, and tied into a ponytail. If ever there was someone who could be described as a fop, it would be this guy. Definitely unpleasant looking, though Mokou wondered how much of that was actually accurate and how much was twisted in Kaguya's memories.
"That's the guy, huh?" Mokou asked, motioning toward him. "Well, he's ugly, I'll give you that."
Body glanced up and grimaced. "Yeah, that's him all right. Gods, I hated him. I mean, look at him! It's like he can't even look at you without undressing you with his eyes. When they told me I had to marry the bastard, I was tempted to take a walk through the top tower window right there and then." Shivering, she looked away, and Hoshimaru's form faded. "But you know the worst of it? Everybody seemed to know that I was going to marry that guy except for me. They didn't even bother telling me until I turned sixteen. I mean, come on! All those years, and no one would so much as drop a hint. I must've complained about him to my siblings a hundred different times." Her eyes turned dark. "They were probably laughing themselves sick the whole time."
As she processed this, Mokou was struck by a troubling thought. "Wait, years? How long were you promised to him?"
Kaguya's slim hands curled into tight fists, and her forearms started to tremble. "Since before I could walk."
Mokou stared. "You're serious."
"Dead serious. He was one of the ranking nobility. Not the oldest family or the most prestigious, but filthy rich, and marrying into the Houraisans was going to be his stepping stone to royalty." Kaguya let out a disgusted growl. "Guy was already older than my father when I was born. Can you imagine what that must have been like? Like, he gets a call, and it's my dad." Kaguya started speaking in an exaggeratedly deeper voice. "'Hey bro, you know that trophy wife I promised you? Well, she just arrived!'" Then she changed to a higher, more prissy tone. "'Oh, how marvelous! And just in time for my birthday!'" Deeper again. "'Uh, you're gonna have to wait a bit before you unwrap your gift, dude. She's still a newborn. Wouldn't look right.'" Higher. "'Oh poo. I hate waiting. How long would be acceptable?'" Deeper. "'Not long, man. Just until the grass has grown. Otherwise people will freak.'" Higher. "'Oh, I suppose I can hold off for a few years. The wait will just make it all the sweeter. Ooooh, I'm getting giddy just thinking about it!'" Body turned her head and spat. "Two of a kind," she said in her normal voice. "I am well quit of them."
Mokou was aghast. It was true, she had spent the last three hundred years hating Kaguya and making her life a world of pain, but nothing roused her wrath like the mistreatment of a child, even if that child was Kaguya. "And Eirin never had anything to say until then?" she asked. "I thought she was like your personal tutor or something!"
"Oh, she had plenty to say, I just never heard any of it." Body snickered. "See, she and Father never really got along. Had something to do with an argument with my grandfather that carried over to him. Anyway, she was his most vocal critic, and one of the few people that could get away with it. Problem was, he was the King, and she was Eirin motherfucking Yagokoro. Neither of them could get rid of each other, so instead they just tolerated each other."
Mokou saw where this was going. "And she figured if the current ruler wouldn't listen, she would instead try to shape the next?" she guessed. "Except your father figured out what she was up to, and foisted her off onto his least important child?"
"Hey, give the Pyrobitch credit, she can see what's in front of her eyes." Despite the joviality of her words, Body's face was completely humorless. Her mouth was set in a straight line, the side of which kept twitching. Her eyes were unfocused and faraway as she plunged through centuries-old memories. "But hey, she did it. I mean, he was still the king and all, so she sucked it up and did her duty. I guess she figured being able to tutor at least one member of the royal family was better than nothing, right?" Her eyes darted to Mokou. "And I swear to all the gods, make one joke about her screwing up in epic fashion, and I will hurt you."
"The thought never crossed my mind," Mokou said solemnly. Then she incinerated Head's regenerating form. Again.
Body sighed and shook ash out of her hair and wiped it from her face. "Why do you keep doing that?"
"Because she'll be all pissed off and you'd never get anywhere. I'll let her get up after you're done."
"I guess," Body said reluctantly. "But anyway, you can probably figure out what happened next. She tutored me, she taught me, she practically raised me. Tried to make sure I grew up properly, and I did everything I could to not grow up." She smirked. "It's possible that I may have had authority figure issues."
"What made her change her mind?" Mokou asked.
"Wasn't easy, and it took a while. But it helped that she was already ticked off at Father, and thought that Hoshimaru was an insufferable pervert." Body shrugged. "I think that finding out that I was into girls helped. Plus, she was the only adult who was ever nice to me…I mean genuinely nice to me, not all that fake-ass groveling everyone else would do. So she was the only person I actually respected." She sighed. "Anyway, after one of those incredibly boring state dinners, I complained to her about how Hoshimaru kept creepering on me. I think that's what broke her down, and she told me about the marriage contract."
"Didn't take it well, did you?" Mokou said, nodding.
"Oh, whatever gave you that idea?" Body said wryly. Her brows rose and she meaningfully tilted her head toward the windows.
Again, the scene within was cloudy and indistinct, but Mokou could make out several images of Kaguya having what could only be described as a full emotional breakdown. Each of the hazy Kaguyas was lashing out indiscriminately: smashing unidentifiable objects, slamming themselves against the wall, and pounding their fists against the floor. Here and there she could pick out Eirin's form as the Lunarian doctor tried to get the berserking girl under control. Over it all, overlapping screams and cries rose up.
"NO! Not him! Why him?"
"Why didn't anyone tell me? Why didn't you tell me? Why did you lie?"
"I can't! I won't!"
"I won't do it! I'll kill myself, I swear I will!"
All in all, it was quite the impressive temper tantrum. Mokou supposed that, all things considered, she really couldn't blame her, even if her immediate impulse was to reach through the glass and given the spoiled princess a hard smack and tell her to grow up and act her age. How had Kaguya been supposed to react after being told such things? To learn that she was not only doomed to marry against her orientation, something that she must have been dreading for years, but that it was to be with someone that she despised? Given the circumstances, Mokou had to admit that Kaguya's reaction might be entirely justified, and…and when in the hell had she start thinking up justifications for Kaguya's emotional outbursts? Mokou shook her head. This was just another in a long list of unwanted surprises this nightmare had subjected her to.
The images kept swirling faster and faster, and Kaguya's layered voice got louder and more indecipherable, until the dizzying blur finally condensed together to form one single image: that of Kaguya fallen on her knees, sobbing as Eirin held her tight.
"I can't do it," she said from across an expanse of centuries. "Please don't make me do it."
As the image faded away, Mokou asked, "So, that's what did it then?"
"Yes," Body said. Her voice was hoarse and raw, probably from the emotional fallout of such a poignant memory. "That's what did it."
Body fell silent for a time, and Mokou didn't prod her. Instead, she took the opportunity to muse over what she had just learned. She had known about how Kaguya had resented being the least of the house and how everyone overlooked her in favor of her older siblings, but the bit about her ex-fiancé put a whole different spin on things. Mokou thought of all the stories she knew of princesses who had ran away to avoid being married off to someone unpleasant. There were a great many, but they all seemed to be built around the moral of how one should only marry their true love and not have that decision made for them. Kaguya's case was a bit different, and given that her refusal had eventually resulted in her exile from her home to a world of rough strangers…
Mokou thought of her insistence that her father should try to win the princess's hand and her stomach turned sour.
Then Body cleared her throat. "Anyway, you probably know this next part. We started planning on how we would remove Father from power and usurp my brother, and since my natural gift was all about preserving things indefinitely, Eirin figured she could use that to create the Elixir of Immortality. Obviously it worked." Above, Kaguya's form picked up some kind of vial and drank from it three times, ensuring her eternal existence.
Mokou frowned. "Yeah, you never told me how turning immortal was supposed to make you Queen."
"Well, not that by itself," Body admitted. "That was partially to guard against assassins, as well as give me something unique and incredible that my siblings couldn't match. Eirin was going to do a lot of behind the scenes maneuvering and arrange for Father to suffer a series of mishaps that would leave him in disgrace and my brother unable to take his place." When Mokou gave her a look, she quickly clarified: "I don't mean hurt him, just make sure public opinion and the support of the nobility was against him and behind me. It was all very clever." Body's shoulders lifted and fell in a sigh. "Unfortunately, it never got past the planning stage before I got caught."
"How?"
"My fault. I made the mistake of getting cocky and telling my favorite maid. She had served me since I was a little girl, and I figured if anyone would be on my side, it would be her." Body's lip curled. "Unfortunately, it turned out that she had been serving someone else quite a bit longer."
"Your father?" Mokou guessed. Well, that was to be expected, as everyone in the Houraisan household would be serving him. But she wouldn't put it above the old bastard to have place a couple of watching eyes in his daughter's personal retinue.
But Body shook her head. "No. My scumbag of a fiancé, actually."
Mokou blanched. "You're kidding me."
"I wish."
"But is that…allowed? I mean, fiancé or no, you were still a freaking princess!"
Body shrugged. "What can I say? Knowledge is power, and everyone always made sure to have as many eyes in place as possible. Plus, in this case his informant got to double as a peeping tom."
Mokou made a face. "Okay, just for the record, I still really don't like you, but that's all kinds of fucked up."
"Preaching to the choir, Pyrobitch," Body sighed. "Anyway, she ran off to tell him, and he immediately went and tattled to my dad. From what I hear, he tried to use it to push the wedding into happening right there and then instead of waiting longer."
"Must have been thrilled to learn you weren't going to get any older," Mokou remarked.
"Oh, he was. Unfortunately for him, things didn't turn out quite the way he envisioned." Body's smile became unmistakably bloodthirsty. "See, daddy dearest took it a bit more seriously than Hoshimaru had expected. Apparently me becoming immortal was more of a problem than plotting a coup. Something to do with my rejection of death meaning that I was forever corrupted by it, screwing up my purity."
Mokou blinked. "Uh…"
"I know what you're thinking, and no, I don't mean that kind of purity. I mean the kind my former people are so obsessed about. You know, the Shinto kind."
"Oh," Mokou said, feeling a little dumb for not realizing that right away. "Of course."
"Right. Well, that was the reason they gave anyway. You ask me, Father was just upset that Eirin gave the elixir to me and not him. Plus, my power being the necessary ingredient to make the thing work must have chafed." Kaguya chuckled. "Anyway, you pretty much know what happened next. I was dragged in disgrace before the Lunarian High Court, proclaimed a traitor by my own father, which I'll freely admit I actually was, and given the boot."
Predictably, Body's words were accompanied by a visual aide, this one of Kaguya with her head encased in some kind of all-concealing metal helmet. This image was far more distinct than the ones that had preceded it. Kaguya had never been one to dwell on the past, but this event likely stood out in her memory. In contrast, the Lunarian Court was represented by vague, shadowy figures that surrounded her on all sides and from above, glowering down at her with pale, luminescent eyes. The fact that Kaguya had been blinded by the helmet probably had something to do with that.
"What about Eirin?" Mokou asked. "I don't see her there. Why wasn't she there?"
Body stared at her. "Oh gee, Mokou. Maybe it had something to do with her planning a coup with me? Kings kind of frown on that sort of thing, and usually don't let people who do it participate in the criminal trials of their co-conspirators."
"No, you idiot! I mean why wasn't she being judged with you?" Mokou gestured to Kaguya as she was sentenced. "I mean, she didn't show up on Earth until after, right? How'd she get out of being exiled?"
"Oh, that." Body shrugged. "Well, that's no biggie. I was nobody, so Father could write me off without much problem. But Eirin was one of the founders of our entire freaking civilization, and the only one still active. Kind of makes you a pariah, not to mention ridiculously difficult to get rid of. The only way Father could save face was declare that I had deceived her and he was saving her from my evil ambitions."
Mokou frowned. "So, you got kicked out, and she just got off with a slap on the wrist?" She pondered this for a moment, and then shrugged. "Eh, I can see that. Be keeping with how most of the courts I've seen operate."
"Well, no, I mean she still had to step down from her seat on the Senate," Body admitted. "Plus, she lost Deanship of the Lunarian Science University and all that."
"Like I said. Slap on the wrist."
The look Body gave her indicated that they were in disagreement concerning the severity of Eirin's punishment. "You know, I don't think you're fully grasping what it means for someone like Eirin to lose-"
"She was plotting a freaking coup," Mokou snapped. "I don't care how much you idolize her, that's the sort of thing that will get most people beheaded and their children disinherited. She got off light." Mokou glanced at Head, saw that she was in danger regaining consciousness within the minute, and heatedly delayed her resurrection. As she did so, she said, "What about Hoshimaru? What happened to him?"
That made Body grin. "Oh, that turned out just find. You know who Watatsuki no Yorihime is, right?"
Mokou did, actually. "Yeah, your former rival, right?"
"Mmmm-hmmm. Well, that's what happened. He ended up marrying her instead."
Mokou's eyebrows shot up. "Did he!"
"Yup. And before you ask, yes, it was to get back at me." Kaguya snickered. "I guess he figured it would make me jealous for some stupid reason. They even sent me a wedding announcement and everything."
"But it didn't work I take it?"
"Nope," Kaguya said, shaking her head. "I was thrilled, actually. Couldn't have happened to a finer pair of assholes. I would have even sent them a present if it was allowed. And they went on to make each other miserable ever after. So, there was that at least."
"Gotta take your silver linings where you can find them," Mokou agreed. But then she frowned. "But hey, by the way. As interesting as all that was, you still haven't explained what the point of this guided tour down memory lane is supposed to mean."
Body goggled. "Wait, seriously? You don't…she doesn't get. I don't believe it, she still doesn't get it."
"Get what? Like I said, it's not like you're telling me much that I already didn't know. The bit about your fiancée was the only thing that's really new. Hell, now that he's out of the picture, I can probably finish the story for you." She held up her right hand and starting ticking points off on her fingers. "You landed on Earth and hid out in the woods for, mmmm, eighty years or so? Then Eirin went to the Lunarian High Court and convinced them to overturn your exile. She led a delegation of emissaries to look for you, only to betray and murder them once they'd found you. The two of you moved to Japan, tried to blend in, only to run one hell of a scam on the locals that ruined a whole lot of lives, mine included." She locked eyes with Body. "Did I miss anything?"
"Why, as a matter of fact, you did," Body said, unperturbed. "Or did the whole point of this guided tour down memory lane fly over your head?"
Before Mokou could snark back, Body was on her feet and practically screaming into Mokou's face. "Don't you get it, you odepial simian? I tried to overthrow my father, the freaking emperor of the Lunarian people, just to get out of becoming some slimy asshole's trophy wife, and that was only after I was talked out of killing myself!"
Body jabbed her finger against the stunned Mokou's chest. "As soon as word got out what I was, everyone and their dog was lining up to take Hoshimaru's place. I turned out proposal after proposal, many of them repeats from idiots that don't know the meaning of the word 'no.' And then they started getting more and more insistent, and we realized that sooner or later someone was going to press the issue and force me to become his bride. And then what, Mokou? Play nice until he dies, only for his brother or the some other noble to claim me in his stead? Get tossed around like a hot potato, racking up the husbands and fill the world with my offspring?" She spat on the floor. "Yeah, I conned you. I conned your dad, I conned everyone! I had to! If they had just left me alone, I wouldn't have needed to, but they didn't! I am no one's prize, Fujiwara no Mokou. Not Hoshimaru's, not the emperor's, and most certainly not your fucking father's!"
Body stormed back to her corner and plopped back down. "And hey, if it makes you feel any better, I am sorry for what your dad did to you, I really am. No kid should be treated like that, I should know. But it wasn't my fault! You had no idea what kind of person I was, what I was like, or what I had gone through. You just saw me as a way to make daddy happy. Well, that's all fine and dandy, Mokou. But did you ever consider that I might not want to marry your dad? That the impossible tasks were exactly that? Impossible? That there was a damned good reason why I had made winning me so incredibly difficult?"
Mokou had to admit, Body's outburst had taken her off guard, and she had to struggle to find her voice. "I-er-uh…I just thought that it was a way to find who was the most worthy. Or something."
"Well, it wasn't," Body snapped. "But you didn't stop to consider that, did you? No, you just saw me the same way everyone saw me. As an opportunity. A prize to be won and shown off, never caring about what I wanted, about who I was-"
"Yeah, and I find that out pretty quick, didn't I?" Mokou said crossly. "Maybe I lucked out. Maybe this is preferable to having you as a stepmother."
There was a short pause, and then Body chuckled. "Oh, this oughta be rich. Okay Mokou, give me your best shot. What kind of person am I?"
Without hesitation, Mokou answered, "A spoiled, stuck-up, self-centered, egotistical, narcissistic brat who isn't happy unless the world and everything in it revolves around your every selfish whim and desire."
Body rolled her eyes. "I can't remember the last time I've heard so many synonyms strung together at once."
"Doesn't make it any less true."
"I…" Body sighed. "You know what? All right. Maybe you're right. Maybe I am a selfish bitch. Fine." Then, her eyes burning with fury, Body shouted out, "Then hate me for that! Stop hating me because I wasn't what you wanted me to be, stop hating me because daddy said you should, and stop hating me for some imagined slight against your family that happened a thousand fucking years ago!"
"Are you serious?"
"Dead serious. I'd rather be hated for who I am than desired for what I am. I've had quite enough of that, thank you very much!"
Troubled, Mokou pondered on this. She had rarely seen Kaguya get this passionate about…well, anything. Angry, yes. Oftentimes livid, regularly vengeful, but not passionate. And as much as the very thought horrified her, she had to admit that she was not unmoved. It was nauseating, and she was disgusted with herself for admitting it, but given what Kaguya had been running from only to run into more of the same, it was difficult to fully fault her for trying to defend herself.
Then she remembered what her father's shade had asked her, back at the dead field. "Why do you hate Kaguya?" he had said. And now, she found herself seriously considering the question for the first time in a long, long while. Was it truly because Kaguya had been responsible for the Hourai Elixir entering into her life? Was it really because of her father's rejection? Was Kaguya right? Did Mokou hate her for simply being something, representing something that Mokou loathed, something that she saw within herself? Or was it Kaguya herself she hated?
Originally, the former would have been true. Before Mokou's initial attack, they had never met face-to-face, so Mokou had no idea what sort of person her hated nemesis was. However, she had found out rather quickly, which probably a long way to motivating Mokou to keep up the feud. Had Kaguya actually been a decent person, someone truly underserving of Mokou's hatred, would things have turned out differently? Would Mokou have been shamed into abandoning her vengeance?
Probably not. Mokou was very, very old. The old are often set in their ways, and she had wanted to see Kaguya burn, deserving or not.
But now, after three straight centuries of making Kaguya burn, bleed, break, and bruise, why was she still doing it? She had already gotten her revenge a thousand times over. Was it mere habit? Was it because vengeance was all she had left, and there was no one else for her to take it upon? Or did she truly believe, deep down, that Kaguya was someone who deserved everything Mokou did to her? Mokou wasn't sure. It honestly wasn't something she had ever given much thought to, and having to do so now bothered her.
Though come to think of it, there was something additional she hated Kaguya for, something connected to her family troubles but still deeply personal. But the damnedest thing was, she couldn't remember was it was. The feelings of resentment and hatred were still there, and had been for three hundred plus years, but the exact specifics of the insult were…
"Oh, cry me a river!"
Oh, right. That was it.
Body looked up in confusion. She looked around and frowned. "What was that?" she asked.
"You heard that?" Mokou asked.
"Yeah, it came from out there," Body said, motioning to the misty exterior. "It sounded like me. Another memory?"
"Oh, no doubt. But getting back to your 'hate me for who I am' lament, you're a little behind the times." Grinning wolfishly, Mokou leaned over her knees. "See, I already do."
"Do?"
"Yeah. Hate you for who you are. I came for the what and stayed for the who."
"Oh, did you?" Body rolled her eyes. "Well, jolly good for you. But, uh, Mokou? I really don't have a monopoly on the whole selfish bitch thing. There are millions of them. You gonna go out and kill all of them too?"
Mokou chuckled. "All of them? Not even I have time for that, but that's not what I mean. See, this isn't the first time you've been regaled with the story of my life?"
"No?"
"No. I mean, I have told you most of it, in bits and pieces, at one time or another. And I've told you the whole thing at least one other time."
Body raised an eyebrow. "Really now?" She shrugged. "Can't say I remember."
"Not at all surprised. It was…" Mokou thought for a moment. "Mmmm, I'd say a week or two after our first meeting. You had just beaten me down and broke my legs. Then you demanded to know why I was after you." She smirked. "So I told you."
"You did?" Body blinked. "Like, the whole thing?"
"The whole thing," Mokou confirmed. "Well, minus the part about Mima. Didn't seem important. But other than that, yeah."
"Oh." Now Body looked a bit troubled. "And, uh, what was my response?"
"You heard it already." Mokou leaned back and let her gaze drift up to the clouds. Again they had opened up, showing Kaguya and Mokou, circa three hundred years ago. Mokou was lying in a broken and bloody heap, one eye plucked out and the other narrowed in hate. Kaguya was also in bad shape, but she was at least standing. From the look of things, Mokou had just gotten done talking.
"Oh, is that it?" Kaguya demanded. "Well, cry me a river, weigh yourself down with your sorrows, and drown yourself in it!"
The clouds closed up. Mokou waited for Body's response.
As for her, Body at least had the good graces to look ashamed. She winced, cleared her throat, and said, "Well, okay. So that was…harsh."
Mokou raised an eyebrow. She said nothing.
"Still, come on Mokou. You were some crazy lady who had jumped me out of nowhere, murdered me repeatedly, and were probably blabbing something about your dad the whole time. How was I supposed to react? Apologize to the lunatic who had burned me alive? Give me a break!" Body sighed and stood up, muttering, "Besides, you didn't have visual aids that time. Kind of takes away from the impact."
"So what, you're saying that because you actually got to see what happened, you, uh, pity me or something? Is that what you're saying, Kaguya?"
"No, I…" Shaking her head, Body put her hands on her hips. "Look, I already admitted that what happened to you sucked, okay? And yeah, me saying that probably didn't help. But sun, moon, and stars, Mokou! It's been three hundred years since I said that, and a thousand years since your freaking dad kicked you out!"
"And yet," Mokou said without tone, "you're just as much of a selfish brat as you ever were."
"Whereas you are a sadistic, malicious, hateful, murder machine that lives for nothing but death, death, death!" Body shot back. "Give me some credit, at least I have a life outside of fighting you. I have friends and hobbies and things I like to do. What about you, Mokou?"
"Hey, I have friends!" Mokou said indignantly.
"Yeah? Aside from your teacher buddy who you only see maybe once a month and will be dead and gone in a few years anyway, name one!" When Mokou couldn't, Body rolled her eyes. "Yeah, that's what I thought. Face it, Mokou. This feud of ours is the only thing you have! You're the only person in the universe more obsessed with me than I am!"
Mokou let out a low snarl of rage. She rose to her feet, palms igniting.
"Oh, this again?" Body sneered. She stepped back and spread her hands wide. "Fine! Scorch me for saying the truth! You've done it plenty of times already, so go ahead! Do it again! You know you want to!"
She was right, Mokou did want to. She wanted to kill the remaining Kaguya twin very much, to make the skin of her sneering face crack and melt. Her blood cried out for it, demanding satisfaction.
But what satisfaction was there in doing something she had done a million times already? With a weary sigh, Mokou snuffed out the fire and sat back down. "Maybe it's time for us to admit that we're both pretty horrible people," she muttered. A bitter semblance of a smile tugged at her lips. "I guess we really do deserve each other."
"Do we?" Body asked. Her voice was now surprisingly soft, all things considered. "I mean, can we just go back to the way things were, after everything that's happened?"
Mokou blanched. Body couldn't be suggesting what it sounded like she was suggesting, could she? "W-wait, you're not saying…I mean, you couldn't possibly mean we should…"
"I don't know," Body shrugged. She bit her lip. "I mean, when is enough going to be enough?"
Mokou's hands started shaking. She ran one through her hair as she tried to wrap her mind around the significance of what was happening. "S-s-so y-you're saying th-that's it? W-we should j-just forgive and forget, is th-that it?"
A few moments passed, and Body said in a quiet voice, "I think…we're a little beyond forgiveness at this point. I just think that maybe it's time to call it quits, you know? Just bury the hatchet and go our separate ways."
Bury the hatchet. The very thought of it made Mokou feel dazed. How was she supposed just let go of the grudge of a lifetime? Her hatred for Kaguya was all she really had, and without it, what was there for…
Mokou choked. Oh gods, Body was right. She was obsessed. Their feud was literally the only thing going for her, the only thing that drove her. Without it, she was nothing, whereas at least Kaguya had other things to occupy her time with.
With that realization came another. Did she need Kaguya? Was that why she refused to let go of her hatred? Not because of injustice against her and her long-dead family, not because of resentment over Kaguya's callousness, but because of a compulsive need to take vengeance against something? But if that were true, if hate and malice were all that she had to define her, was she any better than Kaguya? Or was she worse? Was she even a person? Was Fujiwara no Mokou truly long dead, leaving a murderous, psychopathic lookalike in her place?
All these years she had considered Kaguya to be a blight on the world, and it was her duty to remove her. But what was the real blight? Selfish narcissism, or violent maliciousness?
As she tried to work her way through the storm of emotions, Mokou slowly became aware of something saying her name. She blinked, shook her head, and looked up. Body was standing over her, looking honestly concerned. Well now, that was a first.
"Mokou?" she was saying. "Mokou! Hey, snap out of it!"
"What?" Mokou said hollowly.
"You went all blank for a moment there. And then you…" Body gestured awkwardly toward Mokou's face. "Well, that started happening."
Mokou blinked owlishly at her. She touched a hand to her face, and when she drew it back, her fingertips were wet. Tears. She had been crying. Huh.
"You, uh, you okay?"
Mokou let out a small laugh. She couldn't help it. Kaguya asking if she was okay. Wow.
"Kaguya, I haven't been okay since I drank that damned elixir," Mokou said. She laughed again. "In fact, I was pretty messed up even before then."
"Yeah, I can tell," Body nodded. She waited a few moments before venturing, "So…"
Mokou sighed. She lifted her hands to shoulder height before letting them fall again. "Well, what I am supposed to do then? I mean, you're right. I hate to say it, but you're right. If we bury the hatchet, what I am supposed to do with myself?"
"Find a new hobby?" Body suggested. "I've gone through several. And hey, you said you liked working with those kids before it all went to hell, right?"
Mokou flinched, but she nodded.
"So, why not do something like that? Help start another orphanage, work with your teacher friend or something. Maybe do something with those Gensokyo Peacekeeping Farts or whatever they're called."
"I don't know," Mokou said, wrinkling her nose. "Part of the reason I don't hang out with other Humans much is because they keep dying. It's not fun."
"Oh, give me a break. Mokou, in case you haven't noticed, we're not exactly the only immortals around. In fact, I think the people that can die are the minority. I'm sure you'll find someone to be your friend."
Mokou swallowed. Her head twitched in a very small nod. "Okay."
"Okay? You mean, yes?"
"Yeah." Mokou drew in a deep, shuddering breath and slowly let it out. "You're…you're right. Enough is…uh, enough is enough. It's over."
As she said the words, Mokou something change. It wasn't forgiveness, it wasn't reconciliation, it wasn't even relief. But it was good. It hurt in a way, letting go of her life's work, but it was a good hurt. She thought of the old cliché, in which people describe feeling like a great weight had been lifted from their shoulders. In this, it was more like something was leaving her. Back when she had first consumed the Hourai Elixir, she had literally felt her mother's disease being burned away, all those little patches of darkness inside her being consumed by a cleansing fire. It had hurt then too, but it had also been good.
"Well," she said. "I, uh, well."
"Yeah," Body nodded. She laughed. "Wow, that was anticlimactic."
"Yeah, I guess it was." Sighing, Mokou leaned back, letting her head fall back against the elevator wall. Outside, the elevator was still surrounded by clouds, they weren't swirling so angrily anymore, and didn't seem so dark.
"So what happens now?" she asked.
"Well, I guess we can always do this." Body extended her hand.
Mokou raised an eyebrow. "You don't honestly expect me to shake that, do you?"
"Why not? Come on, what would I have to gain by betraying you now?"
Mokou dubiously regarded the offered handshake like it was a coiled viper. Under normal circumstance, there would not be a force on earth that would convince her to take Kaguya's hand.
But these were far from normal circumstances. Mokou lifted her arm, hesitated, and quickly touched her hand to Body's. She gave it the quickest of shakes and withdrew quickly.
"See?" Body said. "That wasn't so hard."
"Like drawing needles of ice through my eyes," Mokou muttered.
"Didn't I do that to you once or twice?"
"Several times, actually." Mokou sighed again. Well, it was done. "All right, now the question is-"
"The question is what in the infernal hells are you two doing?"
The voice was Kaguya's, but it didn't come from Body. Surprised, both she and Mokou turned their attention to the other end of the elevator, where Head was staring at them with open disbelief written all over her face.
"Oh," Body said. "You're up."
Mokou shook her head. That's what she got for being sloppy.
"Damned straight I'm up," Head said, looking from one face to the other. "Well? Someone want to explain what the hell is going on? First Pyrobitch here breaks the truce and crisplifies me, and when I finally wake up, you two are all getting chummy with each other. Interesting."
"Well, not exactly chummy," Body ventured. "It's more of, uh…" She glanced pleadingly to Mokou, who only shrugged.
"She's your split personality," Mokou said. "You tell her."
"Tell me what?" Head demanded. "What the fuck happened?"
Looking extremely awkward, Body cleared her throat. "Well, we talked."
"Talked," Head repeated, her eyes narrowed. "All right. About what?"
"Stuff. You know, the past. And stuff."
"The past? What past? Whose past?"
"Oh, you know. Mine. Er, ours."
"You told her our past?" Head gawked at her twin. "You mean, all of it? Why?"
"Hey, I told you mine," Mokou said.
"But that's different!" Head protested. "Mine was personal!"
Mokou buried her face in her hands. Already she was regretting her decision.
"Hey, lay off," Body said crossly. "Hers was too."
Head gaped. "W-wait, did you just stick up for her? The hell is going on?"
"What happened?" Mokou raised her head and favored her unenlightened ex-rival with a ghastly grin. "Well, it's like this: it's over."
Predictably, Head met this revelation with bewilderment. "Huh?"
"It's over. Our feud. You, me, killing each other. The fights. The deathmatches. It's done. That's what we decided on."
Judging by how long Head spent staring silently at her, it was clear that she was still having trouble wrapping her mind around this. Her mouth moved without words and her brow rose and fell.
"True story," Mokou said after nearly a minute had gone by.
Head blinked several times. She turned to stare at Body, who was doing her best to avoid eye contact. "Body. Is this true?"
Body sighed. "Yes. Look, can we talk about this later?"
"You called off the feud. She violates the truce, roasts me like a barbeque coal, and you not only let it slide, you decide to make peace? Are you out of your godsdamned mind?"
This made Body cringe. "Look, it's over, okay? You don't have to like it, but enough is enough, all right? We'll talk about it later."
"Later?" Head grabbed Body by the shoulder and spun her around so they were eye-to-eye. "No! Now! You can't just drop this on me and not explain! I mean, for the gods' sakes, Body! Don't I at least get a say?"
Mokou coughed. "Uh, technically you did."
"Shut up, Mokou! I am not in the mood for-"
"Seriously," Body said in a low hiss. "Later! We have other things to worry about now."
Head looked like she disagreed. In fact, she looked like she wanted to clock Body right in the temple. But with what had to be an extreme amount of willpower, she released her iron hold on her twin's shoulders and backed away.
"Fine!" she seethed. "Later then! But so help me, if there isn't a later, you will both answer to me!"
"How does that make it different from any other day?" Mokou asked. Head just glowered.
"All right, all right, all right," Body said hastily. She placed herself between them and held out a palm to both Head and Mokou. "Enough of that. We need to concentrate on Rumia, remember?"
"Right," said Mokou. She put her palms on the ground and pushed herself up to her feet. "That. So as soon as this dumb box feels like landing, we can get right on that."
"Shouldn't be that much longer," Body said. "I mean, we are falling pretty…"
It was then that a troubling thought struck the Kaguya twin in question. She stopped talking, and her face scrunched up. They couldn't have forgotten that, could they?
Interesting enough, this accidentally caused Mokou and Head to finally find common ground, in that they both found Body's behavior to be confusing. They exchanged a brief look and Head shrugged. Mokou raised her hand, counted to five, and snapped her fingers.
"Yo!" she called, making Body jerk. "What's up?"
"Uh, just had a bad feeling." Body turned to her twin. "Hey, we did remember to instruct the elevator to gradually decrease in velocity as it nears the ground so that it comes to a gentle stop, right?"
"Duh."
"Oh good," Body said. She felt relieved. "It's just I don't remember doing it. Glad you had that handled."
Mokou had been around Kaguya long enough to know where this was heading. "No, she didn't," she said as she closed her eyes and pressed her fingertips to her forehead. "And neither did you. So fix that before crash and die horribly."
"Hey, come on," Head said in indignation. "Were you in our heads when we programmed this thing?"
"Technically? Yes."
"Oh, don't be obtuse. You weren't privy to our thoughts, so don't go assuming that we didn't prepare for-"
Body coughed into her fist. "Uh, we weren't really expecting it to go into freefall, remember?"
This was met with a thoughtful pause. "You know, you may have a point," Head admitted at last.
Though their feud may have been called off, Mokou made a mental note to put as much geography between herself and Kaguya as possible once they got back. The wayward princess was only tolerable when she was dead, dying, or not present. She wedged herself in the corner and braced herself. "Fix," she seethed. "It!"
"Yeah, yeah, keep your shirt on," Head muttered. She closed her eyes and extended her hand toward the control panel. "Okay, this should-"
Unfortunately, they had horribly underestimated how much distance they had left to fall. The elevator smashed into the stony ground at full speed, killing all aboard.
...
Well, that wins the award for the most uncreative title ever. But it's late and I'm tired, leave me alone!
Anyway, this is the last "normal" flashbacky chapter. In case there's any confusion, the flashback is of Mokou and Kaguya's last fight before the day they got dissolved. It seemed like an appropriate place to close things off. Next chapter begins the three-part finale.
Until next time, everyone!
