I open my eyes to see Meiling bent over me, weeping.
The noise of battle pollutes an otherwise lovely night.
Blazing arrows sleet into the seething sea of youkai. While the archers provide cover fire from above, the remaining Lunarians cluster around Kaguya, to protect the queen no matter the cost. Many dead lay splayed in the field.
I groan. "Mei...ling..."
She's sobbing too loudly to hear. And her chest is suffocating me.
"Mei...ling...please get off me."
She stops. She sits up, her tear-streaked face struck with wonder. "S-S-Sakuya!" Slapping her hand over her mouth, she looks around, terrified that someone heard. She leans close to me, eyes wide. "But...how?"
"No time to explain. Where is Lady Remilia?"
Meiling glances askance at the raging heart of the battlefield.
Up in the sky, Lady Remilia flits around Yukari, pelting her with crimson bullets, while Flandre rushes her with claws and fangs. Yukari grimaces—even she must concentrate to ward off both Scarlet sisters.
"She's a bit busy," Meiling murmurs. "Saving the world, and all that."
"I need her...now."
Meiling raises her head and bawls, "Mistress!"
Lady Remilia turns. One glimpse of me awake, and she breaks away from the battle. Other youkai charge her, but she swats them aside like flies. A glowing golden-haired youkai strays into her path—summoning Gungnir, Lady Remilia spears Gold and pitches her into the fray of frothing youkai.
A blast of flame clears the path for my mistress. Fujiwara no Mokou, cigarette pinched in her teeth, supports Flandre from the ground with raw firepower. She grins to Lady Remilia. A nearby explosion scatters youkai—Nitori charges into the melee, cackling manically and tossing lemon grenades.
"I got help," Meiling squeaks meekly.
Lady Remilia kneels beside me. Her wings are torn, her dress ripped, and her eyes burning with the fire of war.
"Sakuya!" she whispers. "What happened? How are you alive?"
"Mistress, how are you alive?"
"Well, that immortal gave Flan and me some of her blood. What about—"
"Mistress...I need you to do something."
Her face softens. "Say it."
"I need you...to bite me."
To say she looks confused is a grave understatement. "What?"
"Please. It's the only way we can beat her!"
Lady Remilia scowls. "There's never one 'only way.' Do you even know what you're asking? What it means to become a vampire? Pain. Thirst. Darkness. Endless loneliness. A bloody death, if you're lucky."
"Mistress. Please." I squeeze her red-stained hand.
She bends down. Her soft lips press against my neck. "I'm sorry." Her tiny fangs prick my skin—I wince. Hot blood oozes out the holes in my neck. Overcome with voracious instinct, my mistress lunges. She presses harder, harder, her fangs digging deeper. My neck trickles, and she slurps up every last drop. I try to lie still. Meiling holds my hand.
Her warm wet tongue traces down my neck. She sucks the moisture from my blood-soaked blouse. Hesitating, but overpowered with beastly instinct, she buries her face in the stab wound on my chest. I writhe, moan, and cling to Meiling. Ravenous, my mistress invades the sticky gash, her wriggling little tongue burrowing deeper into my flesh. Fresh blood oozes from the wound. Claws digging into my arm, she licks and laps up my lifeblood. Meiling tears her gaze away.
And then it's over.
Lady Remilia wipes her mouth on her sleeve. Sorrow and shame swim in her eyes.
"How do you feel, Sakuya?"
"Kind of groggy..."
Then the convulsions start.
"It begins," my mistress murmurs. She strokes my forehead. "Don't cry."
My senses scream—the pain sears my skin as if my body were burning; the iron taste of blood floods my tongue; the stench of death chokes my nose; suddenly, my ears clear, and I feel I can hear for miles.
I hear Eirin, weak and wounded, on the other side of the battlefield. "It's no use. We won't last till the end of the eclipse. We can't let them take the capital! At least we can take them with us." She flinches. "The Weapon...call it!" My superhuman vision focuses across the field as, with trembling hands, Eirin raises her bow. She fires a golden plume into the sky.
As my senses accelerate, time seems to slow.
I see the glow form on the face of the red moon. Red and green beams collect on the surface. Time freezes.
The Weapon fires.
I spring.
The brilliant beam crawls across space, penetrating the atmosphere and plunging toward the world. Racing against the speed of light, I scoop up my knives and charge.
Mokou lies on the ground in many bloody pieces; Flandre hangs slumped over a tree branch, quivering feebly. Yukari is about to deliver a death blow when I ram into her, a knife in each hand and a third between my teeth. Yukari staggers, startled. The Luna Dial flies from her grip—I snatch it out of the air.
"The transformation," my mistress mutters, my miraculous ears catching her words over the din of war—"it's not supposed to go this fast! No doubt about it. She's awakening. Meiling, behold the princess of the moon!"
Screaming, I drive Yukari up into the atmosphere. She struggles to slough off time...
The Weapon's beam slams into Yukari.
The youkai of boundaries shrieks. Raw power thunders into her body, scorching her skin and shredding her dress. Any lesser creature would have instantly evaporated. Yukari takes pains to maintain her corporeal form. Her eyes bore into me with burning hate.
The Weapon shuts off. Yukari floats, stunned and suspended in the air.
I smile weakly. My momentum gone, I plummet.
As I fall, my body convulses. My skin rumples and ripples. My dress rips—I scream—and black leather wings burst out my back. I catch myself. Beating my new wings, I ascend toward Yukari.
Within seconds, she recovers from an attack that would have wiped out the world. Yukari swoops down at me, hate blazing in her eyes.
We clash in the middle of the sky.
"You think you're perfect," I spit. Wheeling around, I fling two knives at her. Yukari vanishes and materializes behind me. I freeze time, grab the flying knives, and throw again—one in front, one behind. When Yukari disappears and reappears at my rear, she must dodge again. She curses.
"You think you're all-powerful," I seethe, "untouchable, greater than the gods. The strongest youkai? Don't make me laugh. You're no better than the strongest fairy!"
That makes her mad.
Yukari shimmers into three bodies, all surrounding me. The three shadows release their bullet arsenals. I slip through a gap between two of the bodies. Turning around, I throw knives through all three bodies. They disintegrate and reassemble into one.
I sense my reflexes improving immensely. Strength pumps through my body from the throbbing bite on my neck. Though I detect a craving for raw flesh that wasn't there before.
Yukari blasts me with a storm of bullets. I find myself weaving through them with ease.
"Your powers let you do anything you want," I say. "You warp reality, bend the rules...all to maintain order. Or so you claim. But I know the real reason—to erase mistakes. To contain what you can't control..."
"Shut up!"
A swarm of bullets shrieks toward me—bullets that home in on their target. I leap back, and back, and back. The shots explode when they graze my skin.
Yukari swoops through the smoke and scores her claws across my face.
My lip splits. I spit blood.
My ears tingle from a distant conversation. "She's getting mad," Remilia murmurs.
Meiling turns. "What?"
"I've never seen Yukari this angry. Which is good. When she gets angry, she gets stupid. She forgets what she can do. Watch—she's using bullets and her bare hands. Instead of erasing Sakuya from existence."
"But...why?"
"Vanity, my dear. She wants to feel the fight. She wants to take down Sakuya herself." Lady Remilia chuckles. "And the apprentice learns from the master. How do you think I defeated Sakuya five hundred years ago? A touch of teasing, and she turns to jelly."
While Yukari charges for another volley, I chase her higher into the sky. I juggle among my three remaining knives, freezing time only long enough to throw or recover my knives. Yukari can't unfreeze time if I don't give her enough time.
The unrelenting barrage frustrates Yukari. "Disappear!" she screams.
"That's why you exist, isn't it?" I continue. "To erase mistakes. To patch the gaps. All the world's a stage, and you're out there tweaking the script..."
She doesn't even tell me to shut up. The thought pulses from her mind in livid waves, slamming into me, tangling my tongue.
"Are you monologuing because you think you have the upper hand?" Yukari hisses. "It doesn't matter—I'll kill you again!"
I laugh. High and cold, the way Yukari taught me to. Hesitation flickers on her face.
"You won't kill me," I retort, "because you can't. Your apprentice, the princess, your perfect warrior! You poured five hundred years into me, but your efforts failed. You made me forget, but you never forgot. You never forgot who I am. I am...your greatest failure..."
"ENOUGH!"
Suddenly, Yukari wields twin whips, strings of void sharper than any blade.
"YOU ARE NOTHING. A WASTE. I'LL DELETE YOU AND START AGAIN!"
The lashes slash over my head. I freeze time, but they do not wait for time. Yukari's whips slice through reality itself. Time unfreezes.
"That's why you hate the Moon," I continue, dodging Yukari's onslaught. "Because they live up there, high in the sky, gathering power where you cannot touch them. Beyond your reach. That's why you want them gone. This is not about order. This is about your comfort, about keeping control over your perfect little world.
"Because you can only control what you can see.
"I know you're not omnipotent. Tenshi Hinanawi showed me that. You have ultimate power, but you're limited to what you know. What you can see. For example, you have no idea what I'm about to do next."
The whip cracks and wraps around the knife in my hand—exactly as planned. I yank Yukari toward me. The void slices my knife in two, but in my other hand I hold two more. Two knives that plunge into Yukari's stomach.
The youkai of boundaries gasps.
Relief surges within me. I can beat her!
Then the convulsions return.
My wings crinkle and collapse. I fall once more, my body convulsing. Amid the spasms, I find the strength to press the Luna Dial. Time stops, even if the pain does not. I float in mid-fall and wait out my seizure. But I wait too long.
Yukari cracks into my frozen world and dives down in pursuit. "Princess...let's end this!"
The twin whips lash out at me, but I roll to avoid them. Recovering, I grab Yukari's wrists to neutralize her weapons. The whips whirl around us and slice through her throat. Yukari splits apart with a screech. She vanishes into the void.
I unfreeze time and glide down to the ground, where my mistress and Meiling wait.
Lady Remilia applauds. "That was a nice speech you gave," she says. "Though a tad too long for my tastes. And the message was confusing. To err is divine? If that's the case, why don't we all bow and worship Meiling."
She gestures toward the battlefield. "Look."
Except it's no longer a battlefield. The youkai soldiers mill around, looking confused, while the Lunarians hesitantly prod their enemies with arrows. Eirin stares in disbelief.
"The boundaries between bloodlust and sense have been restored," says Lady Remilia. "They won't fight anymore. It's over."
Meiling breathes a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness. For a second there, Sakuya, I thought you were going to—"
A black gash opens in space, and I tumble into the void.
The last thing I see is their horrified faces. Then, nothing.
Yukari's voice hisses in my ear. "Welcome home, apprentice. We once shared this world between worlds, remember?"
In the midst of the black, an ocean of glowing red eyes ogles me.
Out of the darkness comes a scream. "Reimu?"
Yukari cackles. "My pets are playing with her now. She cannot help you."
Light streams down from a ring of light far above—Yukari descends into the dark world, and the space closes. I struggle to move, but it's like swimming through concrete. I clasp my two bloodstained knives.
"You were right." Yukari descends toward me, a goddess wreathed in light. "You were never anything to me but a toy. A broken blade." Her rage flares. "I'll erase you, Kaguya!"
Yukari summons swords of pure energy—blinding white light that pierces the darkness. I fight with my two puny knives. Concentrate. Block. Parry. Thrust. Thrust. Block. Slash. Stab!
Centuries of training fade back into memory.
How many times have I fought her? How many innumerable times?
The Luna Dial dangles on its silver chain...
And I know what I must do.
I leap back, throw the knives, and press the button on the Luna Dial.
The knives crawl through frozen space, slowly sailing toward Yukari. She slips through time bit by by, her sword gradually gaining speed.
"I remember," is all I say. "The secret of the Luna Dial."
Her eyes grow wide.
"Manipulation of time. And not just time...but space. And matter."
More knives materialize behind Yukari, copies of the remaining two. A swarm of blades flashes into existence, surrounding her with flying knives.
Yukari struggles to break the border of frozen time...
I meet her gaze. "You taught me too well, master."
Unfreeze.
The storm of knives buries into Yukari.
She does not scream; she can only muster a wet, choking gasp. The swords of light disintegrate.
I press the button on the Luna Dial. The black shatters—real space and real moonlight rush to fill the gaps.
Yukari floats through the moonlit night air, a forest of knives sticking out of her body. She bleeds. The god of the gaps actually bleeds.
I fly beside her, gazing into her face.
She smirks. "Go ahead. Kill me. Finish your enemy, the way I taught you to."
I clench the pair of knives in my hands. It would be so easy. But it is not my way. "No. You are not the enemy. The enemy of all that lives is not you, Yukari, but Time itself."
I stare without pity at my fallen master. "I invoke the code of the vampires—slayer, since I triumphed, you are my servant, to do with as I please. As your master, I command you: TURN BACK TIME. Make the world as if you had never meddled. No invasion, no eclipse, no assassins...and no contract between us."
Yukari recoils as if struck.
"You...would still serve that filthy vampire? After everything I've given you?"
"I want nothing of yours. Not a throne in heaven or one on earth. Nor should you have it. Better for the thrones to remain unoccupied. No one should possess that much power."
Yukari glances down. Below us, the battle is finished. Lunarians and youkai tend to one another's wounds. Nitori cleans injuries while Meiling delivers water and fresh bandages. Eirin heads the survivors in burying the dead. My mistress embraces her sister, both drenched with blood. Reimu pops back into existence, looking lost and rather weary. Mokou and Kaguya stand alone together, grim-faced, speaking softly.
"They will never know what you've done for them. Everything you've sacrificed."
"I know."
Yukari lifts her hands. "As you wish, then. Farewell, princess of the moon. Apprentice. Or rather...Sakuya Iyazoi. Maid." She sounds strangely sad.
And the invisible tug of time pulls me away, away, away...