Undying Gensokyo

by WillieG.R

A selfish experiment works only too well and Aya and Satori find themselves surrounded by those that cannot die. Can they solve this incident on their own before losing their minds? HIGH LEVELS OF GORE.

11. Gapped Underground Run

Gapped by zombie Yukari, the girls now find themselves in Chireiden's derelict back courtyard, trapped between dead plants, large rocks, the hole to old hell, the mansion itself, and zombie Koishi, whom is eager to meet with her big sister and guest.

"Oneeeeee-chaaaaaan~ I've been waiting for youuuuuuu~" hisses the younger Komeiji after breaking her bluish fist through one of the stained glass windows on the second floor, cutting herself deep with one of the shards.

"Koi-KOISHIII! Don't come here, PLEASE!" screams Satori while her partner holds her and attempts to comfort her.

Aya tries to force the mind-reader to sink her face on her chest or belly, but the distraught youkai immediately pulls her face away to look to her sister, who keeps hissing "why don't you come here, play? Your sister misses Satori onee-chan."

"Please, Aya, let me go to her! M-maybe she's alright! She might be on our side!" begs the desperate purple-haired girl.

The tengu sighs, takes her fan on hand, then quickly strikes her friend on the back of the head with the back of it.

She places her semi-conscious friend on the ground, making sure not to place her near any bloodstains or scattered organs while softly saying "I'm sorry Satori-chan. Just stay here and rest while I deal with this."

The reporter stands up and turns around, tightens her grip on her fan as she takes out her camera and says "it's ok if you never forgive me for doing this Satori, but I can't let you get yourself killed like this."

She looks to the large grey-marble mansion up to the broken window, and it bursts so violently, most shards fly all that way over the girls and down the large booming hole to the pits of old hell.

Zombie Koishi flies out of the mansion; her skin is bluish-grey, her eyes are covered with an orange film, her greenish-grey hair is dry and falling off her, strand by strand, her blue third eye is open but empty and spilling fresh blood, she only has the right yellow sleeve of her shirt and covers her chest with a bloodied bra, her torso and skirt have trails of blood from her victims, and her left calf is full of scratches, where more fresh blood spills.

She spins like a ball in the air, stops in mid-air and smiles at her new victims, and then happily declares "must welcome onee-chan! Symbol, Ancestors Standing Beside Your Bed!"

Massive blue beams fly diagonally from the ground upward beside the reporter, then suddenly turn around to trap the tengu between thick burning beams.

The black-haired crow girl studies the beams' trajectory and moves slightly left, the beams cross right in front of her, miss her by a mere inch, yet she takes the chance and swings her fan, risking her hand getting caught in those beams, and shoots several red bullet rings at the zombie satori.

The beams clear and immediately another set rises from the ground, but Aya takes this chance, locks a few beams of her own on the zombie's eyes, then shoots five flash beams while moving forward after noticing the new blue beams are going to catch her where she stands.

Zombie Koishi yelps after the hit and the tengu grimaces when she's almost sliced in two by the second wave of beams, then screeches when she sees red orbs headed her way.

She walks back and starts taking pictures, clearing a few bullets, then sighs and says "she put the danmaku absorbing feature in this one as well. I love you Nitori."

The zombie satori roars and shoots large red bullets at the tengu girl, then angrily shouts "what gives? You supposed to be dead already, sis!"

Shameimaru moves left, avoiding the insane barrage, moves right between bullets to avoid getting trapped by the smaller ones, and right after the spell ends, the beams star to rise again.

"Enough of this," angrily mutters the black-haired girl, then she takes her fan, swings it hard toward the zombie girl, and showers her will blue and red bullet rings, as well as green shards.

Koishi's spell cancels when she screams after Aya's barrage hits her, then the tengu reporter jumps up to the monster, and then flashes her four times on the face.

The zombie screeches and swings her tiny bloodstained claws around furiously, then drops to the ground, looks up at the gliding tengu and angrily shouts "you are not my sister! You are a TRESPASSER! You must DIE!"

The very second the winged girl places her feet on the ground, she finds herself subconsciously kicking behind her at the snarling zombie, and though by doing so she saves herself from the little monster's rotting teeth, she still gets clawed on her right calf.

Aya screams and groans with pain when those claws cut and slice her skin open, then quickly limps away from her attacker, gasping while shooting flashes behind herself to keep that monster away.

Zombie Koishi stands by the hole to hell with her arms crossed and smiling as she says "a delicious bird. Time to eat."

The tengu girl chokes, blinks while trying to register what has happened, and thinks "but she was behind me just now. How is she there?"

"That a good question, stranger," says the smiling zombie satori as she raises a spell card, then adds "oh, you won't kill me. I won't let you."

Shameimaru gasps and shouts "but I thought you couldn't read minds! Satori-chan said you can't!"

Zombie Koishi giggles, slowly takes flight, and says "maybe I can. Maybe I can't. I don't care. You still die!"

Meanwhile the semi-conscious Satori shivers when she tries to move, slightly opens her right eye, then weakly calls "Ko-Koishi-chan. Ay-ya-chan."

---

The satori monster jumps high above the tengu's head and lands right in front of her.

Aya shoots her flash and makes her scream out in pain, but when the second flash is shot, zombie Koishi is already standing behind and kicking the winged girl on the right side of the ribs.

The reporter turns around and flashes the little monster again, swings her fan, then gets bitten on the left side of her hip.

She screams and punches the zombie girl between the eyes with her fan hand, then flashes her in the face and kicks the screaming zombie Komeiji away from her.

Aya holds her bite wound and demands "how are you doing that? I never knew you could teleport around like that!"

Zombie Koishi giggles and starts walking forward while saying "it's fun playing with subconscious and be able to read minds at the same time. It's fucking awesome!"

She's now behind the black-haired girl and continues "you love onee-chan too. Animals always love onee-chan."

When the tengu turns around the zombie girl appears to her immediate left, stabs her claws behind her neck and making the girl gasp, then whispers "I kill you. Make onee-chan cry. I kill onee-chan. She loves me again!"

Shameimaru summons the strength to throw an elbow to the zombie's face, breaking her right eye and adding a blood waterfall on her face that comes from the socket where the eye used to be, and while she writhes around and roars, the reporter flashes her several times.

She immediately locks on as many beams as she can and fires before the little monster disappears again.

The beams turn left and go upward, but the zombie is now gone, and from above the reporter she raises her spell card and declares "Memory, DNA's Flaw!"

An entwining pair of heart streams; one rose, the other blue; twist between each other as they head straight for the intruding tengu.

Aya manages to get between the twisting streams and takes a shot at zombie Koishi again, making her cry out as her spell becomes faster and more violent and shoots green shard bullets after the streams touch a wall or the ground.

The reporter takes another shot and quickly discovers the zombie satori is not there, then swings her fan around her, causing wind to spin around her body like a blade.

From behind, Koishi cries when the wind blades cut her nose and her spell cancels, then Aya raises a spell card and declares "Tornado, Indication to the Divine!"

She swings her fan around herself and a giant tornado forma around her.

Zombie Koishi gasps and tries to fly away, but the strong winds suck her in and she creams as the wind itself cuts her bluish skin like it was made of swords and knives.

The winged reporter keeps swinging her fan, shooting orbs and shards while increasing the speed of the tornado and the zombie roars and hisses as the winds cut her skin and the bullets explode all over her.

Her still fresh blood spills all over the ground, the mansion's walls, the stone walls, and even next to Satori herself, who moans as she slowly recovers her full consciousness.

She opens her eyes and gasps, tears start rolling down her eyes and weakly calls "no. Stop, please. Aya-chan, Koishi imotou-chan," then a long and sturdy glass shard from the broken stained glass window falls next to her, and the girl stares for a moment before slowly reaching for it.

Aya's spell times out and the zombie satori youkai falls to the ground, grunting on impact, then the tengu girl quickly runs to her and starts shooting flashes as though desperate to finish the fight.

After the tenth flash, Koishi disappears again, though this time Shameimaru looks around herself in case of any sudden attacks from the back.

She sighs with some relief when she fails to find the zombie, then gasps with fright and jumps away, then the zombie girl dives from above and blasts a crater on the ground with her own fist, right where the black-haired girl stood.

Aya is about to shoot another flash when the zombie girl grabs her arms from behind and furiously says "you bitch! That made me hurt! I make you hurt as well!"

Before the tengu girl can learn what the monster is planning, she chokes on herself after she gasps upon getting a knee to the spine.

Zombie Koishi squeezes her wrists and forces the girl to drop her fan and camera, then takes a bite from her left shoulder, making the tengu cry out in pain, and then throws her straight at the mansion's wall.

The reporter is flattened face-first against the wall, but before she can even think of having a moment to recover, the monster girl rushes her, smashes her shoulder against the tengu's back, then jumps back, grabs the living girl by the leg, then takes a vicious bite out of her calf.

Aya screams out loud and writhes around in hopes of getting released, but feels when those jagged teeth start reaching her bones and despair takes her.

She twists in the air, causing those teeth to cut her skin deeper, but managing a solid kick on Koishi's temple and succeeding in freeing herself and falling on the porch.

Once on the wooden floor, even with the horrible pain coursing through her body while her shoulder and calf heal, she crawls away from the porch as fast as she can, but doesn't get too far.

The tengu girl starts to hyperventilate when Zombie Koishi grabs her by the wings and lifts her up, then desperately shouts "let me go! Let! me! go! you little monster!"

The zombie giggles, says "that's the plan," then throws the reporter on her back as hard as she can against a rock between the porch and the hole to hell.

The girl bounces hard against the rock and falls on her back, then moans as the world around her spins without stop, and starts breathing fast as her fear escalates when she feels the cold hands of the zombie satori on her legs.

The monster girl gets her bloodied face up to Aya's sight, smiles at the weakened and dazed tengu, then a set of fangs appear on her open empty third eye, she opens her mouth, and then throws herself at her meal.

The girls fight against each others' strength as the zombie Komeiji pushes down to take a bite off her meal's face, while the tengu girl grunts hard as she pushes the undead monster away by the shoulders.

The third eye silently moves closer to the tengu, snarls, then bites her left breast hard, making the girl gasp and clench the zombie's shoulders harder.

Zombie Koishi giggles and says "this will make it harder, but more interesting," then looks up, smiles and says "ah, onee-chan! Come! Stab her heart while my eye keeps her still."

Satori limps slowly toward the girls, wrapping her left arm around her pained chest, her silent tears blind her to what's happening in front of her, yet she knows what is going on.

She rubs her eyes with her arm and looks down at the decaying, bloodied smiling face of her zombie sister, edging her to stab that glass shard on the well-endowed tengu's chest.

She looks at the scared and pleading eyes of her paralyzed friend, starts to sob, and then cries "I'm so sorry!"

She raises he shard, and even paralyzed Aya somehow manages to scream with fright, then the sound of breaking flesh and the splashing of blood echoes through the garden.

The hole to hell booms and flashes once, twice, thrice, and just like that, the whole garden is silent, though just for a few second.

Satori cries inconsolably, kneeling on the ground with a dark frame on her lap.

Her face and shirt are covered in fresh blood, her right hand bleeds from the cut she got from the same shard she just used, but she cannot feel the pain from her hand because of the terrible pain that currently comes from her heart.

---

DAY OO/XO Chireiden, In my kitchen.

This is Satori, and I have done something so unspeakably horrible today. I... killed her. She was precious to me, and these hands, WITH MY OWN HANDS, I killed her! To think this all happened because of that failure at the Scarlet's Mansion. We went in there, and from the moment I placed my foot on that moving ground at that garden, I knew there was something wrong. I should have said so, save myself from getting scared half to death by that dragon girl in the dark, or having to come face to face with those tentacles. That thing just got me and tried to eat me with that beak. Its disgusting slimy tentacles had all the room and I couldn't read its mind, and it hurt me, but I couldn't fight back. It was squeezing me with those disgusting tentacles all the time! I flashed and flashed and flashed, I called for Aya-chan, I needed help! It was touching me everywhere and I couldn't even defend myself. I... I don't know how, but I survived, and Aya-chan came, but she was LATE! I was so scared and she didn't come! But I know she tried! I can't be so selfish! It was dark, so that's why it took her so long. She then fought that maid and tried to keep her away from me, but in the end I had to help her a little. Then there was Remilia. That brat, how annoying she is, even as a mutated monster. I took care of her though. Oh yeah, and then we went to the library, fought a ghost with a physical body and sapphire eyes, FAILED to find the cauldron that wasn't there, got squeezed by a giant demon, who turned out to be an ally, and then, after our spirits got broken and before we could rest, yet ANOTHER thing happens. We run out of the hut when we hear buzzes outside, and then we find Yuka fighting with the gap youkai; of all the monsters to come across, the GAP YOUKAI! Well, she spots us, opens a gap under out feet, quite predictably actually, and then... Of all the places to send us, we land right in my backyard. It hurts to see my home like this. My pets are nowhere in sight and all I have seen are blood stains and guts so far. And then, what I feared the most, I saw Koishi-chan as a monster. I begged her. I begged her to leave us alone and she still attacked, and I didn't know what to do! I couldn't hurt my little sister like that! I don't care if she's a zombie, I can't! Aya-chan knew this. She also knew I'd stop her from trying to kill Koishi-chan... and then she got hurt, and scared! I couldn't take it! I couldn't take it, so I had to do it! I killed her and saved her! My heart is in so much pain right now, but I had no choice. If I didn't do it, she would have killed her. She would-

Satori stops writing on her notepad and starts to cry, pressing her hand against her burning bloodshot eyes as though trying to stop the tears.

She sits in front of her square dinner table, which is covered with a pastel light-blue sheet, with Aya's camera and fan to the left of her notepad.

The floor around her has been adorned with a dark-blue carpet with entwining golden vines on the borders, the kitchen to the left has its grey tiles bare, the light-blue counters are stained with dry blood, and the pantry to the right has been destroyed, leaving the silverware, cups and plates littered and broken all over the floor, though some are still in once piece.

She clenches the shirt over her chest, sobs out loud, then drops herself on her dinner table and lets herself go.

She cries and cries; slowly sliding off the side of the table, then Aya rushes from the kitchen, grabs the satori before she falls, then whispers "I'm so sorry."

She has been apologizing over and over, and still feels it's not enough.

Because of her inability to take care of herself from zombie Koishi, Satori had to finish her own sister off.

A tear runs down The tengu's cheek as she remembers how her friend stabbed her own sister on the chest several times; how the mind-reader cut that third eye off her own sibling so that it would release her partner and let her move, and how that same mind-reader flashed her little sister three times until she finally dropped dead.

Shameimaru silently cleans the blood off her crying friend's body with a damp cloth and is doing what she can to clean her shirt.

The crying face of her friend suddenly overwhelms her, tears start to roll down her face, and before she realizes that, she sobs once and sadly says "I'm so sorry. I failed you and you ended up doing that. I'm so sorry I couldn't save you from this!"

The tengu girl kneels on the ground and there they both remain, one crying inconsolably because of her sister, the other feeling depressed for her uselessness, and both cursing that Yukari Yakumo inside their minds for placing them in this predicament.

---

After some hours, Aya is the first one to wake up, still holding Satori in her arms on the floor of the dining room, covered with the brown sheet from one of their futons and completely unaware of the current time.

She looks at her partner's sleeping face, hoping to see a peaceful girl, but instead she sees a broken elder sister who seems unable to find rest, even in her dreams.

The crow could fantasize something with herself and her friend, so close together under a same cover, but seeing that face saps her from anything that might lead to any happy thoughts.

"Hey. Satori-chan. Wake up," whispers the tengu girl, desperate to free her friend from the clutches of the nightmares she's probably having.

The mind-reader clenches her eyes tight and moans weakly as she begins to wake up, opens her eyes just barely, though enough for the reporter to see the emptiness in them, and weakly says "Aya-chan. Get me out of here. Please?"

She isn't exactly sure what just came over her, but the look on the satori youkai, and the way she's talking like there is no will in her ignites the winged girl's spirit.

Her eyes intensify, that sadness she was feeling just now vanishes, leaving room for steeled determination to take over her.

She lifts herself and her friend off the ground, wraps the sheet around the purple-haired girl like a cloak, sits her on the nearest chair, then makes sure she's making eye contact before saying "alright, we'll go straight to the exit then, but I don't know this place, so I need you to guide me all the way. Can you do that?"

Satori nods, lifts her shivering left arm to touch her friend's cheek, then smiles and weakly says "you are such a good girl Aya-chan. Now please let's get out of here, as far away from Koishi and the underground as we can."

Shameimaru nods, grabs the mind-reader by the waist, wraps her friend's arm around her neck, and then quickly faces the white door in front of the table.

She takes her fan and secures it, then takes her camera on hand and as she hurries to the door she says "you leave the undead to me. If you feel you have to, hide and wait for me to clear the room."

The weak girl nods, unwraps her arm from her friend's neck to stay in the kitchen, the tengu opens the door, roaring furiously, then looks around the large and empty hallway and says "oh. There's nobody here."

And so, the walk down the hallway toward the exit of the mansion is uneventful, and although the silence in this mansion is as deep as in the Scarlet Devil Mansion, there is great comfort for both girls as the lights shine brightly within.

There are no weak oil lamps, but strong bulbs Aya thought were danmaku bullets placed on platforms on the walls, and these shine brightly enough to show off the black and white checkered tiles, the ornamental white columns, and the paintings and portraits on the elegant walls flawlessly.

The light from outside the mansion also adds the comfort of visibility, though for the tengu, the light that enters through the stained glass is a little unnerving.

Once she's gotten used to those images shining on the floor, she speeds up her pace while holding Satori by the waist and wrapping that arm of the mind reader around her neck.

They finally reach three doors in a small corridor; one directly in front which continues forward, one that turns left down a small corridor, and the other goes up some carpeted steps to the right.

"So, which door Satori-chan?" asks the reporter while looking around at each door with curiosity.

The broken-hearted youkai lifts her right arm and points to the left, then weakly says "next corridors; straight to the exit."

The black-haired girl turns, but stops and smiles when an idea hits her, and asks "say, which door we should have to take to reach your room?"

Without question, the satori points right, then Aya smiles and says "well, how about we go there and get you some fresh clothes. That should cheer you up."

The broken youkai gets a sudden surge of energy, cries "no-no, no, no, no!" pushes herself away from her partner and falls on the floor, where she hyperventilates while kicking herself toward the left door while crying "no, no! Don't go! Not there!"

Shameimaru raises her hands defensively and slowly gets closer to the frightened girl while shushing her softly, and when she gets close enough she softly asks "it's ok, we won't go there, but why are you so scared? What's in there?"

The cloaked girl takes several deep breaths to calm herself down, then nervously says "main hall! Ko-Koishi traps my pets in there! For fun. J-just innocent fun."

The winged girl looks to the door with curiosity and asks "are you sure?" starts walking toward it, and then adds "it's awfully quiet in there."

The old and sturdy wooden door has an old golden knob with a large old-fashioned keyhole, large enough to let the curious crow girl look inside, and with a smile on her face she leans closer and says "I'll just take a peek and see if there's anything. Who knows, maybe there's nothing and we can get you some nice fresh clothes."

She peeks inside through the keyhole and sees a large two-floors hall with white marble rails on the second floor balcony, a regal red carpet that covers the balcony floors and the stairs, the room seems to be oval, and what little can be seen of the bottom floor is the bookshelves in there, a red couch and the black and white checkered floors.

She smiles after looking around the large, silent room for long enough and says "see, there's nothing in here."

Something large and red smashes against the door and soon after several barks, roars from cats, and angry tweets and clacks from birds are heard coming from the other side, startling the crow tengu to a yelp and making her jump away.

Claws start pounding hard against the door, threatening to break it down; blood spills from underneath it and flies right out of the keyhole.

Satori curls up into a ball and covers her ears with her hands as tightly as she can and starts to scream and cry in an attempt to drown out her pets' deathly noises, and Aya finds herself running back to her friend and trying to pick her up to get the heck out of there, but the satori youkai is far too upset and fights back, throwing random punches and kicks to keep the tengu away.

The door to the main hall stops banging and the undead animals quiet down, and slowly the hooded girl begins to calm down, her cries and screams slowly winding down when the silence reigns her mansion once more.

The tengu reporter sighs after her friend calms down, places a hand on that soft purple hair, and then softly says "I'm sorry, I just wanted to help."

The upset girl grabs her friend's hand and places it on her own cheek, helping herself calm down, and when her mind allows her to form words she nervously says "it's ok. Good intentions! L-let's go!"

Again, the black-winged girl places her arm around her friend's hip, wraps her friend's arm around her neck, pulls her up, and without saying another word they take the door to the left.

---

Their footsteps echo all over the large brown and black checker-tiled corridor, which is illuminated solely by the stained glass windows on the side, and although darker than the corridors before, there is still enough light to allow great visibility.

Aya is a bit spooked by the dark corridor; how their echoing steps make it seem like someone is following them all the time when there's nothing there, and how the light from the stained glass glows so eerily on the floor.

She looks to her hooded friend and notices how her head bobbles around while they walk, and panics.

Her heart races as a bone-chilling feeling of dread takes her when the thought of her friend being dead or dying takes her, then she quickly takes the satori's hood off as she nervously asks "Satori? Satori-chan, are you alright?"

Relief quickly fills her when she sees Komeiji's eyes are still open, but now she's filled with a bit more urgency when she sees those broken eyes staring down to the ground as their owner whispers "almost out. Get me out."

The tengu sighs, pulls the hood back over her friend's head, and then whispers to herself "this silence is getting to me. Maybe I should sing something. Might cheer both of us up, but it might also attract monsters."

Again, that infernal silence takes over as soon as she stops whispering.

She can feel how it fills her head and slowly drive her to mad thoughts, and no matter how hard she fights it, the silence finds other ways to attack her, going as low as taking her heart.

Before she knows it, she begins humming a happy, quick paced song, her own walking speed matches her song, and just as she recovers her mind she thinks "I'll hum it. Wind God Girl. I always loved that song."

She continues humming the song and it seems to take over the corridor while Aya herself starts feeling in much higher spirits and begins to smile.

Her humming becomes a little louder, and now the walls of the mansion begin to vibrate with life once more, taking away that unwelcoming feeling the endless silence places on any territory it takes.

The songs starts getting into Satori's ears, getting her attention and filling her head, taking away the maddening silence that had settled within.

She slowly raises her head to look to her friend, and a very weak smile stretches her lips.

Soon after, she starts feeling strength returning to her limbs, and thus helps herself to walk so as not to be such a burden to the tengu.

The song quickly starts filling her heart, then spreads all over her body, warming her limbs, and then somehow works its way into the youkai girl's very spirit.

Satori closes her eyes and her smile becomes stronger when she starts hearing Aya's song playing in her own head along with other instruments and even a small chorus singing along.

She feels when her friend grips her tighter and their pace quickens to a run, so she smiles wider and helps her winged partner run.

She notices how their steps match the music playing loudly in her head, and just as her excitement rises, she feels as they jump at the rhythm of the song.

Lights start flashing around her, adding color to the concert being played inside her mind, and she chuckles.

She opens her eyes and sees they are headed straight toward a large pair of dark-brown double-doors adorned with square undulations and a pair of glass doorknobs on a golden base.

The mind-reader points forward and happily exclaims "there! It's the exit! We're almost there!"

She can feel their pace quicken and closes her eyes once more, then feels how they twirl in the air, dancing to the song filling her mansion with vibrant life once more.

The satori sighs happily as she feels as though she's flying in mid-air, twirling and kicking herself from the roof for fun, and just as the song ends, everything stops.

She finds herself lying on her back in front of Chireiden, staring at the brown clouds covering the stone that makes the cave's ceiling, and then looks at the sweaty face of her panting friend and smiles.

Aya breaks a smile immediately, and between pants she says "we. did it. Satori-chan! We're. outside!"

The purple-haired girl springs up and catches her friend in a hug, gives her a kiss on the cheeks, then excitedly says "thank you Aya-chan! Thank you so much."

She loosens her embrace and pushes herself away from the reporter to look at her in the eyes, then says "carrying me all the way out here must have been so troublesome. Oh, but that song. It was amazing! It cheered me up so much. You even filled the Palace with life again! Thank you so much for everything!"

The tengu girl chuckles bashfully, rubs the back of her head while blushing, then says "aww, it was nothing. I'm so glad that you are feeling better though."

Satori giggles and smiles gleefully, closing her eyes as she does so and adding more red to the winged girl's blushing face, then releases her friend and says "and for a moment there it seemed you were dancing? Did the song fill you up too?"

Aya's blushing face becomes pale as she chuckles nervously, and after hesitating for a while she says "um, yeah, something like that."

She is grateful her partner is still unable to read her mind, or she might depress herself with the memories inside the black-haired girl's heart.

Shameimaru stands up, gives her hand to her mind-reading friend, and asks "still need my help? I don't mind."

Komeiji chuckles, accepts the offered hand, and once on her own feet she says "yes, I might need some help still, but thanks to you I think I can manage on my own for a bit."

The tengu grins, rubs the skin under her nose with her thumb, and with her left hand on her waist she says "alright then. But remember, if something bothers you, you let me know immediately so I can deal with it."

She looks around herself, and other than a few dead rose bushes to the front and the side of the mansion's ground, there's nothing else of interest other than rocks, rock formations, and more rocks.

The road before them, though branching off to several other directions, leads straight to the city, yet unsure of what path should they take, the reporter asks "so, any shortcuts around here that might lead us to the surface?"

The mind-reader shakes her head and says "we can't fly, so our best bet would be to go through the city. And yes, it is going to be dangerous. It's full of oni."

A powerful jolt of fear courses to through the tengu's whole body at the mentioning of the oni, but she steels herself and hides her fear as she faces the lit stone and wooden buildings, then says "alright then. Um, but are you... sure there's no other way?"

Again, the purple-haired mind-reader shakes her head, then says "there's an elevator built by the oni that should take us up to the surface, and the only way to reach it is through the bridge at the other side of the city. I'm sorry, but it's the only way."

The tengu girl covers her eyes with her hand as though in deep thought, though her friend can't really pick up anything yet, even now that she's calm enough to read hearts.

Aya suddenly raises her arm and points at the city, then declares "then will go through the Ancient City, take down anyone that gets on our way, then head back to the surface so that we can pick out our quest right where we left it off!"

Satori raises an eyebrow and asks "quest?" but she's quickly gripped around the shoulder by her friend and dragged along, while the fake-happy tengu girl says "come on, let's get moving then."

Meanwhile, inside Chireiden's entrance hallway is the sight of a small and bloody battlefield, where the tengu girl's footprints have been left on the walls, some pillars, and even on the roof.

On the floor there lie the bodies of three dogs; one bulldog with its stomach and left side of its face missing a large chunk of skin and bleeding through them without stop, and two mixed breed dogs with razor-sharp saber teeth whom are missing their eyes and fur, plus some patches of skin around their bodies.

To their left are two black cats whom have crashed against the walls and splattered into several parts on the floor, where their blood and guts make up one nasty looking spilled soup, and three parrots, all missing their feathers, the hook bills replaced by razor sharp blade-like bones, and smashed into puddles of blood on the floor where they crashed after killed.

---

On their way to the Ancient City, the girls find themselves being chased around by evil spirits, which have grown the size of an adult human and have taken an eerie green color.

They make a disturbing sound as though that of clacking bones, but it comes from their mouths as if they were laughing as a form of communication.

"Three left," calls Aya after flashing one of the spirits into a cloud and making sure her still hooded friend is still running alongside her.

Satori jumps and twirls once in the air so she's facing the spirits, flashes them to their wispy deaths, then the surprised tengu slowly stops her running, shocked and surprised at her friend.

With her mouth wide open, she walks over to the purple-haired girl and exclaims "well, seems you made a full recovery," then smiles and adds "I'm glad."

The mind-reader smiles at her friend and happily says "oh, I still want to get out of here as fast as we can. My heart is still beating rather painfully," then her voice turns dark and cold, her eyes become ominous, and with that smile on her face she says "it's just that those asshole spirits and their disgusting thoughts overwhelm my own despair and fills me with a desire to murder."

The winged reporter is frightened out of her wits, and now finds herself sorry for commenting, but her fright is quickly put to ease when the satori youkai smiles in her usual manner and says "but that song of yours, it's still playing in my head, so it's helping me stay focused. Thank you."

A nervous chuckle escapes Shameimaru, and all she can think of saying is a shaky "you're welcome."

The girls slowly realize they are at the very entrance of the city, but it's so quiet and empty, they thought they were still on the road there.

They look around at the silent houses with lit lamps within, the blood splattered on the dusty ground and on the walls, one particular wooden house to their left vandalized and adorned with something dark and long inside that hangs from the ceiling; though they aren't interested in finding out what it is; and even though it's so eerie and quiet, they can't help but notice how well lit the whole place is.

"We're here," whispers Aya as she looks around with her camera ready for anything, and then she notices the terrified look on her friend's blue face.

Satori shivers in place, hugging herself under the make-shift hooded robe, and gasps but quickly chokes on her own throat when she feels an arm going around her hip.

Her tengu friend has secured her once more, but before either has the chance to comment, they notice a small child in front of them.

The reporter yelps with fright as she hops back when she notices the two large horns on either side of the child's head, and after stammering like a broken record for a few seconds, she finally manages to say "Su-Su-Suika. O-o-oni!"

Zombie Suika Ibuki's skin is completely white and stretched downward due to gravity's pull, but it is still in one piece, her hair looks thin and dull orange, her horns have grown larger and have some small branches growing on the tips, her open broken shirt hangs over her bloodstained purple skirt, her eyes are red and from them drips an acid-like substance as though she were crying, and from her blackened rotten-toothed mouth oozes a thick semi-liquid substance that dangles on her chin a whole minute before dripping to the ground.

She stares at the living girls for some time then starts to breathe through her mouth, making a disturbing gurgle with every breath taken and expelled.

After some time, the two girls settle down a bit, yet keep themselves alert for anything that might, and they are sure will happen.

The little oni lowers her head, hunches her back, raises her arms, a set of yellow fangs grow from those black gums, then she roars loudly enough for her voice to echo all over the city.

Aya tightens her grip on Satori, shoots a blindingly bright flash at zombie Suika's face, causing her to moan and cover her eyes with her arms, then takes off toward the nearest wooden building and jumps on top of it.

The next stone building is close, and it is long and spacious for a good distance-run, so she jumps for it and says "I'm going to try to lose her! Afterwards we can use these buildings to sneak by!"

While she says that, she desperately thinks "oni! Why oni? Of all the creatures out there, an immortal oni zombie must be the WORST!"

She can hear crashing and crumbling from behind, and upon looking back she can see the building from before collapsing to the ground as the little zombie oni runs through it while chasing her prey.

Aya's face turns blue at the sight, her terror evident even as she turns around and resumes her run.

Zombie Suika roars a little softer as she breaks through the wall of the longer building, then Satori manages to ask between nervous pants "why. is she. not jumping?"

The tengu lifts her friend and carries her princess style before reaching the edge of the building, shouts "maybe she likes breaking things! She's an oni!" then jumps as hard as she can as soon as she reaches that edge and glides toward the closest building, which is a two story shop with a red roof.

Thanks to those short wings they manage to reach the second story of the building, Shameimaru places Komeiji back on her feet, though keeps holding her securely, and as they run toward the next edge she says "the floor is rising, and the next building is very high. Satori-chan, I'll need your help."

The mind-reader studies the terrain and notices that indeed the terrain is rising as they go further into the city, and the next building looks to be a small apartment of three floors.

Behind them, the zombie oni breaks out of the long building and starts looking and sniffing around for the girls, but can't seem to find their trace.

The satori youkai nods, starts running along the tengu, and as they reach the edge the reporter says "alright, ready? One, two, THREE!"

The mind-reader looks at her partner's feet and matches her steps in order to strengthen the jump, and they kick off that roof so perfectly synchronized that for a moment they believe they are actually flying again, though gravity takes effect quickly and they begin their descent.

They land on the very edge of the roof of the tall building and Aya has to lean forward so they don't fall back, and as soon as they are stable again, she grabs Satori princess style again and says "come on, we'll keep roof-hopping until we reach the bridge!"

She continues her run toward the center of the underground city, ignoring the fact that zombie Suika has completely lost their track and is trashing the long blue-roofed building where she lost track of them out of frustration.

The little zombie pierces her fingers through the stone wall of that building, pulls a large chunk of it right out with ease, takes a bite off it, then spits the rubble and furiously roars to the air, frustration evident in the overwhelming vibration of her voice.

---

While jumping from building to building with her friend on her arms, the tengu reporter admires how each house or store are built differently, but still look the same in architectural design.

Cobblestone, marble, white rocks, wood, and even some are made of cement, but one thing that makes each of these sturdy buildings stand out is that they are all made by the oni, unlike the buildings from before.

As they reach the center of the eerily silent Ancient City, Aya whispers "and here I was worried about fighting oni. There was only that girl back there, and she wasn't very bright."

They reach the roof of a large restaurant located at the very center of the city, and when the reporter's foot touches the floor, Satori urgently whispers "stop! Don't move!"

The tengu girl freezes in place, and before she can ask, the mind-reader whispers "that's right. We're trapped. They'll hear us if we make a sound."

Shameimaru smiles, though her face loses all its color as she thinks "so that means we have oni all around us? What can we do here, Satori-chan?"

Komeiji shakes her terrified head, and then whispers "not just oni. I can feel them. They are all here, waiting for us to make a move. I don't know what we can do here. I'm scared."

The black-haired girl nods as she weakly chuckles, and then thinks "yes, I understand. I am terrified too."

They look around themselves, the maddening silence getting worse as they gaze toward the darkness ahead that is their goal, the elevator leading up.

That's when the purple-haired girl realizes something, then whispers "Aya-chan, I have some really bad news. The elevator is not working. If it was, we should be able to see its lights from here."

The tengu girl's racing heart starts beating faster as bullets of sweat fly from her forehead, then she whispers "and... how do we get it working again?"

The satori maiden sighs, points toward the darkness, then whispers "one of those buildings over there has the machinery that activates it. That's all I know. I'm sorry."

There is a light thud underneath them and Aya's instincts almost take the best of her and she tries to take flight, but she manages to steel herself strongly enough to keep in place.

After relaxing her tiny wings, she looks down to Satori and nervously whispers "what should we do now?"

Her partner whimpers softly, shakes her head, and then whispers "whether we move or not, they are going to find us at this rate."

The tengu girl nods, stretches her wings again, and after giving it as much thought as possible without dragging things out too long, she kicks off the roof.

Immediately after her jump the rooftop bursts in five different sections almost at once, and now the airborne girls are surrounded by child-sized zombie fairies with black hair and sagging, tattered and torn dresses that almost makes them look like wraiths, if it weren't for the yellowish wings and colored, but weak hair.

Their mouths are frozen open, worms wriggle out of their eye sockets, regardless of them having eyes or not, and their skins, though dry, have a sickly yellow color as though still alive but ill.

They moan and lament as they circle around the girls, then present their oversized claws as they raise their hands to attack, and swipe.

Shameimaru, with the mind-reader still on her hands, takes a dive and glides under the undead monsters, and just as they pass under them Komeiji flashes the undead creatures and kills two with one shot.

Aya dives again to avoid another pair of claws that just barely miss her calves, swoops up just before hitting the ground with her face, and as soon as she lands, she places her friend on the ground, takes her camera on hand, turns around, and then flashes the closest zombie fairy on the face, killing it with one bright shot.

As soon as that fairy drops and splats on the ground into a pool of tiny organs and blood, several more fairies, these with green dresses, a few spirits and two tiny oni with small white horns on their foreheads, rotting brown skins, and holes on their arms and torso, jump from the roofs and surround the girls.

"Dammit, they're everywhere!" exclaims the tengu girl as she raises her camera and looks around, wondering which targets to hit first.

Satori growls at the large spirits as a frightening ominous shadow is cast over her eyes and says "you vile, disgusting monsters won't get the chance!"

The purple-haired girl shoots the next flash and turns a spirit into dust, then all the fairies and oni roar as they move in to attack.

The tengu reporter flips in front of the oni so they can't take the mind-reader's side, and then flashes them several time, killing one of them after flashing its face.

The tiny oni drops on the ground on its face, and soon after a small pool of coagulated blood forms underneath it, making an unsettling wet noise as it pours out of its decaying body.

One of the fairies manages to graze its claws close to the girl's wings and raises its other hand for the follow-up, but one of the satori's beams snakes its way into her mouth and destroys her from within.

When Aya looks around, the spirits are gone, and three more fairies fall to the mind-reader's beams, but she still has the oni to deal with, and the little monster opens its rotten mouth to roar and reveals three large fangs along its dirty teeth.

She flashes the little monster twice and kills it with ease, and as its disgusting blood pours to the ground, she looks at it with disgust and says "hmph! So much for the scary oni."

The hooded girl hops away from the last fairy's claw swipe, opens her make-shift robe and flashes it to its death, then swipes the sweat off her pale forehead and says "phew. That's the last of them."

The ground to her immediate left explodes, then Satori finds herself on her back and pushing back against another zombie fairy, this one with normal skin, bushy brown hair and normal red eyes, yet having a crazed look on her face, and a snapping jagged-toothed jaw to accompany her sharp claws.

The zombie's strength defeats the youkai girl's with ease, and said monster takes a bite off the living girl's shoulder in a matter of a moment.

"AYA-CHAAAN!" screams the pained satori maiden when those teeth break her skin, and soon she sees the red blur of her friend's sandal kicking the fairy off of her and to the ground.

Shameimaru growls furiously at the offending creature that still looks as though she's alive, flashes it while kicking its stomach, breaking a hole on it, and as soon as it stops moving the tengu girl looks to her friend and desperately asks "Satori-chan, are you ok?"

The mind-reader stands up on her own, holding her bleeding shoulder and looking at the wound as it seals up rapidly on its own, then nods and says "y-yeah. She caught me by surprise there, and her strength was unreal."

The tengu girl stares at the monster with hate in her eyes and says "not just that, but it looks like she was infected very recently."

The girls watch with horror as the dead body of that fairy quickly turns dark, how her skin dries up and deflates like a balloon until it's clinging on to the creature's very bones, and how pieces of her hair fall off her head.

They look away from the disgusting scene, and noticing how her friend is starting to look distressed, the winged reporter asks "say, you really seem to hate those evil spirits. Why is that?"

Satori's face, though still pale with fright, takes a healthier look as the girl growls and angrily says "those disgusting creatures! They keep thinking very nasty stuff about us."

Genuinely curious, Aya asks "huh? Really? Like what?" while wrapping her friend's arm around her neck and holding her by the hip before moving on again.

The mind-reader grimaces and shakes her head, then says "if you really want to know, they want to touch our *****s and our *****s and ****** us until we pass out."

The tengu's face mixes with embarrassment and fright, turns purple as she grimaces, then the purple-haired girl nods and says "they were sick before, but now they are just nasty and disgusting."

Thinking quickly in hopes to think of something else, Shameimaru asks "so where should we head now? To turn on that elevator, I mean."

"I am not very sure," weakly begins the satori maiden, then closes her eyes to think, then says "let's keep going forward, and forget the roofs. They already know we are here. They might set up another ambush."

The tengu reporter nods and continues the walk with her friend, keeping silent while she starts imagining what kind of contraption they will find that operates an oni-built elevator.

---

The girls run through the narrow alleys in the city, avoiding any open roads as they make their way to the controls of the elevator, or at least they hope they are headed there.

Satori, though a little higher in spirits, still hasn't fully recovered from having to deal with her undead sister, and knowing this, her partner refuses to let her go, even if it makes fighting zombie fairies more troublesome.

To their luck, the zombie fairies and spirits are easy to deal with and will fall with just a flash or a beam on the face, though Aya dreads the fact that they are yet to come across another big oni like Suika.

She turns and shoots a flash to her right and kills another fairy just before its claw makes contact with her face, then turns right and locks on to a spirit and another fairy, shoots the beams, and kills them almost immediately, saving the hooded girl from a claw to the head.

As they move forward they start hearing laughter, cheering and some grunts, and immediately the tengu's face turns pale.

The next fairies are already scattering within their houses, knocking down several wooden and glass items in order to rush the girls outside in the alley.

While those fairies scatter out of their houses, the winged girl looks at her friend and nervously says "I think we, er, found the oni."

The satori maiden gulps loudly, her body shakes as they continue to run, then softly says "we better get ready then. Who knows how tough they've become now that they're undead monsters."

Right after finishing her sentence, she opens her cloak to reveal her armored third eye and flashes a zombie fairy at a window to the right, killing it before she enters the alley.

Five more zombies come fly high above behind the girls, so Shameimaru turns herself and her friend around and both shoot their flashes at their offenders, killing one each.

The other three monsters spread up and try to surround the live girls, but the tengu has already locked on all three and shoots her beams without even looking, killing the three zombies one at a time, and succeeding in clearing their path.

The mind-reader flashes upward and her partner looks up before asking, and sees the dissipating green clouds that were a trio of evil spirits.

Again, Satori looks sickened after dealing with them, and then Aya asks "what? Again?"

The purple-haired girl nods once, then the tengu sighs and says "to think, I thought that panty-shooting pervert at the human village was disgusting. At least he knew when to stop."

They reach a dead-end and have run out of alternate alleyways to take, plus the cheering and grunting voices have gotten louder, which means they are close to where those cheering monsters have gathered.

The frustrated tengu girl face palms and shakes her head in disbelief, then says "of all the crappy luck! Grr, seems we have no choice but take to the roofs again."

The satori maiden sighs, nods, and then says "please be ready to fight. I don't know if I can help against those oni. They were so kind and nice before. *Sigh* I can only imagine what kind of beasts they are now."

Shameimaru sighs, softly says "Satori-chan," but prefers to keep quiet and flaps her tiny wings while kicking off the ground to reach the roofs.

They land on top of the house in front and quickly they take notice of how loud those voices from before have become, meaning they are probably closer to the source than they thought.

They start looking around themselves for any signs of an attack and gasp when they spot several more fairies, a few oni and an evil spirit flying above them, but those ignore the girls and continue toward a small gathering center at a clearing in the middle of the houses and small stores.

In the center of this gathering spot is a large bonfire that illuminates the area well, and thanks to that the girls can see the shadows of the several oni there, including the familiar shapes of Suika and Yuugi; whom share a monstrous laugh; the shadows of spirits, fairies, and other creatures.

They observe as the shadows of other oni show them clashing their horns fiercely as though in some competition, and soon after they can hear the horrible sound of tearing flesh and breaking bones as one shadow falls.

The girls gasp and drop on the ground, then Satori whispers "we're in trouble. It's a miracle they didn't spot us already, but we can't stay here or we will get caught."

Aya looks around but finds nothing that could help, and after resigning to their fate she sighs and says "as much as I would like to avoid this, it seems we have no choice. We are going to have to face them one way or another."

The elder Komeiji sighs, looks to her partner with those frightened purple eyes, and says "alright then. I was expecting no less anyway."

The tengu girl notices how her friend is holding back her tears of fear, smiles tenderly at the mind-reader, places her hand on her friend's cheek, and says "you can stay up here if you like. Let me take care of those beasts while you keep an eye out on those fairies and perverted spirits."

The purple-haired girl shakes her head, returns the warm gesture by placing her hand on her friend's cheek, then softly says "this may hurt me, but it would hurt more to leave you on your own against the oni. I'll stay beside you and make sure to do my best by your side."

The girls smile at each other, giggle softly, then stand up and start running to the buildings nearest to the gathering spot to take a look at their chances of survival.

There is zombie Suika, sitting next to zombie Yuugi, whose skin looks saggy, like her little friend's, but it looks bluish and more solid, her hair looks as healthy as ever, the horn on her head has veins pulsating on it, her right eye as been taken over by wriggling worms, her left eye is a blood-red orb, her teeth have two fangs, one on the top of her mouth, the other on the bottom, her shirt is full of bloody holes where her skin seems to have been pierced by horns, and her skirt has a tear on the left, leaving a bloody gash on her leg exposed.

The other oni there are missing limbs, their skins have become pale and dry, some are missing their eyes, others have a cluster of worms wriggling from within their throats, some have their horns broken, but all share the same horn wounds as zombie Yuugi, though some have them in questionable areas.

As for the few youkai there, most of them look like fury midgets with blood on their heads and thorns on their backs or tails, and those that have a more human-like appearance have lost their ears and noses, and all have worms wriggling out of their bellies.

"Man, they are a lot less scary than I thought they would be, but they are still disgusting," comments the reporter while scouting the area with her eyes some more.

The hooded girl stares at her partner in a most unfriendly way, and then says "they have worms crawling out of their bodies. They are scary enough for me."

Zombie Yuugi spots the girls and stands, killing off the fights, the cheers and the merriment, then points toward the roof at the living girls and grumbles something in either a made-up language, or an ancient tongue.

The girls don't care either way. They have been found out as expected, and now ready themselves for a hard fight.

---

Yuugi starts grumbling and roaring while pointing in several directions, then Suika roars, rams her left horn on the blonde oni's back, then they both start arguing as soon as the horn is pulled out.

The exchange of roars escalate until the small oni knocks the large one to the ground with a punch to the face, then turns to face the creatures there and resumes the commands.

The still-live girls look nervously at the situation from the roof, then Aya gulps and asks "um, any idea what they might be up to?"

Satori nods, and then nervously says "it appears the oni are the ones in charge, and if I'm not mistaken, they might be planning a strategy to get us."

The tengu girl gasps, points her camera at zombie Suika, locks all ten beams on her face, then quickly shoots.

The satori maiden observes her friend's move, then quickly adds her own beams and aims them at zombie Yuugi, who still lies on the ground.

The beams take the air and fly down to their targets, then several fairies, hairy youkai and one limbless oni jump in the way of the beams, sacrificing themselves for their leaders.

"Shit," spits the winged girl while biting on her index finger.

"No choice," begins the hooded girl, sounding as though ready to cry, "we'll have to take them all out if we want to defeat those two."

Aya growls, smacks her face with her hand while saying "gods, please damn these monsters," then locks her beams on the few remaining oni in the area in hopes of raising their chance of survival.

The beams hit five oni and kill them all in one shot, but the other five beams get intercepted by other fairies, youkai and spirits, saving the rest of the zombie oni and allowing them to run behind and inside some buildings.

The tengu girl growls again, her fear draining the color from her whole body, and after a frustrated stomp she shouts "Yukari is going to pay dearly for chucking us in here!"

She looks at Satori and is about to ask if she agrees, but she notices her friend is frozen in fear and standing on her feet due to a miracle.

The mind-reader turns her trembling neck to look at her tengu friend with those lost and unfocused eyes, then points a shaky hand up and says "my home... was never like this."

The winged girl looks above where Suika and Yuugi are standing, and behind them, up on the cave's ceiling, hangs a massive ball of organs and skins stuck and tied together by some unseen force, dripping blood that mixes with other odd substances and fall into a large glass bottle inside a small raggedy shack that stands exactly below it.

The disgusting liquid has already filled one fourth of that bottle, and the sickening brownish-reddish green color is more than enough to turn a stomach around.

The reporter is grateful her stomach is empty, or else she would be blowing chunks all over the place in a heartbeat, but she quickly remembers her partner, notices how she's about to break, then quickly grabs her by the hip, supports her, then jumps off the roof two seconds before the building they were on collapses.

Aya looks at Satori, sighs, then says "this is called Mysterious Mountain," then begins to hum another happy, jumpy and waltzy tune.

As she begins her humming, she is immediately surrounded by a spirit and several bleeding oni with missing limbs.

Not stopping her song, she flashes the spirit and turns it to dust, hops to the open space between the zombie oni, flashes the left monster without one arm and kills it, ducks to avoid a claw swipe from the right, jumps to avoid a horn tackle from behind, flashes and kills the rampaging zombie, then lands away from the horde.

The song starts filling both girls' heads, and Satori seems a little more lively, enough to flash an oni to the right and say "what an uplifting song."

Aya grunts, throws her partner to the air, making her scream with surprise, and shouts "shoot as many as you can," then resumes humming and starts cart-wheeling around while shooting flashes and avoiding tackles and pointy horns.

The hooded girl stops screaming, and with the music filling her head again she manages to steel herself and shoots flashes while spinning around in the air, taking out fairies and spirits that come from the bridge.

Meanwhile, more buildings collapse, and more zombie oni jump out of hiding to help their falling comrades.

Satori begins to fall, but Aya jumps high enough to catch the girl on her back, and as she begins to glide around she shouts "hang on tight. I'm gonna show these zombies what happens when you piss a tengu off."

The mind-reader nods, then realizes something and asks "can you do all of that with me on your back like this?"

The reporter smiles, lands and quickly summersaults forward to avoid a tackle from another oni, and just as she lands she says "don't worry about me. I'm feeling pumped now!"

For a second, the satori youkai thinks of her friend slightly inflated like some balloon, but she shakes the thought away and focuses on holding on and sneaking a few flashes while her friend resumes humming and flipping around like an acrobat.

Between flips and jumps the girls take out every zombie oni, fairy, youkai and evil spirit getting too near, and slowly make their way toward the two oni leaders, whom stand in place, watching the girls with their arms crossed.

Three zombie oni left, though these three smart monsters keep their distance and seems are about to retreat, however the three of them wind back and the girls watch with disgust as something moves from their stomachs up to their heads.

Their necks break, blood splashes all over the ground around them as disgusting worm-like creatures with small jagged teeth in cylindrical mouths rise from within the undead creatures and screech at the living girls, threatening them as they move closer.

The humming tengu and surprisingly lively mind-reader look at each other and nod, then the reporter locks on the worms' mouths while the hooded girl charges light in front of her third eye.

The girls shoot their beams and the two worm monsters to either side swallow the light like it's a meal to them, but the middle one spits a disgusting yellow gel that traps the light within it, saving itself from defeat.

The beams expand and the yellow goop erupts, while the two gluttonous worms scream like human children before exploding like a pair of pimples.

The worm in the middle sucks the erupting blood in the air, then screeches as smaller worms grow out of its own mouth, wriggling and making disgusting squishy noises while moving.

Aya and Satori grimace, but quickly compose themselves and the tengu says "alright, looks like we weaken this little smartass a bit."

The hooded girl taps her friend's shoulder and asks "shouldn't I get off?"

The tengu girl shakes her head, then says "don't try to trick me; I know you are still weak. Just stay there and hold tight, and keep shooting when you can."

The purple-haired girl nods, then the winged girl resumes her humming and moves forward.

She takes her fan on hand and swings a couple of green petal-shaped bullets at the monster, but doing so forces it to jump high in the air and raise a claw, while the worm itself starts spitting a reddish goop.

Shameimaru rushes away while Komeiji shoots the goop with her flash, turning it to small rocks after they dry up, and then shouts "just flash it while you can."

The tengu girl kicks the ground with every step and zips around the monster, confusing it with her speed, then she jumps toward it, she and her partner flash it together, and as it falls to the ground, screeching as it dies, the tiny worms from within start flying out of it.

The black-haired girl quickly flashes the little creatures to their instant deaths, disintegrating several of them with every flash, and as soon as they are all dead she raises her left arm and cheers "oh yeah, this early bird got the worm!"

A loud rumble gets the girls' attention, and then the hooded girl gulps and says "I think those two are mad."

Zombies Suika and Yuugi are growling and stomping on the ground, causing a light tremor, then set their furious and disgusting sights on the girls.

The crow girl bravely says "if you want to go and hide while I deal with these, you are more than welcome to do so."

The mind-reader shakes her head and says "no, and you are right, if you let me go now I'll just drop, so at least allow me to help you with these two, as long as I'm not a-"

"You aren't a burden my friend," says the tengu with a smile before pointing at the oni leaders, then adding "come on, let's rid ourselves of these freaks so we can get out of here!"

The purple-haired girl nods, then they two girls stare at the zombie oni roaring softly at them from across the open yard.

---

Yuugi immediately kicks the bonfire, sending scorching wood and stone toward the girls, but Shameimaru swings her fan and sends back the flaming debris, which crash on the zombies, but show no signs of causing any actual damage.

Aya clicks her tongue, shoots a beam at the large zombie oni, causing her to screech and step back, then whispers "let's keep our distance. If they get too close we are done for."

Zombie Suika punches the ground and causes it to split and crack, and that crack heads straight toward the tengu and her piggybacked friend, whom find themselves hopping backward until they reach the crumbled house they were using as a platform earlier, and that's where the crack stops.

Satori looks at her friend, her eyes showing some fright but still looking lively, even though no song is being hummed, and says "whatever it takes, I'll help you as best I can. Just please let us get out of here alive."

The tengu girl grins with malice, then the mind-reader gasps and asks "are you sure about that?"

The black-haired girl nods, and then says "charge it up real good and shoot as soon as they are stunned."

As soon as the hooded girl nods, the crazy reporter zips straight toward the two zombie oni, stops in front of them and wiggles her fingers at them, then both launch a punch at her and the girl on her back, but miss when the agile crow jumps up high.

Shameimaru lands right on their faces and jumps back up, then the elder Komeiji shoots two sets of five beams that strike both saggy-skinned oni and expand in front of their faces, but it appears that has done minimal damage.

Noticing this development, Aya decides to try once more and prepares to do a stomp attack again, however she gasps and shouts "HANG ON TIGHT!" then glides away, though not as fast as she'd like.

While they wait on the ground for their prey, zombie Yuugi takes an impossibly deep breath, then suddenly opens her mouth and roars as loudly as she can, sending a dangerously powerful wave of sound and a massive cluster of blue bullets and beams up at the girls.

With Satori's help shooting danmaku hearts behind, Aya manages to glide fast enough to avoid being hit by the bullets and the sound wave, and both flinch when it's that very wave that crashes on the cave's ceiling and breaks several giant rocks that fall down on the zombie oni, crushing the many dead ones and making an even bigger mess of blood and random organs.

The girls land safely, breathe hard through their mouths to keep up with their heartbeats, then the winged reporter turns her neck around to her friend and angrily says "I really hate that Annihilating Roar spell!"

Her mind-reading friend nods in agreement, and then gasps when she looks back and shouts "look out!"

The bird girl quickly jumps out of the way to avoid a massive fireball to the back, then gasps and grimaces when that very fireball heads straight to the giant ball of organs on the ceiling.

The fireball explodes next to the disgusting ball and does no damage, but neither girl has time to admire that and quickly turn to face the zombies, whom hold a massive boulder from the rocks they broke from the ceiling on hand each.

"SHOOT!" desperately commands Shameimaru, and both girls begin shooting beams at random, though to their dismay, even when one enters through Yuugi's worm-filled eye or Suika's mouth, the zombies don't seem to be affected that greatly.

"Hold on as tight as you can Satori-chan," commands Aya as she grips her friend by the knees and bends her own while stretching her short wings.

Zombie Suika throws her massive boulder with ease and the tengu girl flaps her wings painfully hard as she jumps, then Yuugi throws her rock at the girls as they dart upward.

Suika's boulder causes the ground to tremble as it rolls toward the glass bottle with the disgusting fluids within and smashes it into bits, releasing a flood of that nasty-smelling organ substance mixed with blood and glass shards.

Yuugi's massive boulder misses the girls by an inch, though manages to force the girls to veer off course slightly, and then continues on its way toward the giant ball of organs.

The living girls scream as they are forced to glide back toward the zombies and the disgusting fluids that spilled out of the giant bottle while the massive boulder crashes right in the middle of the organs ball.

The disgusting massive ball that smells like hell ten times over bursts when gas accumulated inside of it breaks free and bursts, pushing the gliding girls toward a tall restaurant's roof while almost burning their nostrils off due to the stench.

The zombies Yuugi and Suika begin to roar an argument while being bathed on organs and fluids, and then their argument becomes violent and quickly escalates to punching, biting and clawing.

Aya and Satori observe the fight from the safety of the roof, though aren't saved from the vomit-inducing smell that has taken over the city, and watch how the little oni jumps and easily rips the head off the large oni's neck.

The bloody vertebra that is left behind is quickly surrounded by wriggling vines that look like white veins that search for and latch onto the severed head and slowly pull it back onto its body.

The tengu sees the chance she needed, takes her camera, locks on as many beams as she can, and while trying to hold her stomach inside of herself she whispers "shutter chance," and then clicks the camera's button.

The beams fly true and fast straight into the wriggling and bloody opening on that zombie's neck and all ten beams enter a moment before the head is placed back on.

Zombie Suika roars furiously after seeing what happened, throws her oni friend's body away just as its stomach explodes into a shower of blood and rotten organs, then sets her hateful gaze on the girls all the way on that roof.

She roars again, causing the Ancient City to tremble and the buildings to almost fall on their own, then flies after the girls.

Shameimaru and Komeiji yelp when the oni takes flight, then the tengu girl grips her friend's knees again, jumps as hard as she can, then glides straight toward the dark bridge.

"Wait, we haven't found the elevator controls," exclaims Satori.

Aya loosens her grip on the hooded girl's knees and prepares her camera, then says "no time! She's after us!"

Both girls yelp when spirits appear from below them, threatening to grab them, but are quickly met with quick flashes that turn them to nothing.

Meanwhile, zombie Suika catches up to the gliding girls, but just as she tries to grip the tengu's calf, a zombie fairy that dove from the roof gets in the way and gets her head squished into jelly by the small and mighty hand instead.

The oni roars with frustration at her own failure, gets flashed in the eyes for it and falls, though not alone.

The zombie somehow grabs Satori's make-shift robe and pulls hard as she falls, and the frightened mind-reader grips her friend tight, though accidentally grabs her breasts as well, and the poor tengu screams out of pain when she's forcefully pulled hard by her sensitive assets.

The hooded girl thinks fast and sweeps a quick speared hand while covering it with danmaku energy, burns zombie Suika's hand off, then releases her friend and nervously says "I'm so sorry I gripped you like that. It was a reflex, I swear," and quickly releases her well-endowed tengu friend's chest.

They land a few feet away from the zombie oni where Aya promptly holds her breasts while wincing in pain, and fighting with that awful jolt of pain, she grunts "it's ok Sa-Satori-chan. Ugh. Is she dead?"

Zombie Suika roars as she rips the stone wall out of a store, then the pained tengu turns around with her fan and camera ready, and aiming a very dirty look at the little monster she growls "you are going to pay for that, you flat-chested loli!"

The sudden gasp from the monster is a good indication she understood that insult, then she roars almost as loud as Yuugi did and throws the wall with all her might.

Even with the mind-reader screeching with fright, Shameimaru crouches low to the ground and moves right to avoid the long flying stone wall at the last moment, then rushes straight at the oni.

She swings her fan and sends a blade that cuts the monster's left arm off, swings it three more times and each blade opens a hole on the zombie's neck wider, then lunges herself forward to kick her head back, cracking her neck open widely, then commands "do it now!"

The satori maiden quickly summons energy in front of her third eye, shoots eight bright beams of light that quickly enter zombie Suika's bleeding neck, and soon after the tiny body expands as the light within explodes with insane force.

The tiny body falls on the ground and the sagging skin holding her head near her neck breaks, leaving that horned head to roll slightly to the left, and now the body and neck begin to bleed.

"That'll teach you to mess with this tengu, bitch," angrily spits the pissed, and still sore reporter.

Komeiji starts rubbing her friend's black hair while softly saying "I'm so sorry. That really hurt you. If there's anything you want from me to make it up to you, please let me know."

Shameimaru grins, scratches her friend's purple hair with her left hand, then points forward and says "it's alright. It wasn't your fault. Now help me turn on the mechanism."

The hooded girl expresses her confusion, but quickly realizes what the tengu is talking about.

The wall Suika threw crushed and pinned several zombie fairies underneath it, and revealed the impressive high-tech controls to the elevator hidden inside what looked like a simple marble house.

The machine is actually made of metal and has an actual working control panel with flashing buttons, unlike the idea of a wooden mill being moved by water in Aya's imagination.

Satori taps the top of her friend's head with her fist, and then says "I told you it was built by the oni. You don't have to be that surprised."

The reporter chuckles as she helps her friend off her back, laughs "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," then starts walking to the controls and says "come on, let's turn this thing on."

---

After a few bleeps and a loud clank, one by one, lights begin to appear in the distance, going all the way up the cave's roof and disappearing into the large hole on the rocky ceiling the farther up they go.

The girls walk out of the control room, then the tengu looks slightly disappointed while saying "man, I thought it would be more flashy, like that kappa's stuff. Eek!"

She trips on a rock and falls on her hands and knees, then growls and mumbles "stupid walking. This kind of thing never happens when you fly."

The satori girl giggles while holding her sides, then says "Aya-chan, you can be quite the character sometimes. Here, let me help-" then takes a better look at the fallen bird girl and finishes whispering "up."

She gazes upon those milky white calves, admires how that black skirt bends down and almost takes she curvy shape of those perfect legs, that slightly arched back with those cute and tiny wings, that broken shirt taking such curvy shape, then looks at those adorable shimmering eyes that are currently glancing upward while that tengu girl sweetly asks "I'm a character?"

A bit of blood trickles down the mind-reader's nose as she thinks "holy spirits of the underground, she's so sexy and cute! W-why didn't I notice this before? Wait, what in the world am I thinking?"

Aya continues glancing upward at her friend and asks "um, Satori-chan, are you alri-" then notices the blood running down her friend's nose and springs on her feet, desperately asking "Satori-chan? What's wrong? Why are you bleeding? Are you hurt?"

The blissful mind-reader quickly wipes the blood off her nose, and still unable to rub the smile off her face she replies "oh, don't worry. Th-that sometimes happens. I'm ok though. No need to worry."

Satori gasps and her bliss becomes shock while looking behind her friend, and after she stammers the tengu's name, the black-haired girl turns around and gasps.

Further ahead, cast in shadows against the lights from the elevator, is the familiar frame of a short-haired girl with an umbrella standing in the middle of the road.

The girl stands there for some time staring back at the two living girls, then suddenly twitches, turns around, and takes off running.

"Wait! Kogasa," calls the winged girl as she starts to give chase, ignoring the satori youkai whom shouts "wait! Aya, wait! Remember what that devil said! Stop! WAIT!"

Shameimaru grabs her friend, tosses her to the air, catches the pink-haired girl on her back, and ignoring the mind-reader's complaints the crow tengu continues chasing after the umbrella girl.

Aya speeds up now that she has her friend secure on her back, and while running as fast as she can, she calls "wait! Kogasa, wait! Why won't you stop? Please, I just want to talk to you!"

Satori gives up on trying stopping the tengu, and as she looks at the orange LED on her third eye's armor, she resigns to thinking they will have to fight a very strong foe.

Her attention quickly turns to the many destroyed bodies of the zombie fairies, youkai and oni lying on the ground, windows and roofs and thinks "wait, what's this? I don't remember us killing these guys."

The monsters' bloodied bodies have been scratched to pieces, ripped in half, crushed into disgusting masses of flesh and goopy blood, and after having seen enough the satori maiden looks away and thinks "this is so disgusting, but this might mean that demon girl was wrong. Maybe... maybe Kogasa is still on our side!"

She taps her tengu friend's shoulder and loudly says "she may be one our side! Don't get too close, but don't lose her either!"

The cocky tengu scoffs and says "not planning to," and speeds up to continue her chase, though quickly notices that no matter how fast she goes, she can't get any closer.

She ignores this and continues speeding through destroyed zombie bodies, broken buildings, and finally reaches a wooden bridge with ornamental red rails that rises above an underground river that hides jagged rocks on its shores.

The girls frown and simultaneously call "wait," as the shadowed umbrella girl flies up the hole leading outside.

The tengu slows down when she realizes the futility of continuing the chase, then she and her partner watch as several tiny bodies fall from that hole by the numbers after sparks of light illuminate that exit momentarily.

The hooded girl sighs, and then sadly says "maybe it was for the best. It didn't look like she wanted to see us anyway."

Shameimaru's eyes hide under the shadow of her hair as she droops, and in a depressive tone she says "y-yeah. Looks like it," while remembering that blurry image of Hatate killing their light-blue haired partner.

There is a light thud on the bridge and the girls look forward, thinking it's just one of the fallen zombie's bodies that crashed near them, but both quickly forget their sadness as they look upon a new threat.

Zombie Parsee Mizuhashi stands tall on their way, raising her clawed hands to the sides as she glares at the girls with those glowing green eyes that have tiny wriggling tentacles around them.

Her skin is bluish-grey, her fangs can't fit inside her jagged-toothed mouth, only three strands of hair remain on the left side of her head as the right and back is just a broken hole where her brain pops out into plain sight, her usual stylish clothes are replaced by a few rags that cover her dried and wrinkled womanly assets, but fail to cover the worm-infested hole on her stomach and left thigh.

Satori gets closer to her friend's ear and whispers "be careful, there isn't enough space here to-" and before either of them notice, zombie Parsee strikes the elder Komeiji on the face with her claws and sends her flying back several feet.

"SATORI!" desperately calls Aya before having to sway right to avoid a second claw swipe, then shoots a few green shard bullets from her hands to push back her attacker.

"I'm sorry Satori-chan, but I can't go to you with this bitch on me," thinks the winged reporter as she faces off against the annoying zombie and takes her camera and maple fan on hand.

The bluish zombie girl roars, then the tengu angrily shouts "come and get some, pointy-eared freak!"

The zombie swipes her claws twice in the air, roars furiously, then runs toward the girl.

Aya flips backward and kicks the monster on the chin and her left foot is immediately pierced on the ankle by the tiny tentacles on Parsee's right eye.

She screams in pain and falls on her side, zombie Parsee quickly hops on top of the bird girl, and as she opens her mouth and leans forward she gets a mouthful of beams from the reporter's camera.

The zombie screeches and screams while writhing on the bridge's boards, then Shameimaru stands up on her right foot, winces from the stinging pain on her left foot, but still raises her fan and prepares to attack.

Zombie Parsee recovers and quickly turns around to stand on her hands and feet like a beast, snarls at the offending girl, then jumps forward.

The tengu girl swings her fan and traps the monster inside a small tornado, shoots several flashes at the vile zombie, making her scream out in pain, then swings her fan again to send that tornado and cargo smashing against the right-side bridge railing.

Zombie Parsee recovers quickly from the attack and swiftly jumps on the tengu girl, catching her off guard and knocking her to the ground, and immediately leans closer and rips a whole chunk out of the winged girl's left pointy ear.

Aya screams out loud and drops her fan to punch the munching zombie off herself then curls on the ground while holding her bleeding ear and whimpers as the unbearable pain takes over her mind.

Again, the zombie recovers quickly and immediately jumps straight at the tengu girl, then gets blasted on the side by hearts and beams of light, and then she roars as said beams coil around her wrists and ankles and restrain her in mid-air.

Satori walks toward her with a furious expression while holding a slightly used water bottle on her right hand, and while charging a pulsating ball of light in front of her third eye, she angrily growls "I liked it better when you were just a jealous bitch."

She shoots a trio of thick and extremely bright beams that burst the zombie's eyes as they go through, and breaks her fangs as the third beam enters through her mouth, and for an instant the zombie shrieks, then quickly dies.

As soon as that decaying body thuds on the wooden floor, the mind-reader kneels beside her whimpering friend to take a look at that ear, notices how it's starting to heal, then pours just a drop of the divine water on it while sighing with relief "good, it's healing."

The moment that drop touches the wound Aya can feel the pain leave her, then she turns on her back to look at her smiling friend, smiles back, then says "we just keep saving each others' butts over and over again."

The hooded girl smiles sweetly, and then says "that's what partners are for."

She helps the winged girl on to her feet, then points toward the end of the bridge and says "come on. I think Kogasa cleared the way for us. We can use the elevator without worry now."

Shameimaru nods, gets on her feet with the help from her friend, then they both walk over toward the elevator.

The tengu reporter is impressed by what she sees at the end of that bridge, and starts taking pictures of the elevator and its mechanics.

Metallic gears, stone supports and beams, a decorated wooden door, bright lights illuminating everything all the way to the top, reinforced glass for scenic viewing, and after whistling with admiration the reporter says "this would put the kappa to shame."

Satori giggles, grabs her partner's hand, pulls her toward the machine, and after pushing the button to open the door, she says "come now. We're almost out of here."

Noticing the subtle hint of hurry in the mind-reader's voice, the awed reporter lets herself be pulled along, and now the two girls ride the oni-built elevator out of the underground.

---

After a peaceful seven minutes ride up the elevator, the girls finally reach the top of the cave; their ticket to leaving the underground behind.

The elevator doors open on their own, and the girls cautiously walk out of it with their flashing weapons on hand, alert to everything around them.

The elevator lights dim down, then Satori walks up to Aya and softly says "don't worry, it's just standing by."

The tengu nods, glances around suspiciously, and then whispers "man, Kogasa really did a good job over here. Still, let's keep our eyes peeled."

Behind them is the large hole leading back to the underground world, and surrounding it are small rocks, boulders, and the bloodied bodies of several zombie fairies, all lying dead on their own pools of blood and other questionable black bits of rotting flesh, and some hang from the cracks and pointy edges on the dark cave walls, whether by their clothes, wings, hands or legs.

In front of them is the moist path leading outside, where a stream of water flows toward a smaller hole leading underground, where it will join the underground river.

To the sides are more dead zombies adorning the dark walls and rocky floors which consist of fairies, humans and some beast youkai.

The girls decide to walk on the left side of the cave where the water is shallower, even though they have to jump over several broken bodies, some spilling odd colored substances and old puss blobs that flow down the water's path.

They grimace at the sight of the mangled bodies and the smell of decay surrounding the entire cave, but push toward the dim light at the end of the long tunnel.

As they walk through the cave they both secretly look around for any signs of Kogasa, other than the many mangled bodies around, but when the visual search fails, Shameimaru sadly says "so, I guess it was for the best. That we didn't reach her, I mean."

Komeiji sighs, thinks her next words hard, then smiles and says "hey, maybe that wasn't Kogasa after all. Maybe it was Yuka. You know she looked like a shadow, so it could have been."

Aya smiles as she shakes her head, and then says "purple eggplant."

The mind-reader is stumped, and before she goes ahead and reads her partner's mind, the tengu says "the umbrella was Kogasa's. However, like you, I am questioning this carnage she's caused. Hmm~. Maybe she's so powerful she can't control herself. Maybe she doesn't want to hurt us by accident and that's why she ran away."

The surprised girl with a hood stares in shock at her partner and asks "again? Seriously, Aya-chan, it's supposed to be me who reads minds here, not the other way around!"

The winged reporter covers her mouth as she chuckles, and then the mind-reader sighs and says "but that aside, I think you are right. That demon girl seemed a little frightened of that zombie gi-"

Something behind the girls makes a loud clack, and both youkai quickly turn around with their flashing items on hand and readied.

They can hear something breathing through its mouth as it moves around the moist rocks while the girls continue to back away toward the drier part of the cave.

Zombie Kisume crawls out of the shadows, pulling herself with her bony, bloody hands and breathing hard through her mouth as though pained.

Her white shirt is in tatters but surprisingly clean, her face is pale blue, her eyes are two clean white orbs, her left pigtail remains the same while the right side of her hair is just a blood-stained clump of loose hair, and her legs have become a mass of clay that has molded itself inside her tiny brown bucket.

She breathes through her mouth and grunts desperately as she reaches for the girls, and when she sees Satori she screams "KILL MEEEEE! IT HUUUUUUUURTS!"

The live girls are shocked with surprise, then Aya lifts her camera and loudly says "we'll try to fix this as fast as we can," then shoots three beams from the camera.

The zombie girl opens her mouth to so that the beams may enter, and as the light explodes inside her body she smiles and cries "thank you! THANK YOUUUU!"

The little zombie falls to the ground and her breath gurgles out of her throat as she cries out her last.

After she expires, the girls notice a very nasty bite on her back oozing with fresh blood, then the tengu says "that poor thing. She must have been turned recently."

Satori sobs as silently as she can while backing away from the little tsurube-otoshi's body, her eyes losing focus, her skin becomes paler by the second, and just as she's about to break down again, she feels the warm hands of her friend grab hold of her.

Before the mind-reader speaks, Aya places a hand on her head and says "I know. I know how you feel, but you can't break down now. Only we can get our homes back Satori-chan. You have to be strong."

The purple-haired girl breathes erratically through her mouth as she nods rapidly, then gulps down her desire to cry and yelps "ok," then takes a deep breath and calmly continues "yes, you-you're right. I'm sorry."

Shameimaru smiles, squats in front of her friend, and says "piggyback ride."

The purple-haired girl smiles, then drops on the winged girl's back as though sapped from her strength, then wraps her arms around the girl's neck, and as soon as she's safely secured, the crow tengu gets up and continues the walk toward the light.

---

The further they move toward the exit, the less rocks and dead fairies they see, however, the closer they get to the light, the cave becomes darker.

"I don't like this. Something is very off about this," whispers Aya while glancing around, to which Satori nods and whispers "I know. There is something very odd about this darkness. Seems... unnatural."

Regardless of what they may feel, they push onward toward the dimming light and soon find themselves surrounded by darkness far more maddening than that of the Scarlet Devil Mansion.

The girls need to tap each other just to be certain they are still together, and after making sure they are the tengu whispers "Satori-chan, this is bad. I think we're being watched by-"

A loud hiss from the cave's roof startles the girls, but no matter how hard they look, they cannot see the source.

They can hear a light thud from nearby, followed by some light taps and crunching noises from the ground, then something roars softly, then yelps after the sound of scratching against the walls echoes around.

The darkness begins to dissipate and some light shines through, enough for them to see they are trapped inside a blob of darkness and the hissing creature that's been stalking them, standing on all fours on the ground like a vicious predator.

Zombie Rumia's bluish skin has filled with clusters of crust, particularly on the right side of her face, her eyes are two swollen red orbs being held by a wriggling tentacle each, her back has a rotting hole where maggots have begun to feast, and her left shoe is broken thanks to the claws growing out of them.

The zombie girl spots her prey and snarls while sticking out a bumpy snake-like tongue to moisten her lips, then jumps toward the girls and gets a face full of flashes.

She screeches and jumps into the darker areas of the dark blob, then Aya shouts "dammit! So damned close to escaping! Who knew we'd find Rumia here!"

Satori taps her friend on the shoulder and says "let me down! You won't be able to get her with me on you like this," then flashes to the right on reflex, just as the zombie girl jumps to attack again, forcing the darkness zombie back into hiding.

The tengu allows the mind-reader to climb down, shoots a flash to the left, then gasps before dropping on her back and kicking the little zombie girl's stomach, forcing her to fly above them and toward her darkness yet again.

The satori maiden hops back, flashes zombie Rumia just as she peeks her head out of the darkness again, the notices the little creep hides back into the dark blob to escape the attack.

She looks at the winged girl and says "she's avoiding our flashes with her darkness. We need to draw her out."

Aya nods, takes her fan on hand, and then says "stand in the middle. She'll have no choice but to reveal herself, and when she does I'll trap her in a tornado!"

Both girls nod, confirming the plan, then move to the center of the dark block they are in and wait for zombie Rumia to attack.

The clever predator of the darkness observes them from a safe distance and waits, studying her prey as they search around themselves, looking for her, then her hunger takes over and she moves to attack.

Satori closes her eyes and tries to listen for any signs of movement, then suddenly gasps, points up and shouts "she's coming from above!"

The tengu girl hops back to avoid the black blur diving straight at her, then swings her fan and traps the little zombie of darkness inside her tornado.

"Finish her off," commands the winged girl, and she and her partner immediately shower the squealing zombie Rumia with flashes and beams without pause, and just like that, the blob of darkness disappears and the zombie of darkness falls limp on the solid floor.

The living girls relax, get a little closer to the darkness monster, then Shameimaru whispers "man, what an ugly mutation. Poor thing can't even close her eyes."

The winged girl shrieks when the monster spring from the ground and tackles her on the stomach, then carries her away back into the deep cave while the black-haired girl calls "Satori-chan, shoot it!"

Before she realizes it, the mind-reader shoots a strong beam that snakes its way through the air and toward the darkness where last she saw the zombie taking her friend.

There is a bright flash in the distance, followed by two more flashes, and then Satori hesitates, wondering if she should go back there to save her friend.

Her heart starts pounding as the silence around her begins to consume her again, her mind begins to fill with thoughts of loneliness now that Aya is gone, then her legs start moving on their own and she makes her way back inside.

It only takes her a few seconds before she sees her friend rubbing her back on the floor with the limp body of zombie Rumia to her side lying on a rock and unable to close those frightening eyes hanging on those long strings.

The crow girl notices her friend and raises her bloodied left arm to wave it as she calls "I'm alright! It's ok Satori-chan."

The elder Komeiji gasps at the sight of all that blood on her friend, but before she can even form the words in her mind, her sight goes blank and out of focus, her skin turns pale, and even with that hood on, Shameimaru can see the girl is intensely frightened.

The tengu looks behind her and gasps at the sight of zombie Koishi, wobbling her way through the rocky path with her reattached, fanged third eye bleeding profusely, her skin more pruned and a little darker blue, her right eye reborn as a mass of pulsating flesh, and the glass shard her older sister stabbed on her still stuck on her chest.

She moves her eye around as though looking for something, and when she spots her sister she hisses "oneeeeee-chaaaaaaan~ Why do you leave? I am lonely. Stay with Koishi~ So lonely. Koishi so lonely."

Zombie Koishi quickens her pace after spotting her older sister and smiles, showing off what few teeth she has left on those rotting gums, and all Satori can do is shiver in place and whimper "Koishi. Please, stay back sis. Please *sniffle*."

"Not gonna happen," mutters Aya to herself as she kicks hard off the ground and swiftly glide kicks the zombie satori on the side of the head.

The monster girl snarls and hisses as she gets back up while her empty third eye snaps its lids like a mouth, but before she can get on her feet, the tengu girl places her camera right in front of the zombie's eyes and flashes her.

Zombie Koishi screeches as she writhes around on the rocky ground, recovers quickly and snarls as she jumps toward the reporter, but said girl shoots the seven locked on beams straight into the little monster's mouth.

The zombie girl stops her attack after swallowing the beams, takes two steps back, smiles, then softly says "take care... of onee-chan for me."

"Wait, what?" spits the tengu reporter as she reaches for the zombie, but by the time she grabs the decaying monster's cold hand she is already dead.

She releases the cold and dry hand of Koishi and stares as the body drops solidly on the ground, and after almost a minute of staring she turns around to face Satori.

The purple-haired girl has curled up into a ball, covers her face with her hood and sobs while shivering in place.

Aya walks closer to her friend and kneels besides her before asking "Satori-chan? Do you need to rest?"

The upset youkai shakes her head and cries "no. J-just get me out of here *sob*, please!"

The tengu girl sighs with both annoyance and helplessness, lifts her crying friend like a princess, then runs toward the cave's exit, making sure to block her thoughts, even though she knows this mind-reading youkai can't read her thoughts while being this upset.

---

Aya runs with Satori on her arms straight toward that dim light that keeps growing larger the closer they get to the exit, and without any monsters around the trek is much faster.

"It seems out there still looks like night, but whatever, we're almost out of here," excitedly comments the tengu girl as she gets closer to the cave's exit.

The hooded mind-reader sighs and nods, then softly says "let's keep an open eye Aya-chan. Things might be different out there."

The winged girl slows her pace while looking down and nodding to her friend, flips the satori youkai on to her back, then takes her camera from her pocket to ready herself.

They finally exit that cave and flash like maniacs as the tengu keeps running forward, putting that cave as far behind them as she can while making sure nothing gets on their way.

As they flash around they kill several zombie fairies with wiggling black hair and black rotten skins, a green ghoul that didn't even get the chance to see them, and a couple of those small two-headed boar youkai with black ooze for saliva.

They run into the Forest of Magic where they are attacked by the spiders with mouths on their abdomens, but they are too excited and keep flashing everything in their path, and the spiders simply go down with one shot, just like everything else so far.

Aya jumps over the monsters' webs and reaches a wide clearing, where she and Satori are met with the sleeping mutant vampires with fetuses on their heads.

They stop and observe the stationary creatures as those disgusting slimy fetuses swing their tentacles around and screech while the main body sleeps.

The mind-reader gets off her friend's back, then taps the tengu on the shoulder to show her friend her recovered face, then both nod.

They silently raise their flashing weapons and while Shameimaru locks on to three of those disgusting fetuses, Komeiji charges her beams with as much light as she can.

They shoot the beams, which slither in the air like snakes, and all eight mutants screech for a second before dropping dead on the ground.

The winged girl scoffs, and then says "that wasn't even fair, but I don't care! This Gensokyo isn't fair!"

The hooded satori nods and softly says "right you are! These ruthless creatures don't deserve..." and as thoughts of Koishi take her mind, she lowers her head and tone of voice as she continues "um, deserve mercy. Though... I wish that wasn't the case."

When she raises her head again to look at her partner, she notices the tengu looking forward with a frightened face, and when she looks toward the source of the fright, she gasps and frowns.

Zombie Yukari floats in front of them with a twisted smile that seems almost impossible to achieve with those dry and cracked lips, and keeps staring at them with those eyes of her, and even though her left eye is pushed inside the socket, the ghastly glow it emanates can be seen clearly.

Aya roars and starts shooting flashes, while Satori snaps out of her shock and shoots several beams.

The zombie opens her fan in front of her face and blocks all their attacks with ease, giggles and coos in a manner that paralyzes the girls with fear, then opens a gap underneath their feet once more, sending them plummeting into the void yet again.

She lowers her fan and giggles with malice while looking at the spot where the girls were, then jumps insider her own gap and disappears.

Inside the void, the girls wake up on what feels like a wooden surface, and as they slowly recover themselves, the tengu girl asks "S-Satori-chan? Are you there?"

"It's alright. I'm here," softly replies the mind-reader, giving her friend a great feeling of relief.

After they get up and rub the blur out of their eyes, they look around themselves and find they are inside the living room of a wooden cabin that floats inside the void.

They look out the windows from where they kneel and see purple clouds and several blinking eyes, then huddle up when a cold chill takes their senses, and Aya asks "um, Satori-chan?"

Satori gulps before looking at her friend, then nervously asks "wh-what is it?"

The tengu girl wraps her arms around her friend and nervously asks "d-d-do you know where we are?"

The mind-reader shakes her head, then points behind her friend and nervously says "n-not sure. B-but look. B-by the door."

To the left of the cabin's entrance is a silver plate with the words "Ward Here" written in bronze.

The frightened duo stare at the plate before their minds register they need to place a ward there, but being uncertain of their new location, and their destination, it takes them some time before they finally manage to move without dropping back to the floor due to weak knees.

Now, trapped inside a wooden cabin inside the void, all they can do is wait and see what fate that vile Yukari may have in store for them this time.

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To be continued...

Characters, spell cards and scenarios belong to ZUN -Team Shanghai Alice-

OCT 25 2011

Written by

Willie G.R.

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A/N:

First off, I really hope you are enjoying this new Gapped arc, and you can be certain the girls will visit at least two or three more locations before heading to the right direction.

Poor Satori. This chapter had her break because of zombie Koishi, but we can't blame her for that. I don't think even a youkai can kill a loved one and continue walking around as if nothing has happened. And Satori being an emotional character, I believe the impact hits her twice as hard. Good thing Aya is there. She's stronger in many ways, and thanks to her theme songs, Satori-chan is alright.

Oh well. Been having a LOT of problems with my internet providers, so the next updates (For both Icicle Sukima and Undying Gensokyo) might take even longer (maybe). Believe it or not, not having internet really saps my motivation and I end up playing games instead of writing. Ah well, until next chapter if the spirits will allow it.