Sorry about another delay, but my grandma has died recently and I just couldn't bring myself to writing for some time. Anyway, this chapter finally sees some more action with the three fairies and at Ibukido. Aside from that, forgive me the Marisa joke ^^'

*looks at some tweets* ...Mori, you continue to troll us.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Touhou Project or BlazBlue

- 129/05/18 Gensokyo, Hakurei Shrine -

"...and I realized he can't attack those who don't want to fight. So I just pulled my sword and laid back. Damn he was pissed!"

The oni, Suika, proved to be a great drinking partner, and even knew quite effective ways to avoid hangovers. Granted, they required using pretty obscure ingredients, but you don't question somebody who regularly goes on months-long benders... Still, there was much work to do, so Kagura decided to (finally) bid farewell to the girl and locate Tsubaki.

"What's with all of you people... You barge in one after another, looking for somebody... Oh, well. She went to the Scarlet Devil Mansion. The big, red building near the lake." Suika said, taking another swig from her gourd.

"Thanks. I promise to drop in when I have the time." he responded with a smile.

"Great! I'll get something good for the occasion!" the oni said enthusiastically as Kagura left the haiden. Finally, he met somebody who he could call a drinking buddy, though the girl's... tolerance of alcohol scared him a little. Still, he could get used to the hospitality, and at least he knew where to go, so he decided to call Kokonoe.

"Morning, Koko."

"Morning." the scientist murmured, annoyed by Kagura's choice of nickname. "Any news?"

"Well, I've crossed to Gensokyo."

"You did that yesterday in the evening. What kept you from reporting?"

"T-the people here are very... hospitable." he said sheepishly.

"I'm not even asking." Kokonoe sighed. She actually had two questions - 'how much' and 'how strong', but she didn't really want to hear the answer. "And the real news?"

"Just as Jin wrote, Tsubaki went to the Scarlet Devil Mansion. I'm gonna rendezvous with them if I can. Anything on your side?"

"Some weird shit at Ibukido, nothing special. Call me in case anything happens."

"Yeah, no problem. Later then." Kagura said, ending the conversation and picking up the pace.

Some time later, as he walked through the grove in front of Hakurei Shrine, Kagura sensed somebody watching him. Neither was the presence particularly hidden nor was it blatantly obvious, so it seemed like this somebody tried but failed at being stealthy. He didn't see or hear anybody, as if they were under effect of a concealment Ars. He decided to confront them, if that was the case, so he walked into the nearest clearing.

"Alright, you can show yourself now." he said calmly, but for a few seconds, there was no reaction. Then, a group of three girls - fairies, he thought - appeared in front of him.

"You're good, finding us just like that." the red-haired one, said. "Even after an all-nighter with that oni."

"You could have joined if you wanted." Kagura joked.

"We like to party, but not to drink ourselves to death." the blond one said.

"Same here, but you apparently can't say no to an oni." he shrugged. "So, you've been following me because..."

"We wanted to surprise an unwitting Outsider, but you've found us out." the redhead said, folding her arms. "So we'll just challenge you to a match to see who's stronger!"

"You people have pretty skewed priorities..." he said, drawing his sword.

"Doesn't matter! Witness the strength of the Three Fairies of Light!"

BGM: Great Fairy Wars ~ Fairy Wars

The fairies decided to surround Kagura and utilize their powers to the maximum, all while shooting danmaku - Sunny redirected light to blind him at various moments, Luna stayed to the side and shot distracting bullets while muting out Star, who consistently stayed behind him to try and get easy shots, or even a physical attack here and there. Kagura, on the other hand, tried his hardest to avoid the shots and land some hits of his own, even if he didn't have any specific firearm on himself. Luckily for him, the fairies' danmaku could be deflected, or at least blocked, with his sword.

"Three little girls attacking a grown man? Why, isn't this a little unfair?" he said jokingly.

"Each one of us is a one-third, so together we are one!" Sunny exclaimed as she shot a single bullet at Kagura's legs.

"I give up on trying to understand you." Kagura sighed when the bullet exploded with light, almost blinding him. The other two fairies tried to attack him, but he sidestepped the shots. After a few minutes of defensive fight, when he had a moment of reprieve, Kagura assumed one of his fighting stances, holding his sword above him, in a reverse grip and pointing it upwards as he leaned forward. Before the fairies could react - Star flew right at Kagura to trip him - he quickly slashed upwards, with Sunny barely avoiding the attack, and followed by kicking his sword, this time hitting not only Sunny, but also Star, throwing the latter at a tree and knocking her out.

"One down." he said to himself, but suddenly his right arm went numb. He realized then that he neglected the blond fairy and got hit by one of her danmaku. It didn't result in a complete paralysis as Jin wrote it would, but this could be due to strength of the combatants. Quickly shaking off the feeling, he threw a ball of dark energy at the fairy, who dodged it effortlessly and pulled out a Spell Card.

"Moon Sign [Lunatic Rain]!"

Suddenly, a dense curtain of danmaku appeared before Kagura and quickly moved in his direction as Luna followed up with a ring of star-shaped shots. Before he could have been hit, Kagura planted his sword in the ground and used it as a shield, waiting until the mass of danmaku passed, and threw another ball at the fairy. It didn't seem to faze her, but this time she didn't try to dodge, more focused on repositioning herself so she could hit Kagura. He repeated the pattern a few times, hiding behind his sword and throwing a few shots of his own. Using long-range Ars will be inevitable in Gensokyo if such fights continued to happen, he thought.

As he was starting to get used to the pattern, something suddenly flashed in front of Kagura, momentarily blinding him. At the same time, Luna summoned another wave of danmaku, forcing Kagura to once again hide behind his sword.

"That was a pretty dirty move, you know?" he said.

"We'll do everything to win!" Sunny answered and fired a salvo of her own, just as Luna's attack was passing through. Kagura quickly slid in Sunny's direction and made an uppercut. The fairy avoided the hit, but a point-blank ball of darkness threw her off balance. The curtain of danmaku having passed, Kagura took his sword and shifted into another stance, leaning forward as he held his sword in a reverse grip, behind him and pointing upwards, with its long grip almost touching the ground. Before Sunny could dodge or Luna fire off another curtain, he made a vicious horizontal slash, warping behind the red-haired fairy mid-swing and throwing her to the ground.

"Two down." he said to himself, once again planting his sword to shield himself from the shower of golden bullets. Repeating pattern of shield-Dragon Spirit-reposition was a viable, easy and safe but painfully slow tactic, so he tried another approach. Noticing the faint magical circle around Luna, he ascertained that it got smaller as the Spell Card neared its limit. When he hit the fairy with another ball of darkness, he also noticed that the ring's opacity oscillated slightly, the faster the more damage she received. He decided to end the battle in a flash.

When Luna fired another barrage of danmaku, Kagura first shielded himself with his sword, then ran up to the fairy and shifted into a stance. Once again outrunning her with his attacks, he raised his sword above his head, briefly charging it with dark energy, then slammed it into the ground below the fairy. A large, violet blast shot out of the point of impact, breaking Luna's Spell Card and launching her into the thick canopy above.

"And three down." he said, looking around. He noticed that the black-haired fairy has already woke up and apparently watched as he finished off her comrade. "Going back to what I said... Wasn't three on one a bit underhanded?"

"Sunny always says that we three are as one." she said meekly.

"And it shows in your fighting style. The three of you cooperated flawlessly." Kagura said, sitting down on the soft grass.

"Um... Thank you."

"No problem." he waved with a smile. "Just don't attack people carrying huge swords next time."

"Sunny will try even if we told her not to..."

"Looks like your leader is pretty hotheaded." he chuckled. "Anyway, my name's Kagura Mutsuki."

"I'm... Star Sapphire. Our leader is Sunny Milk and the third one is Luna Child." the fairy said, somewhat less scared.

"The one who fired the Spell Card, then?" he asked, and receiving a nod, he added "If you combined this with some distracting attack, it could leave your opponents in quite a pinch."

"The Spell Card Rules declare every card to be possible to avoid."

"Then I have no idea how someone could dodge that."

"The Hakurei miko shrugs off more complicated patterns." said Sunny, who woke up a few seconds earlier. "Could you hit less hard the next time we meet? My bruises will have bruises!"

"You haven't seen how bad Luna got hit..." Star sighed.

"Anyway, I'll have to go now." Kagura said as he got up. "If we bump into each other again, you three will show how much you've worked, okay?"

"You bet! Next time, you'll be the one flying around!" Sunny exclaimed, pointing her finger at the man.

"Make sure to train hard, then!" he said, waving to the fairies as he left them. Another rule of Gensokyo, he thought: if you defeat someone, you automatically become friends with them. That is, unless you are obviously malicious like Hazama...

- 2200/03/08 5th Hierarchical City [Ibukido], Sector 7 field laboratory -

Ran was a little worried about the strange fluctuations in Ragna's soul's state. At some point, it looked as if he suddenly calmed down for a moment, then the readings showed heightened mental strain, during which his emotional state fluctuated irregularly. Noel didn't see the readings until early in the morning, so she was understandably perturbed when she saw them. Kokonoe promised to look into the logs, while Yukari, like almost always when her input would be highly useful, didn't respond at all. Jin, on the other hand...

She only hoped he wouldn't come back soon, however useful he was in this situation. How he droned about his nii-san gave her the creeps. The tengu would've made a front page about that...

As Ran was pondering, Rachel went into the tent.

"Has his soul stabilized yet?"

"No, and it doesn't look like it will anytime soon." the shikigami sighed. "Is it possible that he's fighting the Grimoire's influence?"

"Given that he managed to forcibly shut it down once, then it wouldn't be out of question, unrefined beast he may be."

They just can't cut it out for once, Ran thought. "Then we might be able to recover him right now." she said.

"True. However, it would be safer had Mr. Hero chosen to grace us with his presence." Rachel deadpanned. "Which I believe we won't have unless we inform him we intend to kill Ragna."

"And if we do, he won't back down on it..." Bearers of Power of Order were definitely tough individuals to work with. "Still, Noel managed to pull back that other time, so we can at least take a shot."

"What do you intend to do if she doesn't, though?" Rachel asked.

"I am a fully-grown kitsune. No offense, miss Rachel, but I can take on a young rampaging beast. As they say in Gensokyo 'the stronger a youkai is, the more refined it behaves', and this one just flailed around."

"If you truly feel so confident about your abilities, then I see no reason why shouldn't we proceed. Inform Kokonoe, her input will be helpful."

- 129/05/18 Gensokyo, Human Village -

Tsubaki chose to get up early, even for her - after all, they had to make sure Hazama was caught as fast as possible. She decided to start by asking around, but she didn't bump into any people at this hour, other than some shopkeepers, and most of them didn't recognize the photo. As she went towards the marketplace, Tsubaki noticed the rabbit medicine seller Makoto told her about, and promptly approached her.

"Excuse me, have you seen this person in the last few days?" she asked, presenting her with the photo.

"Let me see... Yes, about three days ago. He simply bought a newspaper and left." Reisen said. Judging by the emblem, the redhead before her was from the same organization as Jin and Makoto. "I don't know where did he go, though. Maybe the tengu know more." she said in a little more quiet tone.

"Thank you. It's not much, but this information is still a big help." Tsubaki said as she tucked the photo in her pocket and turned away, but Reisen stopped her.

"If you don't mind, I'd like to ask you for help as well." she said. "Maybe you've seen a young woman about your age, slightly taller than you, with long black straight hair, wearing a pink shirt and a dark burgundy skirt?"

A detailed description, Tsubaki thought. "No, I don't remember seeing anybody like that. I'll be sure to tell you if I do, though."

"...Oh well. I'll have to ask around, then. Good luck with finding this guy. And say hello to Jin and Makoto for me."

"...You too." the redhead said, leaving the marketplace. She decided to ask the village guards if they saw Hazama, promptly turning in the direction of the gates.

Walking through the streets, Tsubaki noticed that more and more people started to leave their houses, presumably for work. The view reminded her of what happened right after the Lynchpin was activated - she was stationed at [Torifune] to help people there. The Academy was hit by the events at [Ibukido] even more than the other Hierarchical Cities, since it was more reliant on seithr. At first, the place was a complete mess: people were in an uproar when most, if not all, appliances suddenly stopped working. Things would have ended badly if it wasn't for Sector Seven's quick reaction - they quickly built a temporary power plant and installed transmission cables. What amazed her, though, was how quickly students and staff mobilized, even considering the Academy's standards. She suspected it was the influence of a certain Ikaruga shinobi who was conveniently in the area. Regardless of that, the Academy managed to recover way faster than it normally would, with some classes already resumed. It was this ability to cooperate that Tsubaki always admired.

She came back to reality when a child bumped into her.

"I'm sorry, miss!" the boy said, trying to quickly run away, but Tsubaki grabbed him by the arm.

"I'm not angry that you bumped into me, but I will if you don't give me back my wallet." she said in a stern tone. The young thief tried to escape the redheads grasp, but he couldn't match the strength of an experienced soldier, so in a few seconds he gave up and threw his loot at her.

"You're good, miss, but I bet you wouldn't stand a chance against Marisa!" he shouted as he ran away. Tsubaki wondered for a moment what would a self-styled 'Ordinary Witch' would want her wallet for, but dismissed that train of thought and continued towards the gates.

In another part of the village, the kleptomaniac witch was talking with Cirno. The fairy was especially excited about fighting the 'green-haired villain', as she called Hazama, while Marisa, being Marisa, continued to joke about the whole situation. She got much more irritated, however, when she heard about the events at the Scarlet Devil Mansion.

"That guy just asks for a big asskicking, ze! Now I can't just barge in and borrow more books from Patchy!" she shouted angrily.

"Will you join us, then?" Cirno asked.

"No way! I'm gonna find him first, ze! See ya!" the witch shouted and quickly took off.

"What the... Hey, come back here! Eye'm still not finished!" the fairy shouted after Marisa, who was already too far away to hear her. She decided to alleviate her anger by freezing random things: pots, flowers, doors, cake... Well, she only froze cake if she couldn't eat it. During her rampage she bumped into Reisen.

"Huh? What are you doing here?" the rabbit asked, carefully getting between Cirno and the medicine cart.

"Eye'm trying to find the green-haired villain!"

Quickly realizing that the fairy was talking about the same man as that NOL girl from before, Reisen said calmly "I bet your companions wouldn't be happy if you froze half of the village."

"Yeah, but eye have to find him first and Marisa is just stealing the chance!"

So that was what Cirno was all worked up about. "Then try asking around. If you trail him, you're sure to find him faster than her."

"Okay!" the fairy said and flew away, even outside the village. She decided to visit the shop; after all, who knew things better than Rinnosuke-san?

- 2200/03/08 Japan, Tokyo -

"P-professor? What are you doing here?"

The three travelers managed to reach Japan quickly and without problems, courtesy of Relius' numerous 'friends'. His son, Carl, didn't even try to work out just what kind of favors those people owed him if he could force them to help just like that. Especially since he apparently had favors in whatever remained of the pre-Dark War JSDF...

"We need to get to my old laboratory. I've heard Novus Orbis Librarium secured it for now, so if you and your men could eliminate their presence, we would be very grateful." he said in his usual level tone.

"B-but if we do that, we'll s-surely get dissolved-"

"Do you remember October 2176?" Relius asked, and the military man suddenly paled. "If you wish to keep that information from reaching their ears, then do as I say. Make the NOL soldiers leave [District 1] by any means you see fit: bribery, disinformation, murder. Do not let them trace the operation back to us. Do you understand?"

"Y-yes, P-professor." the Japanese said meekly and quickly scurried away.

"We agreed not to use blackmail, father." Carl said disapprovingly.

"Why shouldn't we play a card that will get us what we want?" Relius shrugged. "Besides, the incident only looked dangerous."

"May we know what exactly happened then?"

"A few problems during construction of 7th unit." the blond man said, quickly going back to the van, with Carl following.

Two hours later, the three had stopped midway to the old laboratory. Litchi was checking up on Roy, and Relius talked with another of his 'contacts', which left Carl without much to do. He reflected back on the events of [Doomsday]: he and Litchi decided to join his father, only to have the latter utterly destroyed by Valkenhayn. The blond man has recovered a little now, actively working on reconstructing Ada's, Ignis' and Roy's bodies, with mixed results. His attitude was suspicious, though, so the boy always kept an eye on him. He felt bad for betraying Bang-senpai's trust that day, though.

"Are you okay, Carl?" he heard Ada ask.

"It's alright, sister." he said with a small smile. "Father's attitude worries me a little. He looks like he will try to recover from his current situation."

"Don't worry. If he tries, we'll remind him exactly why he ended up like this." she said calmly, using her current doll-like body to pat Carl on the shoulder.

"Yes, sister. We will." Carl laid his hand on Ada's mechanical one.

The two didn't know that a certain youkai observed them with mild interest.

A few minutes later, Carl went back to Relius, who finally finished talking.

"Did the NOL clear the laboratory?" the boy asked, and his father nodded.

"Luckily, there were no casualties. I've learn something interesting: one of the Duodecim wanted the place secured for an unknown reason."

"The Duodecim?" Litchi asked, leaving Roy for a moment. "What would they want there?"

"They might want to investigate the Beast's birthplace more thoroughly." Relius said. "If they think they will learn something about the Beast, then it's foolish to try." he added.

"It doesn't matter right now. We need to move." Carl said, directing Ada to pack whatever equipment they used before they left.

"What is that? What is this person that observes me as I am observing it in turn? Why does it observe and what is it's purpose in observing? Does it look for intruders?" Roy suddenly spoke up in his garbled voice, startling the three.

"Where is this 'observer'?" Relius asked, but the living seithr continued to mumble to himself.

"It looks like a human, but it is not even as it looks like one, it observes humans that it looks like but isn't them..."

"Not a human...?" Litchi said to herself. She tried to look around, but no one besides her companions were in sight. "Did you see anybody besides us, Relius?"

"No. Neither did Ignis." he shook his head. "We should move quickly to the [District 1]." he finished and the group hastily left for the laboratory.

Yukari, who kept watching them from afar, was quite intrigued. That black blob could not only see her, if only for an instant, and even recognize her as a youkai? This situation required a much closer look. Then again, this blob could be called something between a human and a youkai itself... The three seemed to be oblivious to Gensokyo's existence, but this could be changed at any moment.

"Tempting, but this should wait for now. This man is too ambitious..." she said to herself. Yes, he could end up being an annoying opponent if he was left to his own devices, she thought. Just a human, but could read others like open books... Yukari admired the various virtues humanity embodied, but cunning in conjunction with great intellect was dangerous - the Lunarian leadership was a proof of that. After a while, the youkai decided to keep a separate gap just to observe Relius while she went back for a quick nap.

- 129/05/18 Gensokyo, Human Village -

In the beginning, Hazama thought that this Kaguya would end up being another of those stick-up-her-ass noblewomen, but he was surprised by the girl's eloquence and choice of words, putting him into many tight spots during his explanations. What did annoy him, though, was the constant light smile on her face. It felt as if she was mocking him with every single word.

Kaguya, on the other hand, noticed instantly that Hazama knew much more than he said, simply playing a role - she saw more than enough of such people back on the Moon. She tried to put him in a situation where he would spill some of the more useful information, but he knew well how to choose his words. Even then his façade slipped for short moments which she didn't let go unnoticed.

Eventually the two entered the Human Village. Kaguya was happy to see the simplicity of everyday work once again while Hazama tried his hardest not to appear out of place, to the point of using a disguising Ars - something he rarely did. At that point his Grimoire finally restarted, allowing him to read the girl's soul. What he learned baffled him: it looked as if the girl was immortal. Her soul was eternally bound to her body, never to leave for the Abyss of the Azure, while her body had the capability of complete restoration. Better than a life-link, he thought, and without the need for a second person.

"Looks like the pain is finally wearing off." he said to the girl. "I suppose this is where we part ways."

"It certainly seems so. If you have the time, please visit us at Eientei. I'd like to learn about the Outside more." she said and turned away, leaving the village. Hazama decided to quickly find a place where he could blend into the crowd, but the marketplace was out - he really didn't want to find out if the red-eyed youkai medicine peddler was Kaguya's acquaintance. Instead, he wandered around the village, finding himself in front of a library in no time.

"Suzunaan... Well, no harm in getting more intel." he said to himself and entered the building. It seemed to be somewhat run-down, but that was to be expected from a second-hand book lender, he thought. As he looked around, a young girl, about 12 to 15 years old went to him. She had light red hair with twintails and wore a checkered kimono, a yellow apron and an azure skirt.

"Welcome to Suzunaan. My name is Motoori Kosuzu. Would you like to lend a book, sir?" she asked in a happy tone.

"I'd like to know if you have any books that deal with magic here."

"Do you mean simple grimoires, or the more advanced books?"

"And what would be the 'advanced' ones like?" he asked, intrigued.

"Those are 'demon books' - books written by youkai. Some of them are grimoires, some are written as history books, but the most common kind are those written as a 'last will' of youkai. I've got quite a collection of them."

"Very interesting. May I take a look?"

"Hmm... Okay. Wait here for a second." Kosuzu said and left to get one of the 'demon books', while Hazama simply leaned against the wall. He wondered how normal humans, more so a girl this young, could acquire something like youkai grimoires. A few seconds later, another woman entered the library. She had long, light-brown hair and brown eyes. She wore a long, patterned red and gray skirt and an ecru overcoat, as well as a long checkered scarf, glasses and, peculiarly, a leaf-shaped hair clip. He noticed that just like that medicine seller from the other day, this woman was a youkai.

"Quite a disguise, there. I didn't think humans still possess such skill." she said, almost making Hazama flinch.

"Thank you. I rarely use it though. And you are... a tanuki, if I'm not mistaken?" he asked, quickly recovering.

"Indeed I am. I am Futatsuiwa from Sado, but everybody calls me Mamizou." the woman replied, curtsying slightly. "Your magic seems to be neither onmyōdō or youkai in origin. Might you be another Outsider?"

"You've got me there, Futatsuiwa-san." he clapped slowly. "I don't want to draw too much attention to myself, though, and I'm sure neither do you."

"True. Youkai aren't welcome in the Human Village. You, though... Might you be involved in the affair at the Scarlet Devil Mansion?"

"...Let's say that I ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time." he shrugged. Mamizou nodded knowingly in response.

"And you had to tear your way out. I can imagine. Remilia is quite hotheaded despite her refined manners." the tanuki folded her arms. She could easily see this man was used to manipulating people, so he must have had a hand in this senseless destruction. Whether he did it on his own or by proxy was up to debate, but he certainly wasn't as innocent as he tried to present himself. "It seems that the librarian is busy, so I'll excuse myself for now." she said and started walking towards the exit. "Still, it would do much good for you not to play with fire, lest you burn yourself." she added and left the library.

"This woman is pretty sharp..." Hazama muttered angrily to himself. She must have been in the game for quite long - her speech pattern was old and she instantly recognized he was in disguise, even discerning it as a completely different kind of magic than was used in Gensokyo. If more people like her were to appear, he would have to think his plan over more carefully - even the bombing he planned for kicks might end up giving him problems.

- 2200/03/08 5th Hierarchical City [Ibukido], Sector 7 field laboratory -

The [Ground Zero], as it has come to be called, was on full alert. Kokonoe had a direct video uplink to monitor the situation, while Rachel and Ran provided technical and, should the need arise, combat backup. Noel has entered the Embryo once again, guided by the fox.

"13°28' to your left, 47°11' up and about 30 meters away. See what you can learn about his state. If he doesn't respond to hails, get out of there immediately."

As it was the last time, Noel entered the landscape Ragna imagined himself to be. The flames didn't die down, though the man himself was kneeling in the middle ow a relatively empty area. He was completely focused on his Grimoire, holding it in front of himself and muttering continuously to it. What made Noel feel safer was that it looked once more like a normal arm. When she came closer, she noticed that his eyes were shut.

"Ragna..."

"How does it look?" Ran asked.

"He seems to be in control, but trying hard to keep the Grimoire down."

"Did he notice you?"

"No, I don't think so."

"Then approach him slowly. Stay about two meters away from him and once again call out to him. If he still doesn't respond, pull back." Kokonoe said. Noel started walking towards Ragna. As she sis so, she stepped on a piece of wood, probably from one of the houses, producing a loud crunch. This seemed to break the man out of his trance; in an instant, his eyes snapped open and he looked up.

"Noel... What are you doing here? Didn't I tell you to leave?! It can come back at any time! Do you-"

"Slow down for a moment." Kokonoe interrupted him. "As far as we can tell, you've been holding the Beast down for eight hours straight, and it says a lot. Don't you want to get some payback for it?"

"Of course I do! I just can't risk losing it again and killing all of you!" he said, refusing to budge even an inch.

"Oh, don't worry. We've got that covered." she said. "Stop brooding and get up."

"How can you be so certain? I almost killed Jin last time!"

"Ragna... Professor tells the truth." Noel spoke up. "We've contacted a powerful third party, somebody even Izanami doesn't know about. They can keep your Grimoire in check."

"We can subdue the Black Beast, if anything." Ran entered the conversation.

"And who are you to say such things?" Ragna asked with disbelief.

"Suffice to say we too exist outside of logic." she said, which made him think about the offer more seriously. The moment he stopped focusing solely on keeping his humanity intact, the Beast doubled its efforts to once again take control of his body, jerking it backwards with enough force to break his spine.

"AAARRGGGHHH!" Ragna screamed in pain as his arm started fuming with seithr. "Damn... Get the hell out of here, NOW!" he shouted, trying his hardest to keep his body down from causing further harm to himself or to Noel. Without a second thought, the girl jumped out of the Embryo, landing on a sheet of thermal blanket.

"Ugh... So close..." she sighed, half-heartedly punching the ground. "How are we supposed to fight the Beast now?"

"Indeed, it will be hard to help Ragna if he has to focus solely on keeping it down." Ran said as she helped Noel to stand up. " However, I believe that Master will be able to-" she continued as the equipment that was used to track Ragna's soul in the Embryo started beeping loudly. The girls quickly ran to the device, which displayed a message 'SIGNAL LOST' in a red font.

"What the... This wasn't supposed to happen. I've checked the code twice over to be sure." the shikigami muttered to herself, trying to find the soul manually, but to no avail. "Damn... Talk about bad luck."

"You can't find him?" Noel asked.

"No, though it should be possible to do so once he was located. No other soul is as scarred as his." Ran sighed. "It looks as if it just...disappeared."

- EXCERPT FROM GENSOKYO CONTACT TEAM REPORTS -

Name: Kosuzu Motoori
Gender: Female
Race: Human
Date of birth: circa 115th season / AD 2000
Birthplace: Gensokyo, Human Village
Blood type: Unknown
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Light brown
Weapon: Non-combatant

Special Ability: Omniliteracy

Capable of reading any written text without regard for language and discerning the emotions imprinted in writing by touch.

Name: Mamizou Futatsuiwa
Gender: Female
Race: Youkai (bakedanuki)
Danger Level: High
Aggression Level: Very Low
Date of birth: Unknown
Birthplace: Unknown, presumably Sado, Japan
Blood type: Unknown / N/A
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Light brown
Weapon: Transformed underlings (see below)

Special Ability / Drive: Ten Transformations

Capable of disguising herself, other living beings and objects. Such disguises actually change the physical properties of a disguised object or entity and, if disguised as a weapon, become capable of being used as such. When transforming herself, however, the subject cannot fully conceal her tail and ears.