Chapter 14: Miasma (I)

"God sis, you're so slow!" Hana said, as she darted circles around her older half-sister, her golden wings of light fluttering with her every move. In fact, she moved so quickly it appeared more like she was locally teleporting. "I wanna get to the shrine already!"

"I would've let you go on by on your own, but Yuuka said you weren't allowed to go out by yourself! And taking care of you is my job." Although Miasma was quickly realizing that as Hana continued to grow up, she was going to have an increasingly difficult time watching her. Hana was less than half a year old, and yet she already resembled a human child of eight or nine. Just in the three months since Rumia had been defeated, Hana had grown immensely. She was becoming increasingly outgoing, and restless as well. Hana never seemed to be happy just sitting around Mugenkan all day, and constantly wanted to go out and explore Gensokyo.

"Well that's why you gotta go faster, sis!" Worse still, Miasma couldn't keep up with Hana's speed and level of eagerness and curiosity. Much of Gensokyo was still a mystery to Miasma as well, just as it was to Hana, but the younger girl never could remain fixated on any one thing for very long it seemed. Miasma couldn't tell if Hana lacked the attention span to focus for too long, or if her mind moved along as quickly as she did. Some combination of the two, she supposed, since Hana didn't quite seem quite so intelligent most of the time.

"Well, maybe you just need to slow down!" Miasma carefully watched Hana's movements, and waited for her time to strike. When the opportunity presented itself, and Hana darted within arm's reach, Miasma reached out and grabbed her younger sister.

"Hey, no fair sis!" Hana squirmed about, trying to writhe herself free from Miasma's grasp, but with no luck. "You're stronger than me, you can't go grabbing me like that!"

"If I didn't, you were going to keep flying circles around me until I got dizzy. Do you want me falling over and slowing you down even more?" Hana at least gave up her struggles, but she was now visibly pouting. Miasma smiled down at her sister, and continued walking. They were close to the shrine now at least. It was the first time either of them had stopped by since the time Rumia and Kana had spent three days harassing Reimu, and the first time they'd seen Reimu at all since the Netherworld party a few weeks back.

There hadn't been much time to catch up lately, with all of the uproar involving Kana's pregnancy. It had become apparent that Yomi was not the only one thinking that the best option was the deaths of Rumia and Kana. The majority of the citizens of the Human Village seemed to share her view, as well as the few scattered supporters of Miko that had remained after her death. Last time Miasma had heard, Reimu had become very busy trying to keep the peace.

Looking forward, Miasma saw that they had finally reached the base of the stone steps leading up toward the Hakurei Shrine. Seeing this, she released her grip on her younger sister. "Alright Hana, you can run ahead if you want."

"Yay! Thanks sis~!" Hana quickly flew up and gave her sister a tight hug (Hana was surprisingly strong for being so young, but she still couldn't compare to Miasma), and then disappeared in a bright flash.

Miasma sighed. She loved her sister, she truly did, but Hana was nothing if not a handful. But if it weren't for Hana being born, Miasma realized, she probably never would've found her home in Mugenkan. Though, Yuuka really wasn't much of a mother to her. But Elly, it seemed, was more than happy to act in the surrogate role for both Miasma and her sister. It was the closest Miasma ever had to a loving family, at the very least.

Miasma's thoughts began to drift toward Medicine again by the time she reached the front walkway, and it was a bitter thing to dwell on. Her relationship with Medicine had been anything but a happy one, but Miasma still regretted never having the chance to try and patch things up. That was a chance Rumia had taken away from her forever. On two occasions, in fact. Miasma was not ignorant of the original history that had been concealed by The Voidborn, as Reimu had informed her shortly after Miasma's first run-in with Mima several months back.

Rumia was really the last person Miasma wanted to see (but then again, who aside from Kana would ever want to see Rumia?), but she happened to be the very first person Miasma's eyes fell upon as she entered the shrine. She stood in the back corner of the main room, and her slight smile faded into a darkened scowl as she noticed Miasma's presence. It was an expression that Miasma readily returned to the dark youkai.

"'ey, there you are, Miasma!" called the cheery voice of Marisa from the opposite side of the table in the room. "We saw Hana barge her way in here just a few minutes ago, we figured you had to be comin' up close behind."

"Yeah. Hana got a little impatient, so I let her go on ahead." Miasma scanned the room, and noticed a few things rather odd about the gathering of people inside the shrine. Reimu, of course, was to be expected. But sitting between Reimu and Marisa was Mima, the ghostly woman that Miasma had met a few days after the confrontation in Makai. Closest to the front door of the shrine, on the opposite side of the table of those three, sat Kana, Hana, and Reisen, who Miasma only recognized from the day she'd been at the shrine, when they'd held the meeting on how to handle Rumia; the same day that Lilith had also convinced them to entrust the souls of the Human Village to her.

"Why are you here?" Miasma asked of Reisen specifically. She'd noticed the rather dejected expression on the rabbit girl's expression, and it was quite clear that she was uncomfortable in her current situation.

Reisen sighed, and raised her head to look at Miasma, with a polite smile. "Master Eirin ordered me to keep an eye on Kana's condition, and to stay with her until she goes into labor." The poor girl trembled as she merely thought about it. "It's... been a long few weeks..."

"Yup~! Reisen's been having all kinds of fun, staying with us in Makai for a while.~" Kana placed her hand on Reisen's shoulder, causing her to flinch slightly. Miasma didn't even want to think about what 'all kinds of fun' entailed.

Kana decided to ignore Reisen for the time being, however, and instead drifted toward Hana, who giggled with delight. "Oh, but Miasma! You never told me your sister was so positively cute! Isn't she just the cutest, Rumia?"

"Sure. Whatever." Rumia's gaze never strayed far from Miasma. It seemed she could sense the obvious hostility that Miasma harbored toward her, and it must have darkened the youkai's mood considerably.

"Oh, don't be such a grump. We're having fun, aren't we?" Kana stuck her tongue out at Rumia, and then grinned cheerily back at Reimu and Marisa. "See? We aren't so bad, are we~?"

"You're both still pretty bad," was Reimu's response. "But at least you aren't trashing my shrine. Again."

"Wouldn't dream of it.~ ... Well, maybe just a little." Kana turned back toward Miasma, and patted the floor beside her and Hana. "Well, don't just stand there in the doorway with that dumb look on your face. Come on, sit down already.~"

Miasma sighed, and, rather reluctantly, sat down beside the two. Once she had, Hana happily hopped over into her sister's lap, and greeted her with a cheery look. Miasma patted the young girl's head, and then glanced across the table toward Mima. "Where'd you run off to for the last few weeks, anyway?"

"I didn't 'run off' anywhere, really," Mima responded casually. "Why, did you miss me~?"

"Absolutely not." If anything, Miasma was glad to have been rid of Mima's presence for the last few weeks. All she ever really did was poke fun at Miasma when she was around, and shower Hana with praises whenever they were both around. It was like Mima was purposely trying to infuriate her sometimes.

"You've been hangin' out with Miasma all this time or somethin'?" Marisa asked. Mima merely smiled back at her former student. "You only stopped by to visit me once, and you still didn't tell me where you've been all this time!"

"Oh, hush Marisa.~ I'll tell you some other time." Mima blew off Marisa's questions with a casual wave of her hand. Marisa merely sighed. It was fairly obvious that Mima had no intention of actually telling her anything. "And no, I was not 'hanging out' with Miasma. Really, she's not nearly interesting enough to warrant my attention. People who use nothing but brute force are so boring.~"

"All she does is run off with Yuuka in private most of the time," Miasma clarified, not bothering to address Mima's last few biting statements. Though she did meet them with a brief stern look in the spirit woman's direction. "Usually they go off to that Dream World entrance in the back of the mansion. And Yuuka and Elly both said I shouldn't go back there, so I never bothered trying to find out what those two were doing."

"Ugh, you really don't want to go there, anyway," Reimu groaned. "There's these twin youkai living there, Mugetsu and Gengetsu. They're both insane."

"They are sisters, right? God, we were just kids when we met em, Reimu, and even then I had this skeezy feeling from those two, the way the older one makes her sister wear that maid outfit." Marisa shuddered at the thought.

"It's actually quite amusing, watching them bicker with Yuuka when she visits the Dream World," Mima said, with a mild chuckle. "Yuuka didn't want to go back to the Dream World after her first time dealing with those two, but I wanted to meet them for myself, so I eventually got Yuuka to give in. But I will admit, those two are certainly even beyond my comprehension sometimes."

"You still didn't really answer my question, anyway. About where you ran off to the last couple weeks," Miasma repeated.

"Bothering us, apparently." Rumia had spoken up for the first time since Miasma had sat down. She stepped out from the corner of the room, and strode toward the end of the table closest to Kana. "Every time we leave Makai, she ends up finding us. She's getting to be a pain."

"You're saying all this as if I'm not even in the room, you know." Rumia did not even acknowledge Mima's statement.

"Oh, it's fine Rumia.~ Mima's an old friend of mine!" Kana smiled over at Mima. "This was way back, when Reimu and Marisa were still little kids.~ There were these crazy ruins that showed up on the edge of Gensokyo one day, but only one person was allowed to go in. And I beat up everyone so that I could get inside! I beat Reimu, Marisa, and even Mima, too.~ And a bunch of other people who probably weren't important."

"And then you started haunting my shrine on a regular basis for the next ten years. We get it," Reimu merely rolled her eyes. "But I wonder what I would've wished for if I'd gotten in those ruins first..."

"Knowin' you? Probably something to do your work for you, ze.~" Marisa then proceeded to laugh, even as Reimu shoved the other woman over onto the floor. "I think if I had that wish now, I'd probably wish for a bigger house."

"You were a hoarder even when you were a child, Marisa. I'd hate to look at the state of your home now," Mima said.

"Hey, it's not that bad! I just tried cleaning' it a few weeks ago!"

"Only because I framed you for a bunch of burglaries you probably would have committed even without my help," Rumia pointed out. "Your house got even more trashed when all those humans from the village started barging in to get their things back."

"But most of the stuff you planted was junk, anyway! I wouldn't have taken all that!" Marisa crossed her arms, looking indignantly at Rumia, who smirked mockingly in return.

"Why the fuck have you been following us around, anyway?" Rumia asked Mima, not even bothering to dignify Marisa with a verbal response. "Because it sure as hell hasn't been about catching up with Kana."

Mima gazed silently back at Rumia, contemplating how she should respond, before she finally breathed a soft sigh. "Alright, you got me. You were all I ever heard about ever since my return to Gensokyo, Rumia. And I had to say, I was quite curious to see what you were really like." A tense silence fell between the two. Just looking at Mima, Miasma could tell that she wasn't revealing all of her intentions, and Rumia no doubt realized this as well. "Is that a satisfactory enough answer?" Mima finally said.

"Fine. But you're still hiding something." Rumia dropped down to sit down beside Reisen, who adopted a more worried expression, now that she was stuck between both her and Kana. "I don't feel like pressing the subject now. But don't plan on leaving Gensokyo without telling me what I want to know."

"I wouldn't dream of it, Rumia." Mima smiled, showing some relief in her expression. "Even I know when I am outmatched. And besides that, I don't intend on leaving again anytime soon. I've had my fill of the Outside World for quite a while."

"You went to the Outside World!?" In an instant, Hana had vanished from Miasma's lap, and was gazing expectantly up at Mima from her side. "What's it like, huh? I wanna know, come on, tell me! All mom ever does when I ask is say we can't go out there!"

Mima and Miasma both were a bit taken aback by Hana's sudden movement. Miasma, in fact, had almost been knocked to the floor by how quickly and without warning Hana had moved. Mima sat in stunned silence, as the enthusiastic young girl stared back at her.

"You know, I'm a bit curious too," Miasma said, once she'd regained her composure. "You're probably the only one here who's ever been to the Outside World."

"I've been there," Rumia said, with some slight contempt. "Nothing but humans all living cramped together. It's actually rather disgusting, the way they live. And there's so fucking many of them."

"Rumia's right, honestly." Mima shook her head as though disappointed. "While their technological advancements are quite impressive, they've basically destroyed the world they live in. And they fill their cities with enormous metal towers that make Shinki's fortress look puny in comparison. Not to mention the fact that they seem to constantly be waging war against one another in at least one part of the world at any given time."

Hana continued to stare bright-eyed up at Mima, and it brought a smile to the woman's face. "But they aren't all bad. Their technological advancements are centuries beyond what Gensokyo has developed, and only a tiny fraction of them have ever found their way here. There's very little magic left in the Outside World, but some of the gadgets they've invented over the years make the magic of Gensokyo look trivial."

"That sounds so cool~!"

"Yes, I guess it does, doesn't it?" Mima patted the young girl on the head, and Hana giggled cheerily. "Maybe for your birthday next year, I'll see if I can take you to the city. There's a big one not far outside of Gensokyo's border, you know."

"Yeah! I wanna go, I wanna go~!" Once again, Hana darted in a flash of light, and then latched herself onto her sister's arm. "But only if sis gets to come too!"

"Yes, yes.~ I wouldn't dream of separating you two." Mima then turned to face her former student. "What about you, Marisa? Reimu? Have either of you been to the Outside World before?"

"Not really," Marisa said, shrugging. "We went to the moon once though, and I guess we had to pass through the Outside World to do that. And we've had to go to a few places outside of Gensokyo too, like the Netherworld, Heaven, and the former hell."

"Sounds like you two have been busy while I was away. And here I thought Gensokyo would calm down without me around.~"

"Yeah, so did I. But you can see how that turned out," Reimu said, gesturing both arms over at Rumia and Kana, the latter of whom smiled and gave Reimu a friendly wave. Reimu merely groaned again in response. "And then every time I beat a new batch of jerks up, they all start loitering at my shrine!"

"Everyone else is boring though! And they all kick us out before we can have any fun." Kana crossed her arms, and adopted a pouty expression. If she was trying to get Reimu to sympathize with her, it clearly wasn't working.

"Gee, I wonder why they don't want you hanging around." Reimu rolled her eyes. "I really don't care if you two show up and hang out here every once in a while. Just as long as you don't cause trouble."

"Well, that depends on your definition of trouble. Maybe Kana and I might drag Reisen here to your bedroom for a little 'trouble' of our own," Rumia said, with a sly grin. As she leaned in on the cowering lunar rabbit, Rumia began to lick her lips in anticipation. "We've had her all to ourselves for the last few weeks, but we still never had the chance to break her in..."

"None of that in my shrine!" Reimu shouted. Just as Rumia was closing the distance between herself and Reisen, one of Reimu's sealing talismans smacked Rumia in the cheek. Taken by surprise, Rumia fell to the floor with a hiss of anger and pain. When she picked herself back up, she glared fiercely at Reimu. Everyone was on edge, fearing that Rumia might react violently. Reimu met Rumia's eyes, and did not back down.

Kana sighed, and place a calming hand on Rumia's shoulder. Though Rumia showed no immediate reaction, as if she hadn't noticed Kana's touch at all, she did eventually sit back down. "Fine. Killjoy."

Reisen, who was more nervous than anyone, finally breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you Reimu... I'll be so glad when all this is over."

"Do you know how much longer this whole pregnancy thing is going to take, anyway?" Miasma asked, looking at both Kana and Reisen. The two glanced over at her, and then at each other. Kana shrugged.

"We can't say for sure. But Master Eirin thinks Kana became pregnant shortly after the battle in Makai," Reisen began to explain, "which was about three months ago. She doesn't think it will be much longer. A few weeks, at most, but... because Kana's body doesn't show very many physical indications of her pregnancy, it's hard to say."

"Then... how do you even know she's pregnant at all?"

"Oh, a woman just knows these things, Miasma dear.~" Kana dismissed Miasma's question with a casual wave of her hand.

"I just hope it goes well, honestly," Marisa said, with an awkward laugh. "I'd hate to see what Rumia would do if somethin' happened to Kana or their baby! Even someone like Rumia probably has a soft spot for their own kid."

"I don't give a shit about some unborn brat I have no attachment to." But even those as young as Miasma or Hana could sense the uneasiness to Rumia's tone. Of course, no one would actually call Rumia out on it.

"Well, I don't think anyone has anything to worry about," Mima said, in an attempt to put everyone's concerns to rest. "It's not a common thing, but there have been other instances of children being born between spirits, and youkai, like Rumia." Mima gave the darkness youkai a coy smile. "But because poltergeists, like other spirits, are not quite 'living' creatures, their bodies don't display most of the signs of a natural human pregnancy. And the length of it could last anywhere between two months, to two years, depending on the species of both parents."

"Two years!?" Marisa cried out. "Come on, Mima, that seems a little nuts, dontcha think?"

"Oh, I'm sorry Marisa. Please, tell me all about your experiences with phantom pregnancies. Did you come down with a bit of ghost lust after I left~?"

"Okay, jeez. Ya didn't have to be all snarky about it."

"Well.~ I'm not too worried," Kana said, breaking up the miniature argument between Mima and her former student. "Rumia would never let anything bad happen to me.~ " Kana batted her eyes at Rumia like a love-struck schoolgirl. "All I can hope for is that our baby is at least half as adorable as little Hana here.~"

Hana giggled at the compliment, and Kana patted the young girl's head. Miasma thought about commenting, perhaps saying something against Kana, but decided against it. For as much as she disliked her and Rumia, she decided that Kana at least meant no harm. Not intentionally. She couldn't say the same for Rumia, who she never failed to fix with a sharp look any time the two made eye contact.

The conversations persisted for some time, with Kana and Mima doing most of the talking, reminiscing about old times in Gensokyo. Hana had begun to fidget around uncomfortably, and Miasma was considering taking that time to leave, to visit the Myouren Temple before heading home. The thought was momentarily driven from Miasma's mind when she glanced over at Kana, who had taken on a slightly pained expression without warning. Kana placed a hand to her stomach, and glanced downward. Then, with a bright smile, she looked up at the rest of the guests in the shrine. "Oh, and not to worry all of you or anything.~ But I think I might be going into labor.~"

"Wait, what!?" Marisa's voice rang out, above other similar cries of surprise. Rumia gave a sideways, apprehensive glance at Kana, looking as if she didn't quite believe her.

"Oh, yes.~" Kana answered, with a surprising lack of worry or pain in her voice. "I started feeling it a good while ago, not long after Miasma and her sister got here. But I didn't feel like worrying anyone, since we were having fun.~"

"That's a pretty big thing to just keep to yourself all this time!" Marisa shouted, and clutched her hands to her head in panic. "Shit! Are we supposed to do something!?"

"W-we should go get Master Eirin! She'll know what we should do!" Reisen said, as she bolted upright from her position between Rumia and Kana.

"You are not having that baby in my shrine, damn it!" was most of what Reimu had to say on the matter.

"Honestly, the lot of you are way more concerned than you need to be." Mima rolled her eyes, as she watched Marisa, Reisen, and even Reimu starting to get worked up. Even Miasma had a look of some worry, although Hana just seemed confused by the sudden commotion.

"Well I'm still gonna go get Eirin anyway!" Marisa said. She bolted for the door, and tugged on Reisen's arm as she passed by. "Come on Reisen!"

"All of you are idiots," Rumia declared. She grabbed Reisen by the shoulder as she tried to run by, and stopped her in place. Marisa almost fell backwards as Reisen was pulled away from her. "Did all of you really think we were just going to sit here dicking around through all this?"

The darkness generated from Rumia's shadow took on a darker quality, and then rose from the ground in the shape of a round, black portal. Before Reisen could voice her complaints, of which she certainly had several, she was shoved into the swirling blackness, and vanished from sight. "Come on Kana, we're leaving."

"Oh, right~!" Kana giggled, as she watched Rumia step through the darkness. Kana herself floated up from the floor, and gave the remaining individuals in the shrine a departing wave. "Wish me luck.~" she said, before vanishing into the portal behind Rumia. Seconds later, it was gone, leaving the fate of Kana and her child a mystery.

Once the three were gone, Mima sighed. "I really wish they would have given me the chance to come along. I actually do have a good idea of how to handle this sort of situation." Mima merely laughed, when she looked back at Reimu and Marisa. "Unlike you two hopeless girls. You're both over twenty years old, and you freak out so much over something as trivial as going into labor?"

"Hey, that doesn't mean I've ever had to deal with anyone being pregnant in my shrine before!" Reimu said, in trying to defend herself. "I don't get involved with that sort of thing when it comes to babies being born in the village, or youkai doing... whatever it is they feel like doing!"

"Oh, yes.~ Shrine maidens trying to keep pure, and all that." Mima laughed again, and Reimu's face took on a slightly pink tone. "If all the shrine maidens in the world kept up that vow, there wouldn't be a Hakurei Shrine. Maybe you should go see if that teacher in the village teaches a sex ed course.~"

"Yeah, real funny, Mima." Reimu grumbled, and sat back down. With Rumia and Kana gone, and Reisen as well of course, things had at least calmed. Marisa followed Reimu's lead, and took a seat beside Miasma and Hana.

"Is Miss Kana gonna be okay?" Hana asked, her eyes trailing between first her sister, then Marisa, and finally Reimu and Mima.

"Don't you worry your cute little head, she'll be fine.~" Mima's words at least seemed to ease Hana's worries; Miasma didn't think Hana could ever remain in anything other than a cheerful mood for more than a few minutes.

"Where do you think they went, anyway?" Miasma asked. "Over to Eientei? Or do you think they went back to Makai, and brought Eirin there?"

"Probably Makai," Reimu answered. "I get the feeling Rumia probably wants to keep the whole thing somewhat of a secret. There would probably be too many youkai rabbits wanting to sneak in and see what was going on at Eientei."

"Honestly, I don't see what the big deal is.~ They're having a child, it's no big secret." Mima shrugged her shoulders, and shook her head.

"That's because Rumi and Shinki told everyone about it at the party a few weeks ago," Miasma reminded Mima. "It's not like Rumia and Kana publicly announced the fact that she was pregnant themselves."

"Even if the whole thing goes well, we prolly aren't gonna hear from em for a while, ze.~" Marisa leaned over against the table, supporting herself on it with one hand. "Personally, I'll be gladly rid of em for a few more weeks while they're busy raisin' a kid!"

"Unless that kid grows up to be as insane as they are," Miasma was quick to point out.

"It was bad enough with just the two of them, remember?" Reimu said. "How much worse do you think it'll be if their kid is even half as dangerous as either one of them?"

"We'll worry about that after we meet their kid! What's the point in worrying about it now, huh? We don't know what it'll be like yet! Why not just enjoy the next few weeks at least?"

"Bored now!" was Hana's sudden declaration. "Hey, sis, can we go visit mama Utsuho now~?"

Miasma laughed, along with everyone else, a bit surprised by her sister's sudden outburst. "Sure, Hana. I was gonna suggest we stop by when we were done here, but you beat me to it."

"Yay~! You're the best, sis.~" Hana said, as Miasma stood up, and lifted her sister up with her.

"It was starting to get late, anyway," Miasma said, as she glanced outside of the shrine. The sun had begun to set, and it was already starting to get darker. Somehow, the fact that Rumia's child would probably be born in the middle of the night came as no surprise. "Hey, Reimu. Let me know if you hear about Rumia and Kana's baby, alright?"

"I can't imagine you're still too fond of the idea of them having a kid, huh?"

"Not even slightly. You remember even better than I do what Rumia did to my mom." Mima, who at least knew about the battle in Makai, but not of the original fight at the Moriya Shrine, gave Miasma and Reimu an inquisitive look. Neither of them bothered to clarify what Miasma had meant.

"Yeah, I know," Reimu said, sighing. "But Miasma. Picking a fight with Rumia isn't exactly going to bring Medicine back. So, don't go antagonizing her."

"I'm not going to start a fight with Rumia. Don't worry about that. But if she starts one with me, I'm going to be the one that finishes it this time."