"Well then, I'm going in first."

I looked over at Koishi, prepared to jump down from the tree we were hiding in and ready to invade the hideout. Yulia wanted us to take care of some Yōkai who had been luring humans outside of the village and eating them, although I wondered why I was even told to come along in the first place.

"Akiko?" Koishi called out to me when I didn't follow her.

"I'll just stay here. You can handle this by yourself, right?" I sighed.

Koishi gave a guilty look as though she didn't disagree with me, and entered the cave. I kicked back on the sturdy branch I was laying on and looked towards the sky, it's light green as it shone through the leaves above.

It has been one year since Koishi joined us.

I was surprised when I was told she was one of us, but it made a lot of sense; her power was something we needed to keep an eye on, and it only made us stronger as a group. Of course I had some complaints about her, as she had assaulted me sexually before, but I found myself letting it go rather easily. I suspected that she used her power in some way to make that happen, but even if I would have been bothered by it, said power would prevent me from being bothered…

It truly was a frightening power, Koishi's. I can't even tell whether my personality has been changed or not, but Rei reassured me that she'll notice whenever I start acting oddly and act accordingly. With that knowledge, my mind was put at peace… although I was no doubt forcibly made to drop the subject of her assault. I frowned a little at the memory, but forgot about it as I paid attention to the suns warmth around me; it was more subdued due to the leaves, but it somehow gave it a calmer feeling that way.

*Crunch*

My eyes snapped to the entrance of the cave as someone, not Koishi, ran out of it and stepped on a loose branch. I jumped down and startled her; A young girl Yōkai with short brown hair and matching eyes.

"Is something wrong?" I asked, trying to ascertain whether she was under Koishi's power or not.

"E-everything's wrong! Everyone's surrendering one by one even though they said they wouldn't-!" The Yōkai said in a confused panic.

Poor girl, she's too confused to think rationally about why I'm even here. I sighed and leapt at the girl, her eyes opening widely for a brief moment before I planted a fist in her gut. She went limp from the impact and I grabbed her before she fell to the ground. I blushed slightly when I noticed the collar of her shirt was loose, but I turned my eyes away back to the cave, where I noticed the approaching noises of many footsteps. Koishi came out first, with a group of ten or so Yōkai following after her in unity. It was rather creepy how they had no doubt or confusion in their eyes, another reminder of how strong Koishi's power is.

"Who's that?" Koishi asked me.

"A straggler. If I didn't have the foresight to stay outside, she would have gotten away." I answered, trying to impress Koishi with a small lie, but she just laughed.

"I looked into your mind for the answer before you responded, so I know you're lying. You really just wanted to be lazy."

I grimaced. Every since Koishi joined us, I felt outshined at each and every corner, like nothing I could do would be enough to reach her. Despite my first impressions of her, I wanted her to look impressed at least once, with my actions. It was bad enough that I had finally accepted she was stronger than me, but now I felt like my position in the elder Yōkais was pointless, like I was just there for no real purpose.

"You're still better at danmaku than me." Koishi said, trying to cheer me up.

"…Danmaku doesn't really matter with you around. Everything gets resolved by your power before any actual fighting can take place." I stated.

"But-"

"Drop it. Can you take care of her?" I asked, gesturing to the girl I was holding.

Koishi gave me a final look of guilt before the girl in my arms became conscious and marched over to join the others in Koishi's group, without so much as a pause.

"Let's go back. Rei says she'll take care of them when we get there." I stated, turning my back on Koishi as I started walking.

"Ah, wait!" Koishi yelled, running over to my side. The Yōkai under her control gave us some space as they followed along.

"What?" I asked, upset at my own worthlessness.

"If you weren't here, then that one Yōkai would have gotten away, like you said."

"Anyone could have done that; Mitsuru, Rei, Namane, Yulia… anyone of them would have stopped her with ease." I listed off the other elder Yōkai and Koishi's expression continued to sour.

"There's only one of me." Koishi said suddenly.

"…What do you mean?"

"If I'm off protecting one part of the village, I can't protect the other side. I can't do everything by myself-"

"But you can take on a group of Yōkai eating humans by yourself in less than five minutes." I interrupted.

Koishi puffed up her cheeks, her original feeling of guilt becoming one of frustration.

"Fine then, you're worthless. Is that what you wanted me to say?" Koishi asked with spite.

I gritted my teeth. She had a point; I wasn't exactly listening to her because I already had an impression stuck in my head at the moment. Reading those thoughts, Koishi continued.

"Do you want to quit?"

"Of course I don't, but it just feels like I'm here for no reason at all."

"That's not true; whenever something happens, you're always the first one to take action."

"That's just me being stupid; letting my emotions get the best of me."

"But if you didn't do that, then things would've gotten worse before we arrived."

I looked to the side opposite of Koishi. Why is she so set on making it seem like I have a place in the group?

"…Fine. If you left, that would be one less person I get to be around, alright?" Koishi admitted sheepishly.

I turned around to face the silver-haired mind reader, her cheeks a faint tinge of rouge. I could feel mine heat up a little as well, embarrassed but slightly happy. Wait, why am I happy at all? Thoughts of when Koishi touched me after that duel began flashing through my head as I started feeling hotter.

"Hey… um… Koishi, about our first duel…" I started.

"Hmm?" Koishi responded, her eyes towards the ground as she still blushed.

"Well, after that-"

"Oh… I'm really sorry."

"No, no… I mean… how did you know?"

"About what?"

"That I was attracted to girls? I'm pretty sure I didn't think about my sexuality during our meeting… Koishi?"

Koishi came to a halt when I said that. When I turned to face her, her eyes were wide, like she was having trouble processing what I had just said.

"What are you talking about?" Koishi said, her voice quiet.

"L-like I said, I'm attracted to girls… You didn't know?" I was starting to get unsettled by Koishi's mannerisms; her face was a complete blank as though she were the one controlled, not the Yōkai following us. After a few seconds of silence, Koishi laughed suddenly, causing me to jump a little.

"That's a funny joke, you almost sounded serious!" Koishi exclaimed, still laughing.

I was in disbelief. There was no way she would have treated what I just said as a joke, being a lesbian herself. I was still confused, but I played along with it, as there had to have been a reason for her to be acting this way. I gave as reassuring a smile as I could manage whilst keeping my thoughts minimal.

"Aww, I thought for sure I had you. Tell me, how did you know that wasn't the case?" I asked, keeping calm as I made a joking tone.

"Rei and Yulia told me you were into guys. If it weren't for that, I might have believed you." Koishi was wiping her eyes, as though she had been crying from laughing so hard.

"I thought you just read my mind." I said, keeping in flow with the conversation, but when Koishi gave the same blank expression she gave me earlier, I realized something; she should have been able to tell that I was a lesbian from reading my mind.

"Huh?...Huh, I… Huh?" Koishi was mumbling incoherently as she tried making sense of the situation.

"…Koishi, answer me honestly right now. Did you read my mind when I told you I was a lesbian?" I asked, Koishi's face becoming even more uncomfortable as it twitched.

"I did… no, I didn't, I mean, I did, but there was nothing…? Yes, there was nothing, that's it, I couldn't tell because you weren't thinking! That's it!" Koishi exclaimed, her expression becoming relieved.

Wha- What the hells? "Koishi, you don't look so well. You should go on ahead to rest." I lied, trying to keep my thoughts to myself.

Koishi tilted her head and asked, "Do I?"

"Well, do you have something like a headache?" I asked.

"…Now that you mention it, I do have something like that."

"Just tell the Yōkai to follow me and go on ahead to rest. I'll take care of them."

"…Okay. I'm sorry for troubling you."

"No, it's okay. We've got to look out for each other."

Koishi seemed to be fooled by my reasoning and smiled as she told the Yōkai to take orders from me now. She then thanked me once more and flew back, giving me some time to figure out just what the hells happened.

Rei knows that I'm a lesbian and Yulias under the impression I like guys, since I asked everyone to hide that fact from her. I can't think of any reason for Rei not telling Koishi afterwards. That being said, Koishi didn't have any reason to lie to me either. Not only that, but Koishi wasn't able to read my mind? …No, that's not it, she said she did, just that there was nothing. Of course, I know for a fact that's not the case since I didn't repress my thoughts until I started playing along with her. It's almost as though she deluding herself into thinking I'm straight for some reason, but there's no reason for her to bring up Yulia and Rei, if that were the case.

"…Gah! This makes no sense!" I yelled out, stomping my foot in the ground. I knew I wasn't the sharpest of the elder Yōkai, and maybe a little short tempered, but just this once, I wanted to figure out what it all meant. I can't ask Rei or Yulia for help, since their names were brought up, not to mention I don't know who else knows about Koishi's assumption. On top of that, there's the fact that it's been uncorrected for a year… wait, now that I think about it, Koishi never mentioned what happened between us, or even apologized for it until now. The only reason she talked about it was because I brought it up…

…Does her reason for joining us have any relation since she joined right after that incident? It was quite coincidental, the time frame between both, as though they were connected. Wait a minute, Yulia's power! Why didn't I think of it before, using that power, it would explain Koishi's strange behaviour, since she probably…

…But that still doesn't explain why they lied about my sexuality, since they would have been able to force Koishi to join with that power. It's clear they used it on her, since she didn't notice my thoughts in regards to my sexuality, but to what end? Not to mention that this would mean that Yulia knows my sexuality for such a thing-

I could feel my eyes open wider as I finally connected everything together. I ran through it in my head one more time to make sure I was right, then I looked up towards the sky. I never in my wildest dreams could have imagined that such a small, seemingly pointless lie would have such massive implications.

"…Rei… you were using us all this time?"

It had been a year since I had last seen Koishi in the Scarlet Devil Library. I did tell her that I would take that long to accomplish my goal, but I still couldn't help but feel a little guilty inside. It wasn't like it mattered anymore, since I was on my way to see her right now.

I learned that her kind of Yōkai would have been staying in old hell, but I traveled towards the Garden in the Sun, were Yuuka lived, since she was with Koishi last time. The sun was as annoyingly bright as ever, but, as I've found out, I have an immunity to whatever discomfort the sun causes my kind.

"Pretty ironic trait, seeing as how I like the moon more…" I stated aloud.

The manor stood out, but so did the children playing along the flowers. My immediate reaction was to fly down to where the children were and stop them.

"Hey, you shouldn't be doing that, you'll upset the flower Yōkai living here!" I yelled out to them as I landed.

The children were slightly surprised, but they ignored me as one of them picked one of the sunflowers.

"No, you need to run!" I exclaimed, fearing the worst.

"But flower lady lets us." One of the boys spoke up, seemingly annoyed by the way I was speaking.

"…Pardon?" I asked in disbelief.

"Yeah, that's right! I came here one time and picked one, but she didn't do anything to me!" One of the girls said, puffing out her chest.

What…?

"Did she ever see you do this?" I asked.

"She did, but she just walked back inside her huge house." The same girl said.

"…It's a manor." I corrected, immediately making a beeline for the manor.

"Hey, you have some funny-looking wings, can I touch them?" One of the boys asked as they cut me off from my path.

"…I don't have time for this." I looked at the child with annoyance.

"Wow… they're like crystals!" One of the girls exclaimed as the children started surrounding me.

"What are you-" I started before they all began touching my wings.

"They're so pretty!"

"How can you fly with these?"

"Can I take one off?" One of the children asked, pulling on one.

"Ow, no you can't!" I exclaimed.

"Hey, let me try!"

"Me too, me too!"

Soon, every child was trying to rip the crystals off of my wings, ignoring each of my pleas. Angry, I twirled around, breaking their grip on my wings and proceeded to knock them back with magic. All of the children landed on their backs as they hit the ground, but I made sure not to harm them.

"Bad children need to be punished." I said in a threatening tone. To my glee each of the children ran off in fear, giving me a small sense of satisfaction.

What on earth are their parents doing? If it were any other Yōkai, those children would be dead. Speaking of any other Yōkai…

I turned my attention back to the manor and began walking towards it. It made no sense that Yuuka would allow her flowers to be harmed like that and let the children live afterwards. Being a flower Yōkai, the flowers were precious to her, even more so than another life. When I reached the door, I knocked on the door as loudly as possible to get her attention. I waited for twenty seconds and was about to knock again when the door opened. Standing there was Yuuka, her hair grown out and red eyes seemingly dimmer than they once were.

"Flandre?" Yuuka said questioningly, as though she doubted what she saw.

"Hello." I greeted while curtseying. "It's been a while."

"…If you're here for Koishi, she isn't here." Yuuka said.

"It's a good thing I'm here for you then." I said. Even if Koishi wasn't here, I wanted to know the reason for Yuuka's sudden change in nature.

Yuuka blinked in surprise and rested on an expression of confusion. I asked her if I could come in to which she responded by stepping aside for me. I looked around the manor's entrance, as it had been my first time in a building other than my own, noting the marble floors and wide staircase. It was a much smaller building than the Scarlet Devil Manor, as I could see from outside, but it was still quite spacious. I could see plants growing from different cracks in the ground, some wilted, some sickly looking. I knew there had to have been something wrong with Yuuka for it to get this bad.

"The living rooms this way." Yuuka said, walking towards an open door to the left. I followed her and sat on the seat opposite the couch, which Yuuka promptly occupied. I took a deep breath in and calmly spoke.

"How have you been?"

"How I've been…?" Yuuka asked back, as though she were unsure herself.

"I mean no disrespect, but you look unwell."

"…Oh. I'm still healthy, I assure you." Yuuka spoke slowly, her voice quiet and distant.

"Is that so? I was worried about you since you didn't stop those children from picking sunflowers." I said with a doubtful tone.

"…I guess that makes sense."

"If you're doing well, then why didn't you stop them?"

"Why?"

"Yes, why didn't you stop them from taking the sunflowers?"

Yuuka looked at me blankly before answering, "Why do I need to stop them?"

"Aren't they important to you?"

"No… not anymore."

I frowned as I pondered the situation a little bit longer. There was no way Yuuka would change this much unless there was something influencing her; perhaps a certain silver-haired Yōkai who could control someone's mind…

"Pardon me." I said, leaping from my chair and placing my face just inches away from Yuuka's.

"Wha-" Yuuka started, then her pupils dilated and eyes turned wide. She stared unblinkingly, mesmerized by my red eyes.

"Answer me honestly." My voice became soft and gentle, a spell hidden amongst the sweet tone that captured Yuuka's attention immediately.

"Yes." Yuuka said in monotone, completely under my control.

I dropped the hypnotic tone of my voice and started asking questions. "Did Koishi alter your mind in some way?"

"Yes…"

"In what way did she alter it?"

"She made me… unable to feel attraction."

I frowned at this new information, but decided to learn more before jumping to conclusions.

"Why did she do that?" I asked.

"She said… flower Yōkai can't feel attraction… and that it was her fault I was even attracted to her in the first place" Yuuka answered.

And I know for a fact that's not true. I bit my thumb alongside my back row of teeth, a habit I've recently developed, and my skin felt a numb pain. This let me keep whatever feelings of unrest I had in check while I thought of another question.

"Did she say how she learned that?" I asked, taking a shot in the dark.

"Yes." Yuuka said.

A smile formed upon my lips in a small victory. "How did she learn it?" I asked.

"Rei… told her."

I stiffened at the name, but asked just in case I was wrong. "Who's Rei?"

"One… of the elder Yōkai…"

She was the one who Remilia had guard the manor from Koishi…

"What's her relationship with Koishi?" I asked.

"They were… familiar to the point where they could talk casually with each other"

Dropping the topic for a second, I switched back to Koishi's whereabouts. "When was the last time you saw Koishi?"

"A year ago."

What!? "How many days after you two visited me?"

"It was the next day."

"Did she say where she was going?"

"No."

"Did you do anything to find her?"

"No."

"What have you even been doing this entire year?" I spoke, my voice cracking as I started getting more upset. I bit down on my thumb again in the next instant to avoid losing control, however.

"…Eating… Sleeping… Staring outside… Breathing…"

"Did you have any motivation to do anything at all?"

"No."

She loved flowers, so when Koishi took that away from her, did she lose her reason for living aside from living itself? Sighing, I closed my eyes and sat back down in my chair, careful not to make eye-contact with Yuuka who started to stir from her trance. She blinked at me for a couple of seconds, then a frown appeared on her face.

"Was there any point to that?" Yuuka asked in regards to being mesmerized.

"The first thing you should know is that flower Yōkai can feel attraction. If not, then how would you explain why you cared for the flowers before last year?" I said.

"…I already knew."

"Then why haven't you looked for Koishi?"

"I already said I had no motivation."

I kept calm, but I was still frustrated with the situation. Yuuka lost her motivation when her attraction was taken away from her, so it's not like she was entirely to blame for her own actions. Even so…

"You two were lovers?" I asked, trying to figure out Koishi's reason for taking away Yuuka's attraction.

Yuuka nodded.

"So she felt like she forced you to love her since she was under the impression that flower Yōkai couldn't love." I assumed, to which Yuuka also nodded.

"But you still can feel happiness, right?" I asked.

Yuuka's mouth twitched. Her eyes stared back at me, careful to not look directly into my eyes.

"I think it's about time you left." Yuuka said, her voice increasing in volume as she threatened.

"So you can remember the happiness you felt when you were with Koishi, when you were taking care of the flowers, right?"

I could see Yuuka's face becoming more lively, her mouth a frown as she clenched her teeth in discomfort.

"Stop." Yuuka warned.

"Don't you want to feel that happiness again?"

"Of course I do!" Yuuka burst out of her seat, screaming at my face as she showed just how unstable she truly was.

"Then what's holding you back?" I responded, keeping my calm tone.

"I don't want to feel that pain… when she came and told me it was all a lie… that feeling like my heart was being ripped out as she left me alone… I'm scared… I'm so scared…I never want to go through that again… *hic*" Yuuka collapsed to her knees as she let out whatever was holding her back. I wasn't too surprised that she reacted in such a way, as her mind was messed around with. It was only a matter of time before she finally broke down in some way. I knelt before her and wrapped my arms around the crying flower Yōkai.

"It's alright to be scared, but do you really want this to continue?" I asked in a quiet and soothing tone.

"I… I…"

"What do you want to do?"

I could feel her arms clench around me as she yelled out in her sob-stained voice.

"Even if it's fake, I want to love Koishi again!"

I entered our "base" at the Human village and called out, "I'm home!" to which I heard someone approaching in response.

"Koishi? Where's Akiko?" Said the voice I identified as Rei before she poked her head into my field of vision.

"She's still bringing them back. I came back because I started getting a headache during the job." I sighed, taking my hat off and making my way towards the kitchen. I could see Namane playing cards with Yulia, a small pile of yen on the side of the table. My sigh grew in volume when I saw this, because it was a common occurrence.

Namane had short blue hair and sharp eyes, her clothes usually the same as Yulia's; plain villager clothes. When I first joined the group, I had the least amount of trouble remembering her name because it was similar to Yamame.

"Yulia, you're going to go broke if you keep losing your money to Namane." I said to the sweating leader of our group.

"D-Dun't wurry, I got dis' alllll under cuntrul!" Yulia's slammer was even worse than usual. That was a sure fire sign she had absolutely no chance. Sighing, I read Yulia's mind and led Namane's hand towards the 'old maid', to which she promptly slammed the table down while she glared at me.

"Hey!" Namane yelled accusatorily, to which I just innocently whistled. Yulia gave me a thumbs up while Namane's attention was turned and mouthed the words, "Thank you". My whistling stopped as I couldn't hold back my grin, to which Namane grunted and sat back down.

"How dare you interfere with my main source of income…" Namane grumbled as Yulia picked out the last remaining card that wasn't the old maid.

"Safe! My money is safeeeee!" Yulia threw her hands up as tears of joy fell down her cheeks, while Namane frowned.

"She won't learn her lesson if you help her out, you know." Namane told me as I sat down at the table.

"It just feels unfair whenever I see you two playing. Yulia's easy to read even without my powers involved." I stated, lying my face down on the table; the cards were put in a small pile to the side by Namane.

"But you're forgetting one important thing-" Namane started.

"Alrighty, comm'on Namane, double or nothing!" Yulia exclaimed excitedly.

"-she's the one who keeps challenging me." Namane finished, dealing out the cards again.

I stared at Yulia with disappointment and disbelief. If there was one major weakness of our leader, she liked gambling way too much.

"Haha, you fool! With Koishi here, there's no way of me losing!" Yulia stated with determination.

*One card game later*

"Wha-Wha-Wha-" Yulia's mouth was trembling as her hand reached out for the money on the table, to which Namane took into her hands, crushing Yulia's spirit.

"Thanks for your patronage~" Namane said with a giggle.

"Koishi, I trusted you!" Yulia gave me an accusatory look.

"Which is why you opened up your mind to me, right?" I asked.

"That's right, so-"

"I read in your mind that you truly regretted your decision to gamble with Namane, which is why I helped you the first time. You obviously never learned your lesson to begin with, and probably opened up your mind to trick me into helping you."

"Ah- well, that is…" Yulia started playing with her thumbs in guilt.

"Do you really want to know how to not lose?" I asked.

Yulia gave a look like she was starving and someone threw her some food. She nodded rapidly.

"It's simple; don't gamble." I said with a sly smile, to which Yulia immediately slumped over in response.

"Hey Koishi, can I talk to you for a second?" Rei called out to me from the hall.

"Coming." I gingerly lifted my head from the table and slowly made my way to Rei, who led me upstairs to her room. When I entered, she closed the door behind her and I immediately stood at attention.

"What caused the headache?" Rei asked.

"I was talking to Akiko about what happened after our duel a year ago." I answered.

Rei narrowed her eyes. "She's the one who brought it up then?"

"Yes."

"Did she say she was a lesbian?"

"Yes, but it was a joke."

"A joke?"

"Yes. I told her I knew she was straight and she immediately smirked when she was caught."

Rei scratched her cheek while she pondered what I said, then asked another question. "Was that all that caused the headache?"

"No, she mentioned that she thought I figured it out from reading her mind. I told her that there was nothing in her mind at the time."

"…And that's when she told you to go on ahead."

Rei's expression grew dark in light of the new information and clicked her tongue, something I don't normally see her do.

"I guess I can't underestimate her anymore…" Rei muttered under her breath.

"…Rei?" I asked, worried.

Then, I suddenly had a strange compulsion to leave the room. Before I knew it, I was sitting back down at the table, my face directly on the table again.

"Hmm…? Was I just doing something?" I asked Yulia and Namane, playing a card game for fun, as Yulia had run out of money.

"Nope, you've been sitting here the entire time." Yulia stated.

I closed my eyes to sleep after I realized it was only my imagination, completely oblivious to how Yulia's voice seemed different than normal.