Mokou groaned, her fingers digging into the earth. The red and white oriental charms tied among her silvery hair looked dull and lifeless as they worked tirelessly to remove the last vestiges of whatever harmful substance still remained inside her body.
It had been as hot as fire but formless like liquid and had seeped through her skin like she was an oversized sponge while scorching her insides along the way. The pain still lingered and her forehead throbbed harder than a night out drinking with Keine. Still, she was well used to pain in it's many forms and pushed herself up into an awkward crouch. She would recover; she always did.
"Damn it all," she spat, disappointed in herself. She should have known that charging headlong against the genius mind that created the Hourai Elixir was a very bad idea. If anyone could overcome an immortal, the sadistic Eirin Yagokoro would probably top the list.
She sighed and looked around, noting with relief that she was back in the healthy green of the bamboo forest and not the freezing, barren moonscape. Mokou hated the moon with a fiery passion.
"Stay back!"
Mokou watched as Eirin crawled backwards from a very angry vampire. Ripples of unstable energy surrounded Flandre; the rich, vibrant colours flickering the nearby plant-life like wind. Upon contact, the plants either withered into blackened dust or warped into chaotic, flamboyant designs more striking than a peacock's shimmering feathers.
Eirin's well manicured nails chipped as she dragged herself back through the dirty forest floor. Eirin was panting heavily with sweat beading down her pale face. It amused Mokou to see the famous doctor dragging herself across the ground considering that she probably hadn't done a single day's worth of hard labour in her very privileged life.
Perhaps that would humble Eirin a little bit but somehow Mokou doubted it. Arrogance seemed to be a requirement of simply wearing the Lunarian name.
Mokou blinked as another one of Eirin's shining blue barriers shattered in her attempts to protect herself from this vengeful little girl. It crackled loudly as it blinked out of existence and left behind a scent of burning ozone. Eirin's hands were thrown back by the recoil, her fingers twitching like she had just jammed her hand into an electrical socket.
"What's the matter?" asked Flandre, her every step slow and deliberate. "You seemed so confident? Don't you want to play anymore?"
Eirin frowned, her mind racing through countless possibilities with every passing second. She discarded complex strategies and schemes faster than most people squeeze out a single thought. Eirin was the famed genius that had created many wonders and marvellous creations; even when compared against the other fabled minds of the moon, she was the best.
Someone such as her should be able to overcome an immature, bloodsucking vampire without breaking a sweat. Her back hit a bamboo stalk and Eirin knew that her time had run out.
"Well done, vampire," she said, her voice confident despite the circumstances. "Tell me, because I'm genuinely curious. Why would you sell your soul working for Yukari? Whatever she has promised you, I can assure you that it isn't worth it."
Flandre couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Didn't you listen to me before? Get it through your thick head! The reason you're currently cowering on the floor isn't because I'm working for that old gap demon!"
Up above, Yukari scowled as she wiped the blood away from her nose with an elaborately frilly handkerchief.
"It's because you and your princess are arrogant fools for poisoning and imprisoning me. Well, now it's time to pay up."
Standing safely behind her friend, Cirno felt sufficiently confident enough to merrily jeer at the fallen doctor. Cirno couldn't wait to tell everyone else back at the fairy forest about all her fantastic exploits. Cirno giggled as she imagined the astonished looks on their faces as they hung on her every word.
"Cirno, with a little help from her vampire friend vanquishes the evil Lunarian princess and her lackeys!" or something like that.
"Oh, is that all you seek?" said Eirin who looked up at Flandre without a hint of remorsefulness. "Compensation? Well, I will gladly provide you with a suitable reward, one most fitting for someone such as you."
Eirin pulled out a simple, unremarkable mirror that she used to apply makeup and held it up for Flandre to see. The reflection that so many women relied upon to provide them beauty once again denied Flandre like she was somehow beneath it's notice.
She had always hated mirrors and the empty, smooth surface that refused to even acknowledge that she even existed while all the other normal girls chatted happily together while playing with lipstick and other products. Eirin hadn't intended so deep a reaction but was happy to take advantage all the same.
While Flandre's hateful intentions were focused on that reflective surface, Eirin produced a syringe from inside her blue and red dress. The neon mixture inside seemed to be almost excited as it bumped against the glass, the cool forest air changing it's structure on the molecular level. Instead of lunging forwards and delivering her tender loving care, someone strong grabbed her wrist and squeezed down hard.
"Not so fast," said Mokou who allowed a little flame to leap out between her fingers. Eirin winced and immediately dropped the syringe as she frantically tried to pull herself away from the scorching pain.
All Eirin's other thoughts abandoned her mind, only the fiery inferno of agony remaining like that one memory that refused to be forgotten. Eventually, Mokou released her and Eirin snatched her arm away from the dragon's mouth.
The smell of burning fabric and blood permeated the air like the sickening warning signs of a plague. Eirin desperately wanted to rub some soothing ointment on the hot, itchy wound but that would have to wait. Still, while unwelcome, Eirin supposed that the wound would serve a purpose.
"What do you think you're doing?" Flandre exclaimed who had already been in a bad mood even before the scent of blood affected her. "She's my prey, not yours!"
Mokou looked at Flandre hard. "You're not seriously trying to quibble with me, are you? You can have your fun when I'm good and finished."
"I don't care!" Flandre said and crushed a nearby flower underfoot. The petals burst into indigo flame, the fragments disintegrating into vivid dust. It was clear that Flandre had no intentions of backing down.
"I have a history with this one," Mokou stated, as if voicing the words themselves would be enough to make Flandre back down but it soon became clear that her anger wouldn't be sated so easily.
"I don't care!" Flandre repeated. "Stand aside! I'm the one who defeated her! I deserve this! Look at her, taunting me the way she licks longingly at her wound, the blood dripping down her arm!"
"Hey," said Cirno. "Don't you forget me! I defeated her too!"
"Yes, yes," Flandre said, the words, innocent as they may be only served to reinforce her sense of injustice. "We worked together for this, so why are you trying to claim it for yourself?"
The grass around her feet stirred uneasily. Cirno was sure that if they could have uprooted themselves and scampered away, they would have gladly done so.
Eirin looked up at Mokou knowingly. "My, my, I seem to be so popular all of a sudden. Well, Mokou? You're not going to let that murderous little girl have her way with me, are you?"
Mokou twitched with annoyance. She knew very well that she couldn't kill Eirin or stand by while someone else did the bloody deed. Not that she particularly wanted to, but that wasn't the point.
Long ago, the mutual killing game between Mokou and Kaguya started to effect those around them. Of course, it always had only Mokou had been too angry to notice it at the time. Nothing else mattered but revenge and god help anyone that got between her and Kaguya.
It wasn't surprising really when you consider in those early days, the hated was raw and unrestrained. The savage glee Kaguya and Mokou took at tearing each other apart would reduce the local area and anything within it to smouldering ruins.
Venturing inside the bamboo forest became tantamount to having a death wish. The silver haired, fiery demon and the otherworldly, callous princess. Indeed, it became a popular suicide destination for a while, but of course, nothing lasts forever.
Even an intense, deep rooted hatred lessens over time when you're able to kill your enemy repeatedly and in many vicious and satisfying ways. Mokou had also developed attachments to this strange land of Gensokyo, though she had tried her very best not to.
The schoolteacher Keine had tempered Mokou's passionate hostility. On the other side, Kaguya cared deeply for her few loyal attendants who had abandoned everything to accompany their beloved princess to Gensokyo though she was much too proud to admit such an embarrassing sentiment.
And thus an agreement had been made not to involve anyone else in their timeless vendetta. At least anyone who mattered, which unfortunately included Eirin.
"I'll show you just how murderous I can be!" snapped Flandre, a hateful glint flashing across her bright red eyes.
Eirin allowed herself a spiteful, humourless smile just to infuriate Flandre even further. Petty perhaps, but a small victory nonetheless. She had failed to avenge the great princess Kaguya's honour, a fact that saddened her more than anything else.
Eirin never felt much emotion but her strong sense of duty was central to her identity. Failure was almost a foreign word in her vocabulary.
"What's the matter, vampire?" she asked. "Do you need to ask permission for everything you do? How pathetic!"
Eirin laughed at Flandre awkwardly, not used to the gesture. She tried to imitate Kaguya's haughty chuckle but didn't quite pull it off. Still, it was enough to push Flandre over the edge. She surged forwards, her sharp claws only moments away from plunging into Lunarian flesh.
A bright plume of flame whirled up around Mokou and surrounded her like a flickering red dress. Flandre crashed against it, her talons denying Mokou's fire and banishing it away with a mixture of fury and power.
Flandre's face glowed brightly as she pushed against the wall of flame. All around her, grass and bamboo was vaporized into blackened dust but still she persisted. Her eyes could see nothing but a hot, stifling curtain of leaping fire.
The heat was unreal; much hotter than the stone cookers back at the mansion. Anyone else might have been scared, but Flandre just treated it as another obstruction to overcome. Another test of her strength.
Mokou would have shouted a warning but she knew that nothing could be heard over the intense, crackling inferno.
Cirno likewise couldn't get through to the hotheaded vampire. Moisture dripped freely from her frozen wings and down her cold, pale skin. Her soft blue hair was slick and stuck unpleasently to her scalp.
"Stupid Flandre!" Cirno bawled as she took shelter behind one of the stone marble guard dogs that stood outside Eientei before she melted like ice cream on a hot summers day.
Mokou didn't really want to hurt the girl, nor protect that insufferable crackpot Eirin and so only half-heartedly maintained her blazing shield wall but when Flandre came strolling through the roasting cavern like some demon awakened from hell, Mokou knew that she had to put in a little more effort.
"Damn brat," Mokou muttered, her silver hair fluttering wildly. Lets see how you handle a little spice, thought the pyromaniac.
Mokou breathed into the flame, her own magically charged oxygen sparking life. Flandre stumbled as a dragons head, monstrous in appearance appeared among the wildfire. It was pure fire, it's eye sockets empty pits of hell. It bellowed right in her face, as if it was enraged that someone had intruded into it's lair. The force of the beast's scream drove Flandre to her knees, it's fiery howl rattling her skull.
Up above, Yukari Yakumo, that enigmatic observer and occasional mischief maker sighed disappointedly. While the spectacular wildfire was beautiful to behold, like a torch in the darkness, all Yukari could see was a giant, vivid fireball and not the actors struggling within. Peering out from her ribbon tied portal, her legs kicked out impatiently in empty space; the soup of dimensional unreality.
While tempting, she wouldn't use her many gifts to snoop in on whatever climatic struggle was currently under way. At least not until she'd safely determined the source of that horrible feeling. Was the vampire girl possessed by an evil spirit or simply protected by some extremely well hidden and unpleasant magical wards?
Unlikely, but who really knows in Gensokyo? Information is power, especially in a land filled with so many uniquely dangerous talents and that girl, Flandre, had certainly pinged her interest.
Yukari watched as Eirin flicked her wrist, flecks of her fresh blood hitting the roaring firestorm. Immediately, the pure fire became discoloured as a sickness overtook it, polluting it like black oil.
Eirin's bloodstream was home to many intoxicating and frankly illegal substances, many of them her own creations. In fact, some drugs were simply meant to keep the other more harmful mixtures from overloading her system completely. A few drops would be potent enough to poison a fresh water well but such danger never bothered Eirin. It bothered her test subject Reisen, but nothing a little friendly punishment wouldn't fix.
Where there had once been bright red flame, now only a putrid blackness remained. The roasting currents now cooked a truly terrible concoction, trapping it inside. Mokou suffered a coughing fit as her beautiful cleansing flame was tainted and twisted into a dark, smoking fire of sickening pollution.
The powerful fumes turned Flandre's stomach upside down. The smell was atrocious and seeped into everything. It felt like a thousand mouthfuls of the purest spring water wouldn't be enough to wash the horrible taste out of her mouth.
The slight tinge of insanity and excitement that Flandre felt was instead replaced with utter revulsion. Where once before this heated wall had been a challenge, now it only represented a prison. She desperately wanted out and wasn't particular about how she went about it.
The ground rumbled as Flandre unconsciously reached inside herself to that dark, secret place that constantly strained to break free. The place her mind turned to whenever she felt stressed or in life threatening danger.
It wasn't a happy, nor a welcoming place. It was fearsome and destructive but despite this, the devilish power proved seductive like a warm blanket that protected her from unnecessary thoughts and pains. It was all too easy to simply cut loose and erase simple hardships rather than having to face the consequences.
The imperfections corrupting the flame nearest to her were instantly expunged, the fierce oranges and yellows returning in full, brilliant force. But Flandre didn't stop there, couldn't stop there. The magical fire withered and dulled like something was sucking the life from it.
The dragon heads whimpered uncertainly and one by one, they faded away like the grand old beasts of legend that they represented. Before things could get out of hand however, Mokou banished the raging fire away so that she could escape this noxious torment.
Meanwhile, Eirin retreated towards the house of eternity in order to prepare for Kaguya's resurrection. The pale imitation moonlight flashed across her face as she approached the front door, promising that familiar sense of safety.
Her head still ached fiercely from the residual effects of the feedback, a pounding against her temple that wouldn't let up. Well, nothing that a little medication wouldn't fix but the indignity of failure would be a harder matter to heal.
The princess had surely resurrected by now and Eirin intended to be there with fresh change of clothing befitting someone of Kaguya's station. She wouldn't have Kakuya rampaging across the bamboo forest completely naked again in her vengeful search for Mokou.
Bribing and downright threatening that annoying Tengu to keep the pictures out of the paper had been a truly nerve-wracking experience and not one that she wished to repeat. The interlopers had proven more resourceful than she had anticipated but with Kaguya and Reisen by her side, they would surely answer for their crimes.
Eirin reached the immense door and noticed that the sentient handle had been crudely melted away. Silver dribbles of liquid metal had hardened down the wooden surface. She cursed Mokou silently under her breath. That girl had always been intensely jealous of the splendour and history of anything Lunarian.
As a low born cur, Mokou couldn't help but destroy that which she could never attain herself. How pathetic Eirin thought as she began to push the doors open but before she could step inside, flashes of blue ice began to crystallize around her body.
"I saw what you did," accused Cirno who had been hiding behind the stone statue. "I won't let you get away with it!"
Eirin dropped to the ground, her limbs weighted down by gleaming ice. Even the exotic drugs coursing throughout her bloodstream couldn't counteract the freezing effect from gripping her body like the inevitability of an arctic night. She fell against the door, the hardened ice grafting her glinting uniform to the house.
"Damn it," Eirin said, her fingers stiffening as if caught in slow motion. Her lips turned a deep shade of blue while her skin looked deathly white as all warmth left her. Eirin's mouth quivered one last time before she froze solidly in place and joined the two stone dogs in guarding the entrance to the house of eternity.
Not content with that, Cirno giggled as her tiny hands morphed and shaped the ice. The clear surface cracked as cat ears sprung up atop Eirin's head and a long, ramrod straight tail jutted out from her behind. Crudely drawn lettering appeared across it's clear surface like misty messages on a steamed up window.
Phrases that only Cirno and her friends would find funny such as 'danmaku magnet' and 'please fireball me' appeared along with many others that made the ice fairy supremely satisfied with her hilarious wit.
While Cirno was having her fun, Flandre braced herself against a charred bamboo stalk. After roasting in Mokou's blazing inferno for so long, Flandre was hot, sweaty and extremely exhausted. The poison sickness had knocked the excitement out of her more effectively than one of Sakuya's long winded lectures.
As a result, all that overwhelmingly vigorous energy had been locked away. Flandre felt diminished, somehow smaller than usual now that her frantic nature had disappeared but she knew that it would be back. It always came back. Her memory was hazy, like the aftermath of a drunken rampage.
"Cirno," she whispered.
Suddenly worried that she had done some unspeakable deed she looked around fearfully but breathed a sigh of relief when Cirno's cheerful form came into focus.
The fairy seemed to be having the time of her life. She skipped around happily spraying ice everywhere like a celebration of winter and everything cold. Blue sparks glittered in the night as she sprawled things across Eientei that would easily earn Flandre a harsh scolding.
Flandre smiled, despite the sticky discomfort. While the aura outside Eientei resembled a burnt out, fire-bombed disaster zone at least Cirno had kept herself safe and sound.
Mokou glared at Flandre, her fists tightening. The forest floor had been thoroughly glassed and crunched underfoot as Mokou stalked towards the vampire. Ash floated to the ground, the remains of burnt vegetation. It resembled scraps of burnt paper rather than snow.
Keine often berated her for being such a recluse but if the alternative was running into self-styled gods, vengeful ghosts or beings with more power than sense which was all too common in Gensokyo, then you'd forgive Mokou if she often preferred her own company.
"Stupid kid," Mokou muttered darkly. "Getting your panties in a twist over something so stupid."
While tired, Flandre was still acutely aware that she was being insulted.
Stupid, am I?
She leaned against the charred bamboo stalk and pushed herself up to better glare at her accuser. Her claws scrapped black strips of charcoal as she did so which mixed with the falling ash to create a black and white rain. Mokou stood tall above her like the embodiment of an ancient volcano ready to burst. She looked absolutely furious.
Flandre could actually feel her unbridled, impassioned aura brush against her soul. Too late she realized that Mokou wouldn't be intimidated by her thinly veiled threats, that she wasn't even the slightest bit impressed with her power.
Mokou grabbed Flandre by the collar and hauled her up so that they were staring face to face. They gazed into each other's eyes, neither one flinching.
"Unhand me!" demanded Flandre, her legs dangling beneath her.
"Listen here, girl," Mokou spat, her voice booming. "Get this through your thick skull! You're not special, at least not to me! I'm not going to kiss everything better! If you're an adult, than accept responsibility for your actions!"
Mokou pulled back her arm and drove her fist right into the vampire's face. There was no time to feel pain, only the total oblivion of unconsciousness.
Flandre hit the carbonized forest floor and didn't move.
Mokou winced and shook her hand. That vampire certainly had some strong cheek bones. Well, stubborn people did tend to be hard headed.
Cirno quickly shifted gears from cheerful anarchist to doleful sister.
"What did you do?" she asked loudly as she rushed over to Flandre's side. Concerned, she grabbed her shoulders and shook.
Mokou shrugged and shook her head. "The girl needed to cool off."
"Her name's Flandre, not girl! You didn't have to hit her like that!"
"No, I didn't but that girl, Flandre really pissed me off. I'm not a babysitter and won't put up with any rubbish."
The way Cirno frantically tried to wake her companion couldn't help but pull on Mokou's heartstrings. It was tragically rare to find someone as innocently devoted as a fairy. Those cheerful creatures needed to be handled with kid gloves.
"Listen, fairy. Flandre's tough. She'll be fine. Take your friend and leave this place before Kaguya shows up again. By my reckoning, that rotten wrench will be slivering up from her perverted bondage dungeon any moment now and unless you want to bask in her unpleasant company, you'd better be long gone."
"But you knocked her out! She won't even move!"
Mokou groaned. She couldn't believe that she was falling victim to emotional blackmail but Cirno's watery eyes were simply irresistible, like an orphaned child begging for help. Kaguya always taunted her for growing too soft as of late.
Perhaps she was right but Mokou didn't particularly care. She would always take solace in the fact that she was nothing like the haughty, stuck up princess who acted like someone had shoved a pineapple up her royal posterior.
"Just levitate her," Mokou said while trying her utmost to be patient.
"I can't do that!" exclaimed Cirno. "They're gonna find us and it's all your fault!"
"All my fault?" Mokou ruffled the fairy's fluffy blue hair. Cirno flinched as a small amount of steam puffed up from her head as the forces of fire and ice collided.
"Don't annoy me, little fairy." Mokou put great emphasise on the word 'little' to further highlight the size diffierence between them.
"If your friend was more level headed then she and you wouldn't be in this sorry mess. I suggest you put the kid on ice when she wakes. Maybe'll it chill her out a little."
Back in the dimensional rift which was nether here nor there, Yakumo Yukari waited with great interest. It took a great deal of self control not to chuckle heartily at poor, unfortunate Eirin but she resisted. For you see, she was no longer alone.
Keeping up appearances was paramount in Gensokyo. A good or sufficiently bad reputation opened a lot of doors where power alone might not. Well, unless you had the kind of bad reputation that prompted those around you to hold onto their wallets tightly but Marisa had always been a special case.
Her loyal nine tailed shikigami and occasional fluffy pillow was floating a respectful distance behind her master. Her limited mastery of Yukari's reality warping powers allowed her to safely drift in place and not be swept away by the phantasmal currents.
Losing yourself in the endless boundary was not recommended as a mortal might be driven mad before rescue arrives, if it ever arrives. Yukari did so enjoy her legendary slumbers.
Yukari peered around expectantly to her guest. Jutting out from the ribboned portal alongside Yukari high above the bamboo forest, Keine Kamishirasawa had observed Flandre and Mokou's intense clash of powers while occasionally bumping into Yukari in her eagerness to leap out the portal to put a stop to her friend's violent tendencies.
Yukari had enlisted the history teacher's aid with promises of several modern computers for her tragically unpopular schoolhouse. Of course, those helpful machines required electricity but Yukari didn't mention that little fact.
A few solar panels would surely secure any future favours Yukari might need. Thankfully computers didn't exist in Gensokyo otherwise Keine might have been able to glean it's history and see through Yukari's gambit.
"Did you witness everything, Keine?"
Keine nodded sombrely. Her unique ability was eating history while digesting it's practically limitless routes and possibilities. Usually the quest for knowledge filled her with a burning passion, but she detected nothing pleasing about Flandre's power.