Floating within the possibly infinite realm that existed just outside of reality, Ran Yakumo's brows furrowed in intense concentration. A mere lapse in judgement would send her floating through the dimensional currents into oblivion.
Of course her master would never let such a fate befall her but Ran really disliked asking for assistance, particularly when it made her look like a helpless fox cub.
Which was why she dearly awaited the opportunity to pay the little vampire girl back for her insolence. Not only had she struck her, the little runt had had the audacity along with her bone headed fairy to toy with her prized, velvety nine-tails.
Those golden treasures, in which Ran was very proud, were for the exclusive use of her master and beloved Chen, not the clumsy, common hands of outsiders. Only her years of professional servitude had restrained her bestial wrath from avenging the honour of her soft, fluffy tails.
Those ever present floating eyeballs which resided within Yukari's vast domain , some of which were as large as a small moon watched her intently. Ran's skin prickled as she made a concious effort to look away from the nearest inquisitive eyeball. A comforting thought was that they were simply an extension of Yukari's nature and thus completely harmless, at least to her loyal servant.
Ran shielded herself in that thought like a comforting shield of light among the many cosmic horrors. Wrapped tightly in the blanket of dreams, the sheer scale of this unspeakable place never failed to impress the nine-tailed Youkai. Numerous orbs and countless shifting anomalies, it truly was an otherworldly universe within the universe.
Ran was so caught up in her own inner musings that she didn't immediately register that her master required assistance.
"Calm yourself," Yukari demanded as Keine the schoolteacher and occasional hakutaku struggled to leap out of the portal like a carp escaping a creeping fishing net. Whatever Keine had experienced had filled her with genuine concern for Mokou's wellbeing which was very strange considering that Mokou was immortal.
That teasing oddity made Yukari even more curious but first she needed to make sure that her potential source of information didn't jump ship.
"Let me go!" pleaded Keine as the boundaries closed around her like an amorphic, sentient mass. The red ribbons around the edges of the portal tightened, constricting it.
"Stop struggling!" ordered Yukari to no avail.
Keine's limbs were swallowed up by the blackness. She yelped and fell backwards into unreality as all the feeling left her arms and legs. It was as if they had simply ceased to exist, cut off without pain nor sensation.
Ran flew forwards, her tails swirling behind her like a shooting star of beautiful yellow fur. She was like a sparkling amber jewel in the vast expanse of space. The many eyeballs watched as Ran placed her strong, powerful hands upon Keine, restraining her.
Yukari floated for a moment while she caught her breath. Even this brief bout of physical excursion was enough to colour her cheeks a shade of rosy red. While Yukari's attention wavered, her long blonde hair drifted around her like a head of Medusa's snakes.
Ran often feared that her sleepy master would suffer from muscle entropy one of these decades. Chen often cheerfully referred to her as 'sleeping boundary'.
"Well?" Yukari asked as tactfully as she could manage. "What is the nature of Flandre's power?"
When it became clear that she couldn't break away, Keine calmed down enough to answer. Perhaps they would see sense when she had finished explaining.
"It's a sickening feeling, at least to any supernatural or spiritual entity. You have to let me go! I don't want Mokou hanging around that girl. She's dangerous, insidious even."
"Not until you explain why," said Yukari entirely without sympathy. Her over active imagination couldn't take any more delays, not when the answers were so invitingly close at hand.
Keine looked reluctant to speak for a moment but hard stares convinced her otherwise. It was silent in the vast, dimensional space for a few fleeting seconds. The rippling colours of black and purple provided an ominous backdrop, one that Keine was keen to break, if not only for her own sanity.
"Such a poisonous feeling," Keine began, almost shuddering.
"That girl conceals a shadow inside her that detests anything exceptional, especially her own nature. I only saw dislocated snippets, snapshots of fragmented memories and awareness. A vampire rarely chooses their own future. Coming into the world anew, she found her old world foreign and unwelcoming. She was a creature of the daylight no longer."
Yukari remembered helping Yuyuko fish herself out of the sea of souls after being sucked up by her own deathly vortex. The look of embarrassment on her delicate features had been simply priceless.
Yukari had been most interested in whoever had managed such an impressive feat and after much pressuring, Yuyuko had spilled the beans; about how her barriers and protective wards had been shattered without any resistance whatsoever. Yukari hadn't believed her at first considering what a skilled practitioner she was.
"Her chaotic power reveals in the chance to destroy anything magical and urges her onwards with maddening voices and it won't stop until she kills herself, because that's what it secretly wants. It's a miracle that she survived. She must have had great emotional support to last this long."
"It cannot be simple destruction," Yukari said as she floated in contemplation. That was far too simplistic, too basic a concept. The briefest glance into it had howled a profound rejection of her existence.
If you could reduce your presence down to a coil of string, then tapping into Flandre's power felt like some terrible force painfully unravelling you at the seams. If she hadn't broken off when she did...still, Keine was different. History was not direct but a study of things from a comfortable distance. That was the theory anyway.
Keine nodded sadly. Conveying her findings was like reliving a traumatic memory and the mind-bending tapestry of Yukari's realm didn't help matters.
"The nature of her power is the complete destruction of magical entities. Negativity in it's purist form, only directed at the source of her innermost demons. When I look upon the girl, all I see is the hardship of carrying that sinister nature around with her. Her wings, so unlike a vampire's. Bright and beautiful to behold. Most likely that's the form she wished for herself but denying your true nature can often be dangerous for the supernatural."
"So basically," Yukari said. "Flandre's power is the denial of spiritual entities which came about because she hated herself; a problem in which she has since overcome. Not quite as interesting as I imagined but still, her power cannot be denied, so to speak."
Yukari paused for a moment but nobody even so much as chuckled. Ran resisted the urge to sigh and instead forced a look of cold difference with practiced ease. Disheartened somewhat, Yukari toyed with one of the many red ribbons tied to her long blonde hair as she silently blamed the audience for such a melancholy atmosphere.
"Well, as long as we don't awaken the little devil inside her then we shouldn't have any problems, isn't that right?"
Keine nodded.
Yukari consciously weakened her hold and let the dimensional current wash against her like she was a buttress against change. She slowly drifted sideways as the invisible forces took hold.
"Thank you for your help, Keine Kamishirasawa. You may leave now."
"But what about Mokou? Surely you've noticed the corrosive effect that girl has?"
"Trust me," Yukari said, a sly smile crossing her lips. "You do trust me to handle this, don't you? The worried schoolteacher didn't reply which was probably for the best.
"Good, I'm glad that you have such faith in me."
A tear opened up in the shifting blackness and Keine disappeared down it like the gullet of some mighty beast swallowing her whole. She protested but her concerns were politely ignored as Yukari reassured her with comforting words that were almost true. Certainty wasn't always a certainty in Gensokyo.
"Well, Ran?" Yukari asked. "What do you think about that girl and her destructive power?"
"She's nothing special," Ran replies with genuine disinterest. "Just another immature soul with more power than sense which is sadly all too common nowadays."
"Oh, really? So you think my concerns are without basis? That her power is nothing noteworthy?"
"Forgive me master but Flandre is nothing compared to Yuyuko's mastery of the dead nor your own boundless abilities. Yuuka's ultimate magic, the Yama of Xanadu. Even her sister Remilia can supposedly manipulate fate, whatever that entails. Why worry about an immature girl who only has the potential to destroy those around her? That's such an unremarkable talent. Lady Yuyuko always enjoys toying with her opponents; her defeat was nothing more than a fluke."
Yukari shrugged. "Really Ran, after all these years you really should know by now. All those names, while impressive enough in their own right are all known quantities. Yuuka keeps to herself for the most part, the Yama is hardly one to cause trouble, Remilia followed the rules during the red mist incident and me? Well, I'm certainly the most troublesome but somebody has to run the show. And my dear Yuyuko is hardly one to make mistakes, despite her whimsical nature. Can you recall the last time she was bested outside danmaku?"
With Ran's memory which was as infallible as a supercomputer, it only took her a millisecond to deduce the truth of her master's words.
Vindicated, Yukari continued her lecture. She wished that Ran was more intuitive in the many abstract and fantastical possibilities. Most matters in Gensokyo were in uncomfortable shades of grey, not black and white.
"Exactly, and that's not the only thing. Since the boundary between Gensokyo and the physical realm is magical, her power indirectly gnaws at the links. I can see invisible fault-lines tearing at the very fabric of the boarder whenever she unwillingly taps into that power. We need to tactfully deal with the unknown before it becomes a potential problem; a gentle shove in the correct direction."
"So a subtle intervention?" Ran asked.
"As subtle as usual," Yukari replied while watching Flandre through the narrow opening that overlooked the vast bamboo forest.
Meanwhile Eientei's three intruders were busy making their escape through the green thicket. Mokou knew that the deceptively cute rabbit guards of Eientei would be swarming the area soon enough in search of Kaguya's executioner but she didn't particularly care.
With Kaguya's immortality, you'd think they'd be used to their beloved princess dying by now but they always seemed so damn outraged. Probably scared of displeasing the tyrannical Eirin and ending up 'volunteering' for some new and untested procedure.
Mokou weaved in between the bamboo shoots with ease despite the darkness, her own burning aura providing all the illumination she required. Cirno followed closely behind, a blue glowing spear chasing the radiant fire. They were going fast and Mokou reluctantly shielded Flandre from the biting winds created by her blistering speed.
In Mokou's sturdy arms was the unconscious Flandre who breathed steadily in a dreamy state. She looked so peaceful and sweet in her mature looking red dress like a child playing dress up with their mother's clothing and nothing like the angry, rage filled firecracker from moments earlier. Hopefully the little ticking time bomb wouldn't wake up while held so dangerously close to Mokou's chest.
"Hey, you'd better be careful with her you delinquent!" Cirno said as she flew up alongside Mokou and her precious, sleeping passenger. Mokou frowned and almost swatted the annoying icy fairy away like an buzzing insect before she remembered that her arms were presently occupied.
"Delinquent?" she snapped while not for the first time wondering what in gods name she was doing. Helping this hapless pair of youngsters was cramping her style but she couldn't just leave them to Kaguya and her cronies, could she? No, at the very least she would deny Kaguya the smug satisfaction of punishing the one that snapped her stupid glowing wand.
"Yeah," accused Cirno. "Only delinquents punch and swear while wearing boys clothing. I've never even seen another girl wearing trousers!"
"Hey, did you forget about me helping you or do fairies have even less memory than a goldfish?"
Cirno spun around angrily like a frosty whirlwind while babbling nonsense. Speckles of hard ice ricocheted off Mokou's increasingly displeased face and once again she considered just abandoning these clowns.
"Stop that you moronic pixie!" she spat. "Or I'll drop your friend so the moon bitches can use the both of you for firewood!"
Cirno settled down quite rapidly after that but still eyed Mokou suspiciously. She wouldn't let anyone bully her friends, particularly while they were sleeping. Light-hearted pranks such as scribbling on faces or using Rumia's shadowy talents to plunge someone into perpetual darkness were perfectly fine, not mean spirited stuff like punching.
Mokou for her part tried to ignore the increasingly irritating fairy while watching out for traps. Without the vampire's exceptional night senses, the exotic Lunarian devices would be much more difficult to avoid, perhaps impossible and that was without factoring in the annoying distractions.
Mokou, who's flaming aura resembled a burning phoenix increased in ferocity as she rocketed between the bamboo stalks, many of which caught aflame in her wake. While Flandre was safely within the eye of the sun, Cirno wasn't so lucky and beads of pure, icy water rolled down her skin like a winter waterfall.
From Cirno's perspective it felt like she was charging headlong into a seething corona of vivid oranges and reds; a constant explosion without end. It almost blinded her and she looked away, her night vision reduced to a painful blur of bright after-images.
Following the blazing comets trail, Cirno at least could avoid colliding into the bamboo. Of course the heat was almost unbearable but she'd manage, somehow. Flying this close to the fire was dangerous but she wasn't some stupid moth; she was the strongest! Well, at least within the confines of the fairy forest but that was the only important place that mattered after all.
Green moss shifted as several arrows shot up from an ancient mechanical launcher, the simple magic identifying and locking onto Mokou's very distinctive, flaming outline. Out of the corner of her eye, Mokou detected the glitter of something unnatural and held her hand out to incinerate anything foolish enough to challenge her.
The arrows were liquidated in mid-flight, their intricate lunar metals no match for the cleansing fire but their bulbous arrowheads burst nevertheless and released their magic. Nightmarish shapes, monsters and abstract concepts came into existence as the captured dreams of human children were released into the world, made manifest by arcane power.
The more harmless glowing skeletons and ghosts were interspersed with more frightening monstrosities with snapping mouths and all seeing eyes. The limitless horrors brought on by the unrestrained imagination of young minds denied rational thinking. Even compared to the lifeforms that stalked Gensokyo, these things were head, shoulders and in many cases tentacles above them in terms of sheer dreadfulness.
As if that wasn't enough, Mokou heard the sharp twinging of other traps triggering at her presence like a domino effect and knew that staying in the bamboo forest was suicide. While immortal, dying often hurt like hell, particularly when facing traps specifically designed to stop her, so Mokou soared towards the green canopy and the freedom offered by the night's sky. Cirno automatically followed as if she were an aqua planet orbiting a scorching sun.
Most of the nightmares were purged by rippling flame, unable to touch the hot purity of Mokou's talents but a few of the more resilient monsters managed to close. A ghoulish abomination that looked like a demonic snake wrapped itself around the fairy's leg. It was a small mercy that Cirno couldn't see that most of it's flesh had been burned away but the rancid smell of decaying meat was still much too apparent.
While Mokou was higher up than Cirno, the older girl still felt the disquieting effects. Mokou knew this particular nightmare; an old relic from her earlier years. She was totally alone in her family hut which looked old and decrepit from age. The thatched roofing was flaking away like blades of yellowing grass. A family portrait hung on the wall but Mokou refused to look at it.
The painful knowledge that her immortality had caused her to outlive everyone she had ever held dear had been a constant torment, not least because she hadn't even been able to find Kaguya until recently. But that was then, and this was now. She had ties to this strange magical land of Gensokyo. Friends and acquaintances, annoyances and old rivalries. She had left sorrow behind and failing that, killing Kaguya never failed to brighten her spirits.
Cirno whimpered as all the bad dreams she had ever experience flooded her mind as poisonous thoughts took hold. Losing her friends, seeing them scattered on the wind made her cry out.
Cirno's emotions ran rampant and as a consequence her powers bubbled up to the surface. Glimmering ice glittered brilliantly as the very air was frozen around her, crystallizing many of the horrors in heavy hoarfrost.
Weighted down in equal part by the burden of ice and the fairy's utter conviction to rid herself of these impure, terrible illusions, many of the aberrations dropped out of the dark sky. Frustrated squeals could be heard as they were denied their tasty snack of emotions.
Without that slimy creep leaching off her thoughts, Cirno suddenly felt elated, like all her birthdays had come at once. Her friends were all safe and sound! Their faces would be full of wonder as she painted a masterful picture of this night's exciting events. She wouldn't even have to embellish anything for once.
Her clear blue wings shone with renewed vigour; the reflection pure like her cheerful nature. The dream demons were bathed in her mischievous light and fizzled out, unable to stand such a joyful spirit. Like shadows, they melted back into the night.
Not too far up ahead, Ran waited patiently in perfect relaxation and reclined leisurely on the forest floor. Looking up into the sparse canopy, she drank in the scents and sounds around her like a predator while licking her lips, reveling in the silent anticipation of the hunt.
The nine-tailed fox couldn't help but become caught up in her more feral nature. No longer the perfect servant, now she was a creature of habit rather than refinement. She had disarmed a few of the Lunarian traps; those unnatural things that didn't belong in this forest and certainly not in Gensokyo.
This must be how Yuyuko feels whenever she gets to sate her never-ending hunger, Ran reflected. Her master's missions were a great opportunity to indulge one's self while operating under the guise of servitude.
Multicoloured birds with misshapen beaks roosted for the night up in the branches of a tree.
The hairs on the back of Ran's neck prickled with excitement. Her sharp nails dug into the earth as she imagined how easy it would be to sneak up on the avian wildlife and feast on mouthwatering, uncooked meat. Ran shook her head, her fluffy tails brushing against her skin as she reminded herself of the mission.
She was Yukari's flawless Shikigami and would carry out her duty to perfection as her master expected nothing less. Still, that wild game did look very tempting indeed.
Ran heard a break in the forest canopy, a rustling of leaves, the distant clicking of devices. Nothing was hidden from her keen senses. Panicked wildlife and other more sinister lifeforms scampered away from the disturbance. The hairs on the back of her neck stood to attention as she took a single, mighty leap and landed atop one of the tallest branches available, her many tails spreading out to help balance her landing.
There they were! She could see all three of them as clearly as a shooting star falling down from the cosmos. Mokou's blazing beacon of light made it easy to pick out all her targets. Not that she needed the additional help. The moon was full with white luminescence and her own eyesight was well used to piercing the darkness in search of elusive prey. This night her prey was a vampire named Flandre.
"As subtle as usual," she whispered before jumping out of the canopy at incredible speeds. Her white hat fluttered wildly as she hurtled herself at the twin fireballs: one coloured a fierce red, the other shining blue. Her long golden tails flattened themselves behind her like nine furry rudders. They helped her control her reckless speed which allowed her to push her maddening velocity to the absolute limit without fear of losing control.
Mokou only had time to register a yellow blur of moment before something hard and fast connected with the underside of her jaw. She grunted, several of her teeth loosened by the unguarded blow. The sleeping Flandre was snatched from her arms. The blazing trail produced by Mokou dissipated as she reeled from the impact but she had seen her fair share of savage scraps in her time and recovered quickly.
Cirno, who's vision was no longer smothered by raging flame struggled to put on the breaks before she barrelled straight into Mokou. Her eyes widened when she noticed that Flandre was no longer safely tucked up within the silver haired girl's arms.
"Where's Flandre?" Cirno exclaimed. "What happened to her?"
Mokou didn't answer. Scatterbrained, it took a lot of concentration to simply stay flying and not drop out of the sky like wild gamebird. A fairy, backlit by a halo of blue light was shouting at her, each word creating a chilly breeze. Something had hit her and taken Flandre, but what exactly? Kaguya, she wondered?
Her neural pathways were aided in recovery by the hourai elixir and within a few seconds, she could think and feel again. The moon loomed over her, a pale giant in the sky. It looked so peaceful and still, the moonlight incredibly calming. Mokou's aching jaw tightened with displeasure. So why was it that she despised such a beautiful sight?
A furious anger overtook Mokou, her internal fires reigniting themselves. The red flames mirrored her state of mind: an intense hurricane on the warpath. Cirno backed away, the heatwave blasting against her skin. Mokou felt like shouting to the heavens, a challenge to whoever had dared to blind-side her like that.
Damned coward!
She noticed a faint set of after-images and looked around to see a flickering yellow speck against the backdrop of total blackness.
That same yellow speck who had put a considerable distance between herself and the angry firestarter was Ran Yakumo who was busy checking her mental map.
Ran scanned the bamboo forest for the clearing her master had indicated. The wind battered against her, resisting her speedy progress. Black clouds of smoke billowed up from small fires across the otherwise peaceful forest and the smell of burning bamboo was pungent and intoxicating. Flandre and her friends had certainly been busy.
The sight of a nine-tailed Kitsune gliding gracefully down to earth would have been quite an inspiring sight had anyone been around to witness it. Woodsmoke filled Ran's nostrils which conjured up distant memories of hidden opium dens.
Ran pushed the needless sentiments aside. The human world was her past, not the present. Her duty took priority and she needed all her concentration to perform the complex mental equations required to access her master's realm; the boundless world that existed just beyond the visible and even the magical.
You couldn't just clap your hands like witchcraft. No, this required serious, almost superhuman understanding. One small mishap could see you plunged into a never-ending free-fall, the possible destinations as numerous as grains of sand in the hottest desert. Ran always marvelled at Yukari's mastery and wondered if she could ever attain such proficiency. No, Ran's mind was wondering again.
Ran dumped the little troublemaker down at her feet. She looked down at the vampire contemptuously, eyeing up the choice cuts of meat. A nasty bruise had formed on Ran's otherwise perfect skin, a reminder of Flandre's disrespect. You wouldn't see Chen acting in such a manner; she had been raised better than that.
"Say hello to Isabelle Paleflower," she said. Perhaps the two nuisances would take care of each other. Wouldn't that be nice?
Well, enough dilly-dallying. Ran held her hands out and silently began the summoning calculations. Reality warped around her as the dimensional rift opened. Colours became louder and more vivid, scents and sounds were amplified or changed into something else altogether. The dark of night was replaced with the obsidian blackness of unreality.
So caught up in the inner workings and complexities of variation, Ran didn't notice the hurtling mass of molten death flying straight at her. Mokou had caught up faster than expected and she was seriously pissed off and judging by the way she shouted at the top of her lungs, she wanted the world to know.
The fireball screamed as the air around it boiled up to superheated degrees. Ran glowed as if she were dangling just inches from the pool of a sweltering blast furnace. Much to enraged to see sense, Mokou had thrown the liquid death while totally heedless of the potential danger of reducing Flandre to cinders.
Cirno's frantic pleas of restraint didn't temper Mokou's rage one bit. With flickering torches in either hand, Mokou swooped down like a vengeful firehawk on wings of flame.
"No, stop!" the ice fairy yelled as she followed while donning a protective, glittering shield of icicles to protect her delicate skin from the powerful heat waves. Speckles of water glittered away before evaporating completely. Cirno hoped that it would last as she tried to place herself between Flandre and Mokou. She would protect her friend, even from another friend.
"Damned annoyances!" Ran spat.
She was caught in the middle of a very delicate procedure and had absolutely no time to breath. It was impossible to both protect herself and Flandre and while she was loath to save the vampire, failing her beloved mistress was much, much worse.
Bizarre energies ran rampant as both realms bled into each other to create a twisted combination of places that made absolutely no sense. Bamboo blackened and sprouted blinking eyeballs and other mutations. The ground cracked as earthworms suddenly bloated in size, some of which burst in a shower of vile smelling ichor. Skin became transparent and hair colour changed with every irregular heartbeat.
Ran tensed, her lithe body conflicted as instinct fought against her more rational inclination. She could feel her already tenuous hold on things slipping into very dangerous territory so she took the only option available to her. She collapsed the dimensional corridor and hoped that her incomplete preparations had been enough.
Mokou and Cirno were caught up, their beings undone into strands of memories as they were pulled into the maelstrom before it closed up like it had never been there.