Disclaimer: Touhou belongs to Zun.
A/N: I wonder just what Rumia is doing in that orb of hers...? I kinda wanna find out some day, but how would go about that, save for asking? I would ask, but that seems a bit rude, and perhaps a rather personal question. On with the show!
Sunrise, Un-named mountains behind the Hakurei Shrine:
Slowly, everyone began to arive. While waiting for the last member of our little... seach party, Moukou, to arive, we passed the time with small talk. We sat upon the ground in a circle, in a particularly grassy area. Aya still had yet to wake up, so we decided to just let her continue on like she had been.
"So, what have you guys been doing lately?" Wriggle was the one that broke the awkward silence, giving way for awkward discussion, awkward tales, with awkward an ending, or maybe less awkward chit chat.
"U-umm, I guess I've started living with Cirno again, after my tree got stolen..." Daiyousei felt rather uncomfortable, but less so, now that there was some way to pass the time.
"What? That's horrible!" Wriggle couldn't help but feel outraged whenever the strong muscled her friends out of things. Or worse, when they turn on their fellow Youkai, and devour them.
"Is that so~?" Rumia simply regarded the topic with indifference, not realy caring much for the fairy's plight. Though it helps that Rumia simply sleeps wherever there is pleanty of darkness, and can easily strong arm others for use of said dark places. Most times she even shared a cave, when the Youkai in question was more sensable. The caves of gensokyo weren't owned by any Youkai, but simply used when each day came. First come, first serve, or share. Rumia wasn't so selfish as to let another creature of the night go without a place to sleep, plus there were some ...benefits... to sharing a cave. Rumia drooled some at the thought of what fun sharing could bring. Everyone else simply stared at the spaced out Rumia, who before long had a light blush on her cheeks from noticing that the entire group was staring at her.
"My turn, I guess... Well, I found a large cave a few weeks ago, which a few Youkai were already sharing, and there was pleanty of room, so I stayed there too. When night came, we all were feeling rather ...antsy, so w-" Mystia quickly clapped a hand over Rumia's mouth. She knew exactly how that story was going to go, as Rumia had already told her of that little ...adventure of hers. Needless to say, It wasn't the best story to tell to an audience. After a short silence, I decided to take my turn.
"Umm... Nothing realy exciting happens to me, but while was asleep I dodged a huge laser!" Everyone gave me odd looks, other than Cirno. Cirno grinned happily, knowing that had I been hit, I would have died rather painfully. Slowly being burned away by a laser never felt too good. Cirno knew well, as she had been on the recieving end of a rather large number of master sparks.
"Ahh, also my new arm kind of... I guess, ate the fog." The rest of the group simply stared at my once missing arm, rather shocked. Wriggle had been wondering what happened to all of the fog, and now knew. ...Somehow the answer to that question didn't satisfy her nearly as much as it should. Before she could question me, Cirno stood up.
"Mokou is way late, somthing must have happened, maybe she found the source, and is fighting for her life! Usa, you able to find the real source this time?" The whole group was looking to me, hoping I could once more deliver.
"Well, without the mist I- ehh? What do you mean? Well, alright... Wait, how are you talking? Realy?" Everyone simply looked at me like I had gone mad. Maybe I had. My hand had begun to tell me things. Whisper that It knew where the real source was, and that It had been far too long since it had anyone to talk to. the Mist had become a part of me, due to my little blunder of touching the gem it was trapped inside of. After breaking the gem, the two of us became one. Had Cirno not broken the gem, I too would have been sealed. In a way my arm was now what it was sealed within, as well as it being the fog itself. So, the fog was alive, huh?
"W-well?" My master seemed rather nervous, having no idea what was going on.
"Ahh, my arm says it can lead the way to the source. Ohh? Well, I guess I can do that." Many eyebrows shot up, and there was a major doubt cast on my sanity. I walk over to Aya, and simply touch her cheek. Suddenly chains come off of her, and dig into my foggy arm. The arm crackles, restisting the spell, before it began to pulse. Arm told me that anyone who falls asleep couldn't wake back up, and that the Tengu's conciousness was sealed, so it would be a good idea to help her. After a short struggle, Aya finally woke up. Everyone looked to me in shock. Just what had I done? Arm was silent, maybe it couldn't hear my thoughts. Well, atleast I have privacy still...
"Where... am I...?" Aya seemed rather out of it, and was seeing tripple. This day was starting to get rather odd, indeed.
"Usa, what did you... do?" Cirno wasn't sure what to make of what had happened. Heck, even I wasn't sure.
"Ahh, well, my arm said that Aya couldn't wake up, so we fixed that!" The explaination I gave hardly helped cure the confusion in master, or the rest of the team.
"Err, right. Anyways, lets get going, alright? Even if she can't die, death still hurts." Having a good enough reason to be in a hurry, Cirno took my non-foggy looking hand, and had me point the way. Everyone else followed, as they had even less idea of where to go. I didn't even have to move a muscle in the arm, as the hand would point for me. What a nice little... fog... thing...
Before long we came upon more of the fog, which my hand simply pulled in. The more that was eaten by it, the less foggy it looked, and the more solid it appeared. By the time we had reached anything, it was a pure white, as though made of fine ivory.
"Wait... I know this place... this is... Wait, where's that nice lady? And all of the blood?" Once more all eyes were upon me, save for Aya, who was still unable to see strait, and was looking at a tree that she thought was me. Once more I seemed to be sounding crazy, hooray! Wriggle had been assisting Aya in flight, leading her by the hand towards our destination; an empty lake, which smelled of blood. In the center floated an island, which seemed to defy gravity by simply floating there. The land looked scarred by battle, and covered in spilled blood, maybe Mokou had been here... Wait, I remember the lady said something about a gate, maybe that's where we need to go?