Disclaimer: Touhou belongs to Zun.

F/N: Owie... Did you have make them hurt me so much...?

A/N: Yes.

F/N: Uuu...

Late night, Stairway to Mt. Shiro, Mima's PoV:

We had been walking up these infernal stairs for what felt like ages. Why Yukari decided that it was a good idea to disable flight on, and around, the mountain, was beyond me.

As we hadn't a clue as what to do with the homicidal Vampire, we simply brought her along for the trip. There's no logical fallacy in that, right? Plus, she's Usagi's sister apparently. How that happened, I'm not sure.

Must be a Vampire thing.

However, what I didn't like about this, was that even though my hand is cut to the bone, and has a nasty chemical burn, I somehow ended up carrying all three of the girls.

I had the unconcious Vampiric sisters slung over each shoulder, while I cradled the snoring, and profusely drooling, Cirno in my arms.

...Why did I have to suggest voting...?

Marisa was mad at me, so she voted in favor of me thrice.

Rumia liked to bother me, as she found my annoyed glare a bit cute, so she too voted for me thrice.

...I, for one, voted in favor of Rumia carrying two of them, and myself the other, as she's quite a bit stronger thanks to her constant practice with that sword of hers.

That reminds me, why haven't I seen it?

"Sunshine, where is that sword of yours?" What was its name again...?

"Tyrfing?" Ahh, right... Why she named it after that legendary sword I'll probably never find out. She claimed ' The name sounds nice, so why not?', long ago, but that claim smells a bit fishy to me.

"Yeah. I haven't once seen it on you, did something happen to it?" Rumia chuckled a moment, and gave a pause to think up a wonderous story, whilst we continued our way up the seemingly endless stairs.

"I kind of... dropped it in the lake..." Rumia sighed, as she hadn't been able to think up any grand tale to make it seem less stupid.

"...And it's been there how long?" I couldn't help but hope she'd say a short amount of time.

However, I knew Rumia better than that.

"W-well... it wasn't long after you died..." Rumia looked away, embarassed that she was afraid of diving underwater.

"...Rumia." Rumia jumped, surprised at my tone.

"Y-y-yes?" The cute little Darkness Youkai looked up at me, as though she was about to be punished.

"When we get back, you will be retrieving it." Rumia had a look of shocked horror on her face.

"B-b-bu-" I interupted her, not interested in hearing her excuses.

"No 'but's, you will be diving down there, as I don't wan't to have to keep watching you impale yourself on my knife, which, I might add, isn't nearly as effective as your sword.

Rumia began to look distraut, thinking about the future. She hated when Mima gave one of her rare lectures, and that goes double when she was the target of said lecture.

"Really, now! I'll never understand how one, let alone a Youkai who is nigh Immortal thanks to her regeneration, can be fine with water, yet scared to death of being fully submerged! Is it your ears? Do you fear water in them?" Rumia open her mouth to speak, before being cut off. "No, it'd be silly if that were the reason." Rumia blushed, as I had hit the nail on the head. "I can't imagine it to be the darkness, for obvious reasons, so what could it be...?" Rumia looked down, ashamed of her fear of cold things in her ears, while we made the final stretch of the climb up the stairs.

"Wow, sure brings me back to my childhood, ze..." Marisa made a comment under her breath, just loud enough for Youkai ears to pick up, but not human ears. You would think Marisa would know not to think aloud by now, as such things are easily heard by some.

It wasn't much longer untill we arived at the top of the stairs, and the gate to Mt Shiro was before us in all of its glory.

It was but a rune etched stone arch, which would normally not even be here were the moon not full. However, one can still leave after a full moon, as Yukari isn't quite as stupid as she pretends to be. The other side of the gate is always active, and as such, one could easily leave.

A rather ineffective prison, really.

The gate began to flicker at our presence, a portal ripping open under the enormous archetecture, and snow began to billow forth from the portal, which contained a pure white landscape. Mt Shiro was actually once part of Gensokyo, but Miko somehow sealed it in its own dimention, which Yukari somehow made a gate to. ...Those two do enjoy doing things that make no sense, huh?

I made my way through the gate, motioning for the others to follow as I did.

"Amazing, da ze..." Marisa was too busy looking at the thousands of runes, all of which she had never seen. I'll admit, I once did the same, but there's no time for that right now.

I deposited the trio of girls on a particularly tall snow bank, and made for the exit, yanking Marisa inside just in time; The outer gate once more faded from reality just as Marisa had cleared the portal, leaving no trace of itself at all.

That is, on the other side. On this side the portal was just fine, and still quite active.

"Now that we're in, who's up for some sleep?" The sun had begun to rise, and as I didn't want to deal with Rumia stumbling about, or ending up stuck in the snow, so I had decided now was the best of times to rest for the ni- day.

Rumia rose her hand in reply to my question, just as I had expected her to.

"What, nobody wants to sleep?" I decided to tease Rumia a bit, as she was quite cute when she squirms.

Rumia rose her other arm, and began to flail them about in a panic. How cute she is when she gets all panicked...

"Kidding, kidding... Anyways... Marisa, help me draw a circle of heat runes. Let's make it..." I looked around for a bit, and found absolutely no good locations. "...Around the pile of sleeping girls." And with that, we got to work on making our camp.

The work was easy, yet rather exausting, as the last time I used that particular spell, I had atleast twice as much magic in me.

I've never really had a whole lot of mana, just like my Pupil. As such, I made a work around, just as she had.

While hers was love, mine was simply pulling the mana from the air. A process which also creates a pleasant scent, if one is paying attention to such a thing, somehow.