With my newfound ability to fly, I was able to get around places a lot more efficiently when it came to the outside. I was even flying around inside the mansion until Sakuya yelled at me, saying no flying inside the mansion unless in combat. I tried to listen, but it was so much fun flying to and fro. Plus I think it just helped to practice while I was doing my usual duties. I was still far from perfect at flying so I needed to practice whenever I could. I needed to fine tune my ability to fly in order for me to be able to face that accursed fairy. My main objective once I was finished with my work in the mansion was to find that fairy and retake what she had stolen from me. A fight was sure to break out between us, but I needed to find the dumb girl first.
My last chore before going on the hunt for that fairy was to take some books to Alice. This was a good thing because I wanted to ask her if she would know where I could find that fairy. No one in the mansion would help due to Lady Remilia's insistence that I find out myself. It only made my mission needlessly hard I thought. When I got to Alice's place, I popped my question and was immediately told to just search around Misty Lake. Not much help, but then again, with my ability to fly, combing the entire lake shouldn't be too difficult. So with only that bit of information to go on, I went to the lake and flew all around it.
I flew around the lake a few times, finding no sign of that ice fairy or her comrade. I grew frustrated real quick. I flew high and low in an effort to maybe catch them meandering about on land or in the sky, but I found no trace of them. With not much else I could do, I widened my search area, going as far as the base of the Youkai Mountain. I decided to search around there and that's when I came upon something rather interesting. A little village next to a river is what I came upon and its inhabitants were these short people. With the intention of probing some for answers, I landed behind one of the short stacks and promptly scared her.
"Oh, jeez!" the girl exclaimed. "Why you scare me like that?"
"Heh, sorry about that," I apologized before putting on a serious expression. "I'm here looking for some answers."
"Y-You…!" The girl suddenly looked terrified when she appeared to have come to some conclusion. "I-It's him! It's the kappa eater! Run for it!" she shouted.
My jaw dropped at the accusation. "A what now?!"
Before I could get any sort of clarification, the girl took off running. All the other little people in the area also took off running, dashing into buildings and slamming the doors shut. In just a few short seconds, I was suddenly in a ghost town. The only company I had was the presence of some wind.
"What the hell…?" I said, distraught.
I started to walk when I spotted movement behind the corner of what looked like it could be a warehouse. It was one of those little people and she poked her head out, only to hide herself when she made eye contact with me. Disgruntled, I shouted for the girl.
"Hey! Come talk to me. I only want to ask some questions." I got no answer so I decided to make my way towards her. "Come on, now. I'm not a kappa eater or whatever so come out of hiding."
The girl poked her head out again. "Are you sure?" she asked in a shy voice. "That ice fairy said otherwise."
That fucking fairy…
"I'm sure so come on out of there. I'm not here to hurt anyone. Unless you're a fairy. Then we'll have some problems," I said.
The girl jumped out of hiding, looking rather offended. "I'm no fairy! I'm a kappa!" she said.
The girl had blue hair tied into twin tails and had a pair of blue eyes. She wore a blue dress with lots of pockets on it. She was wearing a backpack and a green hat. On her feet was a pair of blue boots. She looked quite cute.
"What on earth is a kappa?" I asked.
"You don't know what a kappa is?!" the girl asked, shocked.
"I don't and I don't really care to know. What I care about is getting my questions answered," I stated. "Have you seen that ice fairy recently?"
"That ice fairy? I haven't," the girl said.
"Damn…"
"Wait a minute…" The girl started as she eyeballed me up and down. "Aren't you that new vampire by the name of Isaac?"
"Yes, yes. That's me," I said tiredly.
"Wow! This must be fate!" the girl said cheerfully. "My name is Nitori. I actually have something of yours."
"Do you now?" I asked, feeling suspicious.
"Yeah! Come with me! I'll show you," Nitori said.
I sighed. "I really don't have time for this. But I'm interested enough so why not," I said then followed the happy little… kappa.
Nitori took me inside the large warehouse and the inside proved to be one gigantic mess. Metal trash and an assortment of broken parts from different kinds of machinery was scattered all around. There were a number of benches with tools sitting on them. Needless to say, the place was a dump.
"What a dump," I said out loud.
"Hey! This isn't a dump. It's where I do all of my work," Nitori said angrily.
"Calm your tits, I didn't mean to offend, but this place could use some organization, you know," I said with sincerity.
The girl blushed as she twiddled her thumbs. "Sure, sure… But that's not why I brought you in here for. I brought you here…" She ran to the center of the building and presented me with something. "For this!"
I walked up to the girl and looked at what she wanted me to see and once I saw it, my heart skipped a beat. A wide smile then formed across my face. "A motorcycle! A completely smashed one, but a motorcycle none the less!" I said, almost speechless.
I would have never thought I'd find a motorcycle within Gensokyo. I mean most of the stuff inside the building I wouldn't have expected to ever see again. But I was well pleased with what I was shown. But the girl said it was something of mine. That's impossible. But I looked closer at the bashed up machine and my heart skipped another beat, painfully this time. The vision of me crashing my motorcycle flashed across my mind. A sudden spike of pain wracked my mind. I fell to my knees gripping my head.
The kappa girl looked worried. "Are… Are you okay, Mister Isaac?" she asked.
"Where… Where did you get this? This should have been on the other side of the ocean, lost somewhere in a forest," I said, fighting through the pain in my head.
"The gap youkai dropped it off here suddenly one day," she said. "She said it belonged to the new vampire in Gensokyo and told me to try and fix it up."
"The gap youkai?" I asked, unsure as to whom she was talking about, but I then remembered who it referred to. I couldn't remember her name, but it was that strange women with blonde hair and blazing yellow eyes I met a while back. "Wait, SHE gave it to you? How the hell did she manage that?"
"Well, she can create gaps in space, you weirdo," she said.
"Yes, but… still…" I was speechless. How did that gap youkai even find it? How did she know? Did Remilia mention something about it to her by some chance? I don't know, but it was something I wanted to find out at some point.
Nitori walked around the beat up motorcycle, examining it. "I have been working on it, but it was badly damaged when I got it. I happened to have some tires that fit so I put those on. The chassis is banged up real bad, but I think I can reshape it. It's the motor I'm having problems with," she stated.
I got back up to my feet once the pain had subsided. I hesitantly placed my hand on the seat of the motorcycle and remembered working on it myself. I was a mechanic, after all. Maybe, just maybe, there was a chance to bring this baby back to life. But, as painful as it was to say, it had to wait. I was still on the hunt for that ice fairy. Getting back that glowing nail was my top priority.
"I think I can help you in fixing this up, but it'll have to wait. I'm in desperate need in finding that fairy I mentioned," I said.
"You can?! That would be so cool!" she said excitedly.
"Yeah. Nitori, was it? I'll be sure to remember your name. I'll stop by some other time to see what can be done with the engine, but for now, I must leave," I said.
"Okay!" The kappa girl bashfully hid behind the motorcycle. "It was nice to meet you, Isaac."
"Likewise," I replied happily.
I took my leave and headed back into the sky. I searched the forests around the little kappa village for any sign of a blue fairy, but found none. I then returned to Misty Lake and did another round of searching there. Finding nothing, I decided to search inside the Forest of Magic. Unfortunately I had to go on foot from there. The canopy was too thick to see anything on the ground from above. I ran around like someone with their head chopped off searching for any signs of life. I actually came upon Marisa's home at one point. I had knocked on her door to see if she could aid me, but she wasn't home, leaving me to continue the search alone. A couple hours had gone by and I was about to give up the search inside the forest, but that's when I finally found my target. That nail was going to be back in my hands.
The ice fairy, Cirno, and her friend Dai-whatever were in a small clearing with another group of fairies. Cirno stood on the stump of a tree, proudly presenting the glowing nail she had stolen from me to the three fairies. With my eyes stabbing into the back of the blue fairy, I slowly made my approach.
"As I told you already," Cirno began. "Not only did I defeat a vampire, but I was able to take this cool glowing thingy from him as proof." The three other fairies looked on the nail in awe. "So now I'm the undisputed master of not only Misty Lake, but also of the Forest of Magic."
The three fairies burst into laughter at Cirno's last line. "Yeah, sure, whatever you say, Cirno," one of the fairies, a red head, said.
"It's true!" Cirno said in a fit of childish anger. "If he was here right now, I'd beat him up in front of you to prove it."
"You mean that guy?" one of the fairies said, the brown haired one. She pointed to me and Cirno and her green-haired friend turned around. They were both shocked to see me.
"You!" Cirno exclaimed.
"Yes, me," I answered. With my vampiric speed, I closed the distance between Cirno and I in an instant. "Me, me, me, me, me."
"Ah!" The ice fairy jumped back in fright, dropping the glowing nail at my feet.
I reached down and picked up the nail and placed it in my pocket. "Now, for your punishment," I said in a dark voice.
A few dots of sweat appeared on the blue fairy's face. "H-Hey! That's mine! You lost it to me fair and square," she said.
"Damn it, Cirno, this man does not look like he's messing around," the green-haired fairy said.
I held my palm towards Cirno. "I'm not." I then unleashed a large blast of blue energy from the palm of my hand. The fairy dodged into the air, avoiding being incinerated like the ground was. The loud explosion caused the other three fairies to panic and run into the depths of the forest. Now I didn't have to worry about getting them involved. I was free to go buck wild on this ice fairy.
"I'll beat you like I did last time," Cirno boldly stated as she pulled out a spell card, but I was faster with mine.
I quickly pulled out a spell card and called out its name. "Fury Sign "Hellbound Heart"!" I declared.
The card burned up in a fury of blue flames and its power flowed through me. I felt an immense amount of strength poor into my hands. My nails turned into claws and that's when I began to swipe at the air with great speed. My swipes created dark blue, crescent shaped danmaku that cut through the air. One such danmaku sliced through the spell card Cirno was going to use, rendering it useless. Another nearly took her head, but she moved out of the way in time. She tried to dodge another bullet, but was grazed by it, slicing her right cheek. Blood trickled down her face. She looked like she was panicking, but she suddenly grew bold and formed a sword out of ice. She began slashing at the crescent shaped danmaku that came at her. While doing this, she slowly approached me. Big mistake. She was in a better position at a distance, but it looked like she wanted to get close to me so she can cut me with her sword in revenge for me cutting her. She really was just a kid, but that wasn't going to stop me from punishing her for her crime. Once my spell card was finished, the ice fairy leapt into the air with her sword then swung downward with it in an attempt to cut me in two. I caught the blade with one hand, clenched my hand into a fist and shattered the sword. I retaliated while she was caught off guard, kneeing her in the gut and sending her flying backwards. She bounced off a tree and fell to the ground. She quickly got back to her feet, clenching her pained stomach.
"I won't lose to you!" the girl declared.
She pulled out a spell card and declared its name. "Hail Sign "Hailstorm"!" she cried out.
Immediately an explosion of icy bullets spiraled outward from her. My vision was quickly covered in the bullets of ice. I was forced to dance between the bullets, jumping and sliding to the side in order to avoid the shots, but the uncanny movements of the danmaku made it very difficult to avoid them. I was struck several times and I yelped with each hit I took. It was painful, but I used that pain to fuel my power.
To the fairy's surprise, I flew up into the air and out of the hail of bullets. Cirno fired another wave of icy danmaku at me, but, with both my palms facing forward, I blew them all away with a powerful blast of magical blue energy. Cirno was forced to end her spell and leap out of the incoming blast of magic. She avoided being directly hit, but wasn't able to escape the explosion once my attack hit the ground. She was blasted away, but she caught herself in midair. She growled angrily at me then swiped her arm in an arc in front of her, sending out a wave of chilling air. I crossed my arms in front of me to shield myself from the wind, but the wind was so cold that it started to freeze the front of my body. Ice formed on me, leaving me in numbing pain. With a burst of power, I was able to break off all the ice and cancel out the icy wind. With a clear shot to my target, I rushed forward and got into melee distance with the shorty. I swiped my leg under her feet, but she jumped over it. I threw a punch towards her, but she formed a shield of ice to protect herself. I broke through the shield with my fist, catching the girl in the cheek. The icy shield had absorbed much of my momentum so I didn't hit her that hard. She easily took the punch with an arrogant grin. She went to kick me in the balls in retaliation, but I closed my legs on her, catching her leg. I then grabbed hold of her leg and swung her over my head and swung her about. She cried out for me to stop, so I did. I took her and smashed her into the ground. I again went to blast her with a bolt of energy, but she rolled out of the way in time. She got up to her feet and pulled out a spell card, as did I.
"Freeze Sign "Perfect Freeze"!" she declared.
"Blood Sign "Tormenting Soul"!" I declared.
Cirno unleashed a torrent of circular danmaku of ice towards me. I released my own wave of bloody red danmaku, countering her spell. Each of our bullets would collide with one another, unleashing an explosion, but some bullets would get through, forcing both of us to dodge. Even though we were putting a lot of energy into dodging, we both kept our spells going. It was draining to focus both on maintaining my spell and dodging the fairy's attack, but it must have been the same for her. As I danced through the horde of danmaku, I slowly closed the distance between me and the fairy. Once I got close enough, I ended my spell and rushed the girl down, I rammed into her, putting an end to her spell. I knocked her into a tree then crashed into her, smashing through the tree. I sent her rolling across the ground until she stopped. She slowly got up, clenching at her chest. She coughed and gagged from having the wind knocked out of her.
I shrugged my shoulders, nearly content with the amount of punishment I had given the ice fairy. "Are you ready to apologize, girl?" I asked.
"Never!" she shouted in utter defiance.
I sighed. "Fine then. Be that way," I said, stressed.
With my unnatural speed, I ran up to the fairy. She had pulled out another spell card, but I grabbed her by the wrist and squeezed it, forcing the card from her hand. She yelped from the pain then tried to form a sword of ice. I stopped her by kneeing her in the gut. I then wrapped my arms around her waist and lifted her up with her head behind me and her butt in the front of me. With the palm of my hand, I began to spank the ever living shit out of her.
"Ouch! Ow! Gah! Ow! S-Stop! I said stop! Gah!" Cirno cried out.
"It'll stop once you apologize," I said in earnest. "And I'd better hurry before your ass becomes completely red."
The girl stubbornly refused at first, but soon I had broken her. "F-Fine! I'm sorry, okay?! Please stop!" she yelled. And with that, I released her. She hit the ground with an oof and then tried to get to her feet. She struggled to stand. She started rubbing her pained ass. "Ooo, it hurts so much! Damn it!"
That green-haired fairy appeared and rushed to her friend's side. "Cirno, are you okay?" she asked.
"It's my butt! The bastard slapped my butt!" Cirno exclaimed as she continued to rub her sore behind.
I reached for the sky in a stretch. "Alright, I feel better now," I said. I then glared at the two fairies. "Never steal from me again. Got it?"
Both the girls let out a small cry of fright. "We won't, we swear!" the green-haired girl said.
"Good!" I said with a smile.
I turned to take my leave, but my fight for the second glowing nail was not over. Blocking my way home was that bunny girl from Eientei. It was the one who Marisa battled with so I could get away that night I got the glowing nail. She had an awfully intense look on her face.
I stood on guard. "Reisen, was it? What is it you want," I asked.
The rabbit girl looked to me then to the two fairies behind me then back to me. "It looks like you had some trouble with those two. Too bad I didn't get here sooner. I could have gotten that nail from the fairies and not have had to bother with you. Then again, catching you outside the mansion with the nail all alone is quite lucky for me," she said.
"You say that like you could possibly take the nail away from me," I said with sternness in my voice.
"But of course. I was going to sneak in the mansion and take back what you had stolen, but it would appear that won't be necessary," she said. "It would be even better if you simply returned what you stole. I won't even ask for an apology. Just give me the nail and we can be on our merry way." She held out her hand and waited for me to return the nail. Was this girl nuts?
"You're gonna have to destroy me first before I ever give you this nail," I said with intense determination.
The girl looked shocked and even frighten at my resolve. "Why is that nail so important to you for you to go that far? I don't want to hurt you over it," she said.
"It's to protect my master. It's as simple as that," I stated.
"Hmm… I see," Reisen said as she thought about my words. She then sighed. "This isn't going to turn out well, I'm afraid."
"It is what it is," I said. "If you want this nail returned so badly then you better come at me with everything you have."
Reisen looked sad, but she then tightened up her face and glared back at me. "I was ordered to get back the nail you stole and that's exactly what I'm going to do," she said. I felt her resolve, but was it stronger than my own? We were going to find out.
The rabbit girl didn't waste any more time talking and blasted off towards me. She threw a punch at me and I blocked it with my arms. She quickly kicked me in the knee, making me lose my balance before getting in a punch to my face. I snarled angrily then threw my own punch at her. She stepped to the side to avoid the punch then retaliated with an elbow to my nose, crushing it. Blood poured from my nostrils. Growing ever angrier, I threw a jab at her then a second, but she avoided both. She was quick both on her feet and in her arms. She jabbed me in return in the chest then uppercutted me, knocking me backwards. I kept on my feet then rushed the girl. I went to ram into her with my shoulder, but she leapt into the air and landed hard on my head. She bounced off me and landed behind me. I swung around with a hook shot and caught her in the face, knocking her backwards. A trickle of blood ran down the corner of her mouth, but she kept a harden expression. She then flew up into the air and pulled out a spell card.
"Wave Sign "Mind Shaker"!" she declared and rings of blue and pink bullets was unleashed.
I gasped from the amount of danmaku her spell released, but I quickly got ready to avoid the horde of bullets. I flew straight up, going through the canopy of the forest and into the sky. Reisen followed me while firing off wave after wave of magical bullets. I dodged left and right, but I couldn't avoid them all. I took several hits, each hit stinging like a son of a bitch. The rings of bullets had become tighter all of a sudden, making it nearly impossible for me to squeeze through them. So I decided to form a ball of blue energy in the palm of my hand then threw it. I detonated the ball of energy, unleashing a large explosion and clearing a space out for me to go through. I rushed to get into melee range with the rabbit girl and I managed to do so. She ended her spell in time to avoid a wide swing from me. She kneed me in the gut then head-butted me, but she merely bounced her own head off mine, hurting herself more than me. She was stunned from her own attack so I took the opportunity to punch her in the nose, but she… moved strangely. No, she didn't exactly move. It was like I simply missed her. I tried to punch her again, but just like the first punch, I somehow missed a non-moving target. It was then I realized that my vision was a little wavy. I couldn't even begin to tell you why. It wasn't from fatigue, I know that for sure. It was something else and I suspected the rabbit girl had something to do with it.
Taking advantage of my confused state, Reisen roundhouse kicked me in the side, sending me flying. I caught myself then quickly pulled out a spell card. "Fury Sign "Spiraling Madness"!" I declared.
With my right arm held out straight, two beams of red and blue color circled down the length of my arm and fired towards Reisen. The two beams formed the shape of a helix as it flew across the sky. She dodged the first beam. I held out my left arm and fired another beam of energy towards her. She evaded that one too, but I started firing beams of energy rapidly, alternating between my right and left arms. She danced around the sky, moving and stopping every which way in order to avoid being struck by my attack. She held out for a while, but I managed to land a hit on her. A beam hit her, erupting into an explosion on impact. I heard her cry out in anguish as she was knocked out of the sky. I didn't stop my attack and continued firing at the girl as she fell out of the sky. She fell back into the forest below and I bombarded the entire area. The explosions rumbled the land below and destroyed trees. After some time passed, I ceased my spell and flew down into the forest.
The ground was riddled with holes from my attack. Smoke emitted from the holes, obscuring my vision of the area. But soon the smoke departed and I was given a clear view of the place. Reisen was standing with her hand to her burned belly. That's where I must have hit her with my attack. She looked like she was in pain as she panted. She glared deeply at me.
"You can always go home, you know," I said, a bit desperate to end this fight as soon as possible.
"I cannot do that," she replied.
I sighed angrily. "Fine. Be stubborn," I said.
"I'm surprised you are able to fly. I assumed you couldn't," Reisen said.
"Yeah, well, I trained long and hard to be able to fly for a moment like this," I informed.
"That makes me wonder… Why don't you have wings like those other two vampires? You were created by one of them right? So shouldn't you have wings as they do?" she asked.
The thought never hit me before now. I mean, I knew I didn't have a set, but I never really cared, especially during the time I was being defiant with Remilia. But now that I was being asked about my lack of wings, I wanted to know why I didn't have any. Another question to ask Lady Remilia. I'll ask her when I present her with the second glowing nail.
"I don't know why, but that doesn't matter right now. What matters is that you need to go home right now," I said.
The girl sighed. "I suppose it doesn't matter, as you said, but I'm not going home empty handed," she said.
"I beg to differ," I said.
I kicked off the ground and ran towards the girl. But that's when it hit me. My stomach was suddenly hurting, as if I was about ready to puke. In pain, I held my gut. I looked to the ground and noticed it was wobbling. What the hell was going on? I looked back up and noticed that Reisen too seemed to wobble. No, my entire vision was wobbling. What was going on with my vision? What was this girl doing to me? Did she somehow drug me? I wasn't given much time to think before the girl launched her next attack.
"Illusion Wave "Mind Blowing"!" she declared and two identical waves of blue and pink bullet shaped danmaku were released.
I went to move, but I lost my balance. I looked at my legs and they were swaying like crazy. The pain in my stomach became intense and I was about to throw up before the wave of danmaku reached me. I was left defenseless as I was pelted hard by the attack. I took hits everywhere on my body. By the time the spell was over, I was lying on my back, suffering from all the blows I took. Groaning from all the pain, I managed to sit myself up, but when I did, that's when I ended up throwing up on the ground. My head swayed from side to side as my vision became too distorted for me to stand up. There was nothing I could do in such a state.
Reisen walked up to me. Her eyes seemed to glow. "Sorry I did what I did, but it was the only way to subdue you before things got really violent," she said.
I stared up at her. "Wh-What did you do to me?" I demanded an answer.
"You're going a little insane. You keep staring into my eyes long enough and you truly will lose it," she said.
"You're kidding me."
"I'm not," she said then crouched down in front of me. "It's time you return what you stole." She reached into my pocket and took the gleaming nail. She looked at it and sighed in relief. "I'll tell the princess that you fought hard to keep this."
No, no, no! I can't lose the nail! I need to do something! Think! Think!
And do something I did. With desperation at its most critical point, I let out the most horrid screech one could ever hear. It was a screech of a vampire at their breaking point. The screech shook my body and the air around me. My own ears bled from the incredibly loud noise I was producing. But I wasn't the only one to be effected by my powerful screech. Reisen too was suffering from the noise and had dropped the nail in order to clasp her hands over her ears. They too bled. She screamed for me to stop, but I didn't stop until there was no more air in my lungs. Once it was over, I was coughing and gagging. Reisen was on the ground trembling, her hands still over her ears. My body also shook, but my vision had finally been corrected and the pain in my stomach had ceased. I quickly snatched the glowing nail off the ground and stood up.
"It's done," I said, panting from fatigue.
I remembered the rabbit girl saying she was going to try and steal the nail from the mansion. If I were to leave now and leave her be, would she try to do just that at another date? The idea left a terrible taste in my mouth. I pulled out my revolver, but I did not point it at the girl. The girl opened her eyes to see the gun in my hand. She shivered more from the sight.
"Y-You wouldn't," she said in a weak voice.
I simply looked at her for a few moments before letting out a drawn out sigh. I put the revolver away. "No. I wouldn't. But for all that is holy, if you make any attempt to steal this nail back from the mansion, I will find you and do what I have to do. You just don't have any idea how important this thing is," I said. I let out another sigh. "Tell that so-called princess of yours that she'll never get the nail back. But… Tell her that I'll do something to repay her. I don't know what, but I'll try to do something. Alright?" I leaned down and presented my hand out to Reisen.
She looked at my hand and hesitated for a moment before taking hold of my hand. I helped her up to her feet. Her legs were still shaking, but she was able to remain standing. That screech of mine really did a number on her.
Reisen nodded. "Though I'm going to be punished for not being able to retrieve the nail, I will tell the princess what you told me," she said.
"It's better for this nail to be in our possession. It's for everyone's own good, not just my master's." I said with a small smile.
"Is it though, young fledgling?" the voice of another woman suddenly said.
Reisen and I looked to our side to find a blonde woman sticking out of some kind of hole in space. I was disturbed by what I saw, but it wasn't the first time I saw this woman. Her blazing yellow eyes were locked on mine and she held an intimidating smile. It was only when I saw her again after all this time did I remember her name.
"Yu… Yukari?" I asked for conformation.
The woman's smile enlarged further. "That's right, my dear," she said. "Why don't we… have a little chat, you and I…?"
What choice did I have? I needed to get the damn nail back to the mansion, but there was no refusing this woman. I was too hurt and frighten to. So, with a reluctant nod I gave, she stepped out of her gap then gestured me to enter it. With a heavy gulp, I took a step forward toward the gap with the many eyes looking out at me. The eyes took hold of me and pulled at me. I stopped right before entering. I had to strengthen my resolve before I could take that final step into the gap. I steeled my heart and entered, not knowing what was waiting for me on the other side.