Another day passed in Gensokyo. Nue's plan was finished, as it appeared all objects were now unidentifiable to everyone other than the residents of Gensokyo themselves, proven by Ran Yakumo, who volunteered to not take the drug until the plan had succeeded in order to make sure it all worked. Nue and Kogasa headed back to the Myouren temple, where Byakuren was waiting for them. She smiled upon their arrival, greeting them back.
"Welcome back," Byakuren said. "I hear your plan was successful. That must have boosted everyone's Morale across Gensokyo."
"It's the least I could do after Yukari asked something from me," Nue said, sighing as she appeared tired from the work. "Where is everyone, anyway? We've been the only one's at the temple since Marisa and that new Youkai came here."
"Oh, I guess you didn't run into her then," Byakuren said, smiling still. "Nazrin, Shou, Murasa, Ichirin and Mamizou all went off somewhere to make a replica of the Palanquin Ship they plan to use against the Martians. I'm not sure myself how much it will help, but Murasa seemed ecstatic at being the captain of a ship again after all these years."
"Hm? So even Shou and everyone is getting involved now?" Nue asked, tilting her head slightly. Byakuren nodded.
"Apparently. I don't know if she did it mainly out of desire to protect Gensokyo at all costs. Though, with Bishamonten being the god of warfare, it may have been his wishes for this to happen. Shou would be obligated to get involved, being his avatar."
"I guess that makes sense," Nue nodded, turning to Kogasa. "We'll go help her, then. I have a good idea where she might be, so we'll stay and help them out."
"Are you not overworked?" Byakuren said, jumping slightly in surprise. "You should rest for a bit first. I don't want you to wear yourself out working too much."
"We'll be fine, don't worry," Nue smiled, floating slightly off the ground. "Come on, Kogasa. Let's go help them."
"R-right!" Kogasa nodded, flying away with Nue. Byakuren reached out her hand slightly to try and stop them, before stopping and watching them leave. She held her hat in the wind that was created from them flying away at speed, as she continued to stare at the sky even after they left her eyesight.
'If it is Bishamonten's wish for us to take a stand…' Byakuren thought to herself, letting her brain trail off in thought. 'I may not have a choice but to help in battle.'
Meanwhile, within a mansion on the Youkai Mountain, Komachi Onozuka paced around Kasen Ibaraki, her scythe over her shoulder as Kasen's eyes followed the shinigami around.
"You know," Komachi said, stopping in place as, judging only by a silhouette caused by the light shining through a window, a normal person would feel as if their death was around the corner. "For a sage of Gensokyo to take so long to make a move in the current conditions, they must be more slacking on their job than I am. What are you waiting for?"
Kasen stayed still, her heart wavering slightly before catching its normal beating pattern. She took a few seconds to say her answer. "I'm waiting. I hardly trust Yukari, and I haven't seen any proof for myself that there even is any Martians out there, yet alone on the moon. I understand the threat is there, but as it stands, Gensokyo is under no direct threat. I'll step in once they've arrived. I'm strong enough to fend for myself, after all."
Komachi lowered an eye, gripping her scythe tightly as, with one swift motion, she brought it around as it found a new place next to Kasen's neck. "Do you really think someone like Yukari would be making such a big deal out of this if it hasn't been confirmed? If you slacked off like this in such important times, only to lose against the Martians, you'd be judged by my boss rather harshly for that. You're lucky she didn't come here herself to lecture you."
"How did you find out I was a sage, anyway?" Kasen asked, seemingly avoiding what Komachi was saying.
"How can my boss judge people if she doesn't know about them first?" Komachi asked, smiling. "So, answer this question for me. What did you hope to achieve by not doing anything about this with your high rank of power?"
"All of Gensokyo is preparing for the fight," Kasen answered. "Extra help from me would be hardly necessary. The combined strengths of everyone here in Gensokyo should outmatch anything they can throw at us. As a sage myself, my power already outmatches most of them. Best case scenario for Gensokyo, i'll be roughly on par with everyone else by the time it actually happens."
Komachi smiled slightly, nudging her arm towards Kasen's neck, causing the blade to press against the side of it. Kasen gasped in surprise, clutching her chest before Komachi let out a laugh, swinging the scythe back over her shoulder. "Got you there, didn't I? Anyway, i'd advise you start making your move and get training. Oh, and make sure those Taoists are training as well, for me. I need a break." she said, walking out of the mansion, leaving Kasen alone. She stood up and watched as Komachi left the door completely open, going over to close it herself and catch her breath from Komachi's little prank.
In a world separate from Gensokyo, Yukari sat down on a chair at a table, her head resting on the top of her hands. Someone else walked in with some tea, before sitting across from Yukari and smiling.
"Fancy seeing you here after all this time," She said, taking a sip of her tea. "What brings you here after all this time?"
"Gensokyo is in danger," Yukari said, sighing. "As a sage of Gensokyo, I thought you would know that as well."
"Do you want my two servants?" Okina asked, tilting her head. "I'll be happy for you to take them off my hands for a while."
Yukari lowered her eyelids slightly, picking up her cup of tea and sipping it, before carefully placing it back down and lifting her head in a strong and impressive pose. "Okina, as a fellow sage of Gensokyo, I must ask you to help us defend it. They have power we haven't seen before, enough to beat the likes of Tsukuyomi and residents of the moon."
"Tsukuyomi?" Okina said, taken aback slightly by that reveal, placing her hand over her chest and losing all sense of composure. "A powerful god such as him losing? That is quite troublesome. Though, I believe it to be nothing that the grouped up forces of everyone in Gensokyo won't be able to handle."
Yukari darted her eyes away from Okina's slightly, out of nervousness mostly, or perhaps out of shame of what she was about to say. "Not just that, though. They managed to out-smart the lunarians and find a way to keep their city invisible and out of detection for who knows how long. With access to lunarian technology also, I dare say their feats may outshine my own intellect."
Okina paused for a moment, before bursting out in laughter. "You? The Yukari admitting someone might be more intelligent than her? Shapen up a little, will you? I understand the threat and will act accordingly, but you're no fun when you're not being Yukari."
"Huh?" Yukari said, perking her head up slightly, before letting out a long breath, smiling as she did so. "Right. The stress of the situation must be taking a toll on me a little."
Okina smiled, watching as Yukari regained her composure slightly. However, Yukari quickly stood up, causing Okina to open her mouth and widen her eyes a little bit. "Leaving so soon? Please, stick around a little longer. It'd be rude to leave an old friend after such a short conversation with us not seeing each other for a while. I think you might be going a little overkill with the preparations here. Everyone will get on perfectly fine, so you should stay and chat a little while."
Yukari stopped herself in her tracks, sighing as she sat back down in her chair. As the time passed, the conversation the two sages were having dragged onwards, for a surprising amount of time. Eventually, Yukari found herself getting up to leave, as Okina smiled, allowing her to walk away and back into the boundary of Gensokyo. When she left, Satono and Mai entered the room, as Okina stood up with a slightly more serious face on.
"Girls, prepare yourselves," Okina said, putting the chair underneath the table and walking towards the door that the two came through. "If what Yukari told me is true, then those people from the moon will soon realise that their best shot of winning against Gensokyo is striking as soon as possible."
"Master Okina," Satono said, slightly taken by surprise at what she was saying. "What do you mean?"
"People are threatening Gensokyo," Okina said. "Just to be absolutely safe, we're helping in the protection of it. I want the two of you to bring out everyone's latent potential in battle, give them an extra power boost to help defeat their opponents easier. Understand?"
"Y-yes…" Satono and Mai said simultaneously, as Okina left the room. The two of them looked confusingly at each other, seemingly still completely clueless as to what Okina was saying.
"Sakuya!" Remilia said, running over to the maid. "It's time to start training again! Come on, I want to beat all those Martians."
"Yes, Mistress," Sakuya said, looking a pocket watch. She watched the hands tick, creating a noise that killed the silence that the two of them fell into. The two of them felt urged to watch the time tick, listening to the sounds of the time ticking away, neither saying a word. The ticking engraved itself into their souls for two minutes, before Sakuya put the watch away and broke the silence. "Time is running out."
"Seems so," Remilia said, walking past Sakuya and into the courtyard. She looked at the moon rising, as their training typically only happened a night, allowing Remilia to fight at her full power without being shackled by the need to protect herself from the sunlight. Sakuya walked out also, standing next to her mistress as they watched the moon rise into full vision.
"So, Mistress," Sakuya said, breaking the silence once again. "Shall we?"
"No, Sakuya," Remilia said, raising her hand to tell her to stop. She lowered her eyebrows slightly and let out a deep breath. "Gensokyo's going to need some people awake for this night, right? You've noticed it as well."
Sakuya nodded, as they both waited outside in the courtyard, watching the moon.
"Eirin…" Kaguya said, walking into Eirin's room, where she was speaking with Yorihime and Toyohime. "Did you use a spell on the moon again?"
Eirin gasped in surprise, as she quickly ran out, running to the outside and looking up. The two sisters followed her, looking at the moon as well. "Of course. Waiting until night for this to happen…"
"The moon is moving quicker," Yorihime said, gasping as she watched.
"They changed the orbit of the moon so they could see Japan at night…" Eirin said, biting her lip slightly. "They wanted to get us quickly, at night so we're off guard. They had to change the moons orbit with a magic spell so it aligned with Japan, and in doing so, they planned to take us down at the perfect time."
Yorihime and Toyohime looked at each other, before nodding at each other. Kaguya walked out, looking at the moon with them. "Reisen's fast asleep… they're coming now, aren't they?" Eirin nodded, as the four of them fell into silence again.
"Kaguya!" another voice said, cutting them off as they all looked in the direction of the voice. Fujiwara no Mokou ran through the bamboo's, looking at Kaguya with an angry expression on her face. "What are you playing at? What did you do to the moon?"
Kaguya narrowed her eyes, as Mokou continued breathing heavily to catch her breath. "We did nothing…" Kaguya said, yawning. "The Martian's are about to invade."
"What!?" Mokou exclaimed, walking over to them. "So the only people her with connections to the moon didn't do anything?"
Eirin stepped between the two of them, cutting the two of and looking at Mokou. "Now is not the time for arguing. You may be the only other person awake right now, so you're working with us now. Three immortals should do well enough against them, as well as the two sisters. So the two of you should not be fighting at this time. Save it for after all this is over."
Mokou raised her index finger angrily at Eirin, before stopping herself and allowing herself to breath. "Right…" Mokou said, growling a little as she did so. Mokou and Kaguya looked at eachother past Eirin, before nodding begrudgingly at each other.
The rest of Gensokyo fell into complete silence. The last of the residents fell to sleep, with the exception of Remilia, Sakuya, Eirin, Kaguya, Mokou and the Watatsuki sisters. The last of which being Murasa Minamitsu, who was sat at the end of the now completed Palanquin Ship Mark Two, before falling asleep on the deck. The other people in her group were asleep within the ship, including Nue and Kogasa, who arrived to help them with making it. Even gods such as Kanako and Suwako figured the day must be over, turning in for the night with Sanae going to sleep straight after.
Even Yukari, Gensokyo's sworn protector, fell asleep inside the boundary of Gensokyo, along with Chen, who curled up next to her as the two of them were with each other. Ran Yakumo was the only one awake, but without the ability to get into Gensokyo without Yukari, she had no way to intervene.
Okina Matara, along with the two backup dancers, were still awake, however. They had come to Gensokyo, looking around at the unidentifiable mess. "What the hell is all this…" Okina said, her breath slowing as she looked at the static and mess of a blend of colours. Nothing she knew about Gensokyo was able to be recognised, causing her to panic a fair bit. Satono and Mai stood near each other, walking around in circles, as the two of them couldn't even see the main places they tend to visit when they head to Gensokyo. "Are we… too late?"
"No…" Mai said, catching Okina's attention as she looked over to the two of them. "Nothing is destroyed, it's all just… hidden. If it was destroyed, there would be rubble… right?"
Okina nodded at the fact, walking over to a mess of static colours, reaching her hand out and feeling whatever it was. She gripped what seemed to be a bit of bark, ripping it off and looking at it in her hand. It remained a mess of static that she couldn't even make out. "Must have been a tree…" She said, throwing it down on the floor. "You're right, Mai. Everything is just hidden… really well. I can't even make out something like the Hakurei Shrine," she said, looking over in the direction of the forest of magic and Hakurei Shrine, not being able to see anything she could recognise.
Within the hour, Gensokyo was much more active. However, it wasn't active with those who would normally be active within Gensokyo. The five ministries of the Martian City, floated above the entirety of Gensokyo, looking down and seeing what Okina had saw, not making out anything that Yorimi had seen before. Hiroko gave a signal for everyone to spread out to some place that she must have spoke to them about before. Along with them, an army of Martian's appeared on the ground, separated into five divisions headed by one of the ministers.
"It has begun," Eirin said, looking up to the center of Gensokyo. She noticed someone not moving, watching as the five others left, the one coming closer to them accompanied by someone else. "I'll handle the one up there, the rest of you find someone else," she said, flying upwards and passed Kasumi, along with Jitia.
"Hey!" Kasumi said, as Eirin flew passed her, annoyed at the fact that she was ignored. "How about you come back and fight me instead? She's nothing special, so come and fight me!"
"How about someone else," Yorihime said, floating up with her sword in her hand. Kasumi turned around, smiling as she saw Yorihime floating across from her. Yorihime smiled as Kasumi did to, slightly more sadistic than Yorihime's smile.
"Ah, glad you're awake," Kasumi said, showing a slight bit of her teeth. "Just the person I'd like to see here."
Eirin stopped in front of Hiroko, who looked over to the lunarian sage. "Based on what I feel from you, you must be the one who defeated Tsukuyomi, yes?" Eirin asked.
"Who are you…" Hiroko said, looking at Eirin's eyes. "I see. Relative of Tsukuyomi, correct? Eirin Yagokoro, the Brian of the Moon and Lunarian Sage."
Eirin nodded, bring her bow in front of her and placing an arrow in it. "You're the one who accelerated the speed of the moon, correct? Do you have any idea what catastrophes you may have caused?"
Hiroko turned her entire body around, floating above Eirin as she looked seriously down on her. "The moon controls Earth's tides, correct? The tides will have a time difference between them, and that's all I can think of. Other than accelerated night cycles, of course."
Eirin closed her eyes, raising her bow up to the leader of Mars. "That's not what I am referring to. The moon was tidally locked. People here on Earth only ever saw one side of the moon, and not the other one. That is where we built the Lunar Capital, and with an accelerated orbital time, the Lunar Capital will come into view from Earth. As I am still a sage of the moon, I can't allow that to happen. And I must stop the invasion of Gensokyo, along with get revenge for Tsukuyomi." Eirin said, narrowing her eye down to focus on where the arrow will land. "Prepare yourself." she said, as the arrow was released from the bow.
*Spell Card!* Character Insight!
Komachi Onozuka: A shinigami who tends to slack on her job a lot. She was placed in charge of keeping an eye on Kasen Ibaraki, making sure she stays in check and doesn't do anything fishy. The two share an antagonistic rivalry with each other, where the two distrust each other. She is also the person who ferries souls into the Yama. She has the ability to manipulate distance, allowing her to manipulate the space between her and the place she is heading to.
Kasen Ibaraki: A sage of Gensokyo along with Yukari Yakumo and Okina Matara, who contributed in the creation of Gensokyo. She lives in a mansion on the Youkai Mountain, where Komachi occasionally visits, where the two share an antagonistic rivalry. She has to ability to guide animals, where she talks with the animals in order to employ them to do work for her.
Okina Matara: Another sage of Gensokyo along with Yukari Yakumo and Kasen Ibaraki, contributing to the creation of Gensokyo. She lives in 'The Land of Back Doors', along with Satono Nishida and Mai Teireida. She has the ability to create doors on the backs of anything, which allows her to travel through those doors and to different places. She also gave the ability to enhance Vitality and Mental Energy to her two servants.
Satono and Mai: The two servants of Okina Matara, who were entrusted by the sage herself. They both retain little memory of their time as a human, due to how long they have been serving Okina Matara. Satono has the ability to draw out the Mental Energy of people by dancing behind them, whereas Mai has the ability to bring out the latent Vitality in someone by dancing behind them.
Fujiwara no Mokou: Mokou was formally a human who drank the Hourai Elixir in order to become immortal. Due to being ostracized for so long, Mokou is a natural loner, choosing not to socialise with humans and youkais alike. Along with immortality, she also has the ability to manipulate and resist fire, often being compared to a phoenix due to the mix between immortality and fire.
