This one was really tough to write, as I really do like Mokou. Koizumi will kind of end up explaining the main reason why I like her, actually.

But why? Why do I find it hard to write about someone else's character in such a situation? She's not my character, but I still found it hard to write what happens to her. That's what stalled me. I didn't want to go through with it - but I came up with the plot a while ago, outlined. But to sit down and be actually writing it...well...

Even when I sat down, I've written and deleted so many things in this episode, because it didn't feel right. I had things outlined, I wanted to go a certain direction, but it didn't feel right, so I had to spend a lot of my time arranging instead of actually writing. Frustrating.

Also, congrats to Mokou to making it into a fighting game - 14.5. She's finally a playable character. You have no idea the joy I felt over it.

And MASSIVE apologies for taking too long. I wasn't in a right state of mind to sit down and write. No motivation to write for the longest time. And again, when I could, I had to rearrange a lot of things, rewrite entire sections, and delete huge chunks because they didn't work. Nightmare chapter. Half of the chapter had to be deleted and re-written. The Mystia fight chapter had very similar problems, but not as bad as this one. I've lost count of how many times I've had to redo it. At least the Mystia one had an excuse - I lost data due to an error - had to write up half of it again. This one...not so much - wasn't happy with the way it panned out multiple times.

So again, apologies.

Also, it's always a gamble to introduce an OC...

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is owned by Nagaru Tanigawa. Touhou Project is owned by ZUN and Team Shanghai Alice. I own neither. This is a fan fiction of those works.

Beta Readers for this Episode:

Another Duck

Nerdfish

werewolf2005

"So where's the miko?"

Genji blinked; slowly turning his head towards the ghost woman; taking his eyes off the moon and settling them on his master's ward. He paused for a few seconds, before answering. "Lady Hakurei had some business to attend to tonight."

"Nnnnn..." Mima sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose in frustration. "I was looking forward to having a match for my freedom...now what'll I do?"

Genji returned his attention to the moon, but still spoke to the ghost. "Enjoy your freedom for the night, I suppose." Genji tilted his head. "You're not going to drink?"

Mima slowly moved to the turtle and sat on the ground next to him. "...No...not after what happened last month. I never drank so much, at least for as long as I can remember."

"You saved Gensokyo."

"I refuse to believe that."

"You saved the world."

"I refuse that even more." Mima was sulking, arms crossed.

Genji glanced at her, trying to suppress a smirk. "You are so intent on being evil. Why?"

Mima grimaced. "It's what I'm good at."

Genji began to chuckle. "You have a lot of power within you. And I know Lady Hakurei doesn't say it, but she appreciated your help in Makai." Genji smiled. "At the very least, I appreciated it. If you could do some good with your powers-"

"Could you do me some good and shut up?"

Genji, still smiling, returned his attention to the moon again. The two sat there in silence, gazing up at it.

"No, over there."

Patchouli nodded when the fairies set down the tables where she wanted them, approving of their work. They then took off to finish more of their assigned tasks. The librarian continued to watch over and direct the fairies from the balcony. The stage was already finished, the Prismrivers had already set up for the night's festivities, unlike the previous month. The entire set up had gone without a hitch, barring Remilia not being there.

Patchouli smirked. That's probably the reason why it's gone so smoothly - she's not here to make things difficult with her attitude.

"Lady Patchouli?" Koakuma spoke up, looking down at a checklist. "I believe..." Koakuma paused for a few seconds, quickly skimming the list. I believe that's everything - barring a few minor things that can be ready in minutes."

Patchouli again nodded, satisfied with how she handled things. "Yes, everything is ready. But Remi, Sakuya, and the guests aren't here."

"I thought they were supposed to be done rather quickly, weren't they?"

"That's what she guessed." Patchouli looked towards the Bamboo Forest of the Lost, but something caught her eye. "...Koakuma...is that..."

A fire on the other side of the lake, that only it seemed concentrated, and was getting brighter and brighter. Patchouli's eyes widened at it. Please don't tell me that Remi's in the middle of that. Chances are, she is.

Perishable Night

Episode 12

["Unresolved"]

"I guess getting caught up in legends is one of Gensokyo's charms."

-Reimu Hakurei, Oriental Sacred Place 13 (official Manga)

Two things happened before Youmu could reach Mokou, both taking place in about a second. Well, three, actually.

One, Mokou put up a wall of flames in-between them. I had begun to cover my eyes, not wanting to see Youmu set herself on fire to get to the immortal. I know Youmu has great reflexes, but she didn't appear to even try to avoid it. She was going straight for the pyromancer, flames be damned.

Two, Yukari put a portal in between Youmu and the fire. The gardener tumbled out behind us near my feet: a bewildered look on her face. I guess that's one way to use portals.

Three was that during one, Youmu shouted that line again: 'I'm gonna cut you into pieces'. I was wondering if she would actually say that. I don't remember her saying it during the Eternal Night.

Youmu blinked, still sitting on the ground, and turned to Yukari, the gardener's face asking 'why'?

"I understand you want to honor your master." Yukari nodded towards Yuyuko. "However, Miss Fujiwara here is quite tough - she and the princess have been killing each other at least once a week for the past several decades. This defender has gotten quite good at battles. Her experience is far above anything most of you have encountered, especially her pain tolerance."

My eyes drifted back to Mokou, who hadn't moved. She was still on fire, still ready for an attack. Man...to be killed over and over? To get into death fights every week? And I've seen how proficient Kaguya was with magic, so one couldn't help but wonder how many times Mokou had to have died while fighting the Princess, being killed by a magical spell. Mokou seemed to be more of the brawler type, a physical fighter, but was also gifted with her own apparent pyromancer abilities which she was using quite well.

On that note, how many times did Kaguya get killed by Mokou then? I'd hear that the record was relatively even, so Mokou had to be a great fighter.

Youmu quickly hopped to her feet, her grip tightening on the handle of the katana, her eyes seething. "I won't allow her to slander my lady's name! I'll never allow it!"

"Youmu."

Youmu's face went red when Yuyuko said that. The samurai gardener lowered her eyes, trying not to let it show that she was reacting to this in some way. She looks so cute doing this. Youmu looked to Yuyuko, silently asking what to do.

The ghost mistress thought for a few seconds. with her smile gone, before answering. "I truly appreciate you wanting to uphold my honor, Youmu. However, let's indulge Yukari's request for now. We won't fight."

Yukari chuckled, smiling slyly. "You also forget, Youmu. Yuyuko is my friend as well. So don't worry - Fujiwara won't get away with this."

As for the two who were knocked out...Remilia was stirring, her wings still spasming, her eyes opening, but she wasn't 'there'. She would occasionally mumble something, but it was incoherent and in English, I think. Sakuya was fading in and out of consciousness: 'waking up', asking what happened, and then going back out to repeat the process. Yukari had thankfully gotten me some more vials from her realm - Sakuya's burns went away, and Remilia was slowly having her vampire body repair itself, so there wasn't any permanent damage, thankfully. They were just out cold or knocked silly. Sakuya, even though she got healed up, just sat there with her head swaying back and forth, only intermittently responding to us. She wasn't fully aware of what happened to her. I wouldn't have wanted to know that I almost turned into a human barbecue, to tell the truth.

After having noticed that Sakuya had healed, Yukari stepped forward twirling her parasol. She turned to us smiling. "Well now, does anyone else want to take on this immortal?"

Marisa was smiling, and raised her hands. "Uh, nah, I'm good." The witch leaned to look around the demon. "Mokou, man, you're really badass. I knew you were awesome with fire, ze, but like this? I never would've imagined you were an immortal."

"You never paid attention to when I got hurt?"

Marisa tapped her chin. "Uh...huh...yeah, that's weird. I'd see you get hurt but you'd be fine quicker than most people." Marisa grinned and rubbed the back of her neck. "Heh. I should have seen it, ze. I guess I just wrote it off as some magic healing spell or whatever that you had to have had." Marisa eyed the flames. "You know, you could turn that down..."

"Hmph. Y'all think that I'm not going to still knock y'all out? Even you, witch?"

"I'd much not rather fight you, ze. I'm not in the mood to play with fire tonight. I'm crazy, but not that crazy."

I'm sane, and how do you think I feel? Also, I was kind of surprised that Marisa was going to back down from this challenge - she has done some near-suicidal moves in the past. Most notably, the thing with the Prismrivers.

Mokou's mouth cracked a smirk. "That's too bad. I said it - Imma knock you all out and send that princess a message."

I swore I could hear Yukari giggle, but I wasn't sure due to the crackling of the fire.

The two magicians glanced at each other, silently asking if one should go for it. Eventually, Marisa slightly raised a closed fist, also raising an eyebrow at Alice.

Rock, Paper, Scissors.

Marisa didn't verbally say it, but she was obviously referencing it. Alice mouthed "Really?", before sighing and conceding.

There were three ties. Both Rock. Both Scissors. Then both Paper. Marisa won by going with Scissors, Alice choosing Paper again.

The puppeteer stared at the result, a grim look dawning on her face. "Great." Alice let out a long breath as she brought her attention to her soon-to-be opponent. The fire of Mokou was still going on, and I was afraid she'd burn all of Gensokyo, really. Already I was sweating up a storm.

Damn it all. Out of a heat wave and into this situation. I think this was more of a controlled burn, an intimidation tactic by the fiery immortal. If it was, it was working on me. I've said it before - I wouldn't stand a chance against the girls of Gensokyo...unless of course, that serendipity that seemingly follows me around kicks in when I need it. And again, I couldn't help but wonder how bad it would have been for someone like Letty to be in this ring of fire. She might not have handled it. I envied both her and Cirno, who were a ways away from this watching it transpire.

"Shanghai, Hourai, stand down." Shanghai did as commanded, but Hourai kept glaring at Mokou, still clutching the lance. Shanghai actually came and tugged on the sleeve of the other doll, dragging the fighter away from Alice. Hourai never broke the glare. Hourai just gave off this 'pissed-off' vibe, and it had to be intentional - suitable for a doll designed for battle.

"Miss Margatroid, please do not fight." Yukari sighed. "Just step back."

"I think I got this."

"'You think?' That's not good enough against this one."

"Maybe so...but, I defeated one defender so I'm interested in putting this one to the test." Alice opened and closed her hands, stretching her fingers. "It'll be good to see how far I've come."

Yukari sighed in disappointment. "Ah, they don't understand..."

Alice floated, there, waiting for Mokou to attack - already I understood Alice's fighting style. She was more of a thinking fighter, looking for the glaring weaknesses in the opponent's patterns. The way she appeared to study Marisa's attacks, as well as Keine's during those battles. She was a strategist, though I know she could be blunt with her attacks as well.

"I'll never understand why Alice never uses her full power." That was Reimu, whose gaze was on the puppeteer.

"What do you mean?"

"That book that took her humanity. I don't know what it does, but it has immense power when she opens it. She used it when she became what she is, but hasn't since."

"Because she's smart." Yukari leaned back, a portal 'cupping' her in support. "I myself am not sure what the book is, but I do know that there is a lot of bad things in Makai. She's smart enough to know she shouldn't unleash the full power of that thing." Yukari sighed. "And that will always be her downfall. Margatroid is afraid of letting loose even though she has potential to rival even me." Yukari looked at us as we were all staring at her over that statement. "I'm not joking. Alice has that potential in her hands." She looked back. "But she refuses to use it..."

Poor girl.

Mokou raised her eyebrows, showing blatant impatience. "We gonna do this?"

"Oh, I'd prefer if you went first."

A small smile formed on Mokou's face. "Ah. I get ya. Can't take initiative, eh? Then I-crap!" Mokou quickly moved, dodging the attacks of the dolls.

You see, unbeknownst to pretty much everybody, Alice had dropped off her dolls beforehand, and they were hidden among various things on the ground - behind fence posts, in ditches, mole holes, and the like. Again, Alice was smart - she planned beforehand. They all came up at the same time, firing away at the immortal.

In contrast, Mokou, who was a pretty good dodger in her own right, did something simple on her part. She went around to each doll, severing the strings with fire, essentially killing their connection to Alice, and rendering them useless. When Alice lost a dozen of them, she spread out the rest of the dolls, using one particular doll to be the main attacker. Mokou turned her attention to it, trying to target it next, but Alice's quick string play kept it out of reach for a while.

[SPELL CARD: MAGIPULATION "RETURN INANIMATENESS"]

Alice saw an opening and quickly wound up for another doll-pitch. It was another fastball - straight for the immortal. Mokou focused her attention on this card when she heard it called out - it was the one that downed Keine back in July after all. Mokou quickly threw a fireball, burning out the doll before it could reach her. It detonated a few meters away, the small explosion radius not hitting Mokou. During that time, the other dolls closed in, attacking the immortal. She withstood and shrugged off their poking and prodding with their doll weapons - she obviously had a high pain tolerance.

But I saw the glimmer of the strings. They were too close - and Mokou noticed them as well. The reflection off the moonlight showed where they were. I yelled at Alice to back off.

Unfortunately, it came too little too late.

Mokou then ignored the dolls, and grabbed for the lines - eventually she had grabbed all of them within a few seconds, nullifying them. They cut into her skin when Alice tried to pull back, but the immortal hung on. Then...it happened. Mokou set herself on fire again. The strings were burning up and the fire spread to the dolls, who became engulfed and quickly burned to ash or melted from the heat (it appears that Alice uses both wooden and plastic dolls - I think Shanghai and Hourai are plastic though). Of course, the fire ran up the other end of the line, Alice squealed, brushing off the fire that had reached her hands due to the strings being attached to her rings. Mokou used that distraction to get close, and...

[SPELL CARD: BLAZE SIGN "SELF DESTRUCTION: GIANT FLAME WHIRLWIND"]

There is no other way to describe it than this: a mid-air fire tornado. Flames covered Mokou's body, then quickly swirled around, causing this horrific display. It was over - Alice shrieked for a second as she was sucked into the vortex, spun around inside of it for a moment, and she was flung out of it at high speed, hitting the ground speed near us. A normal human should have died or at the very least gotten some cracked bones on impact, but Alice was tougher than a normal person thankfully. Of course when I saw that, I couldn't help but react. The two dolls rushed to the aide of their master. I followed, readying a vial and taking off my vest. Alice's dress had some fire on it, which I helped put out. Alice was out cold, still breathing but unresponsive otherwise. Hourai clutched its lance, turning to Mokou, but Shanghai put its hand on the other doll's shoulder. Hourai just stared up at the person who did this to Alice. How about that. They do show signs of intelligence and some semblance of free will. I was in a bit of awe over this - Alice had essentially given some sentient life to inanimate objects. When it was obvious that Alice would live, I slowly looked up to the one who did this. She floated there, a confident look on her face, as she admired her handiwork.

Good Lord, Mokou just seems unstoppable.

Mokou's eyes drifted from person to person, eventually settling on..."How 'bout you, Miko?"

Before Reimu could respond, Yukari began to slow clap.

Reisen silently cleaned her M16, the one she had kept from the Endless Night. Suou had given it to her, yes, but they hadn't found anything wrong with it, especially after Miss Nagato had altered it, making it better. Reisen had figured that using it to guard the Princess and to eventually use it against any of Suou's future plans would be poetic justice. Besides, it was a fine weapon thanks to Nagato. When she had given it danmaku abilities, she had also made it more reliable than regular M16's and far more accurate. The soldier had fallen in love with the assault rifle ever since.

Of course, it doesn't hold a candle to a good sniper rifle...

As she looked down the barrel, her thoughts began to wander to what just transpired. Why do they have to... Well, she knew why. But she didn't like it. To hold a grudge like that over a millennia? She tried not to think too much of what happened - if she allowed herself to, she'd only feel worse because of her conscience. Mokou didn't deserve any of this. She was a good person, just trying to protect the village. Of course, there was that history, but still...

Reisen let out a sigh as she finished the cleaning, putting down the detached barrel. I can't let this get to me...I just can't. She began to put the rifle together, trying to focus on the familiar smell of the gun oil and the motions of her actions. The tension began to ebb away as she performed this - it was always calming - cleaning of a gun. All of a sudden she heard a conversation. Princess and Master. They were walking in one of the nearby halls. Reisen couldn't help but listen, even though she felt guilty about it. It wasn't anything she had true control over, what with her advanced hearing.

"Eirin, how do you think they're faring?"

There wasn't an answer for a few seconds.

"Eirin?"

When Master spoke, it was obvious she was tense and/or frustrated. "She knew..."

"Hmm?"

"That sukima knew. I've already picked up on a few of her facial tics in my dealings with her...she knew you were lying. Her facial muscles were constricting, as she was suppressing a smile during your speech, and there was no surprise or realization when you mentioned Miss Mokou. Everyone else had it, but not her."

Reisen hadn't been paying attention to the gap youkai during that, so she didn't know. But she knew?

"Eirin...why would she go along with it?"

"To get at it! They're capable of extracting it. They just have to figure out how. If Yakumo..." Reisen heard Master let out a frustrated noise. "This is why I was against sending the sukima! If she extracts the Elixir for them-"

"It'll still be worth it. That street filth will suffer."

Reisen's ears bent, a pang of guilt and horror going through her body. She didn't know how to extract it - her Master never really told her, but she did know there was a way to physically do it. Good thing Suou didn't know or find out how to do it. Otherwise they'd be dealing with immortal interfaces.

As for Mokou, the immortal was, again, a good person if a bit moody. The defender was apparently quick to recognize the importance of Master's abilities, as she would lead others to Eintei for medical treatment. She was only truly violent towards the Princess, (and any hostile youkai, of course) but didn't harbor any grudge against either Reisen or Master. In fact, Mokou was quite friendly with the soldier, always there to help distribute the pharmaceuticals when Reisen came into the village. Reisen had no quarrel with her.

"At the chance that Yakumo could create some immortal allies?!"

"Who knows, Eirin. It might end up making me a new immortal playmate, where we can all kill each other over and over again. I'm not worried."

How can you be so casual about this, Princess?!

"I am worried! This world doesn't need more immortals, especially Earth-born ones! One is too many! If there are more than the two of them, they can overwhelm Eintei, overwhelm us, and we'd be at their mercy-"

"Eirin. Enough."

"But Princess! If Yakumo had immortal beings at her disposal, she could reattempt a conq-"

"Enough!"

Master and Princess rarely raised their voices at each other, at least this close to Reisen's room. She was sure that they argued quite a bit, what with the Master's seriousness and the Princess' free spirit having their obvious clashes over the course of a millennia. But they never raised their voices at each other when Reisen was in close proximity. They have to know that they're near my room. Why do this now?

It was a while before the two spoke, their voices getting quieter, as they were moving out of earshot.

"Yes, Eirin. I don't really care. I'm going along with how the day proceeds, just like always. Shake things up, and allow interesting things to happen. Just like those five princes. Just like giving the Hourai Elixir to the Emperor. Just. Like. Always."

"What do you mean...how it proceeds?"

"Just...trust me on this...You'll understand in time."

"Princess..."

"And time is all we've got."

If Reisen had been eating, she was sure she would have lost her appetite. She sat there in silence for a moment, trying to suppress the emotions that had erupted over what she just heard as the footsteps faded away. Swallowing hard, she went about putting her rifle back together, falling back to her motions as a soldier.

They took me in. I can never forget that. They took me in when I had nowhere to go. I'm lucky to be here with a roof over my head.

The only sound besides the roaring fire was Yukari's slow clap. Nobody said anything, they just stared at the suppressed smile of the demon.

"Ah, a most excellent showing, Miss Fujiwara. I enjoy how angry you get, and how you allow that to be your power." Yukari stepped forward, obviously going to be the next one to fight the immortal.

Mokou paused for a second when she saw Yukari advancing. But then the fires intensified, going right for the demon.

Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap!

"Yukari!" screamed Yuyuko as the fires consumed the youkai of boundaries. For a while, I was stunned, as the fireball stayed, burning-

"It's too hot~!"

A wave of cold air washed over all of us, making me shiver in my garb that was better suited for warm climates. Almost instantly, the flames...solidified. The fire froze. Fire froze. I'll say that again. Fire froze.

Cirno, enraged that the temperature was too high, had unleashed her own winter. It was cold enough to see your breath, but soon the summer heat retook the area within a moment. My body didn't know what to make of such extreme temperature swings.

"What the hell..." Reimu remarked, a confused look on her face. She, along with the rest of us, did not expect that from the little fairy. She froze fire itself.

"Something tells me that little fairy is too powerful for her own good," Nagato remarked.

I'll say.

"Huh. That was interesting." Yukari then brushed off the frozen fire from herself. "But not necessary."

Mokou started up the flames again, though she appeared a bit shocked over what just happened. But the flames couldn't stay - Yukari was using her portals at the base of the flames, and they couldn't get any real burn going. Mokou kept trying, but to no avail.

And then I saw it. Unlike with Alice, unlike with Remilia or Sakuya...

There was a glimmer of fear in Mokou's eyes.

Oh boy this isn't going to be good for Mokou. I also remembered what Yukari promised us before we came to Gensokyo, what she said she was going to do. Also, it was weird that such an obvious threat like Mokou seemed like just an annoyance by Yukari.

Yukari, still keeping her eyes on Mokou, spoke. "Hakurei, you don't have to bother yourself with this girl, nor anybody else needs to. I just wanted Remilia to get knocked out before I finished this fight. The little vampire needs to know her limits. Sakuya and Alice thought they could take on someone of Miss Fujiwara's caliber. I know I've stated that tonight would have a massive fight, but I think I've allowed this to go on long enough. Besides, I'd like to get to Miss Scarlet's party tonight soon, and such a fight would take too much time."

Speaking of Remilia, she was coming to, thankfully. Sakuya offered her blood to the vampire...which was taken.

Yikes. That was uncomfortable to see.

I heard Yukari call out to the village, and since I needed something to take my attention away from the feeding of a vampire, I wholeheartedly accepted such a thing. "I know you're all watching from within. Don't worry. This will be quite the show." Yukari nodded towards the immortal, a smile of perverse pleasure on the face of the demon. "Houraijin. I can-"

Mokou's flames roared. "Don't call me that!"

Yukari grinned at this, twirling her unopened parasol. "You're not human. You're a houraijin." It was obvious what Yukari was doing, and I couldn't help but internally question it.

The flames rose even higher. "Stop it!" The seething rage on Mokou's face would have maken me take a step back, if the fire didn't do it first. The heat was growing more intense by the minute.

"It's what I call those who ingested the Elixir. And I'll get the rest of the youkai in Gensokyo to call you that as well. From this night on, Miss Fujiwara here will no longer be known as a mere 'human'. She is a houraijin."

"Yukari!" Koizumi was getting angry with the demon.

Yukari casually looked back to answer Koizumi, but Mokou used that time to launch a fireball - Yukari easily avoided it without even looking. Without paying too much attention to it, she simply told Koizumi to settle down. She then turned back to Mokou.

"As I was saying. You don't want to show fear on your face, houraijin. But I can taste it, deep within your heart. You know who I am. You know what I am. And you know what I am capable of." Yukari turned to us with a dramatic flourish, that shrewd smile on her face. "You see, I have to confess something. While this was supposed to happen, it wasn't supposed to happen this way. You understand? Reimu and I would take on Miss Fujiwara here in a 2 on 1 danmaku battle, where I'd happily play by the rules because I was bored." Yukari clasped her hands, the smile on her face genuine. "Oh, it would have been a splendid battle, where human and youkai joined forces to put down a raging immortal. But...I decided to do things differently. I know we are inclined to have our timelines go the way they should go, but I decided something. I've decided that I shall willfully diverge from that action. The reason being is that what happened last month made me weak." Yukari glanced over all of us. "And I know for some of you that it was the first time you've seen me in a real fight. Truthfully and admittedly, it wasn't a very good first impression. I may have impressed some of you with my skill of the blade, but I get the feeling that you don't think much of me, as I wasn't able to exercise the full extent of my powers." Yukari pointed at Remilia, who had regained most of her faculties, and was staring at Yukari (Sakuya was bandaging up her neck). "Namely, you, little vampire. You weren't impressed by me." Yukari looked to Mokou. "Regrettably, for you anyway, I am here to impress. You are to be my punching bag for the night." Yukari returned her attention to us. "Now, you see-"

Enraged that she was being ignored, Mokou again brought up some flames, going right for Yukari. However, more portals sucked away the oxygen (that's what I learned later) at the base of the fires, snuffing them out. Annoyed, Yukari turned her head to Mokou, who had stopped her advance without her fire. The immortal stared at the demon, who scoffed at her. "Excuse me. The adults are talking."

What the heck. Just a minute ago, Mokou seemed unstoppable. Now...now it's as if she's nothing. Also, isn't Mokou a hundred years older than Yukari? That was rude of the demon, I have to say.

Yukari tapped her chin. "Where was I before I was...ah, yes. You see, I normally lower my power to match the one I am fighting against, in real battles or in danmaku." The demon's eyes met with the miko's. "Yes, Hakurei, even with you. Why? Because it makes it interesting for me. Otherwise I'd bore of beating my opponents into fine red paste." She pointed at Mokou. "But for something like her...I can allow myself to, as one might say, 'flex my muscles', or 'let loose', as the kids today might say. It's a rare opportunity where I don't have to hold back for fear of total annihilation. That way, I can leave a lasting impression on the allies before me." A cruel smile formed on Yukari's face. "...And for the humans watching from the village, behind the dome."

Reimu's grip on her gohei tightened, and she angrily spoke. She said what I was realizing. "You're going to strike fear back into them, to make them remember why they should fear you."

The demon coyly shrugged. "Ah. Yes. There is that as well. I do think that the human village is long overdue a show of my power. ...Hell, Gensokyo is long overdue to remember why they should fear me. Like...her." Yukari had pointed to somewhere behind us. Turning, I saw that it was that crow tengu reporter I saw when the SDM collapsed. She was a ways away from the scene, camera out, and taking a lot of pictures already. She raised her eyebrows when she was addressed. She recomposed herself quickly, and waved at us before returning to her taking photos. Yukari waved in response. "Miss Shameimaru there needs a good scoop, and the demon of gaps and boundaries showing off her power is a good enough one, I suppose. Like I've said, Gensokyo needs to know who I am again, that I'm not just some regulator. That they need to fear me."

Yukari's eyes went youkai, as she slowly inserted her index finger into her mouth, just-as-slowly bringing it back out, exaggerating a 'taste' pantomime as she drew it over her tongue. "And that fear tastes so good."

Damn she can be intimidating when she tries. Intimidating on a primal level.

During all of this, weirdly enough, I saw Youmu's shoulders sag. She was right next to me, so it was noticeable.

"What's the matter?"

She lowered her head down and whispered to me. "How can I compete with Lady Yukari?" Youmu's shoulders raised and lowered quickly, like in a silent sigh. Even Myon seemed depressed, at least from what I could tell from my minimal firsthand account of a ghost's 'body language'. "She gets to fight for Lady Yuyuko...They've been friends far longer than even when my parents were around. And I've seen the way Lady Yukari looks at Lady Yuyuko...they care about each other."

I understood her thought process almost instantly - Youmu thought that Yukari and Yuyuko would be a better couple. For such a badass samurai/gardener, she really doesn't have much courage in the way of love.

"Don't sell yourself short, Youmu. Remember what I said: you're an amazing girl." I could see it in her eyes as I said that - she couldn't bring herself to agree with me. For such a strong person, she has low self-esteem.

"...But Lady Yukari can do so much more than I can...can do so much more for...Yuyuko..." Youmu's shoulders sagged further, her face a mask of defeat. "It's...hopeless..."

"Power isn't everything." Even though it helps in this kind of world. "I mean, look at me." I smiled when she looked at me - I said that jokingly. She smiled in response.

I think we would have carried that whispered conversation a bit further, if Yukari hadn't began the battle.

Well, truthfully, it wasn't her. Yukari goaded Mokou to make the first move. In fact, that's why we were able to have that conversation - Yukari didn't move, and neither did Mokou. The immortal was waiting to see what the demon would do.

"Would you like to strike me, Houraijin? Come. Let's see if you can do to me what you did to that vampire."

Mokou lunged at the demon, who merely popped in and out of a portal to avoid the attack - this kept happening. No matter the flames, no matter how quick the strikes, Mokou couldn't hit the demon. Mokou's movements however... It's difficult to say what her fighting style was. Like I said, she had a brawler stance, but her movements were quite fluid and quick; I'm guessing from thirteen hundred years of experience. It appeared to be a mixture of almost all martial art styles, not one single discipline. I didn't know what to make of it. Still, to see her attempting to strike while her limbs were on fire was awesome and would have made an amazing action movie scene.

"Your fear tastes so good." Another dodge, with Mokou yelling a battle cry as she attempted an attack. Yukari chuckled after the miss. "That's it. Do what humanity does best. Replace your fear with anger, your bravado." Yukari put her finger on her chin, as if thinking something over. She had a playful look on her face, but her eyes went like slits. "I advise you to kneel before me right now, and in front of the village. Then I won't hurt you."

This can only get ugly. Mokou seemed too proud to just lay down.

"No way in hell I'm gonna do that!" Mokou's flames raged.

"Very well." Yukari sounded like she expected Mokou to answer in the negative. In fact, she answered that in the middle of what Mokou said.

Mokou became engulfed in fire, and charged right at the demon (who simply stood there). Right before the immortal reached her target, Yukari had dropped down halfway into the ground due to a portal, and leaned back against the edge of the portal itself, like she was casually sitting in a cupped chair. However, the portal also produced...street signs?

They shot up. I could see that they cut...Oh my God.

They cut into Mokou's face - her jaw. The fire on Mokou and all around us snuffed out as she immediately covered the wound with her hands. Mokou was shaking, both from the pain and from the anger at what Yukari did to her. The blood poured...ugh. It was pretty nasty. Thankfully, it didn't take long for the blood to turn green and for the immortal to heal up - she was keeping her face together with her hands, essentially. I know that sounds horrifying and over-the-top, but that's what happened.

When she fully healed, Mokou was taking some shallow breaths as she dropped her hands, the anger there, but also astonishment. And I could tell there was something else as well - fear. There was fear in her eyes, but it didn't last long. It got replaced by anger again, but I saw it. And if I saw it, Yukari had to have seen it.

Mokou...stop. Please. You can't win this.

"I should have warned you about trying to physically attack me, houraijin. Unless I allow it, it'll never happen."

I immediately understood how far Yukari was going to go, as did the rest of us. I didn't want to see this. My fists balled up, and I moved towards her - why, I don't know. I don't know what good I would have done in that situation, or how I could even dream up a way to take on that demon.

"No...I'm not... Damn it all, Yukari. You-"

Almost instantly as I started moving, Ran got in front of me, extending her arms so I can't pass. There was no hostility on her face, no emotion. "You shall not interfere."

What the hell Ran?!

"Do not interfere in Lady Yukari's plans, please."

"Get out of the way, Kitsune!" shouted Reimu, who had an amulet in her hand. When Ran shook her head 'no', the amulet ignited and Reimu threw it right at Ran - it burned up before reaching the kitsune. Reimu's jaw dropped.

"When a shikigami is in close proximity to their master, they are more powerful, my miko," Yukari called back. "Ran nearly matches me in power, by the way. Fighting her would be akin to fighting me."

This is totally not fair!

We couldn't even get near Ran - whatever protective shield the kitsune had, it was keeping everything at bay. Koizumi joined in helping Reimu. It looked like they were making progress, as their shots were getting closer and closer to Ran, when Chen had joined her master, doubling the shield. Nothing even came close to them, and nor would it.

I shot a glance to Nagato, who just had her eyes on all that was happening. "Nagato?"

She let out a little sigh. "I know what you want me to do, and I'd like to do it, but unless we are directly threatened, I am not to interfere in tonight's events."

I just blinked. "You're going to let this happen?!"

Nagato lowered her eyes, not responding. I mean, I knew she was still trying to get on the good side of her superiors, but like this? I didn't know where to direct my anger, because I wouldn't allow myself to be angry with Nagato.

"I've been directly ordered not to interfere, again, unless directly threatened. That's how it is."

"Nagato..."

"I'm sorry. I'm on 'thin ice' right now, as the saying goes."

The following took place during the 'fight', if I can call it that. Yukari was facing us, her back to Mokou, and dodging the immortals attacks. The demon had a portal in a sort of 'cupping-U', which she sat on. Yukari really wasn't dodging, when I saw it - the portal seat was the one moving around. Yukari was just there for the ride.

As for the fight itself...well...'beatdown' comes to mind.

I know...there are some who want details...but I can't. I just can't. There are some things I can't bring myself to describe or revisit. I'll share what I can, for my own sanity.

Mokou...repeatedly got torn to pieces. Yukari used her portals not only for defense (to make sure that Mokou couldn't get a hit in) but also in interesting (and horrific) ways.

Example? Well, one attack in particular stands out in my mind, the one that still haunts me to this day. Yukari opened up two rather large portals across from each other, both big enough for a train to pass through. Which is what happened. Yeah. Yukari used a subway line to hit Mokou. I for one never wanted to see such a thing, to see what happens to a human body gets hit by a train at full speed, and even now I'm uncomfortable in saying this much about it. I mean, my God. It was just...awful. And we couldn't do anything about it as Yukari kept sitting in her portal seat. Yukari sitting there in the air, dodging near-impossible spell cards as she began a speech.

And yes, it was a long speech. This, again, happened during her beatdown of Mokou. She was nonchalantly killing Mokou over and over, dodging the immortal's attacks while giving us one of her speeches.

"Now, you see, I could kill Miss Fujiwara here instantly, but there is no fun in that." Yukari wagged her finger. "No no no. When a true youkai kills, they draw it out. Sure, there are some that will kill instantly if they are hungry and are only looking to sate their physical hunger, but the true youkai kills not only the body, but the mind." Yukari then spread out her arms in a flourish. "This is why youkai will take the time to build fear in a target, to instill dread. We stalk the target, allow them to hear us, to catch a glimpse of us. That builds that primal fear, to let them know that they are going to die. And upon that realization, fear, the mind killer, begins to wrack said mind, and makes the target tastier. The chase is not only fun, but essential to being a youkai." Yukari pointed at me, able to turn away from Mokou as the immortal was coming back to life. "I think you understand that bit first hand."

Yeah... Rumia.

"But sometimes it's not about the food. We also allow our prey to escape, to spread the tale. Close calls with creatures out in the wilderness, in a dark area of a park, in an abandoned building. Those urban legends, or tales you hear over campfires, that random creepy story you may come across on the internet of someone having such an experience... They are for the most part true. Tales allowed to be spread by 'survivors' to keep the fear alive." Yukari dodged another blast of fire, as she brought her hand under her chin. "Unless of course, they really are hungry. Then those people are just missing persons, and the authorities are lucky if they can find the remains." She dismissively waved her hand. "Anyways, speaking of death... Regarding kills, or, well, again death, here is something to fear about it. It's going to hurt."

Mokou had taken a few seconds to regain her breath. She had just rehealed. The immortal quickly looked back to the dome, and then resumed her attack.

Just like Keine - she's trying to save face in front of the villagers. If both defenders are put down this easily, then what confidence will the villagers have? They will know that ultimately, if it came down to it, neither of them could hope to defend against the stronger youkai of Gensokyo. There would be no hope. Inwardly, I was hoping for Mokou to get a lucky shot on Yukari. I know the demon is an ally, but still...come on. This was too much. I wasn't comfortable with Remilia's obvious bigotry, and seeing Yukari just bully around other people...

Things aren't black and white, are they? Suou had her logic, and she was right, in some regard. There are arguments on why one shouldn't defend such a place like Gensokyo. It's just that in her mind, I was automatically labeled part of the problem and Suou tried to kill me. Of course, with my instincts for survival, I had to defend myself, and I was kind of forced to be with Gensokyo. Really, it was her. She put me on this side in the first place, like I mentioned earlier. Playing the cards you are dealt doesn't always mean you are going to like those cards, you know.

Barring my thoughts, Yukari leaned back like she was lounging, just so casual in tone and her body movements. "Unless you have the luxury of dying in your sleep peacefully, or hooked up to a machine in a hospital that is pumping you full of painkillers, your death, for all intents and purposes, is going to hurt. As if watching the houraijin here wasn't an example enough. Take an accident. Car. Work. Most likely a car. You will die violently, and painfully. Maybe crushed by the steering wheel when another car slams into you at a few dozen kilometers per hour."

(This is where the train thing happened. She held off on her speech for a moment because the train was so loud, and continued when Mokou got back up.)

This was something else. I couldn't look away. Scary thing is? The more I watched, the less it got to me. Not to say that it still doesn't. Otherwise I'd lay out everything here. But I was becoming desensitized to the real life violence before me, getting used to it. It wasn't like a video game where a pixelated character could come back if you hit the reset button - I was watching a flesh and blood person dying over and over...and I was getting used to it.

"Maybe caught in the fire when you are pinned down inside the car, unable to escape. Smoke inhalation, where your lungs scream for air. Plane crash, where you know the crash is coming, as you fall out of the sky, awaiting the inevitable impact that you will feel as both the ground and the twisted, mangled metal tears your body apart into a red paste and you'd be lucky to have your remains identified. Or maybe you die by a disaster. Flooding, where you get swept by the water, and can either drown or be impaled by debris. Maybe swept to sea alive where your body will never be found, and only serve as food for some sea-faring predator. Disease, where your body breaks down, as your organs fail one by one. Act of God, say, a meteor just falling out of the sky and killing you. Maybe even getting struck by lightning. Or an earthquake, where a building falls down on you and pops you like a maggot."

These are not nice things to dwell on. Not nice at all. And neither what was transpiring before me. I would have preferred Meiling breaking bones over this.

Mokou was getting up from being killed again, grunting. I wanted to help her up, and also to shake some sense into her that this wasn't worth it. But Ran and Chen wouldn't let any of us past them.

"Stay down, houraijin."

Clenching her teeth, Mokou slowly got up to her feet in her direct defiance to the demon. With every passing minute, I was gaining a lot of respect for this person. She was up against the impossible, against what she showed fear over, yet she kept getting up. Maybe that's why the human village lasted that long - because of people like her. Mokou and Keine did not give up despite the overwhelming and nigh impossible odds.

Yukari then reached into a portal, producing a handkerchief. She used it to dab the sweat off her brow as the heat of Mokou's fireball attacks must have finally been getting to her, despite it not coming close to touching her. "That, or man has a hand in it. Intentional. Maybe you are in a war, and you are killed. Shot in the head. Or, maybe a body shot, where your lungs fill with blood as you lay there in pain, and you drown from your own fluids. Or you could be murdered by a psycho with a knife or a gun, at any time. You're just enjoying your day, without a care in the world, and along comes someone to end you." Yukari dropped the handkerchief into a portal, reaching into another for a glass of water, which she took the time to drink. When she was done with that, she dropped that into another portal as she continued to speak. "Make no mistake. The odds are that you all will die painful deaths. Even if you are 'killed instantly', like say taking a shot to the heart, you will feel the bullet break your skin, break past your ribs, and rip into your heart. And then your body shuts down as your soul leaves the mortal plane." Yukari let out a sigh of disapproval, as she looked out at the humans of our group. "The luxury of not worrying about your time of death kind of sickens me." She perked her head towards us. "Brigade, you hear me?"

None of us answered her, even though I wanted to. Answer her with what, I don't know. I just wanted to make some sort of response to all of this but I couldn't find the words.

Again, Mokou had gotten killed, and was getting up, but slowly. She was really struggling to get to her feet.

I would learn more about the Hourai Elixir. While it could repair the body even if it was destroyed, it didn't really heal the pain or soreness as quickly as it repaired. Sure, it would eventually heal that, but for the most part, the pain would stay over. Which means that if a hourai drinker were to be killed a multitude of times in a short amount of time, their bodies would be unable to move due to the pain. The pain would eventually go away, but so many deaths in a short amount of time would be taxing on an immortal's body. Yes, Mokou had an obvious high pain tolerance, but she had to have been reaching her limit. I wouldn't blame her if she quit right then and there. I myself would have quit far earlier.

"Stay down, houraijin."

Mokou wiped at her face, grunting out "...Screw...you..."

Yukari just shrugged as she went back to the speech and this one-sided fight. "People out there in the outside world...they are too concerned with trivial things. Their apathy towards their fellow person is sickening. When they hear about a death on the news, or on a website, they go 'oh, too bad', and continue on their day. The people here in Gensokyo, they live pretty meaningful lives, and they care for one another. They matter. They work for the greater good, and they work for survival. They don't have the luxuries you outsiders have. But besides the obvious threats around them, they live happy lives, and all for the good of their village. Their lives are richer than those of the enslaved worker ants in your world." She shrugged. "At least, in my opinion. This is all my opinion anyway."

If you like them so much, then why do this to their protector? Why instill such fear- ah...right. She is a youkai, and she needs fear to survive.

It is indeed a screwed up situation. She appreciates the humans in Gensokyo, yet she needs them to fear her. Otherwise, she'll fade out. It's for her own survival, for the survival of all the other youkai in Gensokyo. If no one believes in these youkai, then the youkai die. It's not normal, to say the least. Well, maybe it's normal for her, just not normal for me. Although, again, that one thought - if Haruhi stopped believing in Aliens, Time Travelers, and ESPers, what would happen to the members of the brigade who are as such? Would they fade away, cease to exist?

"You talk too much, you know that?" Reimu angrily interjected.

Yukari just coyly smirked. She then turned to her opponent, who was hunched over her knees, taking deep breaths. She had worn herself out trying to even singe the demon in between being killed. Mokou looked up, her eyes widening to see that Yukari was facing her. Again, that fear flashed through the eyes of the immortal, but was almost as quickly replaced by anger.

Is that what gives her power, or increases it? Her rage? Seemed like Mokou could literally burn with anger. But even I could see that the flames that Mokou had weren't as hot as before - she was, well, for lack of a better term, 'burning out'. It was already heartbreaking to see this. Mokou had attempted to put up a hell of a fight, but couldn't even get a hit in. In fact, she didn't that time either. After another failed attack, Yukari used a portal to toss a multitude of kunai at Mokou, which of course killed her.

"Yukari..." I said. "...Enough...Just stop. Just stop this."

Koizumi yelled out "Stop it!"

"Yeah!" Shouted Marisa. "You've done enough, ze!"

"Yukari..." The demon looked over to Yuyuko, who said that. The ghost seemed saddened by all this. "Enough. Please. That's enough. You made your point."

Yukari blankly stared at her friend, silent for a moment. Yukari's eyes started to return to normal. Mokou made a grunt, coming back to life and pulling out the kunai from her body. When she was done with that, she was trying to get up, and Yukari returned her attention to her target, her eyes going full youkai again.

When Mokou got back to her feet, a shot of some kind (I couldn't tell) came out from one of the portals, hitting Mokou square in the chest, knocking her on her back. She just gasped, her chest moving up and down, trying to get air into her body. She shakingly tried to prop herself up, gritting her teeth, making little noises of pain. Yukari had come down, and put her foot on Mokou's chest, to keep her down.

"Had enough, houraijin?" Yukari's tone was cold.

None of us who were watching this was able to look away, even though I desperately wanted to. I envied Asahina, as she wouldn't have nightmares about this. Even thinking about it again makes me shiver. Reimu was next to me, shaking with rage, but Ran and Chen were in front of us, ready to do something if we interfered. Again, seeing this side of people I know...man.

Mokou's right fist clenched, a small fire covering it. She struggled to move it, wanting to strike the demon at such a close range, but she couldn't even lift her arm.

"Stay down, houraijin."

Mokou...please stay down. You don't have anything to prove. You can't beat her.

The immortal kept glaring up at Yukari, still trying to move her arm, as the fire on it was quickly dying out. Mokou had to have finally reached her limit. The immortal's lips began to move, she was saying something.

"Excuse me? Hmm?" Yukari leaned down, trying to hear what Mokou had to say.

And the immortal spat in the demon's face. A small smile of satisfaction crossed Mokou's face as she enjoyed her act of defiance.

I brought my palm to my forehead. You just made it worse, Mokou.

Yukari again got a handkerchief to wipe away at her face. "Now that was just rude." Yukari stepped away from Mokou, still staring down at the immortal, the eyes of the demon going pitch black. She was angry. Next thing I knew, Yukari had reached into a portal, and had taken the Roukanken from Youmu.

Oh shi-

"Lady Yukari!" Youmu had tried to keep her from taking the katana, but she couldn't stop the demon.

Yukari unsheathed the katana, looking down at her enemy. "You'll regret doing that."

"If...if ya think cutting me...is gonna scare me..."

"Oh I can scare you on the primal level with a neat little trick I can do with my portals."

Suddenly, a 'dome' of portals opened up around Mokou, facing her. Another portal opened near the held katana. Yukari slowly stuck the katana into the portal. And each of the portals surrounding Mokou began to have the blade protruding out of them. Mokou's eyes widened when she saw that.

What the hell?!

"One input portal...many output portals."

Now that is just cheating. That's right. All those blades were from the single Roukanken. Yeah, apparently Yukari can do that. That is totally cheating, and totally against the laws of matter. She could artificially increase the number of attacks she can do.

The portals began to slowly converge onto Mokou - painfully slow. She shook, trying to get up, trying to move away from all of this, but she couldn't. Her breathing got faster in anticipation of what was to come.

Despite that obvious punch to the gut of the laws of physics (of the portals), I don't know how much I could take anymore, how much we could take. By we, I mean Reimu, Koizumi, and I. We had reached our limit. We could hear some gasps, some yelling, coming from the dome. The village wasn't liking this, watching their defender get beat down like this. Keine had come back out, snarling and shooting some more shots, but Ran dashed to her position, and got in the way. The kitsune put up a barrier to absorb the shots and to block Keine from advancing.

"Kyon!" The miko had whisper-shouted at me. She then turned to me, handed me a vial (I don't know how she got one) and then she looked towards Chen's barrier. The nekomata's eyes widened at this - she knew she couldn't stand up to us. Her specialty was speed from what I had seen.

Any other circumstance, I would have thought twice about doing this. I was going to use a vial against Chen. Surprisingly enough, I didn't feel guilty about wanting to do it. I have had enough of Yukari just dominating this fight. Even though this Mokou person had clearly made it known that she was ready to, well, set us all on fire just to prove a point to her hated enemy...I couldn't stand by and let what was transpiring before me continue to happen. I just couldn't, and neither could my companions.

I timed it with Reimu - we both aimed at Chen. My vial breaking at the feet of the Nekomata while the spell card was called out.

[SPELL CARD: DREAM SIGN "FANTASY SEAL ~ CONCENTRATE"]

"Stop it!"

With Ran no longer in the way, and Chen's barrier focused on absorbing the Fantasy Seal and my grenade-thing (the nekomata dodged out of the way when her shield failed, not wanting to be hit by anything else), Koizumi flew right at the demon. Of course, Yukari used her portals to get out of harms way. When she popped out of another one, the other portals all shut down as well, the katanas disappearing back to one. Koizumi attempted to slam his glowing red esper body into the demon (like how he would with those Shinjin of Haruhi) while the demon kept dodging. She was really good - I've seen Koizumi esper fight - he and his esper allies could tear a Shinjin to pieces in a short amount of time, but he couldn't get near Yukari. Eventually Yukari had timed it just right, raising the Roukanken so it was pointed at Koizumi's face - he floated there in between Mokou and the demon, the katana's blade mere centimeters from his forehead. He was defiant, glowing red in his esper state, fists clenched.

"Enough..."

Yukari's eyes had returned to normal - she blinked a few times, before grinning at the esper. "Ah...Koizumi... You know, I really do like you. You are a handsome young man, ready and willing to do what it takes to save his world. I like that quality."

"This is enough. Just stop."

Yukari's eyes shined with amusement. "Oooh. You're passionate. I like that as well."

"This isn't a game!"

"But didn't we go over this? It is to me. I thought you'd be smart enough to understand it, that when I'm in control, everything is a game. Chen was right. It's for my own amusement when I get like this." Yukari turned her head towards Yuyuko, holding the gaze for a few seconds, before returning her attention to the esper. The demon shrugged, before lowering the katana. "But...you're right. I've had my fun. I'm done with her." She turned her head to her servants. "Ran, Chen, we're done with this."

Both servants stopped with their barrier, allowing Keine and Koizumi to get to the downed Mokou, and for some of us to get near her as well. Sakuya, who had regained her faculties, had joined me.

"How you feeling?"

She slowly moved her arm. "Just a little tingly where I got burned, but I'm fine otherwise."

"Makes you wonder, doesn't it? If she was right in a way?"

"Yukari told us what Suou said to you."

I didn't answer her, because I had no answer. There was no easy answer. There never is an easy answer.

"Udonge."

Reisen turned around as she was putting away her cleaning supplies, aware that someone was opening her door, but she was surprised to find that it was the Princess.

"Ah!" Reisen bowed. "Princess." Kaguya stood there at the open doorway, smiling. Reisen's ears lowered, as she was unsure of the purpose of this visit, but also realizing it was extremely rude of her to keep the Princess out in the hall. "Uhm...would you like to come in?"

"I shall." Kaguya was beaming as she stepped in, and looked around. "I have never been in here. You do keep your room in such great condition."

Reisen was unsure of what to do, and of what to say in this situation. Kaguya remained silent as she studied the guns in the gun case.

"What do you think of me, Udonge?"

Oh crap. Again, Reisen didn't know what to say. Well, she had some thoughts on the matter, but voicing them would only get her into trouble. However, it seemed that the silence was telling. Kaguya looked back at the rabbit.

"You haven't lived as long as I have. You haven't seen or experienced the things I have. But I do think your judgment of me is quite fair with the way I've been acting."

Reisen's ears lowered. "I'm-I'm sorry. I didn't mean to-I mean, I-"

Kaguya quickly whispered: "Can you set up an illusion field right now? Quickly."

The soldier balked for a second, before complying. When it was up, Kaguya turned to the rabbit, her face serious.

"Okay, they won't hear us, but I shall make this quick - they'll notice this field. I do have a request, Udonge. The next time you hear me sneeze, quickly aim your gun towards the tree near the main entrance, and eliminate the hostile that will be appearing from behind it. If they don't come out, then move to shoot them. But use danmaku."

"What?!"

"Just honor my request."

Reisen scratched her head. "Princess, what's going on?"

Kaguya's face softened. "Please, just do it. And..." Kaguya scoffed, rolling her eyes. "I know how I seem at times. I know how I might come off to people, even you."

"Princess, you-"

She held up her hand. "Reisen, I know. But I'm just keeping up appearances right now." Kaguya returned to her position in front of the guns. "Trust me on this, Udonge. You will save a lot of lives. Now end the illusion field." When Reisen did as such, Kaguya then turned, her face set in the smile before the illusion. "Well, your guns are quite neat, but I don't really know much about them. But thanks for letting me see them, Udonge." Kaguya then left, closing the door behind her.

Reisen's head was swimming with thoughts, trying to make sense of this. Shoot...shoot whoever is behind the tree in the front? Reisen stood there, thinking it over. Keeping up appearances? On schedule? It doesn't-

It hit her. She had heard of something like this before from the Sukima.

Danmaku bullets...

It was so obvious. Reisen grabbed the M16, making sure she had a magazine of danmaku ready. She chambered the danmaku bullet, and looked down the sight.

I'll be ready, Princess.

Yukari kept smiling at Koizumi, not doing anything. Just standing there as the esper went to Mokou's side.

Man. I've rarely seen Koizumi get like that.

Mokou couldn't even sit up - she was in so much pain. Her breathing was quite erratic.

"I'd ask if you're all right, but you're healed just fine." Koizumi shot a glare at the demon before returning his attention to the immortal. "Need anything?"

"Ah...I'll be okay," Mokou grunted. "I've been through worse."

"I've never seen anybody take a beating like that and get back up. You're tough as nails."

Mokou grinned. "Yeah...and I feel like one too..." She struggled again to sit up, only managing to shake. "Pounded by a hammer 'n all."

"I guess..." Koizumi realized he couldn't do anything for her. "I guess just lay down until you're able to get back up?"

"Lookit you..." Mokou grinned a strained grin. "I think you're a natural born white knight, coming to save someone in distress, acting all heroic 'n crap."

Well his purpose is to save the world from destruction.

"That wasn't my intention, you know. I-"

"I know I know just messin' with ya. And don't apologize for it. Honestly...been a long while since someone's been chivalrous to me 'n all." Mokou sighed. "It's nice."

Yuyuko had floated to where Koizumi was, her stern gaze on her demon friend. "You really take too much pleasure in being a demon."

"If I didn't enjoy and celebrate what or who I am, nobody would do it for me, right?" I saw that Remilia frowned over what Yukari said. The demon then quickly disappeared in a portal, emerging next to that journalist tengu. "Did you get all of that?"

The journalist took a few steps back in surprise, but quickly recovered. "Ah, yeah. You gave me some juicy action shots. And it was a dramatic fight too. 'The defender valiantly, if hopelessly, trying to withstand the assault'. My readers will eat it up."

"Do not put it in your paper."

The journalist's brow furrowed. "What? Why?"

"Because if the youkai see it, they might become emboldened to attack the village. I do not need that."

A semi-smile formed on the reporter's face. "Uhm, you're kidding right? I'm gonna put it in my papers. It's too good not to."

Yukari's face went serious, her eyes becoming pitch black again. "Then how about I let you experience what the houraijin experienced?"

Hoo boy.

A confident smirk appeared on the journalist's face. "Heh. What? I'm too fast for you to catch m-"

Already there was a portal and a hand grabbing the reporter by the neck from behind. Her eyes widened in surprise.

"You may be the fastest creature in Gensokyo, but remember - Gensokyo is my realm, Aya." Yukari brought Aya closer. "If you are going to show anyone those photos, show your stuck up superiors. Lately the Tengu have been getting flippant with me, especially your Lord."

Aya scowled "Hey, sukima. We got no beef with you, all right? There's no need to be violent with me. And besides-"

"It's either this, or I visit your village and put on a show of why your kind should fear me. And I will go further than I did with the houraijin here." Aya was brought closer, to Yukari, until they were almost nose-to-nose. "Are we clear?"

As much as I despise the idea of a controlled media, I'd have to say that this was somewhat a noble goal. Why embolden youkai to attack the village? What purpose would that serve?

Aya appeared to think about it that, and also thinking about escaping, because she struggled a bit. She quickly calmed down, and the corner of her mouth frowned. "Fine. But you owe me something big for my paper."

"You know I'm good for it, and I have something in mind anyway." The hand released, Aya rubbing the back of her neck. She turned to leave, as Yukari said the following. "And, Aya? Remember. I'll come around your home later, and I'll approve what can be shown. You can show off my power. Just not how badly the defender lost. Because if you do have a photo that emboldens the youkai to attack, I'll hurt you and your people - plain and simple."

Yukari makes a fine dictator. Censorship of the press, using public violence to affirm her dominance, threats, manipulation. But she doesn't have any statues of herself in every corner, though. I guess she wasn't vain.

Aya grumbled a curse as she took off - more like bolted off. Huge black bird wings sprouted out her back and she just flew, so hard that there was a loud crack of air displacement. One second she was there, the next, no trace, not even in the sky, the sound almost like a whip bowling over us. She really was quick.

Yukari had already used a portal to 'jump' to our location. The demon stood there for a while, staring at the miko. "Happy? Your little village won't be attacked."

Reimu glared at the demon. "Yeah thrilled. Still doesn't change the fact that I want to slap an amulet across your face." Reimu even had said paper amulet at the ready. I didn't catch what was on it, but it looked like something dealing with holy power.

"So why didn't you?" Yukari had walked around us, near Mokou. Keine, or Were-Keine, however it is, snarled when Yukari got close but the demon paid no mind. "Why didn't you do anything?" She referenced to Mokou. "Why wait that long to do something? You could have helped her."

She wanted to do something. You had Ran and Chen blocking us.

"Ran and Chen were instructed to stop you, but not if you got serious."

Wait what? Well, there goes the previous thought.

"This was a situation concocted by you." Reimu stepped up to Yukari, face-to-face. "You were waiting for me to do something, weren't you?"

Yukari's eyes narrowed, and she sighed in disappointment. "Ah, that Hakurei intuition. You should have ignored it."

"Why the hell would I play into anything you do?"

"For one, you would have looked quite the hero in front of the entire village."

Keine's eyes widened. "You...you tried to...why?"

Something dawned in Reimu's eyes. She closed them, gritting her teeth and lowering her head. "Ah...I'm such an idiot."

It took me a while to realize it too. Yukari had tried to set up a situation where the human village would be more grateful to the miko. Particularly-

"Whenever I visit the shrine, miko, your donation box is usually pitifully empty." Yukari shrugged, to the dismay of Reimu. "You helped me out, so I thought I'd help you out. But it didn't work."

Reimu groaned. Marisa stepped up to her, putting her arm around her shoulder. "Hey. This is what I told you, ze. Not all youkai are bad."

Remilia was grinning. "Your own hatred of youkai, and hatred of being used by a youkai backfired in your face. Ha! I love it!"

Well that sucks. Yukari had tried to...you know what, no. She had hurt Mokou to such an extreme just to show off her power, and fool the people of the village? She really is a manipulator!

Yukari clicked her tongue. "Disappointing. Donations would have vastly increased. Ah well, I did what I could." Yukari turned to the two defenders. "As for the two of you, I just needed to prove a point, and you offering yourselves to fight us just gave me the excuse I needed to be in that situation." Yukari brought out her hand. "No hard feelings?"

Keine and Mokou just stared at the demon like she was crazy. "Are you kidding me?" The were-beast growled at the demon. "You threatened the village and it was just for fun?!"

Yukari rolled her eyes. "Oh please, drop the tough girl act, both of you. Everyone in your little dome went back inside, so you don't have to act like you can actually take me. And besides, if I wanted the village to die out, I'd do it. I'd even let Miss Aya there publish all those photos. You do great work here, Miss Kamishirasawa - very commendable. But do realize - I have to do what I have to do for my own survival."

What Yukari said seemed to immediately have an effect on the two defenders. They were still angry at her, but with not an intense hatred as before.

Keine sighed. "Well, dammit. Look - I had to expose myself here. A lot more people now know what I am. I had hoped to keep it a secret, but now word will quickly spread of what I am." Keine looked down, eyes narrowing. "And I know I'll have a lot of questions to answer when I see my students again..."

I'll say. Their teacher really is a monster. Well, were-beast. But still, a youkai.

"It might make you more popular, Keine." Yukari tilted her head. "You never know. I mean, if they can accept a meal from a stand run by a youkai, then why not protection?"

Good point. And didn't Keine also say that youkai were welcome in the marketplace too? Some villagers were capable of dealing with them.

"Those are two different things, Yakumo."

"Just give it a try."

Yakumo and Keine looked to Mokou, who just did a mini scoff. "Ehhh..." Mokou attempted to stretch through the pain. "I guess...I guess no permanent damage done..."

I guess that's a plus for being an immortal.

"Youkai survival," Keine stood up, glaring at Yukari. "At the cost of keeping humans in fear..."

"It's what I have to do for my own survival. Yes, and in return, the humans have this unspoiled land that is fertile and clean." Yukari flicked her hair. "Like I said - you all lead rich lives in here. And..." Yukari grinned. "And because of this, I now owe you a favor in the future."

Mokou had managed to sit up. "You just killed me...over and over."

"Your body is fine, and thanks to Kyon here, you suffer from no pain." She realized something, before reaching into her dress, producing a vial, which she tossed to me. "Ah, right. Kyon, would you be so kind as to heal her?"

Oh right! I had stood there like an idiot during all of that, but I popped the vial, and healed the immortal. Taste wasn't so bad this time. Mokou let out a long sigh when the barrier surrounded her, slowly moving her limbs.

"Thank you, Kyon. Anyways, Miss Mokou, as far as I'm concerned, there are no lasting damages. I won't lie here. I appreciate the work you and Keine do, preventing the rogue youkai from overtaking the village. I need the village to stand, to be self-sustaining."

"So you can keep your world going."

"Considering that these people were pretty much tossed out of the outside world and brought into here..."

Mokou scoffed. "Yeah yeah yeah...It's either the village," Mokou eyed the youkai in our group. "Or in the bellies of the youkai..."

Live in fear, or die horrible deaths. All because the outside world doesn't want you. Not appealing, though I'd take fear over death any day. And I've said it before - Gensokyo isn't so bad barring all the danger. Yukari is right - people here do lead pretty meaningful lives. And again, considering that they aren't wanted by my world and find a use here... I just don't know. It's just...It's not an easy debate to make, that's for damn sure.

"You stood up to me as well." Yukari tilted her head, a small smile forming. "Truth be told, I actually thought you'd submit, but you didn't. You held out. Your spirit did not break, despite what I had intended. I've never had that happen when I go full power."

"And you knocked me out." Remilia had walked up to the immortal, hands on her hips, and with a huge grin. "Not many people can do that." Remilia bent down, till she was nose to nose with the Immortal. "That puts you in an exclusive club, you know. You actually knocked me out."

"Great." Reimu slowly shook her head, smiling. "Maybe you'll bother her all the time instead of me?"

Yukari's face had softened, an almost proud look crossed her face. She then reached into a portal, producing a pack of cigarettes. She offered that instead. "No hard feelings then?"

Another thing I've noticed - youkai know about and honor respect. Remilia was beaten during the Scarlet Mist incident - Reimu and Marisa become respected by the vampire. Youmu respected Sakuya after that battle in the afterlife. Yuka also appeared to respect Reimu in some regard.

When Wriggle and Mystia were beaten, they showed respect towards the victors. Alice was forthcoming with information, as was Keine...and Suika - an all powerful oni respected the miko who made her submit. And of course, Yukari obviously respects Reimu. You know, there are all kinds of folk tales like that, where youkai respect humans who show some type of iron-willed resolve, or who can beat them in some way. And it was prominent before me in Gensokyo. Respect played a big role in Gensokyo, it seemed. Prove yourself to a youkai, and they won't be such a bother.

Mokou stared at the offered cigarette pack for a second before grabbing it. "Ah, whatever."

You are a real chain smoker, you know that? Though, I guess it doesn't matter for someone like her.

"She just beat on you for a good twenty minutes. You sure-"

She lit the cigarette, taking a few puffs, dismissive of what I was trying to say. "Meh. I don't need the headache of goin' up against the demon again, I guess. Maybe later though, I'll get some payback." Mokou then stood up, smirking. "Besides - I'm now stronger. What kills me makes me stronger."

If you want to look at the bright side of this situation, I guess so.

Mokou looked to Keine. "It's all right. The village needs you - go back."

The teacher put her hand on Mokou's shoulder - she was obviously concerned. "You sure? I don't trust her."

Mokou continued to stand there, staring at the demon. "Well neither do I but as long as the sukima attacks me instead of the villagers, it's all good." Mokou grinned, pointing at Yukari. "But I'll kick your ass next time."

Yukari smirked right back. "Oh I look forward to you trying."

Yeah. Respect. Some weird respect.

Keine had left, leaving us with the immortal. She noticed that we were all staring at her. "Uh...yeah." Mokou shrugged. "I can't stay dead. Is that a problem?"

"It's awesome, ze." Marisa rubbed the back of her neck, her usual smile fading. "It's also bull. I've been working on something like this for the past year."

I raised an eyebrow. "What, immortality?"

"Yeah." Marisa put her hands on her hips, frowning. "And then I find out a month ago it's already been done over a millennia ago. What a waste of my time, ze. I want my year back."

Poor Marisa.

"Regarding you becoming stronger, what you said about it, does that mean an immortal has to purposely kill themselves to 'train'?" That was Alice, who appeared confused on that.

It also made me mentally take a step back, since, well, yeah, that's what Mokou would have to do to get stronger.

Mokou tapped out the ash of the cigarette. "Ain't so bad, after the first several...dozen times. Still hurts, but it don't hurt as bad when I became like this."

"Why did Kaguya get us to go against you?" Alice was pondering that, her brow furrowed. "It doesn't make any sense. Why would she have such a grudge against you?"

"You mean besides her taking the hourai elixir?" asked Sakuya.

"More to it than that, y'know." Taking a few puffs, she let out the smoke, her eyes going over most of us. She motioned to me with her cigarette-holding hand. "You guessed it - my dad's Fuhito."

"Your dad was one of the suitors, wasn't he?" Mokou nodded, answering me.

"Your father was a prince?"

"Nobleman." Koizumi corrected Remilia. "The Fujiwaras were an important ruling family in Japan. Fuhito essentially started it all."

"Yeah...he wasn't a prince, but that didn't stop him from...lusting after that..."

And here is where Mokou called Kaguya a very colorful word, one that I won't repeat.

"You stole the elixir after Kaguya left, after her story, didn't you?"

I could see the anger beginning to burn in her eyes. The fire in the cigarette grew in intensity, burning it faster. Man, it does look like rage powers her flames.

"She ruined him. Dad was obsessed with her, even after that." She had a far away look in her eyes, staring at the ground. She was revisiting the memories - she blinked a few times, bringing herself out of it. "Didn't know what she left, all I knew was that I wanted to take it. And...if I only knew..." Mokou closed her eyes, letting out a slow breath. She then glanced at all of us surrounding her. The tension that was in her body was going away, and she now seemed comfortable with this. "Ya know, you're the first humans in a long time to not freak out over what I am 'n all."

"We have experiences with -" I wanted to say 'weird people', but I quickly advised myself against it. "- Unique people."

"Really? But, ain't you from the outside world?"

Before I could get an answer to that, Remilia put her arm around Mokou's shoulder, making the Immortal bend over to the vampire's short height. It wasn't aggressive - it was a friendly motion. It still bothered the immortal. "So, you despise that Kaguya, eh? Ah, revenge. Such a delicious dish." Remilia grinned her toothy vampire grin. "If you want, I could help you in that."

Mokou was confused at this. "Why?"

"Like I said - you joined an exclusive club."

"That club sucks," interrupted Reimu, "by the way."

Remilia narrowed her eyes at Reimu, before returning her attention to Mokou. "There are perks. Your friends are now my friends, and your enemies," Remilia patted Mokou, "Are now my enemies." Remilia released Mokou, the vampire flicking her hair. "Besides, I got used tonight for someone else's entertainment...well...two someone's." The vampire glared at Yukari, who simply smiled. "I'll settle for revenge against one tonight."

"You said your father was one of the suitors, right? Why not raid Eintei and take the treasures, ze?" Marisa said that a little too enthusiastically. Then again, there were some real treasures there. I'm surprised Marisa didn't try to take something, actually.

Mokou enthusiastically shook her head. "Nuh-uh. No way. If you seriously go up against the Lunarians, they'd only kill you, and you mortals won't be able to come back from it. I can handle one bratty princess Lunarian. I've seen the doc fight - she ain't someone to seriously mess with, nor is that rabbit with the guns."

"We're not actually considering this, are we?" Yuyuko let out a nervous laugh. "Because I have no intention of invading someone's home tonight."

An idea began to form in my head. I wanted to avoid violence, but I also didn't like getting used by Kaguya. The rules of danmaku were swimming inside my head, along with all the information that had been presented to me.

Also the one thing that had kind of bothered me about Kaguya's attacks, well, namely her spell cards. Or, actually, what she used as spell cards.

Mokou's father...danmaku...Kaguya's spell cards...

Capture.

It was almost too perfect.

Nagato interjected before I could say it - she must have been thinking the same thing. "A danmaku game." I looked to Nagato, who nodded. "Kaguya uses her impossible requests as spell cards."

"Danmaku isn't gonna cut it, little one." Mokou shook her head. "'Sides, the two of us have played each other with that stuff. We have an even record, actually."

"Capture all five of her spell cards," I blurted out. "Capture the five impossible requests. Do what your father could not."

Mokou frowned, anger showing on her face. "Don't you think I haven't tried that? All my time here, I never thought of that? You think I'm stupid or somethin'?"

"Something to really embarrass her, and to guarantee you capturing all of them."

Mokou blinked, scratching her head. "Uhm...what?"

The rest of the group was looking at me, confused as well. They awaited my explanation, to see where I was going with this. And where I went was unexpected, according to them.

"Well, what if Mokou beats Kaguya without attacking at all? The Passive Run?"

What followed was a silence. Everyone from Gensokyo was staring at me.

Ever get that socially awkward situation, where everyone stares at you like you're crazy? I hate being in those, and there I was, in such a place. I just despise them.

"Kyon," Reimu quietly said. "A 'Passive Run'?"

Yes, the Passive Run rule. It was something that Sakuya had told me back on that wintry day, all before we got to Cirno and Letty. As she explained the rules, she mentioned an obscure rule to the game of Danmaku. Sure, you know that not hitting someone with a spell card conceded a capture - such a rule saved my life. However, failing to hit someone with spell cards (danmaku in general, but spell cards had a bigger effect) caused a...how do I put this...a 'hidden' buildup of energy. Over a number of spell cards, that energy would activate. The spell cards would essentially turn on the caster, knocking them out with an unavoidable attack as a kind of penalty. This rule was in place to avoid frivolous use of spell cards - you had to mean it when you engaged in Danmaku, otherwise it wouldn't end well for you, and it also encouraged one to not let people capture them. If they knew your patterns, they could sidestep all your attacks, and get a buildup going. Grazes would alleviate the buildup, and a good enough graze would kill the buildup all together. And of course hits ended it. But it's possible to beat someone by not firing a single shot, all by dodging, by playing a complete defensive game. This was the Passive Run rule, essentially a penalty for failing at the game, and a massive reward for whoever completed it.

Oh yeah, and suffice to say, a Passive Run also ends in a complete submission of the cards used. Mokou would be getting the treasures at the cost of not attacking at all.

But judging by the reaction of my companions, something was up. "Something wrong with a Passive Run?"

"It's just...it's just a theory." Reimu lightly shrugged. "I mean, yes, it's in the rules. Beating someone by having them exhaust themselves with their own spell cards is in the rules. But it's more of a formality." Reimu's brow furrowed. "I mean, I've never seen anybody do that. Even I haven't done it. In theory, a Passive Run is possible...but nobody has ever done that before."

Oh. Well, that explains their reaction. Seriously, nobody has done this? Not even Reimu?

"Have you seen Kaguya's patterns, ze?" Marisa scratched under her hat. "Remiu and I were barely able to get through those, and we're experts at this stuff."

Koizumi tapped his chin. "They weren't too terribly hard. Difficult, yes, but they are doable. But without heavy grazing to activate the self-destruction? It does kind of seem impossible."

"It's because you were grazed and used spell cards yourselves." Yukari crossed her arms. "You erased that buildup. Otherwise you would have been able to defeat her without making a single shot yourself."

"It would be impossible to do this," asked Youmu. "Right?"

Land of making the impossible possible. As I thought that, Nagato spoke up.

"It's not impossible." We all turned to Nagato. She slowly walked up to Reimu, slightly tilting her head. "I was in it. I was not grazed at all. I could have done that against her."

We all began to realize it. Nagato...Of course - she knew the consequences if she were to be hit. Nagato owned that fight in the way that nothing came close to her. Thinking about it then, ever since she got grazed in the Mystia fight, Nagato had taken care to not get grazed or hit from that point on.

Reimu's eyes widened. "That's right...you had more to lose."

A slight smile appeared on Remilia's face. "And something like her would be quick to recognize the patterns."

"Of course she'd figure out the patterns." Attagirl, Nagato.

Nagato gave me a nod. "I can recreate Kaguya's patterns, and show them to Mokou."

Alice looked around, eyebrow raised. "Is this possible?"

"Man I've never seen a Passive Run, ze. I'd love to see it."

Mokou cleared her throat, returning attention to her. "But it'd take time, wouldn't it?"

Sakuya raised her hand. "You have me."

This was too perfect. This was doable. We had everything to make this work.

Marisa's eyes were wide. "Holy crap. We can actually make this happen, ze."

Mokou was silent for a while, as we looked to her for her reaction. "So...I could embarrass her...and avenge my father and the honor of my family at the same time..." Mokou's cigarette had already burned to the filter, she was staring at the ground, realizing that this was doable. She took out the cigarette and flicked it away, her hand shaking as she brought out another one - she wasn't looking at us, still looking at the ground. "I can...I can actually do this...I can finally...after a millennia..." She gulped, hard, still thinking it over. "Ah crap...I can do this..."

"We don't have a place to do this." Sakuya looked to us. "For patterns that complex, and in my stopped world, everyone would get hit if we were to do it right here."

Yeah, that would be bad.

Letty and Cirno had finally joined us, after staying away from the pyromancer for a good distance. "You have the realm of Yukari, don't you?"

"It's where Reimu and I were in, and where Reimu was training." Koizumi nodded. "It's a great place to train."

We all looked to Yukari, who had a frown. "For the record, I'm against this." Before any of us could ask, she answered. "Look. The two immortals have been occupied for the past several decades fighting each other." She referenced to the immortal. "If Mokou here were to lose interest in killing Kaguya, then I'd have two bored immortals who will be looking for something to do in my Gensokyo, and that'd be bad."

Mokou's eyes narrowed. "Ya kept me like this?" Her left hand began to blaze as she took a step towards Yukari.

The demon was unfazed. "It's been an amusement. I've told you as such already. But, I pose a question. What would you do if you don't find the rage to be in your heart anymore? What steps will you take? Decade after decade you two have been killing each other, amusing each other, in a way. You've kept each other busy. You've kept her busy."

I understood it. "You're not really worried about what Mokou would do. You're worried what an immortal master magician Lunarian princess might do."

"I don't need her to be bored. Remember - her own boredom gave way to the Hourai Elixir being made, so take that into account." Yukari shook her head. "The doctor isn't much of a problem - she keeps busy and happy with her never-ending pursuit of medical treatment, practice, and research. The other two are focused on the other. I don't need the princess to do unnecessary things." Yukari pointed a finger at Mokou. "And it's not my fault that you failed your father for so..."

Yukari's eyes widened, as she realized something. I didn't know what, until Yuyuko approached her. Oh right. The Ayakashi's last victim. Yukari looked down, ashamed of what she said.

Mokou looked ready to go another round against Yukari, as she had lit up, but Koizumi held her up. "Wait. Please." Mokou just angrily stared at the demon.

Yukari closed her eyes, because she had to know what was coming. "Yuyuko..."

"Yukari. Please. Allow her. I too know the pain of a millennia in regards to one's father." Yuyuko referenced to us. "These humans helped me keep my word."

"Yuyuko, I didn't mean it like that. But realize-"

"Yukari." Yuyuko had lifted Yukari's head up, to face her. Yukari's eyes opened, and they were saddened. "I can't wish that on anybody. It just eats you up. Even when I didn't know about it, I had vague memories of the promise I made. It was another reason why I needed to know who I was. I had the luxury of not fully understanding it - this immortal has lived with it every day for longer than the two of us have been alive...or dead in my case."

"...Yuyuko..."

"Don't make me say 'do this for me'. Because I wouldn't like to be that kind of friend who abuses her friendship with a powerful person."

A small smile crept on Yukari's face. "Oh really? Remember getting me to warp you some of the best food in the world? You are completely that kind of friend."

Yuyuko grinned, a small haughty look on her face. "Oh okay. Well, if you're going to be like that, then very well, I'll say it. Do this for me."

I don't know why, but this little back and forth brought a smile to my face.

Both Yukari and Yuyuko let out a chuckle before letting out a long sigh. Yukari stared in the eyes of her friend, before submitting. "Right. But that's not fair, Yuyuko. Ah, very well. If it's a request from Yuyuko, it can't be helped." Yukari looked to Mokou. "You should be grateful, houraijin."

"Now apologize to Lady Yuyuko for calling her 'stupid ghost'." Youmu said with her arms crossed.

Mokou didn't apologize, but gave a begrudging nod to the ghost. Regarding how they trained Mokou, well... Let's just say that having both an interface that had studied and understood the patterns of Kaguya's spell cards, as well as having a time stopping maid was quite the boon. Literally before we knew it, they were done, coming from Sakuya's gray world in Yukari's realm. It was quicker than a training montage. Mokou lit another cigarette, a confident look on her face. She took a deep pull, and let it out, the smoke surrounding her, glowing white with the moonlight.

"Y'know, you guys don't need to do this for me, especially since I was so ready to kick all your asses. In fact, I still wanna."

Remilia patted the immortal on the back, hard. "Mokou, I shared my dining table with that Princess. I invited her to my home as a guest, and she rewards me by setting me up to get knocked out. If she hates you so much, then you and I will be close friends. But first, let's teach her majesty some humility."

And truth be told, I didn't like being lied to or used either. If everyone had fallen to Mokou, I would have been up for a beating by the immortal, all set up thanks to the Princess.

It's petty of me, but I didn't want to let that slide, Legendary Princess or not.

A portal jump later, and we were outside Eintei. Remilia had taken it upon herself to bang on the front door rather forcefully. In a few minutes, Reisen had shown up, surprised to see us. When she saw the damage, her face saddened, then gave way to confusion and realization that not all of us were damaged. She visibly gulped as Remilia demanded that the Princess came out. Reisen simply nodded and went back inside. It wouldn't be long until the princess came out.

By the way, Mokou was hidden, so Reisen didn't see her.

Kaguya stepped outside into the light of the full moon, with a grin that ran from ear to ear. Seeing her, knowing what kind of person she really was...rage filled my core. She had willingly sent us to almost-sure destruction. The feeling was mutual among my companions it seemed - they were not happy seeing the moon princess.

Hey, don't chastise me for hating on her. She had knowingly and willingly sent us towards the fate of being burned alive. If you can still like a person after their doing that, then you're insane.

"I take it your outing was quite eventful." She looked over all of us, her eyes going from happy to disappointed as she realized not all of us had scorch marks on us. "...But not that eventful." Kaguya looked back to Eirin and Reisen, who were at the doorway. "They actually did it. Impressive, isn't it?" Neither the doctor nor the soldier responded.

Kaguya turned back to us, eyeing who got damage. Remilia quickly answered the silent question the princess had to be asking. "Sakuya, Margatroid, and myself."

"So she took down three of you before you overwhelmed her. "

"Mmm-hmm. Nobody that knocked you out that night got knocked out tonight. Too bad for you, if that was your intention."

And from the look on the Princess' face, it looked like she was vastly disappointed in that. So, that was it - a little revenge as well. Reimu knocked out Kaguya at the end of that Eternal Night, forcing the Lunarians to stop having that fake moon, and the princess wanted a little payback. Man, that's actually quite petty, isn't it? She lost fair and square. Though, didn't Remilia try to do the same thing by sending Reimu and Marisa up against Flandre after her incident?

Yukari had stepped up to the princess, stopping about a meter away. When she had gotten that close, Eirin had already drawn her bow, aiming it right at the demon's head. Yukari payed her no mind. "In fact, I'm afraid you'll find that not a lot is going your way tonight."

"What do you-"

Yukari then sidestepped.

Mokou was standing behind Yukari.

The look on Kaguya's face went to a completely different emotion. She glared at Mokou with blatant disdain. Her jaw clenched, her brow furrowed, and she no longer looked like a regal person - just a person who hated another. And the look on Mokou's face was mutual. It had to be - I can't imagine hating another person for over a millennia, what that can do to your psyche, especially a hatred that ran as deep as Mokou's.

"Oh. You." Kaguya smirked at her rival. "Did they show you a good time, you petty thief?"

Mokou responded by blowing the smoke of her cigarette right into the face of the Princess.

Can't give her secondhand smoke through that.

Kaguya coughed a bit, but still kept smirking.

"Ya know, Princess, you really must be desperate to send out thirteen assassins at me, especially the sukima as well."

"Uh, for the record," I interjected, "I'm not an assassin." But I am flattered, in a weird way.

"Has she told you what she is? Whom exactly Mokou Fujiwara really is?"

"That's Fujiwara no Mokou to you, you bi-"

"Fujiwara no Fuhito. A man with a womanizer complex." She looked to all of us, speaking loud enough so we all could hear her. "Her father liked to sleep around, and Mokou's mother? Mokou's mother was a street worker." Kaguya leaned closer and spoke louder, staring right into Mokou's eyes. "A street worker." Kaguya smirked before returning her attention to us. "This...thief is the illegitimate and unwanted daughter of a man who had the power to erase her from history. The daughter of a common working girl."

Yikes. It was obvious that Kaguya said that to try to get a rise out of Mokou - and the immortal's fists did clench up.

As for Mokou...jeez. No wonder I never heard of her. I mean, yeah, he had quite a few offspring, but I had never heard of Mokou.

"She was the dirty little secret of the Fujiwara family. You may have heard about all her brothers and sisters, but not about her. Her father was so ashamed of poor little Mokou here, that she was never in any history books." Kaguya leaned closer, lowering her voice. "How's it feel to know that your father didn't want you?"

"Howzit feel to know that Luna didn't want you?"

Oh snap.

Kaguya blinked, reeling back from that. Her jaw clenched even more. "How dare you."

"Oh I can dare a lot more." Mokou scratched her chin, except it was in a dramatic fashion. "Y'know, there has been something I've been giving thought to lately."

"That's rare, for an animal like you."

Holy hell these two really do hate each other.

Unfazed, Mokou continued. "It's something that's been bothering me, but I couldn't answer, because it's a..." She scratched her head. "It's something I haven't wanted to think about. But it's been on my mind recently, for some unknown reason." Done with her cigarette, Mokou flicked it at the princess, and the butt landed on the long kimono of Kaguya, the end of which was on the ground. Mokou then stepped on it, grinding the butt right into the kimono. Already, the smoke of the burned material wafted up. Kaguya just stared at it, a flash of rage going through her eyes, but she still maintained composure. Mokou lit up another cigarette. "Something that all children don't want to think about. I mean, it's no secret my old man couldn't keep it in his pants." Mokou looked back to us, giving us a non-committal shrug. "Hell, I wouldn't be here if he couldn't, and neither any of my half siblings." The immortal returned her attention to the princess. "But that's just it. My old man loved to...well...there is no other way to put it - he loved to get nasty. That's why he had so many children. But it's also telling. Ya see, if a girl wouldn't put out, he wouldn't give them too much time. He might like looking at them, but he only obsessed over those who he got into bed." Mokou puffed more smoke into the face of the princess.

Some of us had red faces over what was being said. I instantly knew what Mokou was implying.

Mokou moved closer to the princess, until they were pretty much nose-to-nose. "What I wanna know is how many times did you lay down and spread open your legs for him? Because he couldn't stop thinking about you, you little tramp. He obsessed over you, so you had to have taken it more times than any other woman."

This is getting way too risque! I heard Marisa try to stifle a laugh at all this. Alice's face was red as she had her hand near her mouth.

"Disease-riddled filthy daughter of a whore!" Kaguya spat, finally showing full-on anger. "You know your father was too embarrassed to have a child from a street worker! That's why you never enjoyed the noble lifestyle your siblings did! You were his dirty little secret he was always ashamed of!"

"Skank!" Mokou yelled right back, the cigarette dropping out of her mouth. "And the difference being is that my mom charged for what she did! You gladly did it for free, and still probably do! You ran away from your problems on the moon, but it was okay 'cause you laid with so many guys down here!"

What the hell! My jaw was hanging open from this.

"Street-worker!"

"Ho!"

"Trick-turner!"

"Bitch! How many times did you let guys finish in you?"

"How many diseases were you born with?!"

This was better than daytime television. In fact, Yukari had somehow gotten a bowl of popcorn, and was passing it around. All of us were just watching this drama unfold. By the way, those are actually just the things I can repeat here. But anyways, they had far more colorful, choice words for each other at that point. It went on for about a minute. I'll let your imagination fill in those blanks. And yes, it did get as colorful as you're thinking right now. That bad.

Mokou held up a spell card after she finished her tirade. Kaguya's eyes narrowed in amusement after staring at it for a second. "Really? You're challenging me again?"

"Whatsamatter? Scared?"

"'Scared'?" Kaguya blinked, a sure smile forming. "You're challenging me to another Danmaku game? It's magic. My specialty. You should fear me." Kaguya raised her hand, and out came the five impossible tasks from inside Eintei. Kaguya grinned rather devilishly at Mokou. "Oh, I do so enjoy beating you with these. Let's keep up the Fujiwara tradition of not completing the impossible tasks alive and well!"

Kaguya was quickly becoming a person that someone could love to hate. Also, is that the sole reason why she uses her impossible tasks as spell cards? Just to stick it to Mokou in danmaku? I'd never get an answer to that.

Eirin had stood up, she was looking at Yukari, and back at the immortal. Yukari was smiling, and Mokou looked confident. "Princess, no, this doesn't feel right. They're up to-"

The doctor had to have figured out that something was up, but the Princess was hearing none of it.

"Eirin, please. If this street worker wants to get embarrassed in front of her new clients, I'll oblige her."

Yep, Kaguya just seemed to be someone a person could love to hate when she got like this.

Nagato's training was perfect - the First spell card: cleared. Kaguya was unfazed, simply stating "you're lucky". Second was cleared too. Kaguya paused, and demanded to know why Mokou wasn't attacking, to which Mokou kept grinning. After the third, Kaguya landed on the ground, her face in deep thought over what was going on. When it was obvious that Mokou wasn't going to attack, even when Kaguya wasn't doing anything, the princess realized it. Her eyes widened.

"No. No." She took a few steps back, ready to turn to Eintei. "No, you're not doing that." Kaguya had to have figured it out - she was getting Passive-Runned. "No, I know what you're doing. You will never do that, never get those treasures. I won't allow it, because you don't deserve it. You and your father never deserved any of them."

Just as Kaguya turned, Mokou blurted out something. "Run away, loser. Just like you've done your entire life. Running away from the moon."

My jaw dropped. Kaguya stopped, her fists clenching up. Man, Mokou goes for the throat on these things.

"How dare you..." Kaguya whispered, shaking.

"That is a low blow." Reimu was shaking her head as she said that under her breath.

Mokou was obviously enjoying this. She extended her arms. "S'all you know how to do, right? Runnin' from your problems?"

Kaguya turned, her eyes enraged. "How dare you speak to me like that!"

"C'mon. Do what comes naturally for you." Mokou pointed right at Eintei. "Give up and run away at the first sign of trouble."

Remilia was smirking at all of this. "I knew I liked this defender."

Anger had overtaken the princess, the logic long gone. "I refuse to run from something like you!"

Mokou snapped her suspenders, a cocky smile on her face. "Bring it."

"Princess, you need to stop-"

"Quiet Eirin!"

Mokou breezed through the fourth card. By that time, Eirin was pleading with the Princess to stop, to just leave it alone, that she didn't have to prove anything. Kaguya wasn't hearing any of it, her focus was on Mokou. But in her eyes... Fear. Fear on the face of the princess.

Eirin appeared to come close to joining in on several occasions, but Yukari would warp right in front of the doctor each time, and simply shake her head.

Also, I had to consider something. If Mokou pulled this off, I would be seeing actual folklore being broken. The impossible tasks actually completed - the five treasures captured. I was witnessing folklore history here. Granted, the history between these two went back over a millennia ago, but I was to bear witness to it being closed, a very big chapter in Japanese folklore ending right before my very eyes. It was amazing to be there, to be a part of it.

The fifth one was worse than during the Endless Night incident. Kaguya had poured most of her energy into it, but the general pattern was the same, thankfully, at least to how I remembered it from a month prior. Mokou had a few close calls here and there, but she got through it.

The spell card ended - Kaguya couldn't power it any longer. Gasping for air and holding onto her raised arm like it stung, the princess fell to her knees. She had strained her body to keep her magic going, to keep the spell card going for a bit longer than they were designed for. Mokou was also gasping for air, bending over, hands on her knees, as the last bit of dodging was intense. Kaguya had pulled out all the stops to try to hit Mokou, but nothing came of it.

It happened.

Mokou had Passive-Runned Kaguya.

The realization of what happened was dawning not only on the two of them, but everyone present. Mokou was silent, her lips quivering. Kaguya, on the other hand, was complaining.

"Are you kidding me?! I grazed her enough times! I got her! That was impossible! That was complete and utter...uh-oh."

The spell cards she had used - the impossible tasks - were glowing. I had wondered if Kaguya was right - like I said, Mokou had close calls, and it was up in the air whether it would be enough for the Passive Run not to activate, but it appeared to have worked.

They gathered in front of Kaguya, hovering in front of the princess, all five of them. She blinked a few times, her mouth slowly scowling at the inevitable. She looked back at Eirin, who was shaking her head in shame and disappointment, and then looked over all of us who bore witness to this. Then she returned her attention to the objects, as the glowing had intensified. A crackling of static energy was forming, getting more and more intense by the second.

Kaguya simply grumbled, "Ah, great."

The next instant, she was encased in an energy field of danmaku, the penalty for allowing a Passive Run. She grit her teeth, making choking noises, but she didn't scream. The field shook her rather violently. It lasted for several intense seconds before releasing, allowing her to collapse on the ground.

As the Lunarians rushed to the aide of their princess, it happened. The cards were captured and copies appeared before Mokou - the five impossible requests were hers. She stared at them, continuing to be silent. Her lip continued to quiver.

"Man. I've never seen this before, and I've been playing this for years, ze." I heard Marisa remark.

"Huh." Remilia crossed her arms, her brow furrowing. "That was kind of underwhelming. I half-expected the Passive Run penalty to be some kind of epic explosion, really. You know, just like a 'boom!'" She said that as she opened her hand to simulate an explosion. "Something really amazing."

Frankly, I kinda did too. With how intense and epic danmaku was, I wanted that penalty to be a bit more than it was - especially since it was essentially hyped by it's rarity.

"Doesn't need to be anything flashy." Reimu began to walk up to Mokou. "It's just a penalty for Danmaku failure. Nothing more, nothing less." When the miko reached the side of the immortal, Reimu nodded towards the objects. "They're yours. You won them. And congratulations - I've never seen this happen before."

Mokou...began to cry. Not sobbing, but just silently crying. The tears just started to form, and they fell. She was doing her best to hold them back, wiping away at her face, but she couldn't stop it. The immortal grabbed the Jeweled Branch - the one she had focused on since she captured them all - and held it tightly to her body, falling to her knees.

You see, during the entire battle, whenever Mokou had time to rest, she would look directly at that branch. When her focus wasn't on the Princess or the danmaku, it was on that item. It wasn't hard to deduce the significance - in fact, Koizumi figured it out too.

"That was it, wasn't it?" Koizumi asked as he took a few tentative steps towards the immortal. "He was supposed to get that one, wasn't he?"

Mokou vigorously nodded her head, and leaned back on the heels of her feet, closing her eyes and taking shaky deep breaths to try to calm herself.

"You have honored your father," said Yuyuko. "I'm sure he is proud of you."

Mokou shook her head, wiping at her face again. "Nah...Kaguya's right...I was his dirty little secret...I wasn't..." Another deep breath. "I wasn't allowed to be in public with him, or at all. I was one of his daughters, but he never..." Mokou scrunched up her face, closing her eyes to yet another flow of silent tears. She let out a gasp, and shallow breathing. She was close to losing it, but she had done her best not to. Mokou looked up to the sky, rocking back and forth in her kneeling, still gripping the Branch. "I did this, you bastard. I did this. Me. Not you. Even when you told your other children...to find these...I did it. Me. They failed. I did it."

I don't know how I'd handle such a thing. To live with that kind of weight on your shoulders for over a millennia? Again, I was gaining more respect for this immortal as the night went on. And what an amazing thing that I was there to bare witness to such a story come to a close. Not just the Impossible Tasks being completed, but also this unknown story of this unknown daughter that history tried to forget.

She stood, closing her eyes, lighting another cigarette. After letting out a draw, she turned to us. Her head was lowered, as she didn't want us to really get a good look at her tear-stained face.

"I...I ah...thanks."

We didn't answer her. We didn't need to. We all silently stood there, long enough for Kaguya to have gotten back to her feet. The Lunarians weren't saying anything to us, though Eirin had a disapproving look on her face. Kaguya appeared she wanted to say something, but she ultimately didn't.

Mokou kept standing there, still clutching the branch, her head still lowered. Even when her cigarette turned to ash, she did nothing. Koizumi was the one who went up to her.

"I'd ask if you're all right, but..."

A small smile formed on Mokou's face. "Nah, nah I am. Better than I thought I'd be, actually." She wiped at her face again, before staring him in the eye. "Dramatic enough for you, you actor?"

Koizumi crossed his arms, wearing his usual smile. "I'll say. You're almost Shakespearian, if I may say so. You had the tragedy of trying to avenge your father and your family's name, yet you could not fail by death, nor could you win by killing the person responsible. You were caught in a bad spot."

"Yeah...that was the cruel joke 'bout it. Couldn't even be released from this torture 'n I couldn't end her life..." Mokou stared at the object in her hand, then the rest on the ground, and back to the branch. Her brow furrowed. "Thing is, now what do I do? I mean..." Mokou shrugged. "Now what?"

That is kind of a good question, isn't it? Yukari had a point. What will this immortal do to bide her time now?

"You know, this brings up a question." Youmu stood there, arms crossed and deep in thought as she said that.

"What?" I asked.

"The impossible requests. Since Miss Fujiwara gathered all the impossible requests, does that mean that she and Kaguya have to get-"

The Princess then sneezed.

Within a second, there was a gunshot. Upon the sneeze, Reisen had bolted, running from the Princess, along Eintei's outer wall - she dove at a point, aiming for something behind the tree. She shot danmaku, I noticed, and -

From behind the tree, a Sky Canopy Domain member moved, to avoid the shots. She then turned to us, realizing that she was exposed.

My blood ran cold - she had a swirling of sand around her body - data.

Before any of us could do anything, a wave came off of her, a distortion. The sand washed over everything, paralyzed all of us - our group and Eintei. Reisen got in a shot, it grazing the girl's shoulder, but the wave froze the soldier as well.

Not again! It's such a cheap tactic used by data entities, whether they are Data Society or Sky Canopy.

The girl, looking at each of us to make sure we couldn't move, cracked a smile, while holding her shoulder. The danmaku shot didn't kill her - just really hurt her. She had to have been resistant to it.

Now, I know I recognized her, but I couldn't put my finger on it until I remembered that Endless night. It was the girl Yuyuko killed with her butterflies. That SCD member that died instead of Suou - but only the interface died. The rest were completely eradicated - interface and entity via the connection, due to the danmaku. This girl didn't suffer that fate. She was the straggler from that bunch that wanted to eradicate us and all of Gensokyo.

"No theatrics this time. That was Suou's flaw." She locked eyes with Nagato, a glow beginning to form in the girl's free hand - Danmaku.

No! Nagato! No! By the way, we were pretty much totally paralyzed - we couldn't talk or anything, only blink and breathe. That's the only thing I could be grateful for in that situation. I struggled as hard as I could, not wanting to watch Nagato die right in front of me.

I saw the girl's body tense a bit, her legs moving into position to do a lunge right for Nagato, but then she showed confusion. She simply stared past us.

I could hear someone walking from behind us, and my mind began asking who it was. Pretty soon, she stopped, right at me, but still staring at the hostile girl.

It was an SCD entity. She was slender, and about 6 inches taller than Suou was, but about her age. She wore all black, and had black hair that went down to her waist - it wasn't as long as Suou's. This new girl turned her head to me, staring at me with her aqua eyes. While she was pretty in her own way, I felt sick with fear looking at her. We were caught by two SCD members.

"What are you doing here?" asked the girl who came from behind the tree. She was blatantly confused at this showing.

The new girl didn't answer, just kept staring right at me. Her eyes...kind of soothed me, to tell the truth. There was no hostility from this girl.

When the hostile girl didn't get an answer, she asked again. "What are you doing here? Did you finally come to your senses and decide to join us?"

So...she isn't from Suou's side? That put a glimmer of hope into me.

The new girl spoke, her voice a bit bland and flat, even for a data entity. "I've told you before where I stand. But you doing this...changes things."

The girl reached into one of my pockets, and produced a brand new spell card. It was not the Icicle Fall.

What the heck?!

It was blue - a different shade of blue from the Icicle Fall. It seemed to be sleek, the writing appearing to be printed out in a font. It reminded me of Nagato's writing, but it was a bit different. It was very...I want to say 'modern' looking in comparison to the other spell cards I've seen. This one looked like it was professionally made. The moonlight shone off a thin layer of protective laminate that covered the card. The even stranger part? It was a Taboo. I had a Taboo card on me.

How did that get there? Before I even finished that thought, my mind went back to the Korean Barbecue, and who bumped into me. Emiri. The side she bumped into me was the same side the pocket that contained this new spell card. I was intrigued by what this was. What could she have given me? What spell card did Emiri come up with, especially an illegal one?

"What are you doing?!" The hostile girl's eyes widened when this new girl activated the card.

[SPELL CARD: "DELETED ONE"]

Right in front of us, sand began to form. A familiar kind of sand. Data sand. Defying the laws of conservation of mass, the sand begat more sand, which begat more sand, rising up and forming into a human shape. A female shape. A very shapely female shape at that. The sand also began to form clothes, shaping a very familiar uniform - the female North High Uniform. And the body was becoming more defined, colored in. Her milky white skin. Smooth legs. Her carefree smile. Her blue eyes. This girl's long blue hair-

No freaking way. You are kidding me.

The blue hair. The color of the blue hair was the same as the spell card.

Oh my Goodness Gracious.

I couldn't believe who it was. The girl from my nightmares. The girl who stabbed me.

Ryoko Asakura.

I couldn't even fathom this. Ryoko...? A spell card? I mean, granted, didn't Emiri unleash Ryoko for battle before? But for this?

And yes, I'd learn that this Ryoko would share the same danmaku weakness as all data entities did - it's just that this one had all of her attacks as danmaku. Which, I guess I should be grateful - that way I shouldn't be in fear if she decides to hold a knife to my throat for chuckles again. Worse she'd be able to do is knock me out.

The new girl backed away from this, pointing right at the hostile girl. I instantly realized what was going on, and so did that girl.

Her face flashed pure rage. "You traitor! I had them! I could have ended this!" She said that last sentence as she launched that danmaku right for the girl - but a flurry of knives flew up, absorbing the shots, the knives dissipating as they did so.

Asakura turned to me, smiling. As she did, knives began to form in mid-air, both in numbers, readying for attack, and to absorb the shots. Further waves emitted from the interface, but it had no effect on Ryoko.

Ryoko stepped up to me, mere inches from my face. She looked me right in the eye, and appeared to be very happy to see me. "Been a few months, hasn't it? When Emiri told me what she had planned, I didn't think it was going to work - but obviously it was a success. It was an arduous process, this spell card conversion. But it worked out in the end after all." When I didn't answer her (paralysis has that effect), she returned her attention to the enemy interface, her favorite knife in hand. She playfully tapped the spine of it on her shoulder. "You have no idea how long I've waited for this, to strike one of you down. It really upset me when I couldn't get Suou, you know? I mean, I was even able to strike Nagato - but Suou used such cheap tactics. I suppose you'll have to do. Please don't disappoint me by dying too quickly."

The interface's eyes darted back and forth to all the danmaku knives. At that point, there was a huge buildup, far more than I've ever seen Sakuya create for one of her attacks.

"Please die."

This...spell card, if you can call it that, was unusual. It combined a lot of different styles. Random, laser (of knives, however that worked), containment...and homing. Oh my goodness it was a homing card. The targeted entity used that same '2D Dodging' that Suou performed, but she kept getting grazed by the sheer number of knives. The spell card also lasted far longer than I've ever seen one last - well over two minutes.

Eventually the grazing and the longevity of the card took it's toll - I didn't see it (by that time the knives flying around were so dense), but I could hear the girl scream, and become quickly silenced. The knives dissipated leaving behind a pile of sand - what was once the hostile SCD member. I gulped, then realized that I could move again. I collapsed to the ground, as did the rest of us.

I quickly got to my feet, already backing away from Ryoko. Sure, she just saved the group, but the two of us got that stabby history. She was already walking towards me anyway, so I would have backed up to keep her away. Both Nagato and Marisa had gotten in front of me, ready to protect me if Ryoko was to do anything. The interface stopped, tilting her head.

"Mmm. The two of you rush to protect him." Ryoko smirked at Marisa for a few seconds before she and Nagato's eyes locked to each other. "Remember - this is the life you chose. You prefer to watch what's going on with a static target." Ryoko took a few more steps. "Are you happy being a mere observer?"

"Considering where we are, I'd say things have already gotten interesting, and I've evolved because of this." The tension in Nagato's stance ebbed away. "Your attack on him didn't have to happen."

Ryoko slowly nodded. "Ah. So it seems that my rash action was pretty much meaningless in the end." She leaned closer. "But it brought the two of you closer, and he was able to believe in what you said in your explanation of Miss Suzumiya, so maybe my action wasn't so meaningless after all."

I wanted to have a comeback to that, but I couldn't think of one, you know, other than the "I'm not appreciative of the whole 'life threatening' part." Reality is...that event did cause me to start believing in what my Brigade associates were saying. It made me realize that our world was more wondrous (and dangerous) than I thought possible. And look at where I was - knee deep in a magical world because of all that.

So, logically? I guess I begrudgingly had to be grateful to Ryoko and her impatience over Haruhi's inaction. But it still didn't change the fact that she tried to kill me. Nothing will.

Ryoko appeared to want to say more things, but her limbs started to turn into sand, and that sand was forming into the spell card. "Ah, what a pity. My time is up." She looked to me. "Well, I guess this is goodbye again, unless you want to activate the spell card and let me out."

I think I'll hold off on that.

Smiling, Ryoko disappeared into the spell card, it falling right on the floor. Nagato and I went to it, staring down at the object.

"That was unexpected, and unique." Nagato looked up at me after a while. "You're not going to pick it up?"

"Call me crazy-"

"You're crazy, ze."

"...But I'm not entirely comfortable with carrying around Ryoko in my pocket." I can't believe I was such a position to legitimately say that.

"You already were. In fact, she-" Nagato's eyes widened, as did mine. We had forgotten about this new person.

She stood there, in the midst of all this, surrounded by everyone from Gensokyo. "I realize the hostility you are feeling, and the apprehension you must be feeling." She turned to face Remilia. "I also understand your grievances with my kind." She knelt on both knees, like a samurai in front of us. "I am not hostile."

Yukari was the one who went up to her, the demon's eyes suspiciously narrowed, and a spell card in hand. "You've been poking around Gensokyo for the past year."

"Longer than that, Miss Yakumo"

Yukari's lips pursed, as she tapped the spell card in her hand, to emphasize that she had it. "I'd treat you with hostility, but given that you weren't with Suou's group last month, and what you just did, I think hearing you out would be fair."

Remilia looked disappointed with that. She had Gungnir at the ready, and at that point she sheathed it.

The girl gave a single nod. "I'm getting sick of how my kind are represented. The Sky Canopy Domain is not full of 'bad guys'. Just like the Integration Thought Entity, we have our extremists." The girl's eyes fell on the spell card, before she went back to talking. "Suou being the sort of figurehead for it. She was the only one who had the gall to directly attack people, and she gathered a number of allies. Throughout history, whether be human, youkai, or entity, there are always extremists. And not all are appreciative of these extremists."

Remilia bluntly asked "So what's your role in all of this then? Where do you fit in, just a neutral or something?"

"You think Suou was actually the one assigned to Gensokyo? No, she took an interest in it due to my work. She just used the information I gathered to accomplish what she did. I've been studying Gensokyo since the data explosion - I've been the one assigned to your Gensokyo. Suou was assigned to Miss Sasaki."

"We all have our assignments and purposes," remarked Nagato.

Makes sense. Nagato was assigned to be Haruhi's high school observer, Ryoko her backup, Suou as an observer of sorts for Sasaki. And I guess that means Emiri was originally assigned to Genskoyo before having to become Nagato's backup? I'd later learn that was the case, though technically she still was the lead observer for Gensokyo.

The two stared at each other, before Nagato spoke again. "Name?"

"My first name is Amaya. You may call me that. And I know who you are by reputation. All of you."

Nagato's body became less tense, and she slowly put away her spell card. Amaya made no movements from her kneeling position, but looked to Yukari next.

"You're decaying right now, right?"

Amaya gave another nod. "Slightly. I've spaced out my time in this world."

"Yet you're here risking your own safety for us." Yukari sighed a noncommittal sigh. It was obvious she was thinking about how to proceed from here. She looked to Yuyuko, whose response was to put away the spell card that she had. Yukari nodded, and did the same, the rest of the group following suit.

Amaya stood, and went to Ryoko's spell card. She then handed it to me. I stared at it for a while, not wanting to do anything with it, and quite frankly, I was also still a little unsure of trusting an SCD member. Though, considering my track record with them, could you blame me?

"I understand your hesitancy to trust my kind, so I won't ask you to trust me." She still held onto the spell card, wanting me to take it.

Track record...and yet here I am finding myself grateful for her.

"Kyon, it's okay, I think." Kaguya had joined us. "This one is not part of Suou's circle."

"How do you know that?"

"I told you, didn't I? When Suou had taken over my body, our minds were connected. I saw that she had another attack planned on a later date - tonight." Kaguya pointed at where the hostile interface had died. "That one had been spending a lot of time in the fringe areas of Gensokyo, absorbing its effect, and has become resistant. She had to be in close proximity to us, and was prepared to set up a closed space to contain and finish us off." Kaguya dusted herself off. "They invaded my home and one took control of my body. I only wish to see them defeated." Kaguya did her best to straighten up her outfit and her hair - a few rabbit youkai were helping her in that regard, as well as Eirin. "I've noticed a few things, the plans Suou had going. She must have thought I didn't see so far ahead in their plans, and this one, Amaya, was not part of anything."

Just an observer.

I was still reluctant about it, the whole thing, but I accepted the spell card. I'll tell you, it was a weird sensation, knowing what/who was in the spell card I had in my hands at that point. I mean...I could summon Ryoko. I had the means to do so.

Pleased with this, Kaguya smiled and clasped her hands. "Ah well. My time as the antagonist is over. Like I said - I was able to see what was going to happen. I knew I would have to play the role of villain for you all..." Kaguya's eyes narrowed. "Though I wasn't expecting you to bring the fire bird with you. That was completely unexpected."

"And it felt so good," remarked Mokou, who had gathered the impossible requests.

Mokou and Kaguya silently glared at each other, the princess's eyes going over the very items from her story. She let out a groan of disgust, before returning her attention to Yukari.

Kaguya's eyes brightened. "But I did find it fun to play the villain tonight."

I was dumbstruck. That was an act?! Though her hatred for Mokou at times seemed genuine. But still - I was double-swerved by Kaguya there. She did what she did that night because she was supposed to.

"Bravo, Princess. I'm actually impressed." Yukari had a full-blown grin.

"Next time," I tiredly said as I had to rub my temples, a sudden headache overcoming me. "Next time, can you tell us?"

ENTRY:

DANMAKU OBSERVATION

Hakurei encourages creativity with the cards - as long as they have some possibility to survive, there is no true written standard on the kinds of danmaku that are used. Due to the free form nature of this, and the fact that any attack is legal as long as it's either non-lethal and it doesn't use full power, it can be difficult to name all the types. The following are not the official names for these shots. This entity has done her best to categorize from first hand experience, and word of mouth. It is this entity's opinion that there could be far more types out there yet undiscovered.

Pertaining to the types of danmaku, one can mix and match. Theoretically, one could make a spell card that has every type of attack listed here, and give each shot all of those properties, but to do so would require a massive amount of magical energy, and possibly completely drain the one who used that one spell card. Assume that any danmaku shot can be combined with any other shot, type, variation, or more.

Direct - a single danmaku attack. Easily avoided. Extremely low cost.

Barrage - Multiple direct attacks. Very straight forward.

Spread - Standard danmaku attack. Very little energy cost. Different variations, but generally a line of the shot is aimed at the target, with a measured spacing in between it and the accompanying shots that can be used to avoid it. The trick to avoid it is not to move too far from the shot, to 'sidestep'. Moving too far will result in the pattern becoming too difficult, as shots will begin to fill the empty lanes. There are a number of variations of this, two of the more popular being the standard 360 spread, or the simple 'fan' spread, a 180 area of coverage (this uses far less energy). One can also make the arc of attack tighter, which uses less energy as well. Due to the simplistic nature of this shot, it can be easily added to other patterns and attacks, and can be used en masse.

Homing - Danmaku that homes in on the target. Can be avoided with high agility or by getting it to hit another object. Popular with Reimu Hakurei.

Laser - A beam of danmaku. Power usage depends on how thick the beam is, and how long it is sustained. Straightforward attack. Most lasers shoot a beam of harmless light to signify where they will go, before activating. There are rumors of a youkai that is able to actually bend a laser attack, but it is unknown who this youkai is. Marisa Kirisame favors lasers.

Image - Used to make a pattern with the danmaku. Mostly aesthetic, or for pure showing off. A complex image can be useful, however.

Circular - Danmaku that circles around. Can be redirected.

Redirect - A danmaku shot that can stop in midair, and change course. Used to feignt and catch unaware opponents. Costs small amounts of energy, but can end fights quickly if used correctly. Quite popular.

Ricochet - Bounces off of objects. The amount of time it is on the field (and the number of bounces) depends on how much energy was used to create the shot. Most Ricochet shots are one time, disappearing after hitting a second object.

Breakaway - Like the Ricochet shot, this danmaku can react to hitting an object. However, it splits into two (or more) shots, and can also become redirected.

Trace - A danmaku that leaves a trail of danmaku in its passing wake. A popular tactic is to make the trail redirect after forming.

Defensive - Danmaku that is be used to defend the user. Can become a shield that will absorb attacks (like the cards used by Hakurei and Izayoi). As it is danmaku, contact with the shield counts as a hit, and will knock out anyone who is unlucky enough to touch it. There are other means of defensive danmaku. See: Cirno's [Perfect Freeze], which nullifies all enemy danmaku by freezing it into harmless (to the fairy) ice.

Polarity - Changes the polarity of the danmaku, either nullifying it (Cirno's Perfect Freeze) or even reversing it (Marisa's illegal spell card).

Defensive & Polarity addendum: Upon further observation, it appears that both a defensive and polarity field occurs within a small radius around the user of a spell card. All danmaku is cleared in this small space. The effect lasts for about half a second, and can even affect the body of the caster - which leads to the new technique discovered that I will describe.

[Technique: 'The Deathbomb' - The so-called 'Deathbomb' is an advanced Danmaku technique where a spell card user, if fast enough, can negate a hit on their person with the use of said card. The time window is very miniscule - mere microseconds, and requires quick reflexes and already committing to the spell card as you get hit. The Polarity effect negates the knockout and electrical charge that would take over a hit body. Theoretically, if one has enough cards and quickening reflexes (in a small time frame, constant use of 'Deathbombing' results in even shorter amounts of time for it to work), one could 'Deathbomb' their way through a tough Danmaku battle, negating every time they get hit. ]

{Note: This Technique is possible. Over the course of the past week, I've attempted it, under controlled circumstances, and was able to survive a direct danmaku hit with no damage to either my interface or my entity self. Requesting further research and observation into this technique - this could save a lot of entities. - N. Yuki}

(APPROVED - [REDACTED ADMIN])

Melee - Using danmaku copies of your weapons in melee. Youmu Konpaku, however, coats her blade in a layer of it. It is a very basic attack. As most of the players of danmaku are youkai, they have faster reflexes and are far stronger than most humans. It is very unwise for a human opponent to try to get close to a youkai during a match.

Containment - A 'reverse defensive'. Danmaku walls surround the target, holding it to a smaller area of play. Very high energy cost, but usually guarantees a hit when used in tandem with other shots, as it limits the mobility for the target to safely dodge.

Turret - Creates an object or a point that will shoot danmaku - laser, spread, homing. It can even be set to move across the field.

Burst - A danmaku or a point that does as its name implies. It acts as a grenade, exploding. It can be set to explode after an amount of time, by remote, or by proximity detection.

Familiar - Creation of a danmaku entity that can shoot and move on its own accord. While it is unknown whether these creations have actual intelligence - they do not last long - it's thought that they can be pre-commanded. These can generally be destroyed with a sustained danmaku attack. See: Flandre Scarlet's [Four of a Kind] , Mystia Lorelei's [Sphingid's Wingbeats] & Yukari Yakumo's [Ran Yakumo].

Timeout - A barrier protects the user from all attacks for the duration of the spell card. Used for difficult attacks, as surviving the spell card will generally result in a capture, barring heavy grazes. Timeouts require a massive amount of energy to use, more so than most fighters are able to do, and are usually used as a last resort (tend to be out of desperation).

Singularity - The danmaku becomes a gravity well, pulling the opponent towards it.

Charge - Exactly as it sounds. Caster focuses energy into the shot, and shoots it.

This entity is sure that there are more types out there, awaiting discovery. Considering the lethality to our kind, it would be imperative that we study all we can about this form of fighting.

-N. Yuki

It's always easy to just demonize the Sky Canopy Domain in this fandom, isn't it? That the Data Society are the good guys and the SCD are evil.

Read and Review! Lady Yukari demands it!