There is something I, ah... "forgot" to mention about Impossible Spell Card.

You see, there was a one-stage danmaku spin-off game of ISC, called Gold Rush. It was only made for the Digital Game Expo 2014, and was only there for two days.

It's Seija vs. Reimu. Just them, one on one.

It contains the tenth item.

There is a tenth item to cheat with.

=The following was originally written up by user Smooglii. This arc is a collaboration between Supperdude9 & Smooglii, and been brought into ICB with their permission.=

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:

Another Duck

Smooglii

Supperdude9

"So, uh, I've been meaning to ask you. What's with the headphones?"

We had left the temple proper, with Futo leading the way into the mist, and the only sounds were our echoing footsteps in that weird world. I just couldn't help but stare at Miko's headgear - considering everything else, they looked really out of place.

Miko smiled, and placed a hand over one of them. "Oh, these? They're just earmuffs."

"They look just like expensive headphones." I paused, unsure if she knew what headphones were in the first place.

Her smile widened. "Well, I wanted to fit in in this time, so I gave them a modern look, but they are just earmuffs."

I guess she read my reaction, because she nodded. "Right. I had also heard about this. You are quite the inquisitive one, and people confess more about themselves to you than they normally would."

I still don't know if that's true or not.

Miko shrugged. "I'll play along." She pointed at her earmuffs. "I was born with extremely sensitive hearing, so that's what these are for. It gets quite loud for me if I take these off. However, it was both a curse and a gift. Since I had such hearing, and my parents had politicians around all the time, I spent a lot of my time listening to them. All the important deals, even behind closed doors where they thought they were talking in private." She raised a finger. "As a child, I found out quickly that information is power, and because of my talent for listening to people, I was able to throw myself into the political world at a young age." She puffed out her chest a bit. "That's how I became a legend. I always 'knew' what to do, what decisions to make, but all I did was listen to people and try to understand them. I learned to read their tone of voice, learned to watch their body language..." She spread her arms. "And now, after sleeping for a long time, I have gained the power to hear the desires of others. All I need to do is speak to someone to know what made them who they are."

Geez. No wonder I felt naked - she read me like an open book when we first met. Miko was unlike anyone I could recall meeting. She was just so charismatic; I found myself liking her in only a short time. No wonder she did well as a politician, and no wonder she was regarded as a legend.

She's also a cheater, in a way. I was still intrigued by her, so I continued asking for more information.

"What exactly happened during your incident?"

Miko eyed me with amusement. I guess that was a bit silly of me to ask, considering that I told Yukari I would avoid learning too much about the future, but I figured that Miko wouldn't tell me anything more dangerous than what Yukari had said about it herself.

"Well if you must know, it wouldn't have been such a problem if Byakuren Hijiri hadn't shown up."

Wait, the Buddhists were involved?

Miko folded her hands behind her as she walked. "You see, this goes back all the way to when I sealed myself up in my attempt to become immortal. Futo, Tojiko, and I went through a process, sealing ourselves inside a place called the Hall of Dreams. However, Buddhists sealed that, keeping us asleep." She looked down. "They weren't happy that I had led a double life, so I was punished for it that way." She stopped, and gestured to around us. "At some point, a rumor started in the outside world that I had never existed. When that happened, the Hall of Dreams passed into Gensokyo, ending up underground. I was finally free of the Buddhist seals." Miko then frowned. "However..."

"Byakuren did something?" I pondered for a few seconds on what she could have done, but I came up with nothing.

Miko nodded. "You saw that eyesore, right? The Myouren temple?" Miko had such a dry smile on her face. "She built that thing right on top of my temple and kept me asleep."

Oh. Wow. So it wasn't just religion versus religion here. Byakuren had directly prevented Miko from emerging in Gensokyo. No wonder she's so quick to oppose the Buddhists.

Miko chuckled, and gestured to Seiga as we continued our walk. "I digress. Seiga here had found out what happened, and managed to protect the Mausoleum from her. My revival caused a lot of vulgar spirits to emerge, which got the attention of Reimu, among some others. My followers and I woke up only to be defeated by people who thought they were resolving an incident." She gave a resigned shrug. "And here I thought a life long after the time of my enemies would be peaceful."

Seiga looked back at us. "I believe the term is 'rude awakening.'"

I smiled a little over that. Yeah, it was a bad pun, but it was appropriate. "Okay, another question. Where exactly is here? Are we underground, in another world, or what?"

Miko's smile widened, and it was a genuine one. "Senkai is a world I created on my own after that incident."

I stopped. What?

Miko nodded, and I could see the pride in her eyes. "I believe the term you would use for it for is closed space."

I didn't even know my jaw was hanging open until she walked up to me and closed it herself. She nodded again. "That puts me in a very exclusive group of people you know, doesn't it?" Miko let out a small giggle. "Haruhi. Sasaki. Yukari. And interfaces. Do you grasp how powerful I am?"

Considering I don't know the extent of their power, I don't think I could. I mean, how can a normal human like me grasp such a thing? I still can't wrap my head around how powerful Yukari is, let alone Haruhi and Sasaki. Maybe Miko really could have taken on a full-power Yukari. But for Miko to have the ability to create her own closed space?! How powerful are you?!

Miko chuckled and waved it off. "I'm only kidding. Manipulating space isn't unusual for a hermit, and the precepts of nature more fluid than you might think. If you bend in the direction of the world, without hesitation or meticulousness, the world might bend to you. That's all it is. There's at least one other hermit I know of who has done something similar with her home."

That still sounds amazing. You're making Taoism sound like an easy way to get superpowers.

I wanted to ask more, but Futo reached into the mist and opened a hole in some ceiling structure above her that I was sure was not there a moment ago. Miko gave me a grin and went towards it. I stared after her for a few seconds, before I shook myself out of the revelation that a human had come this far.

Huh. Shoutoku was known as such an important Buddhist, but was apparently found out. Why didn't the people who sealed her out the legend? Why not let everyone know that Shoutoku was actually a Taoist instead? There had to be a reason for this, for a lie like that to be kept going. Maybe it was one of those situations where the thing a person represented was more important than the person?

After climbing through the hole with the others, I found myself in another building. It was a cozy-looking second hand store, or so I gathered. There were various odds and ends stacked around the room we were in without any organizational system that I could recognize, and when I took a closer look, I realized that most of them were things like electronics and softcover books. I saw some old computer manuals lined up on a shelf. They have things like this in Gensokyo? I thought it was trapped in the Edo era. Then again, there's a nuclear reactor underground, so it's kind of anachronistic from the start. There was a distinct smell of mold in the store, which didn't seem to deter the five fairies that were fluttering about the place, picking up items and looking at them. At the back of the shop was a befuddled-looking man with silver hair and golden eyes, wearing a pair glasses and a strange black and blue outfit that looked like a kimono ending in a pair of pants, a red satchel tied around his stomach in the front, and three black hangings dangling from the waist. Something about him struck me as a little odd, and my first thought was that he must be a youkai, but he didn't feel like a typical youkai to me. He was staring at the six of us, who had just climbed out of the floor in the middle of the already-crowded shop, apparently trying to find the words to speak.

Oh, shoot. Sorry for opening up a hole in the floor.

"Excuse us," said Miko. "We did not know you had customers."

"I don't," the man replied. He looked back at the fairies, and then to us again. "Could you remove these fairies on your way out? Assuming you're not here to buy, that is."

"We're appropriating this merchandise for the resistance!" announced one of the fairies, brandishing a disposable camera.

"I don't know what kind of battle you're fighting," said the man, obviously irritated but still not doing much against these fairies, "but there's nothing in here that can help you. Please leave my store."

This guy sounded a lot like me. Like he was annoyed by a lot of people for most of his life.

"Actually, we're here to be appropriated for the resistance," offered Seiga. "Maybe you should bring us back to your boss."

I saw the fairies' eyes widen, and a light turn on in their minds. "Ooh! That's a good idea! Surrender yourselves, okay? We're going to appropriate you!"

I thought I heard Miko stifle a giggle, but I wasn't sure.

We "surrendered," and the fairies led us out of the shop as the man thanked us for removing them. Outside, I saw that we weren't in the human village as I had expected; the village was visible in the distance, and we were on the edge of the Forest of Magic. It seemed like the battle over the village had ended. The sun was almost below the horizon, and darkness was beginning to overtake the Gensokyo sky. I looked back at the shop. It was a tiny building with the name "Kourindou" written in stylized kanji above the entrance. There was another, taller building next door, connected by a hallway to the shop. The entire structure was plastered with posters and advertisements that must have been from the outside world; I think I even recognized a few. I saw an obvious McDonald's poster for a Happy Meal from a few years ago... in my time. The outside was just as cluttered as the inside; CRT televisions were stacked around the entrance to the taller building next to an old red postbox, and I saw a motorized scooter by some tall propane tanks next to me. To the right of the shop was a large tanuki cut-out, a unicycle, some tires, and a "no entry" street sign propped up by a stone well with a wooden cover.

What an interesting shop. "What is this place?" I asked. I thought I'd seen the edge of this building once or twice in my travels to and from the village, but I never asked what it was.

"It's a shop that sells stuff nobody can use," said Tojiko. "The owner is blunt, the place smells, the items are weird, and it's on the edge of the forest, so it's out of the way for both humans and youkai. Basically, we came here because we thought it would be empty."

"So, why do you know about it? I thought you were hermits."

"The owner collects objects from the outside world," Miko explained. "I visited once when I was curious about what the outside world was like in this era. The merchandise in there is difficult to understand, though."

Yeah, I don't think you'd have much use for a CRT TV. It was like some interdimensional pawn shop or something.

"Anyway, the building's location on the border of the forest makes it convenient for us to get our bearings. As it turns out, it was exactly where we needed to go."

Is that your intuition, Miko? No, this was definitely luck.

"Thou art bringing us to the amanojaku, correct?" Futo asked the fairies. They shook their heads.

"Our leader is Cirno!"

Well, second best thing, I guess.

"Yeah, just right now, though. Because it's fun."

I shrugged. "Close enough. Where are they?"

The fairies pointed towards the forest. "In there. Everyone's gathering for another fight."

The Forest of Magic. Marisa and Alice both live in there. I hope they haven't been sucked into this. But then, if Reimu's our enemy, Marisa will be too, huh?

Marisa... It was only the night before last that I had let her down. Made her cry. For her, it would have been nine years since then, and we would have met at least once. I wondered how she would react if we met here. She must have gotten over it, right? Nine years is a long time. But if I'm going to keep my word to Yukari, I should probably avoid finding out. That was the hardest part of being in the future; the thought that I might have to avoid learning something in a possibly futile attempt at preserving the predictability of the timeline.

The fairies led us into the forest, winding through the trees on our way someplace. They assured us they knew the way, but it seemed like we were moving at random. I got a little worried that they might accidentally lead us too deep; Marisa once told me that the air in the Forest of Magic was full of toxic spores, and even youkai tended to stay away from it for that reason. Surely Seija would have struck camp in a place where we could breathe.

Finally, we arrived at a clearing. I heard them before I saw them; fairies chattering, youkai working themselves up, and Seija's voice carrying through the forest as she went on about the oppression of the weak under the yoke of the powerful. I saw a mob, scattered around Seija and listening to her propaganda. Wounded youkai recuperating in the shade of trees. Fairies roving around the top of the trees at the edge of the canopy, keeping an eye out for intruders. Food being passed out from a makeshift cafeteria. Even a little recruiting station, accepting curious youkai and fairies who wandered in from the forest. There must have been hundreds of fairies and dozens of youkai, including lesser youkai.

My heart sank. It was an army. A real army.

We were going to war.

Possible Spell Card

Episode 4

["Insightful"]

"Observe a human's desires, and you can understand the entirety of that human.

Past, present, and future, as well."

–Toyosatomimi no Miko, Touhou 13, Ten Desires – Stage 6 (Marisa route)

"Well, well," said Miko. "I didn't expect such an organized resistance to form in a single afternoon."

Neither did I. Those three have been busy since I escaped underground. I didn't feel so guilty anymore about leaving them high and dry.

"'Tis testament to their drive," said Futo, looking around the place with something like awe. "Art thou not moved by the labors of these tiny folk? Lookest thou yonder how they toil 'neath the boot of gods and rulers!"

As soon as Seija finished her speech, she flew over to where we were. "Hey, you!" she shouted, then she turned to the fairies that were with us. "Who are these guys?"

"We appropriated them!" said one fairy proudly.

"They're new recruits," said another. Miko nodded, as if to vouch for them vouching for her.

"Um, Seija?" I said, raising my hand.

"Yeah, and who are you?" Seija gave me an upside down once-over, as if evaluating me.

Did you forget about me? What the hell?

"What are you talking about? It's me, John Smith." I placed my hand on the seed of non-identification. "You know, the person you brought here as some kind of trump card?"

Realization appeared on Seija's face, quickly replaced by annoyance. "Where the hell have you been?! Sagi told us she left you in that bookstore, but when we went to get you, the girl there said you had sank into the floor!"

I probably traumatized that poor girl. At least I helped her clean up.

"Er, some things happened. I had to run away." She glared at me. "B-but I got us some new allies." I gestured to the five people with me.

Miko bowed. "Greetings, Seija Kijin. I am Toyosatomimi no Miko. These two are my disciples, and this is my friend, Seiga Kaku, and her servant. We've heard of your cause, and offer our help."

Seiga isn't one of Miko's followers, right? If she's Yoshika's master, then she must be the friend of Miko's that Futo mentioned. Miko said that Seiga protected her from the Myouren Temple, so... does that mean she's from the Asuka period, too? I wonder how she fits into this.

"What the hell?" said Seija, turning upside down to study the Taoists. "Ain't you the kinda people I've been fighting against? Why do you want to help me?"

"You fight the powerful, don't you?" Miko spread her hands. "We're recent arrivals in Gensokyo, and truth be told, we don't have a lot of influence. We, too, seek a social revolution. After all, humans are trod upon by youkai as well."

I couldn't help but smile over Miko's charisma. For the famed "prince" who could carry on ten conversations at once, talking to a single person has got to be child's play.

...I also made another connection. Miko was the transfer student. Hello, Koizumi.

"Huh," said Seija, turning over and landing on her feet. She thumped me on the back and grinned. "Good job, Smith. I knew I brought you here for a reason."

I'd still like to know what that reason was. Surely you didn't need to time travel just to find a healer? Seriously - I knew she had a real reason, but for the life of me I couldn't figure it out.

"Oh, speaking of which, there are a bunch of guys here who haven't healed from the last battle. Could you go and help them out? You've still got plenty of those potions, right?"

I didn't even need to check. "I've only used four, so I should have sixteen left. We're good."

"Great. Tag everyone you can with a border, even if they're not hurt. I want everyone feeling fresh for tonight's assault."

Crap. "Tonight? You're going to get this whole revolution over with tonight?" Great. Looks like I won't be able to get to Reimu before the fighting starts.

Seija grinned. "You bet I am. In fact, that's why I picked today to bring you in. The original plan was to use the youma books, but this works out even better. Did you know that tonight is a full moon?" Seija pointed over her shoulder at the camp. "That means all these youkai are going to be at their strongest, including our werewolf."

We have a werewolf?! I guess I've seen a were-hakutaku before. If our forces get stronger under the full moon, then maybe we'll stand a chance. Maybe. Unless...

"Wait, doesn't that mean the enemy will be stronger, too?"

Seija's grin got even wider. "That's right," she said. "I'll take them down at the height of their power, and then they'll know that I've beaten them."

Good grief, you're serious. Is there an end to how much you'll stack the deck against yourself? I'm starting to think I'll have to save you from this stupid plan again before I can betray you.

"It's perfect, too. They're all at the Hakurei Shrine right now, holed up while they wait for me to move. We're going to hit them there, where they're all together. With any luck, some of them will get stupid and stay on the shrine grounds where they're weaker. I was actually planning on hitting them one by one, but this is much faster."

No, no. There's a factor you're not considering. The factor that you're challenging the most powerful people in Gensokyo with an army of fairies and weak youkai. Cheating or not, if you take a single good hit in this battle, you're done for.

"It sounds like an exciting plan," said Miko. "Will we be attacking from the front or from behind?"

You're not helping, Miko!

"Since we have more troops, it'd be better to surround them. That way, their spell cards won't all be going the same way, and they might have to dodge shots that come from the other side."

Miko nodded. "A sensible plan. Crossfire is a time-tested tactic. In that case, I believe we will acclimate ourselves to the camp. It will be some hours before the moon's power is in full effect. If you will excuse us." She and her followers walked into the camp.

As soon as Miko and the fairies left us alone, I whispered to Seija.

"Why didn't you recognize me earlier?"

Seija shrugged. "I was expecting more youkai, so I saw you different from before. That seed ain't exactly a consistent disguise. Like I said, it's complicated."

I guess that makes sense. If I look different to everyone based on what they're expecting to see, then logically I might look different to some people at different times. Interesting that she was fooled by it.

Also, it was interesting that the cute girl I saw in the paper was what I "expected" myself to be. Oh well. Wishful thinking?

"What do you want me to do? I mean, in the battle. Is this the part I was brought in for?"

"It sure is," said Seija, but she suddenly frowned. "There's a problem, though. My other friend - the one I wanted us to link up with now - she's joined the enemy."

"Your... other friend?"

"Her name's Shinmyoumaru. Shinmyoumaru Sukuna. She's an inchling princess. Small girl. We were involved in the last incident together, and she got captured by the shrine maiden. I don't know what they did to her, but she's at the shrine right now, and I was relying her for this plan." Seija spat on the ground. "It doesn't matter, though. Even if she's with the enemy, everything will go just fine as long as we can penetrate their defenses. Until then, keep yourself away from the enemy and keep our girls fighting." She grabbed me, making sure I understood her. "Keep them fighting like you used to with your old allies, let us work, and wait for me to call you, okay?" She gave me a pat on the head, and spoke quietly. "Do this, and your family will be fine. Simple, right?"

I wanted to swat her hand away, but I didn't want to show any hostility just yet. I was going to play along.

The inchling princess. So she's involved with this after all. And she betrayed Seija? Wow. Seija doesn't seem like she has a lot of friends to begin with - I mean, she has a lot of allies now, but that's different - so that's got to sting.

Yukari might have told the others about me by now. I wonder how they felt when they heard. What does Marisa think? Shoot, I can't go down that road again. I can't think of all the people I'm letting down like this. All the people I'll hurt if I can't find a way to stop Seija. I had hoped a way would become clear once I found her again. I have just a few hours to figure this out.

"So? What do you think of the ringleader herself?"

Seiga sat with Miko at the edge of the clearing, Seiga in the air and the others on the ground. Yoshika remained standing, rocking back and forth next to Seiga. They took in the sights and sounds of the youkai encampment.

Miko paused before answering Seiga, eyes closed and swaying her head to some soft, inaudiable rhythm. "She surprised me. She is a very deep, yet shallow person, I think. Still, this is too big a pond for such a small fish." She opened her eyes and smirked. "I knew everything I needed to before we set out."

"You don't think you're playing into the boundary youkai's hand with this?"

"Even Yakumo has her limits." Miko planted her hands at her sides and stretched her legs out in front of her. "She made a critical mistake when she appeared before me in person. All warfare is based on deception, and no one can fool my ears. The desire to make something right, and the desire to protect something... and someone dear to you; these are the strongest motivators of a person, and she is suffused with desire. In her desperation, she has left us an invitation to do as we please - one which she cannot take back anymore."

"As expected of Lady Toyosatomimi," Seiga chuckled. "I won't pretend I understand all of this political maneuvering, but it's fun to watch it happen."

Futo sat cross-legged and staight-backed in front of Miko and to her left, facing the right, her shoulders squared and her hands resting on her knees. "Pardon mine ignorance," she piped up, "but what is thy plan in the case of the favorable conclusion? Our lack of influence might our usurption inhibit, I needn't mention."

"I thought the 'favorable conclusion' was us switching sides." Tojiko was kneeling, such as she could without legs, across from Futo so that the two of them were arranged in front of Miko on either side, facing one another. "If we do that, then we can't take over in the first place. We'll just be giving Hakurei and the Temple more influence. Is this Kyon person so important that we're going to pass up a chance like this for his sake?"

"You are both so impatient," sighed Miko. "We are shikaisen - ageless hermits destined for true immortality. Enjoy a long life and don't rush into conflict. It is as you said, Futo; why should we try to rule Gensokyo by force? As we are, we have no hope of holding any real power." Miko crossed her legs and sat up straight. She raised a finger to the two of them. "This game is bigger than anyone sees. In fact, I may be the first one to understand it besides Yakumo herself. The consequences of tonight will shape both the future and the past. With boldness and insight into the minds of our rivals, we can win a much more lucrative prize tonight, though it may take us a while to reap the benefits. I am fine with waiting for that."

"And who better knoweth their enemy than thee?" Futo beamed.

"So?" Tojiko crossed her arms. "What are we winning? What's so important that we have to fight on both sides of another war?"

Miko clasped her shaku in both hands and wore a serene smile. She nodded to Tojiko, then to Futo. "The biggest cheat in Gensokyo's history is happening right now," she said, "and if all goes well, then tonight, we will define it in the eyes of the youkai. We will be seen as an essential part of that cheat. Through that, we will obtain the most powerful force in Gensokyo - and we will be celebrated for it." Miko threw a glance into the camp, and then looked once more at her disciples. Both of them nodded.

"I don't really get it," said Tojiko, "but you know what's about to happen, don't you?"

Miko nodded. "The instant I read Yakumo, I understood. Seija Kijin is the key to this. If I am right, then there is only one course of action that she can take. She has been led to this route, as has Kyon. The question now is, can they make it that far? I do wonder how Kyon will play his part."

"And that is where lieth our duty, no?" Futo clapped her hands together. "We shall make certain she doth, for to my prince's plan she be most essential."

"As long as we're fighting the Temple again, I couldn't care less about the circumstances." Tojiko shrugged. "Leave the battle to us. You can fight the war."

"Speaking of which..." Seiga cut in as she reached down to her left leg, where a small paper charm was tucked into a string tied around her calf, "Since we're fighting under your command, you can take my Yoshika for now. That is, if you think you can make use of her." She removed the charm and held it out to Miko, who considered it for a moment.

"So, you are joining us tonight after all?" Miko took the paper in both hands and gave Seiga a small bow. "I humbly accept. She will be most useful to me."

"See that she does something spectacular," said Seiga. "I would so like to see her defeat at least one of them. It will do wonders for my prestige."

Miko clasped her hands with an enigmatic smile. "I will see what I can do."

It was an interesting experience, playing medic in a youkai war camp. I tagged everyone I could reach, the injured first, as I went through the camp, and when my barrier ran out, I downed another. I hoped that I would get used to the taste of the cherry blossom concoction, since I was certain that I wouldn't be able to wash it out after this. At least I didn't throw up this time. Most of the youkai and fairies didn't understand what I was doing, but they seemed to appreciate it when they felt the border giving them some of their energy back. I silently thanked my lucky stars that everyone saw me as a girl; if I looked like a man to them, they probably would have thought I was trying to grope them. There is nothing scarier to me than being in the middle of a bunch of youkai who feel threatened by me, even if these ones are supposed to be weak.

I saw several people I recognized in the camp. Rumia (whom I avoided), Wriggle (whom I avoided even more), Daiyousei, Mystia, and... Nitori. I was surprised to see the kappa having her supper in the food area. She didn't recognize me, but I engaged her in some light conversation as she ate. She seemed nervous when I approached her, and looked like she wanted to flee, but eventually she opened up to me. I asked her what she was doing on our team.

Nitori wagged a finger at me. "The human village didn't take enough damage that they'd call someone like me, but I figure any revolution that happens can't really last. Once the powerful youkai take back their territory, they're gonna need to fix all their hideouts back up again, and I'll make tons of cash." She grinned as she chewed on a cucumber roll. "Plus, I kinda want to see if she can do it, y'know? It's like a big underdog story... One where I get to be one of the winners."

That last bit sounded like an odd thing to say. I got the feeling that Nitori had something personal against stronger youkai, but I didn't pry into it.

I met the werewolf, who called herself Kagerou, as well. She told me that normal were-creatures don't actually change automatically during the full moon, but rather gain aspects of their beast part and the ability to transform at will. I guessed that meant that I hadn't seen Keine's true hakutaku form; she seemed to want to hide it as much as possible, so that made sense.

"People who aren't born as one of us tend to be ashamed of the condition," said Kagerou. "I don't know the village protector or anything, but I heard that she was cursed with it. She probably hasn't fully accepted it."

Didn't she say she was born with her curse? "But you have?"

"Well... yes, but I don't like transforming anyway. It's the hair, you know." She grimaced. Somehow, I didn't think she had accepted it as much as she claimed, but instead of pointing that out, I asked about her reasons for joining.

"Because I share Wakasagihime's thoughts on our place in the world." She flicked her hair. "We're acquainted - part of a network of youkai from around Gensokyo who aren't part of any of the major factions. It's not exactly a struggle to survive, but no one really hears our voice, and we're often targeted by youkai exterminators. Humans are so used to youkai now, thanks to that temple, that it feels as if hunting us has become sport." Kagerou sighed and looked up at the sky, which was completely dark now.

"The moon is growing stronger. I'll be able to transform soon."

I guess Yukari's display outside the village didn't last the whole nine years. Not with a Buddhist temple trying to integrate humans and youkai.

The more I talked, the more I wondered if I was doing the right thing. Some of these people really are being kept down by Gensokyo's social order. But if you turned it upside down, doesn't that just mean different people will suffer? It was hardly an ideal solution to just keep things as they were, but it felt wrong that I was planning to turn against them all at my earliest convenience.

At one point, I was approached by three fairies calling themselves the Three Fairies of Light. They were those fairies - the ones that followed us for a bit during Spring Snow, and the ones we surprised at the end of that Endless Night. Apparently, they were just here for fun, which was the story I heard from most of the fairies. Actually, that's not true. A surprising number of them echoed Cirno's earlier claim about humans and youkai both treating fairies like pests, and her desire to have them recognized as people with something to give. I felt ashamed that I had also considered them pests at one point. I thought about Remilia and her staff of fairy maids. Sure, the reason she had them there was because they made her mansion look better just by being there, but I thought it was awfully progressive of her. Then again, she got on Keine's case for being a were-beast, so maybe she's just pragmatic. I hope she doesn't treat those maids of hers badly.

No, strike that. I can't imagine Remilia being gentle and understanding towards anyone who slacks off while serving her.

Another thing I noticed was that all of the fairies and even some of the youkai were following Cirno, not Seija. Even these Three Fairies of Light told me that they were friends with her. I remembered what Seija said about how weaklings are only as strong as their friends. If that was the case, then Cirno really was the strongest person here. The thought made me grin.

You know what? That's an option. If I can get Cirno on my side, 90% of Seija's allies will disappear.

It was half a plan, but it felt a little better knowing that I had a way of turning the tables on Seija, battle-wise. Now if only I could figure out a way to not kill my family in the process. Befriending Cirno would not solve that problem.

As for the three fairies, they told me that they had saved Seija from ambush earlier with their powers. She was snuck up on by a shapeshifter pretending to be Wakasagihime, and they dove into an active spell card to stop them. I remembered Miko telling me about the bake-danuki. I supposed that if she was allied with the Myouren Temple, I would see her in the coming battle.

Truth be told, I was impressed by the resourcefulness of the fairies as they recounted the tale, doubly so when I checked with Seija to make sure they weren't making it up. I had always thought of fairies as dull and ineffectual, but here I was seeing them do great things. Maybe this was Seija's real power: To make the weak come together and defeat the strong with nothing more than wit and luck. Or was I still trying to credit their success to something other than them? They told me that Seija had rewarded them for their bravery by giving them a secret mission in the coming battle. They were very proud of this, but wouldn't tell me what it was. I think they wanted me to pry further because they kept bringing it up, but I didn't humor them.

I spoke to Cirno and Wakasagihime when I could. They had become closer after the battle in the village, and were helping orient the new members that were flowing in from the surrounding forest. Wakasagihime told me that she was proud to be making a difference, not just for the people here, but for all of the youkai out there who didn't fight. I was surprised to hear that there were youkai who couldn't fight or use spell cards, but she told me that there were many more types of youkai than most humans realized, and that there were many like her who lived simple lives and avoided conflict.

Cirno showed me a collection of items that the fairies had brought back. She had been sending them out to different locations to collect more tsukumogami, which explained what those fairies were doing in Kourindou. Most of what they brought back was junk, but there were five items piled off to the side of the useless ones. Something did feel different about them, but I couldn't put my finger on it.

"How do you know if something is a tsukumogami or not?" I asked. Is it your vision, your senses, what? Are normal humans even able to tell?

"Tsukumogami have their own desires," explained Wakasagihime. "Even if they aren't powerful enough to truly awaken, you can feel their hearts when you look at them, and share in them when you hold them. Try it."

I looked at the items. There was a red and white yin-yang orb like the kind I had seen Reimu use in her danmaku, a round, bright yellow bomb with a white bow tied around it and a star on the end of a fuse that reminded me of Marisa, a statue of Jizo, the Buddhist guardian of children that had a tanuki tail for some reason, a delicate-looking doll that resembled a Japanese girl, and an eerie paper lantern that looked like it had come from the Netherworld. I picked up the yin-yang orb, and felt a rush of emotion that seemed to come from it; a deep hatred, not in general, but towards youkai. This orb hated youkai with all of its being, and holding it made me feel like running up and punching one in the face. I was shocked by how intense it was, and how when I looked at Wakasagihime, it felt like the orb was urging me to attack. Not wanting to feel that anymore, I put the orb down.

"Where did you get that one?" I asked, rubbing my wrists - the sensation was a bit weird after I held it.

Cirno pointed into the distance, where the Three Fairies of Light were drilling some other fairies that they were apparently in charge of. "They found it in the shrine, Eye think. They were scouting the place 'cause they can turn invisible and stuff, and they nabbed it for us. Eye guess they're kind of useful." She paused, and added, "Eye beat them all at the same time though, so Eye'm stronger."

You stole from Reimu? Man, you better hope you win, because you are in serious trouble otherwise.

"One of the youkai at the shrine spotted them, though," said Wakasagihime. "They were trying to steal Reimu's gohei, but it seems that they have a moon rabbit who can see through their powers, so this was all they could get."

That must be Reisen. What was her ability again? I know she set up all the illusions around Eientei. Maybe that power lets her see through them, as well.

I tried the other items, which were decidedly less unpleasant. The bomb was loud, and made me want to show off and have fun. The doll wanted attention as well, desperately pleading with me to make someone notice it. The Jizo statue assured me that it would keep me safe from harm, and finally, the paper lantern wished for courage; like the courage to act without fear of reprisal. Marisa, Alice, and Youmu? I had an idea to whom each item must have belonged, although I could only make an educated guess as to the Jizo statue's owner on account of its tanuki tail.

It was amazing how much all of these fairies were able to accomplish in such a short time. If they could all be put towards the same purpose like this more often, Cirno might be a force to be reckoned with. Once again, I found myself in awe of the ice fairy who didn't seem to realize her own power in spite of how she constantly boasted about it.

"You guys have done a lot. I'm impressed." In fact, I'll want to get those three fairies to see if they could help us during the upcoming... for me... the upcoming underground incident. They were like tiny stealth masters. I definitely wanted them on my side for that.

Cirno beamed, thrusting her chest forward and putting her hands on her hips. "Eye put it all together, y'know! It takes someone strong to make everyone work together, after all!"

I couldn't help but smile.

The few hours of freedom I had were up before I knew it. I was no closer to finding an answer to the problem of my hostage situation, and had even begun to doubt my reasons for betraying Seija, but somehow, I didn't feel as panicked as before. I was on my own, sure. Not even my own allies knew who I really was. No matter what I was about to do, a lot of people were going to get hurt, and it was going to be partly my fault. Maybe I had accepted it, then. Maybe I had decided to be selfish, like Miko said. No matter what - no matter what - I wouldn't let my family die. Of that, I was absolutely certain.

Miko approached me, placing her hand on my shoulder. "You okay?"

I gave her a nod, which quickly turned into me shaking my head. "I don't know how I'm gonna do this."

Miko slowly nodded. "Whatever the decision you come up with, know that I stand behind it as well."

Thank you.

She smiled. "You will find your opening, or I will mine. Trust in yourself."

Right. If I'm not careful, Miko will take over Gensokyo herself at the first opportunity. Still, I liked that she was being honest with me. She seemed, I don't know, easier to understand than Seija or Reimu, even though I had just met her. Like I said, she was just so charismatic that it was hard to find a reason to despise her, even when she said there is a chance she would enact her own takeover.

Seija called all of her "officers" together for one final briefing. Kagerou was among them, and I noticed that she had grown wolf ears on her head. Her teeth and nails had sharpened, as well. I wondered if she had a tail, but if she did, I couldn't see it under her dress.

The army was to split into quarters and attack the Hakurei Shrine from different directions. Seija and I would be in the front with Cirno's team, which included Rumia, Daiyousei, Wriggle, and Mystia. A second team containing Wakasagihime, Kagerou, Nitori, and most of the lesser youkai would attack from our right (the south), and to our left would be the Taoists (the north). Each team would be supported by fairies from the air and lesser youkai from the ground. The exception was the Taoists; they were our strongest force by themselves, and Miko said that she and her followers would be capable of handling their side of the battle on their own. Fairy scouts would also be placed in the trees surrounding the battlefield, both to relay important information and to allow Seija to jump around as she pleased using the parasol. After we had engaged the enemy, the bulk of the fairy forces would attack from behind, led by the Three Fairies of Light. The tsukumogami that the fairies had collected were passed out to the leaders, with Kagerou getting the yin-yang orb, Cirno getting the Jizo statue (she gave her camera to Wriggle), Sunny getting the doll, and Mystia getting the bomb. Miko abstained from taking an item, claiming that she knew who she would be facing and wanted to fight fairly, and Nitori told us that she had made her own cheating tool, so Star collected the paper lantern.

Seija hovered into the air to look down on us.

"This is it!" she called over the assembled force. "Tonight, we're going to drag the strong down to our level! No more social inequality, no more power for the powerful! No more hunting the weak because they can't fight back! No more condemning youkai for their existence!"

Wakasagihime led the cheer that went up from the youkai.

"No more fairies killed as if it doesn't mean a thing! No more treating them like they don't have the right to speak!"

Cirno cried out, and all of the fairies hurrahed as one, their high-pitched voices echoing throughout the clearing.

"The shrine maiden who doesn't just oppress youkai, but kills them when they're inconvenient for her - what will we do with her?"

"Bring her to justice!" called Cirno and Wakasagihime together. The crowd followed their lead.

"The youkai of boundaries who plays with the lives of youkai, fairies, and humans alike, who doesn't care about the particulars as long as she remains in control - what will we do with her?!"

"Bring her to justice!" roared the crowd.

"What will we do with this Gensokyo, where the strong sit comfortably atop the weak, where progress is opposed on principle, and where only the will of the few who can win at danmaku matters?!"

Seija asked the question, and demonstrated the answer. Cirno and Wakasagihime put their voices to it, and the crowd echoed their call. The whole clearing answered the question at a volume that I was certain could be heard all the way to the Hakurei Shrine.

"Turn it upside down!"

It was incredible. The energy that Seija had put into her speech was overflowing into the army, preparing them more for battle than I think my Paranormal Border did. They believed in what they were fighting for. They knew in their hearts, without a doubt, that they would win this impossible battle. Even I started to feel that way.

"Turn it upside down!" The crowd kept chanting.

"Turn it upside down!"

"Turn it upside down!"

Charged for battle, the army split into its assigned groups. Seija ushered me towards Cirno's force, who were busy congratulating her for her role in the speech. We moved out together, walking through the forest to give the other groups time to get into position, and because I couldn't fly, of course. I was a little unnerved to be walking with Rumia and Wriggle, both of whom had attempted to eat me, and the latter of which I was still angry with. In fact, I remember wishing for Wriggle's death twice before because of how mad I was. I wondered what it said about me that I was so ready to do that. Yet here we were, on the same side, if only because Seija was making me and Wriggle didn't recognize me.

It was about half an hour until we reached the edge of the forest near the shrine, and I saw the enemy for the first time.

Holy hell, it's all of them.

Reimu, Marisa, Yukari, Ran, Chen, Remilia, Sakuya, Meiling, Patchouli, Koakuma, Flandre, Yuyuko, Lyrica, Kaguya, Eirin, Reisen, Tewi, Suika, Byakuren, Yatsuhashi, and a whole bunch of other youkai who I didn't even recognize were all on or above the shrine's grounds. I saw them from a distance, and not all at once, but there was no mistaking them.

Reimu and Marisa...

It had been nine years, and none of the youkai I'd met had aged, but...

But it had been nine years for those two, and they had grown up to be such beautiful women.

I digress. I started to feel like we were outnumbered, although I knew that wasn't the case. It was just that their powerful fighters were greater in number. Seija planted herself directly in front of the shrine some distance down the road, with Cirno and I on either side of her. Our force stood behind us. I couldn't see the other teams, but they had to be in position by now. I felt anxious like I had never been. This wasn't like storming the Netherworld or Eientei - those situations were terrifying in a primal way, like a monster was about to pop out and eat you. Here, I was afraid not just for myself, but for the people on the other side. It was the first time in Gensokyo that my victory might have dire consequences.

Wait, is that all of them? Something felt... wrong. People were missing. I see Yuyuko, but where's Youmu? The other two Prismrivers? And wouldn't Alice be here, too? However, I should be counting my blessings that I don't see Yuka or Mima there either.

I tapped Seija on the shoulder and whispered in her ear. "I don't see some people I should. Do you think they're going to try and sneak up on us?"

Seija gave me a smirk and a shrug, as if to say she would cross that bridge when she came to it. I still couldn't tell if she had thought this whole thing through or if she was just winging it. It was a little annoying how careless she seemed in spite of all her planning. If Youmu managed to get into close range, I doubted that any of Seija's cheats could save her.

We didn't have to wait long before the people at the shrine sent someone out to talk. It was a girl, no more than thirteen centimeters high, wearing a kimono and bowl on her head while carrying a sewing needle.

Is that who I think it is? Holy hell, she's so cute! Seriously, I could put her in my pocket!

The girl landed on the ground in front of Seija and looked up at her with sorrowful eyes. I figured she must be the inchling princess - the one who started the last incident that Seija was involved in. "Seija, please don't do this!"

"Eh?" Seija raised her eyebrow at the little princess. "Wasn't this what you wanted? The social upheaval that we got started - it's here, right now."

The princess shook her head. "Upheaval is impossible at this point. We've already lost this fight."

"Lost? I don't think so." Seija picked up her parasol and pulled it over her shoulder, resting it on the back of her neck. "There's nothing to worry about. As long as we have at least this much cheating power, we can put the youkai throughout Gensokyo under our control at any time."

I saw tears beginning to form in the eyes of the tiny girl. Her gaze was fixed on the ground, not daring to look up at Seija anymore. "It's all right," she murmured. "It's all right, now. Let's just surrender. If you keep antagonizing them, then..."

"Nope." Seija turned away, facing her allies. "Even if you don't care about avenging your people, even if they beat you and made you afraid of them, and even if you turn against me now, Shinmyoumaru," Seija's eyes narrowed, and she looked across the fairies and youkai in front of her. "I ain't surrendering to anybody."

"They're going to kill you!" the inchling squeaked at Seija's back. "They told me not to tell you, but they have someone who can do that! They told her to end it before you could fight!"

Yuyuko? I was dumbfounded. They were going to set Yuyuko loose during a danmaku battle. She was going to use her power on Seija. Reimu was breaking the rules.

What was she thinking?

"Really?" Seija looked over her shoulder. She stared up at the shrine for a moment, musing. "So, they're showing their true colors." She started to laugh. You're laughing at a time like this? You can't cheat your way out of instant death! "Hey, anybody know which one she's talking about?"

Of course, I was the one who had to answer that.

If Seija dies, my family dies. I'm sorry, Yuyuko. I'm sorry, Youmu. I'm sorry, everyone.

I took a breath and pointed towards the shrine. "There, in front. With the pink hair in the blue kimono. She's a ghost, and a strong one. I saw her take down a whole group of youkai. All of them dropped dead at once."

It really stung for me to do such a thing, for me to betray Yuyuko like that. I just made her a target.

"And this ghost, is she allowed to use her power against all of us?" Seija looked down at Shinmyoumaru, who shook her head.

"Only you. If they kill you, then the incident is resolved, and no one will try something like this again."

You gotta give up now. Please give up, let me have my family, and walk away. This is only going to end up badly for you.

Seija nodded, took a deep breath, and turned to Cirno. "New plan. All of you, target that ghost. Don't let her get past you. Ruin her day."

Dammit. I wouldn't have cared that she was throwing her life away if it didn't mean the same for my family. Don't you have any self-preservation instincts?!

"Eye can do that myself," boasted Cirno. "You guys just keep her friends away!"

I don't think you can do that by yourself, Cirno. Reimu, Marisa, and Sakuya weren't able to take her on at once. "No, we can't have just one person on her. She's the main focus here. Seija can fight anyone else that gets by."

Cirno looked up at me, defiance in her eyes. "You're not in charge of me! Nobody is! Eye'll show you Eye can take her myself!"

Cirno then did the most foolish thing that she could possibly have done: She lifted into the air and flew straight at the enemy without looking back.

All I could do was watch.

"Cirno, wait!" called Daiyousei, who flew after her. All of the other fairies and youkai followed. The assault had begun with a reckless charge.

At the same time as Cirno's force moved up, our left and right forces, the Taoists and youkai, showed themselves and advanced on the shrine.

This is it. It's starting. Oh God help me.

Shinmyoumaru and Seija stood where they were, facing each other. The amanojaku put her hands on her hips. "So? Are you going to join me, or are you going to betray me?"

Shinmyoumaru shook her head. "I'm sorry, Seija." She lifted into the air and held her needle up high. It glinted in the moonlight. The people at the shrine moved into defensive positions. Seija stayed where she was.

I suddenly had another thought. A horrible premonition. I had forgotten something very important. I saw Yukari's eyes glow from my position, and Yuyuko had began to swarm a few of her crimson butterflies.

Oh no. They're gonna end the fight right now!

My family...

"Seija!" I yelled. "Get into the forest, now! If Yukari opens a gap, Yuyuko-"

My words were cut short as they came true. Seija took one look at the gap that formed next to her and swung her parasol, vanishing to somewhere unseen. Yuyuko popped out of the gap, followed by Yukari, Ran, and Chen. The four of them looked around the area.

"Oh my," said Yuyuko. "It seems we were too slow."

Yukari stared down at me with the same look of barely contained rage from before. I wanted to run, but that would have been stupid. "You're coming with me, Kyon. I can't have you running around in this battle any more than I can in this time."

I felt the ground give way as a gap opened beneath my feet. I grabbed for the edge, but the gap was too wide. As I fell, I saw several other gaps opening in front of me, and my vision was blocked by something. The wind was knocked out of me as something hit my chest, and four other somethings grabbed on to my arms and my waist. When I opened my eyes, I couldn't see. There was an impenetrable darkness surrounding me.

For a few seconds, I didn't understand what had happened, until I felt the air around me. It didn't take me long to realize that someone had wrapped around my body and was flying with me, supported by fairies.

There was only one person who was this small and who could use darkness like this.

"Rumia?" I called into the dark.

"Don't talk to me, miss," came Rumia's voice from my chest area. "I have to hear where I'm going."

It was a weird feeling, being saved by Rumia. She was the one who tried to eat me when I first came to Gensokyo, and she had looked at me with hungry eyes every time I met her since. She came back for me? I wonder if someone told her to do that, or if she did it herself.

"Catch him!" came Yukari's voice from somewhere far away. I was moving away from her, but the sounds of danmaku were coming closer. It seemed we were headed for the battle. I hoped that Rumia could navigate us there. As crazy as it sounds, my survival depended on her now.

This is it. This danmaku civil war or whatever it is is on.

Cirno watched as the mass of darkness came up the road. It wasn't the usual ball that Rumia surrounded herself with, but an amorphous blob that shifted about to hide her position inside of it. Yukari had caught most of the fairies that went back with Rumia, but a few of them had managed to grab on to him just in time. It was a good thing; John Smith was the key to this battle. That's what Seija had told Cirno.

"Hey, you guys! Cirno called to the other fairies. "Gather up! Don't let them into the darkness!"

The fairies swarmed above the darkness as Yuyuko followed it back towards the shrine and Lyrica approached from the other side. Yukari, Ran, Chen, and Shinmyoumaru had disappeared from the road, and were nowhere to be seen. Cirno flew between Yuyuko and the darkness, gripping her Jizo statue.

"Hey, you! Don't try to run from me again! Eye'll chase you to the ends of the Earth!" Cirno announced.

Yuyuko brought a hand up to her mouth and gave a silent laugh. "Is that so? I wasn't running, but I have some time now. I'll move you out of the way and take that boy you're hiding."

On the other side of the darkness, Mystia, Daiyousei, and Wriggle confronted Lyrica.

"Hey, you guys," said Lyrica. Her face was a stoic mask, her voice detached. "How've you been?"

Mystia shrugged. "Pretty good. I'm in a punk rock duo with the yamabiko now. We made a record."

"Choujuu Gigaku, right?"

Mystia nodded. She hesitated, then said, "You know, you can join us if you want. It's because of you three that I got the confidence to..."

"Look," Lyrica interrupted, "can we just fight? I don't want to talk anymore."

Mystia took a breath and sighed it out. "All right," she said, "you go first."

[SPELL CARD: KEY SPIRIT "BÖSENDORFER DIVINE PERFORMANCE"]

[SpElL cArD: bUtTeRfLy SiGn "FlOwEr, BuTtErFlY, wInD, aNd MoOn"]

Shining danmaku butterflies formed above and around the darkness, flowing up in thick clouds that forced most of the fairies aside. These mixed with red and yellow shots that curved and flowed around one another in a high speed flowering pattern that burst out from Lyrica. In only a few seconds, there was no room to move at all. Wriggle used the camera that Cirno had given her to clear a path for herself, but it was too much for the others. Mystia, Daiyousei, and several other fairies were downed at the same time.

"Woah!" Wriggle's eyes popped. The others were defeated so easily, and the battle had just begun. She didn't have much time to think about it, as another wave of butterflies was rising from below. They came over her, and she had to move carefully through them to avoid being hit. They were so close together that she couldn't avoid being grazed, and Lyrica was sending out another burst. Wriggle used the camera again, trying to figure out how much longer she could hold out like this. There was no way she and Cirno could outlast these two, even by cheating. Several more fairies came in from the sides to blast danmaku in Lyrica's direction, but she didn't even look at the shots as she dodged them, her eyes fixed on Wriggle.

[SPELL CARD: FREEZE SIGN "COLD DIVINITY"]

Cirno shot circular waves of danmaku at random angles, none of which posed much of a threat to Yuyuko. A second later, a wave of cold emanated from her body that froze all of the danmaku in the area, which then started to drift in random directions; Yuyuko dodged it without a problem, but was surprised to hear Lyrica cry out on the other side. The air around her was a thick mass of white danmaku, much of it Lyrica's, but even more of it consisting of the weaker fairies' shots that she had ignored. They had set up an impossible pattern of their own using Cirno's freezing power. Lyrica's spell card ended as she was hit, and she was forced on the defensive as she grazed through the frozen shots. The air was clearer, and Mystia, Daiyousei, and the other fairies rejoined the battle from within the darkness, surrounded by Paranormal Borders.

Cirno laughed at Lyrica's struggle. "You didn't see that coming! Did you see what Eye did?! Eye outsmarted you all!"

"It was my idea," said Wriggle, rolling her eyes.

[SpElL cArD: eTeRnAl SoLo "PrIsMrIvEr HeLlFiRe DiRgE"]

Lyrica caught fire, burning away the remaining frozen shots around her, and screamed with frustration. She shot towards Wriggle, spewing flaming musical notes in all directions that quickly burned up and split apart into smaller ones. It was too much, too fast, and too chaotic; Daiyousei and Wriggle were hit immediately, removing the former's border and sending the latter back down into the darkness. Mystia, however, was already on the move, flying at top speed as another cloud of butterflies chased her and Lyrica trailed after her. The space between the butterfly waves was too tight to dodge, so Mystia pulled out the golden bomb tsukumogami and dropped it towards the wave. After a couple of seconds, there was a colorful explosion, and a hole was blown in the butterfly cloud. The bomb reappeared in Mystia's hand. Cirno rushed towards the gap, and Lyrica veered towards Cirno to stop her. Just before the two of them met, Cirno cast another spell card.

[SPELL CARD: FREEZE SIGN "FREEZE ATMOSPHERE"]

Cirno began to glow, charging up for an attack, but she stopped moving to do so, during which Lyrica zeroed in and collided with her, more flaming musical danmaku flowing from her body. However, Cirno didn't stop. She didn't even flinch; her spell went off, sending giant shards of ice in all directions and freezing Lyrica half-solid. The danmaku around them also froze and broke off, forcing Yuyuko to dodge as Lyrica started to fall, having taken the brunt of the attack. The heat dissipated, and Lyrica managed to shake off the ice and right herself before she reached the next butterfly wave, which she focused on dodging through. After making it through, she looked up. Cirno floated in place with a grin on her face, completely unharmed.

"What the heck? I hit you! You stupid fairy, why don't you go down?!"

"What? I didn't feel a thing!" Cirno jeered as she pulled down her eyelid and stuck out her tongue. She turned around and raced towards Yuyuko. "Now to get rid of you!"

"I don't think so!" shouted Lyrica, speeding after Cirno.

[SPELL CARD: NOISE SIGN "LYRICA SOLO CONCERT"]

Lyrica sent waves of red shots in a spread pattern in front of her, aimed at Cirno. The waves undulated in a way that made them difficult to dodge through, especially while dealing with Yuyuko, and Lyrica scored another hit. Once again, however, Cirno didn't flinch, and she cast another spell card in front of Yuyuko.

[FREEZE SIGN "MINUS K"]

[FIREFLY SIGN "FIXED STAR ON EARTH"]

[BIRD SIGN "MYSTERIOUS SONG"]

Danmaku was everywhere. Mystia, Wriggle, Daiyousei, and a legion of fairies had snuck up behind Yuyuko by moving through the darkness while she and Lyrica were occupied with Cirno, and were now blasting Yuyuko with everything they had. She took a hit, and grazed several more shots as she flew out of the center. Lyrica backed off to a safe distance immediately. The two of them grouped together as the butterflies stopped appearing.

"Cirno makes a great distraction," said Wriggle with a grin.

"Miss Prismriver," said Yuyuko, a worried look on her face. "Why are we being pushed back by fairies and insects?"

"I am sorry, Lady Yuyuko. I don't know how she-"

"It's that statue, isn't it? These are the tools the amanojaku stole." Yuyuko was looking at the Jizo statue in Cirno's hand. Its tail was drooping now, whereas it was upright before.

"Pardon us, Lady Yuyuko," said Yatsuhashi. She had been watching the battle, keeping her distance to avoid being hit by Yuyuko's spell card. With her were two other tsukumogami instruments - a taiko drum and a biwa. "Perhaps you'd better keep looking for her. We can handle these small fry."

Yuyuko looked at her opponents, and then at the rest of the battle around them, and sighed. "Very well. I will leave it to you." Yuyuko flew up over the battle and away.

"Hey! Come back!" yelled Cirno. She tried to give chase, but Yatsuhashi blocked her.

"Ah, ah, ah. It's our turn now."

"We've been watching you," said the drum tsukumogami, a woman with short red hair and a white suit with a skirt. "It seems like when one of you falls, you just heal up down there. That means we just have to defeat you all at once."

"Or knock you out," Lyrica suggested as she prepared to fight again. This would be a long battle.

[SpElL cArD: tAbOo "FoRbIdDeN fRuIt"]

Expanding globes of danmaku, alternating red and blue, obliterated the force that was attempting to overtake the shrine to the right of the battle against the ghosts. Youkai fell to the ground in droves, unable to squeeze through the minuscule gaps between each wave, and it only got harder as they got closer. On the edge of the shrine, Remilia Scarlet watched her sister work.

"This is almost embarrassing," she said, her eyes wandering to the battle in the southern part of the shrine's grounds. "I feel like we're not going to get to do anything. Maybe we should join one of the other fronts."

"I don't think that's such a good idea, Remi," said Patchouli. "Flan is strong, but the enemy is going to cheat. We might need to support her when that happens."

"I know," said Remilia, twirling her spear as she lounged on the grass, "but at the moment, it's more dangerous for us to be in that battle than elsewhere." Remilia had given the tsukumogami sword back to Sakuya, since as fascinating a weapon as it was, it had nowhere near the power of Gungnir.

"Hey, why aren't you guys fighting?" asked Marisa, flying in on her broomstick. She took a look at the "battle" above the trees and said, "Oh. Man, this battle's going easier than I thought. No one's broken through yet. Usually, a final battle has more... urgency, y'know?"

Patchouli huffed. "It's only just begun. The amanojaku is unaccounted for, and we don't know the enemy's plan. This could be an elaborate diversion, or we could have already lost without noticing. We should keep our eyes open for a cheat."

Meiling nodded and said, "Can't be too careful on the battlefield. If we assume Flandre's gonna win, then she'll be our weak point. This way, we can also be backup if someone else falls."

Marisa put her arms behind her head and dragged her feet on the ground as she hovered. "Y'know, maybe ya shouldn't have brought everyone. It's just fairies back at your house, right? If I was a burglar, I'd be looking to break in right about now."

Patchouli gave Marisa an incredulous look. "'If' you were a burglar?"

Marisa opened her mouth to reply, but was interrupted.

[SPELL CARD: DROWN "TRAUMA IN THE GLIMMERING DEPTHS"]

It happened too quickly for anyone to react. First, Kagerou appeared next to Sakuya, a red and white yin-yang orb in her hand, and raked her with a danmaku claw. Next, a spell card activated in empty space, flooding the shrine area with watery danmaku, through which burst large wave shots, aimed at Remilia. Remilia, Meiling, and Marisa were able to fly out of the way as soon as it activated, but Koakuma, Patchouli, and Sakuya were all hit, with Koakuma and Patchouli getting knocked out instantly. Remilia looked for the enemy; she saw the werewolf, dodging through the spell card as she attempted to finish off Sakuya, but where was the other one? The wave shots were coming from what looked like thin air. Unless...

Remilia fired a stream of shots at the point where the waves were coming from. The point moved.

Someone was there.

"Marisa," said Remilia, "Fire right there. Meiling, help me." Remilia pulled out a spell card as Marisa focused her lasers on the invisible person.

[SpElL cArD: "bLoOdSuCkEr TaG"]

Remilia transformed into a bat and dodged through the water, avoiding the waves as she went. Red danmaku trailed behind her as she flew, remaining in place. Meiling zoomed in, firing off rainbow shots meant to keep the hidden attacker in one place as Remilia closed in and let off a burst of light and energy around herself that caught the spell card user. As the water spell card ended, the air fizzled, and Nitori Kawashiro appeared.

"Aw, shoot! You know how hard optical camouflage is to fix?"

"You're going to need fixing," growled Remilia. She charged after Nitori again, her trailing shots each splitting into four and moving in opposite directions. Nitori flew away from Meiling, outside of Remilia's pattern in an attempt to out-maneuver them.

"You can think of this as payback for last time," said Kagerou, facing down Sakuya as the two of them spiraled through the air, dodging one another's shots.

"You're awfully confident, facing your weakness so boldly," said Sakuya, twirling her trusty silver knives. They glistened in the moonlight.

"What can I say? This battle is all about making a point. Besides, you won't be in the fight long enough to hit me with those." Kagerou drew a spell card.

[SPELL CARD: TRANSFORMATION "STAR FANG"]

Kagerou burst forward, changing into her werewolf shape. White claw trails appeared in the air, which collapsed into red danmaku that scattered in all directions. She repeatedly charged at Sakuya, forcing her on the defensive with her speed.

[SpElL cArD: lOvE sIgN "mAcHiNe GuN sPaRk"]

A gigantic laser tore into the ground from above, chasing Kagerou and disintegrating the danmaku she was throwing off as stars sprang up in an arc from the laser's point of impact. Another one followed almost immediately after, and then another, forcing her to abandon her offensive and focus on avoiding the rain of deadly lasers.

"Hey, Sakuya!" Marisa hollered from up high. "Don't get beaten now! We just got to the good part!"

"It's under control," Sakuya called to Marisa. "Help Milady!"

Marisa ignored Sakuya and kept shooting at the werewolf. She had to hit her at least once now. Her mini-Hakkero was aching to blast something.

No more youkai were coming up the hill. They were all too scared or weak to try. Flandre looked back at her sister to ask if she could go somewhere else, only to find that her sister was fighting without her. How did that happen? Flandre was told not to let anyone through, and two someones got through. Now Patchouli was on the ground, and it was probably her fault. Flandre gripped the twisted staff in her hand harder, bending the metal even more. She stopped her spell card and turned to join her sister, but as soon as she did, someone snuck up on her.

[SPELL CARD: WATER SIGN "TAIL FIN SLAP"]

A spiral of blue danmaku came out from behind Flandre. It wasn't hard to dodge, but now the youkai and the fairies were back, and the one casting the spell card was flying at her.

Flandre giggled. So, all she had to do to get them to come out was stop attacking? She would let her sister and the others play by themselves for a little while longer. She still had a job to do.

[SpElL cArD: fOrBiDdEn BaRrAgE "sTaRbOw BrEaK"]

A huge number of multicolored danmaku blasted backward out of Flandre's wings and hung in the air for a moment before rushing forward, crisscrossing and overwhelming the fairies and youkai before her. One by one, they fell to the ground, but the one who was firing off spiral shots was still up, dodging between Flandre's shots as she kept up her assault. Flandre concentrated her spell card on that one youkai, making the space tighter and tighter, but just when it looked like she was about to get hit, she wasn't. Flandre was confused. The youkai, a mermaid, was holding up a purple checkered cloth in front of herself that Flandre's shots just wouldn't penetrate. The mermaid kept flying forward, using the cloth when the danmaku got too thick. Flandre just couldn't land a hit on her. She kept trying, focusing harder, and harder, until-

She was hit. Not the mermaid, but Flandre. Her spell card ended, and she flew back in shock. She had gotten too greedy, too focused on defeating her - but why wouldn't she get hit? She must have been cheating. Remilia had told Flandre not to cheat, or really hurt anyone. Why did they get to cheat? It wasn't fair.

Flandre tried another spell card. This one wouldn't be so easy to hide from.

[SpElL cArD: tAbOo "FoRbIdDeN gAmEs"]

Danmaku crosses with large, round centers spread six ways from Flandre in tight formation, leaving no room between them in the area around her. The mermaid pulled up her cloth to shield herself, but as soon as she dropped it, another cross was upon her. It happened again and again, until finally the cloth didn't work, and the mermaid fell.

Flandre felt disappointed. She was having fun, and she didn't even realize it. That mermaid went down too easily. Flandre thought that at least now, she might be able to help her sister, but that thought was dashed when she looked at the trees; another wave of youkai was advancing, led by a small youkai with red hair and a red cape. Flandre brought out another spell card, hoping that this one would be the last.

Above the forest at the northern edge of the Hakurei Shrine, a youkai fell towards the canopy, trailing wisps of purple mist. Byakuren Hijiri faced off against Toyosatomimi no Miko, around whom orbited Yoshika Miyako.

"My, what's this? There were nine of you to our five, and now you are alone." Miko turned her body away from Byakuren and tapped her shaku on her chin with a coy expression. "I told you: Humans cannot gain strength through scripture alone. That goes for your youkai followers, as well. I thought you might have trained them better since our last encounter, but did I underestimate you?"

"Forgive them for training in spirituality instead of danmaku," breathed Byakuren. "Some of us do not have so much free time."

Miko chuckled. "Your faux-benevolent nature is the seed of complacency. Your followers lost because they lack discipline." Miko put her arms up in an exaggerated shrug, shaking her head in a theatrical manner. She did not concern herself with the danmaku that was still flying at her, idly dodging the shots that Yoshika didn't block with her body. "If this is the result of spiritual training, I fear Buddhism may destroy Gensokyo."

"And you think you know my followers, do you?"

"I know you," said Miko, covering her hand with her cape and bringing it up to her mouth as she looked Byakuren in the eye, "and the one who knows her enemy wins. My victory was decided before this battle began."

"Your hubris is your most exceptional trait." Byakuren sighed and raised her arms in resignation. "Only a fool believes she knows everything about another person."

Miko laughed. "A fool believes that no one understands her. Only a Buddha can tell me nothing. Next, you'll say, 'I will prove that you do not have the insight you think you do.'"

"I will prove that you do not have the insight..." Byakuren paused as she realized what was saying, then shrugged. "What is the use of words if you put them in my mouth for me?"

"If you're so confident in that claim," said Miko, "then let's raise the stakes." A wicked grin spread across her face, which she made a token attempt to hide behind her shaku. "Our previous duels were far too limited. This time, in the spirit of this war, we have the opportunity to use our full power. Both of us."

Byakuren scoffed. "If you insist," she said, pulling out what looked like a conjoined pair of smooth, cylindrical sticks. She pulled them apart, and in the space between them unfurled a cluster of strange runic lettering that scrolled between the two sticks like it was a computer screen. It came to rest on a specific group of letters that radiated darkness; a spell card contained within the magic scroll.

"We shall see whose way has made them stronger: Taoism and the path of the shikaisen, or Buddhism and the path of the magician!"

[SpElL cArD: "eYeS oF bRaHmA"]

Lines of magic formed into an ornate flower design in the air around Byakuren. Four smaller flowers materialized in a trapezoidal formation surrounding the central flower, each of which fired curving lasers in nine directions, crossing one another and creating patterns in the sky. Miko and Yoshika had lasers coming at them from all directions, and each new wave was quickly followed by another, but Miko kept a cool head and made small movements, edging backward each time. Yoshika stayed close to Miko, firing kunai-shaped danmaku at Byakuren as Miko directed her through Seiga's charm. Star danmaku appeared behind Byakuren and launched forward at Miko, who charged in Byakuren's direction, ducking under the lasers and grazing the stars to maximize the amount of space she had to work with. However, it was still a Taboo spell, and eventually, she found herself in a spot where she wouldn't be able to dodge the next wave of stars.

What happened next transpired in the blink of an eye. With a whirl of her cape, Miko turned away from the stars and vanished. Byakuren, as if guided by some instinct, turned around as soon as Miko disappeared, changed the writing in her magic scroll, and let go of it with her right hand. Miko appeared in front of Byakuren, throwing aside her cape and drawing the sword at her hip. The blade shone with a blinding light as it left the sheath, and Byakuren met it with her own sword, this one made entirely of light except for a golden hilt, that dissipated after the parry was made. Another one appeared in Byakuren's hand as Miko made another strike, and then another. At the same time, Yoshika fired a wave of danmaku from the other side, which Byakuren had no trouble dodging through as she parried Miko's strikes; she was moving with a supernatural speed as the scroll in her hand shifted to display different spells and sutras. She was more than a match for Miko and Yoshika while she had a spell card going at the same time.

"You are clever, but your methods are predictable." Byakuren smirked as Miko was forced away from her by the lasers flowing around her body. "Does that make you a fool?"

Miko sheathed her sword and dove underneath Byakuren to avoid the star shots that were now coming back at her. When she reached the nadir of her arc, she faced upward, pulled her sword back out, and swung it, creating a split in the air through which a golden light poured and shot at Byakuren like a barrage of lasers. The light appeared almost instantaneously, but Byakuren moved just as fast, shifting ever so slightly in the air so that the beams passed her by.

"I see what you are doing," Byakuren called as Miko warped back near Yoshika with her cape. "You think that as long as you hide behind that zombie, you can outlast me."

"Youkai magic makes one strong, but it will run out on you eventually. I, who have trained my body and spirit, am much more suited to a contest of endurance."

Byakuren's lips curled into a smile, and she folded her hands in front of her, still clasping the magic scroll. "Then let us see who endures."

Miko stayed where she was, moving back and forth to avoid the lasers as she allowed Yoshika to absorb the stars flying at her. She surveyed the area, running through possibilities in her mind.

She isn't going to let me capture this spell card, but she isn't going to spend too much effort trying to attack me, either. I can force her to expend more energy by launching another attack, but I can't try the same thing again or she'll pre-empt me with her speed. I can stay here and wait out the spell card, but that presents its own risks, as she'll go on the offensive. Even with Yoshika, my defensive power is lacking compared to hers.

Why is she so smug?

Count her desires. Among the usual, she wants me to think that she's weak. I shouldn't attack her head on. Hang on, she's missing some.

Miko's ears twitched under her earmuffs. She recalled Byakuren's voice, trying to pick out the missing desires.

Byakuren Hijiri has a desire to live and stay young forever. It burns inside her, and drives her. So, why didn't I hear it?

Has she realized the end of the Four Noble Truths?

Byakuren's face did not betray the answer, and neither did she say anything further. She simply stared at Miko with a knowing, mischievous smile.

Laughable. Byakuren Hijiri can never become a Buddha!

Miko thrust out her arm to point at at her undead comrade. "Yoshika, use a desire spell. The strongest you have!"

"'Kay."

[SPELL CARD: DESIRE SIGN "SCORE DESIRE EATER"]

Staggered spheres of red kunai danmaku poured from Yoshika's body, followed by curved lasers that criscrossed as they expanded from her. At the same time, Miko tossed her cape and warped away from Yoshika, back on the far side of Byakuren. She had just made it a lot harder on herself, dodging through two spell cards at once, and she paid for it by taking a bad hit and several grazes. However, she heard them; Byakuren's desires, Miko's desires; the desires of the Taoists, the Buddhists, and their bake-danuki ally, all of whom had been eliminated and were down in the forest; they came together and crystallized into spirits around Yoshika, who absorbed them into her body. When these spirits appeared, they spoke in a scattered chorus of wishes that only Miko could understand.

I hear them again. Byakuren Hijiri's desire to live - it's here. Why couldn't I detect it before?

Finally, Byakuren's spell card ran out. Byakuren looked satisfied at having landed a hit on Miko, and Miko was beginning to grasp that something was not right.

"You're so easy to understand," said Byakuren.

It's gone again.

"You are so sure of yourself. So certain you know what everyone else thinks that you even presume to speak for them."

But I can hear it among the desire spirits.

"'We are not unquestionably sages, nor are they unquestionably fools.' You wrote that in the tenth article of your constitution. Yet, how is it that your insight must be absolute?"

If that's the case, then...

Byakuren grasped both ends of her scroll and lifted it above her head. Magical power flowed from it, infusing her body.

"Perhaps if you meditate on the virtues you once extolled, you will gain the humility to know when you are wrong."

[SPELL CARD: SUPERHUMAN "BYAKUREN HIJIRI"]

Byakuren launched into Yoshika, dodging through her danmaku and closing in on her in the blink of an eye, leaving a trail of bright blue danmaku behind her. Byakuren stabbed Yoshika with a blade of light that pierced straight through her body and stuck there, then ran circles around her, creating a whirlwind of danmaku that expanded and enveloped Yoshika, ending her spell card and sending her plummeting to the ground. Miko barely had time to draw her own sword before Byakuren was upon her, dancing back and forth, in front and behind, laying danmaku and striking with more light blades. Miko was on the defensive now, parrying strikes and summoning golden blades that stabbed into the air around her, trying to catch Byakuren off guard.

"And who is to judge my character? You?" Miko sheathed her sword and summoned a sphere of light around herself as Byakuren charged, forcing her to reverse. A golden light shone down from the sky and long swords fell towards her from it as more appeared around her, and as she ran from them Miko appeared in front of her, drawing her sword enough that part of the blade was bared.

"You, whose first act and purpose as a magician was to restore her youth and beauty? Hypocrite!"

Beams of light shot from the blade that refracted around Byakuren, trapping her in a cage as the swords flew towards her.

"You, who claims to save and protect youkai who are oppressed, but joins her rival to fight against them when it serves her true interests? Liar!"

Byakuren met the swords with her light blades, knocking them away one after the other, but they kept coming, and her magical power was being expended quickly. It wasn't long before one of them struck her in the back, dispelling her danmaku and her speed.

"You, who tries to reform even the most monstrous youkai, but in so doing moves them closer to the village, where they wreak havoc every night? Imbecile!"

Miko slid her sword back all the way into its sheath and pulled out a spell card. "The sovereign is like Heaven, which is above the earth, and the vassal is like the earth, which bears up Heaven. Your followers are poor Buddhists, poor youkai, and poor individuals. How could they be otherwise, with you for their teacher?" Miko raised the spell card as Byakuren flew back and prepared to dodge.

"Mononobe no Futo! Soga no Tojiko!" Miko bellowed towards the forest below. "I have not permitted you to rest! Come to me, your sovereign, at once!"

[SPELL CARD: SUMMON "ROYAL CLAN'S CHAOTIC DANCE"]

Miko glowed gold once more. Futo and Tojiko appeared in front of her on either side, both looking battered with danmaku scarring over their bodies and clothing, but both wearing self-assured smiles. They sucked in the light that Miko emitted, drawing strength from it.

"Aye, Crown Prince! Leave it to me!"

"Have at it!"

The two disciples flew forward to flank Byakuren on either side, firing rings of arrow danmaku in all directions. They seemed to move at random, but were perfectly synchronized, firing together and avoiding one another's shots perfectly as they forced Byakuren to stay on the move. Byakuren fought back by restoring her five-flower light construct and firing lasers from the flowers at the three Taoists, but every time she aimed at Futo or Tojiko, the other one would draw closer and fill her space with more arrows, and Miko herself was keeping enough distance to be unlikely to hit. Byakuren's movements were getting sluggish, and by the time she managed to eliminate both Futo and Tojiko, she had taken another hit and a lot of graze.

"You treat your people like tools," spat Byakuren.

"I share with them my power," asserted Miko, "and they follow me by choice. I do not patronize them as you do yours. We are both where we are because of the same selfish wish; why do you pretend that your motives are pure?"

Byakuren sighed. "Why do you pretend that selfishness is wise? We are more than our desires, Toyosatomimi. Though I may want the same things you do, I no longer do what I do for myself."

"Easy to say when your personal goals align with your altruism."

"You really think that we two are alike?"

"I would call us yin and yang," Miko smirked, "but that would imply that we both are necessary."

Byakuren started to laugh, lowering her head and shaking it. "You're absolutely right," she said. She raised her head to stare Miko in the eye and return her smirk. "One of us walks a righteous path, while the other is nothing but a blight."

"I am glad that we can agree on something!" Miko threw a glance at the forest below, rose higher into the air, and pulled out one final spell card. "Now, let's end this demonstration!"

[SpElL cArD: "mY wAy Is TrUlY tHaT oF hEaVeN!"]

Miko unsheathed her sword and raised it to the sky as uncountable yellow danmaku orbs closed in from all sides, rushing through Byakuren and absorbing into the blade until it glowed as brightly as the sun. Byakuren was far too exhausted to dodge; she was sent flying towards the canopy as beams of golden light radiated from Miko's sword, shooting across the entire battlefield in an instant, blinding all who looked upon it and obliterating the leaves of the trees.

As the light faded, Miko sheathed her sword and looked down on the fallen monk below. Perhaps it was unwise of her to use such a powerful attack on an already defeated foe, but for Miko, there were few things more satisfying than a graceful overkill. She let out a sigh and unclasped her cape, then held it out to the side and let it drop towards the forest. She flew down to confirm that Byakuren was defeated.

Byakuren was lying in the crook of a tree, groaning with pain and trying to climb into a more comfortable position. She had no more fight in her, and her face was an odd grin.

"You know," said Miko, "I'm disappointed that you ran out of power so quickly. I thought you were trying to prove that your way was better, or something like that? Being so wasteful hardly befits a monk."

"That wasn't it," Byakuren coughed. "We were proving something else."

"Were we?" Miko crossed her arms and tapped her shaku on her chin. "I don't remember."

"We were proving that you don't know me as well as you think you do," came Byakuren's voice from behind Miko.

Miko froze, staring at Byakuren in the tree. Her face had blossomed into an impish grin, and Miko was aware of someone else behind her. One of Byakuren's light blades was in her peripheral vision, up against her neck.

"You?" Miko stared. "But I..."

"Defeated me?" asked Byakuren. "Hmm... It's just like I told you. You're so confident in yourself, there's no changing your mind once you reckon you've got it made. Why d'you reckon I was the one Nue summoned to fight you?" Her eyes flashed. "A fair fight will always end in your favor, but all it takes is a simple confidence trick to bring you down."

"That's..." Miko's jaw dropped. "Impossible. You aren't as strong as she is."

"A magician's trick," said the voice behind her. "I gave her some of my power."

"You said it yourself," said Byakuren, stretching out in the tree. "I ran out of magic too quickly. If it weren't for the full moon, I never would have been able to fake those spells." She laughed to herself. "Kind of beautiful how everything worked out, didn't it? Though, it would have been easier if I could use the real Sorcerer's Sutra Scroll."

Miko's face turned to stone, and she forced herself to speak. "You... bake-danuki, this isn't over."

Byakuren sighed, and a burst of smoke materialized around her. When it cleared, Mamizou Futatsuiwa was sitting on the branch, pinching a slender pipe between two fingers and puffing on it. She stretched her arms and shifted in her seat. "Ah, that smarts. Next time, let's not make losing a battle part of the plan, okay?"

Miko turned around to face the real Byakuren. She stared her in the eye, unmoving.

"Well? Say it."

Byakuren tilted her head. "Do you think I am going to gloat at you?"

"You want to."

Another sigh escaped Byakuren. "That is where we are different, I am afraid. I do not simply do what I wish."

"There it is." Miko smirked, giving Byakuren pause. She chuckled bitterly.

"Ah, you got me. A tiny boast." Byakuren pulled out a spell card with her free hand, keeping the light blade steady against Miko's neck. "Let's wrap this up."

Byakuren pulled the blade across Miko's neck, stunning her, and activated the spell card.

[SPELL CARD: "ANGIRASA VEDA"]

Byakuren put her hands together, closed her eyes, and recited something under her breath. When she finished, she burst forward in a blaze of light, tackling Miko and carrying her forward as energy surged through Miko's body, before launching her ahead, reforming her flower construct, and firing four massive lasers that converged and crossed one another where Miko was as she flew like a rag doll and landed in the trees some distance away.

Byakuren came to a stop in the air above where Miko landed, and upon observing her sprawled on the ground, put her hands together.

"Hail to Amitabha."

Miko coughed.

"Oh?" Taking heavy breaths, Byakuren descended to the ground, touching it with one foot. "I am surprised you are not unconscious. Most people cannot handle that many hits in a row."

Miko coughed again, and chuckled. She planted a hand on the ground and tried to stand, with little success. "Please. I've trained... far too long..."

"From where I'm standing, it looks more like 'far too little.'"

"You got me," said Miko. She was still laughing, wincing from the pain of doing so. "You really got me. I didn't think it was the bake-danuki."

"Anyone else would have known it immediately," said Byakuren. "She rarely fights openly, and is more powerful than she seems. To assume that you defeated her already was foolish."

"I'll have to remember that," said Miko, pulling herself into a sitting position. "Thanks to her, my victory became a draw. Ah, I told Yakumo that she'd fall before I did. I'll have to eat those words now."

"There never was a victory for you here," said Byakuren. "You were defeated by your own trick. I knew you could not resist a duel at our full strength." She clasped her hands at her waist and looked down at Miko with a small smile. "What was it that you said? That your victory was decided before the battle was fought."

"Yeah," chortled Miko, "I said that." She looked up at Byakuren, trying to stifle her laughter, and added, "You're gloating again, by the way."

"I just want to know what you find so funny. You aren't having a stress breakdown, are you?"

Miko dropped her head and shook it. She brought her right fist up to her chest. "No, no, no. It's just... You gave her more than 'some' of your power, didn't you? And that overkill spell card..."

Byakuren frowned. "What about it?"

Miko looked up at Byakuren and grinned. "I outlasted you." She opened her palm, revealing a small paper charm.

"What is..."

Before Byakuren could finish her sentence, a magnificent purple and red cape whirled into being behind her. Attached to the cape was Yoshika Miyako, a hole in her body where she had been impaled by Byakuren's light blade, and a spell card grasped in her outstretched hand.

"Hellooooo."

[SpElL cArD: pOiSoN nAiL "zOmBiE cLaW"]

Yoshika swung her arms through the air, nearly raking Byakuren with her nails. As she did so, meter-thick streams of purple and blue kunai danmaku appeared around Byakuren, spreading at high speed. Byakuren launched into the air to escape from them, but Miko brought up her sword and bared the blade, sending beams of light ahead of her that slowed her down just long enough that her exit was cut off. She tried in vain to dodge through the mess, but neither she nor Miko had a hope of avoiding it. Miko collapsed on the ground as Byakuren was knocked out of the air.

Miko kept laughing as she lay on her back, fading in and out of consciousness.

"Ha ha ha... I know you... Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!"

Byakuren opened her mouth to say something, but only a strangled cry came out as she lost the last of her senses to Yoshika's spell.

Reisen braced herself against the peak of the shrine, taking cover on the rear side of it and shooting at anything that drew near with her modified Barrett - the same one Suou had given her. An interface helped her modify it at a later date, and it became quite useful for settling danmaku battles. Danmaku bullets didn't move as quickly as real ones, but she was still able to down enemies from afar by shooting in patterns while they were occupied. She also had the M16 in case anyone got close. Eirin was straddling the peak, firing lasers from her bow that split in two and curved downward. Tewi kept her eyes on the forest behind them while Kaguya sat in front of the shrine with Suika, who was lounging while she waited for her turn to fight. Reimu, Tenshi, and Iku were standing in the middle of the grounds, keeping an eye on the battle.

It seemed like the battle was progressing smoothly. Reisen could see the two vampires handling the youkai to her left, the Myouren Temple fighting against some hermits she didn't really know to her right, and in front of the shrine, the fairies were being held back by ghosts. Yukari and Yuyuko would be searching the area for the amanojaku, and... Reisen's gaze settled on the mass of darkness below the hill. She didn't know what to make of a past Kyon joining the enemy. It sounded like he had no other choice, but Yukari had implied that he was doing it partly of his own will. What if he had betrayed them for real?

"Reisen," said Eirin next to her, "why did you stop firing?"

Reisen snapped out of it, returning to soldier mode. She reloaded her gun and resumed fire. "Checking the situation. Nothing behind us, Tewi?"

"Nope," replied Tewi, rolling her head as she lay on the roof. "Not so much as a suspicious breeze."

"Don't take your eyes off the rear," said Reisen, sweeping the area to the left. "You never know when..."

The air shimmered near the left edge of the shrine grounds, where the residents of the Scarlet Devil Mansion were. A second later, a werewolf youkai appeared, attacking Sakuya, and a spell card activated from where she had seen the shimmer.

"Contact, ten o'clock, two youkai!" she called out as she took aim. Just before she pulled the trigger, she was hit from behind by a stream of danmaku, and she heard Tewi cry out. Another spell card went off behind her.

[SPELL CARD: MOONLIGHT "SILENT FLOWER"]

Reisen had to move. Through the shock of the hit she took, she launched into the air turned around in time to see three "branches" of danmaku stretch out from a fairy that had appeared, flowering into round shots that rapidly expanded and filled the air. As the branches dissolved, new ones took their place. Reisen couldn't believe this spell card belonged to a fairy; there wasn't much room to move, and the pattern was too chaotic to settle into. Tewi had tumbled under the roof, while Eirin had managed to get into the air and start dodging.

"Gotcha!" Two other fairies appeared near the one casting the spell card, dodging back and forth through it as though they had practiced the motions. They were laughing. A wave of fairies rose up from the forest behind them, firing danmaku through the spell card at Reisen and Eirin. The two of them took cover in front of the shrine and aimed upward, waiting for the enemy to appear.

"Eirin, are you in trouble? Should I join in?" asked Kaguya from below. Suika didn't seem bothered by the noise.

"No need, princess," said Eirin. "Just a few fairies. I don't know how they got the drop on us, but we can handle them. Udonge, flank them. Try to extract Tewi, if you can."

"Understood," said Reisen. Switching to her M16, she looped around the shrine at once, staying low to the ground. She poked her head around the backside of the shrine for half a second to observe the area.

The fairies were advancing over the top of the shrine, and she could hear Eirin engage them, moving up so that Kaguya wouldn't be put in the line of fire. There was no sign of Tewi. Reisen aimed around the corner and took shots at the fairy that was casting the spell, ducking back behind the shrine when the other fairies targeted her. After their shots had passed, she dashed out of cover, firing at the fairy casting the spell as she made for the trees behind the shrine. She took cover behind a tree and started firing, moving from tree to tree to avoid the retaliating fire. After she had drawn their attention, she started to make her way back to the shrine so that they wouldn't surround her. They may have been fairies, but Reisen wasn't about to make a dumb mistake and fight them head-on.

"Hiya!" One of the fairies, the one in blue who was holding a paper lantern, popped out of the canopy next to Reisen as she ducked behind a tree.

Reisen didn't understand it. Wasn't the fairy still over by the shrine? She was sure she checked their positions. There was no time now; Reisen had to shoot or move. She chose to shoot. However, none of the bullets hit. She didn't miss; she was dead on, at point blank range. The bullets had passed through the fairy, striking the trees behind her. Reisen had only just processed this when the fairy unleashed her own attack, blasting waves of danmaku into her. Reisen toppled to the ground and tried to roll away as pain washed over her. She pulled herself around the other side of the tree and readied a spell card. As soon as that fairy showed herself-

But she was already surrounded. A huge number of fairies formed a dome around her, each one firing a stream of danmaku in her direction. She didn't have a hope of dodging it all. The last thing she felt was a danmaku blast hitting her at the base of the skull. Reisen hit the ground one last time, the darkness of sleep quickly taking over the soldier.

"Woo-hoo!" Sunny and Star high-fived one another, and all of the other fairies who had taken down the moon rabbit. She was a tough one to have survived two sneak attacks, but as Star told them, three in a row could take down anybody. Star's paper lantern wouldn't work anymore, but she and Sunny agreed that they made good use of its single charge. The only one who could see through their powers had been taken down.

Unfortunately, while they were dealing with one enemy, the other had landed a hit on Luna. Her spell card ended, and Luna drifted towards the ground in pain. Sunny raced to the shrine and caught her before she touched down. Star and the other fairies faced Eirin.

"So, you defeated Udonge?" Eirin said, her face full of quiet rage. "But you did it by sneaking past Tewi. You disappeared earlier, didn't you? Back when you tried to steal from the shrine? That was no tsukumogami; that was your own power. Do you know the rules about using our powers to attack in danmaku, little fairy?"

"Huh?" said Sunny, rising to join Star. "The rules are out the window now, aren't they? Everyone's been cheating this whole time."

"Everyone? No. You have been cheating with those tools of yours. We allowed that because nobody really cared for the allowance of Taboo spell cards. The tsukumogami have rules and limits. They leveled the playing field." Eirin's eyes narrowed. "But under no circumstances can someone simply use their powers in a spell card duel without limitation. The balance will be lost. Do you intend to unleash Yuyuko's power over death? Flandre's power of absolute destruction? Believe me, we have been holding back. Your powers are the last taboo to be broken. Are you ready to break it now?"

"We've been using it this whole time, though..." said Star, suddenly worried.

"No problem!" proclaimed Sunny, crossing her arms. "With the three of us, we can take you on fairly!"

"Three on one isn't exactly fair, though." said Star.

"Three?" Eirin scoffed. "I shot down your friend. Can two of you take me on?"

"Actually," said Luna as she joined her friends, "I'm still good to go."

Eirin studied Luna, surprised to see her still up. It didn't take long for her to realize why.

"I see. You're drawing your power from the moon, aren't you? On a night like tonight, even a fairy might be able to take a hit if she does that." Eirin chuckled, drawing her bow and pointing it at the three fairies. "In that case, this will be interesting. I'll show you the true power of the moon!"

[SpElL cArD: sEcReT eLiXiR "lUnAr InCeNsE"]

What seemed like hundreds of yellow crisscrossing lasers sprang from the space around Eirin, dividing the area into tiny sections. At the same time, six giant green shots sprang from her, moving in opposite directions, followed by six more, and then six more, repeating. When the large shots reached the edge of the lasers, they curved around and headed back through the spell, covering more space. The three fairies were divided, and had no time to aim their shots as they moved to avoid Eirin's. The lasers were a maze through which nothing could be seen, and it was hard for them to even tell where they were. Sunny thought that if only she could use her power to bend light, she could move these lasers out of the way, but that would be bad, wouldn't it? It would upset the balance or something? At least, she was pretty sure she would be killed by a ghost. That didn't sound like something she wanted to happen. What was the point of having special powers if you were only allowed to use them in danmaku if you made a spell card for it?

Then Sunny remembered: She had spell cards like that. One in particular would solve this problem neatly. "Hey, you guys!" Sunny called into the laser maze. "Let's use 'that'!"

"'That'?" came Luna's voice. "What's 'that'?"

"Yeah, I don't know what you're talking about," said Star's voice.

"C'mon, you guys!" Sunny complained. "I'm talking about our strongest combination!"

"Oh, that," said Luna. "You should have said so earlier. Um, how do I find you?"

Sunny thought about it. Using powers in danmaku couldn't really be against the rules, could it? What if she did it for something that wasn't attacking or defending?

"Hang on! I'll find you!"

Leaving a trail of colored light behind her, Sunny flew through the laser maze. The green shots were growing more numerous. There wouldn't be much time before it became too much to dodge. It already was, in this tight space; Sunny was grazed several times as she slipped through the tiny spaces between the lasers. When she found her trail again, she would have the others shout, and move in another direction. It wasn't long before she found Luna, and Star was able to find them almost at the same time using her power. The three of them pulled out a spell card; not one individually, but three pieces of the same card. Putting them together, they recited the spell.

[SPELL CARD: "THREE FAIRIES"]

The three fairies formed up into a single unit, bending the light - and the lasers - around them. Star and Luna both fired a steady stream of danmaku, made of starlight and moonlight, into Sunny, who fused them with the light of the lasers and fired a huge wave of danmaku towards Eirin, alternating between pure light and burning sunlight. Eirin had to dodge, but the space she had made for herself with her lasers was so small that she couldn't avoid it forever. Eirin's spell card was defeated.

"We're the greatest!" shouted the three fairies as Eirin grimaced in disbelief. She turned her focus to dodging the fairies' spell card.

"Eirin? Do you need my help now?" asked Kaguya, poking her head up over the roof.

"No, princess," said Eirin. "Please stay below the roof. You'll get hurt here."

"I'm just saying, it looks like you've started losing."

"You're imagining it, princess."

"Hah! Admit defeat now, and we won't have to use our real power!" Sunny laughed.

"This is our strongest spell card, though," said Star.

"Well, we won't have to use it again!"

"We're still using it, though. And using the same card twice in a duel is against the rules..."

"Whatever!" Sunny pointed at Eirin. "Anyway, let's just beat her and win the battle!"

Eirin smiled. "No," she said, "I don't think you'll be doing that."

"Hey, guys! Look behind you!"

[SPELL CARD: RUNAWAY RABBIT "FLUSTER ESCAPE"]

Six strings of danmaku flew out as the fairies turned around, catching them all at once. Tewi Inaba stuck her tongue out and dashed away as they fell down. "That's how you do a sneak attack!"

"You weren't hit, then?" asked Eirin as Tewi joined her on the rooftop. Kaguya came up, as well.

"Nah," said Tewi. "I bolted as soon as they shot at me and played dead." She pointed over her shoulder at the forest with her thumb. "I've been beating up the fairies back there. Did Reisen seriously lose to those guys?"

"Unfortunately," said Eirin. "We will have to retrieve her. Good work, Tewi."

"Well, well," said Kaguya. "It looks like you needed help after all."

"Didn't need, but appreciated, princess. Tewi is under my contract, after all." Eirin started to fly again, but stopped when she saw the three fairies still in front of her. They were struggling, their faces filled with pain, and Luna in particular looked like she'd had it, but they still got in Eirin's way.

"You haven't beaten us," said Sunny. "This battle isn't ending from something as lame as a sneak attack!"

"We started it with one, though," said Star.

Eirin looked down at the fairies in disbelief. "How are you this strong?" she said. "You're just fairies."

"It's because of the Miracle Mallet." Reimu had joined Kaguya and Tewi on the roof. "That inchling princess made a wish during the last incident. Something about the weak becoming strong. It's the only explanation for this power."

"No way!" cried Sunny. "We've always been this strong! You just don't recognize it 'cause we're fairies!"

"Fairies are strong together," said Luna. "Don't underestimate us, even the ones who don't have spell cards."

"Fine," said Reimu. "Use your last spell card, then. I'll defeat it."

The three fairies each drew another third of a spell card.

"Finally, a rematch against Reimu!" exclaimed Sunny. Her energy seemed to return to her.

[SPELL CARD: TEAM TECH "FAIRY OVERDRIVE"]

The three fairies joined together as one, and green danmaku rained from the sky as they charged to the side, sending waves of fire at the four on the rooftop, who rose into the air to dodge it. The fairies zoomed around them in a haphazard circle, increasing the number of shots until the air was thick with them, and then charged directly at Reimu.

[SPELL CARD: SPIRIT SIGN "FANTASY SEAL -CONCENTRATE-"]

Reimu held her arms out to either side as they approached, and met their charge with a flurry of blindingly bright, colorful balls. The three fairies were hit dead on by every one of them, and they broke apart, falling to the ground. They didn't get up this time. Kaguya, Eirin, and Tewi stared at them for a few seconds, and then at Reimu.

"Well," said Reimu, turning to leave, "they're just fairies."

"Is she gone?"

Star looked through the Hakurei Shrine, seeing Reimu heading back towards the center of the grounds. "Yep, she's gone back to the middle."

Sunny breathed out. "Boy, that was close. I guess we didn't manage to take any of the others down, huh?" She led the other two over to the bodies that had landed in a small bush. She pulled them out; they were dolls resembling Sunny, Luna, and Star, each one joined at the foot. They melted back together into the shape of a Japanese girl.

"It's because you got greedy," chided Luna. "I almost thought you had forgotten our mission."

"Now that the rabbit is out of the way," said Star, "we can enter the enemy's stronghold without anyone noticing."

"Okay girls, just gotta wait for them."

The three fairies watched as Eirin and Tewi abandoned their post to go and retrieve Reisen from the treeline. Now was their chance; they flew over the shrine, over Kaguya, and had a look around the area. Reimu was rejoining a small group in the middle that had yet to partake in the battle, consisting of Tenshi, Iku, and Shinmyoumaru.

"You know," said Luna, "sneaking in like this after we were warned not to use our powers is kind of..."

"It's fine," said Star. "We're not going to fight. We're just playing a prank like usual. You have the tool, right?"

Luna brought out her "tool." It was not a tsukumogami like the others', but a plain old wooden mallet, painted gold with a red leaf stamped on it. Seija had given it to them - a Miracle Mallet replica. "This is what she wants, huh?" she said.

Sunny nodded. "If we can steal that, we win. So, where is it?"

They knew exactly where their target was supposed to be: Strapped to the roof of a tiny wooden cage on the front porch of the Hakurei Shrine. They found it easily enough, but there was a problem: Suika had her arm wrapped around the cage as she kept her drunken vigil, and to extract it from her grasp would be nigh impossible.

The three fairies circled around Suika, out of her line of vision. They kept behind cover, as it was nighttime and Sunny's power was at its weakest; they might be spotted if they weren't careful, even though they were mostly invisible.

This was a problem for the three fairies. A group of strong fighters was within shouting distance of their target, and Suika didn't look like she was going to let go of the Miracle Mallet.

"Maybe if we use a spell card, she'll be so surprised that she drops it," mused Sunny.

"Maybe you could make an illusion of a scary ghost?" suggested Star.

"No, no," said Luna. "I don't think that will work. Even if it did, Reimu would destroy us immediately."

"We need something she can't destroy, then." Sunny looked around the area. Nothing particularly stood out to her. All she could see was the group in the middle of the grounds, the shrine itself, and Suika, lying on the front step and drinking from her gourd as she hugged the cage and the Mallet on top of it.

"Hey, Sunny," said Star, "do you think you could make an illusion that you can only see from one direction?"

"Huh? Sure," said Sunny. She scratched her head. "But since it's nighttime, it won't be very powerful. No one's going to be fooled when they look at it."

Star tapped her chin, thinking of something. "What if they're so drunk they can't see clearly to begin with?" Star pointed at Suika, who was sucking on the end of her gourd as she watched the battle.

Sunny stroked her chin. "Okay, I get it. But let's hide somewhere close by."

The three fairies crept towards Reimu's group, coming to rest behind a tree close to their target. Sunny dropped their invisibility and began to focus on crafting an illusion that only Suika would be able to see; an image of Seija Kijin, hovering in front of the group. She tried to make it look like Seija was about to attack from behind, but it was hard to do; the image was just a mass of colors in basic shapes that resembled Seija. As they waited for Suika to take notice, they heard the group talking.

"That fairy." Tenshi was pointing forward at the little ice fairy who was taking on Lyrica and the tsukumogami. "I want to fight her. She's got spunk. I haven't fought her before, have I?"

"I wouldn't know," said Reimu bluntly. "It doesn't matter though. We need you here in case they break through. We don't have much in the way of reserve forces, so we're to move in if anyone starts losing."

"Man, I wouldn't have come if I'd known you were going to put me on the bench." Tenshi looked to Iku for backup. "It's not fair, right?" she begged. Iku just shrugged.

"This would be over quickly if we could find the leader," said Reimu, watching as the three tsukumogami that had joined them did battle with a cloud of fairies. "Yukari and Yuyuko are searching, but she's probably moving all over the place with that parasol."

Shinmyoumaru shook her head. "She can't use the parasol too much. Those tools are gradually weakening as their power returns to the Miracle Mallet. They run out of charge quickly, especially the ones with stronger effects. She's probably hiding nearby."

"Like in there?" Tenshi pointed to the glob of darkness at the bottom of the hill. "Might not hurt to check, right? C'mon, you know you want to."

Reimu crossed her arms. "There's a lot of danmaku flying around there. We can't have too many people in one area, or it'll be impossible to avoid hitting each other. It's a wonder that youkai making the darkness hasn't been hit, actually. Maybe she has, and Kyon is keeping her up." She shrugged. "Anyway, we're staying put. There's no telling what might happen."

Just then, there was a brilliant flash of light from the north, briefly illuminating the entire night sky as beams of golden light shot out from Miko's sword in the distance. A shockwave followed, causing fairies, youkai, and danmaku alike to drift off course as the battlefield was assaulted by a rush of leaves from the now-bare trees around her.

"Holy cow!" exclaimed Tenshi. "Never mind the fairy, I want to fight that one!" She pointed up at Miko, her face lighting up.

Reimu rubbed her hands up and down her face, having gotten an eyeful of the spell, and said, "You might get to. It looks like she took down Byakuren with that."

It was then that Suika, watching the after-effects of the shockwave on the battlefield, happened to throw a glance Reimu's way. She spit out sake and fell forward with the cage still in her arm.

"Look out, Reimu! Behind you!" Suika scrambled to her feet and rushed at the illusory Seija in front of Reimu's group, pulling out a Taboo spell card.

[SpElL cArD: oNi CrOwD "hUnDrEd OnI kAbUrO"]

A thick mist expelled from Suika's body as she split apart, a hundred tiny Suikas charging towards Reimu's group across the path and in the air, firing off spherical waves of danmaku. Reimu looked, wide-eyed, at the charging one-oni army.

"What the - everyone, get out of the way!" cried Reimu as she bolted to one side, the mini-Suikas following her as Sunny kept her fake Seija between the two of them. The air was now filled with danmaku-spewing mini-oni, and Reimu could barely dodge her way through the oncoming storm.

The problem was, Suika never let go of the Mallet. One of the Suikas was still holding up the cage, and was trying to beat the fake Seija over the head with it.

"I thought she was supposed to be our main reserve force," said Tenshi as she watched the spectacle. "Did she betray us?"

"I don't know," said Iku, "but I think Reimu wants you to help her. You can probably fight now."

Tenshi cracked her knuckles. "Finally," she said. "I've been wanting to get back at that oni, anyway."

[SpElL cArD: "kAsHiMa PrOtEcTiOn"]

Tenshi raised her sword to the sky, and dozens of conical boulders with white braided ropes around them - keystones - rained down on the Suika army, shaking the earth and exploding into yet more danmaku. It was absolute chaos. Every time one of the little Suikas was smashed, it would explode into mist, and another one would soon reform elsewhere. Reimu was trampled as the Suikas drunkenly tried to avoid the keystones and attack their enemy, who wasn't taking any hits. The battle was starting to spill towards the one on the edge of the shrine grounds, where the Scarlet Devil Mansion dwellers were fighting. Kagerou noticed the approaching mass of oni and flew towards it in an attempt to stop Marisa from targeting her. Nitori followed, not wanting to be left alone. The result was a free-for-all as the two fronts collided, neither of them sure who was on whose side anymore.

"I can't hold it that far away," said Sunny, dropping her illusion.

"Then it's time to get moving." Star quickly looked around, taking note of the life forms in the proximity. "We just have to grab that mallet!"

"If we can survive," worried Luna. "I think the situation got away from us, somehow..."

"It's fine!" Sunny made the three of them invisible and started flying towards the battle. "We just need to go in and out. How hard could it be?"

As the three fairies drew closer, they could hardly see the battle for all of the mist and danmaku flying about. Reimu, who had extricated herself from the battle as soon as the illusion went down, was keeping her distance, not sure what to do about the spontaneous collapse of her reserve forces. Star had a hard time searching for the Mallet in the pandemonium, unable to see through the bodies rushing in every direction as they searched for Seija and fought back against the people who were attacking them.

"I think I see... no..." Star muttered as the fairies circled the battleground. "Ah! There!" she cried as the army ran in the other direction again. She pointed. The Suika that had been holding the Miracle Mallet was collapsing into mist, crackling with danmaku static. The three fairies swooped in and claimed their prize, tying the replica Mallet to the cage's roof in its place.

"Will that fool anyone?" asked Luna, looking over the Mallet in her hands. It was made of real gold, and a lot more elaborate than the one they had left behind.

Sunny shrugged. "Probably not, but it'd be a pain to carry the real one and the fake one. What if we mixed them up?"

"We should go into the darkness," said Star, pointing at it. "Seija might be there, and it's the safest spot right now with all the fairies around it."

The others agreed, and they started towards the shrine gate. It was at this point that they were noticed.

"Something in the air," muttered Iku, scanning the area where she had felt a disturbance in the wind. She tugged on Reimu's sleeve and pointed. "There's something there."

Reimu squinted, noticing the slight bending of light. "How in the heck..." The two of them took off for the shrine gate, overtaking the fairies and getting in front of them.

"Hey, you fairies! Didn't I beat you already?"

"Oh, crap!" yelled Sunny.

"Run for it!" yelled Star.

The three fairies broke apart, becoming visible and scattering in each direction. Reimu and Iku each took off after Sunny and Luna, respectively, both casting spell cards to stop them in their tracks.

[SPELL CARD: "PERSUASION NEEDLE"]

[SPELL CARD: DRAGON PALACE "DANCE OF SEA BREAMS AND FLOUNDERS"]

Sunny was nailed by high-speed needle-like projectiles as Luna was trapped by oval-shaped red shots, twisting and flowing around her as she tried to get away.

"Luna!" shouted Star. "Drop the Mallet!" Luna complied, and Star raced under the spell card to collect it as Reimu turned her needles on her.

"So, they stole the Miracle Mallet," mulled Reimu. That was a weird thing for them to steal in the middle of a battle. "Don't they know they can't use it?" Reimu decided that whatever they needed that Mallet for, it couldn't be good. Star flew as fast as she could towards the trees at the edge of the shrine as Reimu fired multicolored orbs in her direction along with the needles. She caught sight of something as she looked behind her; not with her regular sight, but with her detection power. She held out the Mallet as the orbs closed in, and the Mallet disappeared.

"You'd better make it, Sunny!" Star called. She was overwhelmed by the orbs and the needles, and knocked out.

Sunny headed for the darkness, leaving Star, Luna, and the doll tsukumogami behind.

I had no idea what was happening, or what was going to happen. I could hear the battle around me, but I couldn't see. How does Rumia do this? She flies in darkness but she can't see out of it? That's stupid. All I could do was keep downing potions and try not to barf them up as Rumia clung to me and called close the fairies and youkai who entered the darkness, seeking healing. I wanted to tell her to let go of me since we were now on the ground, but at the same time, I was afraid of getting too far away from her and ending up out in the open.

Seija told me I would be important in this battle, but I didn't expect this. Every time I heal someone, they're back not a minute later. It was impressive, actually, how much dedication they all had. Sure, I could get them back in the fight, but I knew very well how much danmaku hurt. They took it over and over again without complaining. I think I was down to about seven vials left before something new happened.

"Seija?" I heard Sunny calling through the darkness. "Are you here, Seija?!"

I was about to tell her that she wasn't, and that she had disappeared, when I heard Seija's voice.

"You got it?"

Seija? She was in here the whole time?

"I got it! Come here, come here! I'll give it to you!"

I strained my ears to hear what they were doing. The two of them eventually located one another and shared a murmured conversation that I didn't catch. I heard Seija speak again.

"Hey, John Smith. Start talking so that I can find you. It's time for us to win the battle."

Already? You sound so sure.

"I'm over here. What's going on, Seija? What are you planning to do? You know that Yukari and Yuyuko are looking for you now. If either of them sees you again, you-"

"Okay, I'm here. You can shut up now." I felt Seija's hand grab my torso, seeking its way to my wrist, and Rumia let go of me. Seija pulled me forward and gave me a shove. I felt myself falling towards the ground, but no ground came, and I turned in the air as I tried to grab on to something, anything.

Then I blacked out.

My vision was blurry, the lights above me glaring, yet very familiar. I was sitting in a chair, bent over with my face down on a hard surface. A brown table, it looked like. A familiar scent wafted into my nostrils, and I remembered countless afternoons spent playing shogi, or drinking tea, or...

No... it can't be.

I was in the last place and time I expected to be: The SOS Brigade clubroom in North High. It must have been my present, or somewhere near it; all the random clutter I knew was there, including the ever-present whiteboard and Asahina's costume rack, clearly marking it as Haruhi's territory. Sunlight was shining through the window at the back at an angle that told me it was the afternoon. I was sitting at the table in the center of the room, wearing my usual school uniform. I almost thought that I had dozed off and that the events of the entire day were a vivid dream, forgetting for a moment that it was supposed to be August and we were on summer break.

My heart sank. It wasn't a dream, and it was made all the more real when I saw the day not crossed off the calendar.

July 19th, 2004

Man, I hate how confusing this time travel stuff is. I'm surprised my body can take all of this.

Then I noticed the girl sitting at the computer desk.

I thought it was Haruhi. I know that sounds crazy, but she was wearing a school uniform and had a ribbon going through her hair that looked like Haruhi's, evidently to hide her horns, as it was wrapped around them in a way that just made her stand out even more than the highlights did. Maybe I just wanted it to be Haruhi, but the truth is that it was Seija sitting at the computer, pushing random buttons on the keyboard and trying to make it do something. The seed of non-identification was sitting on the desk next to a gleaming golden mallet with a stylized tree design on the side. I guessed that it was the Miracle Mallet, but I had no idea what it was doing there. When I sat up in my chair, she abandoned the computer, picked up the Mallet and the seed, walked over, and slapped me in the face with her free hand.

"Ow! What the hell?!" I lifted up my arms to defend myself. She didn't seem to care that she'd just assaulted me.

Add that to the list of things I'm gonna get back at you for.

"I was making sure you were awake. We've got thirty minutes left, and I thought I'd killed you somehow. You woke up faster last time."

I'm not all there when I black out, dammit. "Thirty minutes until what? What's going on?" I stood up and rubbed my face. When a youkai slaps you, you really feel it. At least she didn't hit me with the Mallet.

It did not escape my notice that she had apparently changed my clothing, either. I would have said something about personal boundaries and how mine had just been violated in the worst way, but once again, the conversation was directed towards what she wanted me to do for her.

"Until the alien comes," said Seija, crossing her arms and watching the door. "Once she gets here, you've got about an hour of time alone, which will be plenty." She smiled at me. "Ready to pull your weight, Kyon?"

"Hang on," I said, rubbing my temples. "Just wait a damn second."

I'm not sure why I chose now to talk to Seija. I'm not sure I knew why I hadn't done this before. I had listened to everyone's thoughts on the matter; about humans hunting youkai who hadn't done anything; about the balance of Gensokyo; about fairies being treated like pests; about how Seija was probably just using everyone. Everyone had their own idea of what went on in Seija's head, but all I had heard from Seija herself were her speeches, insults, and threats. As much as I had listened to her talk, all I had thought to ask her was why she hated Reimu. Maybe I was just looking for another reason to believe we were doing the right thing. I needed some answers, because being forcefully dragged along was not my idea of a good time. Interesting, yes, but not a good time.

"Why are you doing this?"

She bent backwards a bit, clicking her tongue. "Ah, this again. I told you, Kyon. When you're cornered, you can't fight fair."

I shook my head. "No, not that. I mean, this whole revolution. Why are you doing it in the first place? Why are you trying so hard, even risking your life? They have Yuyuko after you now. Do you understand? You're as good as dead. Do you really believe that hard in this cause of yours?"

Seija turned to face me, an annoyed look on her face. "You don't believe me?" she asked.

"It's not that. I just can't understand what this means to you. You're not as weak as you pretend to be."

Saying that actually seemed to make her angrier, for some reason. She scoffed, turned away from me, and was silent for a couple of seconds before she sighed and rolled her eyes like a delinquent told to do chores. "Did you know that when Reimu first invented the spell card rules, there were a bunch of other proposals, too? D'you know why the spell card rules got accepted, beating out all the others?"

I wasn't sure where this was going, but I played along. "Because it was the most fun?" It sounded like a reasonable answer. It was a type of game, and a lot of people seemed to enjoy it, like Marisa. Plus, it looked cool as hell to watch.

"Close. It's because youkai are creatures of fantasy. We exist because of the delusions of humans, and we thrive on their emotions. Danmaku is beautiful, and every spell has a meaning to it." She waved her hand dismissively. "That kinda whimsical combat was popular, and it gave the weak a chance to win, so it became the standard."

"But?"

"But... then people started perverting it. Taboo spell cards, spell cards that didn't belong in their difficulty level, and then, of course, it didn't even accomplish its original purpose." She leaned closer with a raised eyebrow. "D'you know why Reimu and Yukari hardly ever lose? It's because power still has an effect on the difficulty of spell cards, as well as how many you can pull out at the highest levels. A victory in danmaku is supposed to come from intelligence and grace, but I'd never expect to see a weak youkai win against a stronger one." She gave me a shrug. "Would you?"

I couldn't deny that. Every time Wakasagihime or Cirno pulled out a victory today, I was stunned. So was everyone else, for that matter. Yukari, Yuka, Yuyuko, Flandre - all the youkai with the most raw magical power were also the most difficult opponents, or so it felt like.

"So they're unbalanced, and you want to abolish them because of that?"

Seija poked me in the chest. "I want to show them what I see in their hearts. What their rules have become." Backing away, she spread her arms. "I want them to cry foul because they were defeated by the weaklings they didn't expect to lose to, and then expose them for the hypocrites they are. Everyone jumped on the spell card bandwagon because it was convenient for them, because it seemed like the right thing to do, but it's been a decade since the switch, and the strong still oppress the weak just as much as before. When the situation turns on its head, they'll learn their lesson."

I think I understood her logic, but something felt wrong to me. "If you turn it around, it'll be the same. Your people oppressing theirs." I threw my arms out, since I was getting tired of her hypocrisy. "How is that any different? Because you think they deserve it? You're just going to make a cycle! Why not, I don't know, try and fix it or something?"

Seija snorted and shook her head. "You think I haven't thought of that? No, Kyon. It's not any different, and it's never gonna be different, because it's inevitable. Of course there's going to be a cycle." She hopped onto the table, and sat cross-legged across from me, smirking. "People follow convenient ideas when they need something to latch on to, and when their creed becomes the status quo, someone else starts to suffer. A reverse ideology is born from that suffering, and escalates until it consumes its parent, starting the cycle over again. Human history in a nutshell. Sometimes, the new cause is a branch of the old one; an extremist view that goes against the ideals of the original and tries to paint it in their image. Sometimes it's the exact opposite. Doesn't matter." Seija wagged her finger at me. "No one is immune to it; not in Gensokyo, not in the outside world, not even the Data Overmind or the Sky whatever it's called."

We heard someone pass outside in the hall, and she paused. When they went away, Seija continued, but this time, her eyes went youkai, and she spread her arms, gesturing to the room and all of its contents. She showed me her sharp teeth, and when she spoke, her voice was no longer "normal." "It's like this every time.Every regime, every ideology, every collection of 'like-minded' people in history: They all turn around eventually. At first, people agree, but over time, they change their minds, or are replaced by new people with different ideas." The pyramid labeled "Brigade Chief" on the computer desk turned upside down. Strangely, it didn't fall; it balanced itself perfectly on its point. "When powerful people change their minds, the sheep change with them. They change, or are replaced with new useful idiots." Koizumi's board games, Nagato's books, and Asahina's costumes started to turn upside down, one by one. "Slowly, the labels they use change their definitions, and everyone plays along. Eventually, by the mores of yesterday, everyone is doing one thing and saying another." The whiteboard flipped over, turning Asahina's reminder to herself about what tea-related items to bring home for summer vacation into gibberish. "Someone notices, and begins a movement to change it. They fight for order and balance, and when the battle is over, they write new rules, and the cycle begins again." Everything in the room flipped. What was upside down became right side up, and what was right side up became upside down. Unfortunately, that included me.

I didn't even notice it, if you can believe that. It felt like the room itself was turning around me rather than the other way around. The scene felt surreal, like I was watching it on a screen; everything shifting, changing, the only stable point in my view being Seija, who turned on the same axis as me.

Seija glared at me with a look of dead severity, like she was angry at me for what she was saying. "Idealists search for the key to perfect equality, but there ain't no such thing. There's always imbalance, imperfection, and in response, there is a flip that happens in a sorry-ass attempt to attain that balance. All that accomplishes is more imbalance, the cycle perpetuating, always turning over as one side gets too heavy. That is the natural order of things. That is the law of human, and by extension, youkai nature. There is no such thing as perfection, and the only thing anyone can even hope to strive for is to end up being imperfect."

You are really scary when you need to be.

The way she told me her speech, everything turning over around us, made it seem like she was in total control of everything. Whatever possessed her to make it so dramatic, it had the intended effect. I was shaken, trying to process what she was saying.

No such thing as balance? Ideologies change into their opposites?

This is what she's been fighting for? Something that she knows - or thinks - isn't going to change anything?

As new questions sprung up in my mind, things returned to normal. Everything in the brigade room was put back into its rightful place. Seija righted herself on the table again as her features became normalized. "Everyone knows it, even if they don't want to believe it when they're fighting for something. They fear the reversal of the values they instilled..." Seija pointed at herself. "And when people fear, that fear becomes a youkai."

I gulped. "An amanojaku."

Seija nodded. "Mmm-hmm. Do you get it?" Seija hopped off the table and began strutting around the side of the room I was on between me and the door.

"No," I told her. "That just raises my first question again: Why are you doing this? You just told me there's no point!"

"Because I want it to work, you idiot." Seija shot me a look like I was annoying her. "Because it's the right thing to do. Just because it's not going to last - just because I know that whatever I establish is going to turn into what I fought - what should I do, nothing? I can't. I do what I do because I know that the strong are evil." Her angry expression dropped, replaced by somber one. "Because when I look at them, I see the ugliness in their hearts, and I know that power has corrupted them. And when the people I fight with seize that power, I know that I'll eventually fight against them, too."

I recalled the time when I was told that the youkai of Gensokyo are all insane. It seemed like a strong term, especially if you think that sanity is relative; only a few of the people I've met could be considered seriously mentally ill, at least as far as I knew them.

But this girl in my clubroom, wearing my girlfriend's hair ribbon and probably her uniform as well, telling me that she was directing a revolution solely for revolution's sake, and that she fully expected to do it all over again when she was done, was, without a doubt, one hundred percent certifiable. The really crazy part was that it made her look even more like Haruhi. Just without all of Haruhi's good parts.

It's official. You really are the dark side of Haruhi, more so than Remilia. You're everything about Haruhi that I've ever had a problem with. Her extreme dark side, the one that takes advantage of everyone around her, that doesn't care about who she hurts as long as it makes things go her way. Haruhi can at least show compassion. I've even seen some humanity in Remilia. You... you lack any of Haruhi's positives, and you embody her negatives. You are her dark side. At least Haruhi always had a goal in mind - this one was going to be chasing goals back and forth.

"You're telling me that you're doing this because it's natural?"

"Fate, nature, I don't give a flip. I don't care if you believe me, either. This is what I do." She hopped off the table, and stretched. "I've tried going against it, tried not caring or embracing an ideology, but all of them pissed me off every time I looked at the people who were fighting for them." Seija put her hands on her hips. "You think the fish bitch really believes that crap she spouts about oppression? She just wants to get noticed, be celebrated instead of ignored for once. How pitiful. More pitiful than when the doll maker became depressed and shut in. And that stupid fairy Cirno? Come tomorrow, she'll have lost interest. By next season, she'll have forgotten all about this little war."

Wait, did something happen to Alice? Was this after my time? I had to remember that I shouldn't know what went on, even though I desperately wanted to.

She was starting to insult her own allies now. I knew she was bad, but I thought that she at least believed in her own cause. All that time, she was lying? No, not lying exactly, but saying what was convenient, what would get people on her side. I remembered my theory.

"So, is that your power? To make people believe? To get them on your side?"

"What?" Seija stuck her thumbs in the hem of her skirt and raised her eyebrow at me. "My power just flips stuff. If you want someone to join you, there's nothing to it. Just say what they want to hear, and make them think they're doing the right thing. If it's what they want to believe, they'll believe it." She shrugged, and looked at the clock on the wall. "But you can believe me when I say I need you right now, Kyon, and you need me to win. Isn't that how it's been from the beginning?"

I didn't know how to process this. Was Seija right about Wakasagihime and Cirno? They both - well, I could see Cirno doing this for her own sake, but she had a lot of friends who believed in her. Surely she wanted to do right by them. Wakasagihime looked so resolute outside of the human village, proclaiming to Keine that it didn't matter if Seija was using her, she would still fight for what she believed in. There was no way that was just for her own benefit, was there? And what if...

What if she had been lying to me from the start?

"Maybe I do, but first, can I ask something?"

"What?" Seija threw another glance at the clock and leaned against the clubroom table.

"Can you show me them? My family. I want to know they're all right."

I should have done this from the start. I mean, in hostage movies, they usually ask for proof. I really must be an idiot for going this long without asking for such a thing.

Seija went silent for a few seconds.

Anxiety crept in during that moment. "Seija?"

She wasn't answering.

No...

The amanojaku slowly turned her head to me. The look in her eyes for a brief second sent shivers through my body, and made the anxiety even worse.

Something's not right.

She gave me a fang-showing grin. "Eh? Oh, no. I already killed them."

What.

I stared at her. What did she say? She already... I cooperated with her, didn't I? I hadn't gone against her. Did she think I had abandoned her when I escaped into Senkai? I felt my heart stop, and then go crazy. I started to sweat.

"When did you..."

Seija looked at me with a confused expression, and then burst out laughing.

"Ha ha ha! No, don't get me wrong. I did it when I picked you up. Well, same day, but after I made sure you weren't in the house. I didn't need you to wake up to it. They're still my hostages. It's a time travel thing, right? Ah, a... timeline hostage situation? Yeah, I think that's it. If I make it through this, I'll go back and tell myself not to go through with it, and you don't have to life the rest of your life as an orphan. Now, your house was empty when you 'woke up' before 'cause I had taken you to a different time; I wasn't lying when I said they were on vacation. You were with them at the time." She leaned closer to me. "I said I did my homework on you. Do you remember your visit to your aunt in a week? I dropped you into that time frame. If you actually saw the date on the television news channel instead of gawking at my legs, you'd have noticed it, you idiot."

I didn't feel relieved at all. My throat felt tight, and I tried to catch my breath as she assured me that she would de-murder my family if everything went right. I started to think of the implications. Isn't it a bad thing to meet yourself while time traveling? No, that can't be how it works. I've met myself, sort of. Does she know how it works? Does this mean she already knew she would win, because she's already met herself? Or does she know she'll lose and is trying anyway for some stupid reason? Or is that not how it works either?

"So... were you stopped?" I decided to ask, if only to save some of my sanity. I needed something. She had just told me that she already murdered my parents and my sister.

"Wouldn't you like to know," grinned Seija. She walked up and thrust the Mallet into my stomach, telling me to take it. "If you want to find out, how about you stop stalling and do what I tell you?"

Screw you, Seija. I have never hated time travel more than this moment.

I took the Mallet from her. "What do I do with this?" I asked. I was desperately trying not to use it to bash her face in. It would have been so easy to do.

Seija sighed. "You haven't been listening to me. I said it at the beginning. Kyon, us weaklings are only as strong as our friends." She leaned close to me again and spoke in a whisper. "You, my friend, are very strong. Probably the strongest because of your friends."

A pause. I realized it. It began to make sense.

It finally started to make sense, and I felt so stupid for not seeing it earlier.

Seija was pleased that I understood. "Now. Do. You. Get. It? Nagato can change the properties of anything, and you have blackmail on both her and her superiors." She moved in - we were eye to eye at that point. "And I have blackmail on you. Get it? What I want you to do is make her alter the Miracle Mallet so that it can be used by youkai, and give it back all of its power." She drew even closer to me with a wicked grin, her voice lowering. "In fact, why not make it even more powerful? Get rid of that pesky price for using it, too. I know that she can do that. I've read the history on her."

This is it? This is what she abducted me for?

"You want me to..."

She playfully skipped away a few steps, before turning to me. "This is what this whole crusade has been building up to. I told you, didn't I? We're changing the world, you and I. Well... Nagato is. I just needed you so I could get her power." She shook her head. "I thought and thought, you know. When I heard of beings that can change anything like that, the plan began to form, but I had a huge problem. A lot of the interfaces were unknown to me, but through all the information on you, I learned of Nagato, and what went on around her. And what you had on her, how your relationship was." Seija clasped her hands. "So. How could I get Nagato to do what I wanted her to do? I mean, I could have attacked her with danmaku, but that would have the off chance of killing her, and she could have just as easily killed me. Threaten? No. She'd kill me. So the more I thought, the bigger the question became. And the answer was... you." She flicked her hair. "Little old weak me beat the system. Again." Seija waved her hand. "The entire battle at the Hakurei Shrine was so that I could get my hands on this, so it could get into your hands, and ultimately in Nagato's hands. Don't fail me, Kyon. Your family is counting on you." Seija turned on her heel and started towards the door of the clubroom.

"You want me to blackmail Nagato," I repeated. I could feel my heartbeat getting even faster. Heat was rising in my body and in my face. I saw red.

She abducted me from my home, from my time, threatening to kill my family. She dragged me and hundreds of others into a war that she started for no other reason than blind resistance. She revealed to me that she had "already" killed my family, turned me against my friends, made me feel the most alone that I have since I was in the alternate world that Nagato created, and now she's forcing me to betray and potentially threaten one of my closest friends, someone who I swore to protect from being deleted by the Data Overmind.

I took a step towards her, already swinging back the Mallet.

I wanted to take the swing.

More than anything else, I wanted to take the swing.

But I couldn't do it. If Seija didn't go back and stop herself, she would kill my family. If I stopped her from going back, I'd be killing them myself.

"I hate you," I said to her back as I lowered the Mallet.

She half-turned to look at me, still grinning. "Oh?"

"Right now, more than anything, I hate you." I didn't know what else to say. Swear revenge? Tell her she's wrong? Try to reason with her? Seija would just take that as encouragement. Even now, as I said this to her, her smile only got wider. She was enjoying this, and that pissed me off more than anything I have ever experienced.

"If you ask her for help," she said, clicking her tongue, "or go to anyone else, your family dies. If you fail to get her to alter the Mallet, your family dies. If you try anything funny, your family dies. I hope that's not too hard to remember." Seija then glared at me. "I mean it. Don't try anything cute like having her allow you to use the Mallet to fight me. I set up a very intricate series of meetings between various past instances of myself. If you try to prevent anything from happening, I'll know, and I will straight up kill your family and you. I will paradox this world if I have to. My revolution will happen." She then gave me a smirk. "Meet me at the bottom of the stairs after you got it ready, 'kay?" With that, she opened the clubroom door and left.

I shook violently. I couldn't help myself. I just couldn't. I wanted to go after her and start swinging, to force her to give them back. Except you're in school and you'd be caught beating up a girl. Yeah... Seija planned this out pretty good. I couldn't even ask Nagato to let me use this thing. If she's willing to create a paradox... Seija really was crazy.

I stood in the clubroom alone, cradling the Mallet in my hands. If this thing can grant wishes, please deliver my family to me. Please strike down Seija and make all of Gensokyo live together in harmony. Of course, it didn't react. I might as well have wished on a rock.

What am I gonna do? I can't go up against her, and when I give this to her, she'll just waste everyone. What am I going to do? I can't cheat my way out of this!

Can I?

...Can't I? I've been in situations like this before.

I tried to calm myself down. Think. I've done this before. I have more information now. Just connect the dots...

An iota of an idea came to me.

By some miracle, I had an idea. A plan.

A way to cheat my way out of this.

Oh boy. Oh man, this is going to be complex. When Nagato changed the world, the hoops that I had to go through to change it back... The plan I was crafting at that moment might even beat that one. Oh my God for everything to line up for this one...

It was a long shot, but it was the only shot I had. The slightest gap I was looking for.

I had to do this, considering what was at stake here. I couldn't let Seija win. There was no way I'd let her win after this. If she won, Gensokyo would lose, and would continue to lose as she kept the cycle going. Gensokyo would just plain suffer not just for that rebellion, but for all future rebellions as Seija would keep taking down everyone. If she lost, I would lose my family for good. There had to be a way I could save both.

Mom... Dad... my sister... Gensokyo... I'll save you all.

It's not like I was a stranger to cheating my way out of situations, anyway. I have a person who can hack reality and a time traveler on call.

That's right.

Them.

Seija's two greatest weapons, channeled through me, were the time traveling and Nagato's abilities.

Well, you know what? I'm the original person who makes use of them. You said so yourself. I'm strong because of them. I was going to show her what happens to people who try to screw with the Brigade.

Speaking of a certain reality hacker, I realized that Nagato had entered the room and was standing in front of me. She was staring at my face, a hint of anxiety on hers.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"You are panicking," said Nagato. Her eyes went down to what I was holding. "That object is from Gensokyo. I should be asking you that question."

She had me there. She must have been worried after seeing my face all sweaty and red. I tried to calm down for her sake. "It's nothing," I told her.

Nagato's eyes twitched to the side, and her expression dropped a bit. "I see." Man, she really is getting more human. I feel like I just punched her. I'm better than this.

"No," I corrected myself, "Sorry. I'm not fine. I have a favor to ask you."

I can't do it. I can't blackmail Nagato like that. If she'll do it for me as a favor, then I can ask her, but to threaten her? There's no way I'd have had to resort to that, anyway. Nagato has always helped me when I needed it, even if I came to rely on her too much. To assume that I'd need that kind of leverage, I knew that Seija must not know what it was like to have a real friend.

"What is it?" She looked at the Mallet, expecting my favor to be about it. I held it out to her.

"This mallet used to be able to grant wishes," I said, "but it lost its power, and it can only be used by inchlings. Anyone who uses it also pays a price. Can you restore it, or even make it more powerful, and make it so that youkai can use it without paying any price?"

I really thought about asking her to make it so that I could use it, but what would that have done? Seija might have been listening, and I didn't know how powerful it really was. I was pretty sure she wasn't stupid enough to leave me alone with something that could end her.

She was well-prepared. She must have planned this around what she knew about me. She said she knew all about me because of what she had heard and read in the newspaper.

She couldn't plan for every possibility, could she?

Nagato took the Mallet and studied it. After a few seconds, she looked up at me and asked, "Why?"

"I can't tell you," I said. Her eyes narrowed slightly, so I hastened to add, "I will, don't worry. But not right now. If I tell you, then you'll want to help me, and the one thing I can't have right now is a friend who will help me even if I tell them to stay away." I pleaded silently into her eyes. "I know this sounds unreasonable, but will you do this for me, and then forget about it until I get back?" Even though I was just asking for a favor, it kind of broke my heart to do.

She paused, searching my face for... I don't know. She eventually gave a small nod. "Okay."

Nagato began speaking faster than I could hear - reciting some kind of incantation. The Mallet glowed with a golden light, and Nagato held it out to me.

I realized something - while Seija might be able to hear me, she has no eyes in this room. I had to get a message out to Nagato. I might be able to. And besides, I'm not actually directly asking for help against Seija...

I grabbed a marker and began to write on the whiteboard. I spoke, just in case Seija might hear the writing. "So, this is it then? It's done? Any youkai can use this thing to grant their wishes?"

I hoped I wasn't being too obvious for anyone eavesdropping.

Nagato stared at what I was doing, but I guess she began to understand that she should play along.

"Correct. This has the properties you have asked for." She paused for a second, before adding: "Is there anything else?"

I had finished up my first sentence, and kept at it. I moved my body so Nagato could read it.

Can you alter the Great Hakurei Barrier so that I can pass through it?

My plan hinged on the possibility that I could get out of Gensokyo during a brief period of time. It would be annoying to go into Gensokyo only to be trapped while Seija took over.

Nagato hesitated as she read my message, but I wasn't done. She looked down at the object, then back at me, before giving a nod.

"Thank you, Nagato," I said. "I promise, I'll tell you about it later." I finished writing on the board.

Asahina. September 19th, 2013. Shukugawa park.

The look on Nagato's face was of pure astonishment.

I quickly erased my words before I walked out of the clubroom, wrapping the seed of non-identification around the Mallet so that no one in the hall would see me holding a glowing mystical artifact. I figured that would lead to some annoying questions. Seija wasn't nearby, so it looked like I had gotten away with writing my message. I made my way to the bottom of the stairwell to find Seija opening up a gap with her parasol.

"This thing's running out of power," she said, staring at it. "Good thing I can charge it back up now." She turned to me and held out her hand for the Mallet. "That is, if you did your job." I took the seed of non-identification off of the Mallet and handed it to her, and her eyes lit up in its glow.

I inwardly breathed a sigh of relief. Seija wasn't mad at me, so she didn't suspect anything. Okay, step one complete. At least I've got Asahina waiting on standby and I can get out of Gensokyo on that day.

The amanokaku caressed the Mallet. "This is the real thing, all right. I can feel more power in it than it's ever had!" She lifted the Mallet in the air and swung it. It seemed to glow brighter, and the glow extended to Seija. "There," she said. "Now that ghost won't be able to use her power on me. It's time for the real fight." She turned back to the gap and put her arm around my shoulders. "You know, Kyon, for what it's worth, you were a great helper. Sorry it had to come to this, but you'll get your family back, and I promise to make it worth your while, 'kay? You've got nothing to worry about now; just sit back, do your healing thing, and watch the revolution."

Don't try to butter me up again after what you said to me. Not after what you did. As of this moment, I'm not on your side anymore. I'm not going to sit back and do what you tell me anymore. Now that I know what I know, I know what I have to do.

I've spent this whole day thinking about Reimu. What you've told me about her, what other people think about her, what her true role in Gensokyo is. Bending the rules? Crafting them in the first place to be in her favour? Killing people who she sees as a threat to the balance - which is to say, to her power? I've been through two incidents and then some with Reimu, but I still have no idea if she would even be capable of all that. As much as we've been through, I'm not Miko. I don't have it in me to know what people are like inside their own heads.

Is Reimu half as bad as you say she is? Are Cirno and Wakasagihime just in it for themselves? Do I really know any of these people?

I don't care.

I don't care anymore if overturning Gensokyo is the right thing to do or not. I don't care about what our allies will think, nor my friends who you've turned into my enemies. Right now, the only thing I care about is putting a stop to you.

Though I may be weak, I am strong enough to do this one thing.

Seija's eyes narrowed as she studied my face. "Oh, I know what you're thinking."

A chill ran up my spine. Aw crap.

She brought me closer to her, until her lips were near mine. It made my skin crawl to know that we were that close to kissing. "Don't get any ideas after this like undoing my revolution, okay? Even though I told you not to, I can see that you really want to stop me." She shook her head. "It really is in your best interest that this happens. You'll understand when the time comes - like I said, I'll make it worth your while." She grinned. "Heck, when this is over, you'll want to kiss me."

"The only thing I want to do is knock you out." I didn't even realize those words slipped through.

It didn't phase her, thankfully. "You say that now, but you'll sing a different tune later." She paused, and the grin got bigger. "But I know you. You... messing with your timelines, setting things right. The papers got pretty detailed. You're not doing that with me. You won't be able to afford to, okay?" She whispered into my ear. "You can't beat me, Kyon. You can't outsmart me, so don't even try, okay? You will not undo what I have planned and done."

Actually, I had no intention of undoing this. What I had in mind was completely different. She said that she covered herself in the past, with her past selves.

But there was an opening.

I hope this works. It has to work. I can't let her get away with what she did.

Seija had done something that nobody I have encountered before had dared to do. She crossed a line that nobody was stupid enough to cross.

There is no way in hell you are walking away from this.

I re-wrapped the seed of non-identification around my neck. Seija ushered me into the gap, and I felt myself black out again.

As I did, I could hear the amanojaku giggling about something.

I forgot to mention Hatate, the other tengu from the previous episode. Hatate is a journalist rival to Aya - she runs a rival paper. In fact, you can play as both in Touhou 12.5: Double Spoiler. It plays just like Shoot the Bullet, Aya's game. And yes, there is a character called Kyouko in both the Haruhi universe and the Touhou universe. One's our favorite anti-SOS esper, and the other is a dog-like youkai who happens to be an echo youkai. Touhou's Kyouko and Mystia canonically form a punk band and perform in Gensokyo.

Kind of weird, isn't it? Two members of the Anti-SOS Brigade, Fujiwara and Kyouko, share those names with two characters from the Touhou existence. And the fact that Churuya's artist/creator also does Touhou doujins too... Closed space, Gensokyo.

I've said it before. The similarities are a bit strange.

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And show some love to Smooglii!