Imperfect Cherry Blossom

by Supperdude9

Belief, faith, & fear are funny things. Kyon finds himself in a new world, a world of true fantasy. He will need help to get out of Gensokyo alive. Haruhi/Touhou Crossover! Set after the events of Snow Mountain Syndrome & written as an introduction to Touhou. Rated T. Soundtrack companion available on Youtube. Search episode name for playlists! Meltdown 12.5 is OUT!

46. TMOHS Episode 10 TPOTY

If you've played Metal Gear Rising: Revengenance, then you've heard Kyon's voice. Well, his English VA. That's right, he voiced one of the bosses, Sundowner. I find that hilarious. It's kind of weird to be hearing it, when you know what to look for. Like Koizumi's English VA also has a famous video game voice, being the Persona 4 protagonist. In the Persona Crossover game, Persona Q, which brings together the cast from Persona 3 and 4, something interesting happened. One of the Persona 3 characters had a VA change. Who picked up that role? Haruhi's English VA. Very weird to hear her voice come out of that character, who is essentially Asahina-levels of timidness. One of the features in Persona Q was... a wedding scenario. Based on the questions you answered, for a segment of the game, you could have the Persona 3 or 4 protagonist paired with just about any other party member. So one could pair up Itsuki's voiced character with Haruhi's voiced character. Of course, the Persona attachments that the Haruhi series has doesn't stop with that. Kyon's Japanese VA voices Yusuke from Persona 5. So, in a way, I guess Kyon's voice is in Smash Bros. What's also interesting is that Mikuru's English VA has been the voice of Sailor Moon for a while now. I didn't even know about that until recently.

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 Reader (and partial writer) for this episode:

Smooglii

---

I have to tell you, it doesn't get any easier. I don't know why human bodies are sensitive to the combination of other world and time travel that causes one to black out. Maybe we're just, I dunno, 'set' to how normal Earth is. The sensation of time travel is weird anyway and I honestly can't remember if I legitimately blacked out when I went through it the first time. No, wait, I did. That's right, my body couldn't take the normal time travel. That's set on normal Earth, so I assume doing it through another realm just throws off the human body a bit more. At least, that was the explanation I came up with in my head as to why human bodies went through this. One would assume that I would be getting used to it due to the repeated exposure, building up a resistance, but apparently not. Seija must have dropped me off with enough time to recover, because next thing I knew after being brought back from Higan was that I awoke with a start, disoriented, confused, and wishing that I really was just knocked out and that I didn't tick off a judge of the dead.

I suppose given time, my body could have adapted to such things, but I shouldn't have been familiar with time travel to begin with in that way. The only reason why I would even engage in it would be for important matters anyway. I know for a fact that time travelers go through rigorous psychological training so they don't give out information by accident, or was that just a block? Well, whatever it was, they prepared their minds, so would it be far-fetched to realize that they trained their bodies for such events as well? I mean, astronauts have to go through physical and mental training to even prepare for the ordeal of launch.

...The mental image of Mikuru going through some G-Force machine just popped into my head...

Anyway, there was still some small part of me that thought that I had gotten knocked silly and simply came up with being dead in my mind, but no, peering around the boulder I was deposited behind told me that it actually did happen, as I could see my past self being held by Hecatia-Utsuho, while the chains were wrapping around Haruhi.

I did say to bring me to this, but now that I'm here, I gotta see myself get killed. Which reminded me - I had been given a brand-new body, and it was about time I ate another one of those peaches. I remembered the process of eating one being a painful ordeal, but it wasn't like a heavenly peach could have carried any impurity in it that would trigger a reset, right? As luck would have it, Seija had seen fit to make sure I still had one on me, and after locating it within my satchel, I took a bite out of it without hesitation.

White hot pain surged through my muscles and bones as though my human weakness were being incinerated. I clamped a hand over my mouth and held my breath, trying not to make any sound until the burning sensation had died down and the feeling of weight in my body disappeared. I half expected to be reset, but thankfully it didn't activate. I searched my satchel, finding my vials, my other equipment, and... the iodine pills. Upon looking at the other me, I noticed that the satchel he had was deflated, meaning that sometime before Yukari had taken some of the items out. The pills weren't any better going down the second time. Hecatia said it'll take some time to get used to the power. So... what? That means it has to be possible...

I thought back to when Hecatia-Utsuho held me, that red eye thing on her chest was covered in chains. When Haruhi was taken...

I had to think hard. I was in too much shock just a little while ago, to lose people and be in a fatal situation. Come on... she held me, she had chains, what was it... There was that damn red eye on Okuu's chest. When Hecatia became one with her... A chain was added. Then another, and another. It kept going until it got to Haruhi. How many? The eye was covered in chains. How many were there at that point... Five?

And another chain was added when she killed me. That had to make six. No, six. I was staring right at her as she killed me. She had six chains by that time. It was all I had to go on. Hecatia's theme of chains, absorbing people or granting others power. Her power. Her representation of power had to be her chains, and as I saw when Clownpiece was granted power, they could be broken by the-

I felt a slight chill just then as I laid eyes on the very object. Fujiwara's gun was wedged into a thin, jagged crack in my hiding-rock - a tiny gap in its surface right beneath my nose. There's my answer, then. She knew just where I'd be, too.

I chanced another glance over the rock. Beyond Hecatia-Utsuho and my past self, I saw Youmu struggling to stay standing, with Yukari's hands wrapped around hers over the hilt of the Roukanken. If there was any doubt in my mind that Yukari had set up everything, including Seija, it was gone. Of course, the extent of it all still eluded me. I wanted to think of how Yukari managed to pull this off, but I had another pressing matter, even though I didn't see Rin or Fujiwara. I had to hope Seija held up her end of the bargain. She'd better. Otherwise I might reconsider my newfound stance on my wrath.

I looked for Shanghai and Hourai, realizing that they hadn't been there during my fight against Hecatia. I spotted them floating above the fallen form of Reimu, idly protecting her from whatever hidden threats might emerge. I guess they couldn't keep up when I ran ahead... Well, at least they didn't get blown up along with me.

Hecatia-Utsuho had finished absorbing Haruhi, the chains that had surrounded her then wrapping around Hecatia, and moved to that red eye on Hecatia-Utsuho's chest, joining the others. I wasn't wrong. Even from there, I could see the chains around the eye. Six of them. So that's it. That's got to be it.

My past self was apologizing to Haruhi for failing, tears streaming down his face. I tempered the anger in me, not wanting it to be my sole motivation. I mean, sure, this woman killed me. Sure, this woman would go on to kill everyone. And yes I was angry - who wouldn't be? But I had to remain focused on the goal at hand. Killing Hecatia-Utsuho at this point would only kill those she absorbed as well, so if I gave in to the anger that I was feeling upon witnessing this event from a different perspective, I'd only hurt those I cared about.

If I screwed this up, what would be the point of my second chance?

I took the gun in my right hand, and brought out the Taboo spell card with my left. I walked up behind Hecatia-Utsuho, making sure I wasn't too close so I could read the spell card without her hearing me, and not too close for my past self to notice - he was too busy feeling despair. Hecatia-Utsuho was totally absorbed in doing what she was doing, again reaffirming my stance on her - she was not the person I'd want to create new worlds. If you were really just, you wouldn't be enthralled by this, reveling in your victory like some villain. I had to fight the urge to stab her in the back with the Sword of Hisou, even though it would have been so easy to run up there and save my past self.

If I mess it up, I'll paradox. Go in too early, she won't kill the past me, I won't get this new power, and I'll be back at square one. Go in too late, her power will correct itself after the snuff out and I might have to wait for someone else to be snuffed out, forgoing my best chance to get her without losing anybody else.

Hecatia-Utsuho's body lit up, her power going into the past me to snuff him out. Okay, Yukari. Let's see if what you set up works. It better, since you pretty much had me killed to give me a chance to win.

How screwed up is that?

What was even more screwed up was the name of the spell card I used. I understood why the nekomata figure was crushed, as what had to be the power of the spell card would have been hampered by it. As it was, if I was a magnet for misfortune and negativity, then the breaking of the figure bringing me good luck was something that had to happen. Again, I wondered how Yukari set that up. I was starting to understand her plans, but I still couldn't see the big picture.

Ah well. Time to do what I set out to do. I was given a second chance. How many people get another try at life?

I stared into the card, trying to summon up some of the feeling behind it. Even if I was a lost cause at this magic stuff, my talk with Koizumi about the workings of spell cards hadn't gone completely in one ear and out the other; the most basic necessity of magic is in expression of one's heart. To make something real, you have to feel it. Every spell card described itself, and the feeling of this one, judging from the writing on it...

Hatred for the rich, who spit and look down on me. Hatred for the poor, who fear and blame me.

Hatred for the powerful, who mock and banish me. Hatred for the weak, who can never lose against me.

Hatred for me, and hatred for everything that isn't me. The fortunes I rob from others become my curse, turn upside down, and suffocate me. My karma is the worst, most disastrous of all.

Yep. It was exactly the feeling I'd resolved to quash within myself. The kind of feeling that could destroy everyone here including me if I let it. To wind up with something like this as my trump card was...

I looked up. Something was strange - I saw Yuyuko in front of me, but while I was still down in the caverns of Former Hell, I could clearly see her surrounded by the four walls of a room inside the Scarlet Devil Mansion. Patchouli was there as well, soundlessly discussing something with Koakuma, while Yuyuko was hanging back behind them with an expression that just barely betrayed her apprehension. Even though nothing had changed where I was, I was seeing a vision of something far away, and it felt like it might as well have been right in front of me.

Who...?

It was obvious who was responsible. A shadow grew up behind Yuyuko, sporting a pair of horns and a wicked smile. Raising a parasol in her left hand, she swiped the golden mallet in her right and knocked Yuyuko to the ground, a trail of red mist rising up from the point of impact. I sucked in my breath, stopping just short of crying out when I realized what I was seeing, and by the time the others turned to look, the shadow had disappeared. All that was left was the mist, drifting lazily across the border between that vision and my reality and expanding through the cavern as the temperature slowly, gradually began to lower.

...I can't believe you, Seija. I know I asked you to do something, but...

I swallowed the font of rage that tried to well up in me. I was the one responsible for that. I didn't have the time nor the right to hate anyone else right now. I didn't have the power to draw out Yuyuko's temperament by myself, and trying to bring both Yuyuko and Tenshi over here was a dangerous prospect what with all the time travel and paradox nonsense. As things stood, the white flakes beginning to form in the air above me were my sign that it needed to have happened anyway.

This is my chance. I can't waste this moment. I raised the card, focusing fully on trying to make it cast. The one who was truly responsible was Hecatia, and with all that she'd done, my own hatred would be nothing more than a drop in the bucket. I wasn't going to be the true source of power for this spell, but I needed more than anything to keep it under control.

This spell has no form, and follows no code. When my bowl runs over with stolen and twisted luck, it will consume me along with everything else.

I won't let this end up like Reimu. I won't hurt anyone with this but you, Hecatia.

I will trap you in my cage of poverty and misfortune. I'll make you share my pain.

This isn't revenge for killing me. This is saving the people I care about.

No one wins. No one finds happiness. Everyone is equal.

We're going to win whether you like it or not!

More visions came into view around me - this time, even I could feel the power that was flowing through the air. Gaps in time and space unfolded to show me past and present Hell - an unfathomably huge world of suffering, stained by the blackened karma and spite of uncountable souls. I saw the despair of those who were tormented by the oni; the lost kids back in the Children's Limbo; the denizens of the Ancient City who were hated by those above. I even caught a glimpse of Hina, the goddess of misfortune from earlier within one of the gaps, twirling in a circle as a dark aura wafted off her - every ounce of the misfortune she had taken from our group and more was now being released all at once into the already putrid miasma of impurity that was Former Hell. It was so much, I almost thought it might invade me and trigger the Ultramarine Orb Elixir, but somehow through it all, I remained pure.

Neither Hecatia nor my past self noticed a thing. She was too busy indulging in her victory over me, and I was too transfixed on my loss. They didn't notice the snowflakes billowing around them, nor the magma below beginning to harden from the cool air, nor even the youkai, vengeful spirits, and departed souls, all channeling their darkest impulses towards the goddess who represented Hell itself.

If spell cards are an expression of the heart, then controlling my feelings will let me temper the spell. Their hate can consume itself all it wants; all I have to do is shield Haruhi and the others from it.

Darkness welled up around my body, though never quite touching it, as my past self was enveloped in Hecatia's light. I read the spell, certain that she wouldn't be able to hear me, and tapped into the atmosphere of Former Hell to cast it at the exact moment my past self began to fade away.

[SpElL cArD: tHe MoSt DeSpIcAbLe AnD dIsAsTrOuS gOd Of DeStItUtIoN aNd MiSeRy]

A mass of black and sickly violet poured from within my past self's body as it broke apart, swallowing up the light and expanding like an unfurling many-fingered hand across the cavern's width. Hecatia-Utsuho reeled back in surprise too late; the amorphous mass closed around the whole peninsula, trapping her and I into our own little private world of suffering.

This was it. If this whole convoluted plot of Yukari's was leading up to this moment, then now was the moment of truth.

I saw the flash of Hecatia-Utsuho's eyes as she searched for the source and settled on me. She knew where I was now. I tensed up my body, getting ready to run.

Time for round two.

---

[The Meltdown of Haruhi Suzumiya]

[Episode 10]

["The Perfection of the Yatagarasu"]

---

"Dreams start by believing."

-Haruhi Suzumiya

"Problems that cannot be solved do not exist in this world."

-Yuki Nagato

"At first I only half believed it, and explained it away as the product of happenstance, but now I no longer doubt it. I am part of the SOS Brigade."

-Itsuki Koizumi

"That's why you were invited into the SOS Brigade. You were chosen by Suzumiya."

-Mikuru Asahina

"As they say, it ain't over till the fat lady sings. I don't know which fat lady is doing the singing or where she's planning on doing her singing. But if I find out where she is, I'd like to put her out of commission for a year!"

-Kyon

---

Loss. Harm. Vile. Poor. The negative aura shaped itself into kanji with such dour meanings, spreading out nigh-infinitely every which way. They spilled from the spot where my past self had been eradicated, from the still-open gaps that radiated misfortune, and even from the ground itself; pretty much every surface but my own body was so tainted that it could produce the vile danmaku, and even if it didn't move particularly fast, it never stopped. Hecatia-Utsuho brought up her right arm and pointed it at me - I had thought it was encased in something like an arm cannon, but I realized the end of it was solid, with no port for anything to come out. Even so, a spark of energy formed in front of it and a blast of superheated plasma shot out ahead, blowing away a whole line of kanji and momentarily re-heating the surrounding area. I dove out of the way, running as deep into the cloud of darkness as I felt safe doing, trying my best to keep out of her line of sight while not losing track of her own location.

Come on. Get hit. I need a moment of weakness!

I was sure I had what I needed. I had Fujiwara's wacky future gun, the Sword of Hisou could adapt to any weakness, and I'd been set up with as many other advantages as I could hold on to. If this were an RPG, I'd probably have a pretty big damage multiplier... but that'd only apply if I could actually hit her. Everything was riding on the idea that I could take advantage of a chance that wasn't certain to come. I couldn't just run away until I saw it, either; I had to get closer or else I'd miss my shot.

[SPELL CARD: LIGHT COVER "NUCLEAR HEAT VISOR"]

That doesn't sound good. A beacon of white light shone through my screen of darkness, but no other danmaku came out. From the name, I guessed that this must have been a barrier, and Hecatia was simply going to wait out the spell... or catch enough of a breather that she could regain her power and come at me full force. Neither one seemed preferable to me, but at least she was broadcasting her location to me.

What could I do? It was smart of her to go for a stall tactic. Maybe I could rush forward in time to hit her before she recovers...

A few different plans ran through my head - one involving just throwing my sword at her and then pinching or stabbing myself until I could actually hit her - but before I could try anything, the light disappeared. Through a momentary parting of the sea of kanji, I saw Hecatia-Utsuho trailing low in the air, stunned, before taking another hit from behind. More and more kanji slammed into her, overwhelming her defenses and dragging her down to the ground - such was the power summoned by my spell. Even if she was at her weakest point, I was in shock by how effectively it overpowered her.

Maybe even a little too effectively.

I broke into a run. I wasn't ready to end the spell just yet, but I had to get to her before it consumed her entirely. To think that a spell like this existed somewhere, and Yukari had known exactly where to find it. It couldn't have been one of hers. Somewhere in Gensokyo, or maybe one of the other worlds, there was a person with so much hate and misfortune inside themselves that it took more than the whole of the underground to give it enough power to work as it was meant to. Even now, I had to wonder who such a person could be. Would I even be able to stop a spell like this?

By the time I got close enough to see her, Hecatia-Utsuho was... not on the ground. Somehow, she had gotten back up into a standing position and just stayed there, even as the spell kept pelting her. It was just like Reimu had done to Tenshi a few months ago; she had a glazed look in her eyes, and her body was quivering and convulsing. She looked at me, but wasn't looking at me.

She was stunned. Paralyzed. I didn't know if it was a good idea, but after a good few seconds of watching her like this, I put away the spell card and willed it to end... which, a bit surprisingly, it actually did. The darkness dissipated, the gaps that were fueling it closed, and although the snowy weather was still going strong, I could finally see properly as the curtain of darkness was swept away. Soon after it had faded, two familiar faces showed up by my side; Shanghai and Hourai had finally managed to reunite with me. No more barrier of runes, I guessed.

I had her. Time to act.

---

[SPELL CARD: THREE STEPS "COLORFUL MOUNTAIN CRUSHER"]

Gut punch, shoulder block, uppercut. Except it actually hurt to do those. The oni had so much muscle mass that it was like punching into solid steel. Not that Meiling couldn't break metal or rock without proper preparation, it was that this oni was something else. Meiling had fought against Suika once in an exhibition and it was similar to when Suika did her growing thing. So much mass that it was near impossible to fight her one-on-one. Usually when Meiling used this card, she could launch people into the sky - the large oni merely fell over, this time for good.

The oni, who the others were calling Yuugi, had kept getting back up with static in her eyes. It was a workout, and Meiling had come down to the courtyard of this impressive palace to aid her mistress. Her hand stung from delivering the uppercut, and she shook it.

"Man... fighting oni is not fun at all."

"Complaining, Meiling?" asked an amused Remilia. Even she looked a little tired. "Though, no, I agree. This one just took everything."

"I told ya." Suika took a drink from her gourd, smirking. "Yuugi's kinda invincible."

"That was the point, like I told the rabbit." Satori had taken to leaning on the side of her home to catch her breath. "Whoever this person was you're going for, they planned this."

"Why in the world was this place exploding though?" Nitori stared out at the city, a few geysers still visible, the heat and humidity felt thick in the air. "I mean, I get the whole, you know, thermal reactions and everything was heating up, but that...?"

Meiling took off her finger less gloves to readjust the tape on her fists. "I'm guessing even that was planned. From the air, looked like it."

"What do you mean?"

"The geysers happened in such a way that it created a maze. Even took down the wall. Several buildings were blown up in a way that their debris blocked the maximum amount of the area they were in. Without flight, lot of people would have been trapped, forced to funnel in certain choke points. Most of it was concentrated where I assume the guards made their stand. Fact, I kept seeing geysers go off after that where guards tried to congregate after running from the market."

Still, that's kinda scary to think about it. This was totally controlled. Man I'm glad we met up with that flying ship. Even though Meiling's specialty was fighting one-on-one in hand to hand combat, it was pretty cool to rain down on enemies like that.

"Reisen's sniping post was the first place to get hit. Thankfully she got out of it." Satori stared out at the city as well, realization crossing her face. "...I picked it out because it was the best place for any ranged soldier to set up..." Satori's eyes widened. "You're right. This was planned. Every geyser exploding was..."

"Thankfully my Udonge has quick reflexes - anybody else you could have sent up there would be dead." Eirin walked over to Yuugi, checking out the oni's eyes. "She seems clear of the data alteration." Turning back to Satori, the Lunarian gave a nod. "We should be done here. If there isn't anything else, we need to assist down there."

Satori nodded, waving her arm for them to go ahead. "Of course. I'll..." Satori's eyes widened again, staring at Eirin with disbelief. She slowly started to shake her head, denial in her eyes. "No... Orin..." Satori took off for the lift, with the rest following. Suika stayed behind with Yuugi to make sure she be safe and be ready for the sweep of the city. Meiling joined them, stopping when she noticed Lady Remilia and Lady Flandre weren't coming with them.

"Something wrong, miladies?"

Remilia eyed the lift as the group began to drop down it, before letting out one long sigh of disappointment and resignation. "That thing down there... you heard what it is?"

"...Hell raven."

"Hell raven that absorbed the Yatagarasu."

It took a moment for Meiling to put it together. "Ah! The sun god."

"Exactly." Remilia took steps outside, towards where Yuugi lay. "I rather dislike the sun. As much as I want to go down there, I'd be directly dealing with my ultimate weakness. Same with Flan here." She shrugged. "One good hit and we'd be done." Remilia stared out at the city, hands on her hips. Her wings were shaking a bit, possibly with anticipation. "I... I sorely wanted to fight this thing, but..." She turned her head to her servant, with an obvious forced smile. "I'll have to depend on you, as bad as you are at your job."

Meiling's shoulders sagged. "Milady, that's not fair. I can't keep up with the witch's speed, and you know that."

Remilia grinned. "C'mon, what use is a gate guard if you can't even guard properly? And are you suggesting that I find someone faster than Marisa to take over your job?"

Meiling inwardly sighed. Mistress was a teasing sort, always playing games with the others. Making things a game. Like assigning various points and stats to people. According to Lady Patch, who played along, Sakuya's cat points were low because she too kept failing to apprehend Marisa. I don't know what you expect me to do. If I ever caught her she'd be done for. She's just too fast for me. The only ones who can catch her from our home are you or your sister. "Well if they are able to do my job and lend you their manga, let me know. I'll train them myself."

Remilia half-heartedly frowned. "Oh, no. You're the one who knows the best manga series in Gensokyo. I could never replace you for that."

"That all I'm good for?" Meiling couldn't suppress her smile. "Manga recommendations?"

"Well..." Remilia turned back to the city. "You're good at using your fists. Make good on them on that sun god for me, okay?"

Meiling chuckled. "All right, milady."

"Oh, before I forget. Patchi gave you those new clothes, right?"

"Yeah. If I bring it out, they won't burn." Give Lady Patch a problem, she'll eventually solve it. It's annoying to bring out my aura and it burns my clothes. Had to go through some of my favorite outfits...

"Good. Now get down there and save my other two servants." Remilia took Flandre along with her, as they used their wings to soar into the fray of the city.

Meiling tipped her beret at her mistresses, before running to the lift and jumping down.

---

I ran up to her, aiming the gun like Chiyuri taught me, right at the chains over that red eye on her chest, the gray world coming over me, giving me the time to do this. Safety off, I fired each bullet at each of the six chains, the bullet hanging in the air after each pull of the trigger.

Time sped up again, the bullets hitting their mark, shattering. Hecatia-Utsuho staggered backwards, as chains started to pour out of the eye like the eye was a portal to some storage of chains, I don't know how else to say it. So many chains coming out of a small space should not have been possible. Eventually a mass of chains tumbling out, wrapped around-

Nagato!

I reached down, trying to pull away at them, deciding to shoot them off her. The chains broke with each bullet, disintegrating within seconds. Nagato was coughing, and still in bad shape.

"Nagato?! You okay?!" I was fighting back tears, the weight of almost losing someone close to me hitting me as I grabbed her, holding her close to me.

No, I did lose her. I did lose people. I lost the Brigade, my life, my family, my world. I had lost it all. I should have been dead. All of use should have died. I should have lost them, and I was given a second chance.

Yukari, Seija, thank you both! Thank you so much! I owe you more than any of you could imagine!

"Nagato, you need me to heal you?!"

"No need." She mumbled with her face in my chest. Even when we had grown to adults, she still felt small and fragile in my arms, just like I remembered in my most vivid memories of her.

Oh, sorry. I gave us some separation. "But-"

"My body did not suffer significant injury. The situation needs to be normalized first." She gave a small smile, and her eyes looked down to me holding her close. "Uhm..."

You even said the same things... "...Quite nostalgic."

"It is." She got out of my arms, standing up, and faced Hecatia-Utsuho. "But other matters require our attention."

I was still fretting over her condition, the bruises on her even worse than the last time Nagato came into contact with danmaku. "They tortured you, didn't they?"

Nagato pursed her lips, giving me my silent answer. I had to bury the accompanying rage. Another thing I had against Hecatia, another thing my wrath was using to tug at my heartstrings to try to give in to it.

"It's not that I don't appreciate you caring for my well being. It's just that usually we have more pressing matters at hand when we are in this situation."

Ain't that the truth. "Least you don't have to worry about not reconstructing glasses."

Speaking of Hecatia, the god was in bad shape - her eyes were rolling back in her head while she was clutching at the chains that were pouring out of her. She was even having trouble breathing, it seemed, as she was making choking gasps. It was almost pathetic looking, and part of me wondered if I went too far.

No, I didn't. I have Nagato back and that's one more person than I should. I would have to get to work for the rest.

Another clump of chains rolled out of her, producing the satori girl. Again, I had no confirmation that it was Koishi, but I wasn't going to leave her. Shooting the chains off of her, I picked up her unconscious body, looking to lay her down elsewhere - and I could see Rin, running up to me.

Pure relief washed over me, as everything was coming together. Again I had to be grateful to that amanojaku. She kept her word. She's a liar, a manipulator, but she kept her word with me. I might start feeling bad about my past betrayal of her now. Only then was I finally grasping the look of betrayal she gave me when I finished her off with the Icicle Fall.

She did all that for me and I stabbed her in the back for it, at least in her eyes.

"Bro! What happened?! Last thing- Lady Koishi?!" Rin looked like she had a million questions, but she gave me an answer instead - it was Koishi.

"Rin, take her somewhere safe!" I hefted the small girl into the kasha's arms. She looked down at her, seeing that she wasn't seriously injured, while also understanding that this wasn't the time for a detailed explanation of what happened to Rin herself and gave me a nod, taking Koishi away from all of this, but not before pausing at Hecatia-Utsuho. The sheer confusion on her face was telling.

"Hecatia is using her body! Don't worry! I'll get Okuu out too! I promise!" I really did intend on saving everyone. Like Hell these people were just going to take what they wanted.

As I turned back to Hecatia-Utsuho, I saw that Yukari had re-positioned herself and was in between us and Mayumi. The clay soldier looked as shocked as Rin was, no, even more so. My body tingled at the places that she had hurt me, reminding me of the battle I had with her.

I told you. I'm destroying your whole plan.

I stared right at her, glancing at Hecatia-Utsuho, who had dropped another chain mass, so that got me out of whatever I was going to say to Mayumi.

"Nagato, what's happening?"

"Whatever you did, you really wounded her. Her state is akin to one bleeding out, but it's her power. She won't be able to stop it completely. You did some real damage to her to the point where she's going to be stunned for a while, and her protection is gone." Nagato shook her head, as she joined me at the mass of chains - it was Sasaki. "What was that attack anyway?"

"Ask Yukari - she gave me that spell card. Seemed to use negative energy to power it."

Nagato watched what I was doing, breaking the chains for her and Koishi. She asked for the gun, and after one of her data speeches where she talked really fast, she handed it back to me. While I worked on the chains on my side, Nagato began breaking the chains on her side. Good. I thought I would have to do this alone.

When we freed Sasaki she clung onto me, thank yous pouring out of the poor girl. I told her to find some place safe to hunker down, as several tank tops with the heat protection were portaled in. Again thank you, Yukari. I gave one to Sasaki and Nagato, realizing that the heat would be too much for their bodies otherwise, and Yukari must have realized it as well.

"So got the data or whatever?"

"Somewhat." Nagato stood up, facing Hecatia-Utsuho. "It's a little hard to decipher, but I got a grasp of it."

If you can break the chains by hand, then yeah, you at least have some of the data. Though wasn't this made by the Sky Canopy Domain?! "Wait isn't that from Fujiwara's side? How-"

"I don't know what happened in there. I was... I was able to, I don't know. It felt like I linked with Suou just a little bit. Like... like I could understand her data." Nagato shook her head, showing confusion at what had happened when she was absorbed by another person. All in all, understandable. "Hecatia needed us. That's why she took us. To help her control the power of Haruhi and Sasaki respectively." We were waiting to see if another clump of chains were going to drop. We couldn't physically damage Hecatia-Utsuho, not while she still had three others within her. "I saw her plan. Flashes of her goals. She's killed so many. So many sacrifices to achieve her perfection."

Sounds like any other madman who gets in power and has the idea to cleanse in order to achieve utopia.

I stood with her, and I felt like a badass, standing with Nagato. We had the same goals. Save Haruhi. Save the world. If only Koizumi was still up, and Mikuru were there; it would have felt amazing to stand with the Brigade in that situation.

Sasaki ran off somewhere past Mayumi, who was still being challenged by Yukari, it seemed. Yukari remained at a calm, collective stance, but Mayumi was the exact opposite. It was like she was in utter disbelief in seeing me alive and Hecatia-Utsuho's state, and of course, that I was freeing people.

"Imp... Impossible!" She shouted at me. "How?!"

I didn't answer her, but it appeared that Yukari had some words for her. Whatever Yukari was saying, it was getting to Mayumi.

"How? Well... that's classified information."

That, I heard. My heart leapt as I saw Mikuru Asahina down here as well. What?! She reached into a package, bringing out some sort of hypodermic needle, which she knelt down and injected into Koizumi. He coughed, opening his eyes, before sitting up. He stared at Asahina, blinking, as surprised as I was.

"Isn't this a surprise. I certainly wasn't expecting you to show up, Miss Asahina."

She helped him to his feet. "I wouldn't show up if it wasn't important. And this is the most important of all. And besides... this is our fight." Mikuru bent down to Kasen, who had healed herself up again with her box thing, handing the hermit a package of hypodermics. "Give these to everyone. Help them back up and patch their wounds. It'll have to do for now."

Koizumi and Asahina made their way towards us; As they did, I saw Fujiwara there, holding onto Sasaki. He just stared at me with a confused face as well, especially at seeing Mikuru. You'd better appreciate me bringing you back. Don't make me regret it.

Koizumi rubbed where he got his shot. "Not that I don't appreciate the help in getting up, but what was in that?" Before she could answer, "Please tell me it isn't classified."

Mikuru smiled a genuine smile. "Adrenaline, for the most part. But yes, the rest is classified information." She brushed her hair out of her face, giving me a nod, some sadness in her eyes. "I'm glad to see that you made it."

I thought I would never see you again, even if I didn't die. "You and me both."

"We lost you..." Her eyes became teary. "I... I never wanted you to go through such despair."

I wonder if Yukari told you all of this before you gave her a time travel device. You're so strict when it comes to your job that... I don't know. I don't know if you would have allowed it to get this far. I wouldn't have put it past Yukari from keeping things from Asahina. "It's okay."

Koizumi returned Mikuru's smile as he started moving his body around. "Fair enough about the classified stuff." Koizumi's eyes turned to us, his smile faltering. "I... I saw you two..."

"I know." I know how bad it was for me to witness myself dying, but how was it for everyone else? That was a question I didn't want the answer to. To understand the pain of those you leave behind...

"But that's corrected now." Nagato turned her head to our opponent. "Now? Now we have a very big problem in front of us."

Hecatia-Utsuho was still gasping, her shoulders heaving up and down, and stared daggers right at us. She was still clutching her chains and seemed to have stopped the "bleed-out", even though some chains were still slipping through her fingers. She clenched her teeth, shaking. She still looked unstable, ready to fall over but it was like her rage was keeping her up.

Her body tensed, her eyes rolling all over the place, and it was like it was taking her complete concentration to focus on us. The absolute hatred she had on her face, that we were standing up to her, denying her her assured win; I know I've mentioned "if looks could kill" but this was the most genuine example of that. "...Brigade..."

"I'm only going to say this once, Hecatia. Give Haruhi back or we'll take her from you by force."

"Brigade...!"

"Your actions have damaged the flow of time." Asahina pointed right at her. "You can't be allowed to continue your plans!"

"Brigade!"

"You're not walking away from this if you choose to continue." Nagato slowly shook her head. "Not after everything you've done. Our minds were linked, remember? You... you need to be put down."

"You're... you're... not stopping me! Not... not while I'm this close!"

"I think I get your obsession with taking us down." Koizumi was giving one of his smiles. "You took out Nagato before all this happened. Threatened time itself by winning here, preventing the future. Made sure I was taken care of by that soldier. Then you went and... tried to kill our friend here." Koizumi gave a huge grin. "I get it. You're afraid of the Brigade. Understandable." He brushed his bangs from his eyes, giving a small chuckle like he was some suave womanizer. "After all, the Brigade never loses when it works together against a threat on Miss Suzumiya. I bet this is the only way you've beaten us in the other worlds, huh?"

"...I..." Hecatia-Utsuho gasped, realization forming on her face, like it was hitting home on her from what Koizumi was saying. "...Am... not... afraid-"

Collectively, the Brigade took a step forward towards her. In response, she took a step back.

"Uh-huh. You're fooling nobody, goddess." I was right. This felt so much better. "Is the all-powerful 'god' ready to lose to a high school group?" I pointed the Hisou right at her. "I'm serious! Give up now, or you're going to be embarrassed by essentially being the last boss of a JRPG being taken down by high school friends!" I hope you understand the gravity of that embarrassment and that it didn't go over your head. Sanae would appreciate it.

Using her free left hand to still clutch at her chest eye, Hecatia-Utsuho raised the arm cannon right at us, a crazed look in her eyes. Well, they had mostly rage, but also utter disbelief. There was something sticking into some sort of slot in the arm cannon.

A spell card.

All right. You want to play? I can play. I'm getting Haruhi back and you can't stop me... no... you can't stop the Brigade!

And then reality crashed through my confidence, me remembering whose body she was in control of. ...Ah, crap. She's going to use nuclear danmaku with that body, isn't she? And there went the confidence out the damn window.

The cannon gave off a klaxon alarm as it lit up, getting ready to fire, the Geiger counter beginning to click. The magma behind her appeared to roar upward, increasing the heat against the snow the sword was giving off. The end of the cannon produced one of the brightest lights I've ever come across, forcing me to squint.

CAUTION!

[SPELL CARD: ATOMIC FIRE "UNCONTAINABLE NUCLEAR REACTION"]

Even with my advantages, just hearing the name of that spell card scared me. After all, this was still the nuclear youkai from my nightmares for the past several years. Like the Misery card, this one drew in the heat of the surrounding area into the arm cannon, making it shine bright, before firing.

You're kidding me. I turned my head to the dolls. "Dodge. Don't even attempt to block any of this." Their wide eyes told me they understood.

The danmaku it gave off were as big as the Hakurei Shrine. Red miniature stars. They were balls of plasma - that's what her danmaku was. The searing hot, thankfully rather slow moving, but tightly packed together danmaku gave off both intense heat and slight radiation. Without the fire protection, I would have been burned to a crisp there; I could only hope the iodine pills would work. Didn't want to survive this if I just suffered radiation poisoning after it all. I grabbed Mikuru's hand, leading her out of reflex. Even then with Adult Asahina, I still wanted to protect her. She froze for a bit upon seeing the card activate, making me wonder why she was even with us there to begin with. This was her first spell card, as far as I knew.

Clearing the initial burst of danmaku, small blue orbs were shot out as well in bursts. The card had to absorb heat to give off those large red ones, offering a visual and audible clue to when they were coming. They were all bright too, making one squint. There was nothing complex about the spell cards so I had to assume they were Utsuho's. Makes sense - she could load them into her arm cannon.

No, this is just intimidating. I got this. I-

Mikuru had panicked, moving out of the way of one of the red ones, only to get hit by a blue one. She disappeared behind it, flames engulfing her body. As I turned to help her back up, I felt a blue one hit me, intense burning as it melted my clothes and burned into my flesh, knocking me to the ground-

CAUTION!

[SPELL CARD: ATOMIC FIRE "UNCONTAINABLE NUCLEAR REACTION"]

Oh bull... The spell card was starting up again. Mikuru was there standing frozen.

Not really bull. If I had gone down that route, Mikuru would be gone by now, and I'd be writhing on the floor at least burned to a crisp. Right. Any sort of damage would force me to relive it until I got it right. That could be good or bad. My body tingled where I was hit, going numb, then pins and needles. It was like it was confused. Okay, just don't let that happen again. I again told the dolls what I said earlier.

I grabbed Mikuru again, this time having a firm hold of her, directing her where to go. Trying to weave her through got me hit two more times but we survived the spell card once I got the pattern down. The card was two quick layers of spread shots of red stars, a random spread of blue, then back to red. The main issue with this was that it kept us away from Hecatia-Utsuho, giving her time to recover. When the card ended the chain 'bleeding' had slowed. She immediately changed the spell card to another one, the klaxon going off again.

She's gonna stop the damage I inflicted on her. Repair herself. I had to do something, lest she build up her defenses again and I had to wait for someone else to be snuffed out. She doesn't even need to really do that. She has Haruhi and Suou. Suou was confident enough to take Haruhi's power. It was easy for Nagato to do so, which is why Hecatia got her, but... No, if we don't do something here, stop her spell card assault, she'll recover and find a way to use Haruhi's power, and this will be over.

CAUTION!

[SPELL CARD: EXPLOSION SIGN "PETA FLARE"]

A "Peta"? Really?! A quadrillion?! 1,000,000,000,000,000?!

That's what it was pretty much. Explosions begetting more explosions begetting more explosions. Red orbs exploding in bursts of spread shots, before the orbs moved towards us. It was so chaotic. I froze up as I saw it all come right at me, my fear being that I was going to be stuck in that spell card forever.

"Kyon you idiot move!" Blonde hair and a witch's hat appeared before my eyes and a broom was stuck in between my legs, lifting me into the air; already weaving me through the chaos. The girls were back up. Reimu and Sanae joined Marisa and me, and Sakuya, now sporting some brand new and very bloody bandages around her torso, was leading Asahina through the shots. Everyone was roughed up and sweating buckets but she looked half-dead, only barely animated by Asahina's mystery pick-me-up. Sanae, who had a bandaged chest wound of her own, was more interested in staring at me than being similarly proactive.

"I saw you-"

"I know!" I couldn't look Sanae in the eye, because I could see it on her face. "We'll talk about that later! I damaged Hecatia! She's buying herself some time with these cards!"

"Then we damage her some more!" Reimu took the lead in dodging through the spell card, looking for an opening - there was none. The miko remained silent as she watched the pattern, or attempting to understand the pattern. No, Hecatia-Utsuho was by herself, surrounded by her danmaku.

"Is this snow?!" exclaimed Marisa, still managing to get us through the explosions. How she managed to see the snowflakes amongst that mess is beyond me.

"Yuyuko's snow!" I was still having a hard time seeing through all of this, as I assume these were Utsuho's cards, and her danmaku were all really bright. I had to keep tabs on everyone, my need to have everyone survive my top priority.

When one got down to it, Koizumi was right. The only reason why we all started to fall apart was because we were split from the beginning. If Nagato had been with us since the beginning of this, the incident would have been far easier. Despite not having her, the only reason why we survived as long as we did was because we were all together. Only when we split off, or to be more accurate, when I split off and tried to do something on my own did we really fail. We all had to work together, and I was taking it upon myself that we weren't going to lose anyone else.

"Ha!" Tenshi laughed from across the way upon hearing that, setting up keystone turrets to constantly fire at Hecatia-Utsuho. "Good thing I showed with that sword, eh?"

Yeah, if I didn't ask you to join us we may never have had this chance.

Then Reimu called out to Koizumi. "She's stationary! Use your containment! And if Haruhi is still in there, not the time to balk!"

[SPELL CARD: PARADOX "SCHRÖDINGER'S CAT"]

Hecatia-Utsuho's spell card died out as Koizumi's spell card surrounded her, before she could load in another one of hers, knocking her around the small danmaku 'box'. We could hear her getting hit, see her get knocked around in the containment as her wings were appearing from time to time through various points. As adamant as he was about not getting Haruhi hit when held hostage, he couldn't hold back in that situation.

"Fire! Fire!"

The girls unloaded their various spell cards into the box, hopefully doing enough damage for Hecatia-Utsuho to be stunned again. Come on! Keep going! As soon as they were done, they used another one. Koizumi kept his containment up as long as he could, Chiyuri was even sharing her power, letting it go to him.

The Geiger counter started to click again, and a bright light formed from within the containment. It didn't take a genius to understand what was going to happen.

"Scatter! Blind-fire!"

Another linear plasma beam as big as the Master Spark, shot from within towards us. Hecatia must have been desperate to be firing away like that. Thankfully my companions were already quite skilled in laser dodging, with it being part of the norm in Gensokyo.

"Kyon. Use mine."

That was Yukari, who was still standing in front of Mayumi. I was surprised that they weren't fighting, just standing off against each other. To be fair, fighting against Yukari just sounded like a bad idea. Taking her on one-on-one in a real fight without a plan wouldn't have been smart. The demon would probably go up against a person with ten plans minimum.

I looked through my collection, and there it was. All right, let's do this. Hopefully this doesn't hurt Haruhi...

If it did, I'd have to hurt myself to reset.

...Hell I'd beat myself up over it regardless of a reset. Both physically and mentally.

[SPELL CARD: RECOLLECTION "TRIP TO THE OLD STATION"]

[SPELL CARD: "TRINITY SPARK"]

I wasn't the only one using a card. The Trinity appeared to 'wrap' around the train as the two of them just smashed into the contained area, the cannon blasts coming to an end. I tapped on Marisa's shoulder so we could get close.

The impact of the train and Trinity knocked Hecatia-Utsuho out of containment, bouncing her up in the air, right to the level Marisa and I were at. Marisa got close enough, and I drew the Hisou again to stop time, and aiming for the chains in the eye. As I resumed time the bullets began to hit their mark, rewarding me with a shower of sparks when they broke the chains. Hecatia-Utsuho fell to the ground, gasping again, eyes rolling, trying to keep herself from bleeding chains.

"Enough of this!"

Mayumi ran around Yukari, the youkai simply allowing it. The clay soldier went to defend her master, looking as surprised as I was that Yukari didn't do anything.

I hopped off of the broom as I needed to deal with her, but not alone. Otherwise she'd keep us from capitalizing on Hecatia in that state.

"Mind if I join you?" Youmu landed by my side, looking as beat-up, bloody, and bandaged as the rest of my allies, only most of her wounds were clearly made by swords. A gap opened up next to her and out fell the Roukanken, which she she grasped and flipped into her sheath with a single motion, hardly giving it any acknowledgment in the process. Her eyes were cold and hard, with a subtle intensity unlike anything I'd seen on Youmu before. "I have unfinished business with this girl."

"I was gonna ask you to help me here anyway." I gave her a nod. "We'll work together to take her down."

Mayumi's eyes flicked once to Yukari, then behind her to Hecatia-Utsuho before returning to us. "It'll remain unfinished, you half-baked human," she said, the look on her face matching her focused stare from the last time she took the two of us on. "You have never been my match. Not even together with your tennis-playing friend."

"One of me was. Or didn't you fail to stop me from killing your master?"

Mayumi's face darkened into a scowl of pure hatred. "You..."

"You want to hurt me so badly. Does it make you feel righteous to take out your grief on me every time? Even on your own soldiers who share my face?" Youmu took a step forward, her hand over the hilt of the Roukanken. "I saw into that one's mind. You abused her to make yourself feel better, for revenge. Took her arm. Took her eye. Called her derogatory things like 'Quarter.'" Youmu grit her teeth. "A 'quarter' because she was 'less than half of a human.' You mocked her for the very wounds you gave her yourself."

What happened between you two? There was utter resolve on Youmu's face. I guess Yukari was right about Mayumi's master being gone, then. But what's all this about seeing into her mind?

I gave Youmu a quizzical look, and she relented, still focused on Mayumi. "Can't explain it. It was like I was melding memories with that other self when we were fighting." Youmu took in a deep breath, her composed face reminding me of how she stood off against our group on the staircase to Hakugyokorou so many years ago, her determination of not allowing us to meet her master. "This isn't revenge. They need to be put down. Their sins are many."

I wasn't the only one who had to let go of revenge. I returned my attention to Mayumi, who was determined to put us both down. All right, clay soldier. You're going to be dropped for what you did to everyone earlier. Rin. Fujiwara. You directed your soldiers to get them. And you're gonna pay for putting Youmu through whatever you did to her; both of them. This isn't vengeance. This is putting down a rabid dog, doing what needs to be done for the good of the world. I was going to do this with Youmu. I wasn't good enough to take on Mayumi by myself even with all my advantages - I'd probably be stuck fighting her for years from my perspective; neither was Youmu. Youmu had to have faced her twice, and lost both times.

No, from hearing what Youmu said, this was Youmu's fight, in a way. But she didn't have to fight it alone, just like I didn't have to fight alone. I'll help you any way I can.

The chains of dirt surrounded Mayumi, letting me know both her weak point and her source of power. I would have to be fast enough to hit the chains, and then deal with her.

[SPELL CARD: RECOLLECTION "STATE OF ENLIGHTENMENT"]

Tenshi's super armor. It served me well before against Mayumi earlier. The burst of red energy surrounded me, crackling with power. The rest of the girls were flying around us, Mayumi in between us and the stunned Hecatia-Utsuho.

"Soldiers!" Mayumi scowled, calling out as the corrupt portals opened behind her. Clay soldiers poured out of them, lining up with her commander. The chains extended, some of them finding new homes on the other clay soldiers - they all had the chains then. "On me! They threw away the mercy our Lady had granted them! We kill them all! You hear me boy?" She stared daggers right at me. "You're gonna die here! Knock you down and finish you off!"

I quickly counted them, noting that they were down to about a quarter of what they had since they first appeared before us. Not counting Mayumi, there were eleven left. If Yukari is correct, we get rid of these clay copies of ourselves, we essentially take out their army.

We would have to contend with them. Everyone from my group wasn't fully healed - they were running on the adrenaline shots. They were all still injured, so even though we outnumbered them, we would have our work cut out for us. Right now everyone are all awake. When that adrenaline wears off, their injuries will catch up with them and they won't be able to move. I need to finish this quickly, healing them. I had... yeah, I had three vials left. Not enough, and cutting it close, but what are you gonna do?

[SPELL CARD: HANIWA "SKILLED FENCER HANIWA"]

If she was going to kill us, why use danmaku? Then again, she did say she'd knock me down first.

This was not unlike her archer card. Four haniwa lined up with her armed with swords. Two haniwa came forward, swords in front and pointed up in well-trained synchronization, and lined up on either side of Mayumi. Mayumi raised her hand to signal, and the two closest to her shifted their stance in unison, leveling their blades at Youmu and I, darting forward in a charging thrust as behind them. The others threw out their free hands and loosed a shower of blades that flung over and around the two chargers. Youmu parried, and attempted to strike at one of the charging haniwa, only for her sword to bounce off. It had to be the chains giving them power. Me, I just had to move my body. Thankfully me being dead didn't seem to screw with my muscle memory, and I simply dodged by moving my body out of the way to the side. The thrust didn't deviate, nor did they attempt to compensate for movement. Seemed easy enough to dodge with the repeating thrusts, as the ones who thrust had to charge up, and their range wasn't that large; just had to take note of the spread shots and the direction of the swords. I don't think I even needed the armor card.

There were six clay soldiers hanging back - a Reimu, a Marisa, Sakuya, Cirno, Sanae, and the "Quarter" Youmu, protecting Hecatia-Utsuho from our group, who took this time to attempt an attack on Hecatia-Utsuho; Koizumi and Reimu leading that charge. Clay Marisa was using explosions, clay Sanae using large attacks, and the like. All the other clay soldiers were assisting Mayumi. Clay Sakuya reached into somewhere into her armor, her eyes glowing red as she stared right at me-

I felt a sharp pain from behind me, the Sakuya clay soldier had appeared. She had stuck her knife into my back right as the armor card ended. An arm reached around my throat, placing another knife there, and I could feel it rip into the flesh as I couldn't even scream-

[SPELL CARD: HANIWA "SKILLED FENCER HANIWA"]

I gulped, the sting of the throat slit fresh on my mind, before my neck felt numb. The five clay soldiers were protecting Hecatia as Mayumi was dealing with us. Dammit, the clay soldiers have the abilities of the girls too?! I should have figured when I saw clay Cirno using ice. ...Good thing I used the armor card when that Sakuya showed up. She'd have instantly killed me. At least I know now when she'll attack.

Mayumi must have understood what a threat I was to have clay Sakuya try to assassinate me right off the bat. Distract me with a spell card and backstab me. Mayumi at least knew that something was done to me, which meant that I was her focus. If I didn't have that Ultramarine Orb Elixir, I'd be dead by now... again. If this were some video game, I'd be penalized for losing so many lives by this point.

I went through the card again, waiting for my armor to end. This time I was able to keep tabs on the group as they fought against those six - those six seemed to be stronger than the others and yes, they did have their abilities. Mayumi with the weaker haniwa were keeping me and Youmu at bay. Again noticing that clay Sakuya's eyes were on me, lighting up red. I had to act; I drew the sword, stopping time. I whipped around and sure enough the clay Sakuya had appeared, knife in one hand, and her pocket watch in another.

It actually made my heart break a little. Sakuya as I knew her had changed so much since I met her years ago, even though I actually spent little time with her. I'm sorry, Sakuya. I got to know somewhat the you in my world, but you... I hope I can release you from what sins you've been committing. Find some peace, if you can.

Thing is, how was I going to deal with the clay soldiers? They seemed really tough, and unless I had the Brigade home run bat, which seemed to shatter them, I didn't know how to-

Aren't they hollow inside?

An idea popped into my mind, my thoughts went back to the conversation I had with Sanae earlier, me inwardly shaking my head at all of this, of how everything had a purpose as long as I remembered past conversations.

...Biohazard...

I shot the chains on clay Sakuya, rewarded by them bursting when time resumed. It knocked her back a bit, stunning the clay maid. I called to Youmu, who then sliced off clay Sakuya's arm. Yeah they are hollow inside. Stopping time again, I reached into my satchel.

And I placed a flashbang into her hollow body.

When time resumed I grabbed Youmu to get clear, clay Sakuya responded to her losing a limb, but she realized that something else was wrong. In a matter of seconds, the grenade went off inside of her, her body crumbling from the concussive force.

Technically it's not supposed to kill, and it's not like there was any fragmentation, but a flashbang is something that still blows up. Confining an explosion just makes the damage worse.

"Huh." Youmu was surprised by my solution to the clay soldiers. "Guess that's one way to deal with them."

"What?! NO!" Mayumi took steps forward, her eyes wide and mouth agape at what I just did. She was utterly surprised that I took out another soldier, and the other soldiers stopped to witness the result of what I did, as surprised as their leader was.

I pointed right at her. "I'm serious, Mayumi! Back off or you and your soldiers get wiped! This is my mercy that I'm extending to you!" I'm begging you - don't make me have to do this.

"We're invincible, boy! Your mercy means nothing, because you aren't in a position of power!" She ended her spell card, looking to the others, who shared her anger over me reducing their numbers to ten.

"They're not invincible," spoke Youmu from behind her blade. "They really are desperate. We decimated them."

"Then we have no choice but to go further." I spotted Hecatia-Utsuho behind the others, being given time to recover. The 'normal' clay soldiers weren't using their abilities, just attacking as Mayumi directed. The ones who were defending had more color to them, and looked less time-worn; they must have been the army's elites. They were the ones using their powers. Master sparks from clay Marisa; clay Reimu using her amulets; Sanae's large laser fence keeping everyone away. Hecatia-Utsuho was still clinging to her chains, trying to slow down the 'bleeding'. Damn it all, I struck her weakness and she gets the chance to heal? Hang in there, Haruhi. "The rest of your soldiers' lives are in your hands."

[SPELL CARD: HANIWA "SKILLED CALVARY HANIWA"]

Mayumi really must be arrogant, throwing another spell card instead of attacking me. Is she actually scared? She just wants to knock me down and then kill me without much effort on her part. Mayumi had to be worried about what happened to me, for me to even bring down Hecatia and just own her for several minutes.

She had to be scared of me.

Regarding the spell card, corrupt portals appeared behind Mayumi, depositing three clay horses. Two of the haniwa with bows mounted them and charged at us. As they rode, they shot up a splash of arrow danmaku into the air with every few steps, which rained down upon us. The clay Cirno had joined in by taking the third horse, her "arrows" were icicles instead, and freezing the ground when they landed.

This one was a little more hectic, me thinking that I should have saved the armor card for this. Thankfully, I did have protection. "Shanghai! Hourai! On me!" I had to be quick about this. If they warped in the soldiers, they might warp back in Junko, Clownpiece, or whoever else they had in reserve.

This was our best opportunity. Otherwise we couldn't win.

[SPELL CARD: RECOLLECTION "METEOROLOGICAL REVELATION"]

Tenshi's sword extender worked its magic, giving the Sword of Hisou the range I needed to deal with the cavalry. As the horses were too quick, and Marisa was preoccupied with going after Hecatia, I had to come up with other ways of handling this. Afforded shielding by the dolls, I went for the bow of one of the cavalry. The horse moved, keeping me out of range even with that extender. I could at least swat some of the arrows out of the sky with it. If I couldn't stop the shooters, I could stop the shots.

Youmu was still right alongside me, understanding the situation that she couldn't even pierce someone when they had the chains. Both of us moved in unison, only splitting up when one of the cavalry tried to run us over. Like me, she was slicing away at the arrows to give us less danmaku to contend with.

It was kind of awesome to have such wordless synergy with another person like this. We were working together and we didn't even need to speak to understand one another.

"Eye got this!" Cirno joined Youmu and I, the fairy looking ticked off upon seeing her clay double.

"What are you gonna do you stupid fairy?" Clay Cirno scowled at her other self.

"Gonna freeze you you ball of clay!"

"Selfish idiot. Don'tcha know that there's more to life than wasting it away playing little children's games?" Clay Cirno raised an arm, a large ball of ice forming above her. "Serving a better purpose is more full... fulfill... is better feeling. We're building a better future! Don't be an idiot stealing the future we earned to prolong your worthless lives! Every time Eye see one of ya, it makes me sick to know that Eye used to be such an idiot!"

Shut up! If you weren't trying to kill us, I'd be merely annoyed with your blowhard self importance! And how is this world that we're living in something that you earned?! You didn't live it! That gives you no right to take from it!

Cirno wasn't having any of it from her doppelganger. She looked absolutely peeved. "Eye am not an idiot! You are the idiot! Eye am the strongest!"

[SPELL CARD: ICE SIGN "ICICLE MACHINE GUN"]

This was as it sounded, a hail (no pun intended) of ice shots from Cirno to her target. The clay horses had no chains around them; Cirno aimed for the horses, freezing and shattering two of them, one of them being clay Cirno's. The horse collapsed, causing clay Cirno to fall, thereby causing her own ice ball to fall on her.

"Cirno is right. You are the idiot, idiot." And so am I. I didn't even notice that the horses didn't have the chains. Why didn't I aim for them instead of the arrows? I ran to the clay Cirno before she could get her bearings back, shooting off her chains. Her body was vulnerable to Youmu, who again sliced open the clay soldier for another insertion of a flashbang - this time the half-ghost did it herself. While she was doing that, I took care of the downed cavalry soldier, shooting off the chains, and using the extended Sword of Hisou to destroy them. That's nine.

Clay Cirno just stared at us from the ground, unable to believe what we did to her; right up until the grenade went off, causing her body to collapse into itself. Eight.

"How are you..." Mayumi was distraught at us bringing down their numbers to single digits as she ended her card. "How are you doing this?!"

"Oh? You're still confused?" Yukari had appeared behind Mayumi, who swung her sword by reflex - too late, as Yukari had sunk back into another gap. Another one opened next to me and she stepped out, patting down her dress with a casual smirk. "You're everything I hoped you'd be, Kyon," she said, reaching out to brush the underside of my chin with one finger. I froze up a bit, not entirely wanting to take my eyes off of Mayumi at the moment.

Yukari looked aside at Mayumi, who was being doubly cautious now. "I was amused by your attempt at demoralizing them all," Yukari said in a voice that sounded entirely too sweet. "You aren't a schemer, Mayumi. You're straightforward and honest. There might even have been a time when you were honorable. But you haven't learned much since then, have you?"

Mayumi didn't reply. Her eyes were going between us, watching for whatever would come next. As for me, her sudden interruption had put me almost as much on edge. Not that I don't appreciate the moral support, but if you're going to help us actually fight, Yukari...

Actually, moral support was probably exactly what she was after here. Thinking about it, actually attacking Mayumi from behind would have posed her a big risk, but by surprising her like that anyway, she'd rattled her. Between Yukari and the casualties we'd just inflicted, the enemy's morale was heading for rock bottom.

"I just came to give you these," she said, holding up three magazines of ammunition that I recognized as belonging to Fujiwara's gun. "The young Mister Asahina was happy to part with them for you."

I resisted the urge to look and confirm that Fujiwara was actually capable of the emotion called happiness - I was pretty sure that such a thing was impossible, especially now. It was probably more likely that he'd demanded from Yukari that she get back his gun. Too bad, finders keepers. I took the magazines from her and popped one in, still keeping my eyes on Mayumi. She didn't make a single move as I did so. Yukari meanwhile bent over next to Nagato and whispered something in her ear.

Yukari straightened herself, brushed back her hair and said, "Well, that's all. I believe in you to finish the rest of this... Oh, but Cirno, would you like to come with me?"

"Huh? What-"

...And before the fairy or I could say anything about it, Yukari had dragged her away into another gap. As quick to leave as she was to arrive, as ever. I supposed that was my cue to to keep pushing.

The normal clay soldiers were shaking, terrified at what we were doing to their elites. Even I could see Mayumi's confidence was wavering. After all, she had us all defeated and here was this kid that they watched for years, who played tennis, wasted his high school away in a club room heeding the whims of an impulsive girl, who ran around like an idiot in urban environments; that very kid was tearing through their trained soldiers, that very kid wrecked her master.

Don't feel too bad. A reality hacker tried killing me and that was a no-go. Even when she held me in place she couldn't finish me off, and I constantly cheat. You had won, but I cheated my way out of that too. Of course, in the notion of killing her morale just like their side attempted with us, I had to act tough.

"Step forward soldiers, if you wish to die for nothing. Your goal won't happen. It's over. Walk away and live, or die for absolutely no reason. This is your final chance I'm giving all of you."

Mayumi brought up a spell card, but not before hesitating. "I don't care what happens! Yukari did something to that boy!" Mayumi pointed at me with her sword and screamed. "We end him no matter the cost!"

If only you knew that you couldn't. "You mean as opposed to what Hecatia did to you? You do realize how it looks, right? That you're only 'powerful' because of the chains she has on you. I may be working for Yukari right now but I'm not confined in chains, slave girl."

Yeah, that pissed her off. If she had a normal body of flesh, her face surely would have been beet red with rage at that point.

Knowing that she just went through all of us earlier, that she assisted in killing off Rin and Fujiwara... to see Mayumi in such a state was somewhat satisfying, yes. I'll admit it. That was my own wrath talking, however. I'm trying to change. I really want to. I have to let go of any anger. I locked eyes with her. "Their deaths are on you then." Stop making me do this. I'm defending myself and my world. Stop forcing me to do this just so I can live on to see the next day.

[SPELL CARD: HANIWA "UNDEFEATED INEXHAUSTIBLE TROOPS"]

There is no other way to describe this other than it being a combination of the Archer, Fencer, and Calvary cards. Swords, arrows, charging cavalry. This was Mayumi's all-out attack, as she herself mounted the remaining clay horse, her chains extending to it as well. Well, it should have been an all out attack. The soldiers were reluctant to join in. The clay Sanae joined in as an archer, picking up the bow of the fallen cavalry soldier, but when she shot the arrows, they came down after growing in size - the size of trucks.

Mayumi charged right at me, swinging her sword during the charge, trying to overpower me. I rolled to the side, stopping the roll to not run smack dab into one of the arrows show by clay Sanae.

I paused, both to recollect myself, and to see that Nagato was saying something to Asahina, making me wonder why Yukari thought it was plausible to bring in the time traveler.

[Nagato:] "I'm waiting on you now."

Huh? What...?

[Nagato:] "Finally got it working. The nanomachines in your body were confused, took a while for them to, well, to put it in a way you can understand, 'boot up'. Something was done to you, wasn't it?"

You can hear my thoughts?

[Nagato:] "Correct. No one else can hear me this way. You see, Yukari put me up to the nanomachines, thinking they'd really help. I might be able to push your body further, but not to where it will damage you."

I think I got distracted by all of that, because Mayumi had rode back. I thought I dodged it enough, but I felt her blade graze my shoulder, and-

[SPELL CARD: HANIWA "UNDEFEATED INEXHAUSTIBLE TROOPS"]

Well, crap. I waited for Mayumi to start her charge, the chains surrounding the horse again. At least this didn't put me all the way back. It seemed that this Ultramarine Elixir could create "checkpoints," in gaming lingo, saving my forward progress. It'd be really annoying if every time I got hit, I'd end up all the way back at Eiki's fight.

I dodged Mayumi's swing, rolling, making sure to stop before clay Sanae's blast-

[Nagato:] "What was that? Something happened to you. Something's been happening to you."

You saw that too?!

[Nagato:] "Data transfer has been accelerated. We are communicating at superliminal speed."

As Mayumi made her second pass, which I avoided, I mentally gave a quick rundown to Nagato what happened to me, only getting hit three more times and having to wait for Nagato's nanomachines to boot back up with each reset to continue it. Mayumi was on a tear, trying her best to finish me.

Wait. I have a new body. How-

[Nagato:] "Iodine pills. Yukari told me to infuse some of them with my nanomachines."

She really did think of everything. That would also mean that she could help the others...

I had finished up by the time I got hit again, so I had to wait for it to boot up again before we could continue our conversation.

[Nagato:] "I see. This is certainly to our advantage. I'm worried about the psychological damages this could do to you, however. Your body is certainly remembering the pain you go through."

Anything you can do?

[Nagato:] "Possibly. Right now we still have more pressing matters. I should be able to make your focus even more effective."

Mayumi was able to keep up, no, be faster than me when I stopped time. If there's anything else you can do to help, I'm for it.

Mayumi made another pass, me drawing the sword, Mayumi still in color-

[Nagato:] "Let's see if this works."

I felt pressure in my brain, my eyes feeling like they were strained. Mayumi slowly went gray, leaving me alone in the time stop. Nagato?! What-

[Nagato:] "Good. I can push your focus even further. I don't recommend you staying too long in this, so I'll control it. I'll control focus for you in fact, like I assume Emiri did."

I think she did. Another outside source was able to enable it. I moved to Mayumi, who was still frozen like everyone else. I had her. I had her and her soldiers.

I worked quickly, as the pressure and strain in my head was increasing, the air feeling almost as resistant as water. My brain almost comprehended of how fast I had to be going in comparison to everyone else, but I let that go. I doubt I was smart enough to come up with the numbers anyway. I went to each individual soldier, shooting bullets at the chains on them, and quickly checking up on the state of Hecatia-Utsuho. Those elites were doing a good job at keeping our group away, as no one had made progress. As for Hecatia-Utsuho herself, the chains were still pouring out of her, in fact-

Suou. She was out, wrapped up in the chains.

Seeing her in that position, seeing someone who had tried to kill off Haruhi, and Gensokyo...

And me...

I shot the chains off her. You'd better get as far away from this as possible. I don't know if anybody else will be as forgiving as I'm trying to be. I know one yuki-onna who won't. Again, my mercy had better not come back to bite me.

[Nagato:] "A lot of people aren't willing to forgive her. My side included. But if that's your decision, I'll follow it."

Before I could respond to Nagato, I was feeling sluggish, color starting to come back around me. I hurried to where I was before Mayumi, understanding that I couldn't stay like this for much longer. It was a struggle to move, like pushing against waves while at the beach.

[Nagato:] "I'm doing my best so that this doesn't damage you, otherwise that Ultramarine Orb Elixir will reset you. Yes, you do need to hurry. I can't do this often, so don't depend on it."

I readied a spell card as Nagato brought back time, the shattering of every chain my reward, much to the surprise of all the soldiers. The look on Mayumi's face was priceless.

[SPELL CARD: RECOLLECTION "DEMOTIVATION"]

I could feel my eyes burn like I watched too much TV, and my vision was blinded by red for a second. I forgot that this one made the user's eyes do a flash of light. Mayumi and her horse were staggered, taking a few steps back, and her eyes glowed red for a moment, her shoulders sagging and her body looking exhausted, as the spell card ended. In fact, all the soldiers who were looking my way were affected by it.

"Nagato! Now!"

In response to Yukari's command, Nagato did her quick data speak and almost like a result, one of the regular clay soldiers just exploded. Well, more like cut in half, but violently. Then another. Then another. Then the horses that Mayumi and clay Sanae were on, forcing those two to collapse to the ground as their rides were reduced to dust, Mayumi especially taking a hard tumble to the ground. If a normal human landed the way she did, they'd break their neck easy. I was wondering what was going on until I saw it.

Asahina was looking at all of them. She was astonished by this, asking what was going on, yet Nagato kept telling her who to look at.

"I never got rid of it," said Nagato. "I only turned it off."

"Wait, what turned off?" asked Asahina.

...Oh. No way, you didn't. I couldn't help staring in Asahina's direction. She'd never found out about what had really happened back when Haruhi forced her to shoot a beam from her eye for the sake of her movie. But wait, didn't everything go back to normal when we put in the disclaimer that it was all fiction?

[Nagato:] "Suzumiya has witnessed something that cannot be real. Her mental state has become unstable. Fiction is reality."

...Cripes. So now because of Hecatia, Asahina's shooting beams or particle projection cannons or whatever they are from her eyes again.

Yep, it was the grand return of the Mikuru Beam. By just looking at them, Asahina had eliminated all the regular soldiers, got rid of the horses, and heavily damaged the clay Sanae. Speaking of the clay Sanae, she was missing the left side of her body after the beam cut into her. I couldn't leave her like that, and neither did Youmu, who placed another flash grenade in her. Which was good since I don't think I could have brought myself to do it. Even if I wasn't meant to meet Sanae I still did. I knew her for a while in school.

[Nagato:] "Not a particle projection cannon. Concentrated light. It's a photon laser."

Does it really matter what I call it? ...And didn't we already have this conversation before? It felt weird to be having such thoughts and a conversation in my head.

There were four remaining clay soldiers, all without the chains. From the ground, Mayumi's lower lip trembled as she looked to what we reduced her soldiers to, that we had just decimated them.

"He told you, didn't he?" Youmu had turned to Mayumi, in a stance ready to fight. "Their deaths are now on you."

Mayumi picked up her sword, charging right for Youmu. Mayumi brought down her sword on Youmu with one motion, but Youmu caught it. The two swords clashed in a shower of sparks, Youmu pushing back up.

"You're not as strong as you think you are. You're just enhanced by the magic of that Greek god and the lies you tell yourself."

"The world my lady worked so hard for will see the light of day!"

"It's going to die with you because you have lost sight of it." Youmu was winning this show of strength. Mayumi's body began to be pushed back. "I do mean what I said. Don't you exist to guide humanity? To work for her vision of what they need?"

"Quiet..."

Youmu kept pushing back, Mayumi's face showing surprise at this. "Your vengeance means nothing because you draw your power from your loyalty to her and her ideals, which means you are powerless right now. If she had such a perfect world, a perfect plan, why would you have nothing but vengeance and hate in your heart as you go about your tasks for her? Why is such a noble goal fueled by pure hatred?"

"Be silent you half baked human! Don't be talking about the needs of humanity when you aren't human yourself!"

"Who are you to dehumanize me? I'm more human than you are, clay soldier."

Mayumi was clearly losing this fight, being pushed back with Youmu's strength. It was like Mayumi had lost all that power that had made her a threat as she was buckling easily here.

"You're a lost child. You aren't loyal to her vision. You're a perversion of a noble goal and you tell yourself lies to convince yourself that you are doing nothing wrong. That your atrocities are needed, that they are just. That what you do is necessary to her goals."

"I said be quiet!"

Youmu kept pushing, Mayumi sliding back. "If I'm not correct, you soldier who draws strength from loyalty, then why are you faltering right now? Why am I overpowering you? There's no loyalty in your heart, but only vengeance and hatred; and only destruction can come from such vengeance! Not creation! Not anything of value or worth!"

"Mayumi." Yukari had popped out of one of her portals, and pointed right at the clay soldier, making sure the orb was near her. "The one in the golden armor is Mayumi." Just as quickly she popped back in.

Just then Mayumi's right hand exploded into dust and chunks of clay, forcing her drop her sword. A gunshot sounded through the cavern on its tail. Youmu stepped in without a microsecond of hesitation, slicing off the rest of her arm with one clean swing.

What the-?!

Mayumi let out a scream of pain as she held onto where her arm used to be, backing away from Youmu. From where I was standing it was hollow inside the soldier, like all the others. She kept away from Youmu, not wanting to get a grenade inside her as well.

Then a part of her left thigh exploded too, followed by another gunshot sound.

Mayumi dropped to her knees but then rolled away, her wide eyes looking around for the only person that had to be - Reisen was nearby. The elites had abandoned protecting Hecatia-Utsuho, having taken enough damage to lose whole sections of their terracotta flesh from the assault the group had laid on them. They went to Mayumi, surrounding her.

"Fall... fall back..." Mayumi shakingly spoke through clenched teeth. "Someone... get-"

Clay Reimu's head crumbled, followed by another gunshot sound. The follow up shots broke up clay Reimu's body. The three remaining clay soldiers panicked, being torn apart by Reisen sniping at them. Reisen wasn't going for kill shots. She was damaging parts of their bodies, breaking them away piece by piece.

"We have Haruhi!"

Marisa's call to me made my heart leap. I ran for where Hecatia-Utsuho was located, we all did. The clay soldiers attempted to intervene, but any who made a movement was shot at by Reisen.

Youmu didn't join us, as the damaged clay Youmu stood up and spread her one arm, egging the sniper to attack her. When that didn't happen, she pointed her own Roukanken at Youmu, indicating a duel.

Youmu told me to go ahead, so I did. When I got there, Suou was nowhere to be found, and I didn't care. The chains pouring from Hecatia-Utsuho had given up Haruhi, almost fully engulfing her to the point where I could hardly tell it was her, except for the top of her head sticking out of the chains; her familiar yellow ribbons indicating who it was. The Brigade reached Hecatia-Utsuho at the same time, Nagato and I removing the chains while Koizumi and Asahina helping Haruhi out of that mess. The task was tedious, me using up the remainder of the bullets in the gun, Nagato telling me to save the rest just in case as she broke the chains. Everyone crowded around, pulling away the chains as they were broken.

One link broke, and as it was removed, I could see her mouth. She gasped for air, starting to babble incoherently, possibly from shock from the experience she was going through. I'm sure that being tied up in chains was very suffocating and smothering. Not a pleasant way to spend Christmas Eve I'm sure.

Nagato broke enough chains, enough were pulled away that we could move her body. With Koizumi's help I pulled Haruhi out, holding her to me. Haruhi was wide eyed and shivering, unable to speak at what was going on when she was freed. I held her close, feeling her body heat, putting my hand on the back of her head, the feeling of her soft hair against my fingers. Her scent, her scent that I was so familiar with...

I had lost her. I had lost my life. I had lost everything.

And I stood up, cheated, and got it all back.

"You're okay. I got you. I got you."

---

The clash of steel. The two Roukankens striking each other. This clay Youmu, this Quarter, truly was her equal, no, even better. Even with one arm, one eye, and the damage to her body, she still moved like she wasn't missing them. This Youmu had seen extensive combat.

Youmu slightly regretted spending so much time as a gardener for her home realm. She could practice all she could, but there was no substitute for actually going out and getting experience. She was a weapon, but sometimes felt like a dulled weapon, and it was showing here.

They had nothing to say to each other. They knew that the other was fighting for their own Yuyuko. Quarter, for getting back the Yuyuko she was promised. Youmu, for the one she had fallen in love with. They understood that about each other.

They also understood that they had both committed atrocities in the name of Yuyuko. Both did the Spring Snow. Both had condemned Gensokyo to freezing for the whims of their master.

Youmu, however, couldn't comprehend it. She understood it, but she couldn't comprehend the justification of absolute genocide like Quarter did.

Another clash of steel, the resulting sparks raining down around them. Youmu tried to keep up with the better Quarter. Youmu's mind couldn't stop going back to it, the killing. Youmu was no stranger to having blood on her hands, but that amount of blood...

Quarter's jaw clenched, as she could feel the other her judging her, questioning her decisions. Youmu wasn't questioning her loyalty, but the actions. Also, fear. Fear of becoming like that. Of being pushed so hard into such a situation that maybe she could end up like that, being capable of doing such things.

If I lost Lady Yuyuko... I don't know what I'd do. I don't even want to think about it.

The two still didn't speak to each other, the only sound between them was the steel. But they could feel what the other was going through. The sadness of Quarter... and the pity of Youmu. The pity alone was overwhelming, complete.

It was choking. Too much.

Quarter rushed forward, sword up, finally enraged. The emotion she was feeling from her other self was too great to bear. She realized too late that her motion was too wide.

Youmu sliced through the remaining arm of Quarter, who fell to the ground. As a result, the other Roukanken clattered to the ground a heartbeat later.

Quarter stared down at the katana. Fear and relief overcame her clay body. She turned as she got up from the ground, ready to accept her fate, ready to have this all end. Yet at the same time, she was screaming internally over losing. All she had done was ultimately for nothing. Every atrocious act she had committed did not get her what she was looking for.

The blood on her hands, on what remained of her soul, was for nothing after all. Despite all her actions she would never see her Yuyuko again.

Youmu just stared at her for a moment, before sheathing her katana, shaking her head. "This is over. Just go. Leave."

Quarter just stared at her, unwilling to be shown mercy. "No... please. Just do it."

"I can't. We've both done things for our own Lady Yuyuko. While I haven't done anything to the scope of what you've done-"

Quarter looked behind Youmu, and the samurai gardener whipped around, her katana already swinging out. Youmu felt the power behind her, the familiar sound of a Master Spark beginning to light up.

The explosion of clay Marisa's hand made the mini-Hakkero drop. The gunshot sound that followed told Youmu that Reisen was still out there, watching her back. Clay Marisa stared at Youmu, before lunging for the mini-Hakkero.

Youmu was about to speak, but had to act. She had no choice. She sliced through the clay soldier's body multiple times so she wouldn't be able to get back up. The clay crumbled around her in pieces.

After it was done, Youmu stared at both Quarter and Mayumi, the latter whom was enraged by what had happened to her soldiers, that there were only two left including herself. The Haniwa commander was clenching her teeth at this, that her forces had been reduced to almost nothing. She was also shaking, glaring at Youmu like she wanted to end her in the most painful way possible. Mayumi couldn't stand, as her legs had been shot up by Reisen's sniping.

"Go." Youmu motioned to the clay version of her. "She gave you an order, didn't she? Retreat? Get her out of here."

Without saying a word, clay Youmu knelt down, putting her head under Mayumi's remaining arm, and acted as her legs as they left through a corrupt portal.

Then the heat of the cavern started to rise, the brightness increasing. The murmur and shouts from the group almost drowned by power itself. Youmu turned her attention to what was going on, barely noticing that Yukari had arrived again, and Quarter's Roukanken was now in her hands.

CAUTION! CAUTION! CAUTION!

---

Chiyuri was physically checking over Haruhi, the only non-Brigade member to crowd around her. While I was beyond relieved that Haruhi was physically fine, there was a pressing issue at hand, one that all I had to silently look at my fellow Brigade members to know that they were thinking the exact same thing.

Haruhi was exposed to the supernatural, and not in a small way either. She was thrown into the deep end of it all. This wasn't like being in the snow mansion where it was us in a realistic location. No. This was full-on location, people, entities.

"What... what happened?" Haruhi tried to get out of my arms, but I held onto her. She was still in shock.

[Nagato:] "This can be good."

How?!

[Nagato:] "Not to sound cold-hearted, but if she's traumatized right now we could play it off as a nightmare due to the shock."

That does sound cold-hearted... but it's a plan at least. Honestly it sounded like one of the Hail Mary ploys that Koizumi would come up with for all of this. Nagato whispered into the ears of Asahina and Koizumi, I guess sharing her plan. It would have to be our play, otherwise...

Koizumi began to calmly speak to Haruhi, like a normal conversation. She was still visibly confused, just silently staring at him for a while before responding to his conversation. I barely heard it all, as I was in a bit of a daze myself over what had been happening and due to the fact that I had finally got some downtime. My body felt drained, reminding me that I had to heal the others, because they had to be in worse shape than I felt.

Still, what was going to happen? We avoided a sure world ender, but there we were, Haruhi in a position for a possible awakening of her power. The absolute worst thing for the Brigade to face. We had spent five years trying to avoid that situation, yet-

CAUTION!

[SPELL CARD: "SUBTERRANEAN SUN"]

Reimu's shoulders sagged before her body tensed, showing visible frustration. "Nobody was watching her?!"

You weren't watching Hecatia-Utsuho either! Then the card fully activated. Oh this is very very bad.

We had to scatter, move away. The card filled up the cavern with danmaku of searing hot plasma, but it was all stationary.

Hecatia-Utsuho began to laugh. Her body began to glow red hot, and it kept on getting brighter and brighter, the temperature around us going searing even with the fire protection. I threw on a tank top over what Haruhi was wearing, not letting her get a word in. Koizumi and Chiyuri immediately got Haruhi away as the entire group kept backing away from Hecatia-Utsuho. With her free hand she was still clutching, still trying to stop the bleed of chains, but she stared right at me with a crazed look on her face.

"Fine then... if you think you can separate everyone from me... then I'll just have everyone present fuse with me! Join me, one and all!"

CAUTION! CAUTION! CAUTION!

The klaxon alarms went off louder than before.

Hecatia-Utsuho was becoming a pure nuclear reaction. It overtook her body.

"She's becoming a star!" shouted Sanae, shielding her eyes.

But that wasn't the worst part. The worst part was that we all started to feel a pull towards her.

Oh crap. I hopped onto Marisa's broom as everyone went in the air to avoid it.

The gravity well of the star could actually be felt. The star was sucking us in, and it was growing - the pull getting greater by the second. The worst part was that the danmaku started moving, back to her. As it collected into the star, the star got bigger and brighter. A few people tried to shoot danmaku into it, but all it did was add to the size of the star.

"Don't stop shooting!" Yukari shouted. "The largest stars quickly collapse into themselves!"

"All right! Just... watch the fire!" Reimu was directing everybody to shoot and what to avoid to the rest of the group.

Actually, what happened next was the worst part. The star started to radiate smaller danmaku plasma balls, scattering them all around with no rhyme or reason.. Smaller, but white hot. So shots were coming from it, as we were avoiding shots going into it, while being pulled towards the star.

This certainly wasn't my idea of a fun spell card.

"Kyon... Shoot."

I stared at Yukari for a moment, before getting it. You said it. I have everything I need.

[SPELL CARD: RECOLLECTION "DISCARDER"]

[SPELL CARD: DESOLATION "DISCARDER"]

Reisen must have been waiting to use that, because she fired it when I fired mine. The two red bullets went into the star, and the gravity well died out. The plasma balls all fell to the ground. The star brightened one last time before collapsing into itself.

That's right, we had spell card killers.

Hecatia-Utsuho stood there, glassy eyed, her head bobbing back and forward. She had been taking constant abuse under the snowy weather, which activated her weakness, and she looked ready to go down. The chains extended from the eye in her chest one last time, shattering, and Hecatia fell backwards... while Utsuho remained standing.

They were separated. Finally they were separated.

"Okuu!" Rin flew to her friend, grabbing her away from the enemy goddess. She got help from Sakuya in her action, getting the raven woman to safety.

It felt weird. Utsuho Reiuji was the person whom I had feared for the past several years, the source of my tension, the one that I considered the ultimate enemy down the line. Yet I ended up saving her. Granted, if she went on with her incident, she'd threaten the world with nuclear fire. Instead she ended up being as much a victim in all of this as anybody could be.

"Now!"

Upon Reimu's command, everyone unloaded into the downed body of Hecatia. Spell card after spell card. Reisen had come from her sniping position, joining in.

Come on, we have to end this right here! How much more of her weakness can she take?!

CAUTION!

[SPELL CARD: ATOMIC FIRE "UNCONTAINABLE NUCLEAR REACTION DIVE"]

Wh- How?! Why?!

Utsuho was still down. She was down, and free of Hecatia's control, and yet-

A blazing mass of nuclear plasma streaked across the center of the cavern, swooping low with wide, burning wings, blaring the same klaxon noise off the high walls. It crossed in front of everyone's danmaku, eating it up and charging into them in the same motion and causing them to scatter before rocketing back and landing next to Hecatia with a rocky crash that sent up a cloud of dust.

"You... have got... to be kidding me," gasped Sanae, who had dodged near me. "They have an alternate Utsuho?!"

Aw, come on! We were about to finish this! How many more copies do they have?! I felt my heart plummet as I processed what had just happened. Seemed like I had written off having Utsuho as an enemy too early. Figures, doesn't it?

Beams of plasma fired out at our group, parting the dust cloud while Clownpiece showed up behind this new Alternate Utsuho and made a grab for Hecatia. Junko had arrived as well, lingering next to an open portal through which Clownpiece was trying to drag her master. Junko's face was impassive as always, taking in the carnage that had been laid down upon the area. With a sympathetic smile, she looked down at Hecatia and said, "They were too much, weren't they? If you had just been more careful..."

"Piece! Hurry up and get her out!" Alternate Utsuho kept aiming at us as she shouted at the fairy. "You heard Mayumi! They're too strong!"

No! We can't let her leave! This has to end here! If Hecatia was allowed to heal up and to regain her power, we'd be back at square one. Nagato, is there anything we can do?! Activate the focus!

[Nagato:] "I'm allowing your body to recover. Any more at this point, and I fear you'll be damaged."

The shots of everyone couldn't get through, due to both Junko and Utsuho. Not even Yukari's portals did anything. We had to watch Hecatia get pulled to safety, and there wasn't anything we could have done, at least, nothing that I came up with.

When Hecatia was fully through, Junko went into the corrupt portal, standing there as if to guard the exit, leaving Utsuho with arm cannon lighting up.

"This is a present for you all. You shouldn't have done that."

CAUTION!

"Now, die in a nuclear fire!"

She shot the cannon.

CAUTION!

And it was met with a shot against it.

Our Utsuho had gotten back up.

Okuu looked enraged, and it was understandable. Her body was used by Hecatia to lay claim to our world, to go after the sister of her master, and that person killed off Rin. Granted, I didn't know if she knew that last part, but the rage on Okuu's face was totally understandable.

"You're not getting away..." Okuu gasped, stepping forward. This was a beam struggle, both blasts going against each other. "Not after everything you did! The sun continues to burn today, and will continue to burn! Nobody can withstand the ultimate energy! Not even some mirror of me!"

"Stop struggling, you dumb useless bird!" Alternate Utsuho pushed buttons on her cannon, which was different from our Okuu's, seemingly increasing the output. The enemy Utsuho's beam got more intense. "Your life and the lives of this world are forfeit! It's over! If we can't have it, we'll burn it all to the ground!"

Okuu began sliding back, the beam struggle physically pushing the Hell raven away. "Even though you look like me..." Okuu was struggling, trying to step forward, straining her entire body into it, but she was clearly losing. "I won't show any sympathy to a puny existence like yours! My ultimate nuclear fusion will burn up each and every one of you for putting me through that!"

Okuu's beam appeared to be getting weaker, the other's beam almost completely taking over. Alternate Utsuho smirked. "Some ultimate power you have. You merely wield what you barely understand. And-"

Some shots had joined in from Orin, who was at Okuu's side. The overtaking of Alternate Utsuho's beam was paused, surprising her, but she just gave it more power as she continued to advance.

Well... that tells us what we need to do.

Much to Alternate Utsuho's surprise, everyone shot into her beam, joining our Okuu's push. The only thing I could do was direct Shanghai and Hourai to do their doll spark, while using the recollection of the Master Spark. It was working, as it was Alternate Ustuho's turn to be pushed back. She sneered at us, again pushing buttons, increasing her output. There appeared to be vents on her cannon, which was putting out serious steam that was visible. I could feel the pressure against us, like a wall was pushing us back.

"You're not going to stop us. You oppose our will, you get in our way, you defy us, we end you. It's the way it's always been. We own you all! You exist for us to do what we please with! You-"

"You talk to much."

I looked to my left with a start - that was Aya, and along with her, everyone who was over the radio earlier, save for the Scarlets and Patchouli.

Nitori joined Marisa and I. "Bet you didn't expect us to show up, eh?"

"A little late to the party ze, but I ain't complaining!"

"Really good to see you, Nitori." I gave everyone a nod. "And all of you. Let's finish this!"

Yet despite the ground we had gained on Alternate Utsuho, her cannon's output continued to increase. She was disappearing into her own cannon's exhaust, and it only seemed to grow stronger by the second. It wasn't just that her cannon looked more like an actual weapon than our universe's Utsuho; she seemed souped-up in just about every way by comparison. That realization made my heart drop - in a few short seconds, we were going to be on the defensive.

A crack of thunder echoed, and though at first I thought it was another gunshot, it was accompanied not by a speeding bullet, but a sudden downpour of rain from nowhere. I couldn't even look up to confirm that yes, we were still underground before a streak of color shot past, joining with our Okuu's plasma beam and flashing every hue from red to green to violet, in that order. Actually, it was all those colors at once, a solid, twisting river of light that seemed to come from nowhere; no one was back where it originated, and it sure didn't act like a regular danmaku laser, curling and merging in and out of the beam like a living thing. It seemed to drag the beam forward, rapidly overwhelming Alternate Utsuho, and no matter how many buttons or dials she played with, it didn't slow down.

"Did we have a living rainbow on our team?!" I shouted at Marisa over the noise, holding on to her tighter as the rainstorm became a veritable typhoon and waves of hot water - thankfully not boiling - were blasted back into our faces. Marisa didn't have an answer. She just kept pushing the mini-Hakkero's energy into the beam, doing what she could to help win the struggle.

Alternate Utsuho couldn't win now. She spread her wings and lifted off, abandoning her push in order to dodge the combined beam. The rainbow didn't let up, though; with a rumble of thunder and flash of lightning, it curved out of the beam and chased after her, shedding jagged streaks of light that almost looked like the wings and horns of a-

Wait, is that a-

CAUTION!

[SPELL CARD: LIGHT ENERGY "HIGH-TENSION BLADE"]

Alternate Utsuho twisted in the air, summoning more plasma from the tip of her cannon that extended into a beam of energy that was twice her own height. She swung it like a sword at the creature, which looped around and bit at her with massive teeth that grew out of its front. It was too bright to to look at directly, especially after the blade came out, but the more it moved and fought with Utsuho, the more I felt like I could glimpse its actual shape. I felt Marisa moving us forward, but my eyes were locked on this massive thing coiling around Utsuho's body, driving her down into the ground, where it danced around the swings of the plasma blade. They didn't remain on equal footing for long, though; following a feint with the blade, Utsuho reached out with one hand and seized the creature by the neck. The rainbow surged and swirled around them, tendrils of light seeming to stab at Utsuho, but she just took it all with a hunter's grin as she closed her grip around the humanoid figure that took form within the light.

All at once, the rainstorm ceased. The figure's hands closed around Utsuho's arm, and Utsuho raised her plasma blade. I was about to call out for Marisa to intervene when-

"So she's using that." Kazami had a begrudging smirk on her face. "At least I'm not on the receiving end of it this time."

[SPELL CARD: QI SIGN "EARTH DRAGON SKY DRAGON KICK"]

The figure lifted her long legs into the air for just a moment, striking a graceful pose before stomping into the ground beneath them, creating a shock wave of rainbow-colored light that burst up into Utsuho, causing her to flinch. With an elegant flip that wrested herself from Utsuho's grasp, Meiling then surged forward and upward, out of the light and connecting her foot with the eye on Utsuho's chest with so much force that it sounded like a thunder crack all by itself. Meiling and Utsuho traveled up into the air together, more rainbow light surging between them, until they finally broke apart and Utsuho was sent flying back and up a good ten meters more.

I... honestly didn't think I could be surprised anymore today. What did I just witness?

That- that thing was Meiling?

Marisa wasn't wasting time gawking like me, though. With our biggest new obstacle sent spinning out of the way, she sped us both forward, towards the portal through which Hecatia was being rescued. With this intervention, it looked like we might get enough time to stop them, but...

Junko was there. Even if I wasn't vulnerable to her anymore, Marisa was, and when she floated out of the portal, I noticed the dust and smoke around her; it was clearing away all by itself. The air around her was being purified, and as she turned her attention towards us, I saw more and more dust being cleared away ahead of her.

"Marisa!" I squeezed her shoulder in panic. "Break off! Break off!"

Marisa pulled up right quick, and Meiling seemed to sense danger as well, because she took to the air and retreated along with us. Everyone else was firing danmaku in their direction, but when it came near Junko, it all just seemed to drift harmlessly away. She didn't pursue us any further, just waited as the Alternate Utsuho floated back towards her and the portal. Utsuho had been burned and bruised all over, and the eye on her chest was leaking liquid flame all over her shirt.

"Really," Junko said, projecting her voice across the cavern in the ensuing silence. "This kind of thing wouldn't happen if you all didn't try to show off so much." I wasn't even sure if she was talking to the other Alternates or to us. Either made sense, I supposed.

...We can't approach her. Even though I have this purity drug thing, I can't even get near her without risking Marisa. It dawned on me as I witnessed Alternate Utsuho climbing into the portal. Even if I hurt myself now and turned back time, there was no way to reach Alternate Hecatia in time. Junko had appeared at exactly the right moment and blocked off any possibility of that. Without knowing about the Ultramarine Orb Elixir, she'd created an unwinnable situation and just been taking her time, knowing we couldn't have done anything in the end. With one last look around at all of us, Junko drifted backwards into the portal before it closed between us for good.

They got away.

After all that.

They got away.

I felt the tension in my body go up and down as I tried to come to terms with the fact we'd lost our best chance at taking out Hecatia. Would we ever even get a chance to face them again? If so, how could we handle Junko? Elixir or not, she was turning out to be a major problem. I was only slightly distracted by the sight of Meiling when we landed; her hair was a mess and her clothes were torn up and looking like they might fall off at any moment, but she had a huge, wry grin on her face. It was the kind of face that said, "I had my fun, but I sure wish it felt like a victory."

...Yeah. Me, too.

Seriously though, what was that? I opened my mouth to ask, but Yukari chose that moment to command our attention.

"Don't think they've escaped us yet, everyone."

We all stared in silence. She had appeared out of a gap where the Alternates' corrupted portal had just been, and was now pacing back and forth with her eyes darting every which way at the empty space around her, as though finding some hidden clue in the motes of dust that floated by. After a few moments, she turned to us, a smile on her face - a sure smile.

"We can actually end this, but I can only send a few in there. If we don't stop them now, they'll come back. They'll keep coming back until they get Haruhi's power, or they'll wipe us all out and they'll keep trying again elsewhere until they get what they want." Yukari took in a breath, looking tired. "I won't lie to you - you'll be going to a world on their terms. Their home base. It could very well be a suicide mission from this point on. But you need to realize that they won't stop otherwise. They have to be dealt with." She paused, making sure we understood her. "So, like I said, I can only send a few..."

---

Mayumi hadn't said anything. She had gone silent, her face stoic after experiencing all of that. She had managed to regain her sword, it was sheathed, but she had lost so much more. Parts of her clay body, sure, but mostly her troops. The soldiers she herself had trained, gone on missions with, worked together to build a perfect world.

And those humans and youkai had to struggle. They dared to struggle and thought they were doing right by 'defending' themselves.

The clay Youmu had put her against the wall in one of the rooms, not the Brigade room, but it looked like one of the club rooms, whatever it was in the past. It didn't matter. It was all disgusting to Mayumi. Everything looked disgusting. Smelled disgusting. Tasted disgusting.

That stupid girl. If she... if she weren't so needed, if her power...

Clay Youmu had collapsed right next to her after placing Mayumi there to rest. She looked ready to cry, if a clay soldier could.

Disgusting.

Mayumi felt dirty where this Youmu touched her. Helping her.

...

She couldn't stop staring at the Youmu at her side, who didn't even notice that Mayumi had unsheathed her sword.

...Disgusting...

Why...

Why did you survive when everyone else died?

The disgusting way this Quarter was pitying her failure was making Mayumi angrier and angrier. She was so pathetically ready to break down that she still didn't notice Mayumi turn to her.

...You...

...You don't deserve to survive...

Flashes of her fight with the other Youmu went before Mayumi's eyes. Quarter's eye had betrayed the other surviving clay soldier. If she hadn't have looked, maybe that other Youmu would have been killed.

No... this traitor got her killed on purpose. She was trying to save herself all along...

She doesn't deserve to live a single damn second longer.

The surprise in Quarter's single remaining eye went from shock to betrayal as Mayumi started hacking away at her, both of them screaming all the while. Quarter in pain, Mayumi in pure unadulterated hatred.

---

"Now what?" Clownpiece stared down at her downed master, who was laid on the Brigade desk. The fairy was clearly agitated. "Now what do we do?!"

Before everyone started talking, Junko slightly raised her left hand. "Let's calm down. Panicking now wouldn't do us any good right now. We have time, don't we?" asked Junko, looking to the shadowed area of the room.

The silent partner in all of this, the one without whom this couldn't have happened in the first place. She very rarely spoke any more to the others, only giving out the necessary advice when it was needed.

"Maybe not." The glasses-wearing girl in the shadows spoke. She adjusted her spectacles under the veil of darkness. "Unfortunately for us, when Yukari sent in that EMP, it wasn't the only thing done. A link was attached to it, linking this world to theirs, making it near ours."

"What?" Alternate Utsuho was still holding onto her burned face, painfully speaking. "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that they will be here soon." The girl moved closer to the window of the school, looking outside, her features still under shadow.

"But we can counter it, right? We-"

"We're dependent on everything Hecatia has set up for us. Her magic is what gives us our power, our defenses, our hideout. We're stronger because of what she's done to us. With her damaged like this, all that at full strength is gone." The girl in the glasses shrugged. "And she gave us that power after the link in case we were needed, which means..."

"So they're gonna roll in here?"

"Yes and no. As Hecatia isn't dead, neither are her defenses. As it stands, they should be limited in what they can bring in."

Junko had her arms crossed, and shook her head in annoyance. "Why didn't you take care of the link then?"

"It went off too close to the Brigade clubroom." She motioned to the very room they were in. "As you know, the clubroom is an... absorbent of sorts for paranormal power. To attempt such a break would have risked damaging the fabric of this room, which is what is holding this world together."

"But that also means-"

"Correct. Hecatia has absorbed some of that link as well, in her attempt to acclimate to the power of the clubroom. If we run with Hecatia, they'll still find us, and this whole plan hinges on her. The link may even allow them to chase us through the Dream World if we split up." The girl shook her head. "No. If we go elsewhere, we won't have the power, defenses, or advantages this world affords us. We must make our stand here, or we risk losing everything we worked so hard for."

"So they'll appear here or something?"

"...I don't think so. To do so, to drop right into the enemy base like that would be suicide..."

"So where else?" Junko looked down at Hecatia, placing her hands over hers. Hecatia was damaged on the magical level. Only time would heal her, but it looked like they didn't have time for her to fully heal.

The girl stared outside for a while, before turning, walking into the light, exposing her face from the shadow, the light shining off her glasses, and her light lavender hair.

"They'll appear at my apartment." said Yuki Nagato. "My humanoid interface self of this world would have kept it pristine anyways."

---

Read and review. Lady Yukari demands it.