The Prodigal

…can't always be looking out for you…

…you did a great job…

…ou hear me? Dai, can yo…

…that was pitiful…

A movement. A twitch and she edged a little closer to consciousness. Not enough though. Darkness still flooded her mind, and distant-sounding voices kept talking to her, though never at each other. It was confusing.

…ster Spark…

…she's still not waking up…

…c'mon, I believe in…

…no one expects us to be gods…

"Dai!"

Finally one of the voices shouted loud enough to fully seize Daiyousei's attention and drag her from the depths of her mind. She opened her eyes just a crack, squinting at the shadows hanging over her. It was too bright to make anything out and the light hurt her eyes.

"Wha…happen…" she managed to mumble through swollen lips.

"Oh, thank the gods, she's awake," one of the voices said. It sounded like Mystia.

"Good, I was starting to get worried," said another voice, Wriggle's this time. The shadow that most resembled the firefly pushed its way to the front. "Hey Dai, you okay? C'mon, say something!"

Daiyousei tried to push the remaining fragments of fuzziness from her mind, a task that was much more difficult than it sounds. It felt like someone had hit her in the face with a sledgehammer and then dropped a house on her for good measure.

Slowly and painfully, Daiyousei pulled herself to a sitting position. Mystia and Wriggle helped the best they could, but every movement still made her body throb. "Wh-" she started to say, but it was swallowed up by a fit of coughing.

"Whoa, easy there," Wriggle said, lightly slapping her back. "Take it slow."

Daiyousei nodded. When she could talk, she croaked, "What happened?"

"Marisa," Mystia said. "She got us all."

Now that her vision was starting to clear, Daiyousei could see that her friends weren't in the best shape themselves. Both of their clothes were torn and singed, Wriggle was sporting a nasty black eye, Mystia's right arm was resting in a makeshift sling and her wings were missing a few feathers.

"W-wait…M-Marisa…?"

"Yeah, don't you remember?" Wriggle said. "She snuck up on us when we were showing Reimu Hakurei and the rest where Rumia got eaten."

Daiyousei struggled to remember. Everything seemed so…distant. Little fragments drifted in and out of her memory, slowly piecing themselves into larger clumps. These in turn stuck together to form…

The chase through the woods.

The chest's horrifying contents.

Rumia's useless attempts to free herself.

Running to Reimu for help.

And then, Marisa had appeared out of nowhere…

Oh yeah. Master Spark.

It was the first time Daiyousei had actually gotten hit with the infamous spell. Certainly she had run afoul of Marisa on a couple of occasions, but the young witch had never unleashed her ace in the hole on her before. Now Daiyousei understood why people preferred to avoid upsetting Marisa unnecessarily.

Then she noticed something out of place. "Wait," she said with a cough. "W-where's Cirno?"

"She woke up before the rest of us did," Wriggle explained. "After me and Mysty were up, she left us to go look for Reimu and the rest."

"Huh? But she's already been knocked out twice today! How'd she get up so fast?"

Mystia shrugged. "We figure she's just used to it. Who else would shake off a Master Spark that fast?"

Good point. "So…where is Reimu?"

Another shrug. "Cirno said they were gone when she woke up. Marisa probably told them it was all stupid and that they should go home."

Daiyousei's shoulders slumped. "B-but what about Rumia?" she asked, her voice cracking at the mention of their absent friend.

"Don't worry, we'll figure out a way to get her back," Mystia said reassuringly. "Don't give up on her yet."

Daiyousei wasn't so reassured. Though they had managed to make some crazy plans work in the past, she had a feeling that they were in over their heads with this one.

The fairy pulled her legs up and wrapped her arms around her scratched and bruised knees. She looked out at the countryside around them. They were still at the top of the hill, with that stupid box glittering near the bottom, almost smug in its exposure. It was now midday, and the sun nearly reaching its zenith. Somehow, Daiyousei found the knowledge depressing. Had all that madness only occurred within a few hours' time?

Despite the balminess of the day, Daiyousei began shivering. It started with a slow tremble but eventually her whole body was shaking so hard her teeth began rattling. She tried to stop but found that she had no control over it.

Her friends of course took notice. Thankfully they said nothing. They just sat on either side and wrapped their arms around her. Daiyousei appreciated the gesture. She closed her eyes and leaned her head on Mystia's shoulder. Right now she would take all the comfort she could get, and there was no doubt they felt the same.

The three of them sat together in the shade of the old tree, waiting for their leader to return.

…

As it would turn out, Cirno was not the only person on the hunt. Reimu and co. had not returned home as thought by Mystia, but were busy tracking whatever it was that had escaped from the box. Unfortunately, they were discovering that following a trail of withered grass and flowers only worked in areas that actually had grass and flowers. Once they reached areas that had more dirt than foliage, things slowed down considerably.

Surprisingly, the one who proved to have the most aptitude for picking up the trail was Suika. Just when it looked like they had lost it again, she would spot a patch of weeds or a clump of leaves displaying the same signs of decay that the grass had. It also helped that the trail remained more-or-less pointed southward. Still, it was slow going, and many members of the party were getting impatient.

As they continued through a grove of orange trees, Reimu took the opportunity to ask Yukari some questions.

"So," she said as she hovered closer to the ancient youkai. "You wanna tell me what this is all about?"

Yukari frowned in annoyance, but she said, "If I must. It's just hard to think of where to begin…Let's see, you first met Rumia back during Remilia Scarlet's red mist incident, correct?"

"Yeah, she tried to eat me and Marisa. We messed her up for it. So what?"

"Well, I also had a little encounter with the same girl, only this was long before you were born. Your mother was about your age, maybe a little older, and was the current shrine maiden of Hakurei Shrine."

Reimu shot her an odd look. "You know, one of these days you're going to have to tell me exactly how you knew my parents."

"Perhaps," Yukari said, casually waving off Reimu's probing. "But that can wait. Right now, all you need to understand that when I met Rumia, she was much, much different from the silly prankster you know her as."

"Different? How so?"

"She was a life destroying abomination."

Reimu nearly ran into an orange tree. She managed to recover just in time. "Say what?"

"Just what I said. Rumia is, or at least was, one of the deadliest youkai ever to wander Gensokyo." A faraway look grew in Yukari's eyes. "We never did figure out where she came from. It seemed like she had climbed out of Hell itself. Maybe she had. But whatever her origins, she was bound and determined to burn Gensokyo to the ground."

Reimu didn't say anything. She knew Yukari well enough to know that she wasn't pulling one of her jokes, but to picture silly little Rumia as some sort of harbinger of the apocalypse nearly caused her imagination to hemorrhage. So she remained silent and allowed Yukari to continue.

"At any rate, there was a good chance she might have done it too. Fortunately, your mother and I got wind of it before things got out of hand and put a stop to it."

"Oh. Well, good."

Yukari smiled at her. There was no warmth in the expression. "It wasn't a simple matter. We got to her before she could do too much damage, but she wasn't one to go down easy."

"Really? How so?"

The origin of the question was Marisa, who had been pretending not to listen to the story but had taken the opportunity to enter the conversation. Mima floated a little ways beyond her, listening but not taking part. All of this she knew already.

Yukari shook her head. "Rumia's power, the Rumia you know, is darkness. For her, it is a simple absence of light, an ability so ineffective it ends up blinding the silly girl as well. But the power of the Rumia I knew went much deeper. She was the antithesis of life itself. Lower life such as plants and small insects simply died by being in her presence. She could stop a heartbeat of a weaker person with a touch. The stronger could resist for a time, your mother and I being the prime example, but it was…

…horrifying to behold. The Shadow Youkai knelt among the skeleton of the small human outpost, dried blood on her rosy lips and gore coating her pale curving talons and the black blade of the twisted sword she carried. Around her, the ash of the wreckage continued to burn, despite having little in the way of fuel left.

Everything was dead. The humans, their youkai and fairy allies, the local animal life, and a fair portion of the surrounding forest. Anything that hadn't been ripped to pieces by the Shadow Youkai herself had shriveled up in her shadow. Even the stones themselves were cracked and splattered with blood. Above, the sun was blocked by dark clouds that rolled and billowed over one another as silent lightning cut its way through the sky, never enough to actually illuminate the place but enough reveal short glimpses of the carnage beneath.

Yukari stood at the far end of the outpost, staring. It was at times like this she wished that her night-vision was not so good. When the Hakurei shrine maiden had first alerted her about the danger, Yukari's response was to laugh in her face. But now…

The shrine maiden herself stood to Yukari's right. Despite her young age, she didn't seem fazed by the devastation around her. She just looked…tired. Tired and grim.

"Now?" she said. "Now do you believe me?"

Yukari didn't respond. The Shadow Youkai had noticed them. The monster rose to her feet, tattered dress fluttering in a cold wind that had started blowing as her ruby red eyes focused on the two newcomers. Her grip on the sword tightened, and her bloodstained lips parted in a smile.

Yukari and the shrine maiden readied themselves to meet the Shadow Youkai's attack. And not a moment too soon, because within moments it was flying through the air, howling in delight at having found more victims, the blade of its sword coming down on them…

…unpleasant, very unpleasant." Yukari said. "Still, we managed to beat her in the end. After that, we sealed off her powers and erased her memories. She was harmless after that.

Reimu frowned. "Uh, harmless? Excuse me, I'm no big fan of executions, but wouldn't it have been best to just kill her?"

"I'm with Reddie on this one," Marisa put in. "Something that crazy dangerous shouldn't be allowed to run around, mind-wipe or no."

"And yet," Mima said without emotion, "we let you roam free."

Marisa winced. "Hey, waitaminute! I may be a little nuts, but I'm not genocidal, ze! Even Remilia knows that people like Flandre shouldn't be set loose, and this Rumia sounds way worse than psycho-vamp."

"I agree," Yukari said. "In fact, I insisted we do just that. Unfortunately, that proved to be problematic."

"How so?" Reimu asked.

"Well, for one she turned out to be incredibly hard to kill. She wasn't a complete immortal like the Moon Princess or her pyromaniac of a rival, but she was still pretty close. For another, we discovered that even if we did manage to destroy her, all the life she had absorbed would be released in a manner that could be best described as…Well, let's just say it would be enough to turn the Forest of Magic into a desert of glass."

Marisa whistled.

"Indeed," Yukari said. "At one point we considered dumping her in Makai, but Shinki would hear none of it, further lending credence to my 'Having crawled out of Hell' theory. We also tried draining her of her power, but that just made a mess. A great big, steaming mess that had me picking dead skin from five different people out of my hair for a week."

"And that would be when you came to me, correct?" Mima said.

Marisa's head swiveled in the direction of her former mentor. "Say what? Wait Mistress, you're telling me you were a part of this?"

Mima smiled at her. "Dear, I know it pains you to entertain the thought, but I did have a life before you came around. This was just one of the many incidents I was involved in. Didn't want to be, given I wasn't exactly on speaking terms with the Hakurei family at the time, but Yukari managed to convince me it was in my best interests to help remove the soul-scarring affront to all that is good and holy."

"Indeed," Yukari said. "With her help, we were able to work out a way to seal her more deadly powers where she couldn't access them, and at the same time reset her memory, wiping away the bloodthirsty killer we had encountered. It wasn't quite as perfect as sending her to oblivion, but it was the next best thing."

Reimu was having several thousand different thoughts and feelings rushing through her head, and little way to decide on a specific one. She chose one of the most prominent. "Bu…wait, why did you never tell me about this?"

"Because you didn't-"

"Okay, stop. If you say 'You didn't ask', I swear I'm going to kill you."

"Very well."

There was a moment of silence during which they emerged from the orange grove and into a meadow. The trail became easy to pick out again and they quickened their pace.

Then Reimu got annoyed. "Well?"

"Well what?"

"Why didn't you tell me?"

Yukari shot her a long look. "You told me not to say 'You didn't ask'. I was simply complying with your request."

"Oh, come on! That can't be the only reason."

"But it is. Like Mima said, as nasty as that incident was, it was far from the first crisis I had to deal with, nor was it the last. And it was dealt with before it became especially memorable, at least in comparison to some of the other messes I've had to clean up. If I were to take the time to detail every battle I've had to fight in my life, I would still be telling it to your great-grandchildren without having reached the halfway mark."

"Then why didn't my mom ever tell me?"

"The same. She had her share of problems she had to fix, and on the whole, this one only took a few days. After that, she had the thing with the guy with the killing notebook, then that mind-controlling revolutionary, and then yet another genocidal girl, this one with invisible arms, and the list goes on. Even you've had your fair share of incidents, and you're not even twenty years old."

"I told Marisa," Mima said.

Marisa once again turned to stare. "Wait, you did?"

"Certainly. It was during our lessons about magic seals. I told you the story about the life destroying youkai and how I found a way to partition off a portion of her powers using a simple hair-ribbon as an amulet."

"Oh yeah, but you didn't tell me it was-"

"Wait!" Reimu snapped her fingers in front of her nose. She turned to Yukari. "Is that why you asked Cirno about her ribbon?"

"Indeed. The ribbon was the spell's anchor. It had an enchantment that prevented her or anyone else from touching it. It seems something managed to bypass it though."

"A ribbon?" Reimu asked, incredulous. "Seriously?"

"Don't knock it, child," Mima said reprovingly. "That ribbon was much sturdier than it appeared. If something did manage to remove it, than it must be formidable indeed."

"Terrain is a-changing!" Suika suddenly shouted, drawing everyone's attention. She drank deeply from her gourd, burped, and announced, "Bamboo Forest is dead ahead!"

"Wonderful," Marisa groused. "How are we supposed to find someone in there?"

Yukari looked thoughtful. "You know, we may have an advantage. If I recall, Ran and Chen are at Eientei right now. I could call them and have them start searching the area from the other end."

"Really? What are they doing there?"

"Eh, Chen needs her shots," Yukari shrugged. "Hang on a second."

She pulled a small, flat box from…somewhere, and began pressing the bumps that adorned one side. With that, she held it to her ear.

"Yes, Ran," she said, seemingly to the air. "Yes. Fantastic. Listen, we have a problem here. No, actually. We're pursuing a rogue youkai who seems to have fled to the Bamboo Woods. As soon as you can, I want you to take Chen and began sweeping the area from your end. We'll be entering from other end and catch her in the middle. Rumia of the Darkness. Indeed. It seems the Shadow Youkai is back. If you see her, do not engage unless you have no other choice. Inform me immediately, and we'll be there as quickly as possible. Not yet, but signs do point in that direction. Fortunately, I'm bringing a lot of firepower with me. Find her, tell me, and fall back until we arrive. Understood? Understood? Good." She pressed one of the bumps and returned the box to wherever it was she kept it.

Marisa stared. "I have got to get me one of those."

"As soon as Verizon opens up shop in Gensokyo, you can. Now, shall we begin?"

"Sure," Reimu said. "Another question though: if this version of Rumia is really so badass, doesn't chasing her seem a bit…stupid?"

"Don't forget your mother and I were able to handle her on our own," Yukari pointed out. "And like I told Ran, we're bringing considerably more firepower with us this time."

Reimu looked from one of her companions to the other. Yukari was easily one the oldest, if not the oldest, beings in Gensokyo. As such, she had several centuries of experience at her disposal, not to mention an incredible amount of power. And despite her youth, Reimu came from a family specially bred for exterminating threats such as this, in which she was extraordinarily talented. Then there was Marisa, who had numerous spells that leaned toward wanton destruction with no reservation at firing early and often. There was also Mima, who also was very old and had taught Marisa everything she knew while retaining a good portion of that knowledge for herself. And that wasn't even getting to Suika, whose preferred method of bypassing mountains was punching straight through them with her bare fists. And even then, there was the possibility of Ran and Chen coming to their assistance as well, and neither of them were exactly slouches in the combat department. All taken together, this response bordered on overkill.

Reimu conceded Yukari's point.

"Okay, fine," she said. "But one more question, for curiosity's sake."

Yukari sighed. "Very well. What is it?"

"Exactly what kind of shots is Chen getting?"

"Rabies."

There was a bark of hoarse laughter. Yukari turned to frown at Marisa, who was laughing so hard she was having trouble staying on her broom. But before she could reprimand the witch, the box she had used to contact Ran began to sing.

…

Deep Within

Despite the promise of straight answers, Rumia had learned relatively little about her new companion, Rin Satsuki. It wasn't for a lack of trying though. It seemed that every time Rin tried to explain something, her words would become confused and jumbled up, with about two or three different metaphors mixing together and creating an absolute mess.

Still, Rumia had managed to learn a few things. First, Rin had originally been a youkai of the Kirin variety. Rumia didn't know much about the Kirin, but she was reasonably sure they didn't consist of transparent lumps of goo that delight in swallowing innocent girls just to talk nonsense at them.

This brought her to the second bit of important information.

"Seriously?" Rumia said. "Someone made you this way?"

"Uh-huh," Rin said. She was sitting cross-legged, her back to Rumia, and was watching the huge red-tinted screen that was supposed to represent her new body's viewpoint. "It felt weird too. You ever been to the beach and accidentally step on a cucumber? Not the veggie-kind that kappa eat, the animal kind? And it's all squishy and disgusting but you still feel bad for stepping on it because it didn't do anything to you?"

"Is that what it felt like?"

"No, I was just thinking that that's what it would probably be like for someone who steps on me. No, for me it was just…weird. All melty. Like literally."

Rumia's head (or metaphorical construct of a head, she was still trying to get used to the whole avatar of consciousness idea) swam as she tried to comprehend what that must have been like. The closest comparison she could come up with was when she had literally dissolved away inside of Rin' gelatinous body. That had been akin to being skinned alive by acid. She wasn't sure if she wanted a detailed description of Rin's experience, though the vengeful side of her found some satisfaction in the idea.

She quickly moved away from that train of thought. "So is that where we're going? Did someone in the Bamboo Forest change you?"

"Huh? Oh, no." It was still awkward talking to Rin. Beyond the absolute strangeness of their surroundings, lack of garments, and the fact that Rin had, for all intents and purposes, eaten her alive not three hours ago, Rin just didn't seem like she was paying attention. It could be that controlling her new body required a great amount of concentration, or maybe being locked up in a box for who knows how long didn't do much for one's social skills, but despite her previous enthusiasm at finally having someone to share her space with, Rin was treating Rumia more like a passenger than a new friend: she was certainly welcoming, but spoke with her out of obligation than an actual desire to interact.

Then again, taking Rumia's entire life story directly out of her head did mean conversations would be a little one-sided.

Rin continued, "No, it wasn't them, the people that…the ones we're going to see. But it was a little bit kinda sorta their idea, you know? I mean not the blob thing, that wasn't their idea. I don't think it was anyone's idea. Just something that went wrong. Happens I guess. But the whole experiment was their idea."

"Experiment? What experiment?"

"The one that made me like this."

This was getting frustrating. "But what was the experiment for? What was it trying to do? And who is 'they' anyway, and what did-"

"Hold that thought, 'kay?" They were approaching a particularly thick cluster of bamboo shoots. Rumia expected them to simply go around, but then Rin hunched over, the muscles in her back tensing up. An arm and the attached hand drifted into view on the screen, and it was all Rumia could do to keep from screaming. It looked like someone had constructed it from the very substance of midnight itself. The entire appendage was pitch black, with smoky tendrils dancing along the edges and leaving clinging wisps whenever it moved. But the worst part was the digits, which weren't so much fingers as they were claws. No, not claws, talons. Curving instruments, long, thin, sharp and cruel. Their purpose was obvious.

Was that supposed to be her? Rumia felt a chill sweep through her astral body at the thought of what the rest of the thing must look like. She knew she didn't have the best reputation, but she never thought she would be used to create a monster.

Then her stomach lurched. From the palm of the horrid hand shot a twisting cone of darkness, apparently from the same substance that the hand was made of. It struck the bamboo cluster and immediately the shoots turned black and wilted like so many wet noodles. Seeing how Rumia had been hit with a bamboo shoot on more than one occasion and knew firsthand how hard they could be, the ease in which they were corrupted made her break out into cold sweat.

They continued their journey through where the cluster had been. "Sorry Rumia, you said something?" Rin said, unconcerned at what had just been revealed.

Rumia shook her head. "Ne…never mind."

"Hmmm." Rin shrugged. "Okay. Anyway, you ever been to Eientei before?"

Rumia shook her head. She knew of it of course. Everyone did, especially after that incident of the never-ending night, but she had never actually gone to visit.

"Oh. Well, that's where we're going. Used to work there, actually. Got some unfinished business that I need to take care." She nodded slowly, speaking more to herself than Rumia. "Long time unfinished. Needs some resolution, you know? Otherwise, what are we left with?"

…

For the first day of spring, it had been an unusually slow day at Hourai Clinic. On most days, there would be a steady stream of humans, youkai, fairies and other creatures, all bringing with them any number of bizarre ailments. But today there had just been one catgirl in need of shots and one really beat up fairy. All in all, things were getting boring.

Thump-thump-thump-thump-thump-thump

Tewi sat behind the receptionist's desk, trying to amuse herself with a ball-and-paddle. She had previously had a set of throwing darts, but Eirin had taken those away. She stared balefully at the empty waiting room. The clinic was a relatively new addition to Eientei, constructed after Kaguya Houraisan and her subjects had gone public. They had the option of importing building materials from outside the Bamboo Forest but in the end Kaguya decided to reduce the cost by using what was already available. As such, the clinic was almost entirely constructed from bamboo. Split bamboo stalks formed the walls and ceiling, while smoothed down and polished bamboo tiles made up the floor. Even the furniture was made from crisscrossing bamboo slats. Fortunately, cushions had been provided for the patients' use, even if Tewi thought their lime-green color to be the absolute ugliest thing she had ever seen.

Thump-thump-thump-thump-thump-thump

Still, despite the simplicity of the building material, great lengths had been taken to make the place as modern as possible, especially by the standards set by the Outside World. Eirin was weird like that. To that end, mostly with Yukari's help, three fans swung round and round from the ceiling and the paper-paneled doors had been rigged to automatically slide open as soon as approaching movement was detected. Pictures of generic landscapes hung from the walls, potted plants were placed here and there, and horribly outdated magazines from nobody really knew where sat on the chairs and tables. All in all, when combined with the bamboo, it made for an interesting looking room. However, Tewi had ceased to be impressed by it years ago. Her ball-and-paddle was losing its appeal, and if something didn't happen soon she would develop an uncontrollable twitch, one that often resulted in her doing something that would get her yelled at.

Thump-thump-thump-thump-thump-thump- thump-thumpthumpthumpthumpthump!

Then she heard the sound of the doors sliding open. Tewi sighed in relief. Hopefully this was the start of a busier day. She put the ball-and-paddle away and put on her best Helpful Receptionist smile.

"Hi, welcome to Hourai Clinic!" she said cheerfully. "How can we help…um…you?"

A nightmare stood in the doorway. It was like someone had taken the smoke from a forest fire and somehow made a girl out of it, like a shadow had come to life and abandoned its master. A humanoid shape of twisting darkness and ripping talons. And that wasn't even mentioning the fact that it held the scariest looking sword Tewi had ever seen in her life. It looked like a saber combined with an entire set of kitchen knives and meat hooks and then spray-painted black for good measure.

But the thing's most striking feature was its eyes. Twin globes of fire, smoldering red set against the sooty black of its face. Tewi had seen things with glowing red eyes before and knew enough that they never showed up just because they wanted to be your friend. Except for Reisen, but she didn't count. Most of the others tended to be a bit…aggressive.

And yet, while one would expect the eyes of such a being to convey emotions such as rage, cruelty and a desire to rip innocent young rabbits limb from limb, this one's eyes just looked curious. It turned its head from side-to-side, surveying the room as if it were just there to do a property appraisal. For some reason, that just made it more frightening.

Tewi wasn't scared however. One didn't last long in Gensokyo by being intimidated by every soul-scarring abomination with a nasty weapon that waltzed in through the front door. Nope, not scared all. Cautious maybe. That slight trembling around her calves? That was just her body preparing her for possible action in case things got nasty. But who was to say they will? Gensokyo was home to such creatures as ghosts, demons and vampires, and most of them were more-or-less benevolent. Maybe this new arrival was a new patient who was just looking into getting a sprained ankle fixed and would be perfectly pleasant…

The thing turned to look at her.

Oh. Shit.

It didn't so much walk up to the front desk as it floated. Tewi couldn't help but notice that the sunflowers sitting in the pot on the desk turned brown and shriveled up as it drew near. So did every other plant in the room. But Tewi wasn't afraid. Maybe it had been infected with some sort of plant-killing disease and its love of botany had driven it to seek help here before more of its leafy friends suffered.

But that didn't explain why her throat suddenly felt like she had been inhaling the smoke of a thousand burning corpses.

Tewi straightened in her chair as the thing stood before. "H-h-hi!" she squeaked. "C-c-c-can I h-help you?"

The thing cocked its head. There was an indeterminate amount of time in which nothing was said, and then, speaking in a voice that sound like cinder-blocks been dragged against the floor from the other end of a very long, very dark tunnel, it said, "Eirin. I need…to speak…Eirin. Please."

Tewi laughed nervously. Being nervous was okay, right? It wasn't the same as being scared. "Well, um, I-I-I'm s-sorry, but D-Doctor Yagokoro is seeing other patients now! B-but if w-w-want to c-come b-b-b-b-back later I'll be happy to-"

The thing placed a single hand on the top of the desk. The polished bamboo directly under its touch wasted away to sawdust. Tewi sucked her teeth.

"Now," it said firmly. "I…need to…see her…now."

Tewi nodded enthusiastically. At that moment nothing sounded more reasonable. Of course the new patient would want to see the doctor in person! Eirin was probably done with the catgirl by now and would have plenty of time to meet with the thing. It was only natural.

"Of course! Stay right there, and I'll…and I'll…"

With that Tewi leapt from her seat and ran to Eirin's office. No sense in dawdling. Nothing would be accomplished in just sitting around. Plus her legs desperately needed to be stretched and oh gods don't let it follow me she prayed. As she ran, she became aware of a loud pounding noise. It sounded almost like her ball-and-paddle. But she had left that at her desk. Why was she hearing it now?

Thump-thump-thump-thump-thump-thump

It was then that she realized that the sound was the beating of her heart.

Thump-thump-thump-thump-thump-thump

…

Deep Within

Rumia stared as she watched as Tewi fled on Rin's giant red-tinted screen. In all honesty she couldn't blame the rabbit. In fact she was somewhat envious. Her life would have been so much simpler right now if she had possessed the presence of mind to run when the blob had first taken interest in her.

"Wonder what's up with her?" Rin wondered out loud. She shrugged. "Oh well."

Rumia declined pointing out the obvious. "So, uh, you used to work here?" she said instead.

"Mmmm-hmmm. As a nurse. Lived here too. Place looked different though."

"Is that so."

"Yep. Didn't have this big bamboo hospital, just a little infirmary in the mansion."

"Ah…Um, exactly what are you planning?"

"Oh, you know. Talk. Catch up with my old boss. She how she's doing, how the clinic's working out for her. Find out why she never cured me like she promised and abandoned me to eternal loneliness. That sort of thing." The view suddenly shifted as Rin directed her new body to wander over to the various chairs set out for waiting patients. Then it shifted again and lowered. It took Rumia a second to realize that Rin was sitting down.

Rumia shook her head as she tried to think. Come on Rumia, you can figure this out, she told herself. There's got to be a way to get a message out without Rin knowing. Some way of regaining control.

But what good was making plans when your captor could literally read your mind? Rumia shot a nervous glance at the captor in question. For her part, Rin did seem like she had heard her thoughts of escape. Maybe the mind-reading thing wasn't constant and Rin only did it when she wanted to find something out? If so, than Rumia might have a chance. Might.

"Hey Rumia?"

Rumia sucked in a sharp intake of breath (at least, that's what it felt like). "Y-yes?" she said, trying to sound as casual as possible.

Rin gestured to the screen. From the looks of things, she was reading one of the magazines.

"What's all this about Princess Kaguya falling in love with Fujiwara no Mokou? Because when I got locked up they hated each other."

…

At that moment, Eirin had her hands full with her current patient. The procedure itself was uncomplicated: just a simple prick of the skin with the needle and then pressing down on the injector. Five seconds, tops. However, the difficult part was getting the patient to just sit still already!

Fortunately, having treated Chen in the past, Eirin was well prepared for the task at hand. The two-tailed catgirl was strapped to the swivel chair in the center of the operating room. Handcuffs bound her arms to the armrests and her legs to the foot rest. Several yards of bandages had been converted into makeshift rope, reinforcing the arm restraints and tying her body to the chair's back. A ball-gag covered her mouth and a blindfold was tied securely over her eyes. Eirin's assistant Reisen had remarked upon its resemblance to a BDSM scene. Reisen was now holding an icepack to her head as a result of her comment.

Normally the operating room wouldn't be used for something as simple as given someone their shots. But considering the frenzy Chen had been in even before she had come in through the front doors, Eirin decided to take advantage of the greater amount of equipment the room offered. Indeed, it had taken the help of Ran, Reisen and two other rabbits to restrain the frantic catgirl, wrestle her into the chair and secure her. Band-Aids and lollipops had then been distributed all around.

At least her other patient hadn't offered her any trouble. The spring fairy, one Lily White, had arrived earlier in a state of complete disarray. She had been talking too fast to be understandable, but once she mentioned the words "angry" and "Marisa", she had been granted immediate access to a special emergency room they had reserved for such an occurrence. According to Tewi, once the Mad Witch had learned that Hourai Clinic had an entire room nicknamed "Marisa's Dumping Grounds" she had sent the staff flowers and a thank-you note for thinking of her. Fortunately, Lily wasn't hurt too bad, just very banged up and dealing with the aftereffects of a Master Spark. She was now resting comfortably and would be ready to leave by evening.

Eirin could only wish Chen were so easy to deal with. Honestly, it was just one shot. She had suffered worse in all the fights she tended to pick. Eirin grunted in annoyance as she finally snapped the final handcuff into place. "There we go," she muttered, more to herself than anything. "Finally."

Behind her, Ran slumped with relief. "I'm sorry about all this, Eirin. She's normally much better behaved."

Chen's head turned in the direction of her mentor's voice. "MMMPPHHH!" she hissed angrily.

"Well, getting a rabies shot can be frightening," Eirin said, even if she did agree that Chen had overreacted. "Reisen, could you prepare the syringes please?"

"Huh? Oh, okay." The moon rabbit put the icepack down and walked over to the counter. From one of the cabinets she extracted two bottles and from one of the drawers, two syringes. She placed the nose of each needle in one of the bottles and pulled back on the injectors. Then she tapped out the bubbles and handed them to Reisen.

Ran blinked as Eirin inspected the syringes' contents. "What's the second one for?"

"Knockout drug. We will have to release her eventually you know."

Ran stared at her. "Wait, you have a tranquilizer and you didn't think to use it before she covered us with scratches?"

"An injection is an injection. Would you have wanted to stick this in her when she was perched on your head and clawing your ears?"

Chen stiffened in the chair. Then she began pulling at her bonds, thrashing and wailing incomprehensibly.

Eirin groaned. "Oh for heaven's sake…Reisen, hold her still!"

Her assistant looked dubiously at the catgirl. Foam was starting to form around the gag and drip down her chin. "Um, are you sure-"

"Just do it already."

Careful to keep any vulnerable body parts away from Chen's claws, Reisen grabbed the catgirl from behind and did her best to hold her steady. Eirin held the syringe with the tranquilizer with one hand, thumb on the injector, and squinted.

She started counting down mentally. Three, two, one, go! With that, she plunged the needle into Chen's shoulder and pressed down on the injector. Chen's howl was loud enough to still rattle eardrums even with the gag in place.

"Well that was considerably more difficult than it had to be," Eirin muttered as she removed the syringe and handed to Reisen for disposal. "Okay, any second now…"

Ran scratched her head as she looked over her Shikigami. Chen was still growling and pulling against the restraints. "Shouldn't she be falling asleep by now?"

"It varies from person to person," Eirin explained. "Depending on their age, weight, power levels, and so on."

"But she's barely eighty pounds! She should be…"

Chen suddenly stiffened in her seat and slumped back. Her head rolled to one side and a sliver of drool mixed with foam dripped from the gag's side.

"…oh wait there she goes."

"Tenacious, isn't she?" Eirin muttered as she hefted the other syringe. She was about to proceed with the injection when loud music started playing. She had to react quickly to avoid dropping the syringe and turned to glare at the music's source.

"If you embrace you hopes without fear, nothing exists that can keep you from it. You will meet with ominous disaster in the field where black death dances…"

Abashed, Ran pulled the singing cell phone from one of her robe's many pockets. "Sorry," she said, her face turning red, "Yukari. I have to take this."

Eirin sighed as the Shikigami turned and walked to the other end of the room, answering the call as she went. One would think that living in Gensokyo would make it possible to avoid being interrupted by something like an annoying phone call, but she had to be treating the Shikigami of one of the only two people in possession of cell phones and they had to receive a call during the visit. How irritating.

Eirin finished giving Chen her shot while listening with partial interest to Ran's conversation. "Master? Is something wrong? Chen's almost finished with her shots. Do you wish us to return? Understood. Who is this youkai? Who? Wait, is that…Yukari, are you serious? I remember what she was like last time around. Are you sure? I...Yes."

Apparently Yukari hung up first. Ran was left staring at the now silent phone with a troubled look on her face.

"Miss Ran?" Reisen said, cocking her head in curiosity. "Is there anything wrong?"

"Yes, what was that all about?" Eirin asked as she disposed of the spent syringe. "You forget to clean out the toilets or something?"

"What?" Ran started out of her reverie. "Oh, oh no, nothing like that. It just seems that there may be a…problem we'll have to deal with. Nothing you have to concern yourself-"

"Eirin! Help me Eirin!"

All eyes swiveled towards the room's entrance. Tewi stood in the doorway, one hand clutching the frame in a death grip while she hyperventilated, her eyes wide in…fear? Excitement? Overstimulation? Eirin wasn't sure, but something had gotten the rabbit worked into a tizzy.

"Tewi!" Reisen said. She looked concerned for her friend. "What happened to you?"

Tewi ignored her. "Eirin! You gotta…There's a…It said it wanted to…It was really scary!"

"Um, I'm getting that," Eirin said, looking completely confused. "What in the world are you on about?"

"A monster!" Tewi blurted out. She lunged forward and grabbed Eirin by her collar. "In the waiting room! A big smoky monster with red eyes and a really, really big sword! It made all the plants die and said it wanted to see you!"

Eirin had absolutely no idea how to respond to something like that. But before she could respond Ran cut in.

"Wait, what was that about plants dying?"

Tewi's wide eyes swiveled to the multi-tailed Shikigami. "All of them! She just looked at them and they shriveled right up!"

"And you say she had a sword?"

"Yes! A big nasty one with lots and lots of blades! I thought she was going to make mincemeat out of me!"

Ran's posture stiffened. Her hands began trembling, but the rest of her body remained steady. When she spoke, her voice was calm and unwavering. "And did she have red eyes?"

Tewi nodded enthusiastically. "Yes! Big ones, like this!" She pulled open her own eyelid to demonstrate the size of the thing eyes.

Ran's eyes rolled back. "Oh, fuck me."

"I'd rather not," Eirin said in irritation. "You sound like have some idea of what's going on. Care to enlighten us?"

Ran already had her cell phone out. She pressed buttons while she talked. "Yes, but first, have your assistants go and round up every rabbit-at-arms and tell them to suit up. This is going to be ugly."

"What is going to be ugly? Is explaining that really so hard?"

"Hold that thought. Yukari? Yes. Bad news I'm afraid. We just got confirmation that the she's here at Eientei. No, not yet. Shall I engage? Yes, I do believe it's necessary. Okay, understood. No, I'm amassing reinforcements now. I'll do my best. Thank you."

"Uh, Miss Ran?" Reisen asked when Ran hung up. "What's going on?"

"For the love of the gods, are you two still here? Go get those soldiers!"

Reisen looked confused. She glanced over to Eirin, who was frowning. But she nodded her permission.

After the two rabbits had scampered off, Eirin turned to Ran with her arms folded. "Okay Shikigami, you've got your backup. Care to fill in the very large blanks here?"

Ran shook her head. "I don't have much time…"

"You might be endangering my girls here. Make time."

"Point," Ran sighed. "Okay, how much do you know of, um, 'incidents' that have occurred in the last century or so?"

"Considering that we started one? Quite a bit, actually. I may not leave Eientei often, but I make it a point to keep up with current events."

"Good. Now, do the words 'Shadow Youkai' mean anything to you?"

Eirin frowned as she thought. Her memory was exceptionally good, but there was much data to sift through. She recalled about hearing something a few decades back, something of…

Oh.

That.

"Now, by Shadow Youkai do you refer to an incident that took place about sixty years ago," Eirin asked calmly. "One that resulted in the destruction of several human and youkai settlements in particularly messy fashion until your master intervened?"

"Yes."

"And am I understand the person responsible for those murders is in fact in my waiting room?"

"Seems to be."

"And how much of a crisis would this be?"

"Think the Flandre Scarlet World Tour."

"I see." Without another word, Eirin marched to a locked cabinet, set a ways apart from the others. She pulled a key out of her pocket and unlocked it. From inside she extracted a heavy black suitcase. The Lunarian doctor popped the clasps and pulled the lid open. From inside she removed several syringes filled with a sickly green fluid. These stuck into her uniform where she could access them with ease.

After this she reached back into the cabinet and pulled out a sawed-off shotgun. She pumped the action once and nodded in satisfaction.

"Well then," she said to a staring Ran. "It seems we have a bit of problem on our hands. Shall we get started solving it?"

…

Okay, we've had two chapters of mostly talking. Next is fighty time!

Anyway, a few things I should note. First, the body that Rin constructed from Rumia's power and Rumia's Shadow Youkai form, popularly known as Ex-Rumia, aren't necessarily the same. One is a physical body with a lot of destructive power while the other is more of a manifestation of that power, thus more unstable in appearance. So while there are similarities, they are not identical.

Second, the relationship between Gensokyo and modern technology is…complicated. For the most part the country resemble feudal Japan, at least development-wise, but there's been instances of more advanced tech popping up here and there. So I figure that some areas are simply more advanced than others, which is why Eirin was able to recognize the cell phone and Reimu was not. And why Eirin has a shotgun. Yukari probably has a regular black market going.

Also, I was originally going to have Hourai Clinic be a part of Eientei's original construction, but then I learned that Eientei isn't constructed from bamboo. It's a classic style Japanese mansion. But I really wanted to make a bamboo clinic. So I decided that the clinic was constructed at a later date and might very well be a separate building. I guess it doesn't really matter, so long as I got my bamboo clinic. If Gilligan has taught me nothing else, it's that there's no problem that can't be solved with lots and lots of bamboo.

And finally, while next to nothing is known about Rin, two of the most popular theories are that she's a Kirin and works as a nurse. The latter is derived from the Japanese arrangement of her name "Satsuki Rin" while the latter is taken from one of Marisa's lines in EoSD, in which she tries to pass herself off as a shrine maiden (referring to Reimu), fails, and says she should have said nurse (possibly referring to Rin).

Until next time everyone!