Revelations

Shinki was dreaming.

It was a dream she had only started having recently, but its frequent occurrence was starting to become a source of agitation. In it, she's standing at a doorway, looking in. Within is a girl, appearing to be about fifteen years of age. She is wearing a white blue and a blue skirt. A blue ribbon is tied into her short blond hair. Her face, normally calm and contemplative, is now red and blotchy as angry tears stream down her face. Several open bags lie upon a bed, into which the girl is shoving clothing, books, dolls and other personal possessions.

"I still don't understand why you're doing this," Shinki tells her.

The girl shoots a glare in her direction. Then she starts slamming the bags shut. "No, you don't, do you?" she says as she tightens the straps. "But then, you never do. I could write it in big glowing green letters, and you still wouldn't understand."

"How can I if you refuse to tell me?" Shinki asks. Her frustration is starting to seep into her voice. "Please, just talk to me."

The girl just shakes her head. She starts touching each bag and muttering an incantation under her breath. The bags tremble as the magic takes hold. Then they lift into the air.

"I thought I was doing everything right," Shinki tells her. The girl pushes past her and storms down the hall, her floating luggage following close behind.

Shinki follows as well, talking as she went, trying to make the girl see reason. "I have clothed and fed you more than adequately, provided companionship, entertainment and advice, played games with you, protected you from harm…What have I done wrong? I even gave you the gift of immortality, something that many humans have started wars to obtain. I can't see what-"

"Gift?" The girl stops suddenly. She whirls around to face Shinki with an incredulous look on her face. Her bags halt in their path and hover near her head, bobbing up and down in the air.

"You call that a gift? To live forever in this place? Oh yes, Mother. Spending an eternity in Hell. Such a lovely gift. There's a word for that, you know. I believe they called it being damned." The girl shakes her head. "And you wonder why I'm leaving?"

Shinki is dumbstruck. Not only has she never thought of her good intentions being interpreted as such, the thought has never occurred to her that her actions would be seen as something evil. "Alice…I didn't mean…"

Alice turns and continues down the hallway, her luggage close behind. "Goodbye, Shinki," she says.

Shinki stands where she is, staring after her. "But I never meant it to be like that," she mutters. "I just wanted us to be-"

A finger poked the Queen of Makai in her side, startling her awake. "Shinki, you're mumbling in your sleep again."

Shinki started. She was sitting on her throne, a high-back chair in the form of a winged serpent carved from a single block of obsidian. Her throne was located at the far end of the Great Hall of Pandemonium, a many-columned room of black stone, burning torches and flames flickering along the room's edges. The obsidian serpent's wings were spread wide, covering the entirety of the back wall.

Shinki grunted and straightened up in her seat. She stretched her arms over her head and let out a cavernous yawn. Then, after rubbing the last grains of sleep from eyes, she shot a not entirely displeased glare at her white-winged sibling, who was hovering nearby with a small amused smile on its face.

"Exactly how long have you been watching me?" Shinki asked. She rolled her neck, working out the kinks.

"Only for a few seconds. You fall asleep in your throne entirely too often, my sibling."

"Yeah, I know. It's this chair's fault," Shinki yawned. "I had it made entirely too comfortable."

"I fail to see how the chair is to blame. Though I wouldn't have woken you, but you did not seem to be enjoying your dream."

Shinki frowned. "Just a dream," she mumbled.

"Even a dream can have meaning. You know that better than anyone. After all, wasn't being able to dream one of the reasons you took that body?"

"Don't remind me," Shinki muttered. She closed her eyes and rubbed the bridge of her nose.

"Hmmm. Sometimes I wonder if you fully thought out some of the choice you've made."

Shinki opened her eyes. She eyed her sibling. "Please don't start this again. And they were my choices. That was the whole point, Sariel."

The creature known as Sariel bowed its head. "Apologies. I'll refrain from bringing it up in the future."

"Which means you're going to bring it up again tomorrow, aren't you?"

Sariel smiled again. "You know me entirely too well, sibling."

Shinki sighed. "You know, for someone who still hasn't given up on the whole Archangel thing, you sure do enjoy annoying people, you know…" Then she frowned. A sharp buzzing was raising the hairs on the back of her neck, signaling that the magical energies within the room were changing.

"Oh hell, it's her," she growled. "Speaking of annoying…"

A yellow mist came into being in the air, about five feet from the ground and ten feet away from the throne. Within the mist a face came into view, the face of one of the only people that Shinki came close to actually hating.

"What do you want?" she demanded of Yukari's floating visage. "And this better be good."

"Hello Shinki," Yukari said. "We need to talk."

Shinki rolled her eyes. She exchanged a look with Sariel, who was watching the proceedings with evident interest.

"I'm quite certain that we don't," Shinki told her. "In fact, I'm also quite certain that we never do."

"Oh, I disagree," Yukari said. "This is about the Shadow Youkai."

Rage ignited within the Queen of Makai. Her purple robe burst into scarlet flame as she leapt to her feet. "What? What does it take to convince you that I had nothing to do with that?" she roared. "Will you just leave me alone already?"

Sariel gripped her by the arm. "Calm down, sibling," it murmured. "Calm down please."

Shinki ignored it. "What is with you? You're like a hellhound with a bone. My bone! Just let it rest and go do something actually productive instead of chasing paranoid fantasies!"

Yukari's hand appeared within the mist to reach up and scratch her cheek. "Hmmm, yes. Well, unfortunately something has just come up."

The flames surrounding her robes reached up to frame Shinki's face. "Then go deal with that instead of bothering me!"

"I am dealing with it. You see, last night this crisis took an unexpected turn. We managed to recover the Shadow Youkai's sword."

"Oh?" Shinki spat. "How clever of you. Now, why don't you make use of it and introduce it to your intestines?"

Sariel sighed. "Sibling…"

"Things are not nearly that bad yet," Yukari said. "And actually, I wanted you to take a look at it for me. If you have the time, of course."

"I don't. I never have, not for you."

"Oh, I think you'll change your mind. Please, have a look."

The mists expanded, revealing Yukari's full form. Shinki's lips pressed even tighter together. Yukari winked at her and stepped to one side. She gestured like a showman to an object hovering behind her.

It was a stone slab, about five feet tall. And strapped to the slab was a hideous looking blade that Shinki recalled catching glimpses of in the gathered memories Yukari had shared with the Ringleaders.

Shinki scowled. The flames surrounding her robes extinguished as she sat back down. "Oh, look at that. Or rather, let's not. It offends my sensibilities. But what of it, Yukari? I still have no idea where it-Ow, stop it!"

This last remark was directed toward Sariel, who had suddenly grabbed Shinki's wrist in an iron grip. Shinki looked at it in puzzlement. Despite not having anything in the way of blood, Sariel's normally pale face seemed to have lost even more pigment as it stared at the sword with more shock on its face than Shinki ever recalled seeing.

"My sibling, look at the hilt," Sariel said in a soft voice. It pointed at the hilt in question, and then its finger slowly rose up the blade. "Now follow my finger. Look beyond those abominable blades…"

"Is that Sariel's voice I hear?" Yukari said. "Excellent! Glad to hear you're still serving as Shinki's voice of reason."

Shinki ignored her. She squinted at the sword as her eyes followed the path of Sariel's finger. For a moment she couldn't understand what her sibling was talking about.

And then she got it.

It felt like her heart had exploded in her chest. She quite literally couldn't move, the shock was too great. Her fingers dug into the armrests, nearly cracking the stone beneath them. Her eyes were wide open and her mouth was hanging slack.

"By George, I think she's got it," Yukari said in an amused tone. "Now, tell me something Shinki: are you absolutely certain there is nothing you can tell me about the Shadow Youkai?"

"I…I…" Shinki tried to compose herself and come up with an adequate response. "This…this isn't real. This is a trick. Yes, you fabricated that sword…That's the only…"

Yukari arched an eyebrow. "If that's what you believe, then you're more than welcome to examine the weapon itself. If, of course, we have permission to pop in."

"We?"

"Yes, me and Reimu." The mist expanded once again, showing that the red-clad shrine maiden was indeed standing nearby. For her part, Reimu seemed surprised and uncomfortable at being singled out."

"Oh," she said. "Uh, hi there Shinki. How's it going?"

Shinki growled. "If you think you can just use this as an excuse to barge into my domain-"

"Sibling, hush," Sariel murmured. To Yukari, it said, "Of course. We will provide any aid we are able. We only ask that you give us five minutes before coming over. I believe Shinki would like to yell at me for a bit."

"Of course," Yukari said with an infuriating smile. "Try not to hurt each other too badly. See you in five."

The mist suddenly contracted and burst into slowly falling yellow sparks.

"Are you insane?" Shinki demanded. "You just invited that woman into my throne room! Don't you realize how difficult it was to make her agree not to pop in whenever she was-"

"Sibling, listen. This is important. Did you not notice who that sword once belonged to?"

There was no mistaking the urgency in Sariel's voice. As her sibling was usually the levelheaded of the two, hearing it sound so worried derailed Shinki's indignation. "What? No, I can't say that I…"

"Azrael, sibling. That was Azrael's blade."

The name hit Shinki with more force than the shock of recognizing the blade had. She slowly sank into her throne as the implications of what she had just learned rose in her mind.

"No," she whispered. She leaned forward and buried her face in her hands. "No, no, no…"

…

Deep Within

Rumia sighed as she stared at the screen. On it, jumbled shapes, barely recognizable as the stones, dirt clumps and roots they were, were being pushed aside as Rin moved her body steadily forward. It was the same view they had been staring at for several hours.

"Are we there yet?" she said.

"No," Rin said automatically, not taking her eyes off the screen.

Travelling to Hakurei Shrine had proved to be more complicated than both Rin and Rumia had predicted. Under normal circumstances, it would only have taken them about half a day, tops. Unfortunately, the fact that they had to avoid being seen had slowed them down considerably.

With that came the second problem. Plants were continuing to die wherever Rin went, which left a clear trail for their pursuers. It hadn't been much of a problem when they had stuck to more arid areas, but unfortunately the entire area surrounding Hakurei Shrine was lush with foliage. Of course, they could always try approaching from the sky, but given how many people were flying around that would only increase their odds of being seen.

And so they had opted for the opposite and started burrowing under the ground. Rin put the vast destructive powers at her disposal to work disintegrating the earth before them while slowly propelling herself forward. There was considerably less chance of running into anyone, but there was the added problem of not being able to see where they were going. As such, Rin had faced Hakurei Shrine's general direction and then proceeded forward the best she could. They had to surface every now and then to check on their progress, which was always nerve-wracking. Thus far they had not surprised (and been surprised by) anyone, but it really only had to happen once.

In the meantime though, there was a long amount of time spent just digging. And Rumia, already nervous, was now growing bored and impatient.

"Are we almost there at least?"

"I don't know," Rin said. "Do you want me to check again?"

Rumia thought about this but shook her head. They had already done that five minutes ago and found themselves to be in a rice field. She couldn't help but wonder what the farmer's reaction was going to be when he found a huge black spot of dead rice.

"No, too risky. Just…I don't know. Hurry up or something."

"Going as fast as I can," Rin said. "This isn't easy, you know. Not being able to see where I'm going."

Rumia sighed, mainly because Rin was right. "All right, all right. I'll leave you alone now."

"Thank you."

Rumia let herself fall back. She stared upward at the nothing that surrounded them at all sides. Despite the fact that Hakurei Shrine was one of the most dangerous places for them to be, she found herself impatiently desiring the journey to be over. It was almost as if her mind felt that the boredom she was experiencing was worse than the sheer terror she would be experiencing if Reimu Hakurei caught them.

And then suddenly, it was over. For that moment at least.

Rin let out a small squeak of surprise as they came out into open air. Rumia scrambled to her feet as Rin braked hard, bringing her physical body to a sudden stop.

They had emerged in a small dirt alcove in what appeared to be in the side of a hill. Roots from an outside tree twisted around the walls and provided support. Several small instances of graffiti from the various youkai and fairies that had used the alcove at one time or another were carved into the roots, though they became almost impossible to see when most of the roots withered and died in Rin's presence.

They weren't alone either. Two mouse youkai, a male in red pants and a female in a filly, polka-dot skirt, were crouching nearby and staring at Rin with wide eyes. Apparently her sudden appearance had startled them, though they had yet to flee. Perhaps they were wondering if they this strange glowing newcomer was good to eat, though considering what Rin had done to the tree roots that would be a stupid idea.

Rin looked at Rumia. Her large, blue eyes were even wider with panic. "What do I do? I can't use my evil killer powers on them! Do I just go back?"

"Um, what about Miss Mokou?"

"What?"

"You've got Fujiwhatshername no Mokou's powers too, right? She uses a lot of fire. So you can use it too!"

"Oh! Good idea!"

A glaring light suddenly filled the screen. Accompanying it was a loud whooshing noise. At first, Rumia assumed that the two mice were in the process of being reduced to cinders, but then through the glare she could see two hazy shapes fleeing the alcove, so Rin must have just shot flames in their direction to scare them. Nice of her, but it did mean that they were risking having those two tell others of the encounter. Of course that would end up happening anyway once they resurrected, but at least that would give Rin some time to clear the premises.

"Ha! You're right, it worked!" Rin said with a satisfied smirk.

It was then that Rumia noticed something odd. Not only had the flames not going away, but they didn't seem to be anywhere except directly in front of them. Though the rest of the alcove was hard to make out, it didn't seem to be on fire.

"Rin…" Rumia said slowly.

"Yeah?"

"Did you just set yourself on fire?"

"Yeah!"

"…why?"

Rin looked confused. The flames disappeared immediately. "What do you mean? You told me to!"

"I told you to use the fire on them, to set them on fire, not yourself!" Rumia shouted.

Rin looked horrified. "What? Why would I do that?"

Rumia rolled her eyes. "Well gee, I don't know. Maybe because we we're wanted fugitives! We don't need people blowing our location!"

With a slow shake of her head, Rin said, "That's no reason to just up and kill them! They probably don't even know who we are."

"Is that so."

"Yeah, that's so!"

Now it was Rumia's turn to shake her head. "Let me tell you something, Rin. This nice girl attitude you've got going has got to go. You're not in your nice little mansion in the Bamboo Forest anymore. You're in the real world now, the wild world. And as someone who's lived in this world all her life, I can tell you straight up that the people here will not think twice about eating you if they can."

"Except they can't," Rin pointed out.

"Beside the point. Even if they can't, they can go give us up to someone who can! Like, oh I don't know, maybe Yukari?"

Rin frowned. "What is it with people in my head telling me to kill other people?" And before Rumia could voice an indignant reply, Rin added, "And I fought your evil alter ego to the death and won, remember? I'll fight if I have to. I'm just not going to go killing everything that gets in my way! That's the sort of thing that she would…" Rin's voice trailed off. She looked puzzled.

"She? Who are you…Oh, Evil-Me." Rumia rolled her eyes. "Fine. Go make nice with all the predators out there. Just don't come crying to me when it ends us up in a cage. But for now, can we just go already?"

Rin didn't answer. She just tilted her head and kept frowning. It looked like she was listening to something.

"Rin? Hey, Rin? Rin Satsuki?" Rumia waved her hand in front of Rin's face. When that failed to produce a response, she clapped her hands in front of Rin's nose. "Hey!"

"What?" Rin said with a start. "Oh, sorry. I just think I heard something say your name."

"Say my…Huh?"

"Outside." Rin gestured toward the screen. "I've got the combined senses of four different people, so I can hear pretty well. And I think someone's talking about you outside."

Rumia slapped her palm against her face in exasperation. "Oh, for the gods' sake! What did I just get done telling you?"

"I don't think it's the mice. In fact, it actually sounds…a little familiar…"

"Familiar? That's even worse!"

"Not that kind of familiar. Not one of our pursuers familiar. More like something I got from your memories."

Now Rumia felt completely lost.

"I wonder…" Rin muttered. The view on the screen jolted as her physical body pulled itself fully out of the dirt. It started to move toward the outside.

"Rin? Uh, bad idea Rin," Rumia said. "Seriously, this is a really freaking bad idea! We don't need to know…Rin!"

Rin didn't even acknowledge her. She just kept moving forward. Her frown remained frozen in place while her eyes darted from one end of the screen to the other, as if she were searching for something.

"Rin, snap out of it," Rumia said. They were now fully out of the alcove and moving up the hill. Flowers and tall grass shriveled as they drew close. "Rin, seriously. This is stupid. Go back in the hill. We're right in the open now. Rin…"

"Rumia, quiet," Rin said. Her eyes didn't leave the screen.

Rumia wanted to strangle her. "What the hell's wrong with you? Don't tell me to be quiet! Get your scary-ass…ass down the hill and back into that cave!"

"In a minute. But for now, listen."

"Listen? Listen to what?"

Rin pointed. Against her better nature, Rumia turned her attention toward the screen. When she saw who Rin was talking about her anger was almost forgotten, replaced by surprise and recognition.

Rin had concealed her body behind a large stone. Beyond, three fairies were gathered near the top of the hill and were engaging in conversation. The first and apparently the leader of the group was wearing a red and white dress and had her short wheat-colored hair tied into two pigtails. The second's dress was also contained the color white, but she preferred black as a secondary color. Her golden hair was done up in spiraling curls. The third was dressed in blue and wore her midnight black hair long and straight.

The three fairies seemed to be suited up for some kind of expedition. The leader was holding a musket that looked so old that Rumia doubted that it was still in working order. The golden-haired one carried a large butterfly net over one shoulder and the dark-haired one was trying to pry open something that looked like a miniature bear trap.

"Hey, wait, I do know those guys!" Rumia exclaimed. "The one with the gun is Sunny Milk, the one that looks like she's going bug-catching is named Lunar Child, and that one that's about to lose her hand in that trap is Star Sapphire! They're another gang that sometimes helps us out on missions and stuff."

"I knew I recognized them from somewhere," Rin muttered. "Even if my recognition was really yours. But that's not why I came over here. Listen to what they're saying."

Now interested despite her previous protests, Rumia did so. Sunny Milk was speaking, her voice distorted as it was filtered through Rin's constructed ears.

"…and I after that, I'm going to go get me my very own chocolate mansion!" she exclaimed excitedly. "Think about it! A whole mansion, made entirely of chocolate. Chocolate stairways, chocolate garden, chocolate swimming pool filled with melted chocolate! Great place to live, and whenever I get the craving for chocolate-"

"Which is all the time," Lunar pointed out.

"Right! And it'll be right there! I'll have to buy some spells to keep it from getting sticky or melting, but that shouldn't be a problem."

Behind Lunar, Star had managed to pry the jaws of the bear trap halfway open. Arms trembling, she tried to push it down all the way. Then her fingers slipped and the jaws snapped shut. She leapt back with a startled cry, barely managing to avoid having her fingers severed right off her hand. She scowled and gave the trap a frustrated kick. "Stupid piece of junk," she muttered. "Why do I always get stuck with the loser equipment? And there's no way you'll be able to afford all that with just one-third of the bounty. Heck, I don't think the full amount would be enough!"

Rin shot a confused look over to Rumia. "Bounty?" she whispered.

"Yeah, you know. People want to get other people but can't do it themselves," Rumia whispered back. "So they offer money to some other people to do it for them, and whoever gets the first other people first gets the money."

"I know what a bounty is, dork. I was just wondering who they were after."

Rumia rolled her eyes. "Three guesses, Rin, and the first two don't count. Didn't I say this was a bad idea? And why are we whispering?"

"I dunno, it feels appropriate. And it might not be us," Rin protested. "Just because there's a lot of people that want to get us doesn't mean that there's no other wanted people in Gensokyo. Besides, I think Eirin and Yukari Yakumo would want to keep us a secret to avoid-"

"If we catch this blob monster quickly, there will be more!" Sunny declared. "I mean, Yuuka Kazami's bonus on top of Cirno's bounty? And there'll probably be more than that! I mean, she wants Rumia back really, really badly."

"Oh," Rin said. Her shoulders slumped. "Never mind." Then she frowned. "Wait, did she say Cirno?"

Rumia buried her face in her hands. "Yes," she muttered. "Why?"

"Oh, just wondering," Rin said. For some reason she sounded relieved. Normally Rumia would be asking why, but at the moment she had other things on her mind.

While learning that Cirno cared and was desperately trying to save her, the ice-fairy's actions were going to do much more harm than good. It was bad enough that people like Reimu, Yukari and Eirin were after them. Now they had to worry about complete strangers and as well.

Then something occurred to her. "Wait," she said with a frown. "D-did she also say Yuuka Kazami?"

"Um, yeah," Rin said. "Isn't that supposed to be some kind of scary monster lady?"

Rumia stared at her. "Um, yeah, there's no way in hell I can answer that question right now. We need to get back underground. Now."

"You know, maybe if we hand it over to Yukari Yakumo instead, we can get more," Lunar wondered. "I hear she's after this thing too. And she might have more money."

Sunny whacked her upside the head. "Idiot! Like she'd pay us anything! Besides, Cirno will kill us! Remember Rumia?"

"Rin! Now!" Rumia shouted. "Star can sense nearby motion! It's a miracle she hasn't noticed us already!"

"Hang on, I want to hear more," Rin said in that infuriatingly vague voice of hers. "How many people know about this-"

"Hey guys, I think something's watching us," Star said, her head perking up. She looked over to the boulder. "There's something moving over there."

"Move it, moron!" Rumia screamed. She grabbed Rin by the shoulders and started shaking her.

Rumia's panic seemed to snap Rin out of her hesitation. "Okay, okay, we're leaving!"

To Rumia's relief, the view on the screen lurched and turned around as Rin started to crawl back down the hill. But then the shouting started.

"Wait, you're right! There's something there!" Sunny started shouting.

"Oh wow, what is that?" Lunar added.

"It's the monster!" Sunny screamed. "Shoot it, shoot it!"

There was the sound of bullets and minor spells being fired off. Small flashes of light burst to either of the screen as some of the attacks missed their mark, though there were enough muffled thuds to indicate that some of them were making impact. While it was far from enough to actually hurt Rin, it was enough to motivate her to start hurrying. But instead of heading toward the alcove, she instead soared up into the air, almost to the treetops, and plunged back down. Even though she was no stranger to aerial acrobatics, Rumia couldn't help but flinch as the ground rushed up to meet them.

And then there was nothing but earth as Rin burrowed deeper and deeper.

Rin breathed a sigh of relief. She turned to Rumia, a wide smile on her face. This however died when she saw Rumia glaring at her furiously.

"Rin," Rumia said slowly. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't just kill you now and save Miss Yukari the trouble."

"Um, I think that might actually be impossible. Your psyche…mind…thing isn't strong enough to-"

Rumia swung at Rin's face. To her partial surprise, this time Rin didn't fade before contact. Her fist connected with Rin's nose with a satisfying squishing sound and Rin was knocked onto her back. Rin blinked and touched her nose. Then she looked up at Rin with confused eyes.

Rumia crouched over Rin, her pointed teeth bared in anger. "Listen to me, idiot," she hissed. "I don't care how smart you are. I don't care how many books you've read and how many tests you've aced. I don't care how powerful you are and what you can do. You. Are not. A predator! I am! Been one all my life! So I'm the only one who knows how to keep us alive! And so long as I'm stuck sharing the same space as you, you are going to listen to me when I tell you that you're doing something stupid! Do you understand me?"

Rin quickly nodded. Then she seemed to rethink this and shook her head.

"I'm sorry, what was that?" Rumia grabbed Rin by the armpits and hoisted her up. "Was that a 'No'? I really hope not. Because then we have a-"

Rin faded out of Rumia's grasp. She reappeared several steps away. Rumia felt like screaming.

"What's wrong with you?" she yelled. "Have you completely flipped? Do you want to die horribly?"

Rin gingerly poked at her nose. She grimaced. "Rumia, calm down already," she said. "We're fine."

"No we're not! Nothing about this is fine! Did your common sense forget to revive with the rest of you?"

"Okay, but freaking out and hitting me…And by the way, ow!...isn't going to help."

Rumia started to growl. Her fingers curled into claws. She was suddenly glad that Rin had recovered those memories of her more savage days. She had a feeling that they were about to come in handy. "Neither will going right out in the open every time you want to eavesdrop! And hey, neither will heading straight into the favorite hiding place of the people that want to kill us!"

"This again," Rin sighed. "Rumia, look. I told you already. We need information. And that's the only place we know of where to look."

"Why?" Rumia demanded. "We already knew my other-self was evil. What difference does it make for us where she came from? It's not like us knowing will make them want to kill us any less. They already know everything! We won't be giving them anything new! Seriously Rin, why is it so important that we find out where Evil-Me came from?"

…

Reimu stared at the tear in reality that hovered before her. She would be lying if she said that she didn't feel at least a little apprehensive. Though she had been through the Borderlands a number of times, she wasn't exactly enthused about their destination. Going to Makai was one thing. Going straight to Shinki's throne room was something else.

"Um, are you sure this is a good idea?" Reimu said as Yukari hovered the stone slab carrying the sword of the Shadow Youkai toward the gap. "Because last time I was at Pandemonium I really didn't leave a good impression."

"I know," Yukari said. She seemed almost proud of Reimu. "But don't worry about it. She won't do anything to you."

"Why, because she'll be too busy doing it to you?"

"Quick learner," Yukari said, looking pleased. "But my offer stands. Feel free to sit this one out if she scares you."

Reimu fumed. Even though she knew that Yukari was deliberately invoking her pride to get her to come along, she also knew that it was going to work.

"Low blow, Yukari," she said.

"Yes, I know," Yukari said pleasantly. She turned back to the gap. "Come along now. The Queen of the Infernal Flames of Hell is expecting us."

Reimu's right hand twitched. She wanted to slam a fistful of ofuda right into Yukari's back. Or maybe just her fist. But in a rare display of self-control, she restrained her violent urges and followed.

Yukari and the slab went first. As soon as they passed over the boundary, it was as if something sucked them inside and they quickly disappeared.

"I have a bad feeling about this," Reimu muttered. Then she stepped through the gap.

It was if something had seized her by every point on her body and pulled her forward. She had a brief but intense feeling of falling through a loud and windy tunnel.

And then she was stumbling across smooth warm stones. She regained her balance and looked around.

Black obsidian, shot through with glowing red cracks. Twisting pillars. Silent fire flickering along the edges of the room. A huge throne at the far end, in the shape of a massive winged serpent. And standing in front of it and speaking to Yukari were two tall people, one of them someone that Reimu would be quite fine with never seeing again and the other someone that she had quite expected to never see again. Both were similar in that they had six wings apiece curving from her shoulders, long white hair and their regal bearing, but the wings of the first were purple and batlike and the person herself was quite obviously female, while the wings of the second were composed of pure white feathers with the specific gender of their owner being too ambiguous to tell.

Reimu cleared her throat. "So, uh, Shinki! And Sariel. Good to see you guys again. Been a while."

Shinki glared at her and looked away, as if Reimu were beneath her notice. Sariel, however, smiled warmly.

"Reimu," she (or he? It was impossible to tell) said. Reimu blinked. This was the first time she had heard Sariel speak. Its voice was strange: ethereal and not entirely there, if such a thing were possible. It was almost as if she were hearing it with her mind instead of her ears. "Welcome. I had not expected to see you again so soon."

"What? I haven't seen you since I was a kid!"

"As I said, so soon." The Angel's eyes fell to the slab hovering at Yukari's side, and the sword sitting upon it. "Though I regret that the circumstances are so unfortunate."

"Unfortunate, yes," Yukari muttered. "That is one way to put it. A bit of an understatement if you ask me. And now that you've had the chance to see the sword for yourself, I think we can all agree that this blade is authentic, yet? This is one of yours."

"No, not ours specifically," Sariel said. "Both of our blades are accounted for. Mine is right here, as you can see."

The Angel indicated the elegant silver sword that she (Reimu was pretty sure it was a she) wore at the hip.

"Um, that really doesn't look anything like that monstrosity over there," Reimu said.

"Look at the hilts," Yukari said. "Color pattern aside, they're identical. And now look at the core of the Shadow Youkai's blade."

Shinki folded her arms and turned away.

Reimu frowned. Now that Yukari mentioned it, they were similar. It was as if someone had taken Sariel's sword, welded an entire box of sharp metal to the blade and dumped the whole thing into thick, black oil. The only bit of color to be found was the large round gem set in the cross grip. Though the stone itself was as black as the rest of the sword, from within came a pulsing red light.

"What's that?" Reimu said. She pointed at the stone. "Why's it blinking?"

"It's calling out to its master," Yukari told her.

Reimu blinked. "You mean the Shadow Youkai? It's calling for her?"

"So it would seem," Yukari muttered. "Fortunately, Rumia doesn't seem to have answered. Which probably means that she has yet to fully take control of Rin Satsuki. That buys us some time, but that's not the subject at hand. Is it, Shinki?"

Shinki's shoulders slumped but she didn't turn or acknowledge Yukari's question in any way.

"Did you hear me, oh Mistress of the Eternal Flames?" Yukari said. "What is the sword of a Fallen Angel doing in my country? I thought I had an agreement with you people. I gave sanctuary to you and your sibling, and in return I wasn't to be bothered with the rest of your kind." She gestured to the sword. "However, I'm finding that this bothers me. Quite a bit, in fact."

Reimu frowned. Sibling?

Though Shinki was the once addressed, it was Sariel who answered. "This blade's presence is not our doing. It did not come with us. I for one am as befuddled as you are."

"Oh, really?" Yukari said. "Well, that would be a relief, if it weren't for the fact that it's not. Surely you can agree that having an Archangel's sword, and an extremely corrupted one at that, show up out of nowhere in my country and being wielded by a growing avatar is somewhat suspect, yes? Especially since I've already got two ex-Archangels hanging about."

"Two?" Reimu said. She looked at Shinki. "Wait, you're a Fallen Angel too?"

This time Shinki did speak. "What gave it away?" she said with her back still facing the others. "The six wings, perhaps?"

"Yeah, but they're way different from hers," Reimu said, pointing at Sariel. "I mean, hers are all feathery and stuff! Yours are more…I dunno, demonic."

Shinki laughed bitterly but didn't answer. Sariel said, "I am not a 'she'."

"Oh, sorry. No offense, but it's kinda hard to tell. His wings then."

"I am not a 'he' either."

"I…" Reimu blinked. "Um, that's the only possibilities I was aware of. Unless Angel reproduction is way more complicated than ours. Or you're a…you know…person with a foot in both camps."

Yukari snickered at that. "Angels are sexless," she explained. "They are neither male nor female. They do not reproduce as humans do, and their bodies are not directly based upon humans as fairies and youkai are. If anything, the inverse is true. But concepts like gender were invented solely for mortals."

Reimu's face twisted in confusion. She looked at Yukari and stuck her thumb at Shinki, as if to say "But she's got boobs!"

"My sibling chose to forsake her true Angelic form upon being exiled from the Silver City," Sariel explained. "As such, she acquired a body with mortal characteristics. Though she does not age nor die, she now eats, sleeps, breathes as you do. And with this, she has taken on a gender. But as for myself, I chose to remain as I was created. As such, being referred to as 'he' or 'she' is grossly inaccurate. If you must refer to me with a pronoun, please us 'it'. I know that most humans would consider this rude, but it is at least accurate, and far less insulting as 'he' or 'he'."

"I...Okay." Reimu pressed her fingertips against her forehead and groaned. "Look, I know you guys are already in the know about all this stuff about Fallen Angels, swords, mortal forms, genders and Angels that don't have parents but are siblings somehow and whatever, but as hard as I'm trying to keep up with all of this, I'm really starting to get a headache. So for the benefit for the poor, ignorant human who's probably gonna be in the middle of this mess and risking her very much mortal life, what say we start from the beginning?"

"A fair enough request," Yukari said. "After all, I did bring you along to learn. What say you two?"

Sariel looked over to Shinki. "My sibling?"

Shinki sighed. She walked over to her throne and collapsed into its seat. "Why not?" she muttered. "Go ahead."

"Thank you," Yukari said. "Though since this promises to be a long story, some place to sit would not go unappreciated."

Shinki flicked one wrist halfheartedly. The black stone of the floor suddenly heaved up in two places, forming itself into what looked like a pair of matching stone armchairs.

"Again. Thank you," Yukari said. She sat down and crossed her legs. Reimu gingerly sat in her own chair. Despite being made from warm obsidian, it was surprisingly comfortable. She wondered if it was due to proper body distribution or Shinki's magic.

The only person who remained standing was Sariel. Given Shinki's obvious bad mood, it appeared that it would be doing the majority of the storytelling. "It is difficult to know where to begin," it admitted. "It is so rare that we have to explain this to someone with no previous knowledge. Reimu Hakurei, how much do you know about our kind?"

"What, Angels?" Reimu shrugged. "The real ones? Not a whole lot. There're a few Christians over in the Human Village, but I've never talked to them. And they're the only ones I know who have anything to do with you guys. Aren't you supposed to be some kind of servants for one of the big gods in the Outside World?"

"That is…an incredibly simplified way of putting it. But yes, it is our duty to serve our Creator and obey His commands."

"Wait a minute, so he really is a 'he' after all? So he gets a gender and you guys don't? I mean, I know our gods have men and women, but you were starting to make me think that you Western types were all into androgyny. Come on, at least be consistent."

"He," Sariel said.

"Say what?"

"Do not refer to Him as he. Refer to Him as He. With a capital H."

"What?" Reimu exploded. "How in the flying hell am I supposed to pronounce a capital letter? And how can you tell if I am pronouncing a capital letter? It all sounds exactly the same!"

"Shut up, both of you," Yukari snapped. "I've had it up to here with these meetings dissolving into pointless bickering. We are not here to debate theology, we are here to address the threat at hand. So I'll thank you to stick only to relevant information."

"It started it," Reimu muttered, but she didn't press the matter.

Despite itself, Sariel looked somewhat abashed. "Of course. My apologies. Old habits die hard, even after all this time. But you are correct in that we are the servants of the Creator."

"Huh. That's kind of in the past tense now, isn't it?"

A small, sad smile appeared on Sariel's face. "Yes. Unfortunately, a long time ago, a…significant number of our kind started to question our literal God-given roles and decided to express their disagreement. Through outright rebellion."

Reimu nodded. "Okay, yeah. This I know. A bunch of Angels tried to take over and got their asses kicked. Then they got kicked out and started making trouble for mortals." At Yukari and Sariel's surprised looks, she shrugged and said, "What? I read. There's a whole mess of books that mention it."

"Again, an oversimplified recounting of the actual event," Sariel said. "But yes, many of us united under a powerful and charismatic leader and attempted a coup. Their reasons for doing so differed from Angel to Angel, ranging from being convinced that they were truly doing the right thing to a simple desire for power."

"And where'd you guys fit in?" Reimu asked. "I mean, you guys obviously got yourselves all fallen. Why'd you do it?"

Surprisingly, it was Shinki that answered. She shifted herself partway out of her slouch and murmured, "Actually, while I certainly rebelled with the others, Sariel was not among our number."

"Indeed," Sariel said. "My own exile…came later, though the circumstances were related."

"Yeah? And what's that?"

"I disobeyed a direct order. As such, I was stripped of my rank and responsibilities. Your kind would call it being dishonorably discharged."

"Okay, fine. But why?" Reimu pressed. "What did they want you to do?"

"They wanted Sariel to eliminate me," Shinki said. "They believed that our previous close relationship made it the best person for the job." A wry smile appeared on her lips. "Obviously the one who gave that order did not take into account that that very relationship would make it reluctant to attack its sibling."

"Jeez, Angels are just as messed up as we are," Reimu muttered. She turned to Yukari. "Are these the wonderful and holy beings of light everyone keeps going all gaga about? Seems kind of a letdown if you ask me."

Yukari smiled. "See? We can agree on something."

Reimu's face soured. She turned away.

Sariel shook its head. "Despite what the stories may have led you to believe, Angels are imperfect beings as well. Otherwise, the Rebellion would never have happened. But while we may not err to the same degree as mortals and their brethren, when we do, the results are much more catastrophic."

"Yeah, no kidding. Good going, guys. Really appreciated. But okay, so you got kicked out because you didn't want to kick Shinki's ass. Fair enough, I wouldn't want to either. But what about her? Why'd she throw in with the bad guys?"

"She…ah…" Sariel turned to Shinki. "Well, as she continuously points out, my opinions of that situation are somewhat biased. So perhaps it would be best if she explained it herself."

Shinki looked uncomfortable. "Is this really important? After all, I am not the one-"

"Tell her, Shinki," Yukari said. The ancient youkai was obviously enjoying the situation immensely. If her smile were any smugger, Reimu would become tempted to punch it off just on general principles.

"Fine," Shinki snapped. "You've obviously got me on a noose here. My reason was that I did not like how things were being run. I felt that if an all-powerful Creator was going to create intelligent beings lesser than Him, He should at least approach them on their level, instead of sitting on His throne being all omnipotent and dictating things without explanation."

"Which He ended up doing," Sariel pointed out.

Shinki waved that off. "Not remotely what I had in mind, and that happened centuries after anyway. But still, I do admit that the Rebellion was a colossally bad idea. Like many others, I was led to believe that once we were in power, things would be different for Angels and mortals alike. Things would be better, with none of this hierarchy based upon factors that we could not even control, that we would be able to choose for ourselves what functions we fulfilled. But come to find out that the only point for the Rebellion was the power. The leader, the Archangel that started the whole mess, didn't give two yen about improving life for lesser beings. It just wanted to see what the view was like from the top of the mountain."

"So, what'd you do?" Reimu asked. Despite the fact that she still wasn't entirely clear on what this had to do with the Shadow Youkai, she was growing fascinated. While she had heard tales of the Angels' Rebellion and their fall, this was the first she had heard a firsthand account.

"What did I do? I betrayed the betrayers. I left them and fled. I thought that the Archangels would be too busy squashing the remainder of the Rebellion to notice. I was wrong."

"And then Sariel was sent after you," Reimu said, putting the pieces together. "She…Sorry, it refused, and got kicked out."

"Correct. That was actually what led me to surrender myself," Shinki said. "It did not seem right that Sariel should suffer for my sins. I gave myself up and offered information on the other renegades' whereabouts. I thought that by doing so, they would have mercy on Sariel."

Reimu eyed Sariel. "But seeing how it's standing right here in a place that's kind of a Hell, I take it things didn't work out."

"Not necessarily," Sariel said. "My eviction from my post was permanent. And Shinki's own actions ensured that she would never be welcomed back into the Silver City. In fact, there was talk of sending us both into the Abyss."

"The where?"

"Angel Hell," Yukari muttered. "The original, to be specific. Far less nice than this place."

"Ah. Got it. That sucks."

Sariel nodded. "Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed. Michael, our commander, intervened and had our sentences lessened. Instead of being damned, she was simply exiled from the Silver City, never to return." It bowed its head. "I was sent with her, to keep an eye on her make sure she never fell back to her old habits. That's was the official reason, at least. In truth, I was as much an exile as she was."

"That…doesn't sound too bad."

"So says someone who's never been there," Shinki said. A ripple of pain passed over her face. "It's where we came into existence. As such, it is quite literally a part of us. Imagine, Reimu, to be forcefully ejected from Gensokyo for eternity into a harsh wasteland of utter darkness, never again to feel the warm sun on your face or the grass beneath your feet. You would be cut off from the magic of this place, cut off from its light, never again to have peace of mind. That's what it's like. Only much, much worse."

For once, Reimu didn't have a smartass reply. She just found something on the ground to stare at and fidgeted uncomfortably.

"And I suppose you can figure out the rest," Yukari said. "Some time later, the Creator the Angels serve was growing in popularity among Humans, and as such they were forsaking their beliefs in their native gods and spirits. Without an influx of faith, the gods were quickly losing strength and the spirits, including youkai such as myself, were risking extinction. And so I struck a deal. We would be allowed to make a sanctuary of our own, one that any so-called 'Pagan' principality" Yukari signed quotation marks with her fingers "could dwell without fear of being wiped out by this foreign religion. The agreement was that once this happened, we would have nothing to do with the inhabitants of the Silver City and their Creator, and they would have nothing to do with us. We would mind our own business and do our best to pretend that the other didn't exist." She gestured toward the two Fallen Angels. "Of course, these two figured that since they were exiles, that meant they could apply for citizenship. They appealed to me for asylum, but I wasn't too hot about giving it. The last thing I needed was a couple of the Silver City's war criminals. But to make another long story short, disagreements were made, compromises were struck, and they were allowed in. Shinki then decided that she wanted to try her hand at this whole Creator business, and I needed someone to run Makai, so I gave her the keys and the rest is history."

Reimu sat and pondered what she had just learned. There was no denying that she had been ignorant of this bit of Gensokyo's history. And now that she was in the know, she wasn't exactly sure how she felt about all the celestial politics involved. In fact, as interesting as the story had been, she had a feeling that she might have been happier remaining unaware that the country she loved and protected was in many ways a supernatural refugee camp. It was…disquieting.

Still, there would be time for disillusionment later. Right now there was a more immediate issue to deal with. "Okay," she said. "That was…a pretty cool story and all. But there's something I kinda need clearing up." She jumped to her feet and thrust a finger at the Shadow Youkai's sword. "What the hell is that thing and how did it get here?"

Sariel looked surprised. It exchanged a look with Shinki. "She's right. Goodness, haven't we gotten away from the main point."

"Not really," Shinki said. "It was more of providing background. Giving her a frame of reference. And to answer your question Reimu, you do recall the part I mentioned about how I forsook the Rebellion?" At Reimu's nod Shinki continued. "Well, I wasn't the only one to do so. Some of the others had come to their senses, much as I did. Others became impatient with the way we were doing things and felt they could do better. Ironic, considering that was why we had rebelled in the first place." She took a deep breath. "And then there was Azrael."

To Reimu's surprise, Yukari didn't react to this new bit of information with the air of smug superiority she had been radiating this whole conversation. Rather, her eyes bulged open and she leapt to her feet with a startled gasp. "A-A-Azrael?" she stuttered. "This thing is Azrael's?"

Reimu, however, was just confused. "As a rail? Who's like a rail?"

"Azrael," Sariel corrected. Just saying the name seemed to make it uncomfortable. "One of the Angels who rebelled. And one of my siblings, as Shinki is."

"And to answer the question that you've no doubt been wanting to ask this whole time, no, we are not siblings in the way humans judge the word," Shinki said. "After all, we do not have parents. To us, a sibling is another Angel who serves the same function. We worked closely together and as such, developed very close relationships."

"Okay, fair enough," Reimu said. "So what was you guys' jobs?"

"Angels of Death," Sariel said.

Reimu made a choking noise in the back of her throat. She got in under control and managed to say, "Oh…Kay…"

"It's not as horrible as the word seems to imply," Sariel said. "Our function is…or as I should say, was to assist mortal souls as they transcended from one life to the next. Not too dissimilar from what your Shinigami do, actually. Though on rare occasions, we would have to step in and end a mortal's life prematurely for any number of reasons, but those were in extreme situations." The Fallen Angel's perfect brow wrinkled in a frown. "Though I have to admit, we've had to do this more often with Humans than any other people. You truly are a rambunctious bunch."

"Up yours," Reimu growled.

"I don't have one."

Yukari, who was only now recovering from her shock, grew angry. "I said no bickering!" she snapped. "Azrael. Stick to Azrael."

"Right. Of course. And I apologize, Reimu. As I have just finished explaining, my kind is capable of far worse things than yours ever will be. But as I said, Azrael was also given charge over the souls of the recently departed. However, it seemed to…How do I put this…"

"Enjoy its job a little too much?" Shinki suggested. "Because let's face it: it really did."

Sariel nodded. "Yes, that's it exactly. Of course, being the naïve beings we were, we just assumed that it was due to the satisfaction of fulfilling its function for the glory of the Creator. But every time we were called to step in and end a mortal's life, it would be the first to volunteer. Even when the situation was horrible. In fact, that only seemed to make Azrael enjoy it all the more."

"Of course, after the Rebellion was underway that we realized the truth," Shinki said. "Azrael enjoyed killing. It cared nothing for the well-being of mortal souls. It just wanted to end their lives as often as possible. And as it no doubt felt that the rules and principles of its office were restraining, it was one of the first to rebel, and became one of the Rebellion's lieutenants. I truly doubt that it cared anything for the coup. It just went with the team that would allow it to kill more. And once the Rebellion started to fail, it abandoned them completely and struck off on its own. Much as I did actually, though for completely different reasons." She swallowed noisily. Her face was starting to gleam with sweat. In fact, she looked like she was going to be sick. "It…turned renegade. With no one restraining it anymore, it devoted all of its energies to pursuing its hobby. The worlds it ended…the peoples it destroyed…"

"Everyone was shocked, even its former comrades in the Rebellion," Sariel said. "By then, it was obvious that Azrael was a monster, but we had failed to realize just how sick it had become. The times of the Rebellion were horrible. No one knew who to trust. Siblings turning on siblings, our former friends trying to destroy everything we had worked so hard to create. But Azrael…was easily one of the worst parts. Everyone on both sides agreed on this."

"Except for the one who started the whole Rebellion to begin with," Shinki muttered. "Pretty sure that one just found it funny."

Reimu was starting to feel a little sick herself. "So that's what we're dealing with?" she asked. "Some kind of celestial serial killer?"

"You mean Azrael itself?" Sariel shook its head. "No, that much is certain. After it began its rampage, apprehending it became one of our highest priorities. As powerful as it was, it was outnumbered, outmatched and…not exactly keeping a low profile. Azrael was found, defeated and damned to the Abyss, where it remains to this day. Though not before it…" Sariel grimaced, a very mortal-looking expression "…it did a great deal of damage. We fortunately were able to stop it before it got to the Humans, but…There are no words to describe the things it did."

Now Reimu was even more confused than before. "Hang on, you mean you beat her? It? Whatever? It's in Angel Hell forever, right? So what's up with the scary sword thing, and where did the Shadow Youkai come from?"

Shinki stood to her feet. She walked over to the levitating stone slab and gazed upon the abomination it contained with disgust. "Azrael was beaten, yes, but it was not in its possession of its sword at the time. We tried to make it divulge the blade's location, but it refused, most likely in hopes that something like this would happen."

"You see Reimu," Yukari said. "The blade of an Angel, the Archangels especially, are more than just weapons. They are imbued with a significant portion of the Angel's strength and woven out their very essence. If, say, the blade of an Angel damned to the Abyss were to have its sword fall into the hands of a mortal, the sword would then attempt to corrupt them, to seduce them into taking the sword for themselves. And if person were to give in, their very soul would be scarred. Twisted. Turned into an avatar of the Fallen Angel that had once possessed the blade."

"Oh. Damn. Well, that's not as bad as having the actual Angel around, right?"

"It's still a catastrophe," Shinki spat. "Left unchecked, an avatar will grow in power until they, for all intents and purposes, become the Fallen Angel that had created them. Almost a reincarnation. And then the whole mess would start anew. This actually happened on a couple of occasions. In one instance, an entire race of people were corrupted beyond saving before the avatar was stopped." She turned to look at Yukari and Reimu. "And just think of what an avatar of Azrael would be like."

"I don't need to," Yukari said shortly. "We've met."

Sariel said, "Besides, as much as Azrael glorified in death, it was still somewhat limited by its function. Mortals have proven to be far more…creative when it comes to certain things. Imagine a creature with Azrael's love of death and a mortal's talent for petty cruelty."

"Fuck," Reimu muttered under her breath. She walked away to the other end of Shinki's throne room. This situation had already been too complicated as it was. Now it was even worse.

She put her hands on her hips and sighed. Not for the first time, she found herself longing for the incidents of times past. Spoiled vampires interfering with the weather. Bored Celestials knocking down buildings. Naïve ghosts stealing spring away. Things would get messy, she would go in with some friends or rivals, knock some sense into whoever was responsible, and everything would get sorted out. More often than not, she would end up becoming friends with the culprits. But it was difficult to picture this Azrael coming over for tea.

Then she thought about Rumia, the silly little youkai that ran around with Cirno playing pranks and causing mischief. She thought back to the encounters they had had. That time when she had jumped Reimu and Marisa back when Remilia Scarlet was causing trouble, that time she and her friends had decided to drop an entire sheet of snowballs onto Reimu when she had been praying (the fact that it had been in the middle of summer had done nothing to improve her feelings on the matter), and of course, that incident with the noodles. There was always going to be that incident with the noodles.

It was impossible to imagine that such a little idiot would have something so terrible as the avatar of a homicidal Fallen Angel contained inside. To be honest, the more she thought about it, the more chilling it became. It made her wonder what other horrors were sealed away around her, out of sight. She shot a glare over to Yukari. She probably knew about each and every one of them. Reimu wondered how many people had died because of Yukari Yakumo's secrets. She had a feeling that she wouldn't like the answer.

Well, there was nothing to be gained by inaction. She turned and walked back to the group. "Okay," she said. "So we've got someone possessed by a Fallen Angel-"

"Not exactly possessed," Sariel said. "It certainly has been gifted with Azrael's abilities, knowledge and…personality, but not its memory or consciousness. Corrupted would be a more accurate term."

Reimu threw her hands in the air. "Fine! Whatever. It's Azrael Mark 2 in the making! What exactly do we do about it? Get your Angel friends to come and take care of it?"

"Absolutely not!" Yukari shouted. "Reimu, do you think for one second that letting any of that bunch into Gensokyo would solve anything? Certainly, they'll take care of the Shadow Youkai, but as we are at best competitors, all it would take is having some of their more zealous members decide that it was their duty to remove us abominations and we'd end up losing Gensokyo anyway!"

"For once, I agree with her," Shinki said. "Involving the Silver City will probably end up causing more harm than good. More likely than not they'd come to the conclusion that the best way to end the threat would be to annihilate this place entirely."

Reimu swallowed. "But…your agreement and all…"

"Extreme times call for extreme measures," Sariel said. It spread its hands. "That's what they would say. The appearance of Azrael's avatar would certainly qualify."

"Okay, I'm convinced," Reimu said quickly. "And no offense, but you Angels are starting to sound like a bunch of dicks."

Yukari snorted back laughter. Surprisingly enough, so did Shinki. Then the two looked at each other and stopped laughing immediately. Yukari cleared her throat and Shinki quickly looked away.

Reimu rolled her eyes. "And they say Humans are immature," she muttered. Then she turned to Shinki and Sariel. "What about you two? I mean, you may be all fallen and all, but you've got to be more than a match for a simple avatar."

"This is true," Sariel agreed. "And if we were dealing with the Shadow Youkai directly, we would be able to overcome and defeat it. It is obviously far from being fully formed. In fact, having its sword in our possession gives us a tremendous advantage. I believe that if we are able to subdue it and keeping it from reclaiming the blade, we can force Azrael's essence to abandon its host and return to the blade. This…will take some doing, I'm afraid, but it is possible."

"Really?" Reimu perked up. "You can do this?"

"Certainly. In its incomplete state, the avatar, this Shadow Youkai, is most certainly dangerous, but if weakened the balance between Azrael's essence and its mortal host would become disrupted, allowing for it to be extracted. Obviously this becomes more difficult the more powerful it becomes, but in its current state a sufficiently advanced curse god could probably do it. I'd…advise against going that route though, as the energies would be probably too much for it to digest and might end up…doing something bad. Not entirely certain, as such a thing has never happened. Fortunately, so long as we have this sword, that won't be necessary."

"Well, great then!" Reimu said. "We'll do that then!"

Yukari grimaced. "Unfortunately, it's not quite so simple."

"Oh." Reimu's shoulders slumped. "Of course it isn't."

"Is it ever?" Yukari said.

"No, not really. And let me guess. Rin Satsuki."

Yukari nodded. "Very smart of you. So long as the Shadow Youkai remains within Satsuki, extracting her will be difficult. We don't know the full extent of Satsuki's adaptability, and with the regenerative immortality of Kaguya Houraisan and Fujiwara no Mokou added to the mix, things are even more complicated. We would throw everything we've got at Satsuki and the Shadow Youkai might not even feel a scratch. It would, of course, be simpler were it to take full control of Satsuki and thus bring itself to the fore, but since that would mean it could summon the sword away from us in an instant, extracting her would suddenly become…even more complicated."

Reimu took a deep breath and slowly let it out. "Okay…Fine. Original plan then. We find Satsuki. Defeat Satsuki. Capture Satsuki. Find a way to force the Shadow Youkai out without giving it the opportunity to take the sword away, beat the shit out of Rumia and then you yank all of Azrael's essence away and put it back where it belongs. Does that just about sum things up?"

"More or less," Yukari said. "Obviously it will take a great deal of work, but so long as we act quickly I don't believe it is beyond our capabilities. In the meantime though…" She looked over to the pair of Fallen Angels. "Am I correct in assuming that I now have Makai's cooperation in this matter? After all, you now have a personal stake in all this."

"Of course," Sariel said. "We will do what we can to ensure that Azrael's legacy does no more damage."

Shinki hesitated. She sucked in air between her teeth and let in out in a sigh. "Yes, we will cooperate." That admission seemed to cost her something. Reimu wondered at the exact details of her relationship with Yukari. She then wondered if she would ever find out. Probably not.

"Though I should point out that while we will help dispose of the Shadow Youkai," Shinki continued. "Don't count on us to throw in with your grudge match with Yuuka Kazami. That's entirely your affair."

"Yuuka," Reimu muttered. "Shit, I forgot about her."

"Fair enough," Yukari said. "But in the meantime, I'd really appreciate it if you kept the exact details of the Shadow Youkai's origins under wraps. I've got my hands full already preventing mass riot."

Shinki nodded her agreement.

"I'd also appreciate it if you held onto this infernal thing for the time being," Yukari said. She gestured toward the sword. "I'd really rather not have it in my house, and you'll need it on hand."

"Again, of course," Sariel said. "But you do realize that should its master call for it, there is nothing we can do to prevent it from answering."

"One crisis at a time, please," Yukari muttered. She sighed. "Well, I suppose that's everything. I have a great deal I need to prepare for, and now so do you."

"Yes, I suppose so," Shinki muttered.

"Good. Well then, you two know where to reach me. Reimu, come along."

Yukari walked away from the throne toward the gap that still hovered in the air, connecting the tower of Pandemonium to her house. Reimu moved to follow, but something made her hesitate.

She looked back at the two Fallen Angels. They were standing and staring at Azrael's sword. Sariel had its hand clasped under its chin. It appeared to be deep in thought. Shinki however had brought one hand to her face while the other crossed over her breast, lying to rest in the opposite elbow. That the Queen of Makai was feeling a considerable amount of stress was evident. Reimu was actually a little surprised that she wasn't bursting into tears.

And then Shinki's shoulders started to shake. Reimu swallowed. Perhaps she had judged too quickly. For the first time, she felt a stab of pity for the former Archangel. After having suffered for past mistakes and exiled forever from her home, a piece of the very thing that had cost her everything had forced itself back into her life. Reimu couldn't even begin to imagine how she felt.

"Reimu?" Sariel said, startling the shrine maiden. "Is something the matter?"

"Oh, uh, no," Reimu said quickly. "I'll, uh, yeah."

She turned and quickly ran through the gap.

…

Yukari watched as Reimu finally reappeared in her home. She raised an eyebrow. "Saying your goodbyes?" she said.

Reimu shuddered. "Something like that, I guess."

Yukari nodded. She waved a hand, closing the gap. "It's a lot to take in, I know. No doubt you're feeling a little overwhelmed."

"Oh, you have no idea."

"You'd be surprised," Yukari said with a shrug. She walked over to the fireplace. A small focus of will, and the dead cinders ignited anew. "But still, it's better to know, yes?"

"I guess you could say that," Reimu muttered. "But hey, one more thing. This…avatar of Azrael, Rumia. Why is she called the Shadow Youkai? Shouldn't it be something like the Shadow Angel?"

Yukari shrugged again. "That's how she introduced herself."

"So…could the avatar have been a youkai? One that picked up the blade and got turned into a nightmare?"

"Hmmm, I suppose it's possible," Yukari said. She looked up at the ceiling and tapped her lower lip as she thought. "Not very likely though. As I understand it, a Fallen Angel's sword needs an actual soul to corrupt, and there's not many youkai running about with those. More likely than not, it was a Human originally. But even then, the term wouldn't be incorrect. After all, a Gensokyoian Human elevated to a new type of supernatural being does fit the definition. Perhaps Rumia, whoever she was originally, was simply using a term she was familiar with."

"I guess," Reimu muttered.

"But still, if you have no more questions at the moment, you probably should be getting home. As I told those two, we all have things we need to take care. Oh, and speaking of which, you are not to tell anyone about Azrael either. That information is only to be dispensed on a need-to-know basis."

"Then why'd you let me know?"

"Because you needed to know," Yukari said primly.

"Whatever," Reimu sighed. "Probably as good an answer as I'll get from you."

"The girl learns," Yukari said. "Oh, but feel free to tell the turtle. If anyone can be counted on to keep a secret, it's him. And his advice would be invaluable."

"Advice, huh?" Reimu folded her arms. "Since when do you ask him for advice?"

"I meant for you."

Reimu glowered. "Fine, whatever," she said with a roll of her eyes. "I'll be going then. But, ah, Yukari? One more thing?"

Yukari raised an eyebrow. She waited.

"Don't think for one minute that all this crazy means I've forgotten the whole thing with Marisa," Reimu said. The shrine maiden's voice had a dangerous edge to it. "We're definitely going to be talking about that later."

Without another word, Reimu stormed from the room out the front door. A moment later, she was gone.

Yukari stared after her. Despite the gravity of the situation, she couldn't help but smile.

"She really is her mother's child," she muttered.

…

Deep Within

More than an hour had passed since Rin had nearly gotten the two of them killed. During that time, Rin had concentrated on putting as much distance between them and Sunny Milk as possible, all the while avoiding meeting Rumia's eyes.

For her part Rumia had no problem with eye contact. She sat with her legs crossed and arms folded, her crimson eyes fixated Rin. She waited.

More time passed. Rin remained silent.

Rumia cleared her throat. "So. Rin."

Rin flinched. "Y-yeah?"

"You, ah, wanna answer my question now?"

"Question?"

Rumia's eyes half-closed. "Yes. Question. About why it's so important that we find out my origins?"

"I'm kinda busy right now…"

"No, you're really not. Talk."

Rin let out a frustrated groan. "It…just is. Okay?"

"Okay?" Rumia repeated. "Is it okay that you almost got us caught by being stupid? Hmmm, let me think about thatNO!" she screamed. "No it's not! Why, Rin? Why do we have to risk our lives for something that won't even help us? We should be trying to survive here! We should-"

"That thing killed me!" Rin shouted back. She jumped to her feet and whirled around to face Rumia. Rumia, momentarily surprised by Rin's sudden outburst, couldn't help but jerk back.

"That thing killed me," Rin said again. "And it threatened to kill Reisen too. In horrible, horrible ways, just to get at me. And it laughed while it did it. We're finding out what it was, Rumia. We're finding out where it came from and why it was inside your mind. So please. I'm sorry about messing up back there, but we are going through with this. So sit down and shut up!"

Rumia stared. She wasn't sure where this angry and assertive Rin came from, especially in light of how annoyingly cheerful the Kirin had been as of late, but she had a feeling that she meant what she said.

"I…uh…" Rumia nervously licked her lips. "I'm already sitting down."

Rin sighed. With that, her anger seemed to fade away. "Yeah, I know. You…you know what I mean." She crouched back down. "I mean what I mean what I mean," she muttered as she started to rock back and forth on her heels.

So now she had gone back to being crazy Rin. Fantastic. Rumia sighed and flopped onto her back. She stretched her legs out and let her arms fall to their full length at either side as she stared up at darkness. It just figured that she would start to fall apart again. Especially since there was something that Rumia needed to talk to her about. The trip to Hakurei Shrine and the thing with Sunny had driven it out of her mind, but it had slowly returned. Now it was gnawing at her mind, along with everything else.

She grimaced. Screw it. She didn't have the patience to wait for Rin to be fully lucid. For all she knew she would be waiting for the rest of the year. She pulled herself back up.

"Hey, Rin?" she said.

"…what I mean I mean…Huh?" Rin stopped her rocking. She turned to look at Rumia with confused eyes.

Rumia cleared her throat. "Um, sorry to bring this up, but it's kinda been bothering me. Look, are you sure Evil-Me's really gone? I mean, what if it's just-"

There had been any number of reactions Rumia had been expecting to her question. Dismissal, maybe. Condescending reassurance. Another lapse into muttering. But instead, she got outright panic.

"No!" Rin screamed suddenly. She fell back on her behind. Her arms and legs scrambled as she scooted away from Rumia. "She's dead! I felt her die! She's dead, dead, dead!"

"Okay, okay!" Rumia said. She held up her palms in a placating gesture. "I get it! Calm down!"

Rin started shaking. It began with her head but spread to her whole body. "She's dead," the Kirin muttered. She lay down on her side and curled up in a ball, her back to Rumia. "Dead. She has to be dead. Dead and gone. Die…gone."

Rumia stared at the bizarre spectacle. Sheesh, she's worse than ever, she thought bleakly. Whatever excited, optimistic energy Rin had acquired upon her revival was now gone. Rumia wondered if it would be back. She wondered if she wanted it to.

She looked down at her hands. In her mind's eye, she pictured them holding a card. On the card was a hideous horned creature, chained to a naked man and a naked woman.

"The Devil," she muttered to herself. In her mind she could hear Mima's voice speaking the words with her. "The destroyer from within."

…

Wow, this is getting kind of dark, isn't it? =sweatdrop=

Alrighty, I've got a lot I want to touch on, so let's dive right into it.

First order of business. The fourth chapter of Rhapsody of Subconscious Desire went up last week. Check it out if you haven't already. Especially if you're a fan of RTS's. You'll see what I mean.

Second order of business, this chapter. The decision to mix in Judeo-Christian elements was kind of a worrying one, especially since how they tend to ignite flamewars. But it only made sense, given that Sariel is kind of an Angel. Besides, ZUN has confirmed that Christianity does exist in one form or another in Gensokyo, so that worked out (check out Ellen's dialogue from PoDD). Still probably would have done it though. I subscribe to the Neil Gaiman school of thought when it comes to using religion and mythology in stories.

I love American Gods. :D

Anyway, moving on. This chapter's kind of a milestone for a number of reasons. To begin with, we finally get some concrete information on Ex-Rumia's origins. Not all of it though. Don't wanna let the full cat out of the bag just yet, especially if I can milk even more meandering plotlines out of it! MWAHAHAHA!

Yeah, I'm kind of a dick something. ;)

Next, this is the twenty-fifth chapter. In addition to being a nice round number, it is also one-fourth of one hundred. Will this story live long enough to get that far? No idea. Only time will tell.

After that is something far more significant. I really wanted to get this update up today, because…today is Imperfect Metamorphosis' first anniversary! Woohoo!

=balloons, confetti, those irritating noisemakers=

Yep. One year ago today was when the very first chapter (penned mostly in script-form in my notebook when I should have been paying attention in class) went up. Obviously the story has grown quite a bit since then, though it's kind of funny when you think of it. You wanna know how much time has passed in-story? A little over a week. Yeah…

Seriously though, a massive thank-you to everyone who's been reading/reviewing/telling other people about this story. This is the first thing I've written for any audience bigger than a twenty-person classroom, and hearing from you guys has made every minute of it worth it. You let me know when I was doing something right and didn't cut me any slack when I screwed up. That is…really awesome. So thank you. And here's to another year of updates! Maybe this time we can get in a whopping two weeks' worth of events!

Joking, joking. Sort of. We'll see.

Okay, there was something else I was going to bring up. Something important, but for the life of me I just can't remember what it was. Let's see: RoSD, Ex-Rumia, twenty-five, anniversary…What was it?

Oh, wait. That's right. Drumroll please.

=baddabaddabaddabbadda=

Thank you.

=takes a deep breath=

Imperfect Metamorphosis got its own TV Tropes page.

=pause=

IMPERFECT METAMORPHOSIS GOT ITS OWN TV TROPES PAGE!

YESSSSSS!

Okay, this is seriously very exciting. I've been having my free time waste away in that site for a few years now, to the point where it's probably my most visited bookmark. And now that IM has an article of its own…

=lets out a very girlish squeal=

Anyway, I know I've thanked you already, but Jiven? Dude? YOU FUCKING ROCK!

So yeah, now I have a special request for all you tropers out there (Guy You Met Online, Sect, Devilrose87, This Troper from Gensokyo, One-Week Wizard, everyone from the Touhou thread on TV Tropes, etc) and hell, everyone else too. On my profile you'll find a link to the article in question. As you see Jiven, along with Makuta9999 and Whatshisgame (damn, I feel like some kind of stalker with all this name-dropping), have already done an amazing job. But there is always more room for growth! So click on that edit button and go crazy! Add more tropes, lengthen the description, whatever! Or, as a very wise woman put it…

Make.

My.

Monster.

GROW!

Until next time, everyone!