Imperfect Metamorphosis

by TakerFoxx

It's the first day of spring, and Cirno and her friends are once again up to no good! But after stealing a strange box from Marisa's house, they soon find themselves over their heads as they discover some things are meant to remain locked up.

26. Sanctuary Denied

Sanctuary Denied

As bright and clear as the weather had been the last few days, the skies were starting to darken. Grey, melancholy-looking clouds were accumulating, blotting out the blue of sky and the light of the sun. The air hung damp and heavy. The winds had stilled, almost as if they were drawing breath to blow. A storm was coming.

All thorough Gensokyo, people were taking notice. The laundry was being brought in, tools were being properly stored, homes checked for leaks, farmers were thanking the gods for the coming rain while praying for mercy from the winds, wild youkai and fairies were retiring to their makeshift shelters while those who rejoiced in the rain were impatiently watching the skies, waiting for the first drops. A storm was coming.

Perhaps the gods who held domain over the weather wished to wash away the last clinging bits of winter with one fell stroke. Perhaps they had taken notice of the dramatic events that were taking place and decided that the sunny peacefulness was an inappropriate backdrop. But either way, a storm was coming.

And in a small grassy copse near the southeastern boundary of Gensokyo, one of those events had decided to surface. The leaves of grass suddenly shook, as if something had seized their roots and surprised them. Then they slowly dipped down as their life slowly drained away. Green gave way to grey, to brown, to finally black as they shriveled completely. In the center of the decay, the ground pushed up, revealing the head of a strange pale woman, surrounded by an aura of twisting flashes of red, purple and black. She looked around, apparently checking to see if anyone had spotted her unconventional entrance. Then she began to rise up.

…

Deep Within

"So, uh, I think this is it," Rin said.

Rumia glowered balefully at the Kirin. "Is that so."

"Well, you would know better than I would," Rin said with a shrug. "I mean, I've never been here before, you know? Could you…check the screen and see if we're near the shrine?"

"I thought you had all my memories."

"I've looked through your memories," Rin corrected. "And that was just for general knowledge. There's a lot of information to go through. It's not like I've lived your life or anything."

"Fine, fine," Rumia groused. She pushed herself to her feet and walked over to the screen to have a look. After a moment her shoulders slumped.

"Yeah," she said. "We're close. You just go up that hill and you'll find a path that'll take you right to the shrine grounds." Despite the fact that they had reached their destination, Rumia felt no triumph. On the contrary, her feelings about the matter were that of dejection mixed with resignation.

Rin didn't answer. She just nodded. The view on the screen shuddered and lurched as Rin's body lifted off the diseased ground and headed toward the path.

Rumia sighed and walked off to be by herself. This was a bad idea. She had already told Rin what a bad idea it was many, many times. But now she had given up. Rin wasn't listening, and it was beyond Rumia's power to make her do anything. And so there was nothing to do but wait and pray that things didn't turn out too disastrously, though the fact that most of the gods were on the other side wasn't lost on her.

Then Rin made a small squeak of surprise. "Uh…R-Rumia?"

Oh, here we go, Rumia thought bleakly. And they hadn't even gotten to the shrine yet. "Yeah, what's up?"

"Is…What's that there? I don't think it's supposed to be there."

Grimacing, Rumia turned around, expecting to see Yukari at the head of an entire army waiting for them. Instead, even with expectations like that, her mind was not prepared for the sight that greeted her. She made a startled glurk! sound in the back of her throat. Her jaw hung slack and she stared.

Even though the shrine was still almost a mile away and shrouded by trees, its location was plain as day, thanks to the barrier that covered the entire grounds. It was huge, a gigantic bubble of energy that rose nearly half a mile above the treetops. Its surface was lavender in color, with varying shades ranging from light pink to deep purple swimming and pressing against each other, and yet never mixing.

"That…wasn't there before…" was all Rumia could think to say. She shook her head. "Wow. I guess…they're taking us seriously, huh?"

"Yeah," Rin said in a small voice. "Great."

Rumia took a deep breath. "Well, there goes that. Come on, let's get…Rin, why are we still moving toward the big bubble?"

Which was exactly what was happening. The view on the screen had once again started to move down the path as it rounded a small grove of trees before evening out and heading for the steps that led up a small hill, on top of which sat the shrine grounds.

"I'm not giving up now," Rin mumbled. "Not after all that."

Rumia gulped. The red gate that stood over the front entrance, the Torri, was now visible. And steadily growing large. The barrier began directly in front of it, right behind the final step. "Rin. Turn around. Right now. Turn around right now."

They were now ascending the steps, moving closer toward the gate. There was something sitting on the top step, something squat and rectangular.

Rumia ran up to where Rin was sitting. "Okay, I've officially stopped caring about how crazy you are. GET your ass AWAY FROM THAT THING! It's a freaking security system! That means they're expecting us to show up! Who's to say they don't have watcher wards as well? Please Rin, let's get out of here before-"

"Hey Rumia?" Rin said. The inquisitive tone of her voice seemed to indicate that she hadn't even heard Rumia's pleas.

"WHAT?" Rumia screamed.

Rin pointed. "What's that thing there?"

Rumia growled. She angrily whipped her head toward the screen, expecting to see something even nastier than the barrier.

But once again her expectations were proven wrong. There, sitting on the top step and directly in front of the barrier, was a wooden box. Characters of some kind were painted on its side. The top was open, but covered with a grate.

"Uh…" Rumia said, her confusion mixing with her anger and fear and doing so badly. "I…think that's her donation box?"

Next to the box was a sign on a pole. Rin squinted at it.

"Uh…" she said. "It says, 'Shrine Temporarily Closed Due To Ongoing Incident. Please Place All Donations Within Box. All Blessings Apply As Usual. Seriously Guys'."

"Seriously what?"

"That's what it says."

Rumia now felt utterly stumped. Her previous sense of urgency had not gone away, but being in such a dangerous place and running into something so silly and trivial was driving her brain into an involuntary non sequitur.

"I…guess they're closed?" Rin shrugged.

"Looks like," Rumia said. She shook her head, trying to force herself to think straight. The ironic part was that at any other time, she would have been delighted to learn that she had forced Hakurei Shrine to close down, just for the laughs. Cirno would have considered it a prank for the books. But now…

"Okay," Rumia said. "So they're closed. Big deal. It's not like we can get in anyway. Come on, let's get out of here before someone sees us."

Rin frowned. "I can get past this…" she muttered.

Rumia did not like what she was hearing. "What?"

"Barriers. Back when I first went up against Eientei, before I got locked up? I found out that I can adapt to barriers as well. They're really not that big of a deal to me."

"So?" Rumia demanded. "It looks like one of Miss Yukari's! She probably has some extra nasty surprise set to go off if you touch it-"

Rin's body reached out with one shimmering hand and pressed it against the barrier.

…

Reimu lifted the singing kettle from the small stove. A slight tilt, and steaming water poured into the waiting cup and attached teabag. This was placed upon a waiting tray along with a bowl of rice mixed with smoked fish. Reimu lifted it up and carried it outside.

Once outside, she couldn't help but scowl at the sky, or at least where the sky should have been. Yukari's annoying barrier was back. She supposed that it made a certain amount of sense, seeing how the threat of Crazy-Unkillable-People-Eater-With-Overpowered-Homicidal-Manic-In-Its-Head had recently been upgraded to the threat of Crazy-Unkillable-People Eater-With-Overpowered-Homicidal-Manic-In-Its-Head-Who-So-Happens-To-Be-Powered-By-An-Insane-Fallen-Angel, but it meant that she had to put up with a giant glowing bubble thing blotting out both the sky and the horizon. Not only did it spoil the view, but what little traffic her shrine might have seen was now cut off. Fortunately she had enough foresight to put out her donation box before it had gone up, but her hopes hadn't been high.

With a sigh she headed out behind the shrine, toward the cherry tree grove. Well, in fairness there wouldn't have been much of a view anyway. From the feel of things the weather was turning nasty. If that was the case, then maybe having a barrier would become a blessing in disguise. Though the disguise was admittedly a major eyesore.

Reimu settled down against one of the trees on the bank of the pond. She slowly munched on her food and sipped her tea as she stared out at the still waters and thought. As annoying as the barrier was, it was far from the most pressing matter to her mind. What she had learned about Azrael and the Shadow Youkai had changed the game in every way possible.

But surprisingly enough, the issue most weighing on her mind wasn't the threat to Gensokyo. It was her promise to Reisen. Reimu felt a gnawing sense of uncomfortableness as she thought about the Lunarian's tear-streaked face as she begged Reimu to help save Rin Satsuki. What was she supposed to do about that now? If Satsuki hadn't already been dominated by the Shadow Youkai, than she soon would be. Did keeping a promise she wasn't even comfortable with justify risking the thousands of lives threatened by Azrael's avatar? Everything in her screamed "NO!"

There was a raspy clearing of a large throat, and someone said, "So, you gonna tell me what's on your mind, or should I just stare at you for awhile?"

Reimu sat straight up, nearly upsetting her lunch in the process. She had been so deep in thought that she hadn't noticed when Genji had risen from the pond and lumbered over to her side.

"Jeez Genji, don't startle me like that," she said as she settled back down.

The elderly turtle let out a coughing chuckle. "Eh, you were gonna be askin' for me sooner or later anyway. Figured I would just skip to that part. Not my fault if you can't even pay attention to what's in front of your own nose." He cocked his head. "So, missed you yesterday. Where've you been?"

"What do you mean? I was at Yukari's meeting, that Ringleader thing."

"Yeah, nice try girlie," Genji said with a dismissive snort. "That thing ended early two days ago."

Reimu blinked. "What? How'd you know…I mean, what gave you that-"

Genji laboriously settled his heavy body down on the grass. "Got my ways. One of 'em being a certain green-haired ghost hollerin' up the place, wonderin' where you went to."

"Oh," Reimu said. She sighed. "So that's how she found me." Then she frowned. "Hold up, how'd you know where I was?"

"Didn't," Genji said. His massive shell shifted in a manner that was probably intended to be a shrug. "Jus' told her to check the place you was most likely to be."

"So it was a lucky guess that had her show up at Moriya Shrine? Figures."

Genji cocked his head quizzically. "You was at Moriya? I was thinkin' that vampire house."

"The SDM? Why?"

"Dunno. You just been hangin' out with the little bloodsucker more than the competition, so I figured you liked her more. Then again, she did say she had already been to see Remilia and didn't run into you, so I guess it makes sense…"

Reimu rolled her eyes. "No, I've been hanging out with Remilia longer than Sanae. And…" Reimu hesitated, and said, "Despite the fact that she's pretty much a green-haired knockoff of yours truly, I gotta admit: it's…nice. Sometimes. To have another shrine maiden to talk to."

"Is it now?"

"I guess," Reimu said with a shrug.

"Even if her shrine be pullin' six times in a day what you make in a whole month…"

Reimu gave Genji's smirking head an admonishing, but gentle, kick. "Shut up. It's your fault we're in the middle of freaking nowhere and somehow forgot to include an actual god."

"Hey, I didn't pick the place," Genji chuckled. "I jus' signed up for the pond-space. Seriously, a whole pond to myself? There are places where you hafta buy that kind of privacy." Then his ancient yellow eyes gleamed craftily. "So, you wanna tell me why in the middle of a big-time country-wide emergency, you decided to go hang out with your green-haired knockoff? And don't bother with the BS. You know I can tell when you're lyin'."

"You are not going to let this go, are you?" Reimu sighed. She picked out a piece of fish from her bowl and tossed it to him.

He caught it in his beak and greedily slurped it up. "Hey, the freaky ghost woke me up with her screechin'. I'm at least entitled to know what got her panties in a twist. Something to do with that witch of yours getting tossed behind bars?"

Reimu blinked. "You know about…Never mind, of course you know. And yeah, that happened, and I'm still going to find a way to kick Yukari's ass for that. And…a bunch of other stuff happened too."

"Bad?" Genji guessed.

"Bad," Reimu confirmed with a nod. She set the tray with the nearly empty bowl aside. "A lot of bad. And a lot of confusing. And a lot of…frustratingly complicated."

To Genji's credit, he didn't make fun of her as he was usually wont to do. Instead, he just settled back down and said, "All right. Mima already told me what down in the meetin'. So start with what happened after that."

"Well, it actually started around in the middle. See, it was the end of the first day, and I was in my room…"

For the second time in so many days, Reimu explained the late-night visit she had gotten from Reisen Udongein and the promise she had made. She went on to describe meeting with the denizens of Moriya Shrine and the deity of the Temple of Myouren and the ensuing clash of personalities and interests. She told him of Mima's surprise visit and learning of Yukari's arrest of Marisa and how it was suspected that the witch would be used against Yuuka Kazami. She told him of going to confront Yukari and the debate they had had.

And then she told him of the sword and how they had gone to Makai to speak to Shinki and Sariel. She got partway when Genji did something very uncharacteristic. He interrupted her.

"WHAT?" he shouted. He was suddenly on all four feet quicker than anything of his build had any right to be. "Azrael? The Shadow Youkai is the effin' avatar of effin' Azrael?"

Reimu stared, her mouth hanging agape. "I…uh…seems to be?"

Genji stared right back. Then he turned around and plodded closer to the trunk of the tree. He drew his neck back and, to Reimu's continued surprise, started to bash his forehead against the trunk. Repeatedly.

"Damn!" he howled. "Damn! Damn! Damn! Damn damn damn damndamnDAMN!" He gave the tree one last thump and turned away in disgust. Reimu tilted her head. From what she could tell, Genji's head had survived the pounding completely intact. The tree, however, was now sporting a fashionable new dent.

"Oh, I am gonna rip Yukari a new one over this," Genji complained. "How'd something like that the sword of effin' Azrael comin' in escape her notice? Girl's been slackin' far too long. Yuuka Kazami was bad enough, but this? This is completely unacceptable!"

Reimu cleared her throat. "So, uh, I take it you've heard of her? I mean it?"

"It? You mean Azrael? Godsdamn it girl, of course I have! I'm a lorekeeper! It's my effin' job! And let me tell you somethin' right now, kid. You are way out of your league with this one. Hell, even Yukari's gonna be put to the test with this one. Do yourself a favor and sit this one out."

"What?" Reimu gaped. "D-did you just tell me to not do my job?"

"This ain't your job," Genji growled. "This ain't no incident, no uppity youkai or overzealous goddess or some shit. This is apocalypse-level catastrophe in the making, and you ain't got the experience, power or know-how to solve it. Leave it to the people who do."

"Like hell I will!" Reimu shouted as she leapt to her feet. Unfortunately, the heel of her foot landed on the edge of the tray, upsetting the almost-empty bowl of fish and rice and pouring out the remainder of its contents. She gave it an angry glare and kicked it aside, spilling the rest.

"You think I'm just going to stand aside and let my friends stick this out alone?" she demanded. "Marisa and Remilia are already trapped in this, Sanae's probably already out in the field, Suika's going to be on the front lines, Mima's in this as deep as anyone, and as much as I want to punch her in her smug, stupid face, Yukari's going to be endangering herself too. I'm not going to just sit down and let them risk their lives while I do nothing!"

Genji's nostrils flared. "Young lady, there's a time and place for bravery, but when it starts to become hotheaded stupidity, it-"

"Besides," Reimu said. "I already promised Reisen I'd help get her Kirin back. And Kanako and Byakuren agreed to help. I can't just back out now. I thought keeping your word was a big deal for you ancient types."

The elderly turtle's glower burned even hotter. For the briefest of moments, Reimu could have sworn that she caught an actual flash of red in those rheumy yellow eyes. For some reason, the hairs on the back of her neck rose up.

Then he sighed and slumped back down. "Damn it, you had'ta bring that up," he growled. "Hell of a time for you to grow a conscience and start caring about honor, kid."

Reimu allowed herself to relax, just a bit. She sat back down. "It was bound to happen sometime."

"Why'd it have to be now, though?" Genji closed his eyes and shook his head. "You're right, I guess. It wouldn't be fair to expect you to sit this out. But Reimu, let me tell you something. Be careful! I mean it. That Azrael…Man, that thing was a piece of work. I mean it. It was almost as bad as its boss, and seeing what a right bastard that guy turned out to be, that's sayin' something. It's said that the only reason it wasn't the leader of the Angel's Rebellion was that it cared too much about killin' to bother with leadin'. Probably a bit of exaggeration, but the point remains. Don't do something stupid and get yourself killed. Because if that Shadow Youkai gets loose, that very well might happen. In fact, it probably will. Don't. Let. That. Happen."

Reimu felt a chill run through her that had nothing to do with the cooling weather. She nodded.

"As for this Satsuki girl, 'fraid I don't have much to suggest about her. I mean, it's all good and nice that you're willin' to stick up for the kid, but again, don't let your promise blind you to the fact that she's crazy dangerous. There's a hell of a lot of monsters that used to be victims themselves and just got pushed too far. Might come a time where the kindest thing you could do for her is puttin' her out of her misery."

"I know that," Reimu sighed. "I've heard it already from a lot of people. And no, I'm not planning on putting Gensokyo's safety above hers. I just…" She shook her head. "Okay, to be honest, I really don't know what the hell I'm doing. I guess I just felt bad for Reisen, and just got myself committed."

"If I had a yen for everyone who's made that mistake," Genji muttered. "Wouldn't do me any good, of course. No way I could spend them, but still…"

"Yeah, I know. Do me a favor though. Don't tell Yukari. About me trying to help Satsuki."

Genji looked troubled. "Kid, I dunno if that's a great idea. Yukari has this funny way of findin' these things out."

"She also has a funny way of completely ruining everything you're trying to do if she thinks you'll get in the way," Reimu pointed out.

"Well, I ain't gonna tell her." Genji stretched out his neck and started snapping up the bits of spilled rice and fish. "Word of warnin' though," he said with his mouth full. "She's gonna find out sooner or later."

"Then make it later," Reimu said. "At least it'll give me some time to figure things out."

Genji swallowed the last of Reimu's lunch. "Good luck with that. And I mean it. Outsmartin' Yukari ain't easy. Believe me, I know."

Reimu leaned back. Through the branches of the cherry tree, the barrier continued to swim above them. "Hey Genji, can I ask you a question?"

"What, you expectin' throat cancer?" Genji said with a snort. "Go right ahead. No promises that I'll answer though."

"You've been around a long time, right? Like a really long time."

"That's your question? Thought that had been established already."

"No, that's the lead-up. You've trained a lot of shrine maidens, right? A lot of my ancestors. Has any of them faced anything this big?"

Genji fell silent for a moment. When he did answer, his voice was slow and cautious.

"Well now, that's something of a trick to answer. Gensokyo's faced apocalypse before, sure, and your great-whatever-grandmas were involved. Ain't gonna lie, a couple of them fought their final battles in those. And if you wanna get technical, the Shadow Youkai's first killin'-spree actually ranks higher than this does, what with her being all loose and active at the time. So yeah, things have gotten this hot before."

He hesitated, and then continued. "Though if you be askin' about if things have gotten as bad as they might get, well now. That one's easy. No."

Reimu nodded, slow and deliberately. "I thought so. Just my luck, huh?"

"Typical shrine maiden arrogance," Genji grumbled. "Always thinkin' that you always has it the worst. Been plenty of shrine girls with worst luck than you, kid. Well, maybe not compared to now, but when you take in how things work out generally…"

"Yeah, I get it," Reimu muttered.

The two of them sat in silence. Reimu looked out at the grove of trees. If it weren't for that damned barrier, it was exactly like any other calm, spring day. Thousands of tiny little pink buds adorned the branches. Soon enough they would be blooming, covering the grass with their petals. Reimu surprised herself by wondering if this was the last bloom those trees would see.

Suddenly the silence was rudely interrupted. A horrible screeching noise filled the air, rising and falling in a pulsing wail. Reimu yelped in surprise as she leapt to her feet and clamped her hands over her ears.

"What is that?" she shouted to Genji.

The elderly turtle was wincing as the noise assaulted his ears, which he was unfortunately incapable of covering. "Oh, damn it all," he said, though she could barely hear him. "That's the alarm."

"The what?"

"The ALARM!" he shouted at her. "Yukari put it into the barrier! Didn't think it would be so annoyin'!"

Annoying was an understatement. Reimu felt like two oni were having a wrestling match inside her head. "She put in an alarm? Is she crazy? This place is swarming with youkai! I can't have this thing going off every time one of them wants to take a potshot at the big purple bubble!"

"Yeah, except it won't! Thing's not designed to go off if someone shoots the barrier. It's set to go off when…" Genji's eyes widened. "Oh crap."

Reimu did not like the sound of that. "What?"

"It's set to go off if someone tries to drain it."

Reimu inhaled sharply. "Satsuki," she breathed.

A minute later she was in the sky and above the treetops. She flew in a wide circle, trying to see where the disruption was coming from.

Genji floated up after her. "What are you doin'?" he demanded. "You're not planning on fightin' her alone, are you?"

"I'll figure that out when I find…There!"

She had spotted the intruder. There, at the front gate, she could see a blurry humanoid shape standing right beyond the barrier. The purple energies were swarming around a small section at its middle, brightening to a hot pink. That was probably where she was touching it.

Reimu set her teeth. She swooped down to about a foot from the grass and headed right for the disturbance. The vague figure grew more distinct as she neared. She caught a glimpse of startled eyes, glowing lavender even through the wall of the barrier. And then Satsuki whirled around and took off.

"Reimu, stop!" Genji shouted after her. "You're being an idiot!"

"I can't let her get away!" Reimu shouted back.

"At least call for backup! Look, you can contact Yukari through the Ying-Yang Orb. She'll be here in a-"

Reimu froze in mid-air. That's right, she had forgotten about that. In fact, Yukari would probably be contacting her soon enough, wondering what the alarm was all about.

"No!" she shouted. "In fact, don't let her come here!"

Shock filled the reptile's face. "What? Are you nuts? Why-"

"Stall her. Lie to her. I don't care. I don't want her coming here and messing everything up!"

"Messin' what up?"

Reimu anxiously looked out to the area beyond the barrier. She was losing precious time. "I'm going to try to talk to Satsuki, and Yukari will just interrupt us with shooting big holes in everything! So don't let her come here!"

"Like hell I won't! Kid, I am not going to let you-"

The shrine maiden was already moving. "That's an order!" she shouted over her shoulder to the sputtering turtle. Then she flattened her arms against her sides and shot forward, through the barrier and out into the forest beyond.

To her relief, Satsuki wasn't even bothering to hide. Instead, she was flying away in a straight line, literally tearing her way through the trees and leaving a trail that a blind man couldn't miss. Reimu redoubled her speed and moved to intercept. As she did so, she tried to ignore the increasingly persistent voice in the back of her head that was screaming at her for how much of a suicidal idiot she was being.

…

Genji stared as the talented but very mortal Reimu Hakurei flew off in pursuit of an ungodly abomination. He couldn't fathom what the girl was thinking. Granted, flying head-first toward ridiculously overpowered opponents was favorite strategy of hers and it had served her well so far, but this lunacy was beyond the pale. Even if Azrael's avatar had yet to seize control of Rin Satsuki, Satsuki herself was still stronger than Reimu by a significant margin, not to mention a great deal crazier. Reimu was risking becoming the nutcase's next meal.

But what really rankled Genji was not that he was powerless to do anything about it, but that there were a number of things he could do but was prevented from doing them by a number of outside factors. He certainly could just up and tell Yukari what was happening, and to be truthful he probably would have done that, Reimu's wishes be damned.

But she had to go and give him a direct order. Again, that wouldn't have been such a big deal if he were Human. He could just disobey her. Unfortunately, he was not a Human. He was something much, much older, something that, among other reasons, had been placed at Hakurei Shrine to assist the Hakurei family. And since Hakurei Shrine lacked a proper god to center its devotion, that meant the maidens were the ones in charge. They rarely asserted their authority. In fact, many of them had come to see him as something of a parental figure, someone who should be listened to and respected. Which was completely true, but when push came to shove, he still had to do what they said. Such bindings, so often disregarded and warped by the very humans he served, were kind of a Big Deal to creatures like him. It got stupid at times, and in cases such as this is felt like the spirit of the law was being strangled by the letter, but as much as he hated himself for it, he wasn't going to break it.

Of course, he could always just try to solve the problem himself, without Yukari's involvement. But unlike her, interfering directly would…change things. For the worst. And as much as he liked, perhaps even loved, the spunky little girl, the long-term ramifications of him asserting himself in that way were not worth saving her life.

But still, her life did have to be saved. She was currently the only living Hakurei, and if that line ended, then the worst case scenario would end up happening anyway. At the very least, Yukari would throw a tantrum. Not normally a big deal, but when the person losing their temper was capable of whisking entire layers of the earth's crust away in anger…

Still…

Genji's eyes narrowed. He turned and started to fly back toward the shrine. Even with the problems Reimu's idiocy were forcing on him, he was not without options. However, first he had to deal with a certain someone, a someone that had probably already noticed the fuss.

The Hakurei Ying-Yang Orb sat in the center of the shrine, resting on top of what could only be described as a makeshift altar. Reimu had thrown it together from some planks and building stones she had found in the storehouse and had covered the whole contraption with flowers to pretty it up. All the while Genji had carefully explained to her that while the Ying-Yang Orb was certainly a magical and holy object it its own right, it was intended to be a weapon, not an object of worship. Her response had been something to the tune of "Don't care. I'm broke and this is the closest thing I've got to a holy relic."

Of course it hadn't worked, but Reimu had left the little altar up anyway, in hopes that the word would one day spread. Genji thought it was all foolishness, but upon entering the shrine he was suddenly glad she had left it in place, because it meant he was treated to the amusing image of Yukari's insubstantial form rising partway out of the orb and looking around for Reimu, almost as if Hakurei Shrine had finally gotten the deity it desired and said deity just ended up being totally bewildered.

"Reimu?" Yukari's form said. "Reimu, where the hell are you? Why'd the alarm go off?" Apause, and then, "That's it, I'm coming over there-"

Genji floated into the small room. "Oh, there you are! Good, I've a bone to pick with you, girlie."

Yukari's head snapped up. "Genji! Good. What's going on? Is Satsuki attacking?"

Genji cocked his head to one side. "What?"

"I said, is the-"

"I don't care, I ain't talkin' to you so long as this damned alarm is tearin' up the place! Turn it off!"

Yukari rolled her eyes but nodded. A second later, the noise ceased completely, blessing Genji's earholes with glorious silence.

"Oh, that's so much better," he muttered.

"Glad to hear. What happened? Where's Reimu?"

"What happened? I'll tell you what happened, you overzealous nitwit! A couple of youkai went and set off your blasted alarm! Reimu went to go chase them off."

It was a dangerous game that Genji was playing. There were very few people who could successfully lie to Yukari Yakumo, and those who were caught tended to have their future prospects suddenly cut off. It was just Genji's good fortune that he was one of the people who could.

However, that didn't guarantee his success. Yukari's eyes narrowed. "A couple of normal youkai. Really."

"Yeah. As it turns out, the place is swarmin' with them. Who knew?"

"How…interesting. Odd that the alarm would go off then, especially since I specifically designed it to only go off-"

"When someone tries to drain the barrier," Genji finished for her. "Yeah, I know. Guess it's real fortunate that out of the thousands of youkai out there, that Satsuki gal's the only one that has the ability to drain energy! Lucky how things worked out, ain't it?" His eyes flashed. "You made the damned thing too sensitive, you daft fool!"

Yukari's head snapped back. "Excuse me?" she demanded.

"Oh, don't give me that crap," he growled. "And come to think of it, how about locking me out of the loop about the Shadow Youkai bein' the avatar of effin' Azrael? Think that would be the sorta thing I'd need to know, don't'cha think?"

Yukari folded her arms. "I only just found out myself," she said. "And I instructed Reimu to tell you everything, which she has presumably done. You have nothing to complain about."

"Really? Would've been nice if you came and delivered the information yourself, 'stead've sendin' a proxy."

"Hmmm, I smell a forced change of subject," Yukari said with a glower. "What are you hiding, old lizard?"

"What did I tell you about callin' me that?" Genji growled. "And you can play the paranoia card all you want. Ain't gonna change the fact that I am right pissed at you."

"Really. Well, heaven forbid I should incur your wrath. And are you sure you're not hiding-"

"Why did you let the Sword of Azrael into Gensokyo?" Genji demanded.

That actually stopped Yukari in mid-sentence. She blinked and tilted her head. "I'm sorry, are you implying that I am not doing my job correctly?"

"No. I'm outright sayin' it. Or at least, you weren't doin' it when that disgustin' thing wound up in our country! Were you asleep at the time? Must've happened durin' winter, eh? 'Course, it would have just as much a chance as any other time, seein' how much time you spend actually keepin' an eye on things! 'But no,' she says. 'It's all right. I'll just take everyone else I know and force them to solve the problem for me! I'll probably end up outlivin' them all anyway, so it won't even matter in a hundred years or so'."

He got the reaction he was digging for. Yukari's arms dropped to their sides. Even when filtered through semi-transparency, there was a visible tremor to them. And her incorporeal avatar was starting to flicker, signaling her now lessened hold on her control.

Yukari sucked in a deep breath and regained control. When she spoke, her voice was slow and deliberate. "If you think you can do a better job, you're more than welcome to try. But seeing how we both know that's not going to happen, then you and Reimu are just going to have to live with my methods, aren't you? Now if you'll excuse me, I have three insanely overpowered monsters to defeat. Go back to your pond, old lizard."

She started to fade away. Genji surprised himself by feeling relieved by his success. Now, all he had to do was try to contact-

Yukari's image suddenly refocused itself. "Wait," she said, suspicion filling her voice. "Reimu went to chase off a couple youkai, correct? Why didn't she take the Ying-Yang Orb with her?"

Genji wasn't sure whether to cheer or break out into a cold sweat. Well, he couldn't actually sweat, but the metaphor still applied. "She didn't need it," Genji said. "A couple of annoyin' youkai ain't no match for her, orb or no orb. And I really don't think she wants to talk to you right now. Or have you talking to her."

"Does she not?" Yukari said with a roll of her eyes. "Human girls. They never change. Well, I should probably check in on her anyway. Just to be safe."

Yes! Genji thought enthusiastically. Do that! Ignore everything I'm about to say and get down here!

"Sure, go ahead," Genji said. "Though I should point out that she's already major pissed at you about arrest her best friend. And this will just make things worse. You don't want another Hakurei shrine maiden to tell you that she never wants to see you again, do you? I thought we were tryin' to stop making that happen."

Come on, he thought. It's obvious that I'm trying to keep you away. Act on your suspicion.

Unfortunately, it seemed that he was a little too skilled at manipulation for his own good. Yukari's eyes widened and her head jerked back just a bit, almost as if she had been slapped. There was a long pause, and then she said, "Very well. I'll…see about decreasing the barrier's sensitivity."

"You do that," Genji said despondently.

Yukari disappeared without another word.

Genji started cursing. He cursed Reimu for giving that order and flying off alone, he cursed Yukari for being fooled, he cursed himself and the binding code of honor that was now getting in his way and he cursed himself again for being too good at these sorts of things. He had deliberately tried to anger her, true, but it wasn't supposed to have driven her off. Apparently her pride and past mistakes were too much of a vulnerable point.

Well, no use dwelling on his unwanted success. Having Yukari actually back off for once was a annoying, sure, but there were other alternatives. There were other people he could call, people that Reimu had not forbidden him to speak to. He just hoped that the time he had wasted with Yukari would not end up killing the shrine maiden.

…

Deep Within

"I told you so!" Rumia screamed in Rin's ear. "I told you it was a stupid idea! Did you listen? No, you didn't listen!"

"Okay!" Rin shouted back. She pushed Rumia away. "I get it! Now stop yelling in my-"

Even though their bodies weren't actually physical and the empty space that they inhabited did not technically exist, the "ground" still swayed and pitched as Rin swooped and turned her way through the forest, no doubt symbolizing Rin's panic. Trees and branches flew past, withering in her wake. Her speed was impressive but she lacked technique. The trail she was leaving had to be ridiculously obvious, especially since she wasn't focusing as much on dodging as she should, and in many cases ended up going right through trees instead of around.

Rumia, however, wasn't interested in providing constructive criticism. She had other things on her mind. Namely, Rin's recent rash of stupidity. "Get it? You get it? You didn't get it after the last time, why should I believe that you got it now?"

"Shut up!" Rin shouted. "I'm trying to concentrate here!"

"Well, gods forbid that I should get in the way of that!" Rumia threw her hands in the air. "And while you're at it, maybe you can concentrate on being less of a-"

Rin took a sudden turn and Rumia found her feet sweeping out from under her. She rolled on her shoulder and landed in a crouch. Then she looked up and froze.

The view on the screen was tilting up and up as Rin gained altitude. They were now flying in a completely vertical path. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, but the sudden attack of physics meant that Rumia was now slipping backward as the invisible ground turned into an invisible wall. Rin, it should be pointed out, was unaffected. In fact, she didn't even seem to notice Rumia's predicament.

"Rin?" Rumia shouted. She clawed at the tilting surface, futilely searching for any kind of handhold. "I don't know what's causing this, but fix it now!"

No answer.

"Rin!" Rumia screamed. The slope was now too steep. She tumbled back, falling into the darkness.

…

Reimu wasn't having any difficulty tracking Satsuki. However, she was having considerable difficulty following her. The trail that the taint had created continued in a more-or-less straight path, but it also cut through a lot of foliage. Rin Satsuki had burned through the worst of it, but there were still a lot of vines and small branches slapping her face. Of course, she could have always just gone above the forest. There was enough space between the trees for her to still have seen the path. But unfortunately, she wasn't thinking all that clearly.

Come on, where are you? she thought desperately as she shielded her face. She twisted hard to the right to avoid clipping a half-rotted trunk. Where are you, you freak of science?

Then the branches overhead cleared up for one moment, giving Reimu a clear view of the sky. Her eyes widened when she saw a faintly glowing figure shooting straight upward.

There! Reimu braked hard and shot up as well. Above her, high enough that she was closer to the clouds than the forest, Satsuki was slowing down.

Reimu cupped her hands around her mouth. "Rin!" she shouted at the top of her lungs. "Rin Satsuki! Wai-"

There was a flash of light and heat. Reimu's instincts took over and she spun to the right, just in time to avoid a fist-sized fireball.

"Leave me alone!" Satsuki shouted at her, her voice distorted and unnatural. "Go away and…Oh no, I forgot!"

…

Deep Within

Rumia's fall came to a sudden halt. She hung suspended, surprised and terrified.

Then someone grabbed her and yanked her straight up. She screamed the whole way.

And then she came to a sudden stop.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I got distracted and didn't notice you!"

Rumia looked up. She was near the screen and was staring up at Rin. From her perspective, it looked like Rin was standing on the side of a completely vertical wall. Rumia felt a brief wave of vertigo rush over her, making her nauseous.

Whatever it was that was holding her let go. Apparently gravity had been fixed, as she fell a short space to plop on the invisible wall that Rin was sticking out from, which had turned back into an invisible floor. The sudden change made her so dizzy that she couldn't even think about standing up.

"Are you okay?" Rin said. She rushed over to Rumia. "I'm so sorry. I just panicked, and my emotions started spilling over into this mind-space thingy!" She reached out and touched Rumia's shoulder. "I swear, I didn't mean to-"

The touch banished Rumia's feelings of nausea. She bared her teeth and leapt for Rin's throat.

"I'll kill you!" she snarled. "I'll rip out your-"

She hit empty nothingness. Rin had faded away just in time.

"Stop doing that!" Rumia screamed in frustration.

Rin reappeared a few feet away. "I said I'm sorry! And we really don't have time to fight right now."

"Well, you'd better make time, because you are long overdue for a-"

Then she caught sight of the screen.

"Rin!" Rumia screamed. "Miss Reimu's right there!"

"I know that, that's what I've been trying to-"

"Stop talking and shoot her already!"

…

Reimu was confused. After the initial attack, Satsuki had stopped moving entirely. At first she assumed that Satsuki had seen something that she hadn't, but no, they were still alone.

The shrine maiden wasn't sure what was going on, but she wasn't going to waste time worrying about it. She took advantage of Satsuki's distractedness and closed the distance between them.

But then Satsuki came alive again. The mutated Kirin's fists were both aflame. She started swinging, sending more spheres of fire Reimu's way. Reimu twisted and turned, dodging the blazing attacks. She was briefly thankful that Satsuki was apparently using Mokou's powers instead of the Shadow Youkai's, but then she remembered that being set on fire would kill her just as effectively as the taint. And it would probably be a lot more painful as well.

Reimu glanced down. Her heart fell. Some of the trees were starting to burn. Perhaps the twisting death attacks would have been better. At least then she wouldn't be risking a forest fire.

"Rin, wait!" Reimu said as she dodged her way upward. "Stop it! I need…Damn it! I need to talk to you!"

"Talk to this!" Satsuki shouted back. The flames covering her hands cut off immediately, to be replaced by a sparkling glow in every color of the rainbow.

Satsuki pressed her palms together and thrust them down at Reimu. Multicolored beams of energy shot down, filling the sky with color. Reimu grimaced in frustration as she dodged the energy Satsuki had stolen from Kaguya. This was going nowhere fast…

Then Reimu realized that despite the huge amount of power being unleashed on her, she had yet to so much as graze a single attack. She looked up at Satsuki, who was still pouring sparkling energy down upon her. The Kirin certainly had anger and drive, but she was seriously lacking in the technique department. A very different creature from the one that had so easily dispatched Reimu and her friends at Eientei. A sign of the Shadow Youkai's lack of influence, perhaps?

Heartened by this observation, Reimu shot upward, effortlessly moving around the glittering attacks. She deliberately moved closer to some of the larger ones, to the point where she was almost touching them. Her body tingled as it automatically absorbed some of the excess energy, which was then used to increase her speed.

"Stop it!" Satsuki screamed. "Leave me alone!"

"I'm just trying to help!" Reimu shouted. "Though the gods alone know why. So stop shooting already!"

Satsuki did so. But before Reimu had a chance to feel relieved, something started to happen. The light of day, already muted by the clouds, became even dimmer. The clouds overhead started to grow fatter and roll over each other, darkening from grey to black. Silent lightning started to flicker. A bitter wind started to blow.

Reimu forced herself to a sudden stop. "Oh shit!" she whispered.

Darkness was gathering around Satsuki's hands, so thick and black that it almost looked tangible. It angrily swirled around, gathering in strength.

Reimu started to turn around. Maybe if she moved fast enough, she could avoid being turned into a shriveled and blackened corpse.

And then two huge green hands, one from above and one from below, shot out of nowhere and smacked Satsuki between a crushing clap. The darkness disappeared immediately and the weather calmed down.

Reimu remained floating where she was. Her mind had frozen in shock. Her mouth was hanging slack and her eyes were bulging out of their sockets. One of the hands had wrapped around Satsuki's torso in a tight-fisted grip while the other was flicking her in the head with its fingers.

"I..." Reimu choked out. "…what…is…."

"Eyerok's Twin Firsts of Fury," a soft voice murmured from somewhere behind her. "Not very popular, but highly underrated in my opinion. It just takes a bit of skill to use properly."

Reimu squeaked in surprise. She whirled around. "What? Mima? How? I…Where? Why?"

Her onetime arch-enemy was floating nearby. One hand was planted on her hip, while the other was idly scratching at her cheek. She wore a wry smile as she looked at Reimu with amusement.

"I already told you the answer to the first," Mima said. "And the answer to the second is yes. The third is magic, I'm not telling you the fourth, and the fifth is that Genji contacted me about a minute or so ago and told me that you were confronting Rin Satsuki on your own and was in desperate need of backup." She looked over to the imprisoned Satsuki. One of the green hands was now holding her suspended by one leg while the other was batting her back and forth like a punching bag. "Upon assessing the situation, I find myself agreeing with his conclusion."

Reimu stared. "I…Uh…"

"He also made it clear that your behavior was abysmally stupid." Mima shook her head. "I'm afraid I must concur with that conclusion as well."

Reimu scowled. Indignation was chasing away the stupefaction that was locking up her mind. "Hey, I wasn't doing too bad!"

"No, you weren't," Mima agreed. "But you were going to lose. That was a great amount of magic death she was about to send your way." The ghost glanced down. She shook her head. "And look, you somehow managed to set the forest on fire as well. How careless."

She waved her hands and muttered a word. Rainclouds suddenly formed above the spreading fires and began dousing the flames with a crushing downpour, snuffing them out.

"There now, that's taken care. But what of Satsuki? It won't be long before she starts to adapt to that as well." Mima stretched out her hands. They started to glow yellow. "I say we call up Yukari to come pick her up and call it a day."

"No, wait!" Reimu shouted.

Mima paused. The yellow glow vanished. "Yes?"

"Don't call Yukari, not yet. Just…Can you hold onto her for a little longer? I want to see if I can convince her to cooperate."

Mima looked confused. And then realization dawned on her face. "Ah, that's right. Your mission of mercy." She shrugged. "Well, I still believe that you're being a tremendous fool, but it really doesn't make a difference to me. And a bargain is a bargain, after all. Though if I were you, I'd talk quickly."

Reimu turned. Satsuki had managed to catch the giant hand that was swatting her with her talons. It shook in her grasp, and then it started to slowly shrivel. The hand holding her place began to deflate as well as she absorbed both into her body.

"Hmmm, that didn't take long," Mima murmured as she floated to Reimu's side. "Perhaps a change in tactics?"

She flicked her wrist. Both of the giant hands exploded into green sparks. But before Satsuki could right herself, dozens of golden discs appeared and started to circle around her in all directions. There was a low humming sound, and suddenly beams of light shot from the discs to impact against Satsuki. No two beams were the same: some were thick as logs while others as thin as chopsticks. Some were bright red, others dull red, others green, one appeared to be made entirely of densely packed blue stars, another of pulsing bubbles. And they refused to remain consistent. Each disc shot forth a specific type of beam for only about five seconds between switching to another entirely. It was nauseating to watch.

"There we go," Mima said smugly. "Let her adapt to that." She glanced over to Reimu. "Though I should point out that this spell requires a tremendous amount of energy. So please start talking. I won't be able to maintain it for long."

"Right," Reimu muttered. She took a deep breath. "Okay, here we go."

"Oh, and try not to look directly at it," Mima called as Reimu made her way toward the imprisoned Satsuki. "You'll make yourself sick."

Reimu ignored her. She drew in closer and said, "Rin? Rin Satsuki? Can you hear me?"

…

Deep Within

Rumia had no idea what to make of what was going on. The last time they had been attacked by Reimu and her cronies, it had been like the nothingness around them was reacting in pain, almost visibly recoiling with explosions in red, white and purple. This was similar, but instead of feeling like she was in the middle of a war zone, it was more like she had flown into a firework display. Flashes of light came from all around, and in a greater array of colors than before. Green, blue, yellow, etc. It was more dizzying than violent.

As for Rin herself, she didn't seem to be in pain, but the Kirin girl was obviously distressed. She kept whirling and jumping around, as if she were trying to face something that would not hold still. Her face was twisted into a grimace of frustration, while her eyes were full of panic.

"I can't…It's too much…" she muttered. "I can't adapt to this. It won't let me! Stop it! Leave me alone!"

That last bit was directed toward the screen and, presumably, Reimu Hakurei, who was still visible behind the bizarre trap Mima had stuck them in. Now that the Evil Spirit of Makai had shown up, Rumia had become even less enthusiastic about their chances of survival.

The shrine maiden was coming closer, though she was still keeping some distance between her and Rin. "Satsuki, would you please just shut up for one minute?" she said irritably. "I'm trying to help you here!"

That comment surprised Rin so much that she stopped whirling immediately and focused all of her attention on the screen. "Wait, huh?" she goggled.

Rumia had to admit that she felt much the same way. Reimu Hakurei did not help youkai outside of her small circle of friends, and even then she needed quite a bit of convincing. So why the hell would she try to help Rin?

She wouldn't, that was why. Rumia sauntered over to Rin and muttered, "She's lying. She has to be. Don't listen to her."

…

"You're lying," Satsuki shouted. "You have to be! Why should I listen to you?"

"I have to admit, the affront to nature makes a valid point," Mima muttered.

"Shut up, Mima," Reimu said wearily. This conversation had just begun and already it was giving her a headache. To Satsuki, she said, "Look, I know we're kind of on opposite sides-"

"Kind of?"

"Okay, yeah. But still, there are people who are…" Reimu turned to Mima. "What's the word I'm looking for?"

"Deluded?" Mima suggested.

Reimu scowled and turned back to Satsuki. She snapped her fingers. "Sympathetic! That's it. There are some people that feel sorry for you and want to help-"

"Oh, so you feel sorry for me," Satsuki shot back. "Well, that's just great. Not sorry enough to let us go and leave me alone?"

"Um, I…really can't do that."

"Yeah, I kinda figured."

"But look. I've got some pull with Yukari Yakumo, and she's in charge of this…whole whatever. And if you give up peacefully and all, I'm pretty sure I can-"

Satsuki started making a strange, huffing noise that echoed through the grey sky. Reimu stiffened, convinced that she was about to unleash some weird new attack. A fraction of a second later she realized that Satsuki was actually laughing.

"Give up?" Satsuki repeated. "Peacefully? Are you serious? I don't even know you people, and you've done nothing but attack me!"

Reimu grimaced. "Um, yeah. The ambush. About that. See, we had no idea who you were. We thought you were someone…else. Someone bad. We saw you with Eirin and thought you were attacking. Our bad. So…sorry about that?"

"Reimu, I know it may crush your dreams, but I feel compelled to discourage any future endeavors in a career as a persuasive speaker," Mima murmured.

"Told you to shut up."

But apparently Satsuki was in agreement with Mima. "Are you serious? You're 'sorry'? Is that supposed to make everything better?"

Reimu scowled. She was starting to get annoyed. "Well, you busted up my ribs, took out my foot for like three days and nearly gave me a concussion. So how about we get past that and move on? I'm seriously doing my best here. How about a little cooperation?"

"Oh, so much more convincing."

"Seriously, Mima. Zip it."

"And why should I believe you?" Satsuki demanded. "You still haven't answered that question. Why would you have any reason to help me?"

"Because your stupid bunny girl asked me too!" Reimu snapped. "I'm doing it as a favor to her, because she had to be all sad and pitiful! Stop making me question it!"

Reimu had difficult fully making out Satsuki's form through the busts of light, but it did look like Reimu's words had made her stiffen. At least, she had stopped writhing.

"She's no longer trying to adapt," Mima said in a low voice. "I do believe you've surprised her."

…

Deep Within

"R-Reisen?" Rin whispered. She fell backward onto her butt, where she sat with her hands splayed out to either side and her eyes focused on the screen. "Reisen asked you to help me?"

"Rin, you're seriously not buying this, are you?" Rumia hissed. "It's a trick! Don't listen to her!"

"Yeah, she did," Reimu said. "She told me that you were misused and abused. Now, I still think you're freaky as all hell, but hey, if she's telling the truth, then you're innocent. Kind of. From a certain point of view. But hey, we've had crazy incidents result from crazy misunderstandings, so I'm not one to say anyone's beyond help."

"Don't listen to her," Rumia said. "She's just trying to fool you."

Rin turned her head toward her. "But what if she isn't?" she said. "What if Reisen really-"

"She didn't," Rumia said in a flat voice. "And even if she did, Miss Reimu wouldn't have gone along with it. And even if she did, she wouldn't have gotten Miss Mima's help. And even if she did…You see where I'm going with this? Don't trust her, she's just trying to make it easier to bring you in."

"But they've already captured me!"

"No, they've got the upper hand," Rumia corrected. "But you're not captured until Miss Yukari's got you in a little glass bowl or something. And hey, it's working. You've stopped struggling, haven't you?"

Rin looked troubled but she didn't argue.

…

"Forget it," Satsuki said. "I've had nothing but grief from you people. This is just another trick."

Reimu felt like tearing her hair out. "No it's not!" she yelled. "Gods, what do I have to convince you that I'm on your side, you half-baked, deformed piece of-"

Mima placed a hand on her shoulder. "Reimu, perhaps you should let me handle this."

Reimu shot her a disbelieving look. "What? The hell I am!"

"Reimu, be serious. This is not your forte. Leave it to someone who can actually string a convincing sentence together without losing her temper."

"But I-"

"Trust me on this." Mima turned toward the bizarre trap that held Satsuki. "I apologize for my associate's lack of tact. She really is a pleasant person once you get to know her. It's just that the isolation and stress from her job have disallowed her to develop any decent social skills to speak out."

"Was that a compliment or an insult?" Reimu muttered. "Because I'm having a really hard time telling-"

"Shush now," Mima said. She returned her attention to Satsuki. "However, I assure you that she was not lying. For one thing, she's terrible at it. For another, this sort of trickery quite simply isn't her style. So if she says that she has been approached by your surrogate parental figure on your behalf and grows frustrated when you don't believe her, she is telling the truth. You are not without allies, Rin. There are people who wish to end this incident in a manner beneficial to all involved, yourself included."

…

Deep Within

"Rin, snap out of it," Rumia begged. "That's Miss Mima, for crying out loud! Miss Reimu may suck at lying, but that ghost is a pro!"

Rin looked dubious. She shot Rumia a doubtful look, and turned back to the screen.

"What about you?" she said to Mima. "I mean, I've heard of you. And you've…uh, got kind of a nasty reputation you know? Why would you care?"

…

Mima turned to Reimu. Her teeth flashed as she grinned. "Do you hear? I'm famous!"

"Mima, just get back to work," Reimu sighed. She closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose.

"If you insist." She turned back to Satsuki. "You're correct. I have no reason to care what happens to you. Death, escape, cured, ascension to abomination of the highest caliber; whatever your fate, it's all the same to me. However, at the moment I am at odds with a certain Yukari Yakumo, as she has recently done me a wrong. And since Reimu here isn't on the best terms with her Royal Bitchiness either, we have entered into a collaboration of mutual assistance. And included among our long-term goals would be fulfilling her altruistic mission on the behalf of the Lunar rabbit." Mima chuckled. "Also, seeing how Yukari is currently the strongest advocate for your termination, curing you and resolving the current incident without her involvement would make her look all kinds of foolish." She spread her hands. "So while my reasons may be a little on the selfish side, they are enough to motivate me to help you, as self-contradictory as it seems."

Satsuki didn't answer. Reimu wasn't sure if this was a good sign or a bad sign, but it was certainly better than outright hostility. So she decided to add her own argument.

"Seriously, all we want is for this craziness to be over," she said. "And hey, if we can fix you in the process, why not try? I mean, the best case scenario is getting Kaguya Houraisan and Fujiwara no Mokou back, making you normal again with no one getting hurt, getting rid of the Shadow Youkai-"

Mima suddenly seized Reimu by the wrist. "All right, stop talking," she hissed.

"What?" Reimu looked at her in confusion. "Why?"

"Ix-nay on the adow-Shay oukai-Yay! What if it's still influencing her? Do you really want it to join the debate?"

Reimu gulped. She hastily turned back to Satsuki. "Uh, you know what? Just disregard that lastMMMPHHHH!"

Mima slapped a hand over Reimu's mouth. "Again, my apologies," she told Satsuki. "As I said, Reimu is unaccustomed to using means other than brute force to solve her problems, so she has an unfortunate tendency to speak without thinking."

"Shadow Youkai?" Satsuki said. "Do you mean Rumia?"

…

Deep Within

Rumia was on the verge of absolute panic. "Don't bring me up. Please don't bring me up. I don't want you talking about me. Please? Please, Rin?"

"But they may know where-"

"I don't care! I couldn't care less where I came from! I just want-"

"Well, I do!" Rin shouted. "It's kind of important, you know?"

"Rumia?" Reimu's voice could be heard saying, though the shrine maiden herself was difficult to make out. "Is she…in there with you?"

…

"No," Satsuki said.

"A lie," Mima murmured so that only Reimu could hear.

"I kind of figured, thanks," Reimu muttered back. She sighed. Great, now they potentially had Azrael's avatar whispering into Satsuki's other ear.

"Rin, look, you…can't trust Rumia," Reimu said. "She's…not a good person. She's killed a lot of people, just for fun, and just wants to use you so she can kill again."

"What, you mean her evil side?" Satsuki said. There was a note of scorn in her voice. "I know about that already! I killed it!"

Reimu's eyes widened. "Wait, what?"

…

Deep Within

"It tried to take over my body, so I chased it into hiding," Rin explained. "I found it, and it tried to kill me, so I tried to kill it back. We both succeeded. I came back. It didn't. It's dead."

Rumia sat down. She put her head between her legs and started to whimper.

"So, whatever issue you have with Rumia isn't a problem anymore," Rin continued. "The only Rumia that's left doesn't have a clue about Evil Rumia or where she came from. So leave her alone!"

Like that was going to work. Rumia found herself actually wishing that Yukari would show up and put an end to everything. At least then she wouldn't have to deal with crazy people yelling at each other anymore.

…

"Wait a minute," Reimu said. "Are you telling me that the original Rumia…I mean the Rumia that I know, the little stupid one, is still alive?"

There was no answer.

"Rin, I need an answer. If the Rumia from Cirno's gang is still around, that could…change a lot."

She looked over to Mima, her eyebrow raised in askance. Mima looked off into the distance, deep in thought. Then she gave a single nod, confirming that it was possible.

"Like what?" Satsuki said.

"Well, for starters, we were all worried that Rumia had turned back into the Shadow Youkai and was in your head messing with your mind!"

"She isn't. I told you already, I killed that part of her. Only the harmless Rumia's left."

"Okay…Uh, but if that's true, then maybe I can find a way to get both of you off. And then we can see about getting you fixed."

"Might want to consider rephrasing that," Mima murmured.

"Huh? Why?"

"Clearly, you've never owned a pet. But at any rate, we would have to confirm for certain that the Shadow Youkai half of Rumia is truly crushed into oblivion. Of course, not knowing the Shadow Youkai's species or origins complicates things, but a simple astral probe-"

Reimu blinked. "Right, you weren't there when we found out."

"Found out what?"

"The Shadow Youkai. It's a Fallen Angel."

Mima's reaction was different from Genji's, but it was down the same lines. Her head whipped around so that she was staring Reimu in the eyes. Her cheeks were trembling as her mouth slowly opened.

She's a WHAT? Mima mouthed.

Reimu nodded. "Well, an avatar of one, actually. Not really sure how it works, but Yukari said that some mortal picked up the sword of a fallen angel, and got themselves all corrupted."

"Oh," Mima said. She slowly shook her head. "Oh…my. Oh, my, my, my. That really does complicate things."

"Really? How."

"Because if what you're saying is true, then there's no way Rin could have killed it. Especially if it had already fully merged with a host. It's still alive, Reimu."

Those words sent a chill down Reimu's back. For a moment, she had started to hope that Satsuki had taken care of the problem for them. But apparently not.

"No, it's not," Satsuki said suddenly. "I told you already, I killed it!"

"Aw, nuts," Reimu muttered. "How'd she hear us over all the shooting?"

"She does seem have exceptional hearing," Mima said. Then, in a much lower voice, she said, "Reimu, I don't know what you're planning now, but I'd advise that you make it quick. Maintaining this spell is starting to become somewhat of a pain."

"Oh. Crap." Reimu wracked her brain, trying to think of new solutions. "Um, how much longer can you keep it up?"

"Conservatively speaking? I'd say…" She shot Satsuki a quick glanced and held up three fingers.

Three minutes, she mouthed.

"What are you two talking about?" Satsuki demanded. "You don't think I killed it, do you? You don't think I'm strong enough? And now you're talking about killing us both just to make sure, aren't you?"

"What? No!" Reimu said. "We were just-"

"Save it. You're not trying to help me. You never were. You're just trying to sucker me into letting you take me somewhere where you can kill us easier. Rumia was right, I should've never listened to you in the first place."

"Rumia?" Reimu said, her level of alarm rising. "Rin…What has she be saying to you?"

Satsuki didn't answer. Reimu suddenly had a very, very bad feeling.

…

Deep Within

"I told you!" Rumia screamed. "I told you not to trust them!"

"I know, I know, I'm sorry," Rin muttered. She was sitting hunched over with her head in her hands. She seemed to be concentrating on something. "But I'll make it up to you."

"Is that so," Rumia said with a note of sarcasm. "How's that?"

"By getting us out of here."

Rumia blinked. "But I thought you couldn't adapt to this cage thingy!"

"I can't. But I wasn't planning on adapting."

Rumia wasn't sure if she liked the sound of that. "Then…"

Rin brought her hands close together, fingers curled into claws. From all around, there came a low whistling sound, like a sharp, bitter wind through a tunnel. Rumia found herself shivering.

Then Rin spoke. Her voice was dangerously low, almost to a menacing level. "I'm going to make your predecessor's legacy work in our favor for once," she said. "I'm going to break out of here."

…

"What's happening?" Reimu shouted at Mima. The wind was howling so loudly that she could barely hear herself. "What's she doing?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Mima shouted back. "She's tapping into the Shadow Youkai's well of power!"

It certainly seemed that way. The black clouds had returned, though there were more of them this time. And they seemed angrier as they crashed and rolled over each other. From within came flashes of that creepily quiet lightning.

Satsuki herself had acquired a few special effects of her own. Twisting tendrils of darkness swirled in and out of Mima's magic cage like black smoke, and they were growing thicker by the second. The glow of the cage was starting to fade to a sickly pale yellow.

And then there was the wind. In addition to shrieking as it blew by, it seemed like it was being sucked into Satsuki herself, almost like a whirlpool. Or a…

"Look out!" Mima shouted. She grabbed Reimu around the waist and threw the both of them nearly half a mile back.

And not a moment too soon. An imposing whirlwind of pure darkness had literally erupted around Satsuki. Reimu wasn't sure, but it looked like it had sprung to life from inside the cage to connect to the angry clouds instead of descending from above. But either way, there was a black spinning monolith sucking in everything that the winds had knocked loose.

Including, as it seemed, Reimu herself.

"Whoa!" she screamed as she was pulled toward the vortex. She put everything she had into her natural flight and shoved herself as hard as she could in the opposite direction, but all that accomplished was making herself slow down.

Fortunately, Mima was still nearby. The green-haired ghost's hand snapped around Reimu's wrist and pulled her close. Once she had both arms around the shrine maiden, Mima muttered a brief word, and a sphere of green sparks sparkled to life all around them. The pull of the wind stopped immediately.

However, it seemed that others weren't so lucky. Others had gotten caught up in the pull and were being dragged toward the all-consuming cyclone. Fairies, youkai, animals, the odd human traveler; all were being dragged through the air toward their deaths.

"Help them!" Reimu screamed at Mima. The first of the helpless crowd were only moments away from being torn apart by the darkness.

"How?" Mima responded. "I don't have the strength to cancel that thing out, nor can I shield every one of them. This is beyond the scope of my-"

And just like that, it was over. The whirlwind dissolved into small spinning wisps of darkness, which disappeared like smoke on the wind. The clouds cleared up, revealing their still looming but considerably less ominous grey predecessors above. And the sunlight, muted as it was, started to shine once more.

"-abilities?" Mima looked around. "Never mind. I clearly underestimated myself."

Reimu rolled her eyes. "Let go of me," she groused as she pushed herself out of Mima's arms.

The small crowd of victims that the whirlwind had pulled up were evacuating the area in a hurry. Reimu had to move out the way to avoid being run over by a small gang of panicked fairies. But despite her previous concern, her attention was focused on the space previously occupied by the whirlwind.

It was empty. The cage was gone. As was Satsuki.

Reimu looked down. A good quarter-mile of forest had been devastated. In its place was a large black circle, completely overrun by the taint.

"Well now," Mima said. "That's…problematic."

"Yeah, no kidding," Reimu muttered. "Do you know if anyone got hurt or killed?"

"The former? Most likely. The latter? I'm afraid I don't know. Odds are pretty good that someone had a permanently bad day though."

Reimu nodded. It was the only thing she could think to do.

"Reimu, is what you said true? Is the Shadow Youkai really the avatar of a fallen angel?"

"Yeah," Reimu said emotionlessly. "It is."

"I see. Do we know which one?"

Reimu nodded again. "Yes. Azrael."

Mima fell silent. When she spoke again, her voice was slow and guarded. "I…see. Well, if that's the case, then you may need to abandon your mission of mercy. This is just a small taste of the devastation these creatures are capable of, and if it escalates…"

"I know, I know," Reimu muttered in frustration. "Just give me time. I'll think of something."

"Will you now?" Mima said. She raised a questioning eyebrow. "You do remember that planning isn't you strong suit, correct? Perhaps you better leave that part to Kanako and me."

"Right," Reimu sighed. "And hey, is there anything you can do about-"

"I can't heal the taint, and after that bit of nastiness, I doubt my abilities to hide what has just happened from Yukari. I can, however, disguise it for the time being. You're on your own when she starts asking questions though."

Reimu didn't answer.

Mima laid a hand on her shoulder. Reimu blinked, and looked at her in surprise. The gesture seemed to be sincere.

"Come on," Mima said softly. "We can talk back at the shrine."

Reimu nodded. Mima turned and flew in the direction of Hakurei Shrine, with Reimu close behind.

…

Deep Within

Rumia wasn't exactly sure what had happened. First Rin had started to get really scary. And then it had gotten very loud. And then it had gotten very dark. Rumia had shut her eyes at that part. And when she had opened them again, they were once again traveling through the earth. Apparently whatever Rin had done had worked, but Rumia wasn't sure if she wanted to know what it was.

She shook her head. What was she going on about? Of course it didn't matter what Rin had done. The important thing was that they were free, at least for the time being.

Rin was sitting cross-legged nearby, staring down at her knees. She glanced at Rumia. "Hey," she said.

"Um, hi?" Rumia said. "Did we…"

"Escape? Yeah." Rin sighed. "Well, go ahead."

Rumia blinked. "Go ahead and do what?"

"Yell at me. Call me an idiot. Try to punch me, or bite me, or whatever. Because…I think I kinda deserve it, you know?"

Rumia thought about that. "Would it make any difference?" she said at last. "Because seriously, I'm getting a little sick of you not listening to me when I tell you that you're doing something stupid."

Rin looked away.

"Seriously though, what is it with you?" Rumia stood up and walked over to Rin. She knelt down and tried to look Rin in the eye. The Kirin girl just moved her head away. "I mean, at first you were all excited about having me around for company, but then you start acting like I'm not even here. You ignore me when I'm practically screaming in your ear, you go and do the dumbest things imaginable and then make up silly excuses. Do you want them to catch us? Is that it? Are you suicidal or-"

That's when it hit her. She took a step back and gasped. "Oh my gods," she said. "Oh. My. Gods. That's it!"

Rin finally looked at her. "Huh?" she said in confusion.

"You are suicidal!"

Rin's eyes bulged. "What? No I'm not!"

"Yes you are, you just don't know it! I've seen people get like this before! You're deliberately doing the craziest, most dangerous things and hoping someone big enough will come along and kill you!"

"That's nuts! I got us away, remember?"

"That's why I said you don't know it! Your mind must've gotten all screwed up even more when you regenerated, and something's driving you to get yourself killed!"

"Rumia, do you even know the slightest thing about psychology? It doesn't work that way!"

Rumia stuck a finger at Rin's face. "Hey, I might not have read all those big brainy books you have, but I can tell that you're not clicking right." Then she realized what she had just said and quickly amended, "Um, I mean more so than usual. Face it Rin, you're kind of…broken."

"Tell me something I don't know," Rin muttered. "And you'd be broken too if you-"

"Yeah, I've heard the sob story already. And if you wanna go bid goodbye to your craphole of a life, I'm really not gonna blame you. But, hey. Rin? Guess what." Rumia got down low and shoved her face right into Rin's.

"I'm still here!" she raged. "I'm still stuck here inside you, and no I don't care how that sounded! I don't wanna die. I want back the life you took from me! You owe me big, sister. So wait until you've paid up before offing yourself. Got it?"

Rin stared with wide eyes. She quickly nodded.

"Good." Rumia backed up. She sat down. "So from now on, we do what I say, okay? You may be driving this big mess of creepy, but I'm the only one with any common sense. So if I tell you 'Bad idea, run like hell', you do it, got it?"

"Got it," Rin whispered. Then she added, "I'm sorry."

Rumia snorted. "Yeah. Heard that before."

She turned away and walked off to be by herself for a bit, even if she knew that Rin was technically everywhere. She just didn't want to deal with Rin at that moment. She needed space to think. She had come up with and executed her fair share of pranks and plots back when she was with her friends (how long ago had that been, anyway?). She just needed to treat her current predicament the same way. She had to think of it as if she were playing a prank that had gone wrong, and needed to-

Rin started to make the odd hiccupping sound of someone who was doing their best not to try but still desperately needed to. Rumia glanced over her shoulder. The Kirin girl had turned away from her. She was slumping forward, with her arms hugging her knees. Her shoulders were shaking.

Rumia grimaced and quickly turned away. She was not going to feel sorry for the crazy girl. It was Rin's fault they were in this mess to begin with, in more ways than one. If Rumia had done something incredibly stupid that had gotten everyone into major trouble, Cirno would have chewed her ear off without sympathy. That was how the world worked. You screwed up, you had to deal with the consequences. Crying about it wouldn't fix anything.

Still…Rin just looked so pathetic…

Rumia put her hands on her hips and sighed. She looked around, found that there was still nothing to look, and settled for rolling her eyes upward.

"Damn it," she muttered. Then she turned around and walked over sit by Rin.

"All right, calm down," she said, though if her words sounded false even to her ears. "It's not that bad."

"It's not?" Rin said with a bitter laugh. "Which series of events have you been following? At least you've still got your friends running around and trying to rescue you."

Rumia declined to point out how much of a problem Cirno's methods were likely to become. "Well, you've got Miss Reisen! I mean, she managed to convince Miss Reimu to help try to save you, right? So there's still some hope."

"I thought you said that was all a trick."

Rumia grimaced. "Right, I did. Uh, but maybe it-"

"Don't bother, you were right," Rin muttered. "And even if it is for real…it just makes things worse."

"What?" Rumia blinked. "Why?"

"Because I don't want Reisen to get in trouble for me, after what I almost did to her. Because it's too dangerous. Because I'm not worth it. And because…" Rin took a deep breath. "Because I think it may be too late for me."

Rumia stared at her, unsure of what she should do. She lifted up one hand with the intention of placing it on Rin's shoulder. But she ended up putting back down with a sigh.

A heavy moment passed, with neither of them saying anything. Then, surprisingly enough, it was Rin that broke the silence.

"So, uh, what do we do now?" she said.

…

"What amazes me is that something like the Sword of Azrael even made it into Gensokyo," Mima said. "I mean, I know our guardians have a tendency to be…lax at times, but you would think something like that would have been noticed by somebody before infecting a host. It must have passed through the barrier only shortly before falling into Rumia's hands."

"Genji was wondering about that too," Reimu said. "And hey, you were kind of a bad guy back then, right? Are there any old friends that might of-"

Mima shook her head. "Everyone I know from the business would certainly have not let it fall into anyone else's hands. And we kept pretty close tabs on each other. Someone would have found out. But then, there are plenty of no-good-doers that I am not personally acquainted with. It could have been any one of them."

"Huh," Reimu said. "And just out of curiosity, say you were the one who had it, or it had fallen in your hands. What would happen?"

"Now? I would use it to try to bring the Shadow Youkai down. My days of widespread mischief-making are behind me. And I really do like this place. It would be such a shame to have something happen to it. But back then?" Mima smiled. "Well, suffice to say, if I did have the Sword of Azrael in my possession…you never would have been born."

Reimu grimaced. "You're kinda creepy sometimes, anyone ever tell you that?"

"Mmmm. Compared to some of the things that your ancestors have called me, that's nearly a compliment. Ah, here we are."

They had reached the shrine grounds and the ridiculous barrier covering it. Being residents of the place, they passed right through without trouble.

"You know, I'm rather relieved Yukari hadn't thought to exile me from this place like she has…some other places," Mima said. "Of course, she probably just hasn't thought of it yet. Be a bit awkward when she does."

"I won't remind her if you don't," Reimu said. "Though by now, the number of secrets we're keeping from her would-"

"There you are!" an angry voice exploded from nearby. They both turned to see Genji floating toward them with an expression of pure fury on his aged and scaled face.

"Well now, I do believe you're in trouble," Mima murmured.

"You think?" Reimu sighed. To Genji, she said, "Okay. I'm back. Mission failed, she got away, but no one died. At least I don't think so anyway. So go ahead and let me have it."

Genji settled to a stop. "'Let me have it', she says," he grumbled. "Oh, I'll let you have it. If I were physically capable of the action, I'd be kickin' your stupid head right in! I mean, chasin' after somethin' like that without help? And then you forbid me to tell the one person who you should've called in the first place. Gods girl, what the hell were you thinkin'?"

"Okay, okay, it was stupid," Reimu said, holding her hands up. "I get it."

"Yeah, like I'm gonna be fallin' for that. Can you believe this girl? Never, in all my years, have I seen such a blatant display of pure stupidity!"

The last two sentences were directed toward Mima, who was watching the exchange with her usual air of detached amusement. "Oh, I don't know," she said. "I remember those girls you used to send after me, and there were some pretty dumb ones. Though I have to admit, I never thought I'd be called upon to rescue the last surviving member of the Hakurei line, much less agree to do just that. Rather fortunate that I did though. The girl was this close to ending up as a sad little pile of charred meat."

"You two aren't going to cut me some slack any time soon, are you?" Reimu said.

"Hell no," Genji snapped.

"Most certainly not," Mima said. "It's too much fun."

"And if it weren't for the fact that you two still gots business to take care of, I'd still be rippin' your ass," Genji said. "But that'll have to wait."

"What?" Reimu blinked. "Business?"

"Did you just say, 'You two'?" Mima asked. "How exactly am I involved?"

"It's not Yukari, is it?" Reimu said. "I told you to keep her out!"

"Nah, not her. Not yet. But still, you two gots yourselves a visitor."

Genji tilted his head toward the shrine. Reimu and Mima looked up to see someone running toward them. Or rather, two persons, one full-sized and on foot and the second about a foot tall and floating behind the former's shoulder.

"There you are!" the larger of the two shouted. "Of course, the moment I need you, you decide to be elsewhere. Wouldn't surprise me if you had been lazing about until the very moment I came by. Absolutely typical."

"Alice?" Reimu said. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Shouting at you, it seems," Mima said. "Appears to be all the rage these days."

Alice Margatroid skid to a stop. Just by her disheveled appearance, she had worked herself up over something.

"Look for you," she snapped. "What part of that failed to be obvious? But you're here now at least. Now you need to come with me to the Forest of Magic. Both of you. Right now."

Reimu and Mima exchanged a look. They both shrugged. "Um, why?"

"Because Marisa's come home."

"Huh?" Reimu said. "They let her go?"

Mima's eyes narrowed to slits. "Highly unlikely."

"I never said she was alone!" Alice shouted. "There has to be at least a full squad of those GPF imbeciles with her, along with that violence happy captain of theirs! They wouldn't even let me get near enough to talk to her!"

"Was Yukari there?" Mima asked.

Alice shook her head. "No, I didn't see her."

"What of that Shikigami of hers, Ran? Was she there? Or Satori Komejii?"

"Satori? Why would she…No. Neither of them. Just Marisa and the GPF."

"And did you sense any new magics? Any hidden barriers or blocking spells or traps?"

Alice thought for a moment. "No, I don't believe so. Nothing other than the usual paranormal mess that always seems to gather around that-Hey!"

Alice and Reimu jumped back in surprise. Mima had vanished. No theatrics, no warning. One moment she had been there, the next there were only three sentients standing at the shrine grounds entrance.

"Ah, nuts," Genji muttered. "That ain't good."

"What?" Alice said. "What isn't good?"

"You've gone and set Mima off on a rampage. She's probably over there already, causing all sorts of mayhem."

Alice scowled. "I'm sorry, but I'm failing to see the problem with that. After what those self-important 'authority figures' did to Marisa in my house, I'm finding it difficult to-"

"That's because you ain't thinkin' with your brain!" Genji hissed."Mima's pissed. She has a target, and she has a motive. That means alotta collateral damage, and even more intended damage. And seein' how the GPF are Yukari's pet project, that means a whole lot of the ghost makin' things worst!"

Reimu looked at Alice. "Okay, he's got me convinced. This ain't good. Come on."

"What?" Alice said as Reimu took to the air again. "You're not possibly thinking of going down there yourself. I mean, the Forest of Magic is at least-"

"Less talking and more flying! Genji, hold down the fort, yeah?"

"Like I've got a choice?" he shouted back. "And for the love of all that is holy, take your damned ball with you this time!"

"Point." Reimu snapped her fingers. Over in the shrine, the Hakurei Ying-Yang orb lifted off its makeshift altar and took off toward her. Halfway there, it split into two smaller orbs, each about half the size of the original. These split yet again, resulting in four orbs total, which twisted through the air and started to swirl around Reimu's waist. She then wasted no time shooting through the barrier and making a straight beeline for the Forest of Magic.

She glanced over her shoulder and was pleased to see that Alice was close behind. "Glad to see you decided to tag along," she shouted back.

"Don't make me change my mind," Alice responded. She scowled. "I came here to see help from you and Mima in helping Marisa escape, not try to stop Mima from doing just that."

"Hey, you heard the turtle. You wanna have this thing escalate out of control? Things are about two steps from complete chaos already."

"And what do you suggest we do when we get there?" Alice demanded. "That is, assuming it's not already too late."

Reimu shook her head. She turned her head back toward the horizon. "See, this is why you'll never become a professional incident solver. You just don't ask these sorts of questions. Most of it is simply going to the place and figure things out when you get there."

"Is that right? No wonder so many in the business end up dead."

Reimu scowled. She flattened her arms against her body and increased her speed. "Shut up and fly."

…

Hmmm, giant black tornadoes of death. Where have we seen that before?

Anyway, I'd like to take this moment to talk to you about a little something called the "Idiot Ball". This is when to have the scene you want to happen actually happen, you need to have at least one character acting in an uncharacteristically stupid manner. It's considered a sign of bad writing, and like everyone else it always makes me roll my eyes when I see it happen. But now, here we see Reimu pick it up, so score one for irony. Still, there are a few things in my favor, the first being that Reimu, while far from dumb, never really was that much of a thinker and is accustomed to charging headfirst into insanely dangerous situations. The second is relentlessly lampshading the fact that the character is being an idiot by having the other characters give her no end of grief over it. Doesn't completely excuse it when it happens, I know, but it does make it at least a little easier to swallow.

But that issue aside, and even though this really wasn't the most important chapter ever, I have to admit: I probably enjoyed this chapter more than any other chapter since the Deep Within trilogy. I dunno, it was just really, really fun. Maybe it was because it was what I do best: lots of characters being pissed at each other and shouting a lot. Plus, I admit that I'm kind of a sucker for hurt/comfort stories. But whatever the reason, I had so much fun with this one. :D

Oh, and just for fun, go back and reread Genji's lines and imagine him being voiced by Jeff Bridges.

Until next time, everyone!