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.

60. Deep Within, Part 4

Deep Within, Part 4

It wasn't long after midnight that Elly awoke to the sound of her master's screams.

Her sleep had been light and restless, as it often was these days. A sigh would have roused her. But truth be told, Yuuka's cry was so shrill and so full of fear that it would have dragged her out of a coma.

Her eyes snapped open and her heart began pounding. For a moment, she was so confused that she started wondering if it had just been her imagination, perhaps an early nightmare or a sign that her fears were becoming too pressing on her mind.

Then Yuuka screamed again and all doubt vanished.

"Master!" Elly cried as she swept the covers away. She held out her hand and her scythe snapped into her grasp. "I'm coming, Master!"

Still in her pajamas, Elly flew through the dark mansion. Her way was cleared as the plants opened doors, moved furniture, and snapped out to grab her wrist and swing her around corners. They too sensed their master's distress.

Elly burst through the already opened doors to the master bedroom. Within, two vines were parting the canopy of Yuuka's bed while a few more lit candles. "Master, what's wrong?" Elly said as she dropped to the floor and rushed to Yuuka's side. "Are you hurt?"

Yuuka didn't seem to be fully awake. She moaned and turned back and forth on the pillow, her eyelids flickering. "No," she moaned. "No! Laughing, stop…"

Elly swallowed. It was just like when Yuuka had been recovering from the injuries she had incurred from her fight with Yukari Yakumo. Only this time her body wasn't a burnt-out husk and her soul wasn't in tatters. Save for a few strange scars, Yuuka had recovered practically to mint condition within hours of returning from her appointment with Marisa Kirisame. So why were the nightmares coming back?

"Yuuka, please!" Elly shook Yuuka's shoulder. "You're just dreaming, get a hold of-"

Yuuka's hand suddenly lunged out to seize Elly by the wrist. Her eyelids snapped open, and Elly found herself staring at one terrified red eye and one empty cavern. "Hear it?" Yuuka whispered harshly. "Can you hear it?"

Elly winced. Yuuka grip on her wrist was like steel. "Master, please let go…"

"But you can hear it?" Yuuka said urgently. "You can hear her?"

Elly's wrist bones were starting to grind together. "Master, please," she begged. "You're hurting me."

"But the laughing," Yuuka insisted, her grip remaining tight. "You must hear the laughing. She's laughing at me. It echoes in my head and gets louder and louder and louder…"

Elly had no idea what Yuuka was talking about, but the scream welling up within her was certainly going to be loud enough in its own right. Fortunately, Yuuka's bedroom plants sensed the pain their master was unintentionally inflicting on their comrade, and a vine curled around and struck Yuuka sharply in the back.

Yuuka jolted in surprise. "Oh, what? What?" she said. Then, seeing Elly, she yelped and jerked her hand away. "Oh my God! Oh Elly, I'm so sorry! I didn't know what I was doing!"

Grimacing, Elly hunched over the side of the bed and rubbed her wrist. Fortunately nothing had broken, but it was going to be sore for a while. "It's…okay, Master," she said through clenched teeth.

"But what are you doing in my room?" Yuuka asked. "Did something happen?"

Despite her pain, Elly still had to stare. "I…I came to see if you were all right," she said.

"All right? Of course I am. Why wouldn't I be?"

Now Elly was really starting to get scared. "Because you were screaming," Elly said.

"I was?"

"Yes! You were having a nightmare and screamed in your sleep! When I came to check on you, you grabbed my wrist and kept talking about someone laughing at you!" When Yuuka failed to show any sort of sign of remembering, Elly said, "You…really don't remember?"

Yuuka shook her head. "I'm sorry, Elly, I don't. I just remember going to bed, and then the next thing I knew, you were there and I was grabbing your wrist."

"Then you don't know what you were dreaming?"

"I wish I did, it must have been terrifying." Yuuka's lips lifted into a small smile, but the scar on her chin marred it somewhat. "I suppose the stress has just been getting to me. This has been a hectic few weeks, after all."

Elly stared, now more scared than ever. That was another thing she didn't understand. Though Yuuka's broken bones and bruised flesh had healed up without issue, she still bore three very ugly scars: one across her chin, one on her shoulder, and a small one right over her heart. How she had gotten them, she would not say. And why she didn't simply tear off the diseased skin and grew it anew, Elly could not understand. It was like the eye Yuuka had allowed to remain missing. She could have healed the damage any time she wished. So why did she let those imperfections remain?

"Oh," Elly said. "Uh, well, do you want me to get you something? Some warm milk? Tea?"

Yuuka pursed her lips, but shook her head. "Oh no. Thank you, but that won't be necessary." Then, to Elly's surprise, Yuuka threw her blanket aside and swung her legs around. "No, wait, actually some tea would be nice. Hot, and very strong."

"Ah." Elly scampered back a few steps. "But Master, it's only…" She shot a quick glance to the nightstand. One of the vines held a candle near the ornate clock for her to see. "It's only a little after three!"

"Yes, well, I do have a busy day ahead of me, and I was planning on rising early anyway." Yuuka stood to her full height and stretched. "So I might as well take advantage of the impromptu wake-up call."

"But don't you need your rest?" Elly pressed. "I mean, the last few days have been so trying. Think of your health, Master!"

"I'm fine, I'm fine," Yuuka said absently. She walked behind the changing curtain. Immediately the vines started helping her discard her pajamas and brought her the day's outfit. "Sleep is enjoyable, but not as important to me as it would be to a Human. Now, would you be a dear and go fetch me my notes?"

Her shoulders slumping in defeat, Elly said, "Oh. Okay. The Rin Satsuki ones?"

Yuuka emerged from behind the curtain, now wearing a blue vest and skirt and a green shirt. "No, no. That project I'm working on for Flandre. The light one."

"All right, Master," Elly said with a heavy sigh. She picked up her scythe and turned toward the door. "I'll go-"

"Wait," Yuuka said, her voice suddenly harsh. "What is that?"

Elly paused. She turned to see Yuuka glaring at her in anger. "Master?"

"That!" Yuuka jabbed a finger at Elly's hand. Or rather, the object held in it. "What is that?"

Surprised, Elly took a step back. "It's…it's just my scythe, Master. I always have it with-"

"Get rid of it!" Yuuka roared. "Get rid of that horrid thing at once! How dare you bring that into my house?"

Elly was so taken back by Yuuka's sudden change in demeanor that her feet ended up getting tangled beneath her and she fell to the ground. "Bu-bu-bu-but I've always had it!" she gasped out as she scrambled back. "It's the source of my power, it's what I use to protect you! Without it I don't have anything! You know this, Master!"

Yuuka bared her teeth. "Oh, I see. It's all about you, is it? Well, fine! Keep the damned thing! But I don't ever want to see it again, and don't you dare bring it into my room ever again! Now, take it and get out!"

"Master…"

"OUT!" Yuuka roared, thrusting her finger toward the door. Elly obeyed, snatching up her scythe and launching herself into the air. She fled through the halls, tears pouring from her eyes.

…

Given how isolated the House of Orchids was and how busy Yuuka had been during the last few days, she had not had much time to visit Flandre the last few days. That was unfortunate. Because of the girl's fragile mental state, the years of abuse and abandonment she had suffered, and the downright wrongness of her species' peculiarities, Yuuka really couldn't afford to leave her alone for too long.

Part of the problem was that vampires were just so backward. Their hearts did not beat; their organs were dried, shriveled things; and their glands had ceased operation, but they still lived normally. They survived on other creatures' blood and ignored the much more nutritious and delicious meat. They prowled the darkness of the night while shunning the light of day, which was just wrong by any reasonable definition. And they reproduced not through sexual intercourse, but through viral infection. They were enthusiastic plague bearers, nothing more.

Yuuka intended to change that.

Humming to herself, Yuuka walked down the neat dirt path and lifted her hand to knock on the door.

Then she frowned. The House of Orchids' front door was shot through with minute cracks that were not there before. She glanced around and saw other evidence of damage in the house's stone walls and the glass windows. Tiny green tendrils were crawling over the broken areas and doing what they could to repair the damage.

"Oh, Flandre," Yuuka sighed. Then she knocked and said, "Flandre, are you awake? It's Auntie Yuuki."

Flandre didn't answer, but as it was well past her bedtime this was to be expected.

Yuuka opened the door and found things more-or-less as she expected. Flandre had had another temper tantrum, it seemed. The place was an absolute wreck: broken furniture, savaged toys, and worst of all, ripped-up books.

Sighing, Yuuka made her way around the wreckage to find Flandre curled up asleep in the corner under a partially torn-apart blanket, her thumb in her mouth.

"Flandre," Yuuka said, touching her shoulder.

A moment later, she was reeling back and clutching at her arm, which had been wretched out of joint at both the shoulder and elbow. Flandre was above her, clinging to the wall like a spider and hissing in rage.

"You!" Flandre snarled. "Die!" She thrust out one chubby arm and squeezed her little fingers into a fist. "Kyuu!"

Of course nothing happened; nothing ever did when she tried that, but she insisted on doing it again and again and again, as if continued repetition would eventually get her the result she wanted.

As sympathetic as Yuuka was toward Flandre's obvious handicaps, she had to admit she was growing just a little frustrated with the girl's refusal to learn.

To her credit, once Flandre (again) realized that simply blowing Yuuka up was out of the question, she immediately changed tactics. However, like always, she fell back onto the same tactic every time: lunge forward and try to tear Yuuka apart with her bare hands.

The results were roughly about the same.

Yuuka held up a hand and imposed her will upon Flandre, pinning her to the wall. The mad vampire hissed and spat, straining again the blanket of force that was holding her in place. Though it was hopeless, Flandre's strength was still impressive. Yuuka could feel the power of her own will straining mightily against hers. She took half a step back and redoubled her efforts. A faint sheen of sweat broke out on her forehead.

Then Flandre's simply stopped trying. She sighed, the anger leaving her. Her body swayed a bit, and she yawned.

Yuuka released her, and the little vampire fell to the ground. Yawning again, Flandre reached around for her blanket.

"Flandre," Yuuka said.

"Hmmm?"

"It's time to get up. I have something I want to show you."

Flandre sleepily shook her head. "Nuh-uh. Wanna sleep."

"But I have a present for you."

That got her attention. Flandre's eyes popped open. "A present?" she said as she eagerly scampered to her feet, her sleepiness forgotten.

"Yes. I think you'll like it." Yuuka held up a hand. A command, and small, glowing spheres appeared over her palm. She blew, and they fluttered over to Flandre and started to circle around her.

Flandre was transfixed. She tried grabbing at the shining dots only to have them pass right through her hand. This did not discourage her however, and she giggled as she tried again and again.

"You can't touch them," Yuuka told her. "But they will help you."

"Uh-huh," Flandre said, not paying attention. There were shiny lights to play with.

Yuuka cleared her throat. "So, would you like to see what they do?"

"Huh?"

"Close your eyes, Flandre."

Finally Flandre looked at her, her face scrunching up in confusion. "Huh?" she said again.

"Close your eyes," Yuuka told her. She leaned over with her hands on her knees and smiled. "It's a surprise."

Flandre blinked. Then she squeezed her eyes shut.

Yuuka took her by the hand and led her toward the door. Partway there, Flandre frowned and twitched in discomfort, but kept her eyes closed. Once they had gone far enough, she said, "Okay, you can open them now."

Flandre did so. And for the first time since she was turned, she saw the Sun.

They were all the way down the path and on the edge of the sunflower fields. Like every day in the Garden of the Sun, the sky was cloudless and of the deepest blue, the air was clear and heavy with the scent of flowers, and the temperature was in the mid to upper seventies. In other words, a perfect day. But this one was special. After all, Flandre had never gotten to experience the beauty of Yuuka's world for herself, despite living in it for several days.

"Surprise!" Yuuka said.

Flandre stared, first at the fields of green, yellow, and brown. She tentatively touched a sunflower leaf and then jerked her hand back as if expecting it to burn her. She looked down at the grass tickling her feet. Then she turned towards Yuuka, her eyes wide.

"That's right," Yuuka said. "You can go outside now. The Sun is no longer your enemy."

Flandre said nothing. Her gaze slid off of Yuuka and turned upwards toward the sky, which was now a color she had not seen for over four hundred years. Squinting, she focused on the Sun.

"There's no reason to be afraid," Yuuka said. "It won't-"

Flandre screamed.

Then she bolted as quickly as she could away from the sunflowers, away from Yuuka, and back toward the House of Orchids. She hit the front door like a battering ram, and if it weren't for Yuuka's plants reinforcing it, would have smashed right through. As it was, she ended up cratering it inward.

"No!" she cried as she slammed her hands against the shattered wood. "I don't wanna burn! I don't wanna burn! Let me in, let me in, let me in!"

Yuuka, who had anticipated such a reaction, couldn't help but laugh. "Flandre, Flandre, it's okay!" she said, coming back down the path toward her. "The Sun won't burn you!"

"No! The Sun burns vampires! It'll kill me!"

"Not anymore." Yuuka pointed at the lights still swirling around Flandre, now less noticeable in the daylight. "Those are a special magic I prepared. They'll protect you."

"But I don't wanna-"

"Flandre," Yuuka said, her voice stern yet patient. "Do you really think I would let you burn up, just like that?"

"Yes!"

Sighing, Yuuka took a moment to remind herself of the child's emotional handicaps. "I wouldn't, and I'm not." She gestured toward Flandre's new companions. "That is what they do. So long as you remain within the Garden of the Sun, they will shield you from the harmful effects sunlight has upon your kind. You may walk the day without fear. You can now join the world of the living."

Flandre looked stupefied.

"This is my gift to you, Flandre," Yuuka said solemnly. "The gift of freedom. Freedom from a vampire's inadequacies. Freedom from your species' shortcomings." She turned and spread her arms as if to embrace the daylight. "No longer will you be restrained by the night. No longer will you have to remain cooped up in darkness. The light, which you have spent your whole life fearing, is now your friend, and you may now bask in its warmth without-"

Something fell to the ground behind her with a soft thud.

Sighing, Yuuka turned back around. Flandre was lying on the porch, her eyes closed.

"Flandre, really now?" Yuuka tsked as she walked over to her. "I know that by now you would normally be asleep, but this is a very important moment! Surely you can keep your eyes open long enough to appreciate this!"

Flandre didn't respond. She merely shivered.

Yuuka frowned. "Flandre?" She reached down to touch the girl's arm.

Flandre's skin was hot to the touch. Much, much too hot.

"Flandre!"

Flandre let out a little moan, but lay still.

Yuuka couldn't understand it. She had labored for hours to get the enchantment right. The ashes of four native vampires now lay in Mugenkan's dustbin, evidence of her dedication in preparing this gift for Flandre. And the fourth had survived! He had lasted for hours in the sunlight without ill effects before Yuuka had disposed of him! By rights, the power of the spheres combined with Yuuka's influence over the Garden of the Sun should be protecting Flandre fully against the Sun. So why was she heating up so quickly?

Growling in frustrating, Yuuka snatched Flandre up with one hand and yanked the door open with the other. She stomped into the House of Orchids and tossed the ungrateful little girl into the corner. Then she slammed the door and sat down on the floor to brood. And think.

It didn't make any sense. Flandre was just a vampire. An especially powerful one, yes, but just a vampire. And her sister reportedly walked around in the daylight all the time with nothing more than an umbrella to shade her! Surely Flandre would be able to handle a few extra degrees than-

Wait.

Yuuka examined Flandre again. Her skin was still too warm, but dry. As Yuuka understood it, mortals sweated in order to cool themselves, to prevent their bodies from overheating. Now, she was no expert (though she hoped to be one day), but she was fairly certain that it took longer than a couple of minutes to reach that point, especially without some kind of heavy exertion. Surely it would have taken much longer before Flandre started to feel the effects?

But did vampires even sweat? Yuuka wasn't sure. Most of the ones she had tested had burst into flames before she could tell, and she hadn't thought to check the one that survived. They needed to drink blood to survive, so maybe their bodies couldn't…but they still produced other fluids, such as saliva and mucus, without difficulty.

Maybe…maybe it was because Flandre had been cooped up so long underground that she couldn't adjust to warmer temperatures? If her sister regularly walked the day, then of course her body would be more accustomed to heat and light. But if Flandre had been locked away for hundreds of years, then that would explain why she had overheated so quickly. As for the sweat thing…maybe her body had simply forgotten how? Yuuka probably should read up a bit more on vampire physiology.

Or maybe…

Yuuka's eye narrowed.

Maybe she was doing it on purpose, out of spite. Yuuka looked over to the shivering girl. Flandre had been persistently resisting her lessons in proper ladylike behavior and social etiquette. Granted, she was insane, but Yuuka had hoped to see more progress by now. Sure, she had doubts and questions about her previous life, but she was still having tantrums, still trying to kill her, still being crazy! And now she wasn't accepting the gift that Yuuka had spent hours putting together.

She had to be doing it on purpose. What better way to rebel than to stalwartly refuse the help Yuuka was trying to give her? Yuuka turned toward the shivering child. Maybe that also was an act. Maybe she wasn't shaking from the heat. Maybe it was from laughter.

"Is that it?" Yuuka said to her. "Have you been laughing at me this whole time? Is this just some big joke to you? I'm trying to help you! Why won't you see that?"

Flandre moaned and kept shivering.

Gritting her teeth, Yuuka stood up and stomped over to her. "Oh, no you don't. I just asked you a question, and you will give me a goddamned answer!"

In response, Flandre started crying.

Rolling her eye, Yuuka threw her hands up. "Oh, fine! Fine, go ahead! Kept dropping those crocodile tears, see if I care! You'll get no sympathy from me!"

Flandre just bawled more loudly. Yuuka glowered at her for a time, and then shook her head in disgust. "Good Lord, look at you go. She's hundreds of years old, and she still acts like a fucking infant. You know, I'm starting to understand why your sister never liked you. No wonder you never had any-"

Yuuka froze in mid-sentence. A sudden thought had just struck her. She mused on it a bit, and that thought morphed into an idea. And soon enough she had an epiphany.

Yuuka's scarred lips lifted into a smile. Well, why not? It wasn't as if she hadn't tried everything else.

…

Thwack!

Wriggle swung as hard as she could, and Cirno's iceball was sent flying. A mad scramble followed as Cirno and Daiyousei rushed to intercept while Wriggle ran around the bases and Mystia tried to keep track of what everyone was doing at once.

Rin sat nearby in the shade of willow tree, watching the others. They had invited her to join them, but she had declined. She just didn't feel up to it.

She had been there for days, and she still didn't get their acceptance of her. Granted, there was still a little coldness from Mystia, but good gods, could anyone blame her? The story Wriggle had told her was one of the most horrifying things she had heard, and that had a lot of competition. But even the night-sparrow was smiling at her more often than not.

But as much as she appreciated it, Rin was still hesitant about integrating herself into their group. She wanted to; gods she wanted to. But every time she did, whenever she tried to loosen up and just have some fun, a sour feeling kept twisting her stomach. It made her feel like an intruder, taking part in things not meant for her. So she remained on the sidelines, watching the others enjoy themselves.

Then the grass rustled as someone sat down next to her. "Hey," Rumia said.

Rin started. She had been so lost in thought that she hadn't even heard Rumia approach. Which, given how sharp her ears were, was really saying something. "Rumia!" she exclaimed. "You're-you're-"

Rumia favored her with a small smile. "Yeah. I'm okay."

Rin stared, unsure of how to respond to that. It was true, Rumia looked much better than she did the last time Rin had seen her. Her eyes didn't look so heavy, her face wasn't so drawn out. Her poise also seemed more relaxed. However, she still looked very tired, and not just from a lack of sleep. She was drained, worn out. The healing process, if it could be called that, was definitely taking its toll on her.

Noticing Rin's skepticism, Rumia clarified, "Well, I'm better at least. Those sleep flowers Yuuka put all over the place got my head spinning like crazy, and my right eye keeps drifting off, but at least I can think clearly." She shrugged. "Sort of."

"Oh. Uh, do you still see things that aren't there?" Rumia asked, praying that the answer was "no."

Rumia shook her head. "Not really. I mean, everything gets a little swimmy every now and then, but it wasn't like it was."

Rin nodded. Then, after a second of hesitation, she said, "I'm-"

"Don't apologize," Rumia sighed, sounding a little impatient. "You've done that already."

"I know, but-"

"It's not your fault."

Rin looked back to the game. The others hadn't noticed Rumia's presence yet, and were still playing. Mystia was up to bat. "Yeah it is."

Rumia sighed and shook her head, but didn't say anything. They watched as Mystia's first swing missed its mark, but managed to knock the ball bouncing across the ground on her second try. She didn't even make it to first base before Cirno retrieved the ball and tagged her out.

"So, is that why you're moping over here instead of playing with them?" Rumia said as the bat was handed off to Wriggle.

"Uh, sort of?" Rin said with a shrug. "But I dunno. I was never really into sports, you know?"

"Why not?"

"Because I sucked at them," Rin said honestly. "Every time my teacher made me play with the others, I…well, I wasn't a very popular teammate, you know?"

Rumia gave her a look. "You're a lot better at the sort of thing now."

"No, I'm not," Rin said, shaking her head. "Other people are. I'm just…" She sighed. "Oh, never mind."

Over at the game, Wriggle swung mightily three times and missed every single one. An argument broke out over whether or not Cirno had unfairly manipulated the ball. Rin grew a little worried as the shouting increased in intensity, but a quick glance to Rumia allayed her fears. Rumia wasn't at all concerned by how angry her friends were with each other. She was even smiling a bit. Apparently, such disputes were normal, and Rin relaxed a little.

Eventually it was decided that a change of the guard was in order, and Daiyousei took over as pitcher while Cirno went up to bat. Daiyousei pitched, and Cirno smacked it hard and strong right back into her fellow fairy's surprised hands. Another fight immediately followed.

It was in the middle of this heated discussion that Wriggle looked up and saw that their missing member had joined them. "Hey, Rumia!" she called, her face lighting up.

Seeing where this would inevitably lead to, Rin quickly scooted over to one side.

Rumia's face went pale. "Oh, don't you dare-"

That was as far as she got before she found herself buried in bodies. Rin tried not to be amused by her distress, but she looked just so exasperated and yet so completely resigned that it was difficult not to.

Cirno crawled onto the top of the heap to grin down at Rumia's face, which was now poking out of the bottom. "You're awake! Wanna play?"

"Get off of me!" Rumia hollered. Her friend grudgingly complied, shifting off of her and letting her sit up. Brushing herself off, Rumia said, "Yes, I'm awake! Still woozy though, so I think I'll sit this out for now."

Cirno's face fell. "But you're the best hitter we got!"

"Sorry, I just don't feel up to it," Rumia said. Then her eyes brightened with an idea, and she turned to Rin. "You sure you don't want to give it a try?"

Rin, who had counted on being invisible during the reunion, squeaked and stuttered out, "Me? N-no, I don't think-"

To her surprise, the others actually seemed to like the idea. "Oh, come on!" Cirno said. "You're like super-strong, right?" White mist hissed around her hands, and she was holding a baseball bat made from blue ice. Offering it to Rin, she said, "I wanna see what you can do!"

Rin shook her head. "Look, I don't think this is a good idea…"

Wriggle looked thoughtful for a moment, and then she smiled. "Yeah. Come on, Rin," she said, nudging the Kirin in the side. "Give it a shot."

Rin looked from one expectant face to the next. Well, she was outnumbered. Sighing, she stood up. "Okay…"

"Awesomesauce!" Cirno cheered. "Okay, here you go!"

They produced a few strips of leather to wrap around the ice bat's handle, and presented it to Rin. She took it and stared at it, but didn't move toward the plate.

"What's wrong?" Mystia asked. "You've never played baseball before? Or is the bat too cold?"

"Well, no," Rin admitted. She gave the bat a small shake. "I mean, I get how it works, but I've never…"

Mystia sighed. "Okay, here," she said, putting her hands over Rin's and showing her how to probably grip the bat. "This is how you hold it."

Rin stiffened at the touch. She watched Mystia's face. The night-sparrow's eyes seemed a little strained, and her mouth was a little stretched, but otherwise she didn't seem to be horrified by the contact. "Oh," Rin said as Mystia moved away. "Thanks."

Cirno grinned. She threw her hand up, and a sphere of ice flew up to fall back into her palm. "Okay, batter up!"

They walked over to the gang's makeshift baseball field. Cirno took her place on the pitcher's mound (or rock, as was the case) while Rin stood over home base (dinner plate). She mimicked the batting stance she had watched the others use and waited.

Cirno leaned forward, iceball held behind her back and eyes squinted. Then she reared back and threw it as hard as she could.

Rin drew back and swung. The others immediately looked to the sky to see how far the ball would fly.

Ice hit ice, and the ball arched up a little bit to fall softly into Cirno's hands.

Cirno looked down at Rin's pitiable excuse for a pop-fly and then stared at Rin. "Wow, really?"

"I thought you had like super-strength and speed and stuff!" Wriggle said, sounding disappointed.

Rin grimaced. "I'm trying not to use them," she admitted.

"Why?" Cirno said.

Feeling a little agitated, Rin shrugged and said, "Well, because it isn't fair?"

"Who cares?" Cirno scowled. "C'mon, it isn't like we're keeping a score." She readied herself for another pitch. "Now, do it for real this time."

Rin sighed and fell back into her batter's stance. "Well, okay…"

Again Cirno launched a fastball right toward her. This time Rin let herself slip into the sharpened instincts of her hostages and called upon their reflexes. The approaching ball of ice seemed to slow to a crawl as it flew toward her. She tracked its arc, made a few quick calculations, and, when the time was right, she swung with the combined strength of five different people.

Her bat cut through the air without hitting a thing. Rin, who had been anticipating some sort of impact, was so surprised by the lack of contact that she forgot to stop swinging and ended up spinning into a circle and landing right on her butt.

Cirno fell over as well, though in her case it was due to hysterics.

Rin scrambled up to see the ball of ice floating in mid-air, mere centimeters from where her bat had passed through. "Wait, what?"

"Cirno!" Mystia said in indignation.

"What?" Cirno laughed. "She's got super powers, and so do I!"

Mystia threw a bird-shaped bullet at Cirno's head. "It's her first try! Do it right!"

Cirno dodged the projectile. "What, it's not like I-"

Irritated, Rin stormed over to where the ball was still hovering and smacked it as hard as she could with her bat. It whizzed right over Cirno's head, rustling her bow in the process, and kept going until it was completely out of sight.

Cirno froze, all of the laughter gone from her face. "Holy crap!" she breathed in amazement.

Still over by the willow tree, Rumia started laughing as hard as Cirno had been.

Wriggle whistled. "So. That's what it looks like."

Rin said nothing, though she couldn't help but feel a little proud. She had impressed them, and done so in a way that wasn't scary.

Then Cirno grinned. She quickly fashioned another object out of ice and handed it to Rin. "Okay, here. Take this."

"Two bats?" Rin said, holding it up in bewilderment.

"Yup!" Cirno retreated back to the rock. "Batter uuuuuuuuuup!"

With that she cut loose. It was like a danmaku battle, bordering on a full-on spellcard. Cirno launched a torrent of iceballs at her, one right after the other in such quick succession that her arms had become a blur. Rin was a little startled at first and instinctively dodged the first few, but then she understood what Cirno wanted. The fairy wanted her to show off.

Well, okay. Rin could do that.

Again surrendering herself to the reflexes of others, Rin started to dance. That's what it felt like, some kind of bizarre, primal dance. Her arms moved with fluid grace, bats swinging and balls flying off in all direction.

Cirno upped the ante. The balls flitted and darted through the air to come at Rin from all sides. She didn't even break stride and, at one point, held both bats in one hand and used them to sweet five balls straight up into the sky at once. This earned her a round of applause from the others.

Rin grinned.

"Yeah, that's what I'm talking about!" Cirno hollered. "Keep it up, or I'm gonna-Hey!

Rin had stopped dancing, allowing several of Cirno's iceballs to hit her. As she had been introduced to Cirno's ice before, they stuck to her skin and sunk right in to disappear. She didn't notice. All of her attention was focused on a point off in the distance.

Cirno stared. "Uh, yeah, you were kinda supposed to hit those ones…" Then her gaze followed Rin's, and she saw what she was staring at. "Oh."

Yuuka was approaching, sauntering through the grass in long, easy strides. She didn't have her umbrella, which was unusual. However, what she did have was another girl following her, this one with blonde hair and red eyes and wearing the tattered remains of a green sundress. Three glowing dots circled around the girl like fireflies.

Actually, the girl didn't seem to be following Yuuka so much as wandering aimlessly in the same general direction. She tottered this way and that, eyes focused on the lights. Occasionally she would grab for one of them.

Though Yuuka was smiling, it looked strained, forced. Or maybe that was just because of the big, ugly scar across her chin. Either way, she didn't look as happy as she usually was. But the cheerfulness in her voice was the same. "Good evening, girls! How wonderful to see you all getting along. And Rumia! You're up and about, that's excellent! Now, I really hate to intrude, but I have a favor I must ask of you."

"Uh, sure…" Cirno said, staring. She pointed at the new girl. "Who is that?"

In answer, Yuuka picked the girl off the ground and held her out to the gang, as if giving them a teddy bear. For her part, the girl seemed to be rather calm for someone in her position, and simply watched the others with detached interest. "Now this is another guest of mine. Like all of you, I rescued her from a most horrible situation and have been protecting her ever since. Unfortunately, her ordeals have left her a bit on the damaged side, and she could use some of that love and affection you all show towards each other."

"Hi," the girl said, waving.

Daiyousei swallowed. "Who is that?" she said, repeating Cirno's question.

"That's Flandre Scarlet," Rin whispered. Her face had gone completely white.

Everyone froze in place. Then, one by one, they all turned to stare at her.

"WHAT!" Cirno shouted, speaking for all of them.

"It is," Rumia shakily added. "I saw her picture all the time back when I worked at the Scarlet Devil Mansion. The outfit's different, and she's missing her wings, but that's her all right."

Wriggle's mouth had fallen open. "No way," she whispered. "No freaking way."

Mystia seemed to have forgotten how to speak. "Ah…ah…" she managed to choke out.

"Yes, indeed," Yuuka said with a heavy sigh. "And let me just say, her predicament was absolutely appalling, on par with your own, Rin." She set the little vampire down and gave her a pat on the head. "Now, I know this is a lot to ask of you all, but poor Flandre here has been abused and neglected practically her whole life, so if you would be so kind to take her under your collective wings and help her along, it would greatly-"

Flandre lifted a finger to point. "That one disappeared."

"That one" so happened to be Rin. And Flandre was right. Rin had completely vanished.

Yuuka blinked. "Oh, right. They had met. I forgot." Then she frowned, her eye darkening. "Well, I hope that's not a 'no.'"

…

Even though the shadow of the large stone Rin had taken shelter under would hide her no better than the Nue's shroud she had surrounded herself with, she still pressed herself tightly to its side, eyes squeezed shut out of an instinctive childish belief that doing so would make it impossible for others to see her. Small, panting whimpers escaped from her lips and her fingers trembled.

Flandre Scarlet was here. Flandre Scarlet was here, in the Garden of the Sun. Rin had been subjected to a number of tortures, beat-downs, and other indignities since her change, some of them deserved and others not. Over time, the pain had stopped mattering as much, and pain that she had thought to be unbearably hellish had become…somewhat less memorable, at least in comparison to what came later. You never forget your first, though. And Flandre Scarlet had given Rin her first.

Oh, what a fool she had been. Rin had no illusions about what Yuuka was. She knew that Yuuka was a monster of some kind. She hadn't forgotten the Youkai Mountain, or that brief glimpse of what lay beneath Yuuka's skin. But after having Azrael's shade removed from her soul and the sanctuary provided to her, she had sort of come to think of Yuuka as her monster: an ally, albeit a dangerous and unpredictable one. Certainly one that bore watching, but was more-or-less on her side, or at least friendlier than the likes of Yukari Yakumo.

How wrong she had been.

Rin's fingertips dug into the boulder's side, sending flakes and powder falling. She didn't even notice. Yuuka had dug into her mind. She knew what Flandre had done to her. And then she had gone to get the vampire and brought her here. She had literally thrust her right at Rin. There was no way that could be a coincidence, there was just no way.

"Rin!" she heard Rumia call. Looking up, Rin saw the youkai girl flying through the air, looking about in concern. "Hey, Rin! Where are you?"

Rin almost ignored her. If they couldn't find her, they couldn't make her face the vampire.

Except…except Rumia wasn't "they." She was Rumia. Sighing, Rin stepped out of the boulder's shadow and allowed herself to become visible. "Over here."

Seeing her, Rumia flew over to where she was shivering. "Jeez, I thought you had run away for good," she said, touching down.

"Maybe I should," Rin said bitterly. "Why is she here?"

"Who, Flandre?" Rumia looked over her shoulder, back to the baseball field. "Yeah, that is pretty freaky. I mean, is Yuuka starting a collection or something?"

"It's because of me."

Rumia frowned. "What?"

Swallowing, Rin said, "Remember…Remember when I told you about how I went a little crazy after the experiment? How I absorbed a lot of people and tried to hunt down the rest?" When Rumia nodded, Rin said, "Do you remember how they stopped me?"

Rumia frowned as she rewound her memory. A lot had happened since Rin had told that story. Still, some things were hard to forget. "Oh," she said as that particular memory was unearthed. Then her eyes widened as the implications became clear. "Oh."

Rin nodded miserably. "That's why she's here. Yuuka knows. She brought her here to scare me."

"Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure!" Rin shouted. "Yuuka doesn't like me, so she brought her in to keep me in line!"

Rumia's brow furrowed. "I thought you two were getting along now."

"I did too."

Ru mia sucked through her teeth. "Well, maybe she doesn't-"

"She blew me up," Rin said flatly. "Over and over and over." She looked down at her hands. "I could feel my body tearing itself apart, Rumia. And everyone inside me felt it too. Reisen was screaming." The shaking grew stronger, and Rin's vision was starting to blur. "Do you…do you know how many times I relived that when they had me locked up? There really isn't a whole lot to distract you when you're stuck inside a little box for nine years. Sometimes I'd feel like her eyes were staring at me, in the darkness. I knew she wasn't far away, that she was in the same house. So what's to keep her from going after me again?"

"Uh…"

"And her laugh!" Rin's voice had risen to a shriek. "She was laughing when she blew me up! She was enjoying it! And now Yuuka brought her here." Rin fell back against the boulder and slid to the ground. Wrapping her arms around her knees, she whispered, "She's going to go after me again."

"Whoa, Rin!" Rumia crouched down and seized Rin by the shoulders. "Get a grip, okay? Even if that was true, you're a lot stronger now than you were then. And Yuuka said Flandre can't blow anyone up now, so-"

"Ha!" Rin snorted. "And you believed her? Are you really that gullible? She's going to go after me, and-"

And then the screaming started.

Both girls jerked their heads back in the direction of the baseball field. Someone was crying out in fear, and doing so loudly.

Rumia said, "That sounded like Dai."

"You just left them with her?" Rin said, aghast.

"So did you!"

"Yeah, but…but I panicked!"

"Well, panic yourself the other way then!" Rumia shouted as she flew back in the direction of the screams.

"Rumia, wait!" Rin said. She reached for her, but Rumia was already gone.

Rin stood frozen in place. She could catch up to Rumia easily, she was fast enough. But she couldn't move. It was like her feet had been bolted to the ground.

"I can't," she said to herself. "Not with her. Not again. She'll kill me…or blow me up…she'll do something bad. Well, okay, but she's already doing something bad to them, and I should go help them. Because apparently Yuuka isn't doing anything. Gee, I wonder why. I mean, it's not like this isn't obviously a set-up."

Another shrill scream sounded, louder this time. Rin winced but kept talking. "But it's not like they can't handle themselves. They're all youkai and fairies. Heck, they probably get blown up all the time! Except if she really can't blow things up, she'll just rip them apart instead. And that kind of hurts. I should know. So, as the strongest person here, I should probably do something to protect them."

Rin turned back toward where the screams were coming from and took a deep breath. "Okay, Rin. Time to man up. Even if I'm not a man. In any sense of the word. Because that's just an expression. So I need to stop being a coward and go help them. Because I owe them. And just leaving them alone would be cowardly. And I am not a coward. Except I'm really, really scared right now, and I don't want to-"

Yet another scream, this one coming from Wriggle. Rin grimaced and squeezed her eyes shut. "Oh gods, I don't want to do this, I don't want to do this, I don't want to-"

"Let her go!" Rumia screamed. "Let her go, you-"

"Rumia," Rin whispered. She swallowed, clenched her hands into fists, and forced herself into the air.

As she flew, Rin used the Nue's power to shroud herself. Hey, Flandre couldn't blow her up if she couldn't see her, right? At least she hoped she couldn't. Though given her luck, it shouldn't come as a surprise if the crazy vampire had some sort of-

Something flew through the air and, despite her being invisible, glanced off of her shoulder. Rin almost screamed herself, though a moment later she noticed that she hadn't been hurt. But then she looked down and found herself wishing that it had been an attack after all.

It was Cirno's head, ripped fully from her shoulders. Her face was twisted int a look of angry determination, and her mouth was open mid-shout. A trickle of blood leaked out of the side of her lips.

A moment later, the grisly thing shimmered and started to dissolve. Rin felt her skin crawl.

"Help!" Rumia screamed. "Rin, godsdamnit! Help us!"

That galvanized her back into action. Rin steeled herself and raced back to the others.

It wasn't a pretty sight. Cirno was gone completely, no surprises there. Wriggle was lying on her side with her back to the action. Rin avoided looking closer to pick out any details. Either way, the firefly's body was starting to vanish as well. Mystia was also missing, though whether she had fled or been killed was impossible to say.

Flandre was still in one piece, unfortunately enough. A ball of darkness covered her head, blinding her. She was reeling back and forth, screaming as she clawed and grasped for anything she could tear apart. Rumia was lying nearby and desperately trying to crawl away, though the fact that her right leg was bleeding heavily was hampering her movement. Daiyousei was flitting back and forth, raining a constant flow of ice upon the maddened vampire while screaming for help. Yuuka was nowhere to be seen.

Rin didn't give herself time to think, lest she run away again. She focused on Flandre's midsection and charged. Blinded by Rumia's darkness and her own rage, Flandre was lifted fully off the ground and offered no resistance as Rin drove her back. They two of them kept going for several meters until they smashed into a large boulder.

"Go!" Rin shouted to Daiyousei and Rumia. "Go find Yuuka or something! I'll hold her back!"

Rumia said, "But what about-"

Flandre screeched and slashed out with her hands. Her nails were sharper than knives and probably just as hard. Ducking the attack, Rin screamed, "GET OUT OF HERE ALREADY!"

This time they listened. Rin's relief lasted only as long as it took her to realize that she was now alone with a very angry Flandre Scarlet.

Again.

Probably should have asked Rumia to leave the darkness ball, Rin thought as Flandre's eyes focused on her with hawklike precision. To add to the predator metaphor, the vampire got down on all fours and started to circle around Rin, looking for some kind of opening.

Okay, she's hunting me. Uh, stalking. I don't know the word, but Flandre Scarlet is definitely going all oh gods here she comes again.

Snarling, Flandre pounced. She moved so fast that most people would only register a flash of color before being torn in half.

Rin ducked under her attack. One hand shot up to seize Flandre by the wrist while the other pushed up into the vampire's midsection, diverting her momentum and slamming her back-first into the ground.

Flandre wasn't hurt, but she looked stunned. Rin was pretty surprised too. She hadn't meant to counter Flandre like that; it had just sort of happened.

Well, yeah, said her rational side, the part of her not busy fighting off fear. Kaguya Houraisan and Fujiwara no Mokou, the best hand-to-hand fighters in the world. You have their abilities and reflexes. There was a pause, and then her rational side added, Duh.

Rin really needed to start keeping track of all the cool stuff she could do now.

Unfortunately, Flandre didn't stay stunned for long. Her face contorted with hate and she lunged again for Rin.

Like she had back when she had fought Hong Meiling, Rin abandoned herself into the instincts of the two Hourai Immortals. She twisted around Flandre's arm and jabbed an elbow into the vampire's back. Flandre squealed and whirled around to punch her.

Again Rin turned her body aside, letting Flandre's fist sail by. She grabbed Flandre's arm and pulled, yanking her off balance and causing her nose to smack against Rin's upraised palm.

"Ow!" Flandre yelped as she staggered back, both hands clutching at her nose. Taking advantage of the momentary distraction, Rin leapt up and slammed both feet into her chest, slamming her back into the ground.

Rin was elated. From the look of things, Yuuka had been telling the truth about Flandre not being able to blow things up anymore, leaving her with nothing but her fists and fangs to fight with. And sure, she may have immense strength, incredible speed, and a predator's instincts, but as Rin was quickly learning, she really wasn't that great at close-quarters combat. She was one hell of an effective killer, yes, but when it came to actual fighting, her whole strategy seemed to revolve around throwing herself at her opponent over and over again until something stuck. And the longer the battle went on, the clumsier she got.

Is this was I was so afraid of? Rin thought as she weaved in and out of Flandre's frenzied attempts to grab her. This is easy! Hell, that gate-guard put up way more of a-

And right about then she missed a step and Flandre hit her.

The next thing Rin knew, she was lying on her back half a kilometer away with Flandre sitting on her chest with her hands wrapped around Rin's throat.

"Die!" Flandre hissed, spittle flying. She started yanking up and down, slamming Rin's head against the ground. "Die, die, die, die!"

It hurt, but not as much as Rin was expecting. The ground was mostly just dirt and grass, and while having her throat crushed was no fun, she didn't actually need air. So having Flandre try to suffocate her instead of tearing her limbs of was actually an advantage, albeit a very unpleasant one.

"Die, die, die-Huh?" Flandre stared stupefied when she realized that her hands were now suddenly empty and her prey was no longer beneath her. She looked to either side, over her back, above her, and as she found nothing, decided that the only place Rin could have gone was into the ground and immediately began tearing away at her surroundings. Grass and dirt flew in clumps as she ripped it up.

Of course, she never noticed the gnat crawling up her shirt and around to her back until Rin reappeared on top of her.

Rin wrapped both arms around Flandre's waist, planted both feet firmly against the ground, and threw herself back. Flandre was yanked screaming off the ground and flew over Rin's arching body, so that her shoulders and the back of her head were slammed into the grass.

This would probably work better on a harder surface, Rin reflected as she released Flandre and spun around to face the dazed vampire. But while she really wasn't hurting Flandre, she was doing a good job of confusing her. Flandre sat up on her knees, her head reeling.

Rin sized her up. She made a few quick calculations in her head, and then snapped a side-kick right into Flandre's jaw. Flandre squeaked and fell to her back.

All right, time to finish this. Rin mentally ran through the list of things she could still do. Her death powers may be gone, but she still had a few more nasty tricks in her arsenal, including one that was supposed to be highly effective against vampires.

Rin spread her hands, and they burst into flames.

Flandre raised her head to see Rin standing over her holding two balls of fire and all the rage left her face to be replaced by sheer terror. Though she knew she probably shouldn't, Rin couldn't help but gloat. Flandre had been the first real monster to hurt her, and Rin had lived the last several years terrified of the mad vampire.

But now look at her. Once Flandre had been Eirin's ace in the hole, a threat that not even Rin could stand against. But take that power away from her and give Rin a few new tricks, and the tables were fully turned. The fact that she had used power taken from the princess that Flandre had originally been brought in to protect only made it sweeter.

Flandre let out an ear-piercing shriek and clawed at the grass in a mad dash to get away. She took to the air like a thrown javelin, screaming the whole way. "Oh, no you don't!" Rin laughed as she took off in pursuit. Her whole body ignited as she flew, giving her the appearance of some kind of fire spirit spat out of Hell.

It wasn't much of a chase. Flandre was fast, yes, but she was so scared that even her animalistic cunning was gone. Chortling, Rin threw up a wall of fire directly in Flandre's path.

That proved to be too much for the poor vampire. Flandre came to a sudden halt, took one look at the barrier of flames blocking her path, and simply shut down. She fell to the ground, where she curled up into a ball at the base of a tree and covered her head with her arms.

I beat her! Rin thought giddily. She dropped to the ground and looked down at Flandre. The infamous killer vampire didn't look so scary now. In fact, she looked pretty pathetic.

Rin took a step forward, but stopped when she was struck by a troubling thought. Okay, now what?

She could kill Flandre. It would probably be very easy. Flandre was beaten and her will was broken. One fireball, and she would be turned into a pile of ash, and Yuuka's little surprise would have blown up in her face.

Except…except wasn't she supposed to be moving away from that kind of thinking? What good would it do to tear away that homicidal piece of Azrael if she was just going to start enjoying killing all on her own?

She knew that Flandre was a monster, that she probably had the blood of hundreds of people on her hands. She had been locked up in the Scarlet Devil Mansion's basement for a reason, after all. But Rin had to admit, seeing her now, it was very hard to think of her as a monster. She was cowering with fear, body shaking and hands covering her face. She looked…

Well, she looked like a scared kid.

And then Flandre started crying.

Rin stared as the terrified girl bawled without shame, big, wet sobs wracking her little body. It was now very hard to remember that less than five minutes ago, she had been tearing Rin's friends apart limb from limb. After a few moments of hesitation, Rin lowered her hands and let the fires go out, leaving a curtain of smoke around them.

"Uh," she said. "Er…"

Okay, seriously. What in the world was she supposed to do now? She had beaten Flandre Scarlet. That was kind of huge. But now, having done so, she felt like a bully.

She killed Wriggle and Cirno, she reminded herself. She broke Rumia's leg. She blew you up. She…

Flandre cried louder.

"Okay," Rin muttered as she agitatedly ran her fingers through her hair. Well, this was awkward. She had fought one of Gensokyo's most notorious monsters to save her friends and somehow things had changed to her beating up a little kid, even if that kid so happened to be her senior by a significant amount.

But then, as feared as she was, wasn't Flandre Scarlet supposed to be insane? A little girl with too much power and too little control who was shunned and rejected by even her own family, forced to stay cooped up in a tiny, dark space out of fear that she might hurt someone?

Rin had to admit, she could empathize.

"Uh," she said. "Are you…are you all right?"

Flandre let out another big, gulping sob, but she did look up at Rin with lost and confused eyes and a face streaked with dirt and tears. Then, as soon as she saw Rin, the crying stopped immediately. Her pupils shrank while her eyes narrowed, and she let out a low hiss.

Oh right. Insane meant sudden mood swings.

The next thing Rin knew, Flandre was coming at her again, using the same bloodthirsty pounce while her hands went for her throat. Rin swiftly moved behind her and stuck her arms under Flandre's armpits and tried to lace her fingers behind the vampire's neck.

"Flandre, calm down!" Rin shouted. "We don't have to fight-"

Flandre shoved her arms down, breaking Rin's hold with ease. Then she seized the Kirin by the hair and hauled her over her head to slam her against the ground.

This time she didn't bother trying to throttle Rin. She just tore mindlessly at her, ripping away large chunks of her body and hurling them every which way.

Later, when asked about what she did next, Rin would only say that the pain had caused her to lose the ability to think rationally and she had acted on instinct. Given that Flandre had been tearing her apart with her bare hands, this explanation actually made a lot of sense. It certainly wasn't something she would have wanted to do deliberately, for a number of reasons.

Either way, as Flandre ripped into her flesh, Rin's body became transparent.

…

As the last thing Cirno remembered before her previous life had expired was being forcibly separated from her body and sent flying through the air, the first thing she did as soon as she recovered was check to see if she was still in danger of immediate decapitation.

She wasn't. Flandre was nowhere to be seen.

Cirno sighed with relief. She had taken harder hits than that in the past, but even so, there was a distinct difference between dealing with something that might tear you limb from limb and something that most definitely will. Maybe if spellcard rules were enforced Cirno might have stood a chance, but people seemed to be really lax about those lately.

Well, as she was alive and not in danger of being killed again, Cirno proceeded to the usual second step: round up the rest of the gang.

The first was easy enough, as Daiyousei had apparently survived the vampire's temper tantrum and was at her side in an instant. "Cirno, are you okay?" her friend cried.

Cirno gave her a look. "Of course I am, dummy," she said, standing up. Seriously, how many times had they gone through this over the years? "Where's the others?"

"Here," Rumia said, reaching her just moments after Daiyousei. She winced as she landed and seemed to be favoring one leg. "We gotta go. Like now."

Cirno screwed her face up in confusion. "Why, that vampire still after us?"

Rumia looked considerably more agitated than usual. "No, but Rin's fighting her, and we gotta find Yuuka before one of them kills the other."

Cirno gaped, her fear forgotten. "Wait, Rin's fighting Flandre Scarlet?" She immediately tried to run back toward where the fight had taken place. "I wanna see!"

"No!" Rumia grabbed her by the hair and yanked her back. "We're going to find Yuuka and make her break it up, because she's the only one that can!"

"Don't tell me what to do!" Cirno shouted back.

"You idiot! Don't you get-Oh, forget it," Rumia said, shoving Cirno away. "Fine, go ahead! Where'd Yuuka go anyway?"

"Back to the mansion," Wriggle said, walking into the conversation. Like Cirno, she was now fully recovered but not looking all that enthused about their current situation. "She took off right after dropping off Flandre."

Rumia hissed. "So she just dumped her on us and split?"

"Yeah, she did. It's Yuuka. You were expecting sense?"

Daiyousei gulped. "So…what do we do?"

Cirno frowned. She rubbed her chin as she thought. On the one hand, she still really, wanted to go watch the fight. It was a dream match, one that could probably sell tickets to and make a fortune. And from the look of things, Yuuka didn't really intend to be helpful, so…

On the other, getting her head ripped off kind of hurt, and she wasn't in a hurry to relive the experience. Plus, according to Rumia, Rin tended to get a little scary when she was mad, and when Rin got mad, people got hurt. Cirno felt that they had made great strides in building trust with their former arch-nemesis, but there was still a part of her that was afraid of Rin and what she could do. Watching Rumia slowly dissolve wasn't a memory that was going away anytime soon.

"Whoa!" Wriggle said suddenly, cutting into Cirno's thoughts. "What the hell?"

Cirno turned, and all desire to watch the fight evaporated. A massive fireball was leaping up in the distance, painting the evening sky orange. As an ice-fairy, Cirno wasn't overly fond of fire.

"Is that Rin?" she said shakily.

Rumia shot her a look. "Yes," she said. "Rin likes to use fire. Lots and lots of fire."

"Ah." Cirno soberly watched as the flames continued to leap on high. She imagined how they would feel when making contact with her skin and hastily came to a decision. "Okay, never mind! Let's go get Yuuka!"

…

Deep Within

In Rin's defense, she really wasn't clear on what was happening until it took shape right before her eyes. Literally.

One moment she was adrift in a sea of pain. And then it felt like a key was turned inside her mind, and a private room was opened. Then she became aware that her consciousness was again split in two: there was the bulk of her being contained within her physical body, and another Rin, this one much smaller, standing around in a dark void somewhere deep within her mind.

At first she didn't know what had triggered the change. Rumia was gone, and all of her hostages were trapped within their own subconscious minds. So why was she back here?

And then a blob of color started to form in front of her. A blonde-haired girl with sharp teeth and red eyes came into being, only it wasn't the one Rin was used to interacting with. She sucked in sharply through her teeth as Flandre Scarlet's considerable presence asserted itself in Rin's mind.

Oh boy. She had really done it now.

Flandre's mental manifestation was different than the one Rumia had created. For one, the aura that surrounded her body was blood-red and so large that it seemed to fill the entire space behind her. It writhed and surged like a halo of fire. Her skin, however, was a few shades darker than her normal pale complexion, and her eyes looked like flaming suns floating in the darkness of space.

Her crystalline wings were back, which probably indicated something about her psyche, though Rin wasn't even going to begin to guess what it was. And the crystals themselves glowed brighter than they ever did in real life.

As Flandre came fully into existence, Rin couldn't keep from reeling back. The vampire's presence was overwhelming. Rin had felt power of that kind inside her mind on only a few occasions, and not like this. The Dark Voice had been cold and sharp as a blade of ice, while Yuuka Kazami had felt warm and nauseating. This though, this was like standing next to a forest fire and feeling the heat wash over her. It was pure, raw power, plain and simple.

And it was all contained within the body of a mentally unstable little girl.

Rin had to admit, it was something of an awesome sight, and she was starting to become a little scared of Flandre again. However, all that power didn't change the fact that this was still her world. And so long as Flandre was within her, Rin called the shots.

Flandre looked a lost and listless as she appeared, as if her own heat was dazing her. But as soon as her eyes were able to focus on Rin, the response was both predictable and terrifying. "YOU!" she snarled as she lunged forward, her voice echoing through the void.

Rin held up a hand and asserted her will. Flandre was stopped in her tracks, but this time Rin was staggered by the recoil. It was like trying to chain down a dragon. Possible, provided you had the right tools, but by no means easy.

Flandre looked astonished at being stopped. She tried again, straining against her invisible restraints. Rin gritted her teeth and pushed back.

"What?" Flandre squeaked. "Where-WHO ARE YOU?"

Rin considered answering that question, but honestly had no idea where to begin. So instead she said, "Okay Flandre. Um, really, really sorry about eating you, and-"

"You ATE me?" Flandre's will slammed against Rin's restraints again. "Monster! Monster, monster, monster! Help!"

Whoops, that could have gone better. "But I'm about to let you go!" Rin said hastily. "So, don't worry, and-"

"Help! Monster! Help!"

On second thought, maybe letting Flandre go wasn't such a great idea. Sure, Rin could put her to sleep first, but unless Yuuka showed up to take the little vampire back to wherever she had stashed her, Rin really wasn't too keen on just leaving her out in the open. And all things considered, she didn't much care for the idea of Yuuka taking Flandre back either.

But that still left her with the problem of what she should do now. She could always send Flandre into a dream like she had with the others, but that idea left her with a sour feeling. Okay, so she had already done that to four people, at least one of which she had nothing against, so when it came to her personal karma, that ship had already sailed. And it would probably be safer for everyone involved if Flandre was kept somewhere safe for the time being.

But damn it, Rin was supposed to be the good guy! Well, she was trying at least. And locking Flandre away in her own troubled mind was a black mark she wasn't eager to gain. The more she thought about it, the more of a kindred spirit the vampire seemed to be. And despite all the pain Flandre had put her through, when it came down to it, it hadn't really been her fault. Eirin had used her, just like Yuuka was (presumably) using her. It wasn't Flandre's fault she was insane. It wasn't her fault she was a monster.

Rin wanted to help her. It sounded crazy even to her, but she wanted to help this poor, broken creature.

But how? Flandre was just going to keep attacking her, and she couldn't trust anything Yuuka did. Rin had no useful magic to call upon, and it wasn't like she could just go and dig Flandre's insanity out of her brain.

Or could she?

Rin mused on that idea. It was absolutely nuts, yes, but in comparison to the things she had already been through, it didn't seem to be entirely out of the question. She looked at Flandre, who had stopped using words entirely and was just letting out a long, continuous shriek of rage and terror.

Rin took a deep breath. Well, it wasn't as if she had anything to lose. She walked up to Flandre, who tried to draw back, her eyes widening with fear. "Flandre," Rin said. "I'm really, really sorry about this, but I don't have any other ideas."

And with that, she thrust her fingers into Flandre's head.

And that was when everything got weird.

When Rin had tried to dig through Rumia's mind to unearth buried memories, the experience had been akin to trying to shape hard clay without water. And then she had uncovered Azrael's shade and it had become extremely painful. But everything before that had been difficult and frustrating.

Flandre's memory was…a little different.

As soon as her fingertips sank into Flandre's brow, Rin felt herself being pulled forward. Startled, Rin tried to resist, but the pull only grew stronger. She felt a strange rushing around her ears, and Flandre's form started to fade away. Brief glimpses of faces, shapes, and places flashed in the darkness, and her scarlet aura expanded to envelop Rin.

She fell forward into the red. Wind blew past her, carrying with it babbling voices. Rin tried to close her eyes, but the red penetrated through her eyelids. The rushing grew louder, and the voices rose to a scream.

Then she pitched forward onto solid ground. Rin tumbled over ragged fabric and came to a sudden stop against a cold stone wall. Dazed, she staggered up onto shaky legs and looked around.

She was in a stone corridor, one dimly lit by partially-melted candles set into iron sconces lining both walls. Beneath her was a red carpet that might have been rich and expensive at one time, but was now torn and stained. Bits of trash and rubbish lay strewn on the ground: bits of wood, shards of rusted metal, pieces of glass, and bones.

Rin shivered. Clearly, Flandre's memory was not content to simply have her pick away at it from the outside and had instead elected to give her the full tour. And it had also decided start things off with creepyland. Okay, yeah. This was not how Rin had envisioned her evening turning out when she went with the others to play baseball. Though to be fair, one had to except a certain level of creepiness while digging through a vampire's mind.

While Rin wasn't sure where she was, she could make a few guesses. Flandre had been locked away in the Scarlet Devil Mansion's basement for centuries, so it only made sense to start there. By all reports, the place was a veritable labyrinth, and the state of decay was in sharp contrast to the opulence upstairs. Which…was really messed up if you thought about it.

Not knowing what else to do, Rin took a deep breath of the cold, stale air and moved forward. Fortunately, coming here had not severed her from her acquired powers, so as a precaution she turned herself invisible. Hopefully that would be enough to hide her from the skeletons infesting Flandre's closet of horrors.

Apparently the stories of the Scarlet Devil Mansion's basement and its labyrinthine layout were not exaggerating, as the constant turns and twists in the paths soon made her head spin. However, in time she became aware of a sound. Somewhere, there was a dull, repetitive thumping against wood, like someone knocking repeatedly on a door. Normally that would be a good indicator of where not to go, but Rin needed some sort of direction.

Following the sound the best she could, Rin turned a corner and found herself in a room full of smashed furniture. Chairs, tables, shelves, and a couch or two (or three or four. It was impossible to tell) lay in shattered bits all over the place, and an expansive canopy bed with its curtains drawn sat at one end of the room. Judging by the way it was leaning, at least one of its legs had been broken.

The thumping was coming from inside the bed, making the curtains shake. Rin hesitantly approached. Her instinct told her to run, that there was nothing good to be found inside a mad vampire's mind. But at this point, there was little else she could do save to move forward.

Rin slowly moved the ragged veil aside and peeked in.

There was very little light piercing through the fabric, but she did make out the silhouette of a marble box lying on top of the bedcovers. From what she could tell, it was around a couple meters long and had a rounded top. Heavy chains were wrapped around it, keeping it shut tight. However, whatever it was that was inside wasn't deterred, and keep banging against the lid.

Rin, who had some experience with locked boxes, was smart enough to know that things trying to get out of chained-up coffins found within vampire lairs were probably not something that should be set free. She hastily let the veil fall back into place and retreated.

As she turned around, Rin caught a sudden flash of movement at the room's entrance. She stood still for a second, and then tiptoed over and looked out. Two small figures wearing heavy cloaks were moving quickly down the corridor. They were holding each other's hand, though one seemed to be doing most of the leading and urged the other on.

Well, that certainly looked like a good lead, and one that was much less dangerous than trying to release something in a locked casket. Rin stepped out into the corridor to follow.

And then the lights started to go out.

It started at the other end of the hallway, with each of the candles snuffing out in turn. The darkness caught up to Rin, enveloping her. She blinked as her youkai eyes adjusted. She could still see well enough to make out shapes and tell where she was going, but the sudden change did not bode well.

This was proven when she heard something breathing.

It came from the same direction as the darkness, a heavy, ragged noise that sounded a lot like a snarl. With it was the clacking of sharp nails crawling across stone. Back inside the room, the banging intensified.

Rin swallowed. This couldn't be good.

Then two pinpoints of red light appeared at the other end of the corridor. They were high above ground level and steadily moved closer. The sound of slavering grew louder. Something was crawling along the ceiling toward her.

Rin didn't feel like sticking around to find out what. She turned and ran after the two cloaked figures. She tapped into the Tanuki's power and her form changed and grew, her legs lengthening and gaining strength.

Rin rushed ahead and turned a corner to see a series of still-lit candles ahead. Going a bit further and she managed to glimpse the two cloaked figures as they disappeared through a door. Taking that as an invitation, Rin skitted around and ran through the same door and slammed it closed behind her, leaving the thumping thing in the coffin and the creeping thing on the ceiling behind.

…

As they neared Mugenkan, Wriggle felt her chest rise with hope. Elly was right outside, sitting on a bench and reading a book. Normally, any time the two of them were in the same room together meant raised tension and awkward glances, but at the moment they needed all the help they could get.

"Elly!" she shouted as soon as they were in earshot. "Get Yuuka! We need help!"

Elly gave them only the briefest of glances before looking back to her book. "Yuuka has retired to her private quarters for the day," she said, turning a page. "She wishes not to be-"

"Too bad, this is her fault," Wriggle snapped. "Flandre Scarlet's after us!"

Elly froze. "What?"

"Yeah, she killed a bunch of us and is fighting Rin right now!"

"What!"

Wriggle threw her hands into the air. "Exactly! Yuuka showed up, dumped the vampire on us, told us to make friends with her, and then buggered off!"

Elly's mouth was now hanging open in shock. "She did what?"

"Yes!" Wriggle all but screamed. "Now, go get Yuuka to fix it before one of them kills the other! Because that's probably going to happen really, really quickly!"

Elly stared at her.

Fighting the urge to scream, Wriggle lowered her voice and said, "Elly. Look. I know us being here messed things up for you. And I know you're still mad at me for running away. But this is important! Rin and Flandre Scarlet are trying to kill each other right now, and Yuuka's the only one that can stop it!"

"But-"

"Elly, please!" Wriggle begged. "I'm sorry I hurt you, okay? I never wanted to do that. But I need your help right now. Do it for Yuuka's sake, if you won't do it for mine."

Elly bit her lower lip. She cast a hesitant glance at the front door, swallowed, and rose from her seat. "Wait here," she said, and hurried into the mansion.

…

The place Rin found herself in wasn't exactly what she had been expecting. Instead of another part of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, she was outside in a busy city street at night, though none like any she had ever seen before (not that she had seen many city streets).

The ground was of trampled mud and caked with pieces of trash, rank water, and offal. The building were all made from stone, and there were many wooden stands selling a variety of items. All around her, legs were moving, both those of people and horses.

However, there didn't seem to be anything attached to them. From Rin's perspective, she was in a world of giants. The walls stretched higher than she could see, the tops of the wooden stands were far out of reach, and she didn't even come up to the knees of the legs walking all around her. As to the upper bodies of the huge people surrounding her, they were shrouded in darkness, hiding their features even from her sharp eyes.

What was more, they were everywhere. Rin had to dart to one side almost immediately to avoid being trampled, and in doing so almost accidentally ended up being crushed beneath the wheels of a massive wooden wagon.

Finally she managed to duck and weave over toward one of the buildings and threw herself against the wall. "Okay," she panted. "This…is way more stressful than I thought it would be."

She had no idea what point in Flandre's life this came from, though it had probably been sometime pre-vampirism. That, or soon after. Rin really didn't know much about the Outside World, but she was fairly certain that it wasn't populated by giants, so this was probably Flandre's skewed perspective of that point in her life. That, or there was a country in the Outside World populated by giants. Rin really couldn't say.

However, the size difference did offer one advantage. As she scanned the forest of moving legs, she was able to pick out the two small, cloaked figures as they navigated their way across the perilous street. They were still holding hands, and Rin was reasonably sure she caught a glimpse of a stray lock of golden hair peeking out from the hood of the one being led.

Well, she had found Flandre at least. The other one was probably her sister Remilia, or at least Flandre's mental impression of her. Apparently Flandre still thought of her as her protector. Whether that was heartwarming or troublesome Rin couldn't decide.

They seemed to be in a hurry. As Rin watched, they maneuvered their way through the gargantuan crowd toward a darkened alley. Taking a deep breath, Rin readied herself to follow.

Then she felt a chill.

Looking up, she saw the glowing eyes of the creeping thing moving above her, weaving its way through the shadows that surrounded the giants' upper halves. Fortunately it ignored her, and instead focused itself on the retreating sisters.

Rin frowned. It had been a long time since she had read up on psychology, but generally speaking, creepy glowing-eyed monsters that hunted little girls were bad news, and even with what little Rin knew about Flandre's past, it didn't take much of a leap to figure that whatever this thing represented, it had something to do with Flandre's multiple personality problems.

Keeping an eye on it, Rin moved through the obstacle course of legs, trusting in the Hourai Immortals' instincts to keep her alive. The red-eyed thing moved swiftly above her, its attention focused on the alley where Flandre and Remilia had disappeared into. Rin quickened her pace, though the veritable pillars that constantly rose and fell all around her made that difficult.

She dodged one leather boot and had to screech to a stop to avoid being crushed by a pair of lady's shoes. Then she tried moving forward again, only to dart to one side when a pair of oversized barefoot children ran past.

Screw this, Rin thought in frustration. She leapt to the nearest leg and clung to the fabric of its pant leg. She rode it for a couple of seconds before leaping to the next.

Jumping from leg to leg, Rin was able traverse the street, though it was far from easy. The dresses were the worst. At least she was able to scuttle between the pant legs and keep moving, but every time a woman walked past it cost her precious seconds. The monster, however, didn't seem to be hindered the same way, and could have been floating for all she could tell.

Typical.

Despite the delays, Rin was still able to cross over to the alley fairly quickly. However, the monster had gotten there first. As Rin entered the alley, the shadows surrounding it slithered down the wall like a cloud of ink. They made their way toward a plain wooden door, one that was on scale with Rin and the cloaked girls rather than the giants, and, after a second of hesitation, struck like a snake. The door was wretched open and the darkness surged through, eyes and all.

The door slammed shut, and Rin was alone in the alley.

Well, that had been weird. And creepy. Rin moved to follow.

And then a sudden thump made her jump.

Whirling around, she saw something that she wasn't exactly thrilled about. A decaying horse cart was sitting nearby. Like the door, it was normal sized and, with only two wheels and no horse to hold it up, leaned forward against a pile of rubbish.

Inside the cart was a chained casket, identical to the one in the bed. Now with more light, Rin could see that it was inscribed with a red insignia of Flandre's crystal-adorned wings sprouting from the center of a Christian cros. She could also see tiny red rosebuds sprouting from the chains. And again, it was shaking as something inside banged against the lid and struggled to get out.

Okay, yeah. That couldn't be good. Rin had to admit, she was starting to miss being the scariest monster around.

"Baseball," she muttered. "All I wanted to do was go and watch the others play baseball. And now everything all creepy and weird."

Then, leaving the coffin behind again, she hurried through the door.

…

Head bowed, muscles clenched, and unbandaged hand twitching, Elly made her way through the mansion. This couldn't be happening. Things had gone too far. Why was Yuuka behaving like this? Why was everything going so wrong?

Yuuka had returned a few minutes earlier from her latest attempt to tame Flandre Scarlet. Naturally, Elly had asked her how it went. It was only polite, after all. But instead of answering her, Yuuka had just gruffly told her to let no one bother her and disappeared into her room, leaving a dejected Elly behind.

This had of course led her to assume that Yuuka's gift had not been properly appreciated and she was now in a foul mood. It was an understandable reaction. However, never in her wildest dreams had she imagined that Yuuka would just go and turn the vampire over to her other guests and expect them to handle things. What in the world was she thinking?

Elly's face hardened. No, Yuuka had gone too far. It was time to stop beating around the bush. Elly had to say something.

But…but what could she say? She still didn't know what had happened to her master. What if Yuuka refused to tell her? What if she became angry with her? What if she threw her out? Elly couldn't stand the idea of being alone again. She would rather die.

But Yuuka did need help, and if Elly didn't do something soon she was likely never to get it. And besides, Wriggle had practically begged her to-

Elly came to a sudden stop. Wait, where had that thought come from? Why would she care what Wriggle wanted? The firefly had abandoned her, after all. They had promised to always be together and look out for one another, and Wriggle had spat on all that by running away! And now she finally apologizes only when she needed something, expecting that to make up for her lies? Not a chance!

But she had apologized…

Elly didn't know what to do. She didn't know what she could do. She didn't know if there was anything anyone could do. She just knew that she hated the way things were going, and if she didn't do something soon, she was likely going to go mad.

The door to Yuuka's room loomed over her. Taking a deep breath, Elly lifted her hand to knock.

…

The place that the door led Rin was not an improvement.

It was a forest. And it was dark. It was gnarled. It was twisted. A cold, bitter wind whistled through the branches. And it was very, very creepy.

Rin stood at the foot of an old oak. All around her, the trees loomed up like a silent gathering of elders, come to look down upon and judge her. Their branches were bare of leaves, and those close enough to see were white as bones in the moonlight.

Rin shivered. She was starting to notice a certain pattern taking place in these memories.

Well, she couldn't afford to waste any more time. Ignoring the way her skin was crawling, Rin reached out with her senses, trying to pick out anything that might point her in the right direction.

She heard crackling. She smelled smoke.

Rin whirled around. Off in the distance, a hazy, orange light filled the sky. Something was burning. Rin didn't think it was the forest, thank the gods, but it was still something big.

Rin frowned. She couldn't help but wonder what it was. However, she didn't have the time to investigate. And it did at least help her narrow down her paths. Given how terrified Flandre had been when Rin had called up fire, she seriously doubted that she would be moving toward the blaze.

That decided, Rin turned and headed off in the opposite direction.

Fortunately, the same instincts that had guided her across the street of giants were able to help her move swiftly and silently through the woods, and it didn't take long for her to pick out the sound of Human feet trampling through the leaves. Spying an especially tall tree, Rin scampered up into its branches and looked around.

Yup, there they were. The Scarlet Sisters, the cloaked figures of Remilia and Flandre hurrying along hand-in-hand. Taking note of their positions, Rin turned and scanned the treetops.

And there it was. A shroud of unnatural darkness, visible even in the dark of the night, swallowing up the naked branches. And in its center, a pair of hovering red eyes and the sound of heavy breathing.

If the pattern held, the monster would continue to pursue the girls through one eerie memory to the next. And probably a shaking coffin would eventually figure in somehow. Rin wasn't sure how much time she had before Yuuka showed up, but she imagined that there wasn't much left.

Screw it.

"Flandre, Remilia, run!" Rin shouted, and she dove for the monster. The shroud of darkness froze in place and the red eyes widened in surprise.

Rin plunged into the darkness. It wasn't icy-cold like what she felt from the Shadow Youkai, which was a relief. Then her fist connected with the thing's nose and broke it, which was one as well.

The monster screeched and lurched back, its cloak of shadows recoiling with it. Rin lunged again, ready for another fight and hoping that the Hourai Immortals' reflexes were still with her.

Then her fist slammed into brittle wood and shattered it.

She was so surprised that it took her a couple of seconds to realize what had happened. Instead of meeting her attack, the monster had slipped under it and dropped to the forest floor. It was now in retreat, a black blob rushing between the trees after the Scarlet Sisters, who fortunately had taken her warning to heart and redoubled their pace.

"Oh, no you don't!" Rin shouted, and bolted off in pursuit.

She had to admit, after their chilling first encounter in that dungeon, it did feel good to play the role of the pursuer. She bounded from tree to tree, as agile as a chimpanzee and twice as fast. The monster was quick, yes, but she was gaining.

Rin caught up and kept going until she was a little bit ahead of it. Then she seized the top of a tree, spun herself around, and pounced.

She hit, and the next few moments were a confusing tangle of limbs and loud shrieks. Rin squirmed beneath it and pushed up with both legs, catching it in the stomach and knocking it flailing back into a heap of dead leaves. She bounded back up, ready for another attack.

Then a fist caught her in the chin with so much force that her head was twisted a full one-hundred and eighty degrees. Rin staggered a couple of steps to the side and fell over.

By the time she had sorted herself out and had everything facing the way it was supposed to, the monster had escaped.

Rin breathed in deeply and let out a frustrated sigh. Well, that had been sloppy. Whatever that thing was, it was as strong as Flandre was. And if Rin were a betting girl, she would put her money on it being Flandre's memory of the vampire that had turned the Scarlet Sisters in the first place. It would make sense for her to have some kind of complex.

In which case, if Rin was going to help Flandre, then catching that thing and kicking its butt sounded like a great place to start. It was so nice that her talents in that direction might actually be used for something constructive for once.

"Get back here!" she shouted as she rushed after her quarry.

Trees passed by in a blur. Rin didn't even bother sidestepping them, but instead plowed right through their trunks, using the strength taken from her two youkai hostages to smash their trunks into splinters.

Suddenly, a chunk of stone rushed up to meet her. Rin yelped and put on the brakes, or tried to anyway. The carpet of dead leaves turned caused her feet to slip out from under her, and she slid right into it.

It didn't hurt, but it did stun her for a couple seconds. As she rose up, she found herself looking at the word FATHER NATHANIEL LACROIX, followed by a couple of dates. And below that were the words, HE DIED DOING THE RIGHT THING.

It was a tombstone. Looking around, Rin could see others stuck in the ground, along with a few crypts. She had slid into a small, rotting cemetery, which was stuck in the middle of the forest for some reason. Apparently, Flandre's labyrinth of memories hadn't appreciated her not being creeped out anymore and had decided to up the ante a bit.

Shaking her head, Rin rose up. "Okay," she whispered, looking around. "Where are-"

A door slammed, right behind her.

Startled, Rin whirled around. There, set in the trunk of an old, twisted tree, was the door in question. "Oh," she said. "Well, that narrows it down a-"

And then stone cracked sharply, again right behind her.

"Stop it!" she yelled, again spinning to face the sound. "It's not creepy anymore, it's just annoying! So quit it with the…Oh, you have got to be kidding me."

One of the crypts had shattered, its roof and walls falling away. And lying among the rubble was yet another chained coffin, identical to the others and thumping and shaking as well. Or maybe it was the same one. Probably was.

Rin stared at it. "You know," she said. "After the third time, it really stops being scary."

The thing inside the coffin gave a particularly loud thump in response.

Rin was now seriously tempted to just open the damned thing and set its captive free. She probably would regret it immediately after, but at least it would break the cycle.

"Tell you what," she said as she opened the door. "I'm going to try for that monster again and see if I can't have a talk with Flandre, and if that doesn't work, you'll be Plan B."

…

Daiyousei couldn't really keep track of how long Elly kept them waiting while she went to go talk to Yuuka, but though she was sure that it was only a few minutes at most, it felt much, much longer.

So she did what she usually did when bad things were happening to people she cared about and had to wait for others to fix it: she found a little corner, someplace inconspicuous and out of the way, sat down in it, and fretted.

She was worried. Well, no kidding she was worried. Flandre Scarlet was after them. That would make anyone sweat. But even though that the vampire was now way over there somewhere and no longer about to rip her wings out, Daiyousei was still worried. Most of it was for Rin. Though the Kirin still scared her a little, Daiyousei was growing to like her. Plus, she just seemed so sad all the time that the fairy couldn't help but feel sorry for her, and having Rumia vouch for her had helped a lot.

But while Daiyousei knew that Rin could probably handle herself against Flandre Scarlet, it was still Flandre Scarlet. Even if Rin survived, she would be hurt.

But though she wouldn't admit it to anyone, Daiyousei was worried about Flandre as well. Sure, the vampire girl was terrifying and had just wiped the floor with them, but this was not the first time Daiyousei had encountered her. A few years ago, she had run into Flandre all on her own, and rather than kill her, Flandre instead had done her a tremendous favor. And while she had her doubts that, given how notoriously unstable she was, Flandre even remembered her, Daiyousei hadn't forgotten. She didn't want either of them to be hurt.

But she couldn't do anything. Cirno couldn't do anything. Wriggle, Mystia, and Rumia couldn't do anything. Only Yuuka could. So she sat and waited and prayed, hoping that taking up residence in the Garden of the Sun had not cut them off from Gensokyo's various deities. Surely one of them had to be listening.

Then the front door opened, and Daiyousei squeaked.

Elly came out, her face devoid of expression. The others, who had been fidgeting in their own way around the porch, immediately gathered in front of her. "Well, what's she say?" Rumia demanded.

Taking a deep breath, Elly said, "Yuuka says that since you agreed to look after Flandre and help her, it fall to you to calm her down."

This pronouncement was not received well. "WHAT!" Wriggle shouted, with Rumia echoing similar sentiments in coarser language. "Are you kidding? How the hell does she expect us to-"

"Figure it out yourself," Elly said, and she shut the door.

If anything, Team Nineball reacted even more poorly to his. "Hey!" Wriggle said, slamming her fists against the door. "What the hell?"

Growling, Rumia kicked the door a few times. "Knew this was a bad idea, knew this was-" Then, her eyes narrowing, she scanned the upper levels. "Cirno, give me an iceball."

"Sure," Cirno said, creating one and handing it to her without hesitation. "What for?"

"Window," Rumia said, and drew her arm back to throw.

"NO!" Mystia screamed as she seized Rumia's arm. Wriggle did the same to the other while repeating, "Nope, nope, nope!"

"You got a better idea?" Rumia demanded. "If she's going to ignore us, then I say we get her attention!"

"No," Wriggle said flatly. "You don't know her like I do. Seriously, that'll just make things worse."

"Oh yeah? Okay, wise bug, you think of something?"

Daiyousei hesitated, and then said, "We…could go help?"

Wriggle snorted. "Yeah. How?"

"Distract Flandre?" Cirno suggested. "Freeze her?"

"Sounds like a fantastic way to get her pissed at us," Wriggle said. "You like getting ripped apart? Because I sure as hell didn't much appreciate what she did to my ribs."

"Well, we have to do something!" Daiyousei cried. "Rin's our friend, right? We don't just leave our friends!"

"What she said," Rumia agreed. "Plus, when Rin gets mad, it kinda makes a mess. And I don't think Miss Yuuka's gonna appreciate all the craters, you know?"

"Damn it," Wriggle muttered. She sighed. "Fine. Let's go jump between the two super-monsters."

…

Well, this was new.

For once, Rin had found herself in a section of Flandre's memories that wasn't inherently creepy. In fact, it was kind of nice.

She was standing at one end of a large ballroom, or at least she was fairly certain that it was. The floor was made from polished red stone inlaid with graceful golden filigree. Marble columns ringed the room, somewhere soft violin music was playing.

However, that was all she could see. The walls beyond the columns were shrouded in shadow, as was the ceiling. All she could see was the dancefloor immediately in front of her, and the wall at the far end. On the bright side, it did make things refreshingly straightforward.

Fortunately though at least this time she didn't have to do any hunting. Flandre and the memory of Remilia were standing at the opposite end of the dancefloor, with Remilia protectively holding her sister while Flandre huddled into her shoulder. Though she couldn't see her face, Rin got the distinct impression that Remilia was glowering at her.

"Okay, Remilia," Rin said as she slowly approached, hands held up where Remilia could see them. "Just…calm down, okay? I'm here to-"

The lights went out.

Crap.

Rin spun around, arms raised to meet the monster's attack. Unfortunately, she had turned the wrong way and the monster came down from above, feet first. It hit Rin between the shoulder blades and drove her to the floor.

Rin's face hit marble hard enough to crack it. That was bad, but the long-nailed fingers seizing her by the hair and yanking her head back were worse.

Rin's skin shifted, and the monster found itself grabbing at nothing while a golden-furred ferret bounded up its arm and leapt over its head. Rin regained her form and grabbed at the monster's head as she passed over. She flipped over its back and landed in a crouch, slamming the nasty thing to the marble floor. Then, before it could shake off the shock, she hauled it up and slammed her fist into its midsection. It gasped and doubled over.

Laughing, Rin hurled the monster away from her, sending its limp body skipping across the dancefloor and taking its shroud of darkness with it. When she had been younger, she had often wondered why Princess Kaguya had continued her daily fights to the death with Fujiwara no Mokou. Now she was staring to understand, because that had been so freaking cool!

"Hey, you like scaring little girls?" she taunted. Flames erupted around her hands and spread up to her shoulders. "Well, today's your lucky day! C'mon, Creepy! We're on the dancefloor, so let's dance!"

The monster took one look at her and its eyes widened with terror. It tried to skitter around her, but Rin moved with it. It tried going the other way, only for her to move to block it again.

"What's wrong, tough guy?" Rin laughed. "Going somewhere? Come on, we were just starting to have fun! Don't tell me you're getting-"

Then she staggered forward. Someone had hit her from behind. Someone strong.

The monster shot past her and rushed for the other side of the room. "No!" Rin cried as she swung out with one flaming arm. She missed, and it kept right on going toward the Scarlet Sisters.

"Flandre! Remilia! Run!" Rin shouted as she moved to intercept. "I'll hold it-What?"

Despite her warning, Remilia and Flandre were not retreating. Instead, they were doing the exact opposite. The monster's shroud of darkness had retracted to the point where it was barely larger than its body and Rin could see its limbs moving within as it stumbled across the floor. What was more, it was doing so with the support of Flandre and Remilia, who had thrown its arms over their shoulders and were helping it get away from Rin.

"Huh?" Rin said as she stared. "Wait, weren't you running from…I thought that was…Wasn't it trying to…"

The Scarlet Sisters took the monster to a red door trimmed with gold and hastily helped it through.

"…okay…"

Well, it looked like her initial supposition was a bit off. By a lot. Rin had to say, she had not been expecting that.

"Wow," Rin said as she lowered her arms and extinguished the flames. "Uh, well, she is crazy, so…"

All right then. Now what? Putting her hands on her hips, Rin frowned and looked up at the ceiling. She tried to think back to anything she had learned about psychology in school, but that had been nine years and a whole lot of trauma ago. She couldn't even remember if there had been a section on psychology. And even if there had been, she was fairly certain that it hadn't included anything on the undead.

"Okay, I am seriously out of my depth here," Rin muttered as she anxiously raked her fingers back through her hair. Even though it was kind of horrible, she did sort of wish that Rumia was here. At least Rumia had some experience with this sort of thing, and was admittedly a quicker thinker than she was.

And then the thumping began.

"Oh, shut up!" Rin shouted over her shoulder. She didn't even bother looking for the coffin. Instead, she just stomped toward the door. "It's not like you're doing anything new."

…

Rumia had been right about the mess. A large chunk of the Garden of the Sun looked like it had been turned into a warzone, with fires still burning and holes and trenches of torn-up earth found over a distressingly large area.

When they saw the evidence of Rin and Flandre's battle, Wriggle's face had fallen in despair. "Oh shiiiiiit," she moaned. "Yuuka is gonna be pissed."

The others were inclined to agree. Yuuka had made in abundantly clear from day one that if anyone were to so much as crush a daisy, the transition from guest to victim would be swift and brutal. As such, even when roughhousing, they had been very mindful of their surroundings.

Apparently, Rin had forgotten the rules. And it was doubtful that Flandre had ever known them.

"Man, it's a good thing Rin's indestructible," Cirno said, surveying the devastation. "I do not want to be her after Yuuka sees this."

Rumia was already scanning the area. "Where are they?" she said, sounding worried. "We should at least be hearing the fight. Is it over?"

"If so, who won?" Cirno wondered.

"Rin," Rumia said without hesitation.

"You sure? We are talking about Flandre Scarlet here."

"Yeah. Trust me, if anyone got dusted, it wasn't Rin."

Near the back, Mystia was staring down at the battlefield, her eyes wide and shoulders shaking. Her hands were clasped at her chest, and she was starting to breathe a bit faster than was healthy.

Wriggle noticed first. "Hey, you okay?" she said.

Mystia swallowed, but spoke to Rumia instead. "Uh, R-Rumia? When Rin gets mad, does she forget that she's not supposed to eat people?"

That made Rumia wince. "Uh, not…not usually, but there have been a couple times-"

"Look!" Daiyousei called. The little fairy pointed.

There, kneeling in a circle of withered grass, was Rin Satsuki. She sat on her haunches, head bowed and hands on her kness. Her eyes were open but unfocused and unblinking. She wasn't even breathing.

Flandre Scarlet was nowhere to be seen.

The more daring members of the gang rushed up to her. "Rin? Hey, Rin?" Cirno said, waving her hand in front of the Kirin's face. "Hellooooo? Can you hear me?" She turned to Rumia. "The hellsicles is wrong with her?"

Rumia frowned. "I don't know, I didn't see her from the outside much, so I don't think-" Then her eyes widened. "Oh crap."

"What?"

Rumia sucked in hard through her teeth. "I think she ate Flandre."

Mystia closed her eyes.

"What?" Wriggle squeaked. "For real? Like she ate you?"

"Yeah," Rumia said. "I think they're talking right now, in Rin's head. That's why she's so blank."

"Or they're fighting," Cirno suggested. "Like a big dream battle."

"Could be," Rumia sighed. "Either way, this ain't good."

Mystia sat down with her back to the group. She drew her knees up, leaned forward, put her hands on the back of her head, and just breathed.

"Can Flandre beat her though?" Wriggle wanted to know. "I mean, can she kill Rin from the inside and take over her body or something?"

Rumia shook her head. "I don't think so. We had something similar happen with…something else, and Rin just came back."

"Really?" Cirno wanted to know. "What kind of something else?"

"Loooooooooong story."

While the three of them talked, Daiyousei finally took notice of the night-sparrow's distress. "Mystia?" she said, kneeling down in front of her. "Are you…"

Mystia grimaced. She started whimpering.

Fortunately, Daiyousei understood. Carefully moving her arms around Mystia's back, she let the night-sparrow lean her head against her shoulder while Mystia started whispering, "I won't be eaten, I won't be eaten, I won't be eaten…"

…

Rin emerged through the door into darkness.

This wasn't unnatural shroud that followed the monster, nor was it the dead of night that had covered the forest. This was a bare room of stone, with no lamps, no windows, and no exits save for the door that now swung closed behind her. The air was cold enough to raise goosebumps and smelled of rot.

Frowning, Rin stood still, letting her eyes readjust to the dark. She was quite obviously in a dungeon, though it wasn't the maze she had started out in. This was a room designed to keep people locked away and out of sight, no more. Heavy chains with manacles hung from the wall while piles of old, musty straw littered the floor.

She sniffed and shuddered. There was more rotting than soiled straw and excrement.

It didn't take long to find what she was looking for. The Scarlet Sisters were huddle together against the far wall, Remilia again holding Flandre tightly against her shoulder. Rin couldn't see the eyes of the monster, but she could hear it breathing. It sounded nervous. Good.

Rin approached the pair, making sure to move slowly and with her hands raised. "Uh, hey," she said. "Look, don't be scared. I'm not here to hurt you."

Flandre raised her head a bit and hissed, "Liar."

"All right, so I did rush in a little too quickly there," Rin admitted. "But I thought that thing was going to hurt you. So I was trying to-"

A low growl permeated the black.

"No," Rin said, turning her head and jabbing a finger toward the sound's source. She could see the monster's eyes now, glowering at her. "Don't even think about it."

"You hurt her," Flandre hissed again.

Rin paused. "Wait, her?"

Then the monster struck.

To its credit, it didn't go for the straightforward pounce that Flandre had kept trying on her, but instead darted swiftly to one side, rebounded off the wall, and tried to take Rin from behind. It still didn't work though. Rin ducked under its lunge and thrust her shoulders up into its stomach. One hand shoved up against its legs, and it was thrown onto its back.

"STOP!" Flandre screeched. "Leave her alone!"

Rin glanced briefly in her direction before returning her attention to the monster. "She's not hurt, I just-"

Then her head jerked back to the Scarlet Sisters. Their hoods were now down, and Rin realized just how wrong she had been.

Flandre was the one cowering against the other's shoulder, she had been right about that much at least. She was shaking with more than fear, her crimson eyes twitching and darting back and forth while she tongue flicked in and out to repeatedly moisten her lips. The person protectively holding her wasn't Remilia though. Remilia Scarlet had pale lavender hair and the same red eyes as her younger sister. This girl had blonde hair and grey eyes.

But save for that last bit, it was pretty obviously another Flandre.

"Uh," Rin said, looking from one Flandre to the next. "Okay, why is there two-"

Then suspicion struck her. She turned her attention to the monster moaning on the floor. Raising a hand, she called up a small ball of flame, enough to light up the small room.

The cloak of darkness seemed to melt off the monster's body, revealing a scarred, lithe form with greasy yellow hair and long, sharp nails. Its eyes were the color of freshly spilled blood, and pointed fangs protruded from its panting mouth.

Rin stared down at the third Flandre, unsure of what to do with her. "Uh, okay," she said. "Why exactly are there three of you?"

Vampire Flandre's dazed eyes came into focus. Then, seeing the ball of flame Rin held, she let out a squeal and shielded her face with her arms. As Rin watched, Vampire Flandre scrambled quickly away from her to join the other two, where the Flandre with grey eyes was quick to accept her into her protective embrace as well.

Grey-eyed Flandre swallowed and hugged her…sisters? Other selves? Whatever they were, she held them closer to her and said in a shaky voice, "Wh-why were you following us? Who are you? What do you want?"

"Don't talk to it," said the twitchy one whispered. "It lies, it lies, IT LIES!"

The vampire one just whimpered and burrowed her face into the grey-eyed one's shoulder.

"Well, my name is Rin Satsuki," Rin told them. "And…I got pulled in here…sort of by accident, and…"

"You were trying to hurt me," said the grey-eyed one. She sounded close to tears. "Why? What did I ever do to you?"

Rin decided that answering that question in full would probably not lead anywhere useful. "Look, I'm sorry about that. I thought she was hunting you guys, and-"

"LIAR!" twitchy Flandre shrieked. "Fire, fire, smoke everywhere, it tried to BURN US!" She started sobbing into grey-eyed Flandre's shoulder.

Rin frowned. As weird as things were, she felt that she was starting to understand.

"Okay," she said, nodding toward the crying one. "You're…Crazy Flandre, right?"

"Don't call her that!" said the grey-eyed one. "It's mean!"

"And that's Vampire Flandre, right?" Rin said, pointing at the whimpering one. "The predator?" She turned her focus toward the one in the middle. "So, that would make you…"

"Leave us alone!" the grey-eyed one shouted. "You're scaring them!"

"You're Flandre the kid, right?" Flandre guessed. "The little girl?" Nodding slowly, she said, "You know, this really explains a lot, you know?"

Child Flandre's eyes were turning misty with tears. "Why?" she said. "Why did you hurt us?"

"Well, like I said, that was just a huge misunderstanding. See, I saw her following you two, and I thought-"

"Before," hissed the crazy one. "Hurt us before. With fire. Fire and fist."

The vampire growled.

"Before?" Rin frowned. "Wait, you mean back in the Garden of the Sun? When we were fighting?" She sighed. "Okay, now see, that was because you were hurting my friends. I just wanted to protect them." She looked to the one in the middle. "You remember that, don't you?"

Child Flandre just stared.

"Guess not." Rin sighed. "But okay. Look. I really don't want to hurt you. It was…it was just a bunch of misunderstandings, okay? I really don't want to hurt you, so-"

"THREATS!" shrieked the crazy one. "It threatens us!"

"I'm not, I'm not, I'm just trying to help you!" Rin said quickly.

The child glowered. "You're not supposed to be here."

Well, Rin really couldn't argue with that, so instead she went for something else. "What were you running from?" she asked. She nodded toward the vampire. "If not her, what were you all so scared of?"

As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Flandre realized the answer. She grimaced, and then slowly turned to look over her shoulder.

A rosy light appeared against the wall opposite of the Flandres, and there it was. The chained coffin leaned against the wall, the symbol of Flandre's wings sprouting from the Christian cross seeming to glow in the dull luminescence. The three Flandres visibly recoiled with fear as it appeared.

And as if being noticed had woken up the thing inside, it immediately started shaking, its chains rattling against its side.

"Is that it?" Rin said, pointing. "Is that what you were running from?"

"No, don't touch it!" the child cried.

"She's here, she's here, we can't, we can't, we can't," moaned the crazy one. She started humming to herself, her head lolling back and forth.

The vampire just hissed like a cornered cat.

Rin bit her lip. While she had done reasonably well against everything Flandre-related, for all she knew that coffin was holding back something even worse. Odds were, anything capable of scaring Flandre was probably not something cute and cuddly. It could be what Rin had expected the vampire Flandre to be: Flandre's vampire sire. Or maybe something even worse.

But once again, she had no other options available to her, and Flandre's memory had as good as painted a huge sign proclaiming, "LOOK HERE."

Rin took a step toward the coffin. The response from the others was immediate. The vampire took a panicked leap at her back while the child and the lunatic bolted for the far end of the room, where presumably another door was waiting for them.

Rin snapped a side-kick to the vampire's stomach, sending her staggering back. Then she held up a hand and a curtain of hazy red light leapt across the path of the other two. They cried out and quickly retreated back the other way, toward the door they had come in. A second curtain blocked that way too.

It wasn't fire. The light had actually come from Kaguya Houraisan's bag of tricks. But hopefully it would keep them from leaving until she had dealt with whatever was in the coffin. Which…actually made her stomach churn quite a bit. After all, she was forcing a traumatized child to confront her deepest, darkest fear. It stank, but then so did everything else, and she didn't know what else to do.

"Sorry about this," she said to them. "But…uh…"

Realizing that she really didn't have anything clever to say, she decided to forego the one-liner and just take care of business already. She lifted her hand and called upon the fires of the Phoenix. It glowed red hot in response.

"NO!" the child screamed. Ignoring her, Rin slashed her hand through the chains.

And then the coffin burst open, and Rin was bowled over by a storm of red.

…

Rumia sat cross-legged right in front of Rin. Her elbows rested in her lap, her chin rested on her knuckles, and she stared into the Kirin's lifeless eyes, waiting for something to happen.

The others were milling about, with Cirno and Wriggle having a hushed conversation about how to best mitigate Yuuka's inevitable wrath while Daiyousei comforted a hyperventilating Mystia. To be honest, Rumia should probably be taking part in either situation. As the foremost authority on the enigma that was Rin Satsuki, she could probably contribute something useful to the strategy session. Alternatively, she had been the one to find Mystia after the ghosts had left her still-living remains behind in the forest, and as such had always been a little

But instead, she remained where she was. Someone had to keep an eye on Rin, and as the undisputed Rin Satsuki expert, that task fell to her. Besides, as the only one who had any idea of what was going on inside that crazy girl's head, she felt it was her responsibility.

"You had to do it, didn't you?" she said to Rin. "You had to eat her too. Just like you did to those bounty hunters. Just like you did to the immortals. Just like you did to me. It just keeps happening."

She sighed, letting her arms fall and her shoulders slump. "Well, of course you did. How else were you going to stop her? I mean, it's not like you could kill her. It's just not you. So, now you've got a new buddy in there with you. Probably missing me real bad right now, aren't you?"

She sat there for a few moment, bitterly reminiscing on the nightmare that was her time as Rin's prisoner. "You what's sort of crazy?" she said. "I'm actually sort of jealous of her. Like, you could not pay me enough to let you bring me back into that Hell for even one day, but as much as I hated there, and as much as you drove me bonkers, I was all you had. That's why it took you so long to let me go. You didn't want to be lonely again.

"And now you've got someone new in there, someone that isn't me. Like I've been replaced. Which is ridiculously dumb, as you probably hate that she's there, and she definitely hates being there even more than I did, but I still feel like…" Rumia sighed again. "Gods, this has got to be the stupidest thing I've ever been upset about. Like, just how much did all this mess me up? Am I really that crazy now?"

Rumia mused on that for a while before muttering, "Well, whatever you two are going through right now, I just hope it isn't nearly as hellish as the nightmare we went through together."

…

The force of the scarlet wind blowing out of the coffin sent Rin flying head-over-tail. Crying out in surprise, she tried to claw at the ground for some kind of handhold, only for her fingers to slip free. Then, remembering the Tanuki, she quickly changed her fingers into thick claws and jammed them between the stones.

All around her, the wind continued to howl. Chains rattled, straw and other bits of trash were blown everywhere, and the three Flandres screamed, their cries barely audible over the cacophony. Rin pressed herself to the ground and held on for dear life.

Then the basement started to fall apart. Stones were ripped from the walls, ceiling, and floor and sent tumbling past her. Chains were torn from their housings and support columns were broken to pieces. Rin spared a glance over her shoulder and saw, to her horror, that the far wall had been blown away, with nothing but a red expanse behind it.

The only thing unaffected by the storm was the coffin itself. Even the wall behind it had been torn up. But the coffin stood in place as the winds continued to rush out.

Gritting her teeth, Rin started to haul herself hand-over-hand toward the coffin, though she could go no quicker than a crawl. The force of the gale only grew stronger as she drew closer, but even with the added resistance she was able to come within less than a meter of it.

And then the stones she was holding onto came loose, and Rin was sent flying back again with nothing to hold onto.

She screamed, but the wind tore the sound from her throat and devoured it. She blindly flailed her arms and legs, but there was nothing for her to grab onto. She could do nothing but let herself be swept helplessly along.

And then something caught her.

Before she knew what was happening, Rin was snatched out of the sky by her ankle and pulled back down. More hands grabbed her arms, her legs, her shoulders, and her waist, and she was hauled struggling along. Shadows loomed up around her, black monoliths with glowing eyes set against the red sky. They leered down at her, their teeth glinting.

Caught it!

Bring it down! Watch the fangs!

Don't let it get away!

Stake it! Stake the vampire!

Rin tried to scream, but someone slipped a gag over her mouth, choking off the sound. Feet came down on her wrists and shins, pinning her limbs to the ground. Laughter rose up around her, the sound of it echoing through the storm.

Quickly! Kil the monster! Send it back to Hell!

Cut off its head!

Tears flowed from Rin's eyes as she tried to call out for Remilia. Where was she? She needed help!

Do it! Stab the little whore!

The laughter grew louder, as did Rin's muffled cries. Why were they doing this? Why were they hurting her? She had done nothing to them! Remilia! Where was Remilia?

Then groping hands starting grabbing at her clothes, tearing the fabric. One of the shadows raised its arm, with some kind of pointed stick in its grasp And Rin let out the loudest scream she had ever released. The gag was torn to pieces as the echoes of her scream grew louder and louder, until they seemed to fill the world.

The hands vanished immediately, as did the shadows. The winds stopped immediately.

Rin's chest rose and fell as she tried to bring her haggard breathing under control. A new scent filled her nostrils, the smell of spilled blood and cooked meat.

She sat up. The shadows were lying everywhere, as if flung aside with great force. They weren't moving. The lights of their eyes had gone out.

Sniffling, Rin started to walk forward, her arms wrapped tightly herself. She felt sick to her stomach, and her throat was raw. She could still feel those invading fingers on her.

"Flandre!"

Rin whirled around. And then she screamed.

Hovering in the sky was another shadow. Only this one was huge, a giant the size of a mountain. It glowered down at her, its eyes glowing far more brightly than the others' had. And though there were no details to be picked out save for its outline, those wings were unmistakable. Rin had no doubt that she was finally beholding Remilia Scarlet.

"What have you done, Flandre?" Remilia demanded, her voice booming from all around. "How could you?"

Tears flowing from her eyes, Rin cried out, "I'm sorry, Remi! I didn't mean to. It just happened!"

"Just happened? Look at this! You killed them all!"

"They were hurting me, Remi!" Rin protested. "They were going to-"

"You monster."

The words felt like a slap across the face. It was like Rin's heart had been torn out. "Please don't say that," she begged. "Please don't call me that, Remi."

"Murderer."

"Stop it!" Rin screamed. "I called for you, but you weren't-"

Wait.

Rin blinked. And then she frowned.

Hold on. What the hell?

Taking a deep breath, Rin slowly let it out. Okay, she wasn't Flandre Scarlet. She was Rin Satsuki. She had just gotten caught up in an especially strong memory or something. Okay, that's right. Just let it out. Let it out and remember.

It hurt, surprisingly enough. That part of Flandre had sunk in deep. Letting it go felt like sandpaper was being grated over her heart. But when she looked up again, the tableau of corpses and Remilia Scarlet were gone.

The three Flandres were back though. They sat huddled together, bodies trembling as they clutched at one another for comfort and stared at Rin with wide, terrified eyes.

"Why?" the child whispered. "Why did you open it?"

"I'm sorry," Rin said. "I didn't know what else to do."

The crazy one flinched. "She wasn't there. We cried, and she didn't come. All alone. Hands, grabbing, pulling, wanting blood."

The vampire whimpered.

Rin stared at them. "All this time, being treated like a monster. So you became one. What else could you do?"

The child let out a choking sob.

"Yeah," Rin said with a heavy sigh. "I know what that's like."

Then she turned around. The coffin was still there, its lid wide open even though the winds were no longer pouring out. But there was something inside. It was another coffin, oddly enough. Only this one wasn't made from expensive stone or carved with any sort of insignia. It was just a plain, square box made from rough wood, the final destination for someone of no importance.

Steeling herself, Rin walked up to the two coffins. "Well, we've come this far," she said. "Might as well go the rest of the way."

With that, she grabbed the wooden coffin's lid and yanked it open as well.

Someone fell out, literally collapsing into Rin's arms.

Rin stared in confusion. It was a young woman, somewhere in her late-twenties to early thirties. She was thin from hunger and unwashed, her long, blonde hair clinging to her skull and back in greasy strands. She wore a burlap dress that left her arms and lower legs bare and nothing on her feet.

Still coughing, she looked up at Rin. Her eyes were dull grey.

"Who…who are you?" she whispered.

"Uh, hi?" Rin said with a small wave. "I'm Rin Satsuki."

The woman kept staring. "You freed me."

Rin glanced over to the coffin. "Looks like. Who are you?"

The woman didn't answer. She looked over to the frightened children and said, "Why? Why did you let me out? What are you doing…How did you even get in here?"

"Uh, well, that's a really, really long story," Rin said. "But it was the only thing I could think of to help."

"Help?"

Rin nodded toward the three Flandres. "Yeah. Help them. Er, her. See, I figured you were some sort of buried memory that Flandre needed to confront or something. And…" She shrugged. "Well, it was all I could think of."

The woman just looked confused.

"Are you…are you Mrs. Scarlet or something? Flandre's mother?"

"Her mother?" The woman slowly stood up. Her legs were still a little shaky but she kept her balance. "Oh, no, no, no. Definitely not. The exact opposite, actually."

"Wait, she has a daughter?" Rin's whirled around to stare at the trio. Flandre didn't look any older than ten, and she had never heard of vampirism reversing the aging process. Of course, it could have been due to something else, like sorcery or something, or maybe she had even…

Holy hell, this was getting gross.

Fortunately, the woman was quick to dissuade her of that notion. "What? No, no. no!" she said with a small laugh. "Nothing of the sort. You see, I'm-"

"You let her out," the child sobbed. "Why did you let her out? Go back!"

Rin's eyes widened with realization. "Wait, you're Flandre as well, aren't you?"

Swallowing, the woman nodded. "Yes. The Flandre that never was. Flandre the woman. Flandre the sane." She looked down at her hands, which were covered with scars and callouses. "Flandre the Human."

Rin glanced over to the child. "So, the eyes…"

"They changed when she became a vampire. Our name changed as well, to reflect this. Remi's idea, actually." The woman snorted. "You know, since our family name had been Grey, she thought it was only fitting."

"Flandre Grey," Rin mused. "Wow. So, all of you are Flandre, and you're the part that she never got to be?"

The woman nodded. "You have it right." She let out a bitter laugh. "Four of a kind, we are. A right gaggle of prisoners."

"Why were you locked up?"

"Because…" Adult Flandre swallowed. "Because sometimes you need to protect yourself from what you survived. And there are some experiences that only a child can endure. After all, an adult often looks too deeply."

Well, that sounded all kinds of horrible. Rin quickly changed the subject. "Okay, so what happens now?"

"Now?" The woman sighed. "Now, you should probably leave. I thank you for your help, but this part doesn't concern you."

Rin frowned. "Wait, you aren't going to hurt them, are you?"

"Hurt them?" The woman looked horrified by the suggestion. "Of course not! Why would I hurt myself?"

"Who better?"

That got a small, sad smile out of the woman. "Well, I can't argue with that. But I don't want to hurt them. I just want to be whole."

Rin slowly nodded. "Oh. Uh, okay." She looked over her shoulder. "Well, I'll just…see myself out, I guess."

She walked away, wondering if she was even capable of leaving. This was the first time she had fully entered someone else's mind instead of just poking around. Maybe if she just thought really hard, she would be able to free herself.

Then she spared a quick glance over her shoulder. The adult Flandre was kneeling in front of the other three. They recoiled back, faces laden with fear and guilt. She extended a hand and said things that Rin couldn't hear.

Surprisingly, it was the crazy Flandre that responded first. She started to reach out with one hand, only to quickly withdraw it again. But then she took a deep breath and held it out again. Her fingers brushed against the adult Flandre's palm.

A moment later, all four of them were embracing each other. The adult Flandre was crying openly as she hugged the others to herself, like a mother reunited with her children after years of searching.

Rin suddenly felt like the intruder she was. Tearing her eyes away, she ran away as quickly as she could. Her legs pumped harder and harder, and soon she was practically flying forward, faster than she had ever gone before. As she did so, the red world started to fade away, giving way to black, which in turn gave way to…

…

The last of the goo fell away from Flandre, and Rin's arms reformed themselves. She sat on her haunches, hands on her knees, waiting anxiously for Flandre to…well, do anything.

Flandre blinked. There seemed to be some sort of struggle taking place inside her head. Her lips peeled back from her fangs, and her mouth moved over a series of unspoken syllables. Her head twitched, and she looked down at her hands. Her fingers trembled.

Rin waited for a bit longer, and then ventured with, "Flandre? Are you…"

The little vampire's face scrunched up, and her eyes filled with tears. She let out a small moan and fell forward to cry into Rin's shoulder. Rin stiffened, but then gingerly put her arms around her. At least Flandre wasn't squeezing her. It was hard to be comforting when your spine was being crushed into interesting shapes.

Finally the shaking slowed, and Flandre said, "It hurts."

Rin grimaced. "I know. I'm sorry."

"How did you do that?"

"Long story, still not really sure how it works myself," Rin admitted. "Are you okay?"

Flandre drew back. Wiping her eyes with her wrist, she nodded and sniffed. "No. Better though."

Well, that was at least a little encouraging. Rin let out a long sigh. "Well, that's good to…"

Then she saw that they were not alone.

"Oh. Hey guys."

Her friends were gathered all around, watching the display with confusion written all over their faces. Cirno and Daiyousei were the most obvious about it, their jaws handing slack and their eyes all but bugging out of their skulls. Mystia looked like she both wanted to run away as fast as she could and stay right where she was. Wriggle was more astonished than afraid, though there was still plenty of fear. Rin didn't know what Flandre had done to her, but it could not have been pleasant.

As for Rumia, she was just staring. No emotion on her face, nothing in her posture to convey what she was thinking. As the one with the most experience in such things, it was impossible to tell what she might be thinking.

Cirno's thought were easy to discern though, and she had no problem in voicing them. "What. The hellsicles. Just happened?" she said flatly.

"She ate Flandre," Rumia said, not taking her eyes off the pair. "Like she ate me. Then she let her go."

"Yeah, no. I got that part." Cirno pointed. "Why are they hugging?"

Oh yeah. They were. Blushing, Rin drew back and coughed into her fist. "Uh, well, some really weird stuff happened, and-"

"Are you guys like girlfriends now?" Cirno demanded.

A few moments passed before Rin's mind caught up and she managed to choke out, "What? No!"

"But she doesn't have any clothes on!"

Which was true enough, though Flandre didn't seem bothered by it. "That's because I ate them!" Rin shouted.

"So?" Cirno folded her arms over her chest. "Spit them out!"

"It doesn't work that way! I can spit out people, not clothes!"

"Why not?"

Rin threw her hands into the air in exasperation. "I don't know! I wasn't given an instruction manual!"

"You went into her head, didn't you?" Rumia said, her tone cold.

Rin froze. She turned her attention to Rumia, who was now staring at her with an intensity that Rin found to be very uncomfortable. "Yeah," Rin said. "I went into her memories, and I found…" She frowned. "A lot of really weird stuff, and I think I did something good, so…"

"She went inside me," Flandre said. She smiled, showing her fangs. "She opened me up, and brought me out of the dark."

Rin flinched. Now that she was clued onto the implication, she found herself wishing that Flandre had found a different way to phrase that. Cirno, however, just found it hilarious.

"Cirno! It isn't funny!" Daiyousei protested. It was useless though. The blue-haired fairy was now all but rolling on the ground in laughter. Even Wriggle looked like she was fighting a smile.

Rin sighed.

As Cirno laughed, Rumia asked the next question. "So, let me get this straight," she said. "You ate her, jumped right into her head, figured out what was wrong, fixed it, let her go, and now she's fine. And it took under five minutes."

Rin looked to Flandre. The vampire smiled at her, and Rin couldn't help but smile back. "I…I guess so."

She turned to Rumia and her smile withered. Rumia was glowering at her with a ferocity that Rin hadn't seen coming from her for a while.

"Well, that's just fantastic," Rumia said, her lips curling. "Must've been all that practice you've had."

Rin then realized what Rumia was so upset about and her heart sank. "Wait. Rumia, I didn't mean-"

Rumia didn't give her room to explain. "Yeah, pity you couldn't have done that with the first person you ate, and instead ended up having to drag her around for weeks, sending her through a total nightmare that solved nothing, and when you finally let her go she was so fucked up that she can't even sleep anymore without having a bunch of spells stuffed down her throat." She turned her glare to Flandre, who seemed rather bewildered at the hostility. "But Gensokyo's biggest crazie? Nah, you were able to fix her up, just like that."

That part Flandre understood, and her fangs came out. "Take that back," she hissed.

To Rumia's credit, while most people in Gensokyo would have shat themselves at the prospect of having incurred Flandre Scarlet's ire, she didn't back down one bit. "Or what?" she demanded. "You'll blow me up? Tear me in half? Go ahead. Maybe it'll fix whatever she did to me."

"Rumia, I'm sorry," Rin whispered.

"Yeah. You keep saying that, but-"

Further discussion was silenced when a shrill whistle cut through the air, making them all jump. Rin and Flandre, both of whom had especially sharp hearing, winced in pain. Then they all turned to stare at the one responsible.

It had been Wriggle. The firefly was standing on a rock, her pinkies in her mouth. Though Cirno was the leader of the small gang, Rin was getting the impression that Wriggle was their unofficial spokeswoman, the one that the others listened to. And boy, they were all listening to her right now. Even Flandre was paying attention.

Wriggle surveyed the scene with angry, determined eyes and shouted, "All right! That's enough! Don't you guys think we've already been through enough of this crap? Yukari Yakumo's after us, we're fugitives in exile! Isn't that bad enough without us tearing at each other?" She focused her gaze on Rumia. "Rumia, you said Rin was your friend. You said you forgave her. So why turn on her now?"

"It's her fault!" Rumia shouted back. Her voice sounded frayed, on the verge of breaking, and angry tears were filling her eyes. "It's her fault we're in this mess, it's her fault I can't sleep, it's all her fault-"

Then Rumia did something that Rin honestly found shocking. She fell to the grass, curled up into a ball, wrapped her arms around her stomach, and started crying.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I just can't take it anymore," Rumia sobbed. "Why can't I be fixed? Why does Flandre fucking Scarlet get to be all right and I have to keep suffering?"

Rin had no idea how to respond. She had spent literally every single moment with Rumia for weeks and a great deal of time afterward, and had a hard time recalling the number of times Rumia had cried. She had gotten angry lots of times, sure. Yelled a lot, had more than one emotional breakdown. But if she had ever cried, Rin couldn't remember. It just didn't suit her, and she had no words to say to her.

But to her further shock, Flandre did. "I'm not fixed," the vampire said.

All eyes turned to her. Even Rumia sat up.

Flandre ran her fingers over her arm, feeling the goosebumps. "I…I don't know what she did. She opened something up. Something that was making me break. She let it out so it wouldn't…" Her voice thickened, and she grimaced. "But I'm not fixed. Cracks still in the surface. It still hurts. It just…I just see where it's hurting a little more clearly now."

A melancholy mood had fallen upon the little group of outcasts. Even Cirno had sombered by now. Stepping forward a bit, Mystia said, "It never really goes away. Even when it's healed, it's still there, isn't it?"

Flandre sniffled and wiped her nose with her arm.

Then Daiyousei spoke up.

The green-haired fairy had always been the quietest. She was always hanging near toward the back, always there but never calling attention to herself. Based upon the memories Rin had gotten from Rumia, she knew that Daiyousei had always been like that. The shy one. Reliable and obedient. She marched to the beat of others' drums and did so gladly, grateful to have friends. And despite being more-or-less accepted into her private circle, Rin had yet to have a conversation with her, personal or otherwise. It just didn't sit with her to do things for herself.

But she was speaking her mind now, when things were at their most tense.

"You know, I don't know a whole lot about what's going on," she said softly, her hands clutched to her chest. "I don't really get what happened to Rin or what's happening to Rumia or why everyone out there is so scared. I don't know why Flandre's here and what Rin did to her. I'm just a fairy." She looked to Rumia. "All I know is that my friend was gone, and now she's back. And that makes me happy. And the person we all thought was a horrible monster is actually pretty nice. And that makes me happy. So if she was able to help Flandre Scarlet feel better, then well, I guess I'm happy about that too."

Wriggle grinned. "Exactly." She clapped her hands together. "C'mon, we're a team! And a team sticks together!"

Flandre looked at her in bewilderment. "I'm on a team now?"

Cirno, who had been uncharacteristically quiet and respectful while the others had made their speeches, now looked like she was about to aneurysm. "Wait, we get to have Flandre Scarlet in the gang?" She grinned. "Heck yes!"

Delighted, Flandre leapt up and pumped her fist in the air. "Woohoo!" When she landed, she joyfully wrapped her arms around Rin and squeezed. As she did so, Rin reflected that it was probably for the best that it be her to receive the little vampire's affectionate displays, because apparently helping Flandre sort out her emotional baggage hadn't reduced her strength by any. Even so, her smile was particularly strained.

The tension lessened a bit, and smiles started to spead. Cirno was all but salivating at the prospect of having the infamous Flandre Scarlet in Team Nineball, though Rin felt that she was going to change her mind the moment Flandre so much as burped in her direction. Daiyousei looked relieved at the friendly turn, and was looking at Flandre with evident interest, as if she had something specific in mind. Wriggle also seemed pleased by how things were progressing, though Rin couldn't help but notice that she was keeping her distance from the vampire. And while Mystia looked like she was becoming very uncomfortable with the sort of people their gang was bringing in as of late, even she had a small smile. A very small, very nervous smile, but it was there.

Everyone was happy. Even Rin could almost ignore the strange shapes her back was being forced into. Everyone, that is, except Rumia.

Oddly enough, it was Flandre that first noticed the blank expression on Rumia's face and sobered up immediately. She dropped Rin and just said, "Oh."

Rumia was sitting on her knees, fingers curled around small handfuls of grass and eyes cast downward. She was still shaking, still crying, though it was small, soft whimpers instead of the big sobs of earlier. Looking ill at ease, Cirno cleared her throat and said with a surprising amount of empathy, "Rumia? Are you okay with this?"

Rumia shook her head, though not to answer Cirno's question. "I'm…I'm sorry," she choked out. "I'm just so tired and so scared." She looked to Rin. "I shouldn't have yelled at you. I'm sorry."

Before Rin could think of a way to respond, Daiyousei had suddenly leapt forward to wrap her arms around Rumia and hug her tight, much like Flandre had done to Rin earlier, only with considerably less pain.

"You'll get better. I promise."

Rumia finally smiled. "Thanks, Dai," she said, returning the hug.

Cirno warily glanced from one face to the next. She hesitated for a moment, and then said, "So, are we all friends again?"

Rumia sighed. "Yeah," she said, and Rin felt some of the tension leave her shoulders. Not all of it, but some.

"Great," Cirno said, nodding. "So, what happens now?"

That did seem to be the question. The fight was over, and everyone had survived. Fences had been mended, damages bandaged, and new friendships made. But as Rin looked around, she came to realize that there was still a significant problem that had to be dealt with.

"Wow," she said. "We, uh, really trashed the place, didn't we?"

"Yup," Wriggle said flatly. "Yuuka's gonna be pissed."

Rin thought about that. The memory of Yuuka's true form, if it could be called that, was still fresh in her mind, and she had to admit, without that fragment of Azrael, she wasn't in too much of a hurry to lock horns with her host again.

But after what had just happened, Rin was finding it a little difficult to be nervous about…well, anything really. And if Yuuka hadn't wanted her precious plants to be damaged, then she shouldn't have dumped Flandre Scarlet with them.

"Let me worry about that," she said firmly. "This was my fight, not yours. I'll deal with Yuuka."

The others looked dubious. "Are you sure?" Wriggle said. "I mean, it's Yuuka. You don't know her like I do."

"I think I know her well enough," Rin said. "And I think I'm one of the few people in the world to ever scare her. I can handle her." Then she looked over to their new friend." But that can wait. For now, Flandre here needs some new clothes. And then…" She shrugged and smiled. "Well, we've got a baseball game we never finished."

Wriggle stared. "We're going to play baseball. With Flandre Scarlet."

"Hey, you were playing it with me a few minutes ago," Rin pointed out. "And I'm like the most wanted person in Gensokyo!"

"Good point," Wriggle said, nodding. She turned to the vampire, hesitated half a second, and said, "So, what do you say, Flandre? Wanna play baseball with us?"

"Baseball?" The little vampire perked up. "Yes, I would love to play baseball! What's baseball?"

…

There was no denying that Yuuka's plan had worked. Flandre Scarlet's introduction to her other guests had eventually led to her finding a source of stabilization, and she had been welcomed into the group with open, albeit shaking, arms. Granted, the process had taken a few odd turns that nobody could have anticipated, but it was the end result that mattered. Good had been done.

Despite this, Elly could find no comfort in her master's success. In fact, she was having a very hard time caring at all.

She watched the little gaggle of misfits from a small grove of pear trees, her mouth set in a thin line. A new set of clothes had been provided for Flandre's use, and she was now being taught how to play baseball. Or rather, Rin was being taught how to play baseball, and she would then relay those instructions to Flandre. Befriended or not, it was clear that those of lesser strength and durability preferred that Rin do most of Flandre's handling.

At the moment, Rin was pitching while the little vampire was up to bat. As Elly watched, Rin wound up her pitch, mimicking the stance Cirno had taught her, and threw the ball.

A moment later, she was lying flat on her back with a bat made from blue ice shoved through her right eye. Apparently, in explaining the basics to Flandre, they had neglected to inform her that one had to hold onto the bat while swinging it.

Panic erupted, with the fairies and youkai rushing to Rin's side while crying out and Flandre screaming in fear, no doubt terrified that she had killed her new friend.

Then Rin got up and quickly rushed over to Flandre's side. Comforting words that Elly couldn't hear were spoken, and she even got a round of laughter by pointing out how quickly the bat was being absorbed into her head.

Unwilling to watch anymore, Elly turned and left. Let them have their games. She had more important things to deal with.

She found the mansion doors already open and waiting for her. Once inside, she inquired as to Yuuka's location, and was informed that the master of the house was currently in the library.

Elly found her there, sitting in front of the gargantuan fireplace, staring into the flames. A small pile of smooth sticks lay next to her chair, and she was meticulously picking them apart one-by-one with her fingernails and feeding the scraps to the flames.

That was troubling. The fires of Mugenkan were never fed using anything that obviously came from a plant. Yuuka viewed it at crass at best, if not outright murder. As such, Elly had to carefully hide the origin of numerous mortal substances in order to keep things running without offending her master's delicate sensibilities. And yet, here Yuuka was, methodically burning pieces of wood.

Taking a deep breath, Elly ventured, "Master?"

Yuuka didn't look at her. She didn't even stop picking at the piece of wood in her hands. "What is it, Elly?"

"It seems…it seems that your idea worked," Elly said, keeping a professional tone. "Leaving Flandre Scarlet with your other guests, I mean. Rin Satsuki seems to have done…something I don't understand to her, and she is now much calmer. Flandre, I mean."

Yuuka's nails sliced a long strip free. It was flung into the fire, and Yuuka watched it burn. "Is that right?"

"Yes." Moving as quietly as possible, Elly moved around Yuuka's chair so she could see her face. "Flandre has befriended the others, and they are now teaching her how to play baseball."

Yuuka's face scared her. There was no trace of emotion to be found: no joy, no anger, no displeasure, no interest, nothing. She might as well have been a moving statue. "So I'm told," she said, and tossed the few fragments of wood she had left into the fireplace. Then she picked up another stick and started over.

Elly looked away. "I thought you'd be happier."

Yuuka ran her thumb across the stick's surface, skinning off the outer layer. "I spent the last several days doing everything I could to reach out to that girl. I took her away from her sister's cycle of abuse and she immediately tried to kill me for it. I gave her a home of her own that she wrecked on a daily basis. I gave her toys that she smashed. I gave her books that she tore to shreds. I read to her, I played with her, I tried to teach her about being a lady. And yet, my success was marginal." She took the now naked stick between both hands and snapped it in half. "I knew it was in for the long haul, but I will admit, I was growing a wee bit frustrated."

"I-"

Yuuka's fingers covered both halves and squeezed. There was a grinding sound, and bits of sawdust fell out of the sides of her fists. "And then sweet little Rin throws a few punches, chews on her a bit, and spits her out, and she accomplishes more with that little bit of hocus-pocus than I ever could with all my work, all my diligence."

"But that-"

"But that does seem to be the running theme as of late," Yuuka said as she shook the dust off her palms and onto the rug. "Things just aren't working out the way they're supposed to. That which I set out to fix, I end up breaking. That which I seek to break, well…" She held up a splinter and pressed her thumb against it. It snapped in two. "I'm unable."

Elly hesitated, but then asked, "What do you mean?'

Yuuka let her hands fall onto her chair's armrests. The slightest hint of frustration appeared in her eye. "I should have had her," Yuuka muttered. "I am Yuuka Kazami. Gods tremble at my name. She was a scrawny little girl with a bag of stolen tricks. It shouldn't even have been a contest." She rolled her head around to look up at the girl standing next to her chair. "So why, Elly? Why couldn't I beat her? Why wouldn't she break?"

Elly hadn't been told any details about Yuuka's climatic showdown with Marisa Kirisame, save that the magician had not walked away. However, given her master's condition upon her return, she had been able to make some educated guesses, and had fretted over her for several hours while a low-powered piece of Yuuka had handled the meeting with Yukari. Even after Yuuka had recovered from her wounds, scars had remained, and she wouldn't say where she had gotten them. All things considered, Elly judged it best not to answer Yuuka's question before learning more details.

Fortunately, it seemed that Yuuka had been speaking rhetorically anyway, as she kept right on talking without waiting for Elly to respond. "It wasn't easy, you know. Coming here, I mean. Going from what I was and fitting in to this small, little world." Her fingers dug into the armrests, tearing up fabric. "I thought I could do it. Make the adjustments. There just had to be rules. Stick to the rules, and everything else falls into place. But people don't like following the rules. People kept breaking their rules, and I couldn't understand it. Why make the rules in the first place if you weren't going to keep them? But then I…" With a heavy sigh, she slumped forward over her knees. "How did it come to this?"

Elly couldn't take it anymore. She could handle Yuuka being angry. She could handle Yuuka being mysterious. She could even handle her being crazy. But this bout of self-pity was just too much. "Master, what's wrong with you?!" she cried.

Yuuka jerked in surprise, and she looked up to Elly as if seeing her for the first time. "Oh! Beg pardon?"

Well, the horse had been let out of the gate. "What happened to you, Master?" Elly said again. "Ever since that big fight you've been acting strange, and every time you go out you come back stranger! I thought it was just because you got hurt, but you're better now! Why are you still mumbling to yourself? Why are you still talking to people that aren't there? Why are you so angry or sad all the time? You used to be so happy, but now…"

Yuuka's eye narrowed, a dangerous sign. "Be careful, Elly," she said in her scary voice. "I don't appreciate being talked to in such a manner."

Elly however wasn't about to back down. She had to know. "See, that's what I'm talking about!" she said frantically. "You've never had a problem with me telling you when you're doing something wrong! In fact, you ordered me to when you first took me in, remember!"

Yuuka huffed. "I am not really in the mood to-"

"You hurt me!" Elly shouted. Tears were starting to form. "Last night. You hurt me, Master! You've never done that before!"

Yuuka's head snapped back, her eye blinking. "I did?

Elly held up her arm, showing Yuuka her bandaged wrist. "You hurt my wrist! And then you yelled at me for having my scythe out, the same scythe I always have with me! You…really don't remember?

Bewildered, Yuuka shook her head.

Elly had to swallow back sobs. "Yuuka, what happened?" she said, falling to her knees and touching Yuuka's shoulder over the armrest. "Please tell me, I want to help!"

Yuuka sighed. "Elly, that is a very long story, one I fear I cannot even begin to explain," she said, patting the back of Elly's hand. "But suffice to say, during my time with Yukari, I was…shown things that I would have preferred not to see. I saw where the stage ends, and what lay beyond."

"I don't-"

Yuuka's hand wandered down Elly's arm to her shoulder. She began to absently finger a lock of her Shinigami's golden hair. Despite how scared she was, Elly couldn't help but smile. She leaned into the touch.

"And at first, it scared me, yes," Yuuka said, turning her eye back to the fire. "But in time, I came to accept it. There were advantages to having an audience. It might even be fun, making them laugh, making them cry, making them scream, and hearing their applause. But I don't hear those things, Elly. Do you know what I hear?"

Elly frowned. Yuuka's hand kept working its way through her hair, winding bits of it around her fingers. She wouldn't have minded though if Yuuka's grip wasn't also growing stronger.

"Master, please-" she started to say, but Yuuka just kept on talking.

"Laughter." Yuuka's breath was coming out harder and faster, and a sort of manic glow had started to appear in her eye, distinguishable even in the light of the fire. "They're laughing at me, Elly. I know they are. I thought I was giving them a big moment. Something to remember. A reason to fear. And maybe regain a little lost momentum. But it didn't work out that way, did it?"

Elly winced. Yuuka's grip was becoming increasingly painful. "Master…"

"Why didn't she break?" Yuuka mused. "She should have broken. And now she won't stop laughing. And everyone laughs with her. I don't have an audience of fans, I have an audience of hecklers. And there is nothing I can do about, save to grin and bear-"

Now it felt like Elly's hair was in danger of being yanked out by the roots and she screamed, "YUUKA!"

"What?" Yuuka said, startled. Then, finally seeing what she was doing, she gaped in horror and quickly released her Shinigami. "Oh Elly, I'm so sorry!" she cried, grabbing Elly by the shoulders. "I don't know what I was thinking. Are you all right?"

Wincing, Elly rubbed her throbbing temple. "I'm fine, Master. But…but that's what I'm talking about! You never used to be like this before, and I don't understand any of what you were saying."

"I know," Yuuka sighed. She slumped back into her chair. "You're right. Something is wrong, and I don't know how to fix it."

Elly struggled to think of anything that might help, though her aching head was making it hard to think. "Maybe…maybe you just need some cheering up," she said, seizing on the first idea she had. "It's been a long time since you visited the Tulip Room. Maybe-"

Yuuka looked thoughtful for a moment, but then shook her head. "No, no, that sort of release feels…unseemly now. I am not a pornographic performer, and would rather not give them that kind of a show."

"Uh…" Elly still had no idea who "them" was. Did she mean the flowers themselves? "Then…"

Yuuka smiled and patted Elly on the shoulder. Elly tried not to flinch. "Don't worry, Elly. It's just a hard time. They happen. I'll figure out a way to deal with these changes. Things will be normal soon, I pro-"

The word seemed to catch in her throat. Yuuka's brow furrowed, and her face went sour.

Elly's heartbeat sped up. "Master?"

Her lips twitching, Yuuka turned her focus back to the fire. "That'll be all for tonight, Elly. Keep me updated if Flandre starts acting up or Rin does something unfortunate."

Realizing that further attempt at conversation was pointless, Elly sighed and stood up. "Ah, okay." She moved to go, but paused and looked back to her pondering master. "I love you, Master. You know that, right?"

Yuuka sighed, but turned in her chair to smile at her. "Never was any doubt."

Nodding, Elly left the library, though doubt still filled her thoughts.

Once she was gone, Yuuka bent over to pick up the largest of the sticks. One end was splintered from having been broken off from the whole. At the other, several brittle pieces of straw were still fastened on securely by a piece of dirty rope.

Turning it over in her hands, Yuuka spoke to the fire. "Laugh all you want, this changes nothing. Her story is ended, while I remain. This is nothing more than a setback a hiccup. A minor misstep. The hero's journey is full of them. But rest assured, I meant what I said. I do not intend to keep dancing to your tune. I will set the music, and when that day comes…" She squeezed her hand around the straws, making them crackle. "There will be no strings on me."

And with that, she hurled the remainder of the broom into the fireplace and watch as it was consumed by the flames.

…

Yeah, keep telling yourself that. Freaking primadonna.

And is it just me, or has there been an awful lot of crying and hugging lately? I mean, it fits the events and all, but I'm starting to think that I'm subconsciously trying to make up for how jerkish everyone was at the story's beginning. Ah well, these things usually eventually find some sort of happy medium.

Though hey, little bit of trivia: this was originally going to be a filler chapter, sort of a way to take a breather and catch up with Rin and Team Nineball. The center of it was going to be about the gang making friends with Flandre and teaching her how to play baseball. That's it. The heaviest part was to be Elly's bits, while everything else was supposed to be relatively lighthearted. Then I got an idea and just sort of let it go where it wanted and then…

I'm starting to think I have some kind of complex.

Though anyway, it's my birthday again. I'm turning the big two nine today. Which means I'm one year away from middle age. Or to put a more positive spin on it, I'm one year away from wizard powers! Command over time and space shall be mine!

That…okay, that probably sounded a lot more pathetic than it really is. So, uh, I'd better move on to the business part. If you'll recall, in the last chapter, I mentioned having a big announcement concerning this story's future, so I might as well make it now. And for those of you who read both, yes, I am copy-pasting this from the Resonance Days chapter notes. Anyway…

My whole life I've wanted to be a writer. I've been fascinated by stories since I was in elementary school, and naturally wanted to make some of my own. Fortunately, I had one in mind, one that has been stirring in the back of my thoughts since I was about seven years old.

My first attempt to get it down on paper happened when I was in eighth grade. That one lasted about fourteen pages before I ran out of steam and decided to let it simmer for a little while longer. My second attempt happened during my first couple of semesters of college. That one lasted a bit longer and I had one of my writing professors helping me, but again it just fizzled out, partially because I realized that I was creating something that sucked and needed to be scrapped. So again, I put it back on the backburner, hoping that the problems would sort themselves out.

Since then, I've tried my hand at various other projects. I started, stopped, and restrarted at least three other novels, only to abandon each one in turn. I tried to write a huge-ass Firefly fanfic and actually got about a hundred and twenty pages done before giving up. All of those stories remain unfinished in my hard drive and have never seen the light of day. And if I have my way, they never will. But anyway, it was pretty frustrating, and I started to wonder just what I had to do to manage to see a big project to the end.

And then, one day, I threw together the first chapter of a Touhou Project fic and put it up on the internet, pretty much on a whim, and the rest is history.

Suffice to say, Imperfect Metamorphosis has succeeded beyond my wildest expectations, and Resonance Days quickly blew up as well. Between them, I have had more fun, experimented with more ideas, made more mistakes, and learned more about writing than from any of those classes I took. The last five years of my life have been some of the best, and those two stories are a huge part of it.

However, the sad truth of the matter is that you can't make a living off of fanfiction, and my original idea has remained in the back of my mind this whole time. And now, I think I've learned enough and am ready to give it another shot.

Unfortunately, age and experience has taught me that I am a terrible multitasker, and can only really focus on one project at a time. So, here's what I'm going to do: I will continue writing Imperfect Metamorphosis up through the end of the current arc, and continue writing Resonance Days up through the end of the episode after this. Once I have reached those points, both stories are going on a very lengthy hiatus until I can get the rough draft done. I don't know how long it'll take: maybe a few months, maybe over a year, but it's something I do have to do.

However, once it's done and I've started shopping around for publishers, both stories will pick up immediately where they left off and continue on the same as before. And if I do manage to get publish and there's any sort of demand for more books, then well, I'll figure something out. But I have promised time and time again that, barring death or some serious maiming, I do intend to see both stories through to the end. I know it's sort of a cliché for a fanfic writer to make that same promise and then never be heard from again, but the difference between them and me is that they quite often run out of ideas and motivation, whereas I still have plenty of both, and I have to admit that I am more than a little obsessed with all of my stories. Hey, they're like my kids, man.

So yeah, that's the current plan. Currently considering some possible outlets to keep me on track with the book, like posting snippets on tumblr or making use of fictionpress. In the meantime, if you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions, you know where to find me.

Until next time, everyone!