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.

66. Fires of the Sun, Part 3

Fires of the Sun, Part 3

The steel blade of the scythe slammed into the blackened marble of the wall and cut deep before stopping. There it stayed, half of its blade embedded deep in the marble, the other half splattered with blood, and the wooden pole still vibrating from the impact.

Patchouli froze, her eyes wide with shock, and her mouth agape. Everyone in the room stopped what they were doing and stared at her.

No, Sakuya thought numbly. No, no, no, no…

Then Patchouli's eyes moved down to focus on the flat steel surface that now separated her head from the rest of her body. Her brow furrowed in confusion, as if she were unable to comprehend what had just happened.

Then, as if she were going to sleep, her eyes glazed over as her face relaxed. The magician's chin dipped a bit, and her head pitched forward to tumble into her lap.

And then her whole body started to dissolve.

"NO!" Koakuma screamed. She clutched at her master's rapidly emptying clothing as pinkish-purple mist rose into the air. "Patchouli!"

The devil girl's anguished cries galvanized the stunned onlookers into action. With a spray of white dust and black ash, the scythe suddenly wretched itself out of the wall and went spinning back the way it came. The murderous Shinigami bolted across the room, snatching the weapon out of the air as she went. But instead of renewing her attack, she shoved her way past anyone in her way and made a straight beeline through the broken door that Sakuya's band had come through to take shelter from Yukari's attack.

It was clear that Elly was now more interested in preserving her hide than defending her master's home. Unfortunately for her, Sakuya now intended to annihilate both.

Elly entered the hall and started to turn, but before she could the heel of Sakuya's boot slammed right between her shoulder blades. Gasping in pain and surprise, the Shinigami flew through the shattered window and tumbled into the blackened remains of the garden outside.

Sakuya was on her in an instant. Before Elly could regain her senses, Sakuya had shoved her foot into the girl's chest and pressed her back against the dirt. Eight knives then flashed in between her fingers, their silver tips glistening in the light of the Sun and the fire.

"NO!" Elly screamed, and brought her scythe up just in time to deflect the blades before Sakuya could tear out her throat. She tried to roll free, but a boot to the cheek divested her of that idea. Sakuya then moved the one on her chest down to press into her stomach.

With both feet planted on the Shinigami, Sakuya brought up both hands, a single knife clenched within their grasp, its tip focused on Elly's chest. But as she did so, she noticed that the soil was starting to move, and fresh green tendrils were poking up around Elly's squirming body.

Seeing that Yuuka's loathsome friends intended to rob her of her kill, Sakuya stabbed down with all her strength. But already she was too late. Within a fraction of a second, the tendrils had thrust up out of the ground to wrap themselves around Elly's body and yanked her down into the dirt, scythe and all. The tip of Sakuya's knife plunged into the ground milliseconds later.

Growling, Sakuya yanked her knife free and examined the blade. It was covered with dirt and ash but had no hint of blood. She had been too slow, and Patchouli's murderer had escaped.

With an enraged shriek, Sakuya stabbed the dirt again and again. A red veil had descended over her mind and her limbs no longer felt like her own. She had forgotten everything: the danger, the mission, even the name of the person she wanted to kill. It was of no importance. All she cared about now was bloodying her knife.

"Sakuya!"

The sound of her name was enough to jolt her out of her bloodlust haze. She looked up and saw that while she had been trying to disembowel burnt dirt, fresh plants had broken through the crust and were rising up around her like a nest of emerald vipers. Red buds sprouted and opened, revealing stabbing thorns in their dials half the length of her knives and just as sharp.

Sakuya blinked. Then her eyes narrowed ever so slightly. A flick of her wrist, and both hands now grasped a knife's hilt. She had no doubt that the thorns were poisoned, and that a single prick would end her life. But if that was how she was to go, she intended to take an entire forest's worth of these things with her.

Then something struck the small of her back and stuck. Before she could react, it retracted hard, yanking her back out of the deadly thicket. Sakuya was hauled back through the window and into the scorched remains of the room that Patchouli had died in.

She hit the ground, rolled over her shoulders, and came back up to her feet. Rin Satsuki's arm snapped back to its normal length like a released rubber band. As Sakuya stared, Rin shook her head and walked over to the window. She stuck her hand out, and the flowers that had sprouted up to kill the maid joined their predecessors.

"I bet you're happy about this," Sakuya said as Rin reentered the room. "You always hated her."

Rin's agate eyes coldly regarded her. "If I wanted Yuuka to get you, I would've just left you outside."

Sakuya opened her mouth to snap back a reply, but her tongue stuck to the top of her mouth and the words seem to choke in her throat. Just as well.

"Sakuya?" whispered a terrified voice.

Sakuya turned and her heart nearly froze in her chest. Patchouli's body had evaporated completely, leaving her clothes empty and tools abandoned. Koakuma was sitting next to the pile with her back to the wall and her knees drawn up. Tears streaked her face, and she held Patchouli's poof violet cap to tightly her chest. She looked up at Sakuya with scared, lost eyes.

But it wasn't comfort she was seeking. Koakuma held up a trembling hand. Through it, Sakuya could make out the little devil's face. And through that, the scorched marble of the wall. Slowly but steadily, Koakuma was fading away.

"The contract," Koakuma wept. "Patchouli was my conjurer. And now…"

Sakuya's tongue loosened at last. "Quick, make a circle!" she said, rushing over to Koakuma. "We'll make a new contract, bind you to me! You don't have to go!"

Koakuma miserably shook her head. "Too late," she said, her voice now sounding very far away. "It's too-"

And she was gone. Patchouli's hat fell to the ground.

Blood started to pound in Sakuya's ears. It was one thing to acknowledge the possibility of the worst case scenario, but watching it unfold was something wholly different. She had gambled everything in order to restore her hurting mistress's beloved wayward sister to her, and had come up snake eyes. Patchouli was gone. Koakuma was now back in Makai. And Meiling…well, she might be able to come back, so long as all those flowers were eliminated, but given how things were turning out, Sakuya was ready to write her off as well.

Three principal members of the Scarlet Devil Mansion household, gone within a space of mere minutes. And now, only Sakuya herself remained. She was supposed to be their leader, and she had failed them. She hadn't made their family whole again, she had broken it further!

A rush of memories flooded Sakuya's mind. Every harsh word exchanged with Patchouli, every time she had lambasted Meiling for sleeping on the job, every time she had dismissed Koakuma as someone below her station. When they had all been together, they had not been Sakuya's friends. Patchouli had been Remilia's friend, which is why Sakuya had tolerated the freeloader. Koakuma had been part of Sakuya's staff only on a technicality, and most of the time hadn't even been worth noticing. And Meiling had been a constant source of stress, one that needed so much watching that at times Sakuya was tempted to simply dismiss her and leave the gates unguarded. It wasn't like they would be any less safe in her absence, and at least Sakuya wouldn't have to check up on her every few minutes.

But now they were gone. They might not have been friends, but they were always around. And they had followed her into danger when she had asked them to. In a weird way, that sort of made them family. The Scarlet Devil Mansion was now going to feel a whole lot more empty, and…

…and…

…and sun, moon, and stars, what in the world was she going to tell Remilia?

Sakuya felt her knees buckle. She tried to take a step toward the wall for its support, but ended up stumbling. She might have fallen, but two strong arms caught her around the waist before she could.

Looking over her shoulder in bewilderment, she saw Utsuho Reiuji standing there, holding her up. The Hell-Raven's eyes were red, though not the unholy hue that so many took on when possessed by murderous rage. Utsuho just looked like she had been crying.

"Careful," Utsuho said as she helped Sakuya over and sat her down against the wall. "You don't want to…um, you know…"

"Thank you," Sakuya whispered.

Looking miserable, Utsuho nodded. She sniffed, wiped her nose with her arm, and said, "Uh, I'm really sorry about your, uh, your…"

Sakuya took a deep breath. "So am I. But again. Thank you."

"Can she come back, or…?"

To this, Sakuya shook her head. "The others, such as your friend Orin, probably can. But as I understand it, fatalities from that scythe tend to be permanent."

Utsuho's mouth set in a straight line. "Oh," she said.

There was a short pause, and then the one-handed man said, "We need to go. This place ain't safe, and we won't do them any favors by joining them."

"Agreed," Sakuya said as she stood back up. Another deep breath, and her recent tragedies were pushed to the back of her mind. On the upside, she now had absolutely nothing to lose. All that mattered now was Flandre. "By the by, it occurs to me that we have never been probably introduced. Might I know your name?"

The man blinked in surprise. Then he shrugged. "Jun," he said. "Jun Matasha."

"A pleasure," Sakuya said. Then she turned to the pale blue woman who had been silently standing in the back of the room. "And yours?"

"Uh, Nico Ahn?"

"I see. Sakuya Izayoi. Thank you for being here."

"We already knew your name," Jun said.

"I know. But there's still the principle of the thing."

Rin frowned. "Wait, you didn't even know each other's names?"

"We were thrown together rather hastily," Sakuya said. "Some formalities were forgotten."

"Ah. Okay. Weird." Then Rin looked around. "Well, nice to see you all getting along, but if you wanna know my opinion, you guys should probably just go home."

Jun's eyes narrowed as a low, dangerous growl rumbled out of his throat. Sakuya's face went cold, which essentially amounted to the same thing. "Out of the question," she said.

"You're dropping like flies," Rin said. "It's been like ten minutes, and there's only four of you left. I'm going to have my hands full looking after my friends once I've got them out. I really don't need more distractions when that happens, you know?"

Sakuya folded her arms. "Then don't. We can look after ourselves."

"Can you?" Rin snorted. "Sure. Okay. Fine. That's on you then."

"But where are we going next?" Utsuho asked, looking to Rin. "You said you know this house, right? Where do we go now?"

"The room with the tulips," Rin said. "Or at least, that's where I'm going. The people you're looking for probably aren't there, but it's still a start."

"Very well," Sakuya said. She then turned toward the empty pile of clothing next to the far wall. "Excuse me for a moment."

She walked over to Patchouli's empty belongings and relieved them of anything useful. Bags of charms, spellcards, shields, and other magical weapons were swiftly added to the arsenal that Sakuya had hidden in various pockets and pockets on her person. After tightening the last strap around her waist, she turned to the others and said, "All right. Let us be off."

Soon they were off again, storming through the halls of their enemy, leaving behind the ghosts of their companions, and though she had no gods to pray to, Sakuya prayed regardless to anyone that might be listening that no new ghosts would be made that day.

…

It had been a very confusing five minutes.

First, Meiling had been running through the halls of Mugenkan with the rest of her brothers and sisters in arms, following their unlikely ally Rin Satsuki. Given their turbulent history, Meiling wasn't exactly all that fond of Rin, but she did respect her, and adding her to their ranks had counted as a definite bonus in her books. An aching jaw was small price to pay for that kind of advantage.

And then things had gotten weird. Well, weirder. First there had been a bright light, and someone had shouted out a warning. To her shame, the reflexes in which Meiling had put so much pride in developing had failed her, and her body became riddled with sharp cuts and hissing burns.

The pain had been brief. She barely had enough time to notice it before being cast into that odd, swirling haze that lay between death and resurrection. Given the stories that were told about Mugenkan and those who dwelled there, Meiling honestly hadn't gone in expecting to be able to come back should she fall. But fall she did, and she ended up coming back anyway, only she did so nearly a whole kilometer up over the earth with the Garden of the Sun getting burned by Dragons right below her.

Yeah, that had been a little strange. Even stranger was the exchange between Yukari Yakumo and…whatsherface, that redheaded cat. Meiling's head had still be swimming, but the gist of it was that A, it had not been Yukari that had sent them into battle after all, B, that creepy ghost Madam Mima was probably to blame, and C, anyone still alive down there was now in very mortal danger.

Before she could even process that, Meiling had then been dropped into a hole in the sky. Wind rushed around her ears, and she had a brief impression of thousands of eyes, all staring at her in annoyance. And then she was falling, falling, falling, facedown and limbs spread wide in what promised to be a rather painful belly flop when she hit the ground.

It was.

Spitting out grass, Meiling rolled back and sat on her haunches. Panting, she held her aching stomach and looked around. She was back in the Scarlet Devil Mansion, on the front lawn next to the path that led from the gate that she normally guarded to the front door. Apparently Yukari Yakumo wasn't joking when she said that she wanted them out of the way.

Meiling blinked several times and shook her head. Thinking wasn't exactly her strong suit. She had been hired for her physical abilities, not her mental ones. But all the smart people were still in exile or back at the Garden of the Sun, so it was up to her to figure out what do to. Okay, so the wise thing to do would be to go inside and stay there. If Yukari Yakumo wanted her out of the way, then going back would just make her angrier, and if she was angry then…

Meiling discarded that line of thought almost immediately. Of course she was going back. Sakuya, Patchouli, and Koakuma were still in there, as were those animal youkai from the Underground. They were her friends and comrades. There was no way she was just going to hide where it was safe and abandon them. And besides, Flandre was still being held hostage. That alone necessitated her return to the fight.

All right, but how to get back? She couldn't teleport and didn't really know anyone that could that she could reach in time. She was a quick flier though. Meiling squinted, bringing to mind her mental map of Gensokyo. The Garden of the Sun was…there. Okay, it was going to take a bit of time to get there, so she had to leave immediately. That was one good thing she was really good at. Sure, maybe she was a little goofy and slow on the uptake, but she still knew how to think on her feet in a crisis. And she never, ever forgot where she was supposed to be.

Taking a deep breath, Meiling stood up and ran over to the gate and flung it open. The two rabbit guards that they had hired from Eientei were still there, doing what they had paid them to do. And to their credit, they didn't jump at Meiling's sudden appearance, but instead shot her rather dubious looks.

"You're back already?" said one of them, scratching behind her big, floppy ears. "Or are you just leaving?"

"Neither," Meiling said sharply. "But I need-"

Then her eyes drifted down and went a little wide. Both of the rabbits carried the guns that they had brought with them, and had more sitting at the ready should they become necessary. One was rather large, with a long, thick black barrel that looked like one of those thing that you fired over the shoulder instead of under the arm. What were they called again? Bazoomies or something like that.

"That," Meiling said, pointing at it. "I need that thing."

The guard stared at her like she was insane. "You want us to just give you our weapons, just like that? Do you have any idea how many rules we'd be-"

"Double your pay," Meiling said. "Triple it, even. Just you two."

The rabbit blinked. She exchanged a look with her partner, who merely shrugged. "These things are expensive," she said, though it seemed that her resistance was weakening. "If you break or lose it-"

"Quadruple, under the table, now give it to me already before I snap you in half," Meiling hissed through gritted teeth.

The rabbit blinked. Then she shrugged. "Hey, the customer is always right," she said, lifting the bazoomie off the ground.

"Great, how do I use this thing?" Meiling said as she hefted it into her arms. It looked like it was supposed to be heavy, but something that weighted a great deal to most people was as light as a stick to her.

"Well, first you take the safety off, like this," the rabbit said, showing her. "Can't fire with it on."

"And then I squeeze the trigger?" Meiling said, placing her finger over the switch in question.

"Yeah, but it's a hair trigger, so don't-"

Too late. Meiling squeezed just a fraction of a centimeter, and the bazoomie suddenly spat out a glowing green ball of light. It shot forward into the forest, hit a knot of trees, and kept right on going. Meiling and the rabbits stared at the series of perfect, burning holes that tunneled all the way through the forest.

"And that would be why you don't touch the trigger when the safety's off unless you want something to die," the rabbit sighed after a short pause. Reengaging the safety, she said, "Anyway, that's energy drill setting." She showed Meiling a dial on the side. "Change it to this, and you get a kinetic blast. Stops as soon as it hits something solid and blows it to bits. And this is the disintegrator setting."

To Meiling's excitement, the weapon's abilities were as varied as they were lethal. She quickly committed them to memory, snatched up the bazoomie, and said, "Okay, thanks! I'll bring this back in one piece!"

"Lose it if you can't," said one of the rabbits. "Better it be lost than have to explain why it got all banged up."

"Gotcha! Bye!"

With that, she was off, one hand holding onto the handle of the massive gun as easily as if it were a water pistol.

The two rabbits watched as she sailed out of sight, flying over the trees as swifter than a hawk. Once she was gone, one of them remarked, "That lady is so dead."

"Yeah," said the other. "And we are so fired."

"Probably. But you know what? I'm kind of okay with that."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah," the rabbit nodded. She leaned back against the gatepost and folded her arms. "Ever since the princess got eaten, things have sucked back at Eientei. Been thinking of maybe taking a job here instead. After all, the pay is insane, and after that idiot goes and blows herself up they'll have an opening for a new guard."

…

The last time Rin had led a band of intruders through the halls of Mugenkan to sneak into Yuuka's private quarters and infiltrate the room in which Yuuka's slaves were being held captive, it had been a stealth operation, one of paranoia and furtive glancing over their shoulders in fear of being discovered.

The second time around, she just waltzed right in and broke everything in her way.

The tall locked door that they had to shrink in order to pass the first time around went down with a couple of punches. The sheet-draped furniture and shrouded portraits were consumed in the same raging holocaust that Rin held out in front of her to annihilate the plants. She flew forward, eyes narrowed and face grim, sweeping the place clean. Had she not been so focused on their goal, she might have found the experience to be cathartic. After all, when it came to dealing with unresolved anger towards a specific person, there really was nothing like breaking all of their stuff, with the possible exception of breaking the person instead.

The door to the room of tulips was still in the same spot, covered with so many vines that it was barely visible underneath. They recoiled like a nest of disturbed vipers as Rin drew near. Dropping the wall of fire, Rin simply ignited her hands, elongated and sharpened her fingers, and spun up. The vines fell to the ground in smoking chunks.

"Here we go," she said to her unlikely "allies" as she drew her fist back. "They're in here."

This door was sturdier than the last, and took at least three more hits before the hinges snapped. But in the end, it fell as well. Rin stepped through and was immediately struck by a number of tiny sharp objects.

Thorns, and a lot of them too. Probably poisoned as well. It didn't matter though. Rin absorbed both within moments.

The room itself had changed. The massive tulips were still there, though they seemed to have increased in number. But now they had been joined by more of Yuuka's guard plants. Vines, leaves, and angry looking flowers of every description carpeted the floor, clung to the walls, and hung from the dome. And each and every tendril, sharp leaf, jagged thorn, and gaping bud was turned toward Rin.

Rin shook her head. Yuuka just didn't learn.

Again throwing herself into the battle-honed instincts of the killers inside her, she quickly scanned the room, picking out the places that the plants sprouted from, or at least the ones she could see. A precise smattering of sparks scorched their anchors and many of them fell, revealing more anchors. Rin destroyed those as well, and reduced the writhing plants that covered the ground to smoking chunks.

"That was very precise work," Sakuya observed. "Your skills are…impressive."

Rin wondered exactly what had been meant by that comment, but decided that it didn't matter. Ignoring the maid, she scanned the ring of tulips, the only living plants that remained. Apparently they weren't as reactive as their burnt fellows, as they had not reacted to the carnage that had just taken place.

The last time Rin had been here, there had been twelve. Now there was seventeen. Even the one they had torn open before had been restored. Rin felt a rare flutter of hope, tiny yet fierce. Seventeen. Five new captives. That meant they were here after all.

"Is this them?" growled the one-handed man.

"Yes," Rin said with a nod. "Keep an eye on the door."

From each of the flowers she could hear the sound of breathing. Most of them were faint, well beyond the strength of normal ears. Others were taking in deep, sobbing pants while still more were letting out tiny, frightened whimpers. Rin's eyes narrowed to slits and she listened.

They were there. She could make out the distinctive sound of Mystia's frightened mewling from a dull pink flower to her right. Wriggle was shaking within a bright green one dead ahead. Daiyousei she could her whispering desperate prayers inside a pale blue one just to the left of the door. And Rumia's ragged breathing, so familiar after many long nights listening to her struggle with sleeplessness, was coming from a blood red bud immediately to Rin's left.

And from an icy blue tulip at three o' clock…

"Is that you, Yuuka?" Cirno called from inside the flower. The tightly closed petal immediately starting bucking. "Let me out and face me, Traitorface! I'll freeze your butt solid and chip it off with icicles!"

"Oh joy," Sakuya said stonily. "We have to put up with her now."

Rin slowly breathed out. Yeah, okay. Finally, some good news.

One quick swipe of her talons cut the stem of Cirno's tulip in two, causing the bud to plop to the floor. A couple more slashes, and she found herself staring at Cirno's bewildered face. The ice-fairy was sticky with nectar and clearly had no idea what to make of this startling new situation.

"Huh?" she said, staring up at Rin. "What in the stinking hell is-"

Oh right. Rin's current appearance would be unfamiliar to her. "Cirno, it's me," she said urgently. Then she quickly changed her form and voice, becoming the girl she had been before the experiment. "It's Rin."

Cirno's eyes went wide with delight. Then with a whoop, she lunged forward and threw her arms around Rin's shoulders, getting nectar all over her. "You did it!" the ice-fairy cheered, her voice hoarse from her captivity but just as energetic as ever. "I knew you'd escape! Rin, you're the-" Then, catching sight of those who had come with Rin, she stiffened. "Wait, Sakuya Izayoi? Oh noooooooo…"

"It's okay, it's okay," Rin said, shaking Cirno loose. "They're with me."

"Huh?" Cirno said, staring. "But I thought you hated that maid! And who are those guys?"

"Uh, hi," Utsuho said with a bashful wave. "I'm Utsuho, and-"

"Kid, save it," growled Jun.

"Look, it's a long story, but the gist of it everyone's gotten pissed and Yuuka and they're here to kick her ass," Rin told Cirno. "These guys got me out, and now we're getting you out, and then we're going to go find Flandre and get her out."

"And Satori," Jun snapped.

"Yeah, and her too," Rin said. "Point is, we're all getting out."

If anything, this only confused Cirno further. She had never been especially quick on the uptake, and no doubt getting stuck in a stuffy flower for who knew how long hadn't done her brain any favors. But to her credit, what she lacked in understanding she made up in seizing upon the few bits that she was able to comprehend and deciding to forget the rest.

"Uh, okay!" she said. "That sounds…good."

She tried to stand, but her legs gave out and she stumbled. "Take it easy," Rin told her before her stubborn streak kicked in. "Just rest. I'll take care of it."

Her next target was the red tulip, which ought to have been the first, but Cirno's yelling had been kind of attention grabbing. Rin tore it apart, all the while mentally pleading for the one inside to be okay.

Two crimson eyes blinked up at her. "Rin?" Rumia whispered.

"Hey, Rumia," Rin said, a small, relieved smile tugging at her lips. "Gods, you're okay."

Rumia squinted at her. "I, uh…am I?"

Actually, she didn't look all that great. Of course, she had been kind of a mess when they had gotten caught, and her recent ordeal had not done her any favors. Her face was even more pale than usual, and the whites of her shrunken eyes were shot through with so many veins that that it was hard to tell them from her red corneas. Rin felt her smile melting into an angry snarl. Another thing she needed to thank Yuuka for.

Rin reached into the dead flower and gently lifted Rumia out. Rumia blinked several times and tried to look around, but her eyes refused to focus. "Just take it easy," Rin said as she laid her down next to Cirno. To the ice-fairy, she said, "Take care of her while I get the others."

Cirno managed a weak salute.

Wriggle was next. The firefly was a bit hardier than the others, and almost as soon as her tulip's petals had been torn away she lunged out and started swinging. Rin blocked the feeble punch with a raised arm. "Wriggle, it's me!" she hissed.

Wriggle stopped and stared. "Rin? Wha-"

"No time to explain, but we're getting out."

Wriggle gaped. "Uh, uh…" Then she looked around and her eyes went wide when she saw Sakuya Izayoi and the other. "Wait, are you hiring mercenaries now?"

Sakuya shot the firefly a cold look. Shaking her head, Rin insisted, "Later, okay? I'll explain later.

"Okay," Wriggle said, staring. "Well, good."

Unlike the others, she was still able to walk, albeit a bit unsteadily, and made her way over to Cirno and Rumia. While she did so, Rin went after the next flower. Daiyousei was curled up into a tight ball inside, head tucked in and hands covering her head. Almost as soon as the light hit her face she jerked in tighter with a frightened squeak. "Dai!" Rin said. "It's me, Rin!"

"Rin?" Trembling, the timid fairy moved her arms just enough to peek out. Then her face lit up with hope. "Rin! You came!"

"Right, I did, now let's go," Rin said as she pulled Daiyousei out. The fairy squeaked again, but Rin didn't have time to be gentle. Soon Daiyousei was sitting with the rest of the recovered gang and Rin was turning her attention to the last

Mystia was in even worse shape than Rin. As soon as Rin tore into her flower, she slumped limply out, nearly unconscious. She kept making small, whimpering pleas as Rin hauled her out and gave her over to the care of their friends.

"Speed this up, please," Sakuya said. "There's no telling when fresh defenders will arrives."

Which was a good point, loath as Rin was to award it. "Okay," Rin said, looking around. "Let's do this."

Talons flashed, and petals were shredded. Out they came, all of Yuuka's captives. Fairies, youkai, and a few miscellaneous others. One flower contained a new vampire, one of the more common variety. Another had a blue-haired girl who seemed to have her mouth and one eye sealed shut.

Then, to Rin's immense relief, out of one of the flowers tumbled a familiar looking head and body. The girl that Yuuka had disintegrated stumbled out, hands grasping around. Rin handed the girl her head, and as soon as it was back on she blinked at Rin in confusion and fear.

"Hey," Rin said. "Glad to see you're alive. Second time's the charm, right?"

The girl fainted, and her head fell right off her shoulders. Rin gathered both parts of her up and gently left them in Wriggle's care.

Soon all twelve of Yuuka's original captives were released. Some were clothed, others naked, all of them confused and terrified. A few also passed out, others collapsed into quivering wrecks, and two tried to flee, though they stopped when they saw Sakuya standing in the doorway, knives brandished. Those with strength to speak immediately began yelling, demanding explanations or pleading for mercy. In answer, Rin stuck her pinkies into her mouth and whistled as loud as she could.

Everyone shut up.

"Okay everyone, listen up!" she called out. "My name is Rin Satsuki, and I'm here to save you. And I know you're probably all confused right now, but I promise everything will be explained in time. But for now, I need you all to keep as quiet as you can and…"

Her voice trailed off. While she had the attention of most of those she had just liberated, very few looked like they were even following what she was saying. Most looked so bewildered that they probably thought that they were dreaming, a couple looked about ready to split at the earliest opportunity, and at least three were fully unconscious.

One, however, was entirely awake and staring at Rin. It was a youkai with long black hair shot through with streaks of red and white. Two stubby horns were pushing out of her forehead, and her dull red eyes were watching Rin in a manner that was rather disquieting. Her lips quirked up in a small smirk, and a bright pink tongue flicked out to lick the nectar off them.

"You're here to save us, hey?" she said with a chuckle. "Well, took your own sweet time getting around to it, wouldn't ya say?"

"They're lying," whimpered another, clutching at the arm of the girl with short blue hair who, for some reason, still had one eye closed. "We don't know them. We don't know them."

"Mmmmph!" agreed the blue-haired girl. Rin blinked. Was something wrong with her mouth? It looked like it had been glued shut or something.

"Well, we do!" Cirno snapped. "Rin's on our side, and if you say anything bad about her, I'll pop you in the nose."

The horned girl tilted her head to look the fairy over. "Huh, I don't know you neither. You new, blueberry?"

"I'm not a-"

Then apparently Jun's patience snapped. "HEY!" he roared, his voice echoing back and forth through the circular room. "SHUT IT!"

They shut it. Two more girls fainted away.

In the silence that followed, Sakuya turned around and addressed the group. "I know you have no idea who we are or any reason to trust us, but can we all agree that Yuuka Kazami is a thoroughly detestable individual who has wronged many a party?"

"Sure," said the horned girl, though her wry smile didn't waver. "If you wanna look at it that way."

"Then does it not stand to reason that there are a great many that would wish to see her destroyed?"

Many of those still lucid nodded in agreement. "I guess," said the horned girl.

"Then will you accept that we are Yuuka's enemies, and that puts us on the same side?"

A few hopeful looks lit up those wet, despairing faces, and those still doubtful at least looked like they were considering her words.

"Believe me or not, but we are her enemies, and if you want any chance of leaving this house with your skin intact, then you'd better come with us."

There was a short pause, and then suddenly Wriggle spoke up. "I'm in," she said. "I don't know about the rest of you, but I've had about enough of this place."

The trembling vampire gave a quick nod of her head. "Yeah," she said hoarsely. "Me too."

"And me," said another.

"I dunno," drawled the horned girl. She folded her arms and shrugged. "Seems to me we'd be better off staying here. Better the devil you know, eh?"

Sakuya's eyes narrowed. She slowly strode over to where the horned girl was standing and stood over her, glaring down. For her part, the horned girl merely smirked back up at her.

"Your name, little girl?" Sakuya said.

The youkai girl sneered. "My name is none of your business."

"Is that right?" Sakuya said. Then tell me, Miss None Of Your Business, how long has Yuuka held you here?"

"She didn't. I'm her honored guest, her beloved sister."

Rin gaped at her, as did any of the others lucid enough to pay attention. What was this girl's problem? From the look of things Yuuka had been treating her as badly as the others. Even those with the most contrary of personalities had to know a rescue when they saw it.

Sakuya, however, seemed to have a better clue of what was going on. Her eyes narrowed, she studied the girl's unabashed face and murmured, "What are you-" Then she blinked. "Oh. I see."

"Eh?" the horned girl said.

Instead of answering, Sakuya merely turned around with a shrug. "Well, fine. Stay here if you like it so much. You look pretty useless, and would probably only slow us down."

In an instant the smirk withered from the horned girl's face, to be replaced by a look of panic. "What? No, I wouldn't!"

"Of course you would," Sakuya said as she started to walk away. "Odds are, you'd sell us out to your beloved sister for a kiss and a pat on the head."

The horned girl stamped her foot in frustration. "She is not my sister, and you are not leaving me behind!" Tears were starting to form in her eyes, mixing with the nectar on her face. "How can you be so cruel? Do you have any idea what it's like, what she does to us? You're not leaving without me!"

Sakuya didn't so much as glance at her. Instead, she continued to walk calmly toward Rin, acting as if the horned girl wasn't even there. Aghast, the horned girl's face went red with rage and frustration, and for a moment Rin though that she was going to attack. But instead, she merely made a sound like a heated teakettle, spun on her heel, and stormed over to the rest of the girls that they had liberated from the tulips. Once there, she plopped down on the floor, crossed her legs, folded her arms, and sulked.

"What in the world?" Rin said to Sakuya in a low voice once the maid had reached her.

Sakuya shrugged. "She's an Amanojaku. It's in their nature to be contrary, regardless of the situation. If you want them to do anything, you merely have to insist that they move in the opposite direction. Be wary of that if you mean to keep her."

Rin blinked. Then she almost smiled before catching herself. She still had a massive grudge with the icy faced maid that she fully intended on settling, but she had to admit, that bit of fast thinking was impressive.

However, the others didn't seem to agree. "You know, that's real good to hear, but that still leaves us with a big problem," said Nico. She nodded toward the gaggle of children. "And that is we now have seventeen useless lumps to look after and Satori's not one of them."

Rin fixed her with a hard look. "Leave that to me. This is my thing."

"She brings up a valid point," Sakuya said. "You at least wish to rescue Flandre as much as we do. How do you propose to do that while keeping that rabble safe? Most of them can barely walk, much less defend themselves."

Rin gritted her teeth. "I'll manage."

To this, Sakuya quirked an eyebrow, obviously unconvinced. "You're not planning on absorbing them all, are you? Because as I understand it, it's quite the painful process for the victim."

For a brief moment, Rin found herself actually considering that idea. It would be the logical thing to do. Within her, everyone would be safer than they would be out in the open, and she wouldn't have to worry about keeping track of everyone and making sure the weaker ones were keeping up. "No. Not unless I have to."

"Well," Sakuya said as she turned and started moving toward the door. "Whatever it is you're planning on doing, we leave you to it."

Rin stared at her, mouth agape. "Wait, what? You're just going to take off and leave us?"

"Didn't you repeatedly say that you don't care what we do, but we were free to tag along if we felt like it?" Sakuya responded from over her shoulder. "They are your problem, not ours. Those we have come to save are obviously not here, so why should we stay with you?"

Rin seethed. "If you think you're going to swipe Flandre out from under me-"

Sakuya paused. Then she slowly turned around, her porcelain face hard. Cold fire flashed in her icy blue eyes. "Flandre," she hissed. "Is coming. Home. With. Me."

Once upon a time Rin might have been terrified of having those cold eyes turn to her in anger. Even for a time after her change she might have been cowed. But much had happened since then. "No. She is. Not," Rin replied. She strode forward, growing taller with every step, so that by the time she and Sakuya were face to face they were of equal height. "I'm not letting you shut her up again."

Sakuya looked like she wanted to cut Rin down where she stood for challenging her, but she knew trying to do so was pointless. So instead she closed her eyes for a few moments, and when she opened them again her emotions were hidden behind a mask of ice. "Miss Satsuki," she said, her voice now as steady as a lake in springtime. "Patchouli Knowledge is now dead. She was my mistress's best friend, and now she's gone. Meiling, another favorite of hers, might be gone as well. Koakuma has…quite literally gone to Hell, and I do not know if we can get her back. When Remilia returns from her exile, she will find her household…depleted. Her family gone." Her mouth set in a straight line. "Please. Whatever you may feel towards her or me, please at least let her have her sister back. She will break otherwise."

Rin grimaced a bit. Anger she could take, but a plea to her conscience was a bit tougher to handle. True, she had no reason to love Remilia Scarlet, but even she had to admit that that sucked. But even so… "I told you, I'm not letting you shut her up again."

"Then…" Sakuya's left eye twitched, the only visible indication of the turbulent emotions she was wrestling with. "If you have found a way to curb her destructive tendencies and allow her to walk free without endangering the lives of everyone around her, I'm sure your input will be highly valued." She paused for a few seconds, and then said, "Please, Miss Satsuki. I don't often beg, but I'm begging you now. When Remilia hears of what happened here, it could destroy her."

Rin glowered, but didn't immediately deny her. She still hated Sakuya Izayoi and her slimy mistress. Between the two of them, she and Flandre had gone through a lot of Hell. And while she hadn't wanted Patchouli Knowledge to die, she didn't mourn her. But it was clear that Sakuya did, and they both knew that Remilia was going to be devastated by her loss, much as she had been by Flandre's.

Sighing, Rin said at last, "Okay, listen up. I still have a lot of things to say to you about what you did to me. And I have even more to say about what you did to her. That still stands. You don't get a pass with that one." She nodded to the girls she had freed from the tulips, who were still gathered together in a tight knot. "But help me get these kids out, each and every one of them, and I'll talk to Flandre for you, see what she wants to do. But if any of them don't make it out, I'm going to be a whole lot less cooperative." Then she bared her teeth. Reaching over, she poked a single finger against Sakuya's sternum. "And if any of my friends don't make it out, deal's off. How's that?"

Sakuya did not react to the finger jabbing her in the chest. She merely met Rin's gaze and said, "I am more than willing to cooperate with you, and assist you in any way I can. And if you wish to set conditions for Flandre's safe return to her home, then I will gladly accept them, as well as any…reasonable demands you might have to make up for how I have treated both you and her. But she is coming home with me."

Rin smiled coldly. "We'll talk."

"Yes, we will."

Rin walked past her, their shoulders brushing ever so slightly. She stood in front of those she had freed, friend and stranger alike, and said, "Okay guys, we're not out of this yet. I'm going to clear the way the best I can, but I need your help. Everyone that can walk, help those who can't. Everyone that can keep an eye out, watch for traps. If anything happens to anyone, yell. I'll hear." Then, remembering, she added, "Except for her." She pointed to the Amanojaku. "She's probably useless, so don't trust her with anything."

"I am not! Watch me, I'll be the most useful escaper here!"

You'd better be, Rin thought, but she said nothing out loud. That one bore watching. "Okay guys, we have to move fast, so let's go!"

…

Caterwauling like only an extremely upset and terrified cat can, Orin fell down through the air to land on the warm tiles of the Palace of Earth Spirits' courtyard. Even then she kept enough of her wits to twist her body around and land in a crouch, her feet planted directly beneath her.

Unfortunately that didn't much help her when Clover came down tumbling to land right on her back, knocking her to the ground.

With a pained groan, Orin shoved her palms down against the ground and pushed up so that she was no longer licking stone. "Clover," she grunted to the dazed, blonde cat on her back. "Get off of me right now before I-"

Then Brutus landed butt-first on both of them, and Clover's weight suddenly became a non-issue.

Orin lay still for a moment, trying to catch her breath. Then she twisted her neck around and managed to force out, "Get off. Of me. Right. Now."

"Oops," Brutus said, sounding uncharacteristically bashful. "Sorry guys."

He stood up, and the two cats rolled off of each other and onto their backs. "Gods," Orin whispered as she shifted from one side to the next, trying to work out the kinks her spine had just collected. "What the hell just happened?"

Clover's head flopped to one side to stare at her. "Hey, you were the one Yukari Yakumo was talking to. You tell me."

"We got duped," Brutus rumbled in his deep, gruff voice.

To this, Orin slowly nodded. "Yeah. We got duped."

"By Madam Mima?" Clover asked.

"Looks like."

"Isn't she supposed to be like some kind of evil genius with a reputation for horrific schemes of revenge?"

"Something like that," Orin said. Thank the gods that their climate meant that the stone tiles of the courtyard were always warm. It felt good against her aching back.

"Oh. Okay."

They remained there for a time, the two cats lying on their backs while the billy-goat stood nearby, leaning on his axe, all three of them deep in thought.

Then Orin bounded right to her feet and tore off, screeching "SATORIIIIII!" as she went.

NO! It was not going to end like that! She was not going to leave Utsuho, Jun, and Nico to fend for themselves. She was not going to let the Sun go down while Satori was still a hostage. She didn't care what nefarious schemes Madam Mima might be hatching. She didn't care what sort of clever plan Yukari Yakumo might have to save them, because quite frankly, those never worked anyway. All that mattered was that her friends were in danger, and that needed to be corrected immediately.

As fast as she was going, it wasn't long before Clover was flying next to her. "Where are we going?" the blonde Kasha asked.

"Back!" Orin shouted back.

Clover nodded. "Okay, how?"

And therein lay the problem. Technically speaking, they actually weren't that far from the Garden of the Sun, topographically speaking. If they were upside, they could probably get there in about twenty minutes. Unfortunately, they were not topside, and even if they were, those were twenty minutes that they couldn't afford to lose.

Didn't matter.

Soon Brutus had joined them, easily keeping pace with those big, bounding strides of his. "What'll we do when we get there?" he said.

"Figure it out then!"

"Should we get the others?"

That actually gave Orin pause. On the one hand, with everything that was going on, the more people brought along meant more people that wouldn't be coming home. Like Yukari had said, this was not a situation that mortals had any business being anywhere near, and-

Then Orin felt a wave of shame. The hell was she was going on about? She had to stop thinking like a freaking Human. She wasn't a Human, she was the beloved pet of Satori Komejii, and her master was still in danger! Of course they were going to-

Then she came to a stop. Up ahead, a rather large group of the rest of the pets were gathered around the front gate. Some of them were standing on the ground, others clung to the large, stone posts, while others floated the air. All of them were fixated on whatever it was that was happening outside.

Frowning, Orin came up to the group and peered out as well. From the look of things, some sort of commotion was taking place within the Ancient City. "What's going on?" she said.

Those near her jerked back in surprise at her sudden appearance. "O-Orin?" choked out a parrot named Ishi. "What are you doing back? I thought-"

"Yeah, things got weird with time and space, and we got sent back here and need to get back ASAP," Orin snapped. She pointed. "But what the hell is going on there?"

"Ain't it obvious?" said Izuku, one of Jun's rottweilers. "The whole town's been pissed about Yuuka for days! Now they're fixing to do something about it!"

Orin gaped. "Hold up, you're saying-"

"Yup," Izuku said with a satisfied grin. "Check it out."

It only took a brief glance to figure it out. It was just like when the town had stormed up to the gates intending to confront Satori over her supposed lack of leadership, only to be redirected by whatever the hell Koishi had done. Only this time the mob was marching off in a different direction entirely, and Orin had a pretty good idea where.

"This is happening, huh?" Orin said.

"Was only inevitable," Ishi said with a shrug. "Did they really expect us to sit back on our thumbs and do nothing?"

"I hear they plan on tunneling all the way there and just pop up into Yuuka's garden from below," Ishi commented. "That should make for a nasty surprise."

One of the younger pets, a rather nervous salamander by the name of Nami Takano, said, "B-But wasn't this what we were trying to avoid?" she said. "I mean, the riots and all?"

"Nah, we just didn't want them heading for us," Izuku grinned. He turned to Orin, Clover, and Brutus. "So hey, still don't know what you're doing back here, but if you wanna get back there, I'd advise you grab a torch and join in."

Orin stared in shock. The entire city was marching on Yuuka, right that second? Okay, that sounded pretty neat, but if they came up into the Garden of the Sun, those Dragons were just going to cook them!

Unless…unless someone was there to warn them ahead of time of what to expect. And she had to admit, as strong as Yuuka was, having an army of this size show up on her doorstep would really tip the odds against her. Besides, it wasn't like she was going to be able to talk them out of it. Better to direct them in somewhat of a safer direction.

"You know, that's a good idea," Orin said slowly. "In fact…"

She drew her foot back and then kicked the towering iron gates wide open. Those clinging to them fell off with cries of surprise, but she didn't even notice.

"Saddle up, everyone," she said as she marched down the palace's drawbridge over the lake of hellfire. "We're gonna join a mob!"

…

Yuuka couldn't decide if she was more angry or offended.

Oh, she was certainly plenty of both. Angry that the sanctity of her home had been violated, that these worms had so much as dared lift a finger against what was hers. Angry that those she had all but risked her life and taken grievous injury in order to protect had so thoroughly betrayed her trust. Angry that her longtime companion was now proving to be so disappointing. Angry that the things she had spent so much time and care building up were now being destroyed by creatures that had no business rising up against her. And for what? Nothing. It was sheer pettiness, that's all it was.

And she was greatly offended as well. Offended that the worms had the gall to challenge her in the first place. Offended that she was now being attacked by lesser beings that really had no business attacking her in the first place. All right, so maybe Yukari could be forgiven for holding a grudge, but the worms? Unforgivably rude of them to be here. And wasn't it just like Yukari to drag in random mercenaries to fight her battles for her? Really, at least Yuuka made a point of settling her scores herself! Honor really was bought on the cheap around here!

One of the Dragons, a nasty looking metallic blue brute, swooped down low over the orange trees, spewing out a trail of flame like blue piss in his wake. Seeing this, one of the earth giants Yuuka now inhabited shifted around and swept down with one stony hand. The worm tried to evade, but despite her immense size and her a reputation for not being especially fast, Yuuka made up the difference by shooting a nest of vines out of her palm, snaring the worm long enough for her to wrap her fingers around its neck.

Dust fell from her mouth as she gnashed her boulder teeth together. Yuuka lifted the squirming lizard up so that she may glare at it properly. There was a comfortable familiarity to the gesture. After all, she had held Marisa Kirisame in the exact same way before crushing her neck. "HOW DARE YOU?" she roared, her voice booming out. "YOU POMPOUS FOOL! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHO YOU HAVE ANGERED?" She gave the worm a hard shake. "I WAS OLD WHEN YOU GRANDFATHER WAS HATCHING. DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?"

Then a tiny little hand tapped her on her hill-sized shoulder. "Excuse me."

Irritated at being interrupted, the giant holding the writhing Dragon turned to glower at the bold idiot. "WHO DO YOU-"

Then Yuuka froze. A silver-haired woman was hovering right behind her. She wore billowing purple robes and had six leathery wings of purple and red spread wide behind her. A sword with a softly glowing scarlet blade was bared in her hand.

The primrose bed of Yuuka's eye went wide. She had glimpsed this creature darting to and fro during the fight, but had yet to get a good look at her. Yukari and her Dragons had been a bit distracting, after all. But now she was able to see her for what she was. "AZRAEL," Yuuka gasped in disbelief. "BUT…HOW?"

The Fallen Angel's nose wrinkled. "Azrael? Me? Certainly not. My name is Shinki, but you probably know me better as Mashhit."

There was a pause, and then Yuuka growled out, "YOU. I KNOW YOU."

"I'm flattered," Mashhit said with a thin smile. "Though while we're on the subject, word has reached me that you might have a piece of Azrael in your possession. I'd appreciate it if it were turned over to me as soon as possible."

In answer, Yuuka swung her arm around to swat Mashhit out of the sky. The next thing she knew, she was reeling back, clutching at her arm as the suddenly freed and rather relieved Dragon flew off as the hand that had been holding it lay in smoking pieces in the grass. Her arm now stopped at the wrist, which was red hot.

"I'm not in any mood to repeat myself," Mashhit said. She held her sword out so that the tip was pointing at Yuuka's forehead. "Where is Azrael's vessel, Yidhra? Where is Rin Satsuki?"

Yuuka laughed in her face. "WHY SHOULD I TELL YOU?"

In response, a pencil-thin beam of red light shot out from the tip of Mashhit's sword. It seared through the earth, granite, and tangled roots that made up Yuuka's neck. The scarlet primroses spread their petals wide in surprise.

Then Yuuka's head tumbled off of her massive shoulders. It fell in a shower of dust to crush a bed of windflowers. The rest of her body soon followed, falling apart as it tumbled.

"That," Mashhit said to the other giants. "Surrender Rin Satsuki immediately and promise to leave Gensokyo for good, and you will be able to see tomorrow's sunrise. Granted, it will have to be some other world's Sun, but that at least is better than the cold death that awaits you if you continue to resist."

Yuuka didn't believe her for a second. It didn't matter if she cooperated or not. These people had no intention of letting her live. "OH, SO SCARY," she growled from the throats of three other giants as they approached. "YOU'RE POWERFUL, I'LL GRANT YOU THAT." A cloud of her lovely little Mykrs rose up, surrounding the Fallen Angel like a swarm of angry blue fireflies. "BUT THAT COUNTS FOR LITTLE HERE. THIS IS MY DOMAIN, DEMON. AND YOU ARE A TRESPASSER HERE."

"Shinki, get out of there!" they heard Yukari call from above. "She's setting you up!"

Mashhit ignored her. "These?" she said contemptuously. She snapped her fingers, and the closest Mykrs were suddenly blown away from her as a wave of invisible force exploded out from her body. They were ripped into tiny shreds and sent smoking to the ground below.

"Your plants don't impress, Yidhra," Mashhit said. "But I know you possess some measure of twisted affection for them. So if you don't want to see any more of them destroyed, then reconsider my terms."

At this, all of the Yuukas smiled. "OH MASHHIT. I SEE NOW THAT WE HAVE A SURPRISING AMOUNT OF THINGS IN COMMON."

"Shinki! I mean it, get out of there!"

A look of displeasure fell upon Mashhit's face.

"LIKE ME, YOU HAVE ABANDONED YOUR CELESTIAL BODY FOR A MORTAL FORM. YOU HAVE BEEN REJECTED BY YOUR HEAVENLY BRETHREN AND REJECTED THEM IN KIND. AND YOU HAVE FOUND A NEW HOME AMONG THE LESSER BEINGS, THE CREATORS' PETS THAT ONCE SEEMED SO INSIGNIFICANT." Yuuka chuckled. "AND IN DOING SO, YOU FELL PREY TO THE SAME WEAKNESSES THAT PLAGUE MORTALS."

"And what might that be, pray tell?"

Yuuka held up a house-sized hand. "WELL, FOR STARTERS, YOU TEND TO PUT ALL OF YOUR FOCUS ON THE LARGE, OBVIOUS THREATS WHILE IGNORING THE SMALL THINGS." She tapped her own wrist, sending up small clouds of chalk.

Mashhit's face twisted in puzzlement. Then she looked down at her own hand to see the pasty-white growth that now covered most of her wrist.

"What?" she said, recoiling in horror. She yanked her sleeve back to see that her entire forearm was now infested with fungal growth.

Yuuka grinned with a dozen mouths. "YOU CAME HERE TO FIGHT THE MONSTERS AND SLAY THE GIANTS. BUT A FEW HUNGRY SPORES CAN KILL JUST AS EASILY AS AN ENEMY'S BLADE. AND I HAVE PLENTY TO SPARE."

"Shinki!" Yukari screeched from above. "Move your fallen ass and get out of there!"

Mashhit didn't move. She remained hovering in place, staring numbly as more fungi puffed up over her exposed flesh. Yuuka had to laugh. Did she truly believe that her flesh and blood body would be exempt from the same vulnerabilities as mortals?

Roaring, the blue dragon plunged down and seized one of Mashhit's wings in its jaws. It swooped back up, hauling the infected demon with it. As it fled, the earth beneath Yuuka's feet erupted, and several thick stalks shot up like the beanstalks of children's tales. Except unlike those stories, these were in service to the giants, and struck out against the mortal invader. Thick pods stuck along their bodies puffed out hissing, filling the air with spores.

The worms all recoiled back as Yuuka laughed. Let them fill the air with fire! All it took was a small handful brushing against exposed flesh or an uncovered eye, and they would take root. Mashhit was already playing host to an entire civilization of them, and the blue dragon would soon be blinded. It was their fault for taking her so lightly. After all, she had many, many friends, big and small, and all of them just as deadly as-

The laughter died in her throats as a horrible thought struck her.

Wait.

Small things.

Rin Satsuki.

A feeling of trepidation building inside of her, Yuuka turned her attention back to her house. Yes, it had taken some damage from all the fire being thrown about, but nothing irreparable. However, now that she was paying attention, it seemed that there was some sort of commotion taking place inside, one involving-

Oh no. No, no, no.

Mugenkan had been invaded by a tiny band of insects, a few of which she recognized. They had been present during that party with Yukari, her illegal allies. Yuuka had broken them good and proper, but it seemed that they were now back, and had brought friends.

That in itself was annoying, but not a serious problem. However, it seemed that they had gotten into her things, and set loose a certain ungrateful trollop, who was now busy committing various acts of murder.

Yuuka growled low. Well now, it seemed that she had fallen prey to her own lesson. In turning all of her attention to Yukari, the Fallen, and the worms, she had neglected to look after her own house. And now Rin Satsuki was running amuck, doing Yukari's job for her. Well now, that wouldn't do at all.

Abandoning the giants, Yuuka returned her consciousness to Mugenkan. The fight would have to carry on without her. It was just as well. The Garden knew its business, and was less likely to fall prey to distractions without her in it. She was needed elsewhere. After all, it was long since past time that someone had stomped out that little roach once and for all.

…

They weren't moving fast.

"Come on, guys!" Rin said over her shoulder as she cleared another hallway of plants. "You can rest later! We need to get out of here now!"

Behind her came a chorus of groans and whimpers. The kids she had liberated from the tulips were in worst shape than she had thought. Those who could still walk weren't proving to be much help to those who couldn't, and the number of the latter was steadily growing. Two more had already had their legs give out from under them.

"Miss Satsuki, do not be such a fool," Sakuya Izayoi murmured to her. "Surely you can see that you ask too much of them. Urge them on all you like, it will not make their legs stronger."

Rin stopped her holocaust long enough to glower at her. "Then you guys help them! You look strong enough!"

Hearing this, Jun's ears pricked up. "And how are we supposed to fight with them burdening us down?" he growled. Holding up his stump, he said, "I've only got the one hand left."

"I don't see you doing a lot of fighting now," Rin shot back. "Let me worry about the plants. You worry about the kids."

"This is pointless," Sakuya said. "You know the solution. Absorb them all and free them later. It will solve all of our problems."

Rin gritted her teeth. "No."

"You want to protect them, don't you? What safer place could there be than inside of Rin Satsuki, the indestructible girl?"

"No."

Sakuya drew herself up. "Miss Satsuki, why not?"

Because I don't want to hurt them, Rin thought. Being absorbed by her was like being dissolved in acid, or so Rumia had told her. Your body was burned away little by little from the outside in as her gelatinous body greedily took your essence into itself. Worse, death held no release. You remained alive and aware long after such should be possible. Even after her nerve endings had been eaten away, Rumia said she could still feel what was happening to her.

Rin's hands weren't exactly clean. Whatever she had been before all this had begun, she knew that adjective "innocent" had been struck off her victimhood a long time ago. And she had to admit, she didn't exactly have much in the way of reservations about subjecting certain individuals to that same torment. Yuuka she would burn with a cheerful smile on her face. Doing it to Elly wouldn't trouble her much. And though they may be allies at the moment, should circumstances pit them against once another again, she doubted that she would have any trouble doing it to Sakuya Izayoi as well.

But these kids…Rin was starting to think of them as her kids. Or at least, others of her kind. She did feel a strong affinity to those who had been unjustly locked up and tormented, especially other children. And though most of them were still strangers, among them were the only real friends she had, and among those was someone that she had hurt enough already.

On the other hand, Sakuya wasn't wrong. Rin's kids were in bad shape. Almost a third of them were unconscious or nearly there, and those that weren't didn't have much in the way of strength. Keeping them moving was downright unreasonable, and they were easy pickings should any flower escape her path of destruction or poke its way out of the crust of ash she was leaving in her wake. And there was seventeen of them. Sakuya had come here with almost half that number, all of them strong and dangerous warriors, and half of those had been picked off in a matter of minutes. How could she hope to take all of these exhausted children to safety?

Absorbing them all would solve that problem. Within her, they would be safe, or at least considerably safer than they were now. She could move quickly and get them out of danger within minutes, and release them all, safe and sound, as soon as they were far from Yuuka's clutches. And all it would cost them was a few minutes of overwhelming agony and unbelievable terror.

Rin shuddered. "Look, I-"

Then, a fraction of a second before it hit, she sensed something. "Get down!" she cried, shoving Sakuya away.

Moments later, vines the color of the ash on the walls smashed through the marble to grasp at her. Rin rolled out of the way, pivoting on her shoulders, and slashed their tips to bits.

The vines recoiled only for a moment, and then even more tendrils erupted from the stumps. Rin thrust her hands forward, palms glowing.

"Rin, don't!" Sakuya cried.

Rin jerked back in surprise. Then she got a jolt of shock when she realized that she was about to spew a wave of Phoenix Fire right at her allies and the kids she had rescued. But before she could switch to something a little more precise, the vines were already surging forward.

The first few were slashed to pieces, but a couple managed to slip by her talons and strike her squarely in the chest, sending her flying backward. As she flew, Rin twisted her body around, changing her momentum and landed in a crouch, one hand with fingers splayed and glowing, ready to burn.

Then she became aware of the shadow that had fallen over her. This was soon followed by an all too familiar scent.

Rin paused. Then she slowly turned and looked up to see a tall figure standing over her, its arms crossed and scarred lips set in a straight line. Its single red eye glared down at Rin. One slender finger tapped irritably against the opposite bicep.

"Oh," Rin said as she straightened up. As she did so, she let her original form drop, allowing her features to return to their natural hodgepodge state. "Well, okay."

"Rin," Yuuka said. "You've gotten out, I see."

Rin's eyes narrowed, but she said nothing.

"And you've made something of a mess of the place. Just look at all that carnage." Yuuka shook her head like a disapproving nanny. "No, no, that will not do."

Frowning, Rin shifted her shape ever so slightly, growing an additional eye on the back of her head. The change in perspective was briefly disorienting, but she was able to see that the thicket of black vines still filled the hall behind her. They had not completely closed though, and through them she could make out the rest of her little party. Sakuya, Jun, Utsuho, and Nico had all positioned themselves between the vines and the kids, which was nice of them, but oddly enough, neither the plants nor Yuuka herself seemed to be much interested in them. Yuuka's gaze was fixed on Rin alone, and all the vines were writhing in her general direction.

Keeping her two main eyes on Yuuka's face, Rin motioned briefly with one hand towards the group. Thankfully Sakuya caught it, and silently directed the others to turn and start moving away. Most of them didn't have any problem with this whatsoever, though a few needed a little encouragement in moving their legs, as fear had frozen them where they stood.

Then Cirno pushed her way forward, anger twisting her little face. Rin stiffened. The ice-fairy looked like she intended to challenge Yuuka directly. Brave of her, but also monumentally stupid. She didn't know why Yuuka wasn't noticing the rest of the invaders, but if any of her attention were to be directed toward them…

"Yeah, well, I get cranky when I've been locked up too long," Rin said, keeping her voice loud and tone clear. She wasn't sure if it would do any good, but she started to increase her height by a bit, hoping that it would keep Yuuka from glancing down the hall.

Then Sakuya stealthily stole behind Cirno and swiftly snapped her arms around her neck. Cirno jerked once, and then fell limp.

"You know how it is," Rin said quickly as the rest of the gang forgot themselves and reflexively started to protest before being shushed. Fortunately, Yuuka didn't seem to take notice. "You get stuck in a piece of crystal for a few days while some lady burns you with magic lasers. After that, anyone would want to knock over a few flowerpots, you know?"

Yuuka's eye narrowed. Violence was definitely on its way, which was fine, so long as the others were out of the way. "Now that," Yuuka said. "Was uncalled for. Those that you murdered today were innocent."

"Were it?" Rin said. "Sorry, but with all the thorns, and, uh…" Finally the gang had managed to sneak to the back of the hallway and make a turn, taking them out of sight. Thank the gods. Smack talking was sort of hard when distracted. "…poison and strangling, it was sort of hard to tell."

The lines around Yuuka's mouth deepened, but she didn't move. Neither did Rin. A fight was incoming, that much was obvious, but the more she could draw this out, the further the others could get before Yuuka snapped out of whatever it was that kept her from noticing them.

"It's not right," Yuuka said at last.

That gave Rin pause. "What isn't?" she asked.

To this, Yuuka slowly shook her head in befuddlement. "It's not right," she repeated. "I…I did everything I could to fit in. I shed away my past, I took on a mortal form, I did my best to learn your ways, culture, customs, everything. I spoke your tongue, ate your food, read your books, did my best to be one of you. Why then do you mortals keep turning on me?"

At this, Rin found herself gaping. "Uh, maybe it has something to do with the torture, murder, and rape?"

"But you mortals do that all the time! You invented those concepts, not I!"

Rin found herself taking a deep breath. She didn't really need the oxygen, she just needed a reason to pause a few moments. "You really think that makes it okay?"

"Well, it should," Yuuka said crossly. "And even if it didn't, one would think that my unfathomable forgiveness and generosity would make up for it. At the very least we ought to be square. Or have you forgotten who rid you of Azrael's mark, and who provided you with shelter and friendship when no one else would?"

At this, Rin's eyes narrowed. "You know, if you think doing a good deed here and there means you can do whatever horrible thing you like, then you'll never know what it means to be a mortal."

At this, Yuuka's face went beet red. "Perhaps not," she murmured in a low, dangerous tone. "But then, neither will you. We have that in common, at least."

There was a short pause, then Rin sighed. "You know what? I really don't feel like debating. Let's do th-"

And then her world exploded.

Agony, pure and searing, erupted all over her body. Her body went stiff, her vision nothing more than a burning yellow haze, and she opened her mouth to scream, but found herself unable.

It was the same pain Yuuka had used to subdue her back in the Tulip Room. And it was the same pain she had immersed her in during her captivity in that hunk of crystal. Rin had no idea how long she had been kept in that thing. All she knew was that every second had stretched into hours as her mind and body had burned, inside and outside. And now it was happening again.

…

"Now that," Yukari said as Sariel silently cleared Shinki's flesh of fungi, "was quite foolish."

Shinki glared, or at least Yukari thought she did. The Fallen Angel's face was so puffy that it made it hard to tell.

"I told you to get out of there, but you decided to just float there and argue with her," Yukari continued. She herself was tending to the eyes of Retorang, the great blue Dragon that had swept Shinki away before she had become more incubator than Angel. Unfortunately, in doing so, he had gotten a fair amount of spores in his own eyes, and it seemed that this particular brand of fungi cared not if the flesh that it dined upon were holy or mundane. "Did you really think those Mykrs were the only thing she could fill the air with?"

"Enough, Yukari," Sariel admonished gently. "The lesson has been learned."

"How did it latch onto her?" Retorang growled as Yukari coaxed out the waxy lumps. "I thought the touch of an Archangel of Death killed."

Even under the coating of fungus, Shinki still visibly tensed.

"She's not really an Archangel anymore," Yukari told him. "Not really. Her sword was taken from her when she was banished. And with it went her power over Death."

"Ah. And what of the other? Does she still have the touch?"

"It," Sariel corrected.

"Eh?"

"I am not a 'she.' My kind do not reproduce through sexual intercourse, so we have no need of genders. If you must refer to me through use of pronouns, I would prefer if you used a neutral term such as 'it."

Enough of Retorang's eye had been cleared to allow him to stare.

Sighing, Yukari said, "She still has her power, but if you're referring to the taint of Azrael, that was its own invention. It created that power for the purpose of mass murder after it had Fallen."

"Well, we could use something similar," complained the green Dragon Arexerion. "We burn, we cut, but the garden remains."

So it did. Their invading party had retreated for the time being and were now high above the clouds, outside of the Garden of the Sun's borders. The loss of the soul net and the spores now in the air had forced a temporary retreat, and now they were rethinking their plan of attack, which wasn't going as well as Yukari had hoped, as Arexerion had pointed out.

Sure, they had burned a few trees, broke some windows, and toppled a giant here and there, but once they had withdrawn, most of those hurts had healed. That was mildly alarming. Dragonfire burned quite hot and destroyed all it touched, both the material and the magical. Only the flames of a Phoenix could be said to be superior, and there were precious few of those around.

Well, there was one, and one that had the power of the taint as well, but Yukari truly doubted that Rin Satsuki was going to wield her stolen gifts in their defense. More likely Yuuka's seduced her to her side, Yukari thought bitterly. If that were the case, then the moment she joined the battle things would probably get very ugly.

In the meantime, they still had the nut of the Garden of the Sun to crack. "Right then," Yukari said as she finished cleaning the last bits of fungi away from Retorang's eyes. Already the damage was healing. "Charging in doesn't seem to be doing much good. Fortunately, Yuuka neglected to build walls around her property. And flame will burn just the same if it's thrown over."

"Long-distance bombardment?" Arexerion said. "That sounds…chancy. Weren't there some mortals you wished to rescue?"

"There are," Yukari agreed. This decision had sent a sour feeling worming through her guts, but she hid it well. I'm sorry, Reimu. "And I still intend to free them, if possible. However, destroying Yuuka has always been our top priority. That, and securing Rin Satsuki. As seeing how Rin is completely and utterly unkillable, those two priorities do not conflict."

Sariel turned its head toward her, a single silver eyebrow quirking in askance.

In answer, Yukari pulled a single black spellcard from her robe. It was one that Yuuka knew well, and by all reports had a very good success rate against her. "At any rate, if we wish to rescue anyone, we will have to deal with the defenses first. She calls this place the Garden of the Sun, after all. Well, I say we introduce it to the fires of the Sun."

A flick of her wrist, and the sky around her lit up.

And then the Sun Rose Red.

…

Rin fell to her hands and knees. Pain was rippling through every centimeter of her body. It felt like she was being burned and frozen at the same time, skinned alive with knives of ice while being lowered into flaming acid. Gritting her teeth, Rin tried to hold out the best she could, all the while futilely praying that maybe this time her powers wouldn't fail her, that her vaunted adaptability that had carried her through so many similar torments would kick on and save her again.

It didn't. It had failed her in the Tulip Room, it had continued to fail her in the crystal, and it was failing her now. Yuuka had found a way to beat her.

Rin's limbs gave way, and she found herself sinking down the rest of the way to the ground.

Get up, Rin.

But she couldn't. The pain was just so great.

You've felt pain before. Get up.

This was true. Rin had been hurt before, tortured even. Time and time again she had been dipped into the pool of agony, subjected to pain so blinding that she would have died had she been Human. But those were different. Then, the pain had only lasted for a few moments until her body adapted. This was different.

It's no different. Get used to it and get up.

But I can't! Rin wailed back. I can't get used to it!

"Worthless," Eirin Yagokoro said down to her. The Lunarian doctor shook her head in disgust. "One hit and she goes down. My staff has no room for quitters."

I'm not a quitter though! I just can't-

"I knew we could make her break," Princess Kaguya Houraisan said. "Her powers really were all she had. Take those away, and she's still a wimp."

And with that, she slammed the lid shut on the crystal box, sealing Rin away forever.

No! I'm not a wimp, I'm not a quitter, but this is too much! Nobody can fight through this!

"Prove it," Rumia said to her. "You've done nothing but run and hide your whole life. Well, now you can't. Time to stop running, Rin. Time to start fighting. Time to get up!"

Rin pushed herself back up onto her palms.

Great. Now sit up.

Though her limbs were trembling as the pain surged through them, Rin sat back onto her haunches. She swayed back and forth but still managed to remain upright.

Good. Now stand up.

I can't, Rin again tried to explain. It's just too much.

Too much? Too much? After everything you put me through, you're just gonna lie down and whine about it being too much? Screw that!

But-

So what if it won't stop hurting? You just spent days feeling the same pain, you should be used to it by now! And hey, what about those Hourai Immortals, huh? Aren't they supposed to have insane tolerances for pain? You've been using their reflexes, so use that too!

But I can't-

GET UP!

Rin stood up.

Oh. Well, I guess I can.

Then she opened her eyes.

A haze of yellow still clouded her vision, but through it she was able to discern a humanoid shape, one that was very tall, standing over her, and reaching down at her. Even through the veil that shrouded her eyes, she could still make out the glint of Yuuka's eye, now glowing orange.

Before Yuuka could seize her, Rin swept her leg up and around, swiping the monster's hand away and striking her across the cheek.

The veil lifted, and Rin saw Yuuka blinking down at her in surprise. Then her single eye narrowed.

The next thing Rin knew, she was hurtling backwards, arms and legs flailing. She struck the wall at the end of the hall, cracked the marble, and slumped to the floor.

Shaking off the impact, Rin rolled to her feet. But as soon as she was up, the pain returned. She staggered, but this time she was able to reorient her mind more quickly to deal with it and remained on her feet.

The pain wasn't gone. It didn't even lessen. But like Rumia's voice had said, she was now sort of used to it, and she had no lack of techniques to put it from her mind. Now that she knew what she was doing, it simply had ceased to matter. The pain was now of as much consequence as a persistent itch.

Rin squinted. Yuuka was marching toward her, one arm clenched at her side, the other held straight out. There seemed to be something on her outstretched finger, something that was glowing brightly.

Putting two and two together, Rin started to walk forward to meet her.

Yuuka paused, her brow furrowing. "What?" she said, her voice sounding strangely distorted. "How are you-"

Even with the pain now being pushed from her mind, Rin couldn't manage an all-out run, but she still increased her gait, power-walking through the power Yuuka was unleashing at her. She stretched out her own hand, reaching for the thing on Yuuka's finger.

The light of Yuuka's eye blinked. Then she swatted Rin aside.

Rin again hit the wall. She let out a weak laugh. Wow, this was just not her day.

Then she stood up again.

"How?" Yuuka demanded. She held her finger closer, increasing the agony. "You can't adapt to this. You haven't! I can tell! How are you still getting up?"

To this, Rin grinned. "Y-Yeah," she said. "I can't. But I can…g-get used to it, you know?"

Rin leapt at Yuuka, claws outstretched and teeth bared to tear her to pieces.

In response, Yuuka sidestepped her and hammered her fists down onto Rin's back as she passed.

Before Rin could recover, Yuuka had already seized her by the scruff of her neck and hoisted her up. "Oh, have you?" Yuuka sneered. She gave Rin a rough shake. "Well, that's nice and all, but ultimately pointless. Or have you forgotten that you no longer possess that fragment of Azrael? Without it, you are, quite simply, beneath me."

Rin felt something snake around her waist. She glanced down. A vine was wrapping itself around her. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, but this vine was different than the others. Instead of bright green, it was as dark as pitch, the edges of its leaves serrated with sharp teeth.

"Now, child," Yuuka said. "You say I will never understand what it means to be mortal. Perhaps you're right." She bared her teeth in a predatory grin. "Understand now what it means to be me."

The vine jerked back, and Rin found herself snapped back and forth, slamming into the walls, the ceiling, and the floor, leaving craters with every impact.

…

"How does it feel, Rin?" Yuuka crowed as she tossed Rin Satsuki around. "You've always had so much power. Now it means nothing! You cannot even begin to conceive what you face!" The vine reeled back all the way to the end of the hall. Yuuka drew her fist back as well. "Know now how little you matter."

The vine lashed forward, hurtling Rin right at Yuuka. Yuuka thrust her fist forward with enough force to reduce the girl to flying lumps of goo.

It passed through the lasso loop without touching anything.

Yuuka blinked in surprise. Rin was gone. "Huh?" she said, tilting her head to one side.

Then she felt someone tap her on the shoulder.

Yuuka turned around to see Rin standing behind her, her own fist already reeled back. Snarling, Rin lashed out at Yuuka's face.

In response, Yuuka simply raised her hand and caught Rin's fist mere centimeters from her nose, stopping it cold. "You're quick," Yuuka remarked as Rin struggled to free herself. She slowly applied pressure downward, forcing Rin back down. "But it doesn't matter. Accept that you're outmatched. It'll be easier that way.

Rin's hand lost color and became transparent. It squished up through Yuuka's fingers and started to cover her hand.

"No," Yuuka said coldly. The gold ring she wore flashed, and Rin reeled back, a smoking stump where her hand had been.

Shaking the scorched bits of goo from her hand, Yuuka shook her head and said, "My dear, I admire your tenacity, I really do, but it's starting to lose its charm. Learn your place. You are beneath me."

Rin tried to lunge up to attack again, but two vines had already snapped up to wrap around her forearms, holding her back. Smirking, Yuuka lifted up her leg and rested her boot against Rin's forehead.

"Down, insect," Yuuka said, and then she started stomping.

She stomped and stomped and stomped, until nothing remained of Rin Satsuki's head but flecks of slime splattered across the ground and clinging to the bottom of her boot. Yuuka took a step back and regarded her handiwork.

"Look at you," she said to Rin's quivering, headless body. "Where is your bravado now, insect? You are hard to kill, yes. But so are roaches." She again lifted her boot. "And in the end, they squash just the same."

Then a sudden explosion of noise and light shook her balance. Catching herself, Yuuka whirled around to see the far wall explode. The blast didn't quite reach her, but it was bright enough to make her reflexively shield her eyes. Yukari, she thought as the shock wave tore at her clothes and further mussed her hair. Withstanding such an invasion on two fronts was proving to be a wearisome task. Fortunately, Yuuka was nothing but flexible.

The light faded, and Yuuka sighed. Yukari's merry little band of divine beings had yet to truly break through, so they were settling to throwing rocks across. Or giant lasers, as the case actually was. Fine. Let them. The defenses should still hold long enough for her to-

Yuuka glanced back, and she frowned. Rin Satsuki was gone. In her place was a round hole in the ground, its edges still red with heat.

Well, now. This was proving troublesome.

…

Rin admittedly didn't have much of a gameplan beyond "Stop having my head stomped on" when she started burrowing, but it got the job done. And once she again had a head back on her shoulders, she kept right on burrowing.

Attacking Yuuka headlong was turning out to be kind of a bust. True, she had sort of taken the edge off that pain beam, but it was still slowing her down, and mounting any sort of major offensive was a lot harder than it looked.

Okay, that just meant she had to change her strategy. Maybe if dug deep enough and came back around, she could get the drop on Yuuka. Her stealth abilities had proven pretty effective before, and unlike the Shadow Youkai's power, she hadn't lost those. Because the gods knew that brute force wasn't the answer.

Then, as she was puzzling over this, the earth she was tunneling through opened up and she found herself in some kind of room.

It looked like some sort of storage cellar, filled with barrels, casks, and chests. What all those containers held she didn't feel like finding out. The various fungi clinging to the walls, spreading over the floor, and hanging from the ceiling were of more pressing concern to her, especially since they were now rearing up in response to her sudden appearance.

Rin leapt as several tendrils lashed out at her. She turned invisible to the senses in midair, bounded off a crate, and scampered over to cling to a collection of barrels.

Peering back, she saw most of the fungi clustering around where she had disappeared like a crowd of onlookers befuddled by a street magician's disappearing act. Okay, good. That meant that her stealth abilities hadn't been countered yet. Of course, fooling a bunch of mushrooms was a far cry from fooling Yuuka, and it wouldn't take long for them to inform her that Rin had been spotted. She needed to move quickly, regroup, and figure out her next move.

There was an imposing looking metal door at one end of the room, likely leading to another storage room. Figuring she would have better luck there than back in the ground levels, Rin leapt for it, her shape changing size and losing shape as she did. It was a tighter squeeze than the doors up above, but she was still able to squish her way through under the door into the area beyond.

Once there, she paused, looking around. Beyond was a stone hallway, one devoid of any lighting whatsoever. This presented no difficulty to Rin's youkai eyes, but it was still strange to find such a dark place in Yuuka's mansion, even if it was underground. Yuuka might be a crazy, evil creep, but she was definitely big on light and color. Here, there was none of either.

Which wasn't to say the hall was empty. Rin could make out slithering shapes of more fungi covering the bare stone and hanging from the ceiling in long tendrils. She grimaced. Passing through all that was going to be like traversing an obstacle course. Thank the gods for her shapeshifting abilities. Or rather, thank those jerks that had shot rockets into her face for having them when she had eaten them.

Still, at least they weren't reacting to her, which gave her a moment to think. Rin took a deep breath, regretted it when the air turned out to be full of spores, and quickly killed and absorbed them.

Okay, she needed to rethink how to deal with Yuuka. Fortunately the big creep was focused on her, which gave the others a chance. But Rin couldn't count on that lasting much longer, and there were still the plants for them to deal with.

The smart thing to do would probably be to just forget Yuuka entirely, find her way back to them, and escape. Let Yukari finish her off. Rin and her friends, the old and the new, could just slip out in the chaos and-

"Oh Rin!" Yuuka's called out, echoing from all around. The fungi shivered. "Where are you, you naughty girl? It's very impolite to leave in the middle of a conversation! We have differences to settle!"

Okay, scratch that. Yuuka was hunting her specifically, which meant that rejoining the others would just put her attention on them. Besides, she still needed to find and rescue Flandre, and doing so would be so much easier with Yuuka out of the way.

The problem was that Rin was no longer sure that she could take her. No, wait, she was all but positive that she couldn't take her. That scuffle had been brief but illuminating. Yuuka was right: with the Shadow Youkai gone, Rin had lost her biggest weapon. She couldn't even rely on her fire to win. And now Yuuka was far stronger than her, and this was her home turf. Sure, she could take whatever Yuuka could dish out, but they were sort of pressed for time.

Maybe if given time and some space to work in, Rin could outsmart her. The Hourai Immortals were very good at finding ways to kill things, after all. But that was a fool's hope. She needed an edge.

Then Rin's head snapped up, her eyes widening. She leapt from her perch and shot down the hall, weaving her way through the hanging fungi.

Just in time too. The stone roof caved in, and several massive flaming boulders fell in among the rubble. Apparently the battle outside was starting to get a little rough. Rin swallowed. She was out of time.

Rin pressed forward. The way the agitated fungi were writhing made progressing somewhat difficult, but fortunately they were a bit distracted.

"Rin? Rin!" Yuuka called. "I know you're near! Is this your doing? Are these vile beasts your friends? You called them here, didn't you? My home is burning and it's your fault!"

Man, Yuuka really was losing it. Rin supposed that it was a good thing that she had become so obsessed with her. It would keep her attention off of Rin's friends and keep her distracted for one of her other enemies to bump her off.

Yeah. Lucky her.

Then Rin paused. She had come up to another door made from rough iron. It was dull and ugly, but seemed to be new. No rust touched its surface. Even the fungi were keeping away from it. On it was emblazoned the sign of a Christian cross.

Rin blinked. No, it couldn't be.

Moments later she had squeezed her way through that one as well. When she reached the other side she let out a tiny gasp.

It was a circular room of grey stone bricks. There was almost no ornament to be found. No plants on the walls, no furniture, not lighting, nothing. The only thing of significance was an iron latticework in the center of the room, stretching from the floor all the way to the ceiling. Wooden stalks twisted their way up through the iron bars like vines, with sharp thorns jutting out of every bend like nails.

And in the center of it all, imprisoned within iron and wood, was child-sized coffin. Coming from within was the faint sound of small, ragged breaths.

Rin gaped up at torturous contraption. Then her eyes narrowed as her look of shock turned into a snarl of pure rage.

Moments later there was a pile of scorched twigs and twist bits of metal, and Rin was gently lowering the coffin to the ground. Several holes were drilled into its surface, through which the thorny sticks had been growing. Rin swallowed. She had a pretty good idea of what that meant. This was going to have to be done very carefully.

Moving with careful precision, she cut up the lid and peeled it away in strips. As expected, Flandre lay inside. The poor little vampire was naked and covered with blood. Her blood, to be exact. The stalks had been growing right into her, piercing her skin in numerous places.

Like Rin, Flandre had been tortured, and badly at that. To be locked up in such a tiny place, with no light, no company, not even any blood to drink, while the stalks dug right into her body. Vampires apparently only had a handful of organs that they actually needed. No doubt Yuuka was well aware of this, and had pierced Flandre accordingly. Rin also had little doubt that Flandre's heart had thorns pressing up against it at that very moment.

Flandre was half-unconscious from the pain and starvation. She let out a small, mewling whimper as Rin carefully shaved the stalks away from her body but otherwise didn't react to her friend's presence. Rin cut as closely as she could, but the bits inside of the vampire…those she had no idea how to remove. Maybe if she shrunk herself down to the size of an ant she could pick away at them or something.

Shuddering at the horrible thought, Rin brushed Flandre's sticky hair away from her face. "Flan?" she whispered. Then, realizing that Flandre was unlikely to know her in this form, she retook her original body and voice. "Flan?" she said again. "Can you hear me?"

She didn't really expect a response, but still Flandre slowly blinked her eyes. Squinting in the dark, Flandre said hoarsely, "R…Rin?"

"Yes," Rin said with a nod. "It's me. I'm here to save you."

Flandre tried to move, but fell back with a cry. "Hurts," she moaned.

"I know. Don't try to move. Yuuka's…stuck a bunch of sticks in you, and I don't know how to get them out."

"My…my heart. It hurts."

Well, that confirmed that theory. "Please, don't move," Rin said urgently. "I'll get you out. We can take of them later."

"'Kay," Flandre mumbled, her eyelids drooping closed.

Rin glanced up, her mind racing to consider her next move. The sight of her friend in this state was only adding more fuel to the murderous rage that was cooking in her gut. She wanted to hurt Yuuka. She wanted to hurt her really, really badly. Cheap tricks and overwhelming strength or not, there was no power in the world that could stop her from rending Yuuka to pieces.

But she couldn't fight and protect Flandre, not with her like this. And like Sakuya Izayoi said, using fire only put the vampire at more risk, which took yet another weapon out of Rin's arsenal.

Rin sighed. No, the safety of her friends and all those held captive by Yuuka took higher priority.

Fine. Screw Yuuka. She was going to burn anyway. Let her.

First she needed to see to Flandre first. Kneeling over, Rin grew until her back was larger than the vampire. Then she shifted her mass, growing a sort of harness on her back that reached out and gently scooped Flandre up into its embrace. It fastened itself as tightly around her as Rin dared. She didn't want to risk upsetting the thorns still in her, but also wanted to prevent any sudden and potentially fatal motion as well. All it would take is for one panicked reaction for Flandre to accidentally kill herself.

That done, Rin then thrust both hands up, fingers spread wide. A ball of white flame shot up, disintegrating the roof and blowing an exit wide open.

When Rin and Flandre emerged above ground, they did so into fire. The room they had come up into was burning, full of fire feasting on vine, root, and petal. The air was filled with smoke, and the heat was so thick that had Rin been anyone other than herself, she might have passed out from that alone.

Flandre inhaled sharply, her maimed body going stiff with terror. It was well that Rin had secured her the way she had, because otherwise she might have started thrashing. "Fire," Flandre whispered. "Fire!"

"Right," Rin whispered. "Hang on."

Her palms started to glow, and heat from her body joined that in the air. From there, a chain reaction started to form, as her mastery over her own flame spread out and asserted itself. Once she had fully asserted herself, she instructed the fire to collect itself in front of her, becoming a hotly glowing ball of white. Rin closed her fist over it and it was gone.

"Okay," she said to Flandre, who was still hyperventilating. "The fire's gone, you don't have to-"

Then the roof fell in. Apparently the second floor had been burning as well, as chunks of burning furniture and foliage spilled out all around them. Flandre screamed.

Rin quickly hopped back, taking them out of the inferno, but Flandre kept right on screaming. At first Rin thought it was out of fear, but a quick look made her gasp. Apparently some of the embers had touched Flandre's skin, and flames were sweeping up over the back of her right hand.

"Oh gods," Rin said. She quickly snuffed the flames with her amorphous extremities. "Flan, are you okay?"

Flandre could only whimper in response. Though the fire was gone, the skin was black and red, with tiny yellow blisters already starting to form.

Rin was starting to feel the icy grip of panic starting to well up within her. Though she had known just how fragile Flandre was, she was only now coming to realize exactly how unlikely it was that she was going to be able to get her out alive. Flandre didn't even have a youkai's regeneration.

For the first time in who knew how long, Rin found herself fearing Death. Not for herself of course, but for her friend. She was so used to her own invulnerability that she sometimes forgot just how mortal everyone else was. Getting Flandre out of here was going to take a miracle.

Then Rin felt another flash of terror. Flandre wasn't the only one she had to look after. The rest of the gang were still out there, along with Yuuka's twelve other captives. Sure, Sakuya Izayoi and the others were looking after them, but how long were they going to last? They were under the constant threat of murderous plants on the inside, flaming destruction on the outside, and Yuuka herself still stalked the halls. And oh yeah, that group so happened to include another vampire, so they had best keep away from the windows and the many skylights while they were fleeing for their lives!

The enormity of the task Rin faced threatened to take her legs right out from under her. She couldn't do this. She didn't have the strength to face Yuuka anymore, she couldn't save her friends, she couldn't save her kids, she couldn't even protect the trembling girl strapped to her back. All of her power, and the only person she had a prayer of saving was herself.

"Rin," Flandre said in a quiet voice.

"What?" Rin said miserably.

"Eat me."

It was very well that Rin's instinctive reaction to her jolt of surprise was to go stiff rather than jerk around, as Flandre probably would not have survived the sudden movement. "What?" she said again, this time with much more emphasis.

"Eat me," Flandre repeated. "Absorb me. Whatever you did that one time, do it again."

"Flan, I-"

"Rin. Please. I don't wanna die. You can protect me that way, right? Keep me away from the Sun and the fire?"

Rin blinked. Then she changed, morphing her body so that her head twisted around and Flandre was shifted so that they were face to face. "Flandre, are you sure about this?" she said. "Because it'll hurt. It'll hurt a lot."

"This hurts!" Flandre hissed, showing Rin her burned arm. "Fire hurts! The thorns hurt! I can feel them poking my heart, Rin! Please!"

Suddenly the red glint of her eyes starting pulsing in nauseating fashion, and her body began to tremble. "Do it," she said. "It hurts, it hurts us, can't take it, can't-"

Then the fire in her eyes blazed bright red, and her face contorted into a vicious snarl. She growled and spat, her fangs bared and dripping.

Then just like that, the fire in her eyes vanished, their color dulling to dark maroon. Flandre stopped thrashing, though the fear didn't disappear from her face. "Please, Rin," she said. "This is the only way."

Rin blinked once. Then her eyes slowly went wide as the truth of what Flandre was asking became clear to her, and, not for the first time, she felt like an idiot for not realizing it sooner. It was the perfect solution to their problem. Within her, Flandre would be protected from the Sun, the fire, and anything else hazardous to a vampire's health. The stalks would be dissolved, and when it was safe to let her out again, Flandre would be whole. And unlike the kids Rin had been hesitant to absorb earlier, Flandre knew exactly what she was getting herself into. Save for the pain the vampire would have to endure upon being absorbed, there really was no downside.

Furthermore, it would also solve Rin's other little problem. Sure, Flandre might be hurt and helpless, but that didn't change the fact that she was still one of the single most powerful, destructive forces Gensokyo had ever known. And having that power…well, Rin had been looking for an edge.

"Okay," Rin told her. "But brace yourself. I'll do it as fast as I can, but it's still gonna hurt."

Flandre nodded and squeezed her eyes shut, her face tense with anticipation.

And then the straps holding her steady started to lose their color.

…

"RIN!" Yuuka snarled as she glided through the halls. "Where are you? Stop hiding, you treacherous little gnat!"

The search for Rin Satsuki was proving to be quite the headache. The girl was very good at hiding, the Nue and Tanuki she had absorbed saw to that. However, that shouldn't matter much, here in the heart of Yuuka's domain. Her eye should have been able to pierce right through any shroud Rin wore and pluck her out of whatever hole she had scrambled into.

The problem was that there were just too many distractions. Fire was first and foremost, as was Yukari's incessant knocking. It seemed that every time Yuuka felt that she had a bead on Rin's location, another window would be smashed, or another room set alight. It didn't help that she was constantly receiving messages of distress from the garden itself. She had already told it a couple dozen times to grow a spine and deal with its problems itself, but it was continuing to complain. That was what she got for spoiling it.

"Rin!" she barked as she turned another corner. "Stop this nonsense at once! Show yourself and face me directly!"

Then she heard Rin's overlaid chorus of a voice say, "Right here."

Yuuka whirled around to see her foe charging out of the smoke, one fist cocked back and ready to strike. With a cry of rage, Rin flung herself at Yuuka, her fist swinging right for her jaw.

Yuuka sighed. Well, one had to admire the girl's persistence, if not her intelligence. Like before, she lifted her hand to stop Rin's fist in its tracks.

The next thing she knew, she was lying in the rubble of what had once been the far wall, limbs splayed in all directions, eye wide with shock. She tried to lift her right hand and found that she couldn't. Yuuka glanced down at it, and to her horror she saw that her entire forearm had acquired at least three more joints that had not been there previously, causing it flop around like an accordion. As for the hand, well, it now more resembled a deflated balloon.

She tried to open her mouth and found that troublesome as well. Yuuka gingerly lifted her left hand and touched her jaw. She winced. Yes, that was broken as well.

Though she couldn't voice the thought running through her head, every other part of Yuuka was preoccupied with a single question: What the hell just happened?

Then she heard someone giggle.

She saw Rin striding toward her, her mouth wide with a rather disturbing grin. There was something different about the girl. Her appearance had changed again. Most noticeably were the Nue wings on her back. There were still six of them, but their shape had changed, the scythes and wavy arrows becoming like the wings of a bat, only without the leathery stretch of skin that would provide flight. Beneath each wing hung a line of furiously burning lights, each one a different color of flame.

What was more, while Rin's teeth had been sharp and predatory before, now they possessed two prominent fangs, jutting out of her smile.

"Hey Yuuka," Rin said. "Guess what? Today's your lucky day. You like touching little girls, right?"

Then Yuuka saw movement. Out of the smoke more lights were approaching, like an array of lanterns. She inhaled sharply through her nose. A second Rin emerged, identical to the first. Then a third appeared, striding forward to stand with the others. And behind her was a fourth.

All four Rin Satsukis grinned down at Yuuka, murder in their smiles and madness in their eyes. The one in the lead raised her arms, talons lengthening and becoming sharper. "Then why don't you try touching me?"

And then flames ran up and down their arms as maniacal laughter filled the air.

…

Mugenkan was burning. Not all of it, not even most of it, but parts of its interior had already been gutted by the flames of the Phoenix, while outside the rainbow fires of the Dragons had made their mark. One wing was already aflame, its roof crackling and ready to collapse.

There wasn't much to burn on the inside. The walls, ceiling, and floor were already black with soot, evidence of Rin Satsuki's passage through that area. However, one bit of color remained. A small pile of pale lavender clothes lay abandoned on the floor, on top of which sat a poofy mop cap adorned with a golden crescent moon.

As fire crackled and smoke filled the air, a fine green mist began to take shape over the pile. As a humanoid form started to appear, a smooth, silky voice began to speak. "Oh no, what a tragedy," it said. "My dearest friend and most devoted admirer, struck down by a wayward blade while carrying out my wishes. Truly, my heart shall drown in tears, and the burden of my sorrow will bend my shoulders for years to come. I must be flogged for my folly, to have allowed such a darling creature to plunge headlong into danger. We have lost one of our brightest talents today, and the world is a little smaller for her unexpected loss."

Now fully formed, Mima looked contemptuously down at the empty clothes. "Of course, both you and I know that's bullshit. 'Unexpected' my incorporeal ass. Honestly child, how in the world did you not see this coming? You, who claimed to be my biggest fan, who so obsessively studied my works and was greatly influenced by my discoveries. One would think, after delving so deeply into my history, that you would at least learn my reputation. After all, there are certain things that people know me for other than magical research."

The spirit shook her head and sighed. "But then, I suppose you can hardly be blamed. There was an awful lot of that going around, I've noticed. Frankly, I'm astonished that so many of my enemies welcomed me to their table, let me sit on their councils, and left me to look after their children, all the while expecting something so brittle as friendship and claims of retirement to keep me in line. Not all of them were so eager though. I can't count how many times Byakuren would loudly proclaim my inevitable betrayal, or Shinki would call Yukari an idiot to her face for trusting me. They were right, of course. Even I admitted it. Really, Yukari has no one to blame but herself for what's to come. And neither do you."

Then Mima bent down and plucked the hat up off the ground. She lifted it high, like a Shakespearean actor holding a skull aloft. "I wish I could claim that this wasn't really all that personal, at least when it comes to you. Your friend Remilia Scarlet had done me a petty wrong by trying to take my Marisa away from me, so I did her a petty wrong in return. But though I am known for my falsehoods, sometimes the truth works even better. And the truth is that I never much cared for you, Patchouli. You are a shining example of everything that is wrong with magicians today. You stay cooped up in one of the finest libraries known to the magical community, all of that knowledge right at your fingertips. There are witches that would gladly chop off their right hand for a single afternoon among those books, and it was handed to you on a silver platter. But what have you done with such a gift? What wonders have you created, what great discoveries have you made with the treasure you possessed?" With a snort, she turned her hand, letting the hat drop. "Nothing. The thoughts and ruminations of a thousand great magicians were all yours, just waiting to be built upon, and you moldered away in your comfortable little hidey-hole, content to feed off of the accomplishments of others like a fat, lazy leech while providing little of your own."

And that, if you were wondering, is why I chose Marisa over you. I lied to you earlier, I admit it. Marisa actually was not the well of immense power I made her out to be. In truth, she had no real power at all, not a smidgen. One might even describe her as a magical invalid. Fortunately for her, she had something even better. Passion. Creativity. Ambition. A determination to overcome her disabilities and make the magical world her bitch. And she did. Oh my, she did. She studied, she stole, she experimented, she failed, and she got right back up and tried something new. To her, the discoveries of her predecessors weren't wonders to be admired but starting places to build off of. And by the time of her death, she was already in the top tiers of Gensokyo's magician community and quickly climbing, whereas you were skulking in your library, pleasuring yourself to your books. You walked in the footsteps of giant and worshipped their shadows while she was stomping out craters and blotting out the Sun. Oh sure, you might have had a clever trick or two to call your own, but so what? Even magician does. And when my Marisa stole your tricks and made them better, did anyone care who the original designer was after she had beaten them black and blue?"

Then there was a loud crack, and a section of the roof caved in. Smoldering embers fell everywhere. A corner of the empty shirt caught flame, which slowly started to spread to the rest of the pile. Mima shrugged. "Well, our time draws short, and I have other matters to attend to. Farewell, Miss Knowledge. A fitting name. It was all you ever had." A book appeared in her hand, this one a leather-bound copy of one of her better known works. She opened it up, scribbled something on the title page, and then let it drop onto Patchouli's hat. "Here. A parting gift. Treasure the leather and paper while letting the words go to waste. It is your way, after all."

And then she was gone, while the fire crept further to consume the clothing and the book, on which was inscribed Mima's name in green ink, along with the words, To My Biggest Fan.

…

Well, that was mean. Though she does have a point. I mean, come on. It's not like she didn't cheerfully admit to still being evil at every opportunity.

Anyway, in case it wasn't already obvious, I'm using those tulips as a way to include characters that I couldn't otherwise due to the Hopeless Masquerade cutoff. And no, that doesn't include Clownpiece. I thought of it, but she's too canonically powerful to wind up there. I'll sneak her in some other way.

Until next time, everyone.