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.

69. Fires of the Sun, Part 6

Fires of the Sun, Part 6

"And that just about takes care of that," Yukari said cheerfully. Having a large-scale campaign actually go right for a change had put her in a good mood. "Time to pack it in, my friends."

She waved a hand, sending an invisible signal out to the insect swarms that were now clawing at the dirt, trying to find any tasty roots that might have been missed. To her satisfaction, the message got through without a problem, which meant no more Mykrs. About time; she hated those things.

On cue, millions of wings beat the air and billions of tiny feet scrambled across the ground as the swarms stopped what they were doing and headed for home. They separated into their individual groups, each one heading for one of the gaps Yukari had opened up to take them home. There wasn't any confusion about it either; they all just knew which one to head to. Yukari had to admit, she had never given bugs much thought, but she was starting to grow very fond of them. They were just so coordinated in large groups. She made a mental note to personally reward Gensokyo's Insect Lords for their service.

"My sincerest thanks," she said, her voice carrying through the fabric of time and space to the various deities that had leant her the swarming hosts of their worlds. "Consider any longstanding debts between us settled."

A snap of her fingers, and it was done. The gaps closed up, and she and her allies surveyed the result.

The Garden of the Sun was no more. The endless fields of sunflowers had been completely consumed. The grassy meadows of wildflowers were all cut down and gobbled up, and the groves of fruit trees had all been reduced to mere splinters. Not even the stumps remained.

All that remained was bare earth and indigestible chaff, stirred up by the insects' burrowing limbs. The place had been turned into a desolate wasteland.

Yukari took a deep breath and slowly let it out. She supposed that she shouldn't be so happy to see another piece of her beloved country destroyed, but better to be devastated and free to one day recover than remain beautiful while still under Yuuka Kazami's control. She glanced upward. There, the deep blue sky was starting to pale.

For a long time, nobody had anything to say. Even the Dragons seemed transfixed by the destruction that lay before them. Yukari was fine with that. Some things just didn't required words.

But of course, Shinki had to go and provide them. "Well," she said, glancing around. "That was…thorough." Something about the way she said it implied that they would have been better off doing that from the beginning. As if to punctuate the point, she scratched her scabby skin where the fungus had damaged it, causing flakes to flutter off.

The spell broken, Yukari twitched. Then she stretched her limbs and stood off of her gap onto the open air. "Indeed it was. And I know you didn't actually say it, but you're right. We should have done that at the beginning."

To this, Astorfax, the red Dragon, turned her long neck around to glower at the pair. That was supposed to be our job, her voice said in Yukari's mind. We were brought down here for a specific purpose, and you just handed it over to insects.

"Yes, well, you weren't doing an especially impressive job of it, were you?" Yukari shot back. This seemed to sit poorly with all five of the celestial reptiles, as they all twisted around to face her, their toothy mouths already open to start roaring.

She laughed. Oh dear, Dragons and their pride. "Oh, calm down. I was only joking. And our job is far from done. The swarms have knocked down the wall for us, but the master of the castle still remains." Well, presumably at least. There was still the off-chance that Rin Satsuki had taken care of that problem for them. Not that Yukari herself would mind if that were the case, but the Dragons might feel a bit slighted. Too bad for them.

Still, that little reminder seemed to sober them. They closed their mouths, the anger in their gemstone eyes giving way to uneasiness. Yukari had to keep from laughing again. For all of their huff and puff, the prospect of facing Yuuka Kazami directly still worried them. Some legendary beings they were.

"We ought to go in now," Sariel spoke before the spat could escalate. "There are still those that need our help within."

"Very true," Yukari nodded. "All right, folks. Time to storm the castle. And remember what I told you: no holds' barred when it comes to Yuuka or her Shinigami, watch out for any remaining mortals that might have survived, leave Flandre Scarlet to me, and for the love of all that is sane, do not attack Rin Satsuki should we encounter her. Seriously. That never turns out well."

The others nodded grudgingly, all save for Sariel. The technically Fallen Archangel was staring down at the endless swaths of bare dirt, its brow furrowed in puzzlement.

"Right-o," Yukari said, rising up. "All right. Let's go finish this."

Passing over what once had been the Garden of the Sun was an odd experience, in that it seemed utterly mundane. The scarce number of other times Yukari had visited the air had been thick with Yuuka's presence. Her essence had been infused in every dewdrop and spread throughout the endless sea of green, yellow, and brown. The very air had been humid with it. To simply breathe was to know that Yuuka was anywhere and everywhere, at least in spirit. It had been her domain, bent entirely around her will.

Now Yukari felt next to nothing. Oh, lingering echoes of Yuuka's presence still echoed, but they had faded to the point of only being noticeable if one were specifically looking for them. The perpetual summer had been broken, and the land had been wrested from her control.

Excellent.

Still, there was something that Yukari couldn't help but be concerned about. She still detected faint signs of life moving beneath the earth. It didn't feel like Yuuka or her leafy minions, but there was definitely something alive down there. Furthermore, it seemed to be growing.

"Do you feel that?" she said to her companions.

"Yes," Sariel said, its brow furrowing. "There is…a considerable amount of malice coming from beneath. I can feel the desire for violence bubbling up."

It's not the plants, said Arexerion.

"I know," Yukari said. "But it's definitely something."

"Yuuka's captives, perhaps?" Shinki suggested. "For all we know she has an entire city of dungeons down there."

Sariel shook its head. "No. Anger and hate I feel in abundance, but no pain or despair. Very little fear. Just determination for violence."

Friends of Yuuka, then, Retorang suggested. Mercenaries, probably.

"That's likely," Yukari said, but she frowned. While she would not put it past Yuuka to bring in friends, there was still something wrong, something she couldn't put her finger on. "All right, stay alert. We still don't know what-"

Suddenly a massive chunk of metal was thrust up from the earth to soar into the sky. It shot into the midst of the befuddled divine beings and exploded, showering them with red-hot shrapnel.

"All right, here we go!" Yukari as she threw up a barrier around the metal before anyone was hurt. Several other similar bits of artillery were being launched into the sky from beneath all around them. She glanced down. "Time for round-"

Then she saw down into the hole the metal boulder had created, and her face went pale.

"WAIT!" she screamed before anyone could retaliate.

It was too late. Retorang swooped around and breathed a jet of flame straight down into the hole.

A hole filled with the denizens of the Underworld.

…

Deep Within

It was a good, long time before the dust finally settled.

When it did, Rin was up to her shins in the stuff. It was everywhere: coating the walls, the ceiling, and laying in thick piles on the floor. She had thought that her previous rampages through the halls had produced a lot of ash, but that was nothing compared to the heaps and heaps of fine, grey grains that lay all around her.

But that was completely fine with her. Because all that dry, grey dust means that there was no more slime. Which in turn meant no more tentacles, no more blades, no more eyes, and no more creepy limbs. And most important of all, there was no more Yuuka. The power of Flandre Scarlet, channeled through Rin Satsuki, had finally done her in.

And now there was just dust. Nothing left but dust.

I did it, Rin thought numbly. All around her, she could see the golden wires connecting everything in the world to one another. And where those wires came together, she could see the Eyes. The Eye of the wall, the Eyes of the columns, the Eye of the mansion itself. But what she was unable to find was the Eye of Yuuka Kazami. It was no longer in her hand, nor did it reside anywhere in the piles of dust. She had crushed it. She had killed it.

She had won.

I beat her! Her mouth, both the one on her physical body and the one on her mental one, was hanging open in disbelief. But as she looked around at the glorious devastation, it started to curve up into a smile of relief. I did it! I really, really did it! I won, I won, I won…

Wait, no. That wasn't entirely accurate. They had won. She and Flandre. Sure, she had done all the actual fighting, but it had been Flandre's spirit fueling her, just as it had been Flandre herself who had overcome Yuuka when she had tried to invade Rin's mind. This victory was to be shared, and Rin was actually ecstatic that she had someone she could share it with.

She started to turn toward Flandre to celebrate, but the little vampire had apparently arrived at the same conclusion faster than she had.

"We did it!" Flandre whooped as she grabbed Rin from behind. Rin found herself swept right off her feet and swung around like a stuffed toy. "We did it, we did it, we did it!"

"All right, all right!" Rin laughed. "Yes we did! Now-urk." Again Flandre had forgotten her strength, and Rin now found it difficult to speak.

"Flan," she choked. "You're…you're crushiiiiing-"

"Oops," Flandre said bashfully, though her voice was still giddy. She gingerly set Rin down. "Sorry.

"S'kay," Rin grunted as she rubbed her aching stomach. She shakily lifted a hand high into the air, palm out. "Maybe we'd better settle for a high-five."

Flandre just stared. "What's that?"

Rin blinked. "You don't know-Wow, uh, okay. Hold your hand up like this." Still confused, Flandre obeyed. Rin said, "And then we do this." She lightly clapped her hand against Flandre's palm. "And that's called a high-five."

"Oh," Flandre said, staring with bewilderment at her own hand. "And…that's good, right?"

"Yes, Flan. That's good. It means, 'Yippee, we did good.'"

"Oh." Then Flandre's confused look disappeared, replaced by a grin of delight. "Okay!"

The next thing Rin knew, she was lying flat on her back, her head pounding like a war drum. Overhead she could see about six very blurry but identical figures framed by a scarlet halo of light, all of them moving in a circle before her as they stared down at her with red eyes.

"Rin?" they said, their voices sounding like they were speaking through water. "Are you okay?"

Frowning, Rin shook away the dazedness, though her headache remained. Flandre snapped into focus over her. "Yeah," Rin said as she gingerly touched her throbbing forehead. "I'm good."

"Sorry."

"S'kay," Rin said again. "Um, to do a high-five, you're supposed to hit the other person's hand, not their head."

"Their hand? Oh yeah. Right. Got it."

Flandre raised her hand, and Rin realized what she intended. "No, no, no!" she squealed, holding her hands up and away from her head. "We did it once already, it's fine! Don't squish my hands!"

"Oh," Flandre said, and she giggled. "Sorry."

"All good. Uh, help me up?"

This time Flandre was very gentle when she took Rin's hand and hoisted her to her feet. They looked at each other, and Rin let out a giggle of her own.

"Wow," she said as she continued to rub her head. "We really did it, huh?"

Flandre smiled, and despite her fangs, her eyes, her wings and halo, there was nothing scary about it at all.

Then her smile faltered, and her face fell. Her cheeks scrunched up, and she started to cry.

Rin blinked in surprise at the sudden change. "Uh, Flan?" she said, reaching over to touch Flandre's shoulder. "What's wrong?"

"Dead," Flandre whimpered. She wiped her eyes with her arm and blew her nose against the back of her wrist. "Yuuka's dead. I killed another person. I promised Remi that I'd never blow someone else up again."

"Uh, you didn't. I did, remember?"

"I still showed you how. I broke my promise."

"I thought you didn't like your sister anymore."

Flandre shrugged. "Doesn't mean I wanna start hurting people again."

Rin gave her a look. "Rin. C'mon. It was Yuuka. You can't tell me she didn't deserve it. Remember that coffin with all the thorns she stuck you in?"

Flandre winced. "Yeah, but Remi said-"

"Flandre," Rin said firmly. "Look. You're not with Remilia anymore. You're with me. And unlike-" Rin had to take a second to censor out the very unflattering adjective she was about to use to describe Flandre's sister. "-unlike Remilia, I've actually been through a lot of the same stuff you have, and know what it's like to always be worried about hurting other people by accident. And let me tell you this: Yuuka was about as strong as we are, and was even scarier than we are, but she never, ever cared about not hurting anyone else. Believe me, the world is a lot better off without her."

"I guess," Flandre said doubtfully. "It's just-" Then her eyes darted over to the screen and she frowned. "Hey, wait. What…what is that?"

"Huh?" Rin turned to look for herself.

For a moment she wasn't sure what Flandre had noticed. All she saw was a soot-covered hall filled with piles and piles of grey dust and crisscrossing golden threads binding together several unblinking Eyes. But then her eyes focused on a small, black object sticking out of one of the dust piles. Curiously, it had no Eye of its own, and thus was not connected to any of the gold threads, hence why Rin hadn't noticed it at first.

"That's," Rin said as she slowly approached. "Uh, I'm not sure what that its." She cautiously reached down to brush the dust aside. "It looks like-"

Suddenly she jerked her hand back, while her mental body all but fell backward. "What is it?" Flandre said, her wings flaring in alarm.

"I don't know," Rin said as she shook her arm out. "But…damn, it's cold."

Some of the dust had been brushed aside, and Rin now saw that she was looking at a knife. It was made from some sort of metal so black that light seemed to literally bend into it. There was a strange sort of aura about it, one that was dark and pulsing. It had a simple round handle that looked like it was made of glass and no ornamentation.

There was something horribly wrong about that knife. Rin hadn't even touched the thing, and yet just putting her hand close to it had felt like sticking her fingers into a cold fire. Just standing next to it gave her the willies.

"I think…" Rin said slowly as she backed away. "I think that's the thing Yuuka stabbed me with. You know, that made us…hurt."

Flandre swallowed, and for a moment her eyes pulsed worryingly, as if the Lunatic aspect were about to emerge. But they cooled and she said, "What is it?"

"No idea," Rin said. "And I don't want to find out."

"Me neither," said Flandre. She glanced about at the space outside the screen and shivered. "I don't like it here. Can we go?"

"Oh, hell yes," Rin sighed as she wearily ran her fingers back through her hair. Then she smiled. "Man, I can't wait to see the look on everyone's face when I tell that that we beat Yuuka Kazami."

…

Rin Satsuki rushed from the hallway, leaving the vanquished remains of the mansion's defeated master behind. For a time, the hallway was empty, as silent and as dead as a mausoleum.

For a time, nothing moved, saved for some dust stirred by a draft. Then a figure stepped out from behind a corner at the other end. It watched quietly for a time, waiting to see if Satsuki would return. When she didn't, the figure walked across the hall, its leather boots making as much sound as a cat's footfalls on a carpet.

It reached the place where the black knife had been left, still partially covered in Yuuka's dust. Pursing its lips, it stared down at the wicked thing for a time, eyes narrowed in thought. Then, with a short glance back to where Satsuki had disappeared, it knelt down and picked it up.

…

Wriggle sat apart from most of the others with her back to the wall. Rumia was curled up mostly in her lap as she hovered somewhere between delusional wakefulness and deep oblivion. Her body was shivering as Wriggle held her close. She wondered if her friend even knew where she was anymore.

All around her, everyone was waiting in their own way. Those who weren't even conscious were, of course, not doing anything. A few of the others were too scared to do anything other than huddle together and wait for what they thought to be the end. But a handful of the rest were taking the opportunity to make themselves useful. They wandered from girl to girl, checking up on the unconscious ones while offering small words of comfort to those too scared to move. Despite being the most timid members of their little gang, Mystia and Daiyousei were among that number. Naturally, Cirno was occupying the completely useless middle ground by being perfectly ambulatory but more concerned with angrily pacing back and forth through the center of the room than with seeing to her companions' wellbeing.

Not that Wriggle was in any position to criticize. She was in decent shape herself, but couldn't muster the energy to move out of the spot she had marked for herself. Hell, her comforting of Rumia was partially out of needing an excuse not to get up. It was just so hard to care.

Yuuka was still out there, and Rin was fighting her. The friend that had become a monster and the monster that had become Wriggle's friend, now locked in mortal combat. Wriggle honestly wished she could say that she had complete faith in Rin's chances, but she couldn't. Okay, Rin could take an unbelievable beating, sure. And given that she had sort of borrowed Flandre for the fight, she could no doubt dish one out as well. But it was Yuuka. And this was her domain. Yuuka was scary enough on her own, but here she was pretty much God. And as hard as Wriggle tried to mentally root for Rin to win, she just found herself counting down the minutes until Yuuka returned.

Wriggle was so caught up with her rueful musings that she almost didn't notice that someone approaching until she had sat down next to her. Blinking, Wriggle turned her head to see the youkai girl with short blue hair, the one who seemed unable to open her mouth or one of her eyes. She was sitting with her knees drawn up under her chin and was shooting sidelong glances over to Wriggle and Rumia.

"Uh, hi?" Wriggle said. "What do you want?"

The girl's shoulders slumped. Then she reached up to tap her fused lips.

"Right," Wriggle said. "Can't talk, huh?"

The girl shook her head.

"Yuuka did that to you, didn't she?"

No nod, but the way the girl cringed at Yuuka's name told Wriggle all she needed to know.

"Gotcha," Wriggle sighed. She couldn't fathom a reason why Yuuka would want one of her slaves to be mute and half-blind. Yuuka had always liked it when Wriggle made noise. And the eye thing was just weird. But then, Yuuka was nothing but incomprehensible.

"You're scared, huh?" Wriggle said. Well, that much was obvious, but if she was going to have to do all the talking she might as well start with the obvious. A beat, and then the nod gave a quick, almost invisible nod. Wriggle sighed. She wished she had some words of comfort for her, but lying wasn't her strong point. "Yeah. Me too."

This evidently hadn't been what the girl was hoping to hear. She drew herself into a tighter ball as her body started to tremble. Wriggle felt a brief stab of guilt, but what else could she have done? She was in no position to tell anyone that it was going to be okay while being so certain of their own impending doom.

A few moments passed, and then Wriggle sighed again. "Okay, look. I know Yuuka's freaking terrifying. Believe me, no one knows that better than I do. But Rin's the other scariest person I know. And she's got-" Wriggle briefly stumbled over how exactly to explain Rin's absorption abilities but decided that it wasn't worth it. "Well, she's got Flandre Scarlet helping her. You know who that is, right?"

The girl actually looked surprised at that, as well as a little nervous.

"Right. She's scary too, yeah? Well, she's on our side now, and her and Rin are fighting Yuuka right now. And believe me, they are more than a handful for her." It was weird, but as she talked, Wriggle actually found herself feeling a little emboldened. "And besides, Yuuka's pissed off a lot of people, and I mean a lot. And as I understand it, they're all lined up outside right now, trying to get in and kick her ass." Which so happened to be true. Her insect friends had told her as much before leaving, their mission having been accomplished. "So even if Rin and Flandre can't pull it off, someone else will, and they'll save us. Trust me, Yuuka's getting what's coming to her today."

The girl looked less than fully convinced, but Wriggle's words seemed to have at least reassured her a little bit. The trembling eased a bit, and her shoulders relaxed a little bit. Wriggle glanced her over, wondering what her story was. Before Yuuka that was. She wasn't wearing much, just a pair of worn bloomers, which was more than many of the others had managed to keep. And the look on her face was terrified, yes, but didn't have that broken, hollow quality Wriggle saw in some of the others, so she probably hadn't been there as long. But in Wriggle's mind, any amount of time spent in Yuuka's possession was too long.

I did this to her, Wriggle found herself thinking. When I ran away. That's what made Yuuka snap. That's what made her start, ugh, collecting them. How long had she been there anyway? Had she been imprisoned in that tulip all the while when Wriggle and her friends had been living in luxury? Was abusing her what Yuuka had been doing whenever she retired from playing hostess? Rin had said she had heard girl crying ever since her own arrival.

Wriggle sighed. She mentally put a stop to that line of thought. Either way, it was too late for that. What was done was done. The only thing to do now was hope that they all could walk away from this nightmare.

So Wriggle reached over and placed her hand over one of the girl's, where it rested on her knees. The girl stiffened at the touch. She cringed a bit, the muscles in her neck tightening.

Cursing herself for forgetting what the last person to touch the girl had been like, Wriggle almost withdrew her hand with a muttered apology, but the girl suddenly squeezed her fingers around Wriggle's, keeping her hand in place.

Wriggle froze, wondering what to do now. But apparently the girl had already decided, as she moved in closer, grabbing onto Wriggle's arm with both hands and holding it close while leaning her head against the firefly's shoulder.

A beat passed, and then Wriggle tentatively reached over with her other hand to put it on the girl's shoulder.

Then she heard a dry, rasping chuckle. "Wow. Wriggle. Props," said a hoarse voice, coming from right under Wriggle's chin. "Even here, you still got game."

The muted girl let out a very muffled squeal of surprise and jerked away. For her part, Wriggle felt only relief as the bundle in her lap started to move. "Rumia, hey," she said, helping the blonde youkai sit up. "You're awake."

Rumia coughed painfully. "Never fell asleep," she muttered. "Gods, I wish I could. Still, sort of blacked out a little there. What the hell's going on?"

"Uh, well, we lost Sakuya Izayoi and the others, no idea if any of them are still alive. Rin's sort of absorbed Flandre and she's fighting Yuuka right now, winner take all. We're all just sort of trapped here until that happens."

Rumia managed a very small, very fragile grin. "I guess…we'd be the 'all,' huh?" She groaned and rubbed her head. "Oh my sweet spirits, my head…"

As Wriggle helpfully rubbed the back of Rumia's shoulders, she noticed the muted girl watching them inquisitively. When she saw that she had caught Wriggle's eye, she pointed first to the firefly, and then to Rumia. Then she lifted her hands to make a heart shape with her fingers, her brow knitted in questioning.

Rolling her eyes, Wriggle shook her head. The girl looked relieved. Wriggle wasn't sure what to make out of that.

"So," Rumia said as she coughed again. "Waiting for the end, huh? Big clash of Gensokyo's scariest, and we're stuck here waiting for it to be over."

"I guess. Sort of the way things-"

"ALL HAIL THE QUEEN, BABY!" Rin crowed as she strode into the room. She was wearing her mishmash battle body, with her six glowing Flandre Scarlet wings spread wide and her arms outstretched in victory. "THE HERO HAS ARRIVED!"

…

"ENOUGH!" Yukari shrieked. "STOP!"

Maybe the Dragons simply didn't hear her over the roaring of their own fire (doubtful, given that their senses were quite literally godlike). Maybe they had simply got caught up in the moment due to having been blueballed from violence for too long. If so, then that was certainly a knock against their supposed divine Zen. Or maybe they were just feeling contrary. Whatever the reason, Yukari's screams and the screams of the Underworlders caught in the path of their fiery destruction went unheeded.

Caught up in a dangerous cocktail of fury and panic, Yukari thrust both arms at the jets of fire, hands out and palms up. The fire suddenly stopped halfway and collected, as if caught in invisible bowls.

With a growl, Yukari swept her arms up, and the flames suddenly reversed direction, doubling back to splash the surprised Dragons in the face.

The Dragons were of course unharmed. Fire was harmless to them, even their own. But just because a spritz of water is harmless to dogs doesn't meant spraying them in the face won't put them in a bad temper. They reeled around, letting out bellows that sounded something between enraged roars and smoky coughs. Then they turned their furious gazes upon Yukari.

Their toothy maws opened, and a ball of flame formed in the back of their mouth, each one the same color as their hides.

"Enough of that, you celestial twits!" Yukari snapped as she swept her hand to one side, smacking them in the sides of their faces with a wave of force. The Dragon tumbled to the side, their flames snuffing in surprise. "Look at what you're-"

Messaling the amethyst Dragon scrambled upright and turned his head toward Yukari. He opened his mouth again, ready to engulf her with flame.

Then a pale hand seized him by the whiskers and pulled hard, yanking to the side. "Cease this at once!" Sariel snapped as the bewildered beast was hauled to the side like a chastised dog. "You are spilling innocent blood!"

What? Messaling said in confusion.

Pursing her lips, Yukari pointed. The Dragons looked, and then their gemstone eyes went wide with horror.

The battle cries and rocking flinging had all stopped. Now people were rushing from the newly opened holes in a panic, youkai and fairies and even the occasional Human, all rushing toward the places where the Dragons had spewed fire while calling out for help. As for those specific holes in question, well, there weren't much noise coming from them. What they did have was smoke: great, billowing columns of smoke, each the color of the Dragon that had incinerated all within.

No, Messaling said.

"Yes," Yukari said.

But you said there would be no mortals, save for the ones we were to rescue!

"I said I wasn't involving any mortals." Yukari took a deep breath. "But as that other unfortunate gaggle I had to pluck out of there recently proved, it seems that they're bound and determined to throw themselves in the flame's path regardless." She shook her head. "All right, I have to handle this. Thank you for your assistance, but you five should probably just go."

What? Messaling said in disbelief. But…Yuuka isn't…

"I said go!" Yukari snapped. "You've done enough!"

There was a lengthy pause as the five beasts of legend regarded her with grave eyes. Then Retorang said, Our king is not going to be happy about our…misuse.

"Tell him to take it up with me at the next council meeting," Yukari said coldly. "Now, are you going to leave, or am I going to have to vacuum you up?"

Another pregnant beat passed. And then the Dragon's beat the air and they lifted off as one, leaving the mortal world behind.

That taken cared, Yukari turned her attention back to the carnage beneath the ground. Think, Yukari. Think. Yes, this is a debacle, but it's not an escalating one. Which means all you have to do is see to the immediate damage and work your way from there.

She held out her hands, and gaps opened all around the columns of smoke. Out of them pouring a glittering, pale blue mist. There weren't many types of magic that could quench Dragonfire, but among the many advantages to being Yukari Yakumo was having instant access to any sort of magic within Gensokyo whenever she wanted. The mist seeped into the holes, putting out flames, staunching smoke, and (hopefully) soothing burns.

"Yukari," Shinki said in a low, dangerous tone. "Explain."

"Well, obviously all of your rocks-for-brains neighbors decided to suit up and rampage all over our battlefield!" Yukari barked at her. "What, you think I'm responsible for this?"

"You said there were-"

"I can't control everything, Shinki! I wish I could, it would make my life so much easier, but I can't." Yukari took a deep breath. "Now, listen closely. I'm about to open some gaps straight into the heart of your capital city. You will go through those gaps. You will assemble the best healers and damage control staff Makai has. And you will bring them here. And I want it done within five fucking minutes. Do you understand me?"

Shinki stared. "Wait, five minutes? How are we supposed to-"

The gap ripped open right in front of her.

"I'll do it," Sariel said. Before Shinki could say anything, the beautiful androgynous being had already passed through the gap, returning to its home to fetch help.

With her sibling gone, Shinki shot a glare over to Yukari. Still actively pouring mist out over the dead and wounded, Yukari glared back. Bad blood be damned, she wasn't taking the blame for this.

"So," Shinki said. "If not you, then who? Mima?"

Yukari inhaled deeply. "Probably," she said. "Or they worked themselves into a vengeful fury all on their own. Honestly, I'd believe either."

"You are aware that Dragonfire is among the few magics that can destroy a youkai's essence beyond regeneration, yes?"

"Thank you, Shinki!" Yukari yelled. "I had no idea!" Shaking her head, she swiped her hand through the air. Crackling blue sparks trailed in her fingers' wake, which then collected together to form miniature ghostly images of the three people she trusted enough to help quell this disaster.

Byakuren Hijiri, Kanako Yasaka, and Kotohime Sonozika certainly had not been expecting to be contacted from Yukari that day. Indeed, Byakuren looked as if she were currently staring out a window while lost in thought, Kanako seemed to be in the middle of a conversation with someone, and Kotohime, well, she was sitting on a toilet with her pants around her ankles and an open newspaper in her hands.

Yukari did not care. "All of you!" she said. "Eyes front!"

Byakuren turned and blinked in surprise when she saw Yukari's ghost image standing before her. Kanako scowled in annoyance and told whoever she was speaking to, likely her shrine maiden, to make herself scarce. And Kotohime almost toppled over in shock. She hastily yanked her pants back up and stood up straight, her face colored with embarrassment. Yukari hoped, for her sake, that she had been defecating, as there had been no wiping involved.

"Ladies, I'm going to keep this short," Yukari said. "As expected, my campaign against Yuuka went from surprisingly successful to disappointingly bad, and now we have numerous civilian casualties that need help."

"Civilian casualties?" Kanako said. "How are there civilian casualties if-"

"If I wanted you to talk I would have said so!" Yukari roared. "I don't, so shut up and listen!"

Kanako shut up.

"Now pay attention. The Garden of the Sun has been destroyed, yes. So the danger is gone. But thanks to some very stupid decisions made by some very stupid people, there was a considerable amount of collateral damage. So what's going to happen is that you all are going to go and assemble whatever people you have to help with damage control. Healers, rescue workers, and anyone else you can think of. I'm going to open large gaps in front of your respective headquarters, and you bring those people through those gaps to come help get this mess under control, do I make myself clear?"

Still bewildered, Kotohime's mouth opened and closely silently for a bit, but in the end she managed a shaky salute. Kanako stared holes into Yukari, but she slowly nodded. A moment later Byakuren did as well.

"Good," Yukari said. "Now get to it!"

She waved her hand, banishing their images.

Why? she thought in despair. Every time. Just why? I did everything I could to keep this from happening, and they go and haul themselves right into the middle of it!

But despite recent trends, Yukari felt that she couldn't just chalk this up to spectacularly bad luck. No, this had an air of malice behind it, especially when coupled with the news of her troublemaker of a doppelganger.

Yukari's hands were shaking, and she clenched them into fists at her sides. Mima. If this was your doing, if this is your petty way of balancing the scales, then I promise you, I'm not only going to upset that balance, I'm going to rip the scales to pieces and use them to tear your smirking soul to quivering shreds. And when I'm done, I am going to put them in a box and hand-deliver them to Hell myself. But it won't be the Gensokyo Hell, Mima. Oh no. You're not getting off that easy. You like being evil so much? Well, there is a place that was prepared for people like you before the dawn of time. I'm taking you to the Abyss itself. Then you'll get to see just how little you ever really mattered.

"Yukari?"

Yukari turned. There, Sariel was standing, a large crowd of its people gathered behind it. Under normal circumstances having a Fallen Archangel of Death appear accompanied by a host of demons would be a cause for concern, but since this host was made up of healers, caretakers, relief workers, and the like, Yukari only felt relief.

"Thank you," she said, some of the tension leaving her shoulders. She tilted her head toward the devastation. "Well people, your job is self-evident. Get to it."

As the demons rushed over to provide as much aid as they were able, Yukari looked away, not at the wounded or their panicked brethren, not at the hollow-eyed Fallen that had come with her, but towards what appeared to be a dark speck in the distance. Her eyes narrowed, and her vision zoomed in on the burned and hollowed-out husk of a once-beautiful mansion, now a blackened wreck surrounded by the ash of the garden it had contained.

Yuuka was presumably still inside, assuming Rin Satsuki had not made an end of her. Yukari would have no objections if that were the case, but preferred to assume the worst. She just hoped that whoever had emerged the victor in their battle had not risen from the ashes as a far more deadly monster.

…

Rin didn't often have the chance to feel like a hero. In fact, most of the time she felt like a scumbag, a victim, a failure, or some combination of the above. Heroism was an alien experience for her, but now that she had earned it, she was determined to enjoy it to the fullest.

Fortunately, everyone else was more than willing to agree with her. "Rin!" Cirno cheered. Naturally, the ice-fairy was already darting toward her with her arms wide while most of the others were still cringing back in fear. She glomped Rin around the waist and excitedly hopped around while singing, "You did it, you did it, you did it!" No doubt she would have lifted Rin fully off the ground and swung her around had she the strength.

"Darn right I did!" Rin said as she seized Cirno's neck with her arm and dug her knuckles into the ice-fairy's forehead. As annoying as Cirno was at times, every now and then she reminded Rin why she liked her. "Yuuka had nothing on me!"

The others were starting to approach as well, albeit cautiously. "Really?" Mystia said as she drew near. "Yuuka's dead? You killed her?"

In answer, Rin dropped the struggling fairy and shot Mystia a wink and a thumb's up.

Mystia and Daiyousei exchanged solemn looks, as if they weren't sure if they believed her.

"Oh, what?" Rin said crossly. "I did! You think I'd be back here if I hadn't?"

"Yeah, come on!" Cirno said as she bounded right back up. "Stop looking so glum! We won!"

"We?" Rin said.

"Yes," Cirno said, staring. "We. Who else?"

Rin rolled her eyes at that, but she had to laugh. "Okay, okay, all right. We won." She held up her hand, and Cirno gleefully clapped it with her own.

"Oh," Flandre said from inside her as she watched. "So that's how you do it?"

Yeah, Rin said. But, uh, don't do it like her. You're way stronger than she is.

"Okay."

The others were starting to come around, or at least those that were able. There was the girl with the removable head who seemed to have finally come around, the blue-haired one that still had her mouth and one eye sealed shut, a couple of demons, the trembling vampire, a dark-haired youkai with a puffball tail, and a golden-haired fairy. All of the others were still out, including, to Rin's relief, the loudmouthed Amanojaku with the horns.

"Is it true?" whispered the vampire as she wrung her hands. "Is Yuuka really gone?"

"Yup!" Rin said. She ginned and raised her fists over her head. "Yuuka is d-d-d-dead and gone!"

The vampire gaped at her, her mouth hanging open in disbelief. She looked down at her hands as her mouth worked its way around wordless syllables.

"Oh," said the youkai with the puffball tail. She covered her mouth with her hand and rocked back and forth on her heels. "Oh. Oh." Next to her, the blue-haired youkai looked like she was starting to hyperventilate through her nose.

Rin blinked. "Er, are you guys…okay?" She starting to wonder if she had handled the breaking of the news a little badly. "Like, everything's okay, right? There's nothing to-"

Then she fell silent. They were crying. They were holding each other and crying.

Okay, so maybe should have been a little less braggy and a little more tactful.

Sighing, Rin grimaced and turned away. It was probably better if she gave them a few moments. If she started talking again she was likely to just inhale more foot.

Then she saw Wriggle standing nearby. The firefly was staring at her with the oddest expression on her face.

"Huh?" Rin said. Then she remembered Wriggle's singular history with the deceased in question and wilted even further. "Oh. Oh crap. Um, look, I know you probably had a bunch of stuff you wanted to say to Yuuka, and trust me, if I coulda gotten you your closure, I would-"

Wriggle breathed out. "No," she said, her voice thick. "No, i-it's okay. I'm just…you know. Glad it's over."

"Right," Rin said nodding. "Over." Part of her wondered how much of that was true.

They stood in awkward silence for a bit, and then Wriggle blurted out, "But Elly! What happened to Elly?"

Rin froze. "What?"

Biting her lower lip, Wriggle reached over and took Rin by the arm. She led her over a ways from the others so that they could have some measure of privacy. "Rin, did you see Elly?" she said in a low voice. "Is she all right?"

…

Coughing and crying, Elly hauled herself along on her elbows and knees through the pitch-black underground tunnel that the plants had left her in. Her entire body was covered with dirt, her body still hurt from being knocked around by Rin Satsuki, and tears were turning her cheeks into a muddy mess.

"It's not fair," she whispered to herself, as she had done repeated through the whole, miserable journey. "It's not fair. It's not fair. It's not fair."

Then she paused. The dirt she had been crawling through had changed its consistency, becoming dry and flaky. Ash. She was crawling through ash. Furthermore, the moist, earthy smell of the soil was now tinged with the scent of smoke.

Elly sneezed and pressed on. That had to mean she was getting close, right? There wouldn't be ash if she wasn't near to where the fires were burning. And the plants wouldn't have left her there if she was in any danger of getting burned, right?

Right?

Then she saw light. Pale, smoky light was streaming from up ahead, illuminating a squarish exit, partially blocked by piles of ash.

Elly's breath caught in her throat, but given the smoke that just made her start coughing. She hastened her pace, pushing her way through the ash until she finally emerged from the tunnel and was able to stand up.

From the look of things, she was in one of Mugenkan's many cellars, or what was left of it. The crates of supplies, from the dry-storage food to the raw materials she used for repairs around the mansion were all destroyed, and the numerous species of fungi that lived in all the subterranean rooms were blackened husks. Parts of the ceiling had caved in, which accounted for the sporadic sunbeams, and the walls had been demolished.

Elly swallowed back the growing lump in her throat as she looked around. Mugenkan was dead. Her beautiful home was gone. And now she had no place to go.

It wasn't the first time she had been forced to leave a place. Living with Yuuka meant often needing to make a hasty exit when they had worn out their welcome with the natives. But they had always been able to pack up the mansion itself (how, Elly had never bothered to ask) and escape with all of their possessions intact. And Yuuka had always been there to find them a new home.

But now Yuuka was gone. Mugenkan was gone. Elly was all alone, in a country full of enemies.

Sniffling, Elly pulled out a length of polished wood from the filthy ribbon that had been tied into a lovely white bow around her waist when the day had begun. She gave it a flick, and it seemed to unfold in her grasp. Steel flashed, and the blade of her scythe snapped into place.

Using the scythe as a walking stick, Elly limped her way through the wreckage. One of the nearby caved-in walls looked like it opened to one of Mugenkan's many underground passages, so she made her way toward that. There was no chance in hell she was going to risk going topside just yet.

As she walked, Elly reoriented the map of the mansion's layout inside of her head. Okay, she wasn't far from the kitchen. Surely at least one of the food storage rooms had to have survived. It wasn't much, but if she was to survive without Yuuka, then she had to…

Elly's chest tightened, and the lump in her throat grew too large to ignore.

"Yuuka," she sobbed as she hobbled her way through the passage. A few more sunbeams were streaming down up ahead, where the passage ceiling and the floor of the room above had been smashed. Why? You said you'd always look out for me. I don't wanna be alone. Please don't leave me-

Then Elly heard a tortured groan. She paused and looked down. What she saw almost made her faint on the spot.

A vaguely humanish lump of burnt…something lay on the ground, almost invisible in the ash that surrounded it. It looked like someone had taken the charred remains of a human sacrifice that had been left on the flaming altar too long and shoved them into an oven for good measure. There were strange white marks all over the black flesh: stars, crosses, pyramids, and other religious symbols covered the thing like tattoos. If it weren't for the general shape, it was hard to tell that it had ever been a body at all.

But a body it was, and it was groaning.

It can't be, Elly thought numbly. She knelt down next to what's passed for the thing's head. Upon closer inspection, she saw that the throat looked like it had been crushed.

"Yuuka?" Elly said. She didn't dare hope, but…

Then a skeletal finger twitched, and it groaned again.

"Yuuka!"

…

Rin felt like she had just accidentally sat down on a bamboo shoot. In the chaos of everything that had happened, she had completely forgotten about Elly. She hadn't really forgotten what Elly had done, per se, but the death of Patchouli Knowledge had seemed of greater importance than the fate of the one who had done the deed. As far as she had been concerned, Elly was gone, disappeared like a rat down a hole, and that was that.

But now here it was, coming back to bite her in the butt in the worst way. How was she supposed to explain to Wriggle that her former best buddy had split for good after killing a member of the rescue party that-

Oh gods, Flandre. She still didn't know about Patchouli.

Normally Rin was very good at hiding her emotions from her physical face, but generally she needed a second or two to gain her composure. And the second or two was all Wriggle needed to read something bad off of Rin's expression. She breathed in slowly, her greenish-blue eyes widening in anticipation. "Rin, tell me the truth. Is Elly dead?"

"No," Rin said hastily. Inside her mind, she could feel Flandre's eyes were boring into her back. "At least, I don't think so. I don't know."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Wriggle demanded.

Okay, Rin. Get it together. You can tell her the part she wants to know about. Rin steeled herself and said, "Look, Wriggle. Yes, we ran into Elly, right before we busted you guys out of those flowers. She freaked out and attacked us. I tried to capture her, but things went sideways, and she got out through a window. We tried to go after her, but the plants pulled her underground, and I haven't seen her since."

Wriggle's throat tightened. "And you didn't go after her? I thought you could burrow through anything."

Here Rin had to take a moment to bite back on her anger. She had just gotten done defeating Yuuka, and now this. "Wriggle, I was sort of focused on going after all of you. I'm sorry, I know you care about her, but seeing how I had just gotten freed from a freaking torture chamber and didn't know if you guys were all right, catching Elly wasn't exactly a priority at the time, you know?"

Wriggle looked like she wanted to slug her. Then that cooled and she just looked somewhat ashamed. "Okay," she said, wilting a bit. "I'm sorry. I don't mean to be ungrateful and all, it's just…" She made a disgusted sound in her throat. "I just hoped she could be saved too."

Rin sighed. "Sure. Okay, I get you."

The two stood in awkward silence for a bit, then Wriggle said, "Thank you, though. For everything."

"Er, thanks," Rin blinked. "Though, I mean, I kinda owed it to you. You know, considering how this whole thing started."

Wriggle shrugged. "Hey, we didn't have to get all stupid and go to Yuuka. Besides, things…sort of worked out?"

"Let's not start counting any chickens," Rin suggested. "I mean, knowing our luck, we'll just end up getting attacked by Dragons or something on our way out."

The two of them returned to the others, who seemed to be considerably cheered about their current situation. At least, most of them looked like they had gotten over their initial shock, so there was that at least. "Okay!" Rin said. "Who wants to leave?"

"Can we?" said the blonde fairy, her eyes nervously darting about. "Won't the plants attack us?"

"Nah, they're toast," Rin said. "Besides, if any are left, I shouldn't have any trouble with-"

Then one of the girls grabbed onto Rin's arm. It was the youkai with short blue hair that seemed to have her mouth and one eye glued shut. Rin blinked at her in surprise. "What's wrong?" she asked.

"Mmmmph!" the girl said as she gestured wildly toward the broken door.

Rin glanced down at the hallway beyond, but she didn't see anything. "Yeah, uh, th-that doesn't really tell me anything. Um, is something about to happen? Is Yuuka about to come back or anything?"

The girl shook her head. "Mmmmph!" she said, flailing her arms around.

Rin just stared at her blankly. "Still…still not getting it." She glanced around at the others, all of which looked as confused as she was. "So, anyone here read minds or…Is there a pen and paper we can give her to-"

Rolling her eye, the girl jabbed her finger at the door.

Rin looked again, and this time she saw it. She didn't understand it one bit, but she saw it.

In the hallway was what had to be the damnedest thing she had seen all day, and considering the day she was having that was really saying something. It was, the best she could tell, an umbrella, an umbrella with a rich purple canopy and a bamboo pole. At the end of the pole was…well, it was a foot. A foot wearing a sock that might once have been white, but was now stained grey from all the ash and smoke. Strapped to it was a geta, a sandal raised up on a pair of wooden blocks, one on each end.

And it was hopping. Hopping on its one leg all the way down the hall towards them, swallowing the distance in long, froglike leaps.

"Oh, what the friggin' hell…" Wriggle said as everyone stared. Rin wished that she had an answer for her, but to be quite honest this was a new one for her.

The muted girl, however, leapt at the umbrella as if it were a long-lost friend. She seized it in a tight embrace, squeezing the canopy against her, and…

Well, then she started scratching it.

"Rin?" Flandre said from inside Rin's head. "What's she doing?"

"Not. A. Clue," Rin said. The girl was really going at it, digging her fingernails nails into the canopy's surface as it trying to tear it open.

"It's…" Mystia frowned. "Okay, I think I've seen that umbrella by the pool, but it never-"

Suddenly a long strip of purple paint came loose. The girl seized it and ripped it away in a long peel. Beneath it was a huge red eye.

Suddenly the girl's shut right eye popped open. In contrast to her blue left, it was the same red as the one in the umbrella. She let out a cry of pain and immediately clutched at it.

"Oh wow!" one of the other girl said as she jerked back. "What the hell?"

Shaking her head, the girl kept her newly opened eye in a narrow squint and went back to work on the umbrella, this time attacking a spot a little below the newly revealed giant eye. Everyone stared as she managed to dislodge a second strip of purple paint and pull it away.

Beneath was a jagged slit, one that curiously opened into a black void instead of the other side of the canopy. The slit opened wide, and Rin swore that it was gasping, like a swimmer coming up for breath after being submerged for far too long.

Then a great big pink tongue flopped out.

Some of the girls screamed. A couple doubled over and started gagging. But that stopped when the girl opened her mouth for the first time.

She inhaled a deep, labored breath. Her lungs wheezed with the effort and she was stopped by a coughing fit. She tried again but ended up falling to her hands and knees as she coughed, choked, and gagged. Her stomach contracted, and she retched up a sickly cocktail of bile, mucus, saliva, and blood.

"Oh gods," she whispered between contractions. "Oh gods. Thank you, thank you, thank you-" Then she doubled over and vomited again.

"Um," Mystia said as she hesitantly approached. "Are…are you all right? Can we help?"

"I'm fine, I'm fine," the girl said, waving Mystia off. Her voice sounded raspy and harsh, as if it were rusty from lack of use. "Just…just a minute. Please."

Everyone watched solemnly as the girl managed to sit up. She clutched her bizarre, wheezing umbrella to herself and tears rolled down her face as she started to laugh and laugh.

"Oh," Wriggle said, her eyebrows rising. "I get it. She's a Karakasa Obake.

"A what?" Rin said.

"Umbrella youkai." Wriggle pointed. "The umbrella's her original self, and she got the second body when she became a youkai. They're both her. That's why the eyes and mouths are connected."

"I've seen that umbrella," Mystia said. "By the poolside." Her eyes went a little wide. "Yuuka said it was her favorite."

Wriggle made a sound of disgust. Shuddering, she walked over to the girl and knelt down next to comfort her.

"Uh, hey, not to get pushy," said a girl with sulfurous red hair, "but can we please get the hell out of here?"

"Right!" Rin said. She looked around. "Okay, let's all-"

Then she stopped. "Uh-oh."

More than a fourth their number was unconscious, or near enough. A few of those awake were barely able to walk under their own power.

"Uh-oh."

"What?" Cirno said with a scowl. "What's wrong this time?"

Rin grimaced. "We, uh, well. I don't really see how we can get everyone out. I mean, I count like nine of us being able to stand up, much less run and fly. And without Sakuya and the rest, it's not like we can carry them out."

The umbrella girl still sobbing into her shoulder, Wriggle looked up to shoot Rin a furious glare. "We're not leaving anyone behind."

"Hey, I'm right there with you," Rin said, holding up both palms. "It's just, you know, kind of a logistical problem we've got."

Then the blonde demon turned her attention to Rin. She looked the Kirin up and down, her faintly glowing golden eyes studying her intently.

"What?" Rin said as she took an involuntary step backward. She felt more than a little uncomfortable with the intense stare.

"You're…you're a shapeshifter, right?" the demon asked.

"Yeah…" Rin said. "So?"

"So can't you just turn into something big enough for all of us to ride on?"

Silence. Rin's face turned red. Then Cirno started cracking up.

"I…" Rin looked down at her hands as Flandre also began giggling inside of her head. "Er…" She sighed and sheepishly scratched the back of her head. "Oh. Uh, okay. Say, if anyone of you end up telling this story to you friends in the future, maybe you can leave this part out?"

"You dope," Mystia said as she buried her face into her hand. She shook her head and smiled in exasperation.

"Hey, look. I've had a lot on my mind lately, and just didn't think-" Rin slowly breathed out. "Fine! I'm an idiot! Go on. Laugh at me. See if I care."

Cirno smacked her across the back of her head. Rin let her.

"All right! All right! Make fun of me later." Rubbing her palms together, she glanced around. "Okay, before we head out, anyone got any special needs I need to know about?"

The redheaded girl with bat wings shakily raised her hand.

"Right! Vampire. Okay, I'll do something about the sunlight. Anyone else?" She looked back to where she had last seen Rumia. "Rumia, are you going to be-"

Rumia was gone.

Rin frowned. How had the barely conscious Rumia moved without anyone noticing? "Rumia, what the hell? Where are you?"

Then a cold, deadly voice spoke. "Perhaps I can be of some assistance there, Miss Satsuki. If, of course, you'd be willing to lend me a moment of your time."

Rin froze. Inside her head, Flandre gasped.

Then she slowly turned to face one of the scariest things she had seen all day.

…

There are certain moments when time just stops. Eyes forget how to blink. Breath catches in the throat. Spines go stiff, limbs go straight, and in those moments the world becomes crystal clear, every insignificant detail now brought to the forefront in vivid color. These moments are harbingers of change, when one's path takes a sudden and unexpected turn toward something completely different, moments stuck between that turn in which we see the path we are leaving and the change as it approaches. They are, in a way, both prelude and epilogue, the final chapter of the old story and the first of the new. And more often than not, they are the precursor to disaster.

For Sakuya Izayoi, this was literally true, as she lived most of her existence with time having been ground to a halt. Her control over time and space meant that most of the faces she passed were frozen, that she saw more leaves hanging suspended in the air than falling to the ground. At a moment's whim she was able to stop everything around her, freeze it in its track, while she continued to move along uninhibited.

This wasn't one of those literal moments though, but as something of an expert in that field, Sakuya had to admit that the similarities were striking. As she stood there, with one arm wrapped around the neck of Rumia of the Darkness and the other gripping the handle of the black knife, its blade held centimeters from the unconscious youkai girl's neck while the child's companions all became aware of their friend's predicament, it seemed like the whole world was holding its breath.

Sakuya wasn't paying any attention to them though. Her gaze was focused on Rin Satsuki alone. And when their eyes met, when all the laughter and triumph drained from Satsuki's expression and her face went cold, an understanding passed between them, and Sakuya smiled a broken smile.

"Hello, Miss Satsuki," she said. "I trust I have your attention now. There are matters we need to settle."

Sakuya Izayoi had never considered herself to be a good person. Her soul was too heavy for that. Even taking her part in the Satsuki Experiment out of consideration, she had a wealth of atrocities to her name that would cause any half-decent god to cosign her to damnation. Her hands ran with literal bucketfuls of blood, and not all of it was from the monsters she had once professionally hunted. Her legacy was a long and dark one, and she had no care to recall all the innocents she had slain or the lives she had ruined in one fashion or another.

Which wasn't to say she was necessarily an evil person either. Cruelty, malice, and pettiness were not native traits to her. It just meant that she was a woman of very few limitations, one who had a very long time to explore just how far she was willing to go. As such, with the deaths of her companions still weighing down on her and the painful knowledge of just how much her failure was going to hurt her mistress, she found capable of going very far indeed. Even if it meant murdering a child in cold blood to get her point across.

Rin Satsuki knew it too. From the way her body froze in place to the steel in her gaze, it was clear that she was very well aware that Sakuya was deadly serious. Just as Sakuya knew that Satsuki would kill her the second Rumia stopped breathing. The next few minutes danced on the literal edge of a knife.

"RUMIA!" Cirno screamed. She tried to rush to her friend's defense, followed half-a-second by the other members of her gang. Sakuya tracked them with dispassionate interest in her peripheral vision, the center of her gaze remaining on Satsuki.

Suddenly Satsuki's arms swept to either side. They snapped out like a whip, stretching in length to slap against opposite walls, stopping the charge in its tracks. "No," she hissed sharply to the confused fairies and youkai. "Are you crazy? She'll kill Rumia if any of us gets too close. Back off and let me handle this."

"But-" Cirno started to say.

"Back. Off."

"Very wise, Miss Satsuki," Sakuya said. "I don't know if you're at all familiar with this knife, but I am." She knew the second she saw the knife what it was. Even now she could feel the cold, deadly hunger of the mordite running through the steel, separated from her flesh by only a few centimeters of leather and glass. "It was forged by Marisa Kirisame herself as a weapon to kill Yuuka Kazami. Obviously she was unsuccessful, but the make of the blade was not to blame. I'm curious as to how exactly it wound up in Yuuka's possession afterward, as by all accounts it was destroyed during their fight, but I suppose it doesn't matter. What matters is that this blade will end your Stockholm syndrome afflicted friend's life the second it touches her. I need not even break the skin. The touch of the steel alone will do it, and all of her youkai immortality will mean nothing. Do you understand?"

"I do," Satsuki said.

"Good. Then you understand just how crucial the next few moments will be." She tightened her hold on Rumia's neck ever so slightly, making the pale skin bruise. "Her life literally depends on your next few decisions. For her sake, do not make the wrong ones."

"Start talking."

Sakuya's smile was as cold and humorless as a winter wind. "I know you found Flandre. I know you absorbed her. I don't know the circumstances surrounding that decision, so I'll refrain from judging. It could be that you saved her life in doing so, and if so, you have my thanks. Regardless, seeing how the danger has now passed, I'll thank you to release her into my care so that I may take her back to her sister."

A low wave of concerned murmurs rose up from their audience. Even a few of those close to unconsciousness seemed to have revived enough to pay attention. Cirno and her gang were especially agitated, with the ice-fairy all but hopping from one leg to the next while she wrung out her hands and the green-haired insect glaring at Sakuya with murderous intent, her fingers squeezed into white-knuckled fists.

As for Satsuki, she hadn't so much as blinked. "We had a deal, remember? You failed. So why-"

Sakuya moved the knife. Not enough to make a difference, mere milliliters at most, but Satsuki still noticed, and she shut up immediately.

"Yes, we had a deal," Sakuya said, the barest amount of anger seeping into her voice. "You saddled us with an impossible task, one that, as you just took so much amusement in figuring out, you could have solved yourself with ease any time you wanted. And as a result, my entire team is now dead." She gave a nonchalant shrug of one shoulder. "You are correct. I have failed in every conceivable way. I have failed my team, I have failed my task, and I have failed my mistress. I have really nothing left to lose. Give me Flandre, or Rumia's dust will join Yuuka's."

Satsuki's eyes narrowed ever so slightly. "That happens, and you're not leaving this room alive."

"Oh, I am very well aware of that," Sakuya said. "Anyone capable of besting and killing Yuuka Kazami in single combat will have no trouble in dispatching me. I imagine my end will be brilliantly painful. It matters not. Because as fast as you are, you are not fast enough to keep this knife from closing the distance to Rumia's flesh. And no matter how spectacularly you tear me apart, she will still be dead."

"No!" cried the sparrow-girl as she reached out over the barrier created by Satsuki's elongated arm. "Please, no! We just got her back, you can't-" The firefly slapped a hand over her mouth and hauled her back.

And Satsuki still didn't move. "Flandre doesn't want to go with you," she said. "I did my part. I asked her what she wanted to do. She said she wanted to stay with me."

Sakuya tiled her head to one side. "I see. And was this question posed before or after you broke her body down molecule by molecule and took her essence into your own?"

"After," Satsuki said. "Before, when I found her locked in an iron coffin, pierced with a dozen wooden poles, starved for blood and surrounded by fire, she was begging me to absorb her, to save her from the flame. So I did. And in doing so, I saved her life. Then I asked her." Something odd was happening to her eyes. The blue was darkening, giving way to violet. "She emphatically decided to go with me."

"Ah. Well, I compliment you on your quick thinking, but I would prefer to hear that answer from Flandre herself."

Satsuki scoffed. "What, you want me to absorb you too? Sure. Fine. Put Rumia down and come over here, I'll get right on it."

"Miss Satsuki, do not insult my intelligence. I was there during your original rampage, if you'll recall. I was there at the aftermath. I am well aware that you are perfectly capable of releasing those you have imprisoned. Flandre's life is no longer in danger. Release her, so I may talk to her in person."

"You want me to let her go, huh?" Now Satsuki's lips had curled up into a cold smirk of her own. The violet of her eyes had now heated to bright red, a burning fire that would roast the meat off of Sakuya's bones if given the chance. "You sure about that? Because, you know, she's kinda kicking up a fuss right now. Rumia's her friend too, and she really doesn't appreciate you threatening her life."

"Of that I have no doubt," Sakuya responded. "Regardless, I would still like to make my case to her face-to-face. There are certain facts that I am sure she is unaware of, as you no doubt neglected to make clear to her."

Was that a flash of worry across Satsuki's face, a hint of uncertainty in her eyes? If so, it was gone within a second. "What facts?" she demanded.

"Oh, you know, the fact that I was here at all, leading a team to infiltrate Yuuka Kazami's stronghold in order to save her."

"She knew that already," Satsuki said flatly. "In fact, we were convinced that you were dead until, well, right about now."

"Indeed?" Sakuya shook her head. "Ah, how easily we write off those who have no more value to us. But does she also know who else was in that team, risking their lives for her safe return? Does she know of the very recent deaths of Patchouli Knowledge, Hong Meiling, and Koakuma? Because despite your feelings towards my friends, I assure you Flandre had a very different relationship with them." What last vestiges of a smile Sakuya had left withered then, and her lips peeled back from her teeth. "Did you even tell her that they died here, to save her? Did you tell her how casually you threw their lives away?"

Silence. Sakuya knew then that she had her.

"Miss Satsuki, let's not draw this out," she said. "Yukari Yakumo is on her way, and I know you'd rather avoid her. Furthermore, despite the admirable job you did in dispatching Yuuka Kazami, much like yourself she has an unnerving tendency to come back from situations that ought to have caused her demise. The clock is ticking. Release Flandre right this minute and let me talk to her." She moved the knife another centimeter closer to Rumia's flesh. "Or I swear to you that the countless victims of the Shadow Youkai will finally have their vengeance."

…

Deep Within

It wasn't that Rin wasn't listening. She was, she very much was, and had she been able, she would have gladly replied. It was just that her hands were kind of full at the moment. Because the moment that Sakuya Izayoi mentioned the loss of Patchouli Knowledge, Hong Meiling, and Koakuma, Flandre had completely lost her mind!

"Flan!" Rin all but screamed as the vampire lunged for her, fingers curled into grasping claws, fangs bared, and tears streaming from her eyes. Rin tried to move out of the way but was bowled over by the sheer force of Flandre's will before she even got close. "Flandre, don't-"

Then Flandre's fingers were around her neck.

"Dead?" Flandre screeched at her? "They're dead? Patchy? Koa?" A loud, hiccupping sob enveloped the next word. "Mei-Mei?"

"Flan," Rin choked out. "L-Listen…"

"Why didn't you tell me? You knew! You knew the whole time and you didn't tell me? Why?"

Given the weight of the vampire's presence, it was very difficult for Rin to teleport out of her grasp. Moreso, in fact, than it had been to expel Yuuka. But she gathered up all the control she could and vanished herself, leaving the vampire clawing at emptiness.

Rin rematerialized next to the screen, which she promptly collapsed against, one hand rubbing her neck as she wheezed. Given that this mental projection of herself didn't actually have lungs, she didn't want to know what that was a metaphor for. A bit of a ways off, Flandre was still clawing at nothing while she screamed, completely oblivious to the fact that Rin was gone.

"You have ten seconds to decide," Sakuya said from the outside. "Please do not dawdle. Your friend's life depends on it."

Rin stiffened. "Wait!" she shouted as she whirled around. "Don't you dare-"

And Flandre was at it again.

"TELL ME!" Flandre roared as she seized Rin again and shoved her up against the screen, her legs dangling. "You wanted to keep me for yourself, didn't you? That's why you didn't tell me, isn't it?"

Rin let out a high-pitched squeak.

"Five seconds, Miss Satsuki," Sakuya said.

Rin choked again, but this time she managed to release a bit of will into the emptiness around them, speeding time up to the point where everything outside seemed to be standing still. It didn't mean time was actually frozen though. Her physical body was just as frozen as everything else. It just gave her some extra time to deal with Flandre first, because she was pretty certain that Flandre wasn't interested in waiting.

"You wanted to hide it from me!" the vampire snarled. "You never wanted me to go, that's why you didn't tell me! Everyone's always hiding things from me, wanting me not to know, wanting to control me!" Something very strange was happening to Flandre. Every time she moved, she left after-images: trace, transparent pictures of herself that vanished moments later. "You wanted to keep me in here, right? Here in the dark! Just like Remilia, just like Yuuka, just like-"

Okay, that was enough. Rin again gathered up her power, slower and with even more difficulty this time, and teleported herself away.

Her legs buckled as soon as she reappeared and she fell. Coughing, she rolled onto her back just in time to see Flandre coming at her again, her aura filling the emptiness like a red dawn.

This time Rin managed to get both hands up and shoved back with everything she had. It was like trying to catch a tsunami in a paper bag, and it nearly sent her flying. Fortunately, she had a very large paper bag, and was able to bring Flandre to a stop before she was strangled again.

"Flandre," she hissed through clenched teeth as Flandre continued to strain against her. "Please. Stop."

The force eased a little, but Flandre's anger didn't. "Why, Rin?" she shouted. "Why didn't you tell me?" It was then that Rin noticed that the afterimages that Flandre was leaving weren't perfect copies of her. There were minute differences in the eyes, the teeth, and how the bodies were shaped. They were her personas, the Child, the Vampire, the Lunatic, and even the Adult. Rin didn't know if that meant that the shock was unraveling Flandre's psyche or that they were finally united in outrage. She just knew that it scared her.

"Flan, I'm sorry!" Rin cried. "I didn't mean to! You were almost dead when I found you and Yuuka was looking for us and there was fire everywhere and we started fighting her right after!"

For a moment, the Vampire asserted complete dominance. Flandre hissed, her fangs elongating, the fire in her eyes now a focused, precise light. Then the afterimages thrashed nauseatingly over her. When they cleared, Flandre was standing straight and tall, her eyes now possessing a silvery sheen. She glowered down at Rin in contempt.

"Oh, is that right?" she said. "And it never once came up in your memory? Never had that little detail jogged? It never occurred to you when we thought Sakuya was dead that there were some other recent deaths we might need to know about?"

Rin grimaced. "I…I didn't want to hurt you. You were already upset; I didn't want to make it worse."

"Oh, and how did that work out for you?" Flandre said, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Flan, I'm sorry," Rin said, her voice breaking. It was strange, so go from feeling like you're on top of the world to ending up as a complete wretch. "You're right. I should've said something. Now everything's all messed up and Rumia's about to die and it's all my fault…"

Flandre continued to glare, but she didn't attack.

"Please, Flandre! Please! Rumia's in real trouble right now. She could die, Flandre! She could die and it's all my fault and I can't let that happen!" Rin's body was trembling. She licked her lips and said, "She's your friend too, right?"

Flandre blinked. The fire in her eyes wavered uncertainly.

"Flandre, look. I'll do whatever you want. I just…I just need your help to save Rumia. I can't let anything happen to her. Afterward, if you're still mad at me and want to go, that's okay. If you still want to go with us, that's okay. Anything you want. Just please. Help me save Rumia."

The glowing, crystalline wings on Flandre's back wilted some. "Do you…want me to go?" Flandre said. "Do you want to trade me away to get her back?"

Rin felt like screaming, but was able to keep it restrained. "I want you both to come with me! You're my best friends, and I don't wanna lose either one of you. I just need to know what you want."

Flandre stared.

"Flandre," Rin said in a small voice. "What do you want to do?"

…

Sakuya's breath caught in her throat as a blob of color formed in the clear, gelatinous substance of Rin Satsuki's body. It was like watching a body dissolve in acid, only in reverse. It started off as a lump of meat and bone and grew, organs and veins and muscles appearing briefly before becoming covered up. Pink flesh flowed over small limbs, golden hair sprouted from the top of the head, and scarlet eyes swelled up in empty sockets like inflating balloons before being covered by eyelids.

It was a horrifying sight to behold, and most of the other onlookers drew back in horror. Sakuya didn't care. They never mattered anyway. This sight was for her and her alone, and as far as she was concerned it was beautiful.

Finally Flandre's body had completely reformed, and Rin Satsuki deposited her on the ground, the clear jelly slithering fully off of her. At finally seeing her mistress's beloved sister sitting before her, Sakuya felt an involuntary shiver swim up through her body. Her limbs started to tremble, and she had to make a deliberate effort to calm them before she accidentally touched Rumia's flesh with the knife.

"Fla-" she started to say, but the name caught in her throat. Swallowing, she tried again. "Flandre, it's really-"

Then she noticed something. "Flandre, what happened to your wings?"

Flandre's beautiful wings of metal wire and multicolored crystal shards, were gone. That was immensely troubling to Sakuya. Flandre had sported that bizarre wingspan for as long as Sakuya had known her, and every depiction of the little vampire, from family portraits in the Scarlet Devil Mansion to caricatures in the local newspaper, had all feature them prominently. They were as much her trademark as her notorious instability.

They are artificial, Sakuya told herself. The wings had been fashioned for Flandre and attached to her body long after she had lost her original pair under some unfortunate circumstances that Remilia had never cared to disclose. During the first Satsuki Incident, anything that Satsuki absorbed that wasn't part of the actual body of her hostages was never returned. Perhaps it was the same principle. At least, that had better be the reason.

Either way, rather than respond, Flandre merely blinked her eyes and drowsily shook her head, as if she were merely waking from a long nap. She rubbed one eye with her small fist and yawned.

Then her gaze focused on Sakuya.

"Sakuya," she said.

"Yes, Flandre," Sakuya breathed. "It…It's me. I'm here."

"You're hurting my friend."

Sakuya swallowed. "I don't want to. Believe me, I don't. I'll let her go as soon as…as soon…"

"As soon as I go with you," Flandre said flatly.

There was something about Flandre's tone that made Sakuya uncomfortable. She was far too calm, far too focused. "Yes," she said. "Your sister misses you, Flandre. Remilia misses you."

Flandre's eyes narrowed at the sound of her sister's name. But rather than comment on it, she said, "Is it true? About the others being dead?"

"Yes," Sakuya said without hesitation. Okay, granted, Meiling and Koakuma's individual situations were still up in the air, rather literally in Meiling's case, but there was no reason to clarify that. "They came here with me, to rescue you. They laid down their lives in hopes that you might be brought home."

Flandre blinked, her face going blank. Then she inhaled sharply as her chin started to tremble.

Sakuya wasn't often prone to attacks of conscience, but she still felt absolutely wretched in driving the point in further. "They died for you, Flandre," she said. "Just as I nearly did. Please, Flandre. Remilia has been through so much since you were taken from us. She locked herself in the attic for two weeks in grief. Patchouli had to practically drag her out before she starved herself."

Flandre said nothing.

"Then she was exiled," Sakuya continued. "Yes, Remilia has been kicked out of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, her home. Your home. She's staying at the Hakurei Shrine until Yukari Yakumo lets her go back. And do you know why?"

"Because she traded Rin to Yuuka," Flandre said in that same flat, empty tone. "To try to get me back, right?"

Sakuya had to admit, she was a little surprised that Flandre knew that. Granted, Satsuki no doubt told her some sort of twisted, one-sided version of the story, but she would have expected her to leave out any details that cast Remilia in a sympathetic light. "You knew?"

Flandre shrugged. "Heard part of it. Put the rest together myself."

Now that was unexpected. Perhaps Satsuki's claim of having found a way to treat Flandre had not been an exaggeration. It was a shame that they had ended up on opposite sides. Though come to think of it, there was something very troubling about Flandre's eyes. Despite the dark emotions the little vampire must surely be feeling, the scarlet glow was almost gone. And the color was now a very dull maroon, almost grey.

"Yes, that's right," Sakuya said. "Rin showed up at the mansion. To kill me and Patchouli. And she almost killed Meiling for trying to defend us." She shot a brief glance over to Satsuki, expecting some sort of protest. But instead, Satsuki wasn't reacting in the slightest. In fact, she was standing perfectly still, her unblinking eyes focused on Rumia. It was somewhat eerie. "Instead, Remilia managed what no one else could. She safely captured Rin before she could hurt anyone else."

Flandre frowned. She glanced over to Rin as well, but received about as much a reaction as Sakuya.

"She could have turned Rin over to Yukari Yakumo then," Sakuya continued. "She could have been handsomely rewarded. But she didn't want a reward. She wanted you. She threw everything away in a vain attempt to rescue you from Yuuka. Just as Patchouli, Meiling, and Koakuma threw away everything. Just as I would gladly throw away everything. Remilia was exiled for what she had done for you. She almost lost her life."

"Lost her…" Flandre's face contorted, and the fire in her eyes flared up. "She killed me! She said she didn't want me, and then she staked me! Yuuka had to bring me back and, okay, I hate her too, but if Remilia wants me so bad, why'd she throw me away?"

Fortunately, Sakuya remembered very well what Flandre had been talking about, and that she had been powerless to prevent had haunted her ever since. But now she had the opportunity to make up for her failure. "Flandre, that was not Remilia," Sakuya said. In her grasp, Rumia was starting to stir, just ever so slightly. She adjusted her grip in response, and the blonde youkai went fully limp again. "I was there, remember? I saw what happened. You were blinded, and Remilia was restrained. Yuuka gagged her so she couldn't speak. Then Yuuka started lying to you. She used Remilia's voice to make you believe that your sister hated you. Remilia wanted to stop her, but she couldn't, and neither could I. Yuuka was the one saying those things to you. Yuuka was the one that staked you, so she could bring you back and make you hers." Sakuya stared right into Flandre's eyes. "Your sister loves you, Flandre. She misses you greatly. And Yukari says when everything's done here, both of you can go home again. Wouldn't you like that?"

Flandre blinked, and the silvery sheen wavered, the glowing scarlet starting to grow back. "What? You…Remilia doesn't hate me?"

"No, Flandre," Sakuya said. It broke her heart that she had to explain that, but that was the sort of damage a creature like Yuuka was known for. She just prayed that Yuuka hadn't used Flandre for the same sort of twisted pleasure that she had subjected most of the other wretches in the room to. "She doesn't. She gets cross sometimes, but she still loves you with all her heart."

"I…" Flandre glanced from side to side, exchanging glances with Cirno and her gang of ruffians. "B-But then why'd she always shut me away? Why'd she keep me in the dark? I never had to stay in the dark with them!"

Well, that was odd. "You can probably thank Yuuka for that," Sakuya responded. "But Yuuka's gone now. How will your friends protect you from the Sun now? Do you want to burn, Flandre?"

"Oh, I think we can figure out something," Rin said coldly. "I mean, wild vampires are a thing. And they do okay for themselves."

Sakuya shot her a furious look. "And when Flandre has a tantrum and destroys whatever new sanctuary you find for yourselves, what will you do then? Or if she gets mad and decides to simply blow you to bits? The Mykr's Sirens are gone. Yuuka's destruction is evidence of that! What will you do then, Miss Satsuki? What happens if Flandre becomes angry at Rumia here? Will you be able to stop her from massacring your other friends?"

As soon as the words were out of Sakuya's mouth she wished she could recall them. Flandre stiffened as if she had been struck, her eyes widening and her lower lip starting to tremble. "Flandre, wait," Sakuya said. "I-"

"You…you really do think I'm a monster," Flandre said.

"I don't, Flandre. But-"

"Yeah, you do," Satsuki said, her voice filled with venom. "I can tell. I mean, everyone thinks I'm a monster too. And hey, they're right. We are. But you know the funny thing about monsters? We actually understand each other. And I've done more to help Flandre with her problems in five freaking minutes than you've done in like five hundred years." She tilted her chin. "Sure, okay. Maybe Flandre does have some issues. Yeah, she's kind of dangerous. But at least I actually tried to figure out what was wrong with her and did something about it. I didn't go shove her in a hole in the ground for her, uh…" Satsuki coughed loudly into her fist. "For her own good, you know?"

Sakuya breathed in slowly through her teeth. "If you think for one moment that we haven't done everything we could to-"

"Yeah, that's exactly what I think," Satsuki snapped back. "You had more money than, I don't know, the money god or whatever! You had a master magician! You had the biggest freaking library in the history of libraries! And what did you do with all that? Because it wasn't to help her, that's for damned sure. No, instead of helping one monster…" Satsuki thumped her own chest, "you went and made another. And when you couldn't control that one either, you went and shoved her into the dark too! Building a collection, were we?"

All remaining color drained from Sakuya's face. She hear her heartbeat pounding away, as loud as a war drum. Blood was building behind her eyes, tinging her vision with red. How dare this little monster belittle their efforts like that? How dare she write off everything she, Remilia, and Patchouli had tried? Patchouli hadn't even been dead an hour, and here Satsuki was mocking her to Sakuya and Flandre's faces.

In that moment, Sakuya lost all sympathy for Rin Satsuki. To hell with Reimu Hakurei. To hell with Reisen Udongein. And to hell especially with Yukari Yakumo. As far as Sakuya was now concerned, Rin Satsuki was no longer a poor, misunderstood victim to be rescued. Now she was simply in the way.

Then Sakuya froze. She saw nothing new. She felt nothing. And yet her instincts were screaming at her that something was wrong.

Suddenly her right arm, the one holding onto the mordite blade, was wretched hard and flung aside. Her wrist was twisted hard, and the knife dropped. She stumbled with a gasp, but before she could reorient herself her left arm was yanked aside, causing Rumia to slump to the floor.

What was happening? It was as if Sakuya were under attack by invisible tentacles. Her arms were slowly bent back to either side in the crucifix position by an unseen force. Beneath her, Rumia levitated up off the ground and hovered over to the safety of her friends, still unconscious.

Bewildered and terrified, Sakuya looked all about as she struggled, trying to find the source of her unseen assailants, but all of the children looked as confused as she was. Even Flandre was scurrying back away from Rumia.

All of them except one.

Rin Satsuki was staring intently at Satsuki, her gaze made from cold steel. A cruel smile twisted her lips. Sakuya's eyes went wide as a gelatinous limb suddenly materialized, extending from the mutated Kirin's back to where it wrapped snugly around Rumia's body.

Then Satsuki lifted her right foot to display a second slimy appendage reaching out from her heel down into the ground.

Sakuya looked to either side to see that her arms were indeed restrained by two of Satsuki's vicious limbs. She couldn't see it clearly from her position, but it seemed that they had branched out from a single stalk that had emerged from the ground directly behind her.

"You lose," Satsuki said. Then the tentacles hoisted Sakuya up. She tried to twist out of her grasp, but she might as well have been fighting the wind for all the good it did her.

Then the tentacles slammed her facefirst into what was left of the mosaic floor. Stars exploded behind Sakuya's eyes and she lay still.

…

The second she was certain that Sakuya Izayoi wasn't getting up again, Rin almost collapsed. It was easier to hide distress when she was sharing her head with someone. That way, the mental construct she made of herself could have whatever breakdown she needed while the outside remained cool and collected. But as that wasn't currently the case, Rin had to pull herself together on her own. She couldn't afford to lose her composure now, not in front of-

Then she looked to Rumia's prone form and decided that she didn't care.

"Rumia," she breathed as she held out her hands. The appendage she had sent out to retrieve her friend dropped her into Rin's arms, and Rin immediately slumped to her knees, cradling Rumia's body in her lap.

"Rumia, wake up," she said as she shook the blonde youkai's shoulder. "C'mon, don't scare me like this. Wake up!" Rumia's head just lolled lifelessly to the side.

"Is she all right?" Cirno said as she, Wriggle, Mystia, and Daiyousei rushed over to their side. The ice-fairy tried slapping Rumia's cheeks. "What's wrong with her?"

"Stop that!" Rin cried, pushing Cirno away. "Don't hit her!"

"Well, we have to try something!" Wriggle snapped. "If anything happens to her…" Her voice cracked, swallowing up the rest of the sentence.

Mystia clasped her hands in front of her face as she stared at Rumia's still form. Rin could hear her whispering prayers under her breath.

And behind her, Flandre just sat and stared in silence.

"Rin, you can fix her, right?" Daiyousei said, her big, green eyes wet with tears. "Whatever's wrong with her, you can fix it, right?"

"I…" Truth was, Rin had no idea what was wrong with Rumia. She didn't seem to be breathing. Maybe she could try CPR. She had learned that back during her nurse's training. But that had been years ago, and in her frazzled state Rin couldn't bring to mind the correct procedure.

Maybe it was too late. Maybe Rumia had been exposed to that evil knife for too long. If that was the case, then Rin was going to…was going to…

Well, whatever it was, she was going to have to make sure Flandre was in another room when she did it.

"Oh, to hell with this!" Cirno snapped. White mist suddenly puffed around her hand, and she was holding a fistful of ice. Before Rin could react, Cirno had grabbed a handful of Rumia's grubby hair, pushed her head forward, and shoved the ice against the back of her neck.

Rumia's eyes suddenly snapped out. "YAH!" she shrieked as she jerked away from the cold, all of her limbs flailing in shock. Rin caught her before she ended up faceplanting on the ground.

"Rumia," Rin said as Rumia coughed weakly. "Are you okay? Can you talk?"

"Y-Yeah," Rumia whispered hoarsely. "I…I think I'm okay. What…"

"Sakuya Izayoi," Rin said simply. "She knocked you out and tried to kill you. Cirno here woke you up." She glanced up to where the ice-fairy was staring. For once, Cirno wasn't smirking in triumph. She just looked relieved.

"Thank you," Rin said simply. Cirno managed a shaky grin and gave Rin a thumb's up, though her arm and hand were trembling.

"Oh…Oh yeah?" Rumia said. Her head flopped over to one side so she was looking at Cirno. The area around her eyes creased in a faint semblance of a scowl. "You jerk. I finally…get some sleep…and you go wake me up!"

Cirno let out a loud bark of laughter, and some of the tension seeped away as the others joined in. Even Mystia managed a small, relieved chuckle.

Rin slowly breathed out. She closed her eyes and pressed her fingertips to her forehead. That had been way too close. For a brief, horrible moment, she had been convinced that it was about to happen again, one of those moments in which she was so close to victory, so close to actually having things go right for a change, only to have the rug swept out from under her in the worst way imaginable. But it was okay. Rumia was okay. It was over.

Then Rin's eyes snapped open again, her pupils narrowing. No. No, it wasn't.

"Guys, can you watch her for a moment?" Rin said as she gently passed Rumia over to the rest of the gang. "I need to go…take care of something."

Even in her drained and addled state, Rumia still managed to shoot Rin a concerned look. "Rin…you're not gonna…go full bad guy, are you?"

"Let's find out," Rin said as she stood up. Mystia and Wriggle quickly moved out of her way, and she strode from the group, over to where Sakuya was still lying on the floor.

Suddenly an arm shot out to grab Rin by the wrist. She paused, and turned to see Flandre kneeling on the floor, looking up at her with imploring eyes. Their gazes locked, and Flandre gave a small, almost imperceptible shake of her head.

A couple seconds ticked by, and then Rin sighed. "Okay," she whispered.

Flandre released her hand, and Rin turned her attention back to the maid, who had pushed herself up onto her elbows and was blearily shaking her head, as if that would knock the dizziness loose.

Rin cleared the remaining space between them. She stuck her foot under Sakuya's stomach and pushed up, flipping the maid onto her back. Then she shoved her heel against Sakuya's sternum and applied pressure. Sakuya froze, her arms and legs spread out, her cold blue eyes staring up at Rin, as if wondering how Rin was planning to end her.

"You know, it's funny," Rin said down to her. She felt strangely calm, as if they were discussing something as mundane as a grocery list. "But every time we run into each other, you go and do something that really, really pisses me off."

Then she glanced over to one side, over to where that horrible black knife was still lying. A lump formed between her shoulderblades, bubbling up and stretching out, becoming a long, sinuous tentacle. It reached over and wrapped around the glass handle of the knife. Even though she wasn't touching the blade itself, the cold still bit deep. She ignored it.

"Yeah, I've picked up a few new tricks," Rin said. Sakuya's eyes went wide as Rin brought the knife over and held it directly over Sakuya's face, the blade pointed down directly at the spot between Sakuya's eyes. "Looking after Flandre meant having to get a little creative. She's a handful, sure, but it's not that bad once you figure it out." She shrugged. "'Course, you wouldn't know anything about that, would you? I mean, you were always about taking the easy way out."

Rin had to admit, not being a bad guy was turning out to be way harder than it sounded. Rin tried. Oh, she tried so hard, but it seemed like every time she was starting to accumulate some good karma, either something would come along and try to beat the snot out of her or one of the many people she really, really hated would show up and do something that made her hate them more, to the point where it felt like they were daring her to just give in and kill them.

She wanted to kill Sakuya. She wanted to kill her very much. She knew that the maid was desperate. She understood that she had done what she had done out of love for Remilia Scarlet and, in a twisted sort of way, Flandre as well. And she couldn't honestly say that were she in the same position as Sakuya, she would not give in to the temptation and attempt a little aggressive negotiation for the return of someone she cared about.

Rin knew all of those things, but she just didn't care. Sakuya Izayoi had been instrumental in ruining Rin's life. And just when it looked like she might be able to build a new one, here that scumbag came along to threaten Rin's best friend in an attempt to steal away her other best friend. The urge to just let the knife drop was almost overpowering, as was the knowledge of just how easy it would be.

And Sakuya knew it too. "If you must end my life, then I ask that you refrain from drawing this out," she said, her voice as calm as Rin's. In contrast, the emotionless visage she normally wore was cracked. The ice in her eyes had melted. Now she just looked hollow. Empty. The look of a condemned criminal resigned to her fate. "I'm sure you still have things to do."

Rin's grin didn't waver, but her teeth were starting to gnash together. "Don't tempt me," she said. She glanced over to the black blade. "You have…no idea how many times I've dreamed about this. Slicing you open. Breaking your neck. Hearing you beg for mercy."

"Of that I have no doubt," Sakuya said. "Nor can I find it within myself to blame you. By any reputable scale of reckoning, I owe you far more than my life."

"Yeah," Rin said hoarsely. Her lips twisted into a rictus grin. "You sure as hell do."

A bubbling froth of rage welled up from deep within her breast, as hot and poisonous as the river of fire that had burned her to death from within once before, long ago as she struggled with the Dark Voice that had haunted Rumia's soul. Only this time instead of scorching her, the fire was feeding her, fueling her power. Her vision was becoming tinged with red, and she found herself going back over her old list.

Eirin I broke. Kaguya I absorbed. The Asakuras I ruined. Patchouli is dead. Now it's just her. Sakuya is the only one left. The only one…

"Rin?" a small, scared voice said.

Rin inhaled sharply, her murderous urge suddenly withering away. She turned to see Flandre staring at her in worry, her small hands wringing in front of her chest.

"Are you gonna kill her?" she said.

"I…"

"That's a good question, Flandre," Sakuya said. "Is she going to kill me? I admit, I would like to know the answer as-"

"Shut up," Rin snarled at her. "You've said enough already."

"Then do it," Sakuya said. "End it. Just stop tormenting Flandre."

Rin's own eyes narrowed.

"Rin?" Flandre said in a small voice.

A beat passed. Then Rin released the knife.

…

"This…This very disappointing."

Under normal circumstances, receiving a direct communication from the Dragon King would be the highlight of Yukari's day. His communications with her were so rare that sometimes she forgot what his voice sounded like. But given the circumstances, having him contact her so abruptly was nothing more than an annoying distraction.

"I understand," Yukari said through gritting teeth, speaking to the glowing, multicolored sphere hovering in her hand. She was doing her best to be diplomatic, but it had been a stressful day. "And believe me, if I had the slightest inkling-"

"You specifically contacted me to implore for my help. You wanted my people to intervene directly in your affairs. You wished for them to commit violence upon the mortal world. And I agreed, albeit with great reluctance due to our god's endorsement, to help you, in hopes of preventing an even greater tragedy. You were given a great gift, and it was squandered."

"It wasn't squandering, it was adapting to a fluid situation! Battles go sideways all the time, and you need to adjust when they do! And that's something you'd understand if you had ever been in-"

"Do not lecture me on matters of mortal violence, Yukari. You know as well as I do why we avoid sullying ourselves with such…base affairs. If we must debase ourselves in such a manner, then I would at least expect our contributions to not be squandered!"

"Listen, Frank!" Yukari snapped. "I have had another shitty day in a very long line of shitty days and am in no mood for this bullshit! I've been down here trying to hold this godsdamned country together from day one while you and your people sit around in the sky that I built staring at your bellybuttons! And you know what? That's fine. It's your way. I don't care. But don't you dare get all snappy with me for doing what I had to do to contain this disaster! It wasn't my fault, and you know it!"

There was a pause, and then King Francioux said in a low, dangerous voice, "I see. And I trust you will at least hold those responsible accountable?"

On that at least Yukari and the Dragon King were in complete agreement. "Oh absolutely. In fact," Yukari said, her narrowing eyes focusing on a swiftly approaching figure. "I think I see one of them right now. So if you'll excuse me…"

"Yukari, do not-"

Yukari banished his image. She tried not to feel smug about doing so, but it was oh so very hard.

Meanwhile, she had another matter to deal with. Rin Kaenbyou was half-charging, half-stumbling her way towards Yukari. The Kasha looked to be quite put out, which was understandable, given the sort of day she was having. However, she looked as if she intended to take it out on Yukari, and unfortunately for her, Yukari was having a bad day too, and had far more reason to be angry with her than she did with Yukari.

Yukari glanced at the crowd and wiggled her fingers. A shroud went up, one that would disguise what transpired between her and the cat. There were things about to take place that would not be improved by witnesses.

"You…" Rin seethed, spittle flying. "You monster!" She leapt at Yukari, claws extended and fangs bared, ready to tear the elder youkai limb from limb.

Yukari didn't so much blink at her approach. She remained standing right where she was, eyes tracking the feline's trajectory.

Then her arm snapped up to seize Rin by the throat.

"Miss Kaenbyou," she said calmly as Rin hissed and clawed at Yukari's arm. She managed to tear through the sleeve but was unable to do more than leave shallow marks on her arm. "Well, you're not the Rin I had hoped to have by the throat by the end of the day, but I suppose you'll have to do."

"You…You killed them!" Rin hissed. "They're dead! You killed them, you bastard!"

Yukari sighed. "Oh, is that what you think? I'm afraid I disagree."

Then she turned and hurled Rin Kaenbyou right into one of the steel boulders her mob had hurled up through the earth.

The Kasha rebounded off the metal sphere with a loud clang and went tumbling through the dirt. She immediately staggered to her feet, but her eyes were unfocused and her steps went this way and that.

Yukari pointed her finger, and a wave of force plucked Rin up again and threw her back against the sphere. This time she stayed, arms and legs splayed out over the boulder's side, body held in place by the sheer power of Yukari's will.

"How dare you?" Yukari snarled at the stunned Kasha. "How dare you! You knew! You knew this was a war zone! You knew there were Dragons, you knew that there were Fallen Angels wielding naked blades, and as far as you knew there were still flesh-eating plants covering every square centimeter of the place! Hell, had you arrive a few minutes sooner, your little adventure party might have been picked clean to the bone by the insect swarms I had devouring the place!"

She backhanded Rin across the face.

"You knew all of this, and you brought them here anyway!" Yukari spat at her. "And you have the gall to place this on me? No. I don't think so. Their blood is on your head, not mine."

Rin Kaenbyou coughed hard. She spat out what looked like a bloody tooth and said, "Didn't…I didn't bring…they were already marching when you sent us back…"

"And you didn't try to stop them?" Yukari demanded, giving her shoulders a rough shake. "You didn't tell them about the Dragons or the Angels or anything about the war they were about to charge right into?"

Rin bared her teeth. "I tried…to tell them…but you…you can't stop Underworlders once they-"

"Oh, spare me!" Yukari said with a roll of her eyes. "What did you do, jump up and down waving your arms? Yell a few times and then go, 'Oh well, I tried. If you can't beat them, might as well join them!'" She shook her head. "You know, if you were serious about saving their lives, you would have put in a call to the GPF. They could have reached me! But you didn't, did you? No, you used 'warning' them of the dangers they were facing as an excuse to grab your own torch and pitchfork and jump right in-"

"YUKARI!" bellowed a deep, resonant voice, one that Yukari instantly recognized.

"Ah, this now," Yukari muttered as she turned to meet it.

A massive, knobby fist was already swinging towards her face. In response, Yukari held up her right hand and caught it in her palm.

"Mayor Sunshu," Yukari said to the massive, bearded oni woman currently seething and straining against her grip. "Good. I was going to have to scrounge you up sooner or later. Thank you for saving me the effort."

Then she swung her arm around, hurling Sunshu up against the boulder next to Rin Kaenbyou. The mayor of the Ancient City instinctively tried to retaliate, but then Yukari's fingers closed around her throat and held her in place.

"And as for you," Yukari said to her. "What did you think was going to happen? That Yuuka was going to be so awed by the size of your horde that she would fall to her knees and surrender? You appalling fool! It doesn't matter how many you brought along, she would have blown them all apart with ease! Your tunnels are bottlenecks, you idiot! She could have just picked all of you off the moment you got close, flooded the tunnels with flesh-eating fungi, poisoned the lot of you, and there would have been nothing you could have done about it!"

Sunshu hacked and choked. She pounded Yukari's arms with her oversized forearms, but while that would have been more than enough to reduce granite to gravel, those who went up against Yukari Yakumo were only as strong as she decided they were. One tiny tweak, and the most powerful of the oni barely had the strength to lift their own clothing. "Had to try," she wheezed. "Satori…Satori was still…you were doing nothing…"

"NOTHING?" Yukari all but roared. She hurled Sunshu to her hands and knees in the dirt. Then, before the oni could rise, Yukari seized her by the shoulders and jerked her back so she was upright. She grabbed a handful of Sunshu's thick, black hair and painfully pulled her head back, forcing her to face the devastation that surrounded them.

"Does that look like nothing to you?" Yukari demanded. "Idiot! Those Dragons were meant for Yuuka! I had just finished disposing of her thrice-damned garden and was heading to finish her off when you morons decided to throw a bunch of rocks at jumpy Dragons! Rocks!" She seized the back of Sunshu's collar and hurled her back against the steel boulder. "If you had just left things be, trusted me to handle things, I would have Yuuka's head by now, and likely your beloved Satori would be shivering under a blanket with a cup of hot tea in her hands while we made the arrangements for her safe return! Instead, I have to waste valuable time doing damage control because a herd of inbred rock-eaters decided that an angry mob is just what this gods-forsaken situation needed!"

"Trust you?" Rin Kaenbyou said in disbelief. "Trust you? After everything-"

Sighing, Yukari squeezed her thumb and forefinger together and swiped her hand to the right. The skin of Rin's lips abruptly sealed themselves up, cutting off her voice.

Sunshu opened her own mouth to protest. Yukari held up a finger at her and waggled it in warning. Taking the hint, Sunshu abruptly closed her mouth again, though her cheeks were still burning with indignation.

"Oh, I've made my fair share of mistakes, no doubt," Yukari said to the silenced Kasha. "I'll own that. But forgive me if I do not see this as a workable alternative." She looked from one resentful face to the other. "And if you think for one moment that I'm going to let you pin this debacle on me, then you are going to be sorely disappointed. No, this one is on the two of you. Get used to it."

Then she turned toward the hubbub and bellowed, "CAPTAIN! Here! Now! Bring muscle."

"What are you doing?" Mayor Sunshu, her deep, booming voice now unusually small.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" Yukari said as captain Sonozika hurried over, a few of her burlier officers in tow. "I'm placing you two under arrest."

Rin's eyes bulged, and muffled sounds of protest pressed against her sealed mouth. Sunshu immediately began shouting her own objections. The words she used were loud, coarse, and admittedly creative in their obscenity, but taken together really just amounted to, "You can't do this!"

"Oh, I can," Yukari coldly informed her. "This is the Wilds, remember? That means anything that takes place here is under the jurisdiction of the GPF, whom, I must remind you, answer to me. Furthermore, I do not care who the intended recipient of your ill-advised rebellion was. It is still a direct violation of the Underworld treaty. And as current governing mayor, I'm holding you accountable." Her eyes flickered over to Rin Kaenbyou. "Just as I'm holding you accountable encouraging this nonsense when you should have been trying to prevent it."

Yukari snapped her fingers, and the two of them dropped from the boulder to land in the dirt. She then turned to Kotohime, who looked as if she were still trying to figure out what was going on. "Well?" she said. "You have your orders, Captain. Place them under arrest."

Kotohime's already pale face lost what little blood it had left. "But Founder," she said. "That's the mayor of the Ancient City."

Yukari's eyes narrowed. "I just got done addressing that little detail, Captain. If I wanted commentary, I would have asked for it. So stop complaining and do your job!"

Kotohime swallowed, but she nodded to her equally bemused officers. They silently approached the two Underworlders, magical handcuffs in hand.

As cuffs were slapped around wrists and Kotohime mechanically read off rights, Yukari turned to focus on Mugenkan.

All right, back to business. The situation with the dead and wounded was more-or-less under control, so at least Yukari was able to refocus on the task at hand. Hopefully the distraction hadn't allowed for one of her objectives to become unachievable, but she knew better to ignore hope and immediately start planning for worst-case scenarios.

From the look of things, the titanic battle between Yuuka Kazami and Rin Satsuki had come to an end, assuming they hadn't deescalated things to a chess match. And seeing how Yuuka had yet to reappear to reclaim her turf, either her victory had come at a great cost or Satsuki had emerged the winner. To be honest, Yukari would have preferred the former. Given Satsuki's trademark method of disposing of those she disliked, dealing with a Yuuka Kazami empowered Rin Satsuki was a nightmare on every conceivable-

"No!" Sunshu suddenly bellowed. "You can't do this!" Yukari glanced in her direction. To her mild surprise, the weakened oni had managed to twist out of the grip of the uniformed bear youkai that had been trying to squeeze her wrists into a pair of restraints and was staggering over to Yukari, one cuff snapped into place while the other swung around wildly on its enchanted chain. "I am a duly appointed servant of the people, and you have no right-"

"No right?" Yukari said hotly. She seized Sunshu by one meaty bicep and hurled her into the dirt. Placing one foot on the back of the oni's neck, she held her in place while saying, "I own this damn country! I dug out your beloved caves! I wrote the rules that we all live by, and can damn well break them if I need to!"

She knelt down, bringing her face closer to the struggling woman. "If by some miracle Satori Komejii is rescued safely today and doesn't feel like vacating her office, she can intercede on your behalf if she wishes. You might even keep your job, I don't care. But for now, you need to learn that actions have consequences." She yanked Sunshu up and forced her to look over at the sight of her distressed people.

Yukari pointed at the scene, at all the moaning wounded being cared for and lumps of charcoal being carried away in bags. "Action." Then she grabbed the hanging handcuff by the steel loop and pulled, dragging Sunshu's arm painfully up her back. "Consequence."

…

Despite all of her supposed fearlessness, Sakuya still winced when the tendril of slime unwrapped from the knife's glass handle, her eyes involuntarily closing in anticipation of that final plunge. Not even she was willing to watch her own death coming.

It never came.

After about seven seconds, Sakuya opened her eyes again, her gaze questioning. Rin sighed and tilted her head to the right.

Sakuya glanced to the side to see the black knife stuck in the wall, embedded almost to the hilt. At the last second, Rin had twisted the tentacle around to fling it to the side instead of letting it drop.

"Why?" Sakuya said.

"Because…" Rin struggled to form her own turbulent and conflicting thoughts and emotions into words. "Because I might be a monster, but I don't want to be one. And I'm sick of you trying to make me be one."

And with that, she slowly removed her foot from Sakuya's chest.

"Killing you won't help," Rin said. She extended her hand toward the maid. "And it'll just hurt Flandre more. She doesn't need that."

Sakuya blinked, a look of honest surprise raising her brow. Then she dubiously regarded the offered hand, shrugged, and took it. "A very mature attitude to have, Miss Satsuki," she said as Rin pulled her up. "I doubt that if our situations were reversed I would be nearly so merciful."

"Yeah," Rin said with a smirk. "But we already knew that you sucked."

Then she struck Sakuya Izayoi across the face with the back of her hand.

It wasn't a killing blow. Sakuya' neck was in no danger of being snapped. Still, it was enough to snatch her fully off her feet and spin her all the way around in the air before she crashed back to the ground right onto her belly in a moaning heap.

Panting, Rin turned to see Flandre and the others gaping at her in shock.

"What?" she said crossly. "Oh, come on! She totally deserved that."

Then with a long sigh, she walked over to where Flandre was standing. The little vampire's eyes widened a bit, and she started to back away.

"Flan," Rin said slowly. "It's just me. Rin. You know I'm not gonna hurt you." She reached out and took one of Flandre's hands in her own. "Don't be scared, all right?"

"All right," Flandre said in a small voice.

Rin took a deep breath. Of course she didn't need to, but even though she was made of slime, she still found deep breaths to be wonderfully calming. "Okay," she said. "You heard me out, and you heard her out, and Rumia's not in danger anymore. What do you want to do?"

Flandre let out a very surprised squeak. "What. You m-mean I still…"

"I'm not them," Rin said harshly. "I don't keep people against their will if they don't-" Then she glanced over to Rumia and saw that the blonde youkai was giving her quite the look. Rin cringed. "Er, well, not anymore…"

Wriggle cleared her throat. "Y'know, technically, you're keeping four…"

"All right, all right! Call me a massive hypocrite! Whatever! But I'm not keeping you, Flan. Not if you don't want me to."

Flandre swallowed, but she didn't respond.

"Flandre," Rin said softly. "Look. If you want to go with me, then I'd love to have you along. And I swear, I'll do everything I can to help you. I'll keep you safe from the Sun, make it so you can go out, keep you from hurting other people when you're not feeling well, and do everything I can to fix whatever's broken inside of you. We're a lot alike, you know? Little girls that got made into monsters. And we monsters gotta look out for each other."

"Yeah," Flandre said with a small laugh.

"But…" Rin said with a rueful glance back to Sakuya, who was just starting to regain her senses. "If you want to go back to your sister, you can do that too. I'm sure…" She sighed. "Okay, look, I really don't like your sister, just putting that out there. And I really, really don't like Sakuya. But I'm sure they both miss you a lot. So, if you want to go back to her, you can do that too. I'm sure you'll be…" Rin grimaced. "Okay, you know what? I can't promise anything for those jackasses. But if you do go back and they start screwing around with you again, then you can be sure I'm gonna show up and knock their stupid heads together."

"I know," Flandre snickered. "It…it's just…" She looked from Rin to Sakuya, who was now sitting up and paying very rapt attention. "I never had to decide something like this before."

"Yeah," Rin said. She shrugged. "And hey, if it makes you feel any better, it's not like you can't change your mind. If you go with me but later decide you wanna see your sister, I can totally make that happen. And if you go with frowny trashbag over there but later decide that they suck and wanna go ride with me, then I promise you I'll find out. And I'll come and get you."

This seemed to relieve the vampire considerably. "Oh. Okay. Th-That makes it easier." She frowned, her brow furrowing as she thought.

"Uh, Rin?" she said. "Did…you really try to kill Sakuya and Patchouli?"

Rin winced. "Er, no, not really. I mean, yeah, I showed up at your sister's house and…sort of wrecked the place. But I wasn't trying to really kill them. Just…scare them. Maybe knock them around a bit." Flandre stare quizzically into her face, silently requesting more information. "Look, I was having a really bad day and got upset."

"You hate them," Flandre said.

Rin's shoulders slumped. "Yeah," she admitted.

"You said they made you…the way you are. Did they?"

Rin nodded slowly. "Yeah. Them and some other people. It was a long time ago."

"Oh," was all Flandre said. Then she went back to thinking.

A few seconds ticked by, and the whole world seemed to wait as the little vampire struggled to make up her mind. Then Flandre took a deep breath and said, "If…If they're really gone…Patchouli, Meiling, and Koakuma…then Remi's gonna be hurt really, really bad. Like, almost all her family will be gone."

Rin felt her chest grow heavy. "Okay. So, you want to-"

"But…" Flandre said. "But I don't wanna go back in the dark. And if I go…if I go there, back to the mansion, sooner or later they're gonna make me go back in the dark." Then she reached out and took Rin's other hand. "I was there for so many years, and I just got worse and worse. But you were able to help me more in just a few minutes than anyone ever did. It…It still hurts. And I know I'm still messed up inside. But maybe, if I stick with you, maybe one day I…I won't have to stay in the dark anymore."

The weight lifted immediately. "So," Rin said with a grin. "The scary monsters stick together, huh?"

"For now," Flandre said, returning the grin. "One day, maybe I'll go home. But for now-" Then her eyes widened, the happiness replaced by sudden alarm. "Rin!"

Rin froze. Then her neck twisted around to see.

As Rin and Flandre had been talking, Sakuya had come back to her senses. And when she heard Flandre's decision to stay with Rin, her right wrist had twitched, allowing her golden pocketwatch to slide out of her sleeve into her hand. Her thumb moved up toward the button at the top. Rin had more than enough encounters with her to know what that meant.

Sakuya had every advantage, or so it seemed. She had pulled out her pocketwatch stealthily enough to avoid being detected until the very last second, and needed only to clear the miniscule space between her thumb and the button. Rin was extremely fast, but not even she could clear the space between them in time.

Sakuya pressed down.

"KYUU!" Flandre shrieked, thrusting her hand forward to make a fist.

There was a golden flash of light, and the pocketwatch exploded in Sakuya's hand. Letting out a cry of agony, she fell back, clutching at her hand. The leather glove had been ripped to tatters, and the flesh underneath was scorched and bleeding.

Rin slammed into her less than a second later.

The force of the impact carried them both far from the room and all the way down the hall. They hit the ground at an angle, bounced, bounced again, and landed in a mess of grappling limbs.

Sakuya attempted to elbow Rin in the head, but after trading blows with Yuuka for the better part of an hour, it was about as effective as smacking her with a paper fan. Rin seized her by the lapels and flipped her over her back to slam her into the ground. Then she hauled her up so that their faces were almost touching.

Sakuya's eyes went wide, and she looked as if she fully expected death right then and there.

Instead, Rin bared her teeth, growled out, "Say hi to Remilia for me," and hurled her with all her strength.

Sakuya flew like a child's doll caught up in a winter gale. She sailed across the hall, right toward what had to be the only unbroken window in the whole wrecked place.

Sakuya slammed into the window back-first, summarily correcting that oversight.

For a moment, Rin could only stand where she was, still crouched in the post-hurl position. Her arms were shaking, and her teeth were gritting harshly against one another.

Twice. That was twice in a matter of minutes Sakuya Izayoi had tried to take away some special from her. First she had threatened to kill Rumia, then she had tried to steal Flandre away, right after Flandre had decided to stay with her friends. It was all Rin could do not to send a scorching fireball out the window after her.

But even then, Rin wasn't about to give Sakuya the satisfaction. So she settled for a contemptuous look and an obscene gesture that Rumia had taught her. Then, with a snort of disgust, she turned and headed back.

Rin returned to the room to find it a place of fearful glances and hushed whispers. Flandre was sitting cross-legged in the center of the room, her thumb stuck in her mouth as she rocked back and forth. She seemed to be lost in a world of her own. Rumia was sitting up against a wall, being tended to by Cirno, Mystia, Wriggle, and Daiyousei, and looking simultaneously grateful and somewhat annoyed by the attention. Daiyousei had taken the time to retrieve her snowglobe, which was about a third of her size and required her to wrap both arms around it to lift. The others were huddled in the back of the room, looking quite terrified. So, all was normal on that front at least.

"Hey," Rin said wearily as she reentered the room. "So, who wants to get the hell out of here?"

All of her friends perked up at that, but the others cringed back a bit. Flandre popped the thumb out of her mouth and looked at Rin inquisitively.

"She's fine," Rin told her. "She'll be walking a little funny for a while, but she'll live."

Then she looked to the others and sighed. It was her first meeting with Rumia's friends all over again. "Okay guys, listen up. I don't have time to really explain what I am and why I can do all these things. So, let's just go with this. Yes, I know, I'm super scary. And yes, I've got a lot of enemies. So I guess I am kind of a monster. But I'm not like Yuuka. I'm not going to hurt you or…you know. Do anything else. I just want to take my friends and get out of here."

She took a deep breath. "And I want you all to come with us. I swear to you, I'll get you all out of here safely. After that, you can do whatever you want. Go back to your homes and friends, stay with us, anything you like. Just…please trust me a little while longer, okay?"

The kids all exchanged nervous glances. Then the girl with the umbrella bit her lip and stood up, her umbrella folded up and clutched tightly to her chest, the big tongue still hanging out.

"Okay," she said, her voice still hoarse. "I trust you."

"Me too," said the redhead with the removable head, who had finally come around. "I wanna leave. Right now."

Their courage seemed to rejuvenate the others, and the ones that could chimed in as well, albeit more timidly.

"Right," Rin said. She took a deep breath. "Okay, brace yourselves. This is gonna be freaky."

Then she began to change.

Rin wasn't turning into anything in particular. She put no thought to features or accessories. She just wanted to be big. So she grew. She grew and grew and grew, becoming something with many legs and a very long back.

I wonder where the extra mass is coming from? she wondered as her new limbs touched the floor. Science had always been a favorite subject of hers in school, before she had been changed. Though granted, given how much magic existed in Gensokyo, most of it had been theoretical. She shrugged her foremost shoulders and decided it was better not to think about it.

"Okay, all aboard!" she said, her voice now deep and booming. Seats formed on her back, and flaps of skin extended down to the ground, forming ramps. The girls all scurried up as quickly as they could, bringing up those who couldn't walk just yet.

"Okay everyone, settle in," Rin said. She let out a huffing giggle as their feet tickled her back.

"This is," Rumia said as she was helped into a seat near the front, "easily the most ridiculous thing you've ever done. And you've fought giant robots."

"You did?" said a blonde demon, her eyes widening. "Oh my gosh, I knew the surface had to have something worth the trip!"

Cirno bounced impatiently in her seat. "Rin. Rin, grab the grandfather clock. That's our clock. And those are our cups too. And we really should bring those-"

"All right! All right! Jeez, save someone from a monster and they just keep making you do stuff."

Rin sent out several tendrils to snatch up as much luggage as she could grab, which were then gathered up near the back. Once that was done, Rin brought up a bubble-like canopy to cover everyone. After all, they did have two vampires along.

"Yeah, you really should have done this from the beginning," Wriggle said.

"Hey. Bug. Shut it, or I'm filling your seat with horns." Rin then focused at the far end of the hall. "All right girls, hang on tight, and make sure that one kid's head don't fall off! Because we!"

She took off running in a gallop. As she did, her exterior lost color, becoming fully invisible.

"Are!"

Rin leapt up, hitting the wall with her massive head. It burst apart as if it were made from paper, and she was bursting out into the open sunlight.

"Out of here!"

Massive wings sprouted from her sides, and Rin took into the air. She soared into the sky, leaving behind the burnt out husk of Mugenkan; leaving behind the desolate remains of the Garden of the Sun; leaving behind Sakuya Izayoi, Yukari Yakumo, and flying forward to freedom.

…

Sakuya was inexplicably still alive.

She lay eagle-spread in the curiously bare earth, staring up at the equally curiously greying sky. It wasn't exactly overcast, but the blue was now far duller than what was customary for the Garden of the Sun, and the sunlight thinner. Yuuka's sky had finally joined with the rest of Gensokyo.

It made sense, given that Sakuya had seen Rin Satsuki explode Yuuka Kazami to dust. While she was far from convinced that it had been a fatal blow, no doubt it and the rest of the damage the place had taken had broken her hold on the area.

No doubt many would soon be celebrating her defeat. Cheers will rise, glasses will clink, and the demise of one of Gensokyo's greatest monsters will bring joy and relief to hearts all across the country. Once upon a time Sakuya might have joined them.

But not now. She couldn't care less. Because she had so completely and utterly failed.

Flandre Scarlet. Gone, and of her own choice. Patchouli Knowledge. Gone. Hong Meiling. Gone. Koakuma. Gone. Even her pocketwatch was gone, destroyed at Flandre's command. And yet Sakuya herself, the one most deserving of death, was still alive. If ever there was a cruel irony, that would be it.

Then she heard the crash.

Sakuya inclined her head to see the wall surrounding the window she had been thrown through explode. Though she saw nothing coming out, the dust was moving strangely, as if something large and unseen were leaping through it.

Sakuya briefly heard a sound like the beating of might wings, only for it to cut off a second later.

Sakuya blinked several times before her cracked mind pieced together what she had just seen. Oh. There goes Rin Satsuki, taking on the form of a great beast to carry all of her little urchins to safety. Including Flandre. Flandre was aboard that thing. And now she's…

Sakuya's head fell back. Well, Satsuki certainly got everything she had wanted. She had killed the monster, somehow saved everyone she cared about, and got to fly away to freedom unchallenged. A rather bizarre turnabout in fortunes, considering her and Sakuya's past histories.

As for Sakuya herself, she found herself pulling out the one thing of value that she had brought with her and not lost. It was her silver-bladed knife, her old companion. With her pocketwatch gone she had no idea if she were still capable of her old trick of throwing the same knife multiple times in the same second. But that didn't matter. That wasn't what she wanted it for.

Sakuya pressed the tip against her breast and placed her uninjured hand on the pommel, holding it vertical. She took a deep breath. I'm so sorry, she thought to no one in particular. There were too many to apologize to.

And with that, she…

Hesitated.

Instead of plunging her own knife right into her heart, Sakuya found herself staring at her reflection in the knife's blade. Instead of the cold and beautiful visage she normally wore, her face now looked confused. Scared. Not of death though. And not even of her failure. No, she was scared of what her death would bring.

Sooner or later, Remilia would be told what had happened. She was going to find out that she had lost what little she had left. And if the loss of Flandre alone had driven her to nearly starve herself in penance, than there was no doubt that this would leave her with but one path to walk. She would look toward the sunrise and walk right towards it without stopping. And Sakuya would have to confess her failures to her regardless, only in Hell.

Sakuya couldn't let that happen. Someone had to be there to keep Remilia from hurting herself. Reimu couldn't always watch her, and Yukari wasn't going to care. It had to be Sakuya. She owed it to her.

Sakuya let her hand fall to her side. The knife toppled over and slid off her chest. She stared back up at the sky and waited for someone to find her.

…

"Oh, will you look at that," Mima said. She hovered invisibly in the shadow of the dilapidated mansion, watching the last bit of will drain from Sakuya Izayoi's body. She had to admit, she was taking a perverse amount of enjoyment in just how thoroughly the Lunarian's spirit had been broken. She didn't bear Sakuya any particular ill will outside of her association with Remilia Scarlet, it was just the sort of thing she enjoyed. "I do declare, our little Rinny has truly and fully broken her."

"Delicious, isn't it?" said her other half, which was currently watching from Miko's Mausoleum. "You know, I almost feel bad for her."

"No, I don't," Mima said.

"No, I don't," her other half cheerfully agreed. "Well, I don't see her fitting any more humble pie into her mouth. So what say we cap her day off with an exclamation point?"

"Gladly." Mima waved a hand at the despondent maid and whispered a word.

Inside of one of Sakuya's many pouches were the tools and supplies she had recovered from Patchouli Knowledge's body, brought along just in case. As it so happened, the opportunity to use them hadn't really presented itself, and to be truthful she had quite forgotten that they were there. But Mima hadn't, particularly a trio of spellcards that she had instructed Patchouli to bring along in order to destroy Mugenkan with. Granted, she hadn't exactly foreseen using them for the simple task of murdering Sakuya Izayoi, and to be quite frank it really was overkill. But hey, all situations were fluid, the mansion was gutted anyway, the cards were there, so why the hell not? If nothing else, the look on Sakuya's face was going to be priceless.

Within the pouch, the cards marked Cosmic Sign: Asteroid Strike flared to life.

…

The Dragons' exit from the mortal world wasn't nearly as majestic as their entrance.

They ascended slowly, their wings methodically beating the air, their heads downfallen, their spirits morose. They had already called ahead to let their king know that the operation hadn't exactly been their proudest moment, and he had informed them that while he was going to contact Yukari immediately to do something about her blatant lack of respect, they weren't off the hook either, and he was going to make his disappointment known the moment they got back. As such, the trip home was slow, silent, and melancholy.

They had almost pierced through the veil that separated the mortal skies from that of Heaven when suddenly things got a bit more interesting.

Three flaming lumps of metal and stone, each the size of a house, each flying far beyond terminal velocity, shot past them from above. Startled, the Dragons paused their ascent to watch as the asteroids shot down through the clouds, heading for what promised to be a devastating impact.

The Dragon stared for a moments, processing what they had just seen. Then, as one they looked up to exchange glances, shrugged, and continued on their way. It wasn't their problem. If Yukari was so smart, then she could deal with it.

…

Where is it? Meiling thought frantically as she zipped over the countryside at top speed. Where is it, where is it, where is it already? The Garden of the Sun had to be around there somewhere! It was impossible to miss, or at least it was supposed to be! How in the world could she not find a great big sunflower field beneath an unnaturally blue sky that did not match up to the rest of the skyline? She ought to have seen it from kilometers off! But all she could see was Gensokyo's lovely but otherwise unremarkable landscape and a really, really big patch of bare dirt over to her left that she was pretty sure wasn't supposed to be there but wasn't important at that moment because she was looking for a garden, not an empty, desolate space that looked like it had-

Oh. Oh wait, wait, wait.

Meiling swerved hard to the left and shot over the new wasteland. Sure enough, as it wasn't long before she saw the broken and smoking ruins of a once-white mansion. Meiling's heart started thundering in her chest.

"Okay," she whispered under her breath. "Please don't let me be too late. Please don't let me be-"

Then she saw something lying in the dirt that brought her to a sudden stop. "Sakuya," she gasped. "Oh. Oh spirits, please be okay. Please-"

A strange whistling shriek then drew her attention to the sky. She looked up and almost defecated herself when she saw three flaming stones soaring down from above. She didn't know where in the world they had come from, but she saw instantly that they were on a direct course to vaporize Sakuya.

Not on her watch.

Steeling herself, Meiling hefted the large weapon in her hand and swooped down as fast as she could.

…

Sakuya heard the asteroids' approach before she saw them. It was enough to get her to pull herself out of her lethargic reverie and sit up. When she looked up to see what was making the noise, she was briefly confused as to why there were apparently three large balls of flame streaking directly at her from above.

She blinked once. Then a crooked smirk broke out across her face and she laughed and laughed and laughed.

Of course. Of course this would happen! Of course the exact moment that she decided that she had to live on, after every other conceivable threat had been removed, flaming rocks would descend from the sky to strike her down regardless. What better way to end an absurdly horrible day than to die in absurdly horrible fashion.

Still sitting on her knees, Sakuya held out both arms to either side, as if to embrace her fate.

...

"SAKUYA!" Meiling screamed as she shot toward the kneeling maid. Damn it, why was she just sitting there? Didn't she see the big fiery rocks coming down on her? They were right there!

Well, nothing for it then. Meiling zeroed in on Sakuya's back and tackled the maid to the ground. Sakuya let out an oomph of pain and surprise as the gate guard knocked her down. Meiling herself landed fully on her back, Sakuya's body beneath her, and swung the big, black bazoomie she had carried at that way with her, thumbing the safety off while activating the disintegrator.

The asteroids were nearly on them then. Meiling took aim and fired three times.

…

"YUKARI!" Shinki shrieked.

That brought Yukari's angry chewing out of Sunshu to a halt. Shinki was a lot of things, but she wasn't given to screaming. She pushed the oni woman aside and frantically searched for the danger.

It didn't take long for her to zero in on the trio of asteroids streaking out of the sky toward a spot near the mansion. Unfortunately, by then they were so close to the ground that it was unlikely that even she would be able to stop them in time.

Fortunately, someone else had it covered.

Three blasts of energy shot from the ground to hit the asteroids dead-center, and they exploded, filling the sky with fire and debris.

Oh. Well, good for them, but whoever had just fired back was probably going to die anyway, given their proximity to the explosion. Fortunately for them, they had bought Yukari the few extra moments she needed to correct the situation.

Yukari stuck out a hand and squeezed it into a fist. A small gap appeared in the center of the explosion. The explosion halted like someone hitting Pause on a video device. Then it abruptly retracted, all the fire and debris sucked away, rendering it harmless.

"There we are," she said, closing the gap. "Thank you, Shinki. Now, would you be so kind as to go get your sibling? I feel whatever that was is something that requires our immediate attention."

…

"Oh," Seiga said, the hermit's brow rising in genuine surprise. "Well, that was…both slick and unexpected. Kudos for them." She glanced up at Mima, who was frowning down at the map. "Well, that didn't work. I suppose now is the time to just ditch the impractically flashy deaths and just pop them off, right?"

"Huh," Mima said as she scratched her cheek with one emerald-nailed finger.

"I mean, you other self is right there," Seiga pointed out, indicating the glowing green dot with the stem of her silver pipe. "Ready, aim, fire. It might not make as great a story as squishing them with asteroids, but you work with what you've got, right?"

"True," Mima admitted. "But…" Then she sighed.

The hermit tilted her head to one side. "Yes?"

There was a brief, contemplative pause, and then Mima said, "You know, as much as it pains me to admit, I really do think that Marisa may have had a poor influence on me."

"Oh really?" Seiga said dryly, her tone denoting the obviousness of the situation.

"Indeed," said a second Mima, popping out of the air right next to the first. Seiga started a bit, but quickly regained her composure, taking a long draw from her pipe. The second spirit sighed and continued, "Because let's be honest: that save was so incredibly cool that I just can't find it within me to ruin it for them."

"True, true," agreed the first Mima. Then the forms of the two identical spirits blurred and overlaid one another, becoming a singular being once again. "So I think I'm going to cut them some slack and close Remilia Scarlet's file. Losing her best friend and little sister is enough."

"Ah, is it?" Seiga smirked. "Well, that's disappointing. The Mima I knew wouldn't rest until all that she cared about were laid to waste."

Mima shrugged. "Perhaps. But her participation in Marisa's demise was minor, and I frankly have better things to do than waste further time on that spoiled leech."

"And the rest?"

Mima looked down at the map. "Well, the sudden destruction of innocent lives has ruined Yukari's day, no doubt. And they were Satori Komejii's people, so there's that." She rubbed her chin. "But I think I'll consider them works in progress, especially with Satori's release being nearly a sure thing at this point." Then she smiled, flashing her perfect teeth. "Besides, this is just the beginning insofar as Yukari is concerned. Have wee little Rin still out and about with Flandre Scarlet at her side is sure to give her some sleepless nights, as is the ever-present matter of the Shadow Youkai. And now that she knows that I'm back in the game, well, few things are more gratifying than letting an enemy know that you're up to something without them knowing what, when, or where. Paranoia, you see, is its own revenge."

…

Tiny pieces of dust and ash rained down on Meiling and Sakuya as they lay still, Sakuya sprawled out in the dirt and Meiling still lying on top of her. Above them, the sky was clear.

"Wow," Meiling said in awe.

Coughing, Sakuya painfully propped herself up on her elbows. Her burned right hand was still screaming at her, but somehow she did not care. "Meiling," she said. "If I did not know for a fact that it would permanently make our working relationship unbearably awkward, I would kiss you right on the mouth."

There was a pause, and then Meiling said in an uncertain voice, "Uh, thanks? I guess? But no offense, I'd rather have a raise and longer breaks."

"Done," Sakuya sighed. "Done, done, done."

Meiling rolled off of her and reached down to help her up. Then, catching sight of the injured hand Sakuya was cradling to her chest, she winced and switched hands. Taking it, Sakuya was helped to her feet.

"Sakuya, what happened?" Meiling said, her face fraught with concern. "Are you hurt anywhere else? I still have some medical stuff if you-"

Sakuya all but collapsed against her, falling forward to throw her good arm around Meiling's shoulder.

"Whoa!" Meiling said in surprise as she reflexively grabbed the wounded maid. "Take it easy. You're still-"

It was right about then that she noticed that Sakuya had not, in fact, actually lost her balance and was now clinging to her for support, but was, in fact, actually embracing her.

"Uh…" she said, their shared history leaving her woefully unequipped in how to react when her overly stern boss decided to envelop her with intimate display of physical affection. She awkwardly patted Sakuya's shoulder with her hand. "There…there?"

Sakuya laughed a bit into Meiling's shoulder, but her voice ended up cracking. She didn't move.

A few second ticked by, and then Meiling said, "Er, Sakuya? You're not…crying, are you?"

Sniffing, Sakuya lifted her head just long enough to say, "You will…tell no one…"

Meiling lifted a hand to mime sealing a zipper across her mouth. Sakuya let out another small laugh. It hurt, but it also felt good.

A few more moments passed, and then she regained enough of her composure to say, "I thought you were dead."

"Well," Meiling said with an embarrassed shrug. "To be fair, I sort of was…"

"No. I mean dead dead. Gone for good."

"You did?" Meiling said as the two women finally parted. The gate guard frowned at Sakuya in a quizzical manner. "Why?"

Before Sakuya could respond, a voice she had previously been neutral toward but was now starting to loath broke in. "A touching reunion. But as much as it hurts to break things up, time is, as always, of the essence."

Any hint of vulnerability was washed away from Sakuya's face, leaving a cold and furious façade. She turned slowly to see none other than Yukari Yakumo approaching, flanked on either side by Gensokyo's resident exiled Archangels.

"You," she said without inflection.

Yukari nodded cordially. Then, looking to Meiling, she said, "Miss Hong, I note with slight displeasure your blatant disregard of my mandate to stay put at the Scarlet Devil Mansion. However, given the circumstances, and seeing how you actually made yourself useful in your disobedience unlike some people I could mention, I think it's best that we let it slide, and congratulate you on your spectacular timing and impressively dramatic method of entry."

"Um," Meiling said. "Thank you?"

"You're welcome." Then Yukari turned her full attention to the staring maid. "As for you, Miss Izayoi, I am pleased to see that you're still with us. I admit, I did not have much hope that you could be recovered intact."

"Is that right," Sakuya said. She had yet to blink.

Yukari smiled grimly. "No doubt you're thinking all sorts of bad things about me. But before that icy glacier you call a face melts from the fury and the screaming begins, I should let you know that the Yukari you have reportedly been speaking to for the last few days was, in fact, not myself. Nor did I bring you and your companions here. In fact, I haven't spoken a word to you since the last meeting at Hakurei Shrine."

Sakuya inhaled deeply. "What?" she whispered.

"Yes," Yukari said with a sad nod. "I'm afraid you've been shanghaied by an imposter. Granted, I still don't know whom exactly, but given the patterns displayed I can hazard a few guesses." She glanced upward. "Though admittedly, the orbital bombardment was something of a tip-off."

"What?" Sakuya said again.

Yukari sighed in a longsuffering manner. "Sakuya, you have been duped. Someone pretending to be me was responsible for bringing you all here, no doubt in hopes of catching you in the crossfire. I never so much as considered bringing in a mortal rescue party. In fact, I'm honestly surprised that you so easily believed that I would."

Sakuya felt her knees start to go weak. Yukari…hadn't brought them here? It had all been a con? A trick?

Well now. Wasn't that something?

"Now, I know you have a great many questions and concerns of your own," Yukari said. "But as I said earlier, time is of the essence, and there are imperative matters to tend to. Where is Rin Satsuki, and is Yuuka Kazami still a threat?"

"Oh, and Flandre!" Meiling chimed in. "Did you ever find her?"

In answer, Sakuya just stared at Yukari in disbelief.

"Miss Izayoi?" Yukari said, her tone impatient. "I'm sorry, but this is still an emergency situation. If there information you can give me about-"

Sakuya's lips crept upward, her teeth becoming exposed.

"Miss Izayoi?"

Sakuya giggled, a strange, broken sound, one which she was unaccustomed to making. "Heh," she said. "Heh, heh, heh. Heh, heh heh heh heh heh ha ha ha HA!"

The laughter grew in strength and pitch until Sakuya could no longer stand. She fell to her knees, her bad hand still held to her chest while the other clutched her stomach. From there, she remained kneeling in the dirt, doubled over with laughter as tears streamed down her face, and there was nothing the others could do except stand in solemn silence and stare.

…

The doors of Mugenkan were already cracked and hanging off their hinges, providing easy entry. But Yukari didn't have the patience even for that.

They shattered into toothpicks and were swept aside. And in they strode, arguably the most powerful youkai alive, accompanied by those rejected by Heaven and Hell alike, all three of them older than any current civilization, all of them burdened with unfathomable power. They stormed into Mugenkan's like conquering warlords entering the great hall of their vanquished foes, ready to claim it as their own.

Yukari looked around at what little remained of the place and wrinkled her nose. If conquest and plunder had been her aim, she would have considered this to be an unsatisfactory reward. "What a mess," she said, looking around. The place looked like it had imploded, with all the fine furniture lying in shattered pieces, the stair case cracked apart, and the great chandelier lying in a broken heap in the center of it all. And based on what she had gleaned from Sakuya, this place was in better shape than most of the mansion. "Remind me to never allow Satsuki anywhere near my home."

"I can still feel Yuuka, though," Shinki said. Her sword was bared, the scarlet blade humming hungrily.

"As can I. But the problem with that is that there really is no way to tell if that is her actual presence we're feeling or just her residual stink." Yukari snatched up the chandelier with her will and tossed it aside. She walked into the center of the room and looked up. There, on the wall and in surprisingly good shape, was a painted portrait of what appeared to be Elly the Shinigami embracing Wriggle Nightbug. "Huh," she said, raising her left eyebrow. "I'm surprised they have their clothes on." She glanced over to Sariel, who was scanning the room with its nose wrinkled in disgust. "Sariel, I must ask that you try to go find Rin Satsuki. She could not have gotten far, and I really would prefer that she not escape again.

"Of course," Sariel said, sounding relieved. It seemed ill at ease in that place, as if the stench of Yuuka was making its skin crawl. No doubt it was glad for a reason to leave. Besides, its vows of pacifism would be a hindrance in there. "I'll bring her back as quickly as I can."

Yukari raised a finger. "And concerning Flandre Scarlet…"

"I shall make every effort to return her safely," Sariel said, sounding just a little bit exasperated. Not from having to preserve another life, but at the implication that she wouldn't try to save someone. "I intend to save all those children, Yukari. Not just the ones that benefit you."

Ouch. Harsh. But fair. "Very well then. And do be careful not to start another war." Yukari reached over to gently push a marble column. It tipped over and crashed against the wall. "I know you won't do it on purpose, but Satsuki is prone to misunderstanding, and I really don't want this sort of destruction spreading. Catch my drift?"

"I have no intention of violence. I am not you, after all." With that, Sariel's pure white wings snapped open and it took to the air, riding currents that were passing through that sky for the first time in years, and it was gone.

Yukari scowled after her. Even the celestial goody-two-shoes was getting snippy with her.

"Now that had to hurt," Shinki drawled.

"A bit, but it was a fair enough critique," Yukari said with a sigh and a shrug. "So long as it does its job, it can make all the jabs it wants."

"Mmmm. And do you really think Yuuka is still lurking in there?"

"Undoubtedly," Yukari said. Even with Sakuya as hysterical as she was, Yukari had still managed to glean the important bits from her. She and Hong Meiling were back with the rest of the survivors, being administered to. Hopefully Sakuya wasn't going to crack completely and start stabbing indiscriminately. Meiling had taken her knife away as a precaution, but the Lunarian had a habit of always being able to acquire one should her fingers start getting twitchy. "Flandre Scarlet's power is impressive, but doesn't do much against regenerative immortals. I managed to crush Yuuka's soul once, and she just walked it off. Trust me. Tough little Rin might have put her down long enough to make her escape, but she's still lurking around here somewhere."

The two of them entered the halls of the mansion together. The devastation only got worse the further in they went. Little had survived, and a fine layer of soot coated most of the surfaces.

"Credit where it's due, this is thorough work," Yukari said as she ran a finger over one wall. She pulled it away and rubbed the grit with her thumb. "Worse than what she did to Eientei and the Scarlet Devil Mansion by far."

"Yes, duels to the death by overpowered immortals tend to be hard on the furniture," Shinki said. "Though I hope our own encounter with Yuuka isn't nearly so violent."

"With any luck." Yukari made a slashing motion across her own throat. "Find. Kill. Seal. Done."

Shinki wrinkled her nose. "Don't say that. You're just asking for trouble."

Yukari had to chuckle at that. An Angel believing in superstitious jinxes, imagine that. Well, given the setting, perhaps she had a point.

They came across their first notable find a few rooms in. A woman with red hair, pale blue skin, and bulging yellow eyes was wandering around in a daze. She looked to Yukari as if she were going to be sick.

"Ah, Nico Ahn, is it?" Yukari greeted her. "Good to see you properly resurrected. Well, that's another of your wayward party accounted for."

The haze in Nico's eyes cleared a bit when she recognized Yukari. "You…" she said. She tried to charge the elder youkai, but ended up falling to the ground coughing.

"Yes, yes, hate and malice," Yukari said. "Look, I'd love to stick around and bring you up to speed, but to be quite frank, I literally have a million better things to do. So I'll let your buddies do the talking. Tah."

She waved a hand, and a gap opened up just long enough to envelop the fish youkai. It closed, taking her to the rest of her despondent friends.

"Well, that's another down," Yukari told Shinki. "That leaves us with, what, two more? Three if you count Satori."

Shinki shook her head. "And what would you say the odds are of us actually finding her?"

"Abysmally low, unfortunately." Yukari kicked a ruined door aside. "But once we've finished off Yuuka, we'll have all the time in the world to pick this place apart."

They found the next lost soul not long after. A tall man, lanky young man with short, spiky blue hair and an impressive physique was sitting cross-legged by himself in the middle of what had once been an art gallery and now looked more like a charnel house. He had his hands lying open in his lap and was staring down at them as if seeing them for the first time. But as soon as Yukari and Shinki entered the room, his nose twitched and he looked up.

"And Jun Matasha," Yukari greeted him. "Well now, this is a surprise. You really have no idea how fortunate you are."

Jun said nothing, though the skin did peel back from his sharp teeth. A low, wolfish growl rumbled in his throat.

Yukari sighed. She wondered how many times she was going to have to explain her innocence to angry Underworlders. The next few days were going to be wearisome, politically speaking.

"Mr. Matasha, I know what you've been led to believe, but I can tell you right now that your anger is misplaced, and you have been thoroughly misled." She held up a hand. "Unfortunately I do not have the time to explain things now, so…"

A violet slash ripped its way through the air behind Jun, but before it could open into a gap and swallow him up, the big dog leapt aside to retreat to the corner of the room. "No!" he shouted. "I don't care what happened! I'm here to save Satori, and I ain't going 'til she's safe!"

Yukari sighed again. "Mr. Matasha, I admire your loyalty, but the odds of you or any of your peers actually finding where Yuuka has Satori stashed away are vanishingly small, so-"

"Um, actually, I think I did."

Everyone in the room fell silent, and then all eyes went to the far door. There, supporting herself on the doorframe, was Utsuho Reiuji. The girl looked like she had been through a war. Her clothes were torn, her body covered with dirt, ash, and various unidentifiable fluids, and her arms and legs were crisscrossed with cuts. One leg sported several sizzling punctures, no doubt evidence of being hit with venomous thorns, their toxins rendered useless by her radioactive blood. She looked exhausted beyond belief, barely able to stand under her own power. And yet she was smiling in relief and triumph.

And in her hand was clutched something that glowed with a persistent violet light.

"I did it," Utsuho said to her dumbstruck audience. She opened her palm, revealing the missing crystal. "I found Satori."

…

In another part of the mansion entirely, specifically the wrecked quarters of Yuuka's former guests, the battle was long over. What furniture that had not been pilfered lay in pieces. Books, candlesticks, and other miscellaneous items were strewn about. The marble woman that had once been the fountain's centerpiece lay in pieces, water still sputtering through the twisted pipe that ran down into the mansion's damaged plumbing. Once a place of fear and chaos, it was now deathly still.

And the knife remained, embedded in the wall where Rin Satsuki had thrown it.

It seemed to be waiting, patiently anticipating the arrival of a new master. It didn't matter who, it didn't matter why, it didn't matter how. The only thing that was important was that sooner or later, someone would come. Someone would find the knife. And it would finally be allowed to feed.

It didn't need to wait long. The dust and ash on the ground stirred, as if blown by a gust, but there was no wind. Then an emerald green mist rose up, seeping through the cracks. It crept around the edge of the room, as if seeking something out, and then darted over to where the knife was waiting.

The mist gathered beneath the knife. It hesitated, as if fearful of the black blade. But then it rose up, collecting into a single ethereal tendril to wrap itself around the glass handle.

…

"I don't believe it," Yukari said as she stared down at the multi-colored spherical crystal sitting in the palm of her hand. In the dimness of the room, the lavender glow was bright and vibrant. She looked up at the nervously waiting Hell-Raven. "You…found this…in Yuuka's bedroom? Her bedroom?"

"Uh, yeah?" Utsuho averted her eyes from Yukari's gaze. She looked downward and anxiously lifted on leg to rub the back of the calf of the other. "It was in a box on her dresser."

"While under attack from her plants. The plants she had left to defend her private quarters, which no doubt meant her strongest and most vicious."

Utsuho shrugged. "I guess? I don't know, I was trying to find something else and I got lost."

"Oh…" Jun groaned as he buried his face in both palms. Yukari knew exactly how he felt.

"Well, it wasn't all me," Utsuho said. Her cheeks were now bright pink. "Something happened that killed all the plants, and I don't think I was the one that did it. Sooner or later they would've gotten me."

"But still," Yukari said. "You still managed to get inside her damned bedroom, find the crystal, and hold them off long enough for that to happen. By yourself. Is that correct?"

"Er, sorta?" Utsuho looked around at those gathered. "Why, is that bad?"

There was a short pause, and then Yukari followed Jun's example.

"Oh my, this is embarrassing," Shinki said from the side of the room. The Fallen Angel seemed to be enjoying the proceedings entirely too much. "Where Angels and Dragons have failed, mortals and insects succeed. Not exactly our proudest moment, eh Yukari?"

"Shut up, Shinki," Yukari muttered. Sighing, she put her hands down and said, "Miss Reiuji, there is a great deal of what happened here today that neither you nor your friend here understand and I do not have the time to explain, but for now, I am…" She hesitated, and then said, "Deeply impressed with how you've conducted yourself. Well done."

"Oh!" Utsuho's face was already flushed from the attention, but now they were almost as red as her fires. She nervously fidgeted with her Third Leg and intently studied the hardened mud she stood upon. "Uh, er, shucks. I-I don't think I-erk!"

That last sound wasn't an expression of nervousness and embarrassment, but surprise when Jun suddenly darted over to snatch her up in a tremendous bear hug, one that lifted her fully off her feet like she was a child being snatched up by an affectionate uncle.

"You are," Jun said, his already hoarse voice now thick with emotion and tears streaming freely down his face, "the most amazing person…I have ever…"

Then the strength went out from his legs, and he slumped to the ground, slowly lowering Utsuho to her feet. He went to his knees, arms still around her waist, his face pressed against her stomach as he wept deep, chuffing sobs.

"You did it…" he bawled into Utsuho's shirt. "Ghosts spare us…you did it."

It was a touching scene, Yukari had to admit, especially given what she understood about their previous relationship. But despite receiving more affection from what had to be the biggest bully in their master's menagerie than she had ever experienced, she didn't look all that appreciative. In fact, Utsuho looked downright petrified. She stood stock-still, gaping as the big man stained her shirt with tears, her arms held out stiffly to her either side as if she had no idea what to do with them.

"I…I…" she stammered. "It's…okay, it's all right, and…" She looked up at Yukari with big, pleading eyes and mouthed, Help me, he's freaking me out!

Despite everything, Yukari still had to chuckle. "Mr. Matasha?" she said. "I hate to cut the celebration short, but the danger has not passed, and time is pressing."

"Right," Jun mumbled, and he sheepishly stood up. The rage and suspicion had all melted from his face. He was smiling, full and unashamed. Placing one huge hand on Utsuho's shoulder, he inclined his head. "Thank you," he said.

Utsuho gaped in shock, and Yukari knew why. That gesture, coming from him, was deeply significant. He was all but submitting to her as his superior. That was how much her actions meant to him.

Well, that was cute and all, but Yukari didn't care to spend the rest of the day watching them do their happy dance. They could throw off their clothes and start mating in celebration for all she cared, just so long as they did it somewhere else.

"Yes, yes, glory hallelujah," Yukari said. She lifted her hand. "But seeing how often these things go sour at the last minute, I'm going to get you two out of here so-"

"DELETE!"

Shinki let out a shriek: pure, crystalline, and simply unearthly. It was filled with pain beyond the comprehension of the lesser mortals she shared her life with. Both of the animals immediately doubled over, hand pressed over their sensitive ears. Grimacing, Yukari whirled around to face the new threat.

In the moments between the scream and what happened next, Yukari saw Shinki's features change. It was as if she were withering away, decomposing while her body collapsed in on itself. Her great lavender wings stuck out straight in shock, and then turned grey before crumbling away in flakes. Her hair dissolved off her head while her skin shrank against her bones. Her eyes misted over, becoming blind, and great, black veins stood out against her shriveling flesh.

Then, before they could react, Yukari found herself plucked up and hurled back like a leaf in a hurricane.

Thrown over the shattered remains of a table, Yukari looked up to see Shinki fall, her brittle legs no longer able to support her. The once majestic Archangel, one of the elite servants of the Creator Himself, lay on the floor in a writhing heap, crying weakly as black ooze seeped out from a wound in her back.

And over her stood Yuuka Kazami.

Though Yuuka had survived her destruction at Rin Satsuki's hands, Yukari could see that her nemesis had clearly come out the worst for wear. She was naked, with her flesh grey and shriveled, her breasts hanging like empty bags, her ribs poking out against her skin. Her once fine emerald-green hair now stood out in a shock around her skull and had turned smoky black, save for a skunk-stripe of white that slashed out to her left. The flesh had rotted away from her crumbling teeth, giving her a permanent corpse's grin. The eye that Yukari had gouged out herself was still missing, leaving the socket dark and empty, but the other couldn't be properly called an eye either. It was nothing more than a cavernous hole, lit from inside with a smoking fire like a jack-o'-lantern.

She crouched over Shinki's squirming form and let out a bone-rattling laugh. In one dilapidated hand was clutched a dagger with a black blade and a glass handle.

"Wonderful!" she crowed, her voice thick and twisted. She stood up as straight as her withered frame would allow and spread her arms wide. "Sister Yukari, I knew you'd come!"

Coughing, Yukari tried to rise, but another hammer of force knocked her down again.

"Oh, can you not hear it, Sister Yukari?" Yuuka gibbered. "Can you hear it? The cheers of the audience! Their approval, their exaltation, their laughter! Oh, you might not like it, it may sound eerie to you, but I live for the applause, the applause!"

Grimacing, Yukari gathered up her will to push back against Yuuka's, but even as broken as she was, the weight of Yuuka's presence was a formidable foe.

Laughing at Yukari's struggle, Yuuka said, "Oh, do you not yet understand? Reality…it is but words on a page, Sister Yukari! Nothing more than words on a page! And that means that it can be overwritten! Whole conversations, gone! Monotonous events, erased! Unnecessary characters…" Her neck twisted with a sickening crunch so that she was again grinning down at Shinki. "Deleted."

Then her head jerked up again, her bones gnashing loudly against one another. Her right arm swiveled around like a marionette's to point the dagger's tip at Yukari. "But as for you, your presence in my story is no longer necessary! I do not care to share the spotlight, Sister Yukari. It's over! So the time has come for you to fade away and be classified as obsolete."

And then she was hobbling toward Yukari, her limbs moving in a horribly jerky manner, the bones rubbing against her skin and threatening to poke through, and yet still she was alarmingly swift. "Delete!" she sang as she threw herself at her nemesis. "Delete! Delete! Delete!"

She crashed into Yukari and scrambled over her like the reanimated corpse of a spider monkey. Somehow she managed to pull herself upright and, both legs straddling Yukari's hips, she hoisted the dagger high over her head with both hands.

For one brief moment they locked gazes, Yukari Yakumo and Yuuka Kazami. A pair of wide, golden eyes stared into a pair of abysses, one burning with hellfire and the other as dark as the grave. An understanding seemed to pass between them.

And then Yuuka hissed out for one final time, "Delete." Then she plunged the dagger into Yukari's heart.

…

Rin was soaring, her spirit taking flight and riding the winds of ecstasy just as her might wings rode the free winds of Gensokyo. She couldn't think of a time she had felt so happy, so light, so free!

They had done it. She had no idea how they had managed to pull it off, but they had defied impossible odds and gotten away safely. Yuuka had been thoroughly defeated. Everyone she loved and cared about had been rescued. Even those she didn't know but had to save had been saved. And they had escaped cleanly, even with the threat of Yukari's horde breathing down their necks, even with all of Sakuya Izayoi's best efforts to again take away that which was precious to Rin. They had done it.

They had won.

Rin felt so giddy that she had to keep reminding herself to watch where she was going lest she run right into a tree. She didn't remember the wild landscape of Gensokyo being this beautiful. Grass, trees, roads, rivers, and flowers, all of those the Garden of the Sun had in abundance. But these were without that artificial perfection Yuuka's plants had. Here, the blue of the sky was strained and pale, the colors of the foliage dimmer, their arrangement wild, without order. And it was gorgeous. It was wild, it was untamed, it was natural, and it felt alive! Rin didn't want to see another artificially cultivated flowerbed as long as she lived.

"Everyone okay back there?" she called to the gaggle inside of the hump on her back. Okay, that part was weird, but hey, she had gotten used to flying around with lots of people inside of her. This was just a different flavor of that. Though she probably should avoid bringing that up to Rumia. That always made her laugh at Rin for some reason.

"We're fine!" Cirno called back. "Daiyousei threw up a bit, but your back absorbed it, so it's okay."

Oh. Oh. Okay, Rin really wished she hadn't been told that. "Okay then. Uh, Cirno? Next time that happens, uh, feel free to keep that to yourself, all right?"

"You got it, boss! What's going on? We can't see crap!"

"Nothing! Everything's clear out here, just seeing if you guys were all right."

Then Mystia broke in. "Er, Rin? Some of the other girls that were asleep the whole time woke up, and they have no idea what's going on. They're, uh, kinda freaking out. What do we do?"

Ouch. Wow. Yeah, that would be scary. "J-Just do what you can. Tell them they've been rescued and, uh…" What was she? "And that a Dragon's carrying them to safety. Whatever you can."

"Dragon?"

"Sure! Dragon!" Rin suddenly swooped down and abruptly turned up, looping around in a large circle. Inside of her hump, she heard several startled cries. "I've got big stinking wings and breathe fire! Who's gonna tell me differently?"

There was a pause, and then Mystia said in a shaken voice, "S-Sure. Just d-don't ever do that again."

"Okay," Rin giggled. "Sorry. Got caught up in the moment."

There was a pause, and then the night-sparrow said, "And Wriggle just threw up too."

"Great," Rin muttered, her spirits falling. "Um, hey. New rule. Next time someone barfs, it's fine, but…don't let me know, okay?"

"Sure. Uh, where are we going?"

"Haven't decided yet," Rin said. "Right now I'm just putting as much distance between us and the garden as I can. After that, we find some place to hole up while we-"

"Rin Satsuki, stop where you are!"

Oh crap.

Rin didn't even bother looking back to see what new foe had found them. She didn't even take the time to try to figure out how they had found them. She just beat her wings harder, gaining speed and putting as much distance between her and whatever it was as she-

Then she stopped.

Puzzled, Rin glanced around. She was hovering in midair, over the treetops. Nothing had snagged her. She hadn't run into anything. As far as she could tell, there was nothing holding her in place. She had just stopped.

She tried again to fly, but found that she couldn't. Her wings were beating the air, but it gained her no distance. And that scared her. This wasn't those waves of force she had felt before, whenever someone of great power had focused their will into something physical and overwhelming. She felt no invisible power holding her in place. She could still move without problem. She just couldn't go anyway.

No.

"Have no fear, Rin Satsuki," said that beautiful, alien voice. It sounded as if it were make from crystal. "I mean no harm to you or your companions."

The gang inside of Rin's back were not comforted. They erupted into a tumult, everyone yelling out different things. "What's going on, Rin?" Cirno demanded. "Who caught us?"

Rin would have loved to know the answer to that herself. Maybe she could grow some eyes in her back to find out? It would certainly-

Then she felt herself being turned around against her will. She rotated in the air, moving around to face her latest threat.

When she did, she couldn't keep from gasping out loud.

Rin had gotten used to the ugliness of Yuuka. The horrors that monster had unleashed upon her, from choking slime to snapping tentacles to hundreds of merciless eyes had no longer seemed so horrifying by the end. Combined with the other nightmares she had constantly face in her fight for survival, otherworldly terror that left most people weak in the knees and loose in the bowels had ceased to impress.

But by the same token, encountering someone so unbelievably and wholly beautiful left her breathless.

Even Yuuka's colorful collection of flowers had a residual nastiness lurking behind them, tainting their beauty. But this…this person was wholly pure. It was a…a what? An especially strong-limbed woman? A particularly gracefully shaped man? Rin found it impossible to really tell. They seemed to have been formed from light reflected through diamonds, with perfect alabaster skin and flowing hair that shone like silver. Their robes seemed to have been woven from clouds, and on their back spread six magnificent wings of the purest white, rimmed with blue.

But most striking were their eyes. They were the color of sapphires and shined just as brilliantly. What was more, there was no malice in them at all, just warmth, compassion, and a kindness that transcended mortal understanding.

Rin wasn't as well-read on the various mythologies that existed outside of Gensokyo as she would have liked to be, but she knew a thing or two. And after that business with the shard of Azrael, she had made a point to take advantage of Yuuka's impressive library to read up on the thing that had come so close to destroying her.

"Rin," she heard Wriggle whisper. "What is it?"

"Uh, I think it's an Angel," Rin whispered back.

Her passengers were struck dumb.

Then Flandre said breathlessly, "An A-Angel?"

"Pretty sure, yeah."

"Wings and everything?"

"All six of 'em."

"Fear not, child," the Angel said as it stretched out one hand in welcome. "I mean you nor your companions no ill will. I wish to help you, Rin Satsuki."

"It's an Angel," Flandre said. She sounded dazed, overwhelmed. Rin took a brief glance inside the hump and saw the little vampire swaying back and forth in her sear, her eyes vacant and unfocused, a faraway smile on her face. "An Angel."

Um, okay…

Meanwhile, the Angel was still speaking to Rin in smooth, comforting tones. "I know you have little reason to trust me. You have known betrayal and rejection, hate and mistrust. You have been hunted by those in positions of authority and in possession of great power. I understand how you must feel." Its smile reached all the way up to its crystal-blue eyes. "But you need not fear me. I am not your enemy."

Right. Rin had heard that before. "Who are you?" she demanded. "What do you want from me?"

"I'm your friend, Rin. And all I want is to be allowed to help you."

Suddenly a high, piping voice spoke up from Rin's passengers. "Wait, I know that voice," said the blonde-haired demon. "Uh, 'scuse me, Miss Satsuki, but what does this Angel look like?"

Rin was a little surprised at the question, but she answered, focusing her voice inward so that the Angel (hopefully) couldn't hear.

There was a short pause, and then the demon said, "Ooooh balls. That's Sariel."

"Is that bad?"

"Yeah. It's Shinki's sibling, the second most powerful person in all of Makai."

"But…But it's an Angel!" Flandre protested.

The blonde demon shot the vampire a hard look. "So was Lucifer."

And Azrael, Rin recalled. She grimaced. "So, uh, is this Sariel at all associated with Yukari Yakumo?"

"Oh yeah. They're tight."

That was all Rin needed to hear.

Then the brow around the Angel's eyes crinkled ever so slightly, showing a faint frown of disapproval. Oh crap. It had heard. "I assure you, Rin. I am not like that creature Lucifer. I am-"

Rin's neck lunged forward and she spewed a torrent of flame right into the Angel's face.

Some might call such an action hasty. Others would just say that pissing off something on Azrael's level was downright suicidal. And to be truthful, Rin herself had her doubts that it would work. But she was having a very long day, and there was no chance in hell she was going to let an agent of Yukari Yakumo take her down without some form of protest.

To Rin's honest surprise, it worked.

Suddenly the invisible bindings that held her in place vanished, and Rin started to drop. Not one to question her good fortune, Rin decided to go with her tried-and-true method of running away. She retracted her wings into her body, yelled out, "Hang on!" and plunged straight down.

Most of the girls screamed. A couple whooped. Flandre let out a weird sound that resembled a boiling teakettle.

Rin focused on a bare patch of ground directly beneath her and shifted her body, eliminating unnecessary limbs and making it more slender while at the same time adding more shielding to her hump. The ground rushed up to meet her, and she welcomed the sanctuary that it-

Then she hit it facefirst and was knocked silly.

Now all the girls were screaming. Rin toppled over into the grass in a daze. What in the world? She had never had that happen before. Why couldn't she-

"Rin, you idiot!" Rumia screamed. "You don't got Shadow Youkai powers no more, remember? Use heat!"

Oh. Right.

Moments later, after Sariel had sufficiently recovered from its surprise to investigate, Rin was long gone, leaving nothing behind her but a bubbling black pool of molten earth.

…

"Well, you seemed pleased with yourself," Seiga said wryly to her ethereal viewing companion, who was now rolling on the floor.

"Pleased" really wasn't the word for it. Mima had fallen over herself with hysterics, first over the magical map of the Garden of the Sun, her face pressing over the tiny, smoking form of Mugenkan, before sliding off to lie on her back on the floor, one hand pounding the ground as she howled with laughter.

"I can't…" she gasped out. "I can't…Oh, it's just so perfect. So perfect!"

"I gathered," Seiga remarked.

Struggling to bring herself under control, Mima grabbed the side of the table to pull herself up. "And here I was, ready to write this day off as a mostly satisfactory success. Not everyone I had hoped would die ended up dying, and Satori got rescued, but that's okay, work in progress. But then…but then…"

Then she started laughing again. She couldn't help it! It was just so wonderful!

"Then Shinki got stabbed with your dead apprentice's blade and Sariel ate a face full of Phoenix Fire," Seiga finished for her. She took a long drag from her pipe and let it out with a sigh.

"Exactly! Oh, the wars I had with those two! They still have my old fortress and everything, never once offered to give it back." Mima managed to finally right herself. She wiped a hand across her cheeks, cleaning away tears of mirth that she had conjured up because she had felt like it. It was that funny. "Oh, you have no idea how good that felt."

"Well, I'd suggest that you save your applause for the close of the show," Seiga remarked. She indicated a specific point on the map with the end of her pipe. "You don't want to miss the grand finale."

"Right, of course," Mima said with one last chuckle. "Don't want to miss-"

The she cut herself off, a frown furrowing her features. Seeing it and knowing what it meant, Seiga raised an eyebrow and said, "What is it?"

"Hey," said Mima. "Look at that." She motioned with her hand, and the map raised a bit higher, giving them a better view. "Right there," she said, pointing out another bit of drama taking place, unseen and unknown by everyone on the surface.

"Oh," Seiga said when she understood. "Oh. Oh my. But she is a persistent little worm, isn't she?"

"They both are," Mima nodded. She had to admit, she was impressed by what she saw. Not enough to let them off the hook, but still. "I smell opportunity."

"What, are you going to cave it in on their heads?" Seiga asked. "Let them choke on the dirt of their own garden?"

"A poetically pleasing solution, but no," Mima said as she thoughtfully rubbed her chin. "Come to think of it…" Then her blue eyes glanced up, meeting Seiga's own. "Tell me, my good hermit. How quickly do you think you could get yourself down there?"

"Me?" Seiga said in bafflement. "Why?"

"Because now that the Mykrs are gone, I don't care to head down there myself. Yukari or one of the others is likely to sniff me out."

Seiga scowled. "That still doesn't tell me why."

"It's simple, my friend. You are a lover of knowledge, aren't you? Discovering hidden, dangerous secrets and using them for your advantage?"

"Of course. Doesn't everyone?"

Mima nodded. It was the basic foundation of their business, after all. "Imagine what you could find out if you had that brain to pick."

There was a long silence as Seiga digested this new revelation. Then she said, "It'll be dangerous."

"Worthwhile endeavors usually are."

"Miko wouldn't approve."

Mima leaned over the table, her face passing through the ghostly map. Before her eyes, the two tiny subjects of their conversation were making their way through the earth. "What Miko doesn't know," she said, "she cannot object to."

Another silence followed. And then Seiga abruptly turned. "I'll go get the boat," she said as she left.

Nodding, Mima looked back down to the map. "Have fun. Try not to die." She lowered it to focus her attention on what was transpiring between Yukari and Yuuka. Like the hermit had said, the final crescendo was about to take place.

…

The blade bit through flesh and bone. Meat sizzled at the touch, and flesh shriveled.

Yukari froze stiff, as did Yuuka. Neither of them blinked as the area around the blade's point of entry withered and died.

Then, as one, their gazes dipped downward, toward Yukari's chest, where Yuuka had plunged the knife in, where she was still holding the black blade in place with both hands.

That, and the small gap that had opened right over her heart, one that led to a second gap hovering directly over Yuuka's head.

"What?" Yuuka said. One hand released the knife's glass grip to reach up to where the blade was penetrating through her hair and into her scalp, stopping just short of actually touching it. "How?"

Then she reflexively yanked the knife out, pulling it out of her head and the two gaps. Unfortunately for her, it was too late. The mordite's fangs had already sunk in, and the poison injected.

Still, she did not die. Even as her dark grey flesh turned fully black around her eye-sockets, Yuuka did not die. She got off of Yukari, staggering to her feet and stumbling back a couple of steps.

"But," she said as she stared in disbelief at the black blade in her hand. "This isn't how it's supposed to end. This isn't a hero's end. This isn't a happy ending. This isn't-"

Then the red light of her eye went out, and her body crumbled away. It started with her head and continued down to her feet, everything wasting into ash.

And it its place stood a vaguely humanoid figure, made up of softly glowing green mist.

It held its shape for a moment, then started to dissipate. Jerking out of her trance, Yukari sat up and yelled, "Oh, no you don't!" Then the green crystal, the one that Marisa Kirisame had used to seal away a full fourth of Yuuka's soul, was suddenly in her hand.

Yukari hurled the crystal into the mist. It stopped in midair, its facets glittering in the emerald cloud.

Then a brilliant white light flashed, and the mist was sucked away, drawn in by an inescapable pull. Yukari squinted and shielded her eyes with the back of her hand.

The light faded, and two objects fell to the floor. The knife landed blade-first and stuck, protruding from the ground like Arthur's sword from the stone. The crystal clinked as it bounced a couple times and rolled to a stop against the flat of the blade.

Still seated on the floor, Yukari stared silently at the crystal, almost expecting it to burst and Yuuka to explode out of it at any second. Instead, it remained inert, glowing brighter than ever before. Yuuka remained trapped.

As for the knife, it seemed almost smug in its silence. Got you, it seemed to be saying to the entrapped spirit of Yuuka Kazami. At last.

Yukari slowly released the breath she had been holding. She glanced around, first to Utsuho Reiuji, who was standing with her back pressed against the wall, wings spread out and hands planted flat against the scorched surface. She was frozen with fear, nothing moving save the trembling of her limbs and chin.

Jun Matasha was crouched in the corner, ears erect, eyes wide, one hand gripping onto a fallen statue that he had yanked over for cover, the other hovering at his side. He was staring at Yukari with a mixture of fear, amazement, and no small amount of respect.

Well, it was about time someone did. Leave it to a canine to actually respond appropriately to a display of power. Yukari ought to replace all of the Ringleaders with dogs. It would make things so much simpler.

Then her attention went to Shinki.

Yukari sucked her teeth. She bounded to her feet and rushed over, one hand held out to her side. The crystal shot from the ground into her grasp. Pocketing it, Yukari knelt down next to the Fallen Angel to assess the damage.

It was bad. Shinki now resembled a frail old woman ravaged by cancer. Her once majestic wings were gone, as was her shimmering hair. Now she was emaciated, her skin stretched tightly over her bones, great black veins running all over her body. She was shivering, her breathing labored, and her twisted arms held tightly against her chest. Her legs were lying limp. They seemed to be broken.

Yukari breathed out. This was really bad. If that knife was what she thought it was, Shinki was damned lucky she hadn't dissolved like Yuuka had. Laying one hand on the bald dome of Shinki's head, Yukari closed her eyes and concentrated.

Moments later Shinki started to cough. She instinctively tried to hold it back, but the coughs became violent, shaking her entire body.

"Shhh, shhh, shhh," Yukari murmured. "Let it happen. The poison has to come out."

Then Shinki's upper body heave and she vomited black blood onto the ground, where it began to steam. A few more heaves and she fell back, gasping. However, her veins were now more purple than black.

"All right, just rest for now," Yukari said as she stood. She was about to gap her away to her citadel in Makai when she sensed a powerful presence approaching the mansion.

"Ah, better get that one's opinion first," Yukari muttered under her breath. She threw up a barrier around Shinki's body and turned to head out.

"Wh-What's going on?" Utsuho stuttered. "Is Yuuka dead? Is…That's not Shinki, is it?"

Yukari paused. She was about to gap the pair of animals back to their home, but now she thought better of it. They had seen too much to risk their lips being loosened.

"Right, I'm sending the pair of you away," Yukari growled. "Stay put and wait for me."

"To where?" Jun said, his hackles raising. "Where are we-"

A pair of gaps opened right over the two, sucking them away from the remains of Mugenkan and taking them to one of the warded rooms inside of Yukari's citadel. There at least they would be safe until it was time to go get them.

She made her way through the halls to foyer. "Sariel, thanks goodness you're here," Yukari said as she came into sight of the front door (or front archway, as the case now happened to be). "I need your help with-"

Then she paused. And she stared. "Oh. Ah…huh."

Sariel's brow rose, almost daring Yukari to comment upon her condition.

"I take it you found Rin Satsuki?"

The Archangel reminded Yukari of those western cartoons she had procured for Chen's amusement, in which some mischievous antagonist would try to ruin the hero's day with some elaborate ploy involving dynamite or one of those black ball bombs only for their own explosives to go off in their faces, leaving them unharmed but completely blackened from the shoulders up.

"Yes. Briefly," Sariel said. In contrast with its usual divine serenity, the Archangel sounded somewhat peeved. "I managed to trap her and attempted to convince her of my good intentions." It lifted the hem of its robe and tried to wipe the worst of the soot away from its face. "In this, I was unsuccessful."

"Face full of Phoenix Fire?" Yukari guessed.

"Obviously. I was unhurt, but taken off guard. She capitalized on my surprise and escaped."

"Right, of course she did," Yukari muttered. "With Flandre Scarlet in tow, I presume?"

Sariel sighed. "Yes, Yukari. With Flandre Scarlet in tow."

Yukari stared at her. Her lip twitched.

Then she sighed. Exterminate one problem, hatch two more. That did seem to be the way of things. At this point, Yukari was well past losing her temper over it. "Right. Well, they're next on the agenda then. But for now, I need your help. Shinki's injured."

Sariel paused in its futile attempts to clean itself up. "Injured? What do you mean?"

"Do you remember what Reimu Hakurei said about Marisa Kirisame having a blade infused with mordite and how strange it was that we couldn't find it at the site of her battle with Yuuka Kazami?" Yukari grimaced. "Well, I just found out why."

Sariel blinked.

Then Yukari found herself shoved away by a power that dwarfed even hers as Sariel barreled into the building. The Archangel didn't even bother navigating her way through the halls to find her sister. The walls were sheared away by its powers, creating a direct path. Sighing, Yukari straightened up and followed.

"Oh no," Sariel said as it knelt down next to Shinki's trembling form. "How-"

"Yuuka materialized behind her and stabbed her in the back," Yukari said. She wretched the knife loose from the ground with her will and lifted it into the air. A gap opened up and she slipped it inside, transporting it to one of her private vaults. She didn't need it, but it was best to not leave it lying around anymore. "I cleared away the corruption in her blood the best I could, but there's only so much I could do."

"Mordite," Sariel sighed as it gently ran its fingers down Shinki's ravage cheek. "Yet another thing we have to thank Mima for."

"Yes, it seems I owe Byakuren a tremendous apology," Yukari said. "It's not in her nature to say 'I told you so,' but…"

"Indeed she did." Sariel slipped its hands under Shinki's body and lifted her up. Cradling its sister like an infant, Sariel turned to Yukari and said, "And Yuuka?"

In response, Yukari pulled out the green crystal. "Managed to get her before she got me. So that's one thing checked off the bucketlist at least." Then she remembered. Flashing the lavender crystal into the other hand, she amended. "Oh, two. I found the rest of Sakuya Izayoi's party. It seems that Utsuho Reiuji pulled off something of a miracle."

"For which I'm sure we're all grateful, but for now, I'd like to take my sister home," Sariel said, sounding more than a little impatient.

"Of course. We'll keep in touch." Yukari waved a hand, opening a gap for their use. "Will she be all right?"

Pursing its lips, Sariel nodded slowly. "The wound is severe, but even in her Fallen state her Grace has protected her mortal body. She will recover in a few weeks' time."

"Yes, I've been there," Yukari said, remembering her own very recent infirmity. "I have some Philosopher's Stone if you need any of the elixir."

"Appreciated, but unnecessary. We have plenty of our own."

With that, Sariel stepped into the gap, taking its cadaverous sister with it. Yukari was left alone in the wreckage of her enemy's home.

Sighing, Yukari held up the gem that contained Yuuka's marveling at how much brighter the green color was, how much more vibrant the glow had become.

"Well, Yuuka was wrong about one thing," she said. She made a tossing motion with her hand, as if launching the crystal into the air, and it vanished. "Setbacks and tragedies aside, I think her story ended on a very happy note after all."

…

A white-hot circle appeared in the tunnel's earthen wall. There was a burst of dust, and the head of a wickedly sharp scythe pushed through, making a hole.

Coughing, Elly stumbled through, one hand holding onto her scythe, the other holding Yuuka's body. Every step she took sent her heart thundering in terror. She kept expecting Yuuka to fall to pieces at the slightest jostle. If she applied more than the barest amount of pressure, her master's scorched and cracked skin crumbled. But good Lord, what choice did she have?

Certainly not to flee through the mansion. Elly had barely managed to get up the steps to the ground floor with Yuuka on her shoulder when she heard Yukari Yakumo enter the house. That had been enough to send her fleeing back down. Even without Yuuka slowing her down, she had little chance of escaping Yukari Yakumo when she was on the warpath. With Yuuka, she had none, and there was no question of abandoning her. Elly would die first.

Unfortunately, that was increasingly becoming the most likely outcome no matter what she did.

In the end, Elly had chosen to go down instead. Using the power of her scythe, she had slowly and meticulously burned an escape tunnel through the ground. With any luck, she would remain undiscovered long enough to move beyond the Garden of the Sun and its enemies and emerge into the open wildland. From there…she would think of something. First she just had to get away.

Using her scythe to steady herself, she carefully slid down the tunnel's slope down to where it evened out. Once there, she squinted and looked around.

Where in the world had this come from? As far as Elly knew, the Garden of the Sun didn't have any sort of enormous tunnel network beneath it. Of course Yuuka could have simply dug it out without telling her about it, but she didn't think that was the case. Yuuka was many things, and tight-lipped was not one of them.

Elly coughed again. She lifted the hand holding the scythe close enough to wipe her eyes on the back of her wrist.

And what was with that smell? The tunnel smelled badly of smoke, almost as much as the mansion had. And now that she thought of it, there was soot everywhere. But as far as she knew, Yuuka's fight with Rin Satsuki hadn't left Mugenkan's walls. So where had this fire come from?

Then Elly remembered the Dragons.

She had to get out of there. This tunnel had been dug by their enemies; that had to be the case. Steadying Yuuka's body, she started to make her way toward the opposite wall.

Then a voice called down from above, "Hello there! Is anyone hurt?"

Elly froze. Beams of light were swaying back and forth through the hazy dark as several figures descended from the upper part of the tunnel. "All you all right?" called the one in the lead, a tall woman that looked to have horns on her head. "Just stay calm. We're here to-"

Then one of the beams of light fell upon Elly, illuminating her completely.

"-uh…"

"Is that a scythe?" said a male voice.

There was a pause, and then the high-pitched voice of a fairy yelled out, "It's the Shinigami!"

More yelling rose up in response, but Elly didn't wait around to hear what was said. She turned immediately and fled down the tunnel.

It was too dark to fly, so Elly had to run. But that also had problems. Yuuka's body bounced with every step, and Elly could feel the flakes of skin flying off. For all she knew Yuuka's head had already tumbled off her crushed neck and was lying on the tunnel floor far behind her. But she couldn't do anything about it. She was helpless.

They'll catch me, Elly thought as she pressed on. I can't let them catch me. They'll catch me. I can let them catch me. They'll catch me. I can't let them-

Then, after rounding a corner, she came to a sudden stop. And she stared.

There, the tunnel was filled with the dancing crimson lights of torches. And in them, she saw that it was packed with people.

Very dangerous looking people.

Very angry looking people.

Very violent looking people. Elly had never seen that many heavily muscled limbs holding that many blades, clubs, and chains belonging to faces that looked as if they wanted any excuse to use them.

Elly gulped and ducked back out of sight before any of them noticed her.

Once there, she sat down in the dark and shifted Yuuka's body into her lap. Nothing important seemed to be missing, but that was a temporary boon at best. She was trapped. Her pursuers were coming. She had no place to go, no place to run. She was done. It was all over for-

Then some kind of straight, silver spike speared its way out of the wall just to the right of her head.

Elly squeaked in fear before she could stop herself. She quickly hustled away as the spike began to move in a round motion, carving a circle in the wall. Elly sat in place, too terrified to move, too terrified to do anything except sit and stare.

Once the circle was complete, the spike retracted back into the wall. Elly still didn't move, but her eyes did widen even further in anticipation of what was probably going to be a killing blow.

Then the circle popped out of the wall like a cork, and something blew in. Something large.

It sailed right past Elly, making her jerk away. The sudden movement caused Yuuka to let out a loud, pained groan, which brought Elly to a stop. When she did, she saw that the object had circled around and come to a stop right in front of her. It was then that she realized that the verb "sailed" had been surprisingly apt.

It was a boat, a wooden rowboat often used for two-person fishing trips or leisurely days out on the lake. Regardless of its design though, it was still a boat and thus clearly had no business being in an underground tunnel!

Its two passengers didn't seem to care though. One was an elegant looking woman with severe features sitting in the back. She wore green silks and was sliding the silver spike into her pale blue hair. The other, a slim girl with bushy grey hair, was standing at the boat's prow. Her choice of dress was a bit more…eclectic than her companion's, consisting of a blue skirt, a white tunic with incredibly long sleeves, three poofy balls of fur running down her tunic's front, and a tall hat made from blue silk and crisscrossed with white ribbons. Tassels of every imaginable color were tied to her wrists and ankles.

Elly gaped up at the pair. Of all the people she had been fearing to be caught by, these two certainly hadn't made the list.

Then the odd looking girl looked down at the terrified Shinigami and her withered master and stuck out her hand. "Make haste!" she cried. "And come with us if thou wisheth to continue breathing!"

…

To the very small minority that actually got where Yuuka's ramblings at the end there come from, I have one thing to say:

I'm not apologizing.

Anyway, holy shit guys, we're almost there! All that's left is the epilogue and Imperfect Metamorphosis will be wrapped up (for now).

Damn, this feels weird. Until next time, everyone!

p.s. chapter 69. Heh.