Disclaimer: Touhou Project in its entirety belongs to its proper owner(s). I own nothing.
Enjoy.
For a brief moment Orin had thought she went blind. With eyes as sensitive as hers, sudden shifts in luminosity could be debilitating, which was very unfortunate when her best friend was a living light source. Most of the time she treated her friend's sudden bursts of light as a minor irritation more than anything, but this time was different.
This time, there was heat.
A lot of heat.
Orin's first instinct was to leap onto her masters, shielding them from the heat which she could take. It still stung, however, as the heat was nuclear in origin rather than normal flame or hellfire. She grit her teeth and endured it, reminding herself that whatever pain she felt was nothing compared to what her masters would feel. A gust of wind passed over her and with it, the heat began to dissipate, and the light began to fade.
It took a few more moments before sight returned to her. When it did she immediately looked over her masters, noting with some relief that they appeared unharmed, if a little dazed. But they weren't the only ones she was really worried about. Turning her gaze skywards she could she Okuu, far above them, burning brilliantly. Heavy, grey clouds had settled over Gensokyo, obscuring the sun, and with Okuu shining away up there the entire sky was bathed in red and orange, as if it was all burning away.
"That's not good…"
"Rin!"
A shrill scream from over the treetops made her flinch.
"Neither is that…"
Reimu came flying down to where they stood, looking significantly more unhappy than before. She hadn't even landed when she started tearing into the kasha.
"You told me that you could calm her down!"
"She was calm!" Orin defended herself.
"Then explain that!"
Without looking she pointed up to where Okuu hovered above them. Even from the ground they could feel the intense heat she was pouring out, and Orin could sense the growing power inside her.
"Reimu, I was getting through to her, really! But then Suika showed up and-"
"Don't bring Suika into this!" Reimu interrupted. "She's passed out in a crater now because of her, and you're lucky it's not worse, otherwise you'd be answering for it."
"I'm telling you Reimu, just a few more minutes and I would've gotten her to calm down!"
"She's right, you know."
Reimu turned to Satori, just now noticing her presence.
"What? Satroi? What are you doing on the surface? Wait, that's-"
"Not important, I know. But Orin is right, Reimu, I can see it in her mind. She was almost successful in getting Okuu to settle down when Suika's arrival caused things to spiral out of control."
Reimu stared impassively at the smaller youkai, casting a brief, puzzled glace to Koishi before huffing and crossing her arms.
"Fine. So it almost worked. But that doesn't solve the current problem."
Without a word the group looked to the sky where Okuu was still gathering her power.
"Time to put an end to this," Reimu said.
She bent her knees, preparing to launch into the sky. Just when she was about to move, however, her whole body locked up, as if paralyzed. She strained with all her might, but all the shrine maiden could muster was clenching her fist.
"No, you will not."
With great effort Reimu turned her head. Satori held her third eye over her left, locking Reimu in place with her hypnotism. She met Reimu's glare a stern gaze.
"I will not let you hurt her, Reimu. She's our family, so let us handle it."
Reimu continued to glare at Satori, sending a string of profanities through her thoughts. But, she soon closed her eyes, relenting. Satori lowered her third eye, releasing her hypnotic hold over her. Reimu stumbled a bit as she regained motor control.
"Very well, Satori. I'll let you try and stop her."
Quick as a flash she whacked the youkai over the head with her gohei.
"But don't you ever use your hypnotism on me again! Got it?"
"Y-Yes, understood," Satori said, rubbing her head.
"Good. Now, what was your plan?"
Satori looked up to Okuu, pondering their next move.
"If I were to get close enough to Okuu then I might be able to talk her down, and I can always resort to my hypnotism if that doesn't work. But with the amount of heat she's putting off there's no way we can approach her without burning up. We need a way to make her expel the energy she's built up."
She tapped her chin a few times before an idea stuck her. She slammed her fist into her open palm.
"I got it," she said. "We need a distraction. Something to draw Okuu's attention that she'll try and shoot it down. Once she loses enough energy, her temperature should lower enough for us to get close."
She turned to Orin.
"Orin, once that happens, I need you to dive in and restrain Okuu, bring her down to the ground if you can. Do whatever you can to hold her down. You're the only one faster than her and we can't risk her trying to fly off on us, so once you have an opening you need to take it, quickly."
Orin nodded.
"Of course, Miss Satori. But where are we going to get a distraction that she'll attack? There's no way she'd fire on us!"
"Yes, she will."
Satori turned towards Koishi, who had been idly swaying back and forth beside her the whole time.
"Koishi, this is a lot to ask of you, but will you help us stop Okuu? It'll be dangerous."
"Sure!" she beamed.
Satori gave a smile of her own.
"Thank you. I need you to trick Okuu's mind into perceiving us as Reimu. She won't hesitate to attack if she thinks Reimu is coming to stop her."
"Hey! I take offense to that!" Reimu protested.
"Okay!" Koishi said. "But she's too far away right now."
"I know, which is why I need you to fly up there with is."
"But Miss Satori, you and Miss Koishi aren't as quick as I am! You won't be fast enough to dodge her attacks! And even if you do, the heat will be too much!"
"But we will be fast enough." She held her third eye. "I'll uses my powers to mimic your speed and heat tolerance while I carry Koishi on my back. That should allow us to keep out of her reach and not get burned."
She looked down.
"Although, I'll admit that with how out of practice I am, I don't know how long I can maintain it."
"Oh! I can help with that!"
Before Satori could respond she shot upright and shivered. In spite of the ever-present heat, it felt as if cold water was flooding to her head. She could feel her mind opening, her mental pathways expanding with a newfound strength as her magic flowed more freely than it had in years.
"Koishi," she said. "What did you-"
"I tricked your subconscious into believing that you never stopped using your abilities! Now it should be easier to copy Orin's abilities!"
Satori gave a grateful smile to her sister.
"Thank you Koishi."
The younger satori beamed.
"Not to interrupted or anything," Reimu said. "But how about you hurry this along. You're running out of time."
Satori nodded in agreement,
"You're right. Koishi?"
Koishi jumped on her older sister's back, wrapping her arms securely around her.
"Ready!"
Satori let out a short laugh.
"Heh, yes you are. Orin, may I?"
She raised her third eye over her left. The kasha lowered herself in a curtsy, bowing her head closer to her master's height.
"As you wish, Miss Satori."
With her agreement Satori dove into her mind. Between her renewed mental strength and her familiarity with Orin's mind, it didn't take more than a second to find the powers she was looking for. With a quick scan Satori flooded the magic into her form, boosting her flight magic as much as she could and surrounding her and Koishi in a field to protect them from the heat.
She lowered her eye as Orin stood upright.
"Ready?" she asked.
Orin looked up, apprehension dawning on her face.
"No, not really. But we have to stop Okuu. For her own sake."
"We'll stop her Orin, don't worry," Satori reassured.
"Well, good luck, I guess. Try not to get burned to death."
The youkai gave Reimu a funny look.
"What? I just don't want to clean you up off the forest floor."
She crossed her arms and turned away, but Satori heard her true thoughts.
"Your concern is appreciated, Reimu. Okay, let's go!"
"Hey! Who said-!"
Reimu was cut off as a gust of wind blew against her from the three youkai taking off. She huffed as she watched them fly up to the burning figure in the sky.
"Good luck," she whispered.
High above the forest below, Satori, Koishi, and Orin approached Okuu, the heat rising to unbearable levels as that did so.
"Koishi!" Satori called out over the wind surging past them. "Can you reach Okuu's mind yet?"
"Yep! Just barely!"
"Good! Now remember, we need her to think we look like Reimu, got it?"
"The shrine maiden?"
"Yes, the shrine maiden!"
"Okay!" A pause as she closed her eyes. "There! Now we look like flying shrine maidens!"
"That's perfect Koishi! Keep it like that until I tell you to drop it, okay?"
"Yep!"
Satori turned to Orin.
"Ready?"
Tension was written all across Orin's face, but the kasha steeled herself and gave a firm nod. Satori returned it before darting off to the side as Orin continued to soar upwards.
"Okay," Orin said to herself. "Let's hope this works."
She arrived as Okuu's altitude, the hell raven no bigger than her outstretched thumb with the distance she had to maintain, and waited to be noticed. And she didn't have to wait long as she saw a blast of plasma speeding her way. Orin just barely managed to dodge it in time, and quickly took off again as Okuu sent a narrow stream of nuclear fire towards what she perceived to be Reimu. She arced around Okuu, just barely managing to stay ahead of the flames.
Movement in the corner of her eye caught Okuu's attention, and she nearly did a double take when she saw a second Reimu flying around her. Had she stopped and thought about it she may have realized that something was up, but thinking had never been high on Okuu's priority list, so she instead spun around and shot off a volley of superheated bullets. The second Reimu ducked out of the path of the projectiles, managing to stay just out of their reach.
"Are you okay Koishi?"
"I'm fine!"
"Good! Hang on!"
Satori spun out of the way of another volley, Koishi tightening her grip around her sister. While still too far for Satori to use her hypnotism on her, she could still make out Okuu's surface thoughts and stay an extra step ahead of her attacks.
Okuu gritted her teeth as her target continued to evade her. Once again she saw something moving past her from the side and immediately swung her right arm wide, a large wave of burning plasma spewing from her control rod.
With a yelp Orin stopped and veered upwards above the flames, only to begin bobbing and weaving as concentrated, more powerful blasts were fired upon her like burning cannon balls. She evaded them expertly, only gaining a few singes upon her dress as she circled over her friend.
Okuu was really starting to get aggravated now. She knew that she fought this shrine maiden before, but she couldn't remember if she had been this fast, avoiding all her attacks as if they were moving in slow motion. And now there were two of her? It didn't matter to Okuu, she would not let Reimu interfere.
But, her targets kept eluding her. A few waves of fire at one Reimu, an onslaught of bullets towards the other, whatever attacks she tried all wound up missing their targets. Generating a sun was out of the question. She knew it would be futile as a single star would be even harder to nail one of them with. She clenched her fist, her whole form shaking in frustration, and with a yell she sent torrents of nuclear flames forth from her control rod, spinning and swinging her arm in every direction until her entire view was nothing but fire.
However, this was exactly the opening that Satori had been waiting for. This entire time the temperature had been dropping with every attack, and with this final, desperate move from Okuu the temperature had fallen to manageable levels. She and Orin flew high above the burning ball Okuu had created, and just as it began to dissipate, an opening showed itself.
"Orin! Koishi! Now!"
The three shot downwards at lightning speed, Satori pulling away from Orin as they did so. Koishi reached out and cut the illusion, just in time for Okuu to look up, control rod ready, and see her best friend hurtling towards her.
"Orin?"
The kasha tackled the hell raven at high speed, stunning her and sending them both plummeting towards the ground. Even with her temperature lowered it still felt like Orin was holding onto a burning flame, just on the threshold of what was too hot for her to handle. She braced herself for impact, only for Okuu to recover and attempt to stop their decent. But it was too late, and with a mighty crash they collided with the earth.
They were both heavily dazed, only conscious due to Okuu slowing them down just before impact. Orin, having been cushioned somewhat by her friend, was the first to recover. Grabbing her right arm, Orin latched onto Okuu's control rod with both hands. Instantly she felt a searing pain as her hands burned against the metal surface, but she forced herself to endure, planting one foot against Okuu's shoulder and pulling back with all her might.
"Orin stop!" Okuu yelled. "I need that! I can't channel my powers without it!"
"I know!"
Orin pulled harder. The control rod slipped up Okuu's arm before she caught it on the inside, the immense heat held within pouring out like a burning whirlwind. Trees all around them bent and buckled, and the grass beneath their feet shriveled to nothing in an instant.
"Okuu!"
Satori, Koishi still on her back, came soring in over the ground. The heat pouring out from the control rod was so intense she was forced to a stop right in front of the hell raven, having to plant her feet on the ground to keep from being blown away. Behind her Koishi did the same, bracing herself to keep them from flying back.
"Okuu!" Satori yelled over the hot wind. "You need to stop this!"
"No! I have to do this! The humans can't keep getting away with this! They must pay!"
"Pay for what, Okuu? What have the humans done to you?"
"Not me! You! For what they've done to you!"
She looked to Satori with big, pleading eyes, her voice trembling as she tried to get her master to understand.
"Miss Satori, they've ruined your life! They drove you underground! Drove Miss Koishi to close her heart! It's because of them that our family was destroyed!"
Satori listened to her words, having to grab her shoulders for extra stability as her foot slipped in the dirt.
"And you think that wiping them out will fix things?"
"Yes! With the humans gone, we can return to the surface! You won't have to be afraid anymore! Miss Koishi can open her heart again! We can be happy again!"
Steam was rising from her eyes now as she began breaking down. Satori heard her words as clear as day, and they struck a chord with her. It was the same thing she had thought for many, many long years in her study, staring at an empty green armchair. And had this all transpired any other day, Satori might've agreed with her.
But things were different now.
"Okuu, listen to me!" She cupped the girl's face in her hands. "There are some things that we can never reclaim once gone! And when that happens, all we can do is learn to enjoy our life as it is now, and not how it once was!"
She stroked her cheek.
"Okuu, I know how you feel, truly. But just because things are different, doesn't mean we can't be happy anymore."
She stared up at Satori, her eyes wide.
"Please, Okuu. Please stop this. Let's go home."
They held each other's gaze for several moments, then the dry winds around them gradually died down. The energy held within her started to subside as the temperature fell, and finally she released her grip on her control rod, letting Orin finally pull it free. Okuu fell forward, burying her face in Satori's dress as she began to sob, tears staining the fabric.
"I'm sorry," she said, muffled and between shaky breaths. "I'm so sorry..."
Satori held her head to her chest, gently stroking her black locks.
"It's okay, Okuu," she soothed. "It's okay."
Tears escaped from her own eyes.
"We'll be okay."
And Okuu's decent into hatred comes to an end. I've been looking forward to writing the climax for a while, hopefully it came out as good as I intended it to be. I hope you enjoyed, there's one more chapter left to cap this story off, so feel free to leave a review, thank you for reading, and please stay turned one more time!