Gensokyo my Beloved

by Fonzi the Survivalist

It's late spring, year 125 in Gensokyo when a mass spiriting-away of outsiders takes place. The Hakurei shrine maiden thinks this is just a minor incident, easy to resolve. But is it...?

32. State of Emergency

Chapter 32 – State of Emergency

Soon Reimu reached the forest under the huge mountain, through which she was flying before only once. It was during another incident which entered the annals of Gensokyo history under the title "Mountain of Faith" in Akyuu's chronicle. It took place in autumn 3 years ago – in 122. During this period Reimu was visited by a stranger who claimed to represent the god of the mountains and ordered her to shut down Hakurei Shrine for good. Of course, Reimu was against it, and so, she went to undertake a little investigation, heading for the tallest mountain in Gensokyo in order to confront this mountain deity. On her way to the top, she met several minor kami and eventually, the kappa Nitori. She had a little run-in with Aya and finally, near the mountain's summit, she discovered another shrine – Moriya Shrine, where another shrine maiden served the bidding of her shrine's goddess. The conflict ensued as soon as the other miko explained that her task was to gather all of Gensokyo's faith for her mountain goddess. Of course, Reimu had to settle things with danmaku. Finally, after fighting through all that opposition, Reimu confronted the goddess herself above the lake near the Moriya Shrine, surrounded by tall pillars. The goddess intended to gather the faith in order to prevent overall decline of faith in all of Gensokyo's kami, which could even lead to them losing all their powers and throwing Gensokyo into a state of chaos. It was a tough battle for the young human miko, but she managed to beat the goddess in a Spell Card duel. Fortunately, as with all incidents, it all ended well. Kanako Yasaka, the goddess of the rain and wind was officially accepted by the tengu and kappa as the goddess of the Youkai Mountain and she pursued her monopolizing of faith no longer. No doubt she still gathers enough of it from the locals living on and near the mountain.

After a while of reminiscing, Reimu found a river near the foot of the mountain and slowed down her flight in order to be better able to look for the kappa.

"Nitori~! Oi, Nitoriiiii~!" she called out loud. As soon as she did that, she saw some movement with the corner of her eye. "What was that?" she tried to follow the movement but didn't see anything out of the ordinary. She then slowly descended and landed on the ground, taking a slow look around. Before her eyes she saw a brisk mountain stream being fed by a waterfall and continuing further southeast, flowing into the Misty Lake.

"No kappa in sight…" sighed the shrine maiden and decided to at least take a sip of the fresh mountain water and wash her face. Just as she knelt at the side of the stream and took some water into her palms a voice from behind startled her into almost falling into the river.

"Reimu-san?"

"Waaaah! Who?! What?!" asked the confused and frightened miko looking left and right, but unable to see anyone.

"Oh… please, wait a second." said the voice that could belong to young girl around the age of 15 to 18. Reimu could already tell who the girl was…

"Nitori? Where are you? I can hear you but…"

In the next second a girl's figure appeared out of thin air just a couple of steps in front of the confused miko.

"Ta-daaah~!" she called theatrically, striking a flashy pose. She was a little shorter than Reimu. Her hair was blue with a short pigtail on one side, and her eyes were of same color. She was wearing a blue dress that looked like it was made of some waterproof material and had many pockets around the hem of her skirt, where she had various tools, with which she applied her trade. She also had a large dark-green backpack for larger tools with its straps intersecting on her chest and holding a golden key like some sort of charm. Her head was covered by a green colored hat and on her feet she had a pair of blue knee-high rubber boots. She was now looking curiously at Reimu who didn't quite understand why was the otherwise shy kappa acting so flashy.

"Bet you didn't see me at all with my new Optic Camouflage mk2™!" said the kappa girl and smiled proudly.

"Uhh… well… just a little…" said Reimu tentatively, but quickly recalled that there was an emergency to solve and she didn't have time to praise Nitori's new invention. "Listen, Nitori, I need you to go with me somewhere!"

"Huh? Wait, what?"

"Gensokyo is threatened by numerous forest fires! We need your water magic! Come on, let's go!"

"B-But… But…" the kappa protested as Reimu was already dragging her by her hand and taking off into the sky.

"Wait up, Reimu-san!" called the kappa girl while pointing her finger at the summit of the Youkai Mountain. "If that's really true, wouldn't it be also worth our time to ask the goddess of the wind and rain to help us with this?"

Reimu stopped her flight and rolled her eyes down to look at Nitori who was tightly holding her hand and dangling in midair. The shrine maiden had dragged her away so suddenly that Nitori didn't even trigger her own flying ability.

"Hey…" Reimu raised an eyebrow at her. "You're quite heavy to carry around, you know…"

Only then Nitori slowly let go of the shrine maiden's hand and ascended so that their faces would be on the same level.

"But that wasn't a bad idea, by the way…" Reimu admitted and also focused her attention at the top of the mountain. "But we mustn't waste time. If she'll take too long to decide whether to help us or not, we're going to put out the fires without her."

Nitori nodded to those words and flew by Reimu's side all the long way to the upper part of this imposing mountain. Even though they were flying as fast as the aerodynamics allowed them, their flight took quite some time and the girls didn't remain unnoticed for too long.

---

"Hold it right there!" another female voice halted them. They didn't obey and continued on their way to Moriya Shrine. However, when a stream of brightly shining red and blue spheres zoomed past their shoulders from behind, they figured it might be a better idea to take care of their source first.

They stopped and as they turned around they saw a familiar girl flying towards them. It was Momiji Inubashiri – a white wolf tengu whose purpose was to guard the Youkai Mountain from any and all intruders. She was about Nitori's height and age in appearance. Her hair was short and white. She was wearing a long-sleeved white shirt and a black and red skirt. A red tokin was placed on her head to signify her identity with the tengu race. In her right hand she held a large scimitar-like sword and a white round shield with a red aralia leaf print. Her duty was to detain pretty much everyone who wasn't a tengu or a local resident of the mountain. Fortunately, she was well acquainted with Nitori.

"Hey, Momi-chan, this is an emergency!" called Nitori at the girl. "We need to get to Moriya Shrine. Let us pass, please!"

The wolf tengu tilted her head to the side. "Nitori? Oh… and you…" she frowned as she looked at Reimu whom she was also well acquainted with, although not in the friendliest way.

"We've no time to chat!" said the shrine maiden urgently. "Either get out of our way or get ready to go down like the last time!"

"Oh, wait, wait, wait, Reimu-san!" Nitori halted her before she said anything that could provoke an unnecessary fight. "Let me talk to her."

"Well, hurry up then!"

"Uhh, Momiji-chan, please forgive Reimu, she's just under a lot of stress, hehehehe~." giggled the kappa timidly.

"That gives her no excuse to trespass again into our territory." retorted Momiji and pointed the tip of her sword at the shrine maiden. "And the same goes for you, Nitori. You may be my friend, but my orders are strict and clear: no trespassers; period! If you want to go to the shrine, you need to ask lord Tenma for permission."

"You're a tengu, damn it!" shouted Reimu angrily and pointed at the smoke pillars on the northeastern horizon. "Don't you see it?! The forests are burning! If that's still not a good enough reason for you to let us pass to get help, then you're more stupid than you look. Besides, there's another human living near the top of your mountain and you let her stay, so what's your problem with me?"

"We've already dispatched several of our tengu agents to take care of the fires with their wind powers." said Momiji flatly. "There's no need to further concern yourself with it, shrine maiden. Just turn back and don't return without permission."

"Oh, gods…" uttered Reimu and slapped her own forehead. "You really ARE a dimwit! The wind powers of the tengu are just going to help the fires spread! What we need is water! Lots of it! Nitori here is already willing to help, but it would be even better if Kanako Yasaka would make it rain again." Her look turned from serious to very serious as her eyes narrowed and she drew out her gohei and pointed it at the wolf tengu. "Now… I'm giving you one last chance to stand down and let us pass. Otherwise, you know what the second option is…"

Momiji sighed with disappointment. "Then you really leave me no other choice."

She grudgingly tightened the grip around the hilt of her sword and with a swift swing she sent another barrage of shining blue and red spheres at the shrine maiden and the kappa. She was determined to follow her duty as was expected of her kind.

Reimu quickly dived backwards, distancing herself from the dense mass of shots and waiting until the cluster spread out a little to allow her to weave through safely. Time was running and Reimu really didn't have any time to waste with pointless Spell Card duels. However, it was already too late to resume negotiations.

Nitori immediately decreased her altitude and the wave of Momiji's shots flew over her head. She instantly reached inside her breast pocket to find a small metal box with a single button which she now pushed. In a flash of rainbow light, she faded out of Reimu's as well as Momiji's vision. The kappa just activated her cloaking field. What she did after that remained unknown for a while.

Just as Reimu found an opening in the dense cluster of enemy projectiles, she was surprised by the charging wolf tengu who came flying towards her, ready to slash her with her sword. Reimu instinctively set her body into horizontal position to evade the sharp blade. From this position she made a mid-air flip, not letting her eyes off her opponent. While she was floating upside-down for a single moment, she unleashed a stream of amulets at Momiji, who was just finishing her slash. But even when she was seemingly vulnerable, Reimu's amulets were stopped by Momiji's lightning-quick shield arm. The wolf tengu quickly recovered and repeated her slashes with greater force and speed. Reimu nearly didn't dodge the last of the attacks which cut off a part of her shirt, but didn't injure her body.

"Whoa! That one was close…" thought the shrine maiden, ready to take out her Spell Card to quickly end this little dispute. However, Momiji didn't want to allow it and charged at her face with her shield. In the last second, Reimu managed to notice this and block her face with her arms. A loud clang sounded as the shield met with Reimu's arms, which were already wounded from the previous battle against the fairies.

"Ow! Ouch, ouch, ouch!" grimaced the shrine maiden in pain as she dropped her Spell Card. "Oh, damn it!"

Momiji took the advantage of Reimu's momentary incapacitation and pointed her sword at her chest, which started glowing brightly red. "You should have listened to me, shrine maiden! Now it's payback time!"

Reimu's eyes widened in a frightened expression just as Momiji was about to unleash her finishing barrage to strike her down. But instead, a bright blue flash appeared behind the white wolf tengu girl and her head made a sudden kink from the impact that she received.

Momiji's vision swam and the grip on her sword loosened up, making her drop the weapon. The next second, she started falling down as well. However, just before she hit the ground, her fall suddenly stopped and the girl's unconscious body descended slowly and softly to the ground.

"What the…?!" wondered the confused shrine maiden as she watched the scene.

All was explained as a brief rainbow flash appeared and revealed Nitori holding the defeated tengu in her arms and putting her slowly on the ground.

"I'm very sorry, Momiji-chan, but Reimu-san is doing the right thing…" she whispered an apology to her wolf tengu friend. Once she put her down, she bowed to her and took off into the sky again to catch up with the shrine maiden.

Reimu smiled sweetly at the kappa. "Nice job, Nitori. Thank you…"

"I believe this is yours, Reimu." Nitori said and stretched out her palm with Reimu's dropped Spell Card.

"Thanks again, Nitori. You've saved me this time… I didn't expect you to go up against your friend like that."

"Sometimes even among the best of friends, conflicts can't be avoided." stated the kappa and looked closely at Reimu's wounded body. "But what on Earth did happen to you? Don't tell me that Momi-chan hurt you so much."

"That's a bit complicated to explain. Right now, we need to go to Moriya Shrine."

---

Nitori nodded and once more, flew in a side-by-side formation with Reimu to the plateau where they already saw the roof of a distant shrine and the glittering surface of the nearby lake, which was supposedly a part of Lake Suwa spirited away from the outside world along with the shrine. It was surrounded by tall hexagonal stone pillars decorated by shide – the zigzag paper streamers like the ones on Reimu's gohei wand and usually found hanging at Shinto shrines. The two of them landed right in front of the second of the two known shrines in Gensokyo. Since they didn't see anybody outside, Reimu and Nitori briefly knocked on the door and entered the shrine to see if the person they were looking for was inside. All of the three known residents were inside the living quarters, sitting at a table and having lunch.

The second shrine maiden in Gensokyo was about Reimu's age and height. Her hair was long, light-green and adorned by a snake-shaped hair accessory wrapped around her hair on one side and a small hair clip shaped like a frog's head. Apparently these were from the outside world. Since she was a shrine maiden, her outfit was very similar to Reimu's in style, but her color theme was blue-white instead. The blue parts of her clothes were also patterned with light-blue polka dots and stripes. Her shirt sleeves were also detached like Reimu's. She was surprisedly glancing with her dark-blue eyes at Reimu who just let herself into her shrine along with her kappa companion.

"Hakurei Reimu…" she stated coldly after giving the uninvited guest a once-over.

Reimu responded in the same manner, saying the other miko's name. "Kochiya Sanae…"

"What's the meaning of this rude incursion?" asked Sanae, still calmly. The other two persons sitting with her at the table also gave Reimu and Nitori questioning looks.

"There's a forest fire in Gensokyo~!" called Nitori from behind Reimu's back, waving her arms to get their attention. "I saw it! And it's not just one fire either!"

Reimu continued the thread of thought: "That's why we're here! To ask for your help, Kanako-sama…"

The person Reimu addressed was a tall young-looking woman with shoulder-length hair, the color of which was somewhere between blue and purple. Her eyes were dark-red. She was wearing a red shirt with long white sleeves. A palm-sized round mirror was hanging on her necklace over her chest. She also had a long dark-red skirt with brighter red flower patterns along the hem. Behind her back, floating by itself, was a thick shimenawa rope circle with hanging shide paper strips. On her head she had a circlet made of smaller shimenawa and decorated by bright-red leaves. She was the goddess Reimu was looking for. As she heard that Reimu needs her help, she couldn't hide her surprise.

"My help?" she asked and pointed at herself with her thumb. "To put out forest fires you say? Well, that's quite a serious problem, isn't it, Sanae?"

The green-haired shrine maiden rolled her eyes at the goddess in silence.

The third and the smallest girl in the shrine spoke after a while of silence. "Go with them, Kana-chan." she spoke with a childish voice. "Now is your time to return the favor to all the people for all the faith they have for you."

Despite her appearance, she was also a goddess. In fact, even older than Kanako. Her name was Suwako Moriya – the shrine's goddess of earth and one of the oldest gods living in Gensokyo. She looked like a young human girl with semi-long blonde hair and gray eyes. She was dressed in a simple purplish dress with wide white sleeves and frog print design on the front side. On her head she had a light-brown wide-brimmed hat with two frog eyes on top. The fact that its frog eyes were moving and blinking on their own gave the impression that it had a mind of its own.

Reimu still freshly remembered the Spell Card duel she had with her. Not because of any serious conflict, but just as a game. However, it was certainly one of Reimu's hardest earned victories.

"Are you going with me then, Suwako?" asked the other goddess while she was slowly standing up. "Earth can serve to put out fires just as well as water, if not even better."

Suwako's hat rolled its eyes in sync with the little goddess wearing it as she thought about Kanako's suggestion. "Hmm… Causing earthquakes and landslides in order to put out forest fires would bring more destruction than the fires themselves. This seems more like your cup of tea, Kana-chan."

"Very well." shrugged the tall goddess and bowed to her faithful shrine maiden, Sanae, and her fellow goddess, Suwako, and walked towards Reimu and Nitori. "Let's have a round two of the summer rain season…"

Reimu showed her thankful smile, bowed to the kami and led the way out of Moriya Shrine. Kanako followed her and once outside, she ascended into the air to take a good look around. She saw the spreading forest fires, but her face didn't show any signs of panic.

"Okay… Let's get started, shall we?" she said more to herself than to Reimu and Nitori.

"Then don't linger and come with us!" Reimu prompted her and waved her arm in a "follow me" gesture.

"There's no need." smiled the rain and wind goddess calmly "I'll just make it rain from here all over Gensokyo. The rest, however, will be up to you, and your kappa friend."

"Fortunately, we're not alone in this." said Reimu, hoping that Marisa and Alice managed to get someone who'd be able to deal with the spreading fires.

Kanako simply raised her arms above her head and without any chants or Spell Cards she made gray clouds appear in the clear blue summer sky. After just one minute, the clouds grew and covered up all the visible sky. Then Kanako gently waved her fingers as if she was playing an invisible piano and lowered both of her arms slowly.

A single drop of water fell down on Reimu's forehead. Then another one. And another… A cool rain started falling from the sky. Not too strong to make flying difficult, but not too light either. Kanako elegantly descended back to the ground.

"Well, I hope this helps… I wish you best of luck, Reimu and uhh… Miss kappa."

"Of course you helped! Thank you very much, Kanako-sama." thanked the shrine maiden turned to Nitori. "Let's fly and put out the one closest to my shrine first!"

"Okay~!" called the kappa and glided behind her, prepping her most effective water-based Spell Cards as she flew.

---

Marisa decided to take a more civilized approach and instead of breaking into the library of the Scarlet Devil Mansion through one of its windows, she landed in front of the huge manor and knocked on the main door. The door unlocked itself and slowly opened up before her. Sakuya, the head maid was already standing in the foyer with a very surprised expression, widened eyes and mouth agape.

"Umm… Hi, Sakuya. I uhh… I just came to visit Patchouli and… apologize. And ask a little favor from her too…"

For a witch that never cared much about trivialities such as good manners or feelings of other people and as someone who never in the history of the mansion's existence entered through its main door, Marisa was acting way out of her character. This was just too great a shock for poor confused Sakuya, who was standing as if frozen in time with the same bewildered expression.

"Uh… could I please come in, Sakuya? It's quite an urgent matter, you know."

Sakuya suddenly snapped out of her confused state and tentatively walked up to Marisa and put her palm on the blonde's forehead to make sure she wasn't sick or something.

"Hehehehe, I'm feeling fine, thank you." giggled the witch and entered the mansion's foyer.

The maid then placed her palm over her own forehead to make sure she wasn't the one who was sick and just hallucinating.

"You should take a vacation, Sakuya. You don't look so well…" Marisa smiled at her. "So, does that mean I can see Patchouli?"

"Uhh… You know the way, don't you?" muttered Sakuya and teleported somewhere away.

Of course, Marisa knew her way around the mansion, but she never was too used to taking the corridor and the descending staircase to enter its great library. Furthermore she was feeling kind of anxious to face Patchouli again after she was so forcefully driven out of her library. What was worse, Patchouli's radical and forceful action was quite well justified and even Marisa had to admit that. She mentally prepared herself as she walked towards the massive door of the library along the long darkened hallway. Just in case, she'd need it for immediate self-defense, the witch grabbed her mini Hakkero and put her tentative hand on the door's handle.

"Well, here goes nothing…" she whispered and opened the library door.

She saw the purple-haired librarian leaning over one of her tables over some book, but she was really surprised to see the younger Scarlet sister sitting there next to her and reading as well.

"Umm… Hello?" she sounded and closed the door behind her.

Both Patchouli and Flandre turned their curious and surprised faces at her.

"Ma-Marisa…?" stuttered Patchouli and stared disbelievingly.

Flandre's eyes sparkled with joy as she saw her. "Marisa-neechan~!" she exclaimed and hurried to welcome her by a sweet embrace. However, since she was incomparably stronger than any human, poor Marisa was knocked off her feet and landed on the carpet.

"Hey, Flan… Easy now!"

"Marisaaa~! Have you come to play?"

"Not now, Flan-chan, I need to talk to Patchouli…" uttered the witch, futilely trying to stand up.

"Aww, come on~! Just a little game of danmaku~…" Flandre insisted pleadingly. "Patchouli-sensei's lessons are sooo boring~."

"Like I said…" Marisa struggled to get herself from under the vampire's grip, "I don't have time to play… Now please, let me go already."

Only now did the little vampire realize that she was inadvertently incapacitating Marisa and released her from her embrace. Patchouli also stood up from her table and slowly walked to the witch who was now already back on her feet and dusting off her black and white clothes.

"Did you say you wanted to talk to me about something?"

"Ah, yes… Patchouli," she looked straight into her purple eyes and took a deep breath, "I… I'm sorry for the last time for borrowing so many books at once… And for spilling your tea on you, but that was an accident."

Patchouli was in a loss for words for quite a while. She had experienced quite a lot of things in her over 1 century long life, but Marisa apologizing to her for stealing books would be a first. Furthermore, she thought that Marisa would never show up again after their last library incident, but here she was – standing in front of her and apologizing.

"Marisa… I'm… I'm also sorry for using Royal Flare on you…"

"No… It's fine. I kind of deserved that one, ze…"

"And I thought you were mad at me…" muttered the librarian and lowered her head.

"Ha! Ditto." smiled the witch and stretched out her right palm. "Friends?"

Patchouli nodded and took Marisa's hand to shake it. "Friends."

Flandre watched this scene curiously and a bright smile settled on her childish face. "Yaaay~! I want to make some friends too~!"

"But that's not all I've come here for…" said Marisa after a while.

Patchouli frowned and crossed her arms. "Oh… I should have known. You want to ask me some favor, right? More books?"

"No, no, no…" the witch shook her head with a sheepish grin. "The favor is that I need you to come with me now. There are several forest fires burning throughout Gensokyo, so I thought your water magic would be helpful."

"What? There's a forest fire and you tell me that so nonchalantly?!"

"I wasn't even sure if you wouldn't blast me with another Royal Flare if I showed up the way I usually do…"

"But this is different. It's an emergency. We should get going and probably ask someone else for assistance too."

"Heh… Never thought convincing you would be so easy." said Marisa. "Don't worry, Reimu and Alice went to get some help as well. The fires were started by some crazy fairies. Poor Alice… her house is now burning. We should put out that fire first."

"That sounds like fun~!" rejoiced little Flandre. "I would like to go with you and watch Patchouli-sensei put out fires, but it's raining outside…" she pouted disappointedly and pointed at one of library's windows. "Rain makes me and Onee-chan weak and sleepy…"

"What? Rain?" uttered the witch as she looked through the window. "I've never been so happy to see rain… Now we have a better chance. Are you ready to go, Patchy?"

"I'm ready." nodded the youkai sorceress and called for the head maid. "Sakuya~!"

"Yes, Patchouli-sama?" asked Sakuya who was suddenly standing between her and Marisa. "Do you want me to take care of this nuisance here?" she pointed her thumb back at the witch.

Marisa frowned at her remark. "Oi, oi…"

"No, Sakuya. I need to go out for a while and I want you to keep an eye on Flandre while I'm gone."

Sakuya threw a sidelong glance at the younger Scarlet sister and the vampire girl smiled sweetly back at her.

"Understood." she replied positively, but with an expression that said: "Why me?"

"Yaaay~! Sakuya~! Make me a triple chocolate, strawberry and vanilla parfait with extra whipped cream on top. And… and caramel pudding and… and that tiramisu that Patchouli-sensei likes and…"

"But Remilia-sama says I shouldn't stuff you with too much sweets." protested the maid, but Flandre continued stating her list of demands for another five minutes. Marisa and Patchouli were already on their way to Forest of Magic.

---

While Reimu and Marisa flew to their separate destinations to get some help, Alice was scouring the shoreline of Misty Lake, searching for Cirno, the ice fairy whose dwelling was rumored to be somewhere in that area. However, Alice knew well that all fairy dwellings were impossible to locate by humans. Even though Alice was a youkai, it didn't make her search any easier. Besides, fairies didn't necessarily linger around their dwellings, but enjoyed playing and exploring. She wasn't even hoping to find the ice fairy. After the third lap around the entire lake, she dismissed her effort, because she just got a better idea.

"This is pointless. But hey, I know who could help us with the fires. Although I've never talked to them personally…"

Alice didn't linger at the lake for another second. She took off to her new destination – the Temple of Myouren. In just 15 minutes, Alice made it to the outskirts of Human Village and to the one and only Buddhist temple in Gensokyo. Upon entering the temple, the puppeteer saw that the prayer hall was empty, so she entered the door behind the large Buddha statue.

"Uhh… Is anybody here?" she called into the dark narrow corridor, but got no response. She therefore proceeded further and repeated her call. Then she suddenly heard silent rapid footsteps as if somebody on the floor above just ran off somewhere. Then Alice could hear a childlike voice, dampened by the walls of the temple shout: "Byakuren-sama~! Hurry, hurry, somebody broke into the temple!"

Her heart skipped a beat as she stood there confusedly, knowing that the voice was most certainly referring to her. However, Alice believed that she'd be able to give a good explanation to whoever will show up and ask for one particular person's help to put out the forest fires. Although Alice never visited this place on her own, she heard about it and its inhabitants from Reimu and Marisa and also thanks to Aya's newspaper.

As she was trying to imagine the person whom she only knew by name, a sudden ray of light appeared at the end of the narrow wooden corridor, revealing stairs leading up to a trapdoor that was just opened. In the next moment a single foot wearing a black boot with white strip of cloth tied around it stepped down on the topmost of the wooden stairs, soon followed by another. The person who appeared a moment later was none other than the temple's owner, Byakuren Hijiri. Alice figured that out just by the description of her she had heard from her human magician friend.

"Who dares to desecrate the holy walls of the Temple of Myouren with acts of thievery?" she asked as she glanced upon Alice, standing more than five meters away from her in a poorly lightened corridor.

"Thievery? No, you're mistaken…" said Alice denyingly and walked up towards Byakuren. "I'm not like Marisa."

Byakuren eyed her carefully and suddenly stretched out her palm forward. Alice's immediate reflex was to crouch and cover her face as she expected to be attacked… But she wasn't.

"You…" muttered the monk, "You're a youkai…"

"Huh…? Yeah, I am…" said the blonde puppeteer as she stood up timidly. "I'm Alice. Alice Margatroid. I heard about you from a friend of mine…"

"And what are you doing here, Alice Margatroid? It must be something urgent, I assume…"

"Why yes, it IS urgent!" said Alice loudly. "Gensokyo's forests are burning and so is my house. I've heard that a person by the name of Minamitsu Murasa, who supposedly has some water manipulating abilities, lives here in this temple."

Byakuren widened her eyes, looking surprised and concerned. A forest fire in Gensokyo was certainly not a matter to be taken lightly. Indeed, Alice's info was correct: Minamitsu was one of the youkai who lived here at the temple. Byakuren confirmed that with a nod and hurried back up the stairs, asking Alice to follow. As the dollmaker climbed up the steep stairs to the second floor, she was immediately reminded that the temple was originally a ship. A flying ship in particular. She now found herself on its main deck, where she saw Byakuren leading the way to the captain's quarters. Byakuren tersely introduced herself to Alice as she led the way. There was also another, smaller girl on the main deck – a mouse youkai dressed in a brownish-black one piece dress with light-pink sleeves and a gray capelet. Her hair was gray and short, with a pair of round mouse-like ears sticking out. Her eyes were dark-red and staring intensely at the newcomer to the Myouren Temple. The mouse youkai also had a small necklace with a single blue crystal pendant. She even had a long gray tail, which was more catlike than mouselike and with that tail she was holding a mini basket with a normal non-youkai mouse inside. She seemed to be playing some sort of game with some mysteriously-looking metallic L-shaped rods. Alice had little next to no idea what they were supposed to be, but then again, she wasn't even that curious. The mouse youkai surely wasn't the person she was looking for. She just silently followed Byakuren's steps, which led to the front side of the deck. The youkai monk opened up the captain's quarters without even knocking and let herself in, holding the door opened for Alice.

"Please, come in, come in."

The blonde dollmaker followed her host inside. It was quite a large room with one large table with a map of some ocean and unknown islands. By the looks of it, the map was ancient. There were also various navigating instruments such as sextants and compasses placed on the main table and even an old brass spyglass. The rest of the room's furniture consisted of several wardrobes and storage chests and a single bed for the captain. The captain as Alice assumed was the girl sitting at the table with the map and writing something into a logbook.

She was rather pale with short black hair and teal eyes. She was wearing a white and teal sailor uniform, complete with a white hat and a red neckerchief. She looked preoccupied at the moment, but she did notice Byakuren and Alice enter her quarters and it didn't take her long to greet them both accordingly.

"Good afternoon, Byakuren-sama. And miss…"

"Alice Margatroid."

"It's time to mobilize the crew, Murasa." announced Byakuren and gestured towards her guest.. "Alice-san says there are fires spreading over Gensokyo's forests and our help is needed."

Minamitsu glanced at Byakuren with a puzzled expression. "Are we taking off with this ship?"

"No, of course not. We're going by ourselves. We'll offer a helping hand to anyone who needs it."

"Oh… Understood." nodded the captain of the Palanquin Ship and from the table she grabbed a simple wooden ladle. She then took off from the ground and floated just several centimeters above ground out of her quarters. Alice and Byakuren followed her outside and watched as Minamitsu floated up to one of the ship's masts and yanked a piece of rope hanging down to sound an alarm bell. In less than ten seconds the young mouse youkai showed up along with three other girls – all of them youkai.

One of them was a tall blonde whose short hair had also black stripes. Her eyes were golden-yellow. Her dress was burgundy-orange with white sleeves and collar and a tiger-pattern around the hips and abdomen. She also wore a pair of white frilly pants under the dress. There was a large white cloth circle attached to her back. Her head was decorated by an orange lotus-shaped ornament. In one of her hands she held a long spear with black shaft and diamond-shaped tip.

The second girl was wearing a white dress with dark-blue trim and a headdress similar to that worn by nuns, revealing only little of her short purple wavy hair. Her eyes were dark-purple and staring at the ship captain. In her hand she held a plate-sized golden ring and Alice could only guess what it was used for. However, Alice's attention was more captivated by the pink-reddish cloud swirling around the girl that appeared to have a face of an old man with a beard.

The third youkai girl was the strangest-looking of the lot. Even her arrival to the scene was unusual, since she appeared as a blue energy sphere that swirled around the mast and then materialized into the shape of this young girl. She had short black disheveled hair and dark-red eyes. She was wearing a tight short sleeved black dress with a short skirt, a narrow blue and white vertical trim in the middle and a small red bow tied below the collar. On the lower left side of her skirt she had a dark-red tomoe design, remotely resembling yin-yang pattern. She was also wearing black thigh-length stockings and bright-red shoes with red bows. The most eye-catching part about her was the wings. From the right side of her back stretched three large red metallic-looking blade-like wings with sharp tips, and from the left side jutted three dark-blue curved tails with arrow-shaped tips. In her right hand she held a long trident with a blue snake wrapped around its shaft and her forearm. On her left arm she had a black wristband. To Alice, this girl looked kind of dangerous, but her face and expression were rather friendly in contrast.

"My dear friends," started Byakuren once her "crew" assembled, "we have an emergency situation here." she told them with calm, but loud enough voice to be clear. Her hand then gestured to Alice as she continued her mission briefing. "This young youkai is Alice-san and she says that numerous fires are spreading over the forests of Gensokyo. While I know that nearly none of us, with the exception of Captain Murasa here, know how to deal with forest fires, I'm asking the rest of you to go with me and help those who are in immediate danger to escape. In other words: your mission is evacuation. Now let's not waste any more time. Alice-san, please lead the way."

Alice nodded and levitated upwards. "If you just fly up a little, you'll be able to see them all. They're to the north and northeast from here. I think the closest one is in the Forest of Magic."

As she said that, she could feel something cold and wet touch her nose. She looked up for a moment and caught a raindrop right in the eye, making her grimace and blink rapidly. It started raining.

"Looks like gods are with us." remarked Byakuren who followed the puppeteer in flight towards the Forest of Magic. "We're lucky it's still summer rain season…"

Alice sighed in her mind with a bit of relief, although she knew that her house and everything inside was now probably beyond any hope of rescuing. However, she had no time to despair, for she and Byakuren's team could still save Marisa's house and a major part of the forest itself.

"Okay, it seems there are fires burning in four different locations. We better split up." suggested Byakuren and turned to her teammates. "Murasa, you go with Alice. Ichirin, you'll try to prevent the Hakurei Shrine from burning down…"

The nun-like girl with her cloud companion nodded and split up from the group.

"Shou, Nazrin, you'll take the largest one over there. Me and Nue will try and help anyone who might be near the one in the far northeast." said the monk girl, giving further instructions to the tiger youkai and the mouse youkai. "If you put out the first fire, Murasa, don't waste time and proceed right to next one, okay?"

"Yes, Hijiri-sama." acknowledged the captain and then she split away from the group and followed Alice to the nearest fire.

---

"Thank you for helping me, Minamitsu-san." called Alice at Captain Murasa through the wind's howling as they flew at top speeds in a dramatic race with time.

"Don't thank me." said Minamitsu reservedly. "I'm just repaying Hijiri-sama a favor. It's her you should give a proper thanks to."

Alice shrugged at the girl's rather indifferent attitude, but she was grateful for her assistance. Whatever her reasons for helping others may be…

In less than ten minutes, the two girls reached the burning trees in the Forest of Magic and the clearing where Alice's house was standing. Captain Murasa prepared her wooden ladle and descended lower above the blazing roof of Alice's once beautiful home.

"Just stand back Alice-san. Leave everything to me. Perhaps we can still save your home… partially."

She then turned her ladle bottom side up and began pouring water in a steady unending stream down on the fires. By the looks of it, Alice figured that Minamitsu's ladle was a bottomless one, similarly like Suika's gourd had infinite sake. Although, if Suika would decide to put out the fires with her more concentrated version of this rice alcohol, she'd probably just fuel the fires to burn even more. However, the ladle in Minamitsu's hand actually had no bottom at all, so it should be physically impossible to contain any water. However, she just kept pouring more and more water out of it as if it could create water out of nothing. Murasa saw that this would probably take a while to put out completely, so she thought she'd speed up the extinguishing process a bit. She drew out a Spell Card and called: "Flood "Venus of the Bilge"!"

Then she dropped the card into her wooden ladle. A bright blue flash from it indicated that the spell was activated and Murasa once again turned it upside down over Alice's house. Hundreds of light-blue shining spheres spread out from the ladle and spread equally to form a dense layer hanging in air for a while, before they all fell down. Each of the spheres splashed as if it turned into a barrelful of water upon touching the ground. The fire was put out in a matter of seconds, but now, Alice's house was flooded. Captain Murasa didn't linger though. She suddenly turned green. Not just body, but her whole figure with clothes became green and blurry and she suddenly disappeared to appear several tens of meters above the burning trees of the Forest of Magic to stop the fires completely.

"What the hell is she?!" wondered Alice as she watched the captain repeatedly teleport herself in this strange blurry greenish form and pour water down on the fires. "What did Marisa say she was again…? Oh… I remember – she's a ship ghost." she muttered to herself as she recalled that bit of information. "A restless spirit of a shipwreck victim…"

Even though it was just as Alice said, she wasn't scared. On the contrary, she was relieved that Minamitsu managed to effectively put out one of the four forest fires with relative ease.

Once the ghost was done with her job, she appeared once more in front of Alice and smiled.

"Well, that takes care of that… I still have three to go. You don't have to go with me, Alice-san, but if you want, I won't hold you back."

Alice looked down upon the flooded clearing and immediately recalled that the three fairies that she tried to protect were still there, lying lifelessly on the ground.

"I think I'm not going to go with you, Murasa-san, but I'd still like to thank you." she said once she looked back at Minamitsu's face.

"Helping others is a rather… refreshing change from sinking ships in the past…" remarked the ghostly ship captain with a smile. Then she turned away and floated quickly towards the second fire source.

---

Alice landed on the clearing and with sorrow in her heart she looked at the remains of her house and at the bodies of the Three Mischievous Fairies, partially covered in muddy water.

"Why…? Why aren't they waking up yet? Shouldn't the fairies be immortal? And what on Earth would make Sunny kill her two friends in cold blood with her bare hands?" she asked in her mind as she put her hand on one of the fairies' necks in hope to feel some pulse.

"This can't be…" she blurted out with trembling voice. "What horrible thing has befallen all the fairies in Gensokyo? It's been over half an hour. Please, wake up already…"

The fairies usually didn't take long to resurrect, but for some unexplainable reason, these three were still not recovering. Alice was kneeling there by their bodies, asking herself hundreds of questions, the answers to which she couldn't come up with. She blamed herself for not being able to protect someone in need of her help. Despite being a youkai, her heart was just as sensitive and fragile as any human's. If not even more so… She began sobbing and couldn't stop. She just hoped nobody would come and see her like this.

…

She didn't know how long she was sitting there. Cold rain was showering every square centimeter of her body, but she ignored it completely. She was unable to think of what to do next when a silent voice inside her head said: "Don't cry… Alice…"

"That's easy for you to say…" she murmured a reply to her inner voice, still unable to stop her tears from rolling down her cheeks.

"Don't cry, Alice-chan…" the voice repeated itself, still sounding weak and distant.

Alice didn't respond. She just silently wiped her eyes with a handkerchief, when she felt something pull her by the skirt. Surprised by this, she opened her eyes wide to see Star Sapphire holding a fold of her dress in her shaky hand.

"Don't… cry…" she murmured once more.

Alice now figured that the voice wasn't that of her inner self, but of one of the three fairies.

"S-Star-chan?" she stuttered unclearly, but in her heart she rejoiced that the fairies still did resurrect as was expected of them.

"Huh? What…? What happened?" asked Luna as she stirred about a little and opened her eyes.

"Alice-san? Is that you?" sounded the weak voice of Sunny who was lying between the two other fairies.

"Sunny-chan, Luna-chan~!" exclaimed Alice happily and helped them stand up. "I'm so glad… I was worried you wouldn't revive yourselves."

The three little youkai were still very weak and barely able to stand on their own, but they each expressed their gratitude to Alice for trying her best to protect them.

"So, are the evil fairies all gone now?" asked Luna timidly, still trembling from the memory of the recent event.

"Yes. Me Marisa and Reimu had to wipe them all out…" the puppeteer acknowledged and looked at her ruined house. "But they've caused a lot of damage and even started several forest fires."

"Oh no…" moaned Star with worried face. "Our home… I bet it's completely destroyed now…"

"If I still had a home to take you in, believe me I would, my dear fairies… But…Sunny-chan…"

"Yes? What is it?" asked the sunlight fairy with a confused look.

"Don't play like you don't know. What's gotten into you?! How could you do something so horrible to your best friends?!" inquired Alice scoldingly.

The fairy looked genuinely puzzled and she looked left and right at her friends, asking them without words what was Alice referring to.

"I… What are you talking about Alice-san? Did I do something?"

"You don't remember?" asked Luna and Sapphire at the same time.

"You…" Alice paused herself for a second, "…strangled them both. You were crazed… Just like the rest of those other fairies."

"What?! No! It can't be…" rejected Sunny Milk vigorously. "That's a lie! I couldn't possibly have done something so monstrous to Luna-chan and Star-chan… Right…?" she bashfully glanced at her friends again.

Both fairies were silent.

"W-Why are you so quiet? Tell me that it isn't true! Tell me… Tell me…" she started disbelievingly shaking her head in denial. "Oh no… No! Impossible! Unthinkable…!" she shouted and burst into tears.

"So Sunny-chan got possessed by something?" wondered Star who took pity of her crying friend and comforted her by a lovely embrace. "I figured it wasn't really you… But I was scarred…"

"You must all hate me now~!" cried poor Sunny into Star's shoulder.

"That's not true!" opposed the black-haired fairy. "We don't know what exactly happened, but the same thing could have happened to just any of us…"

"That's right." Luna seconded and joined the embrace by throwing her arms around the other fairies' shoulders. "It wasn't your fault, Sunny. We still love you~!"

Sunny was just as confused as she was happy at that moment. "Forgive me…"

"We already have." Star smiled at her reassuringly. "But… I'm getting really cold, standing in this water…"

"Oh… That's right…" Luna realized the fact that she was standing knee deep in water and wondered where it came from. "Why is there so much water on this clearing?"

Alice gave a quick recounting of the recent events and added that she was very happy that the three fairies were now alright.

"We… We thank you so very much, Alice-chan~!" said Sunny and with the other two of her fairy friends, she floated up and kissed the blonde puppeteer sweetly on her cheek.

Alice smiled and embraced all three of them. "Now I just hope Marisa and Reimu had at least as much luck finding some help as I had…"

---

The shrine maiden and the young kappa finally reached the vicinity of the Hakurei Shrine. Despite the rain provided by the goddess Kanako, the fire has spread over an area nearly as large as the Scarlet Island. Just a few hundred meters away from that inferno stood the still unharmed Shinto shrine of the last living descendant of the Hakurei clan.

"Looks like we don't have much time." said Reimu as she was nearing the huge pillars of fire along with Nitori. That's when she saw that some really unusually colored smoke was rising from the flames.

"What's that?" she wondered as she tried to take a better look, but the immense heat made it impossible for her to get any closer to the fires than she already was. Furthermore, if she'd fly too high, she'd suffocate in the smoke cloud. Then the pink-colored smoke began swirling as if it had a mind of its own and began circling very fast around the entire burning area, like some sort of magical hurricane. For a split second, Reimu caught a glimpse of an old man's face in that smoke…

"Wait a minute… That's Unzan, isn't it? That means Ichirin must be here as well."

And it was just as the young shrine maiden assumed. She saw a girl's figure floating further from the fire and manipulating the cloud-like youkai to prevent the fires from spreading any further.

"Okay, Nitori. Do your stuff." Reimu gave the kappa permission to unleash her spells and the blue-haired girl obliged.

"Water Sign "Kappa's Great Illusionary Waterfall"!"

Reimu gasped as she saw that Nitori wasn't taking things easy and utilized one of her most powerful spells right from the start. The card, as its name suggested, created a thick glimmering veil of blue water shots and turned the raindrops into even more projectiles. Once there was enough of magic water spheres gathered, the kappa let them all fall down at once. It really looked like a giant magical waterfall that poured down and mercilessly doused the flames with a loud hissing sound. The shrine maiden observed the bullet pattern and quietly thought to herself that if she were to face this Spell Card in a duel, she'd hardly be able to find even a small opening in time to avoid being flushed by the tremendous force of falling water.

"Hey, Nitori~!" she called at her from a distance. "When I told you to put out the fires I didn't mean that you could flood the entire Gensokyo~!"

"Don't worry, Reimu~!" shouted Nitori back. "I've got it all under control~!"

And all the water that has fallen to the ground got instantly turned into danmaku again and levitated back up to keep the waterfall's stream steady and dense. The forest fire didn't stand a chance.

Once the last little orange tongue died out and the last piece of kindling wood stopped emitting smoke, Nitori and Ichirin landed down in the large clearing that was created after the trees were burned and subsequently flushed down. Ichirin looked a bit surprised to see what the little kappa was capable of. Nitori, on the other hand, breathed heavily as the spell put a lot of stain on her, exhausting both her spirit and body.

"I…*huff, huff* I can't… *huff, huff* go with you any more… *huff, huff* need to rest a while…"

"Pull yourself together, Nitori! We still need to put out more fires!" Reimu tried to encourage her to stand up.

That's when Ichirin walked up to her with the cloud youkai Unzan now shrunken to a much smaller size, hovering beside her and silently staring at the two other girls.

"Don't worry, Byakuren-sama sent out her entire team to help with the fires and to rescue anyone who ended up trapped by them. Me and Unzan will now go and help to put out the rest of them…" she said and took off, but stopped shortly afterwards to turn around. "And in the name of Byakuren-sama, I thank you both for assisting me."

---

With that said, she flew up into the sky to continue her task. Reimu was now faced with a dilemma. On one hand she felt it was her duty as a shrine maiden to help any people in need and go along with Ichirin to help with the rescuing, but on the other hand, she was reluctant to leave the exhausted kappa alone in the middle of a burned-down forest. Furthermore, she herself was injured badly enough, and she wasn't too sure if she'd be able to manage another fast flight. Therefore, the shrine maiden decided to stay with Nitori, helped her stand up and supporting each other's tired bodies, they slowly walked towards the shrine.

"At least… my effort wasn't completely useless…" uttered the kappa weakly as she dragged her feet over the scorched earth.

"Of course it wasn't, Nitori. You helped a lot. I… I almost wonder why we didn't become friends much sooner."

"Hehehe…" Nitori giggled quietly. "The first time we met I was a bit scared of you, Reimu-san."

"Yeah, but then you went on the offensive." remarked the shrine maiden as she recollected their first encounter.

"I just wanted to scare you away from even greater danger that lurked further on top of the Youkai Mountain."

"Your intention was good, but if I listened to you back then all of Gensokyo's faith would have been taken by Kanako and I'd be forced to close down my shrine."

"I know, I know… But… when you come to think about it… Didn't you meet most of your friends in some sort of conflict?"

Reimu smiled and snorted to acknowledge Nitori's claim. "That's right… And to think a good part of the incidents I resolved were actually a misunderstanding on my part… Like the one with Byakuren for instance… I guess not all youkai need to be hunted down without mercy…"

They finally reached the end of the forest and entered the shrine yard. With sighs of relief they both sat down inside the shrine at Reimu's kotatsu. Suika was somewhere away, so Reimu reluctantly stood up again to make some tea…

"You're hurt, Reimu… You should go see Doctor Eirin."

"I will… But first, I'm going to rest a little."

The water boiled in a couple of minutes and Reimu poured it into two cups, putting a tea bag into each of them.

"Say, Reimu-san…" sounded Nitori as she was blowing at her tea in order to cool it down a little. "Do you think that Kanako-sama's rain will be enough to stop the rest of the fires?"

"Perhaps not by itself, but I asked Marisa and Alice to get help of Patchouli and Cirno. Even though the latter of the two is a rather questionable solution to the problem… I hope that Marisa managed to convince that sorceress to get out of her library since she doesn't do that very often."

---

When the human and youkai magicians flew out into the falling rain from the Scarlet Devil Mansion, they quickly noticed that the fire over the Forest of Magic was put out already.

"Well, that's one less problem to deal with." remarked Marisa and changed her course to the next fire source – burning far to the east from the lake, near the road to Kazemura. They both flew as fast as they could, and yet, it took them over 10 minutes to get to their destination. Once they were near the fire, they saw that it was really huge, enveloping a vast area of the local woods. It was raining, but the rain did little in the way of stopping the blaze.

"Mukyu~. I should have taken an umbrella…" murmured Patchouli feeling her nightgown getting wet, but she instantly got an idea how to deal with this inconvenience. She made an intricate hand movement and with a silent incantation she made a thin water bubble around her body which kept her safe from the rain.

"Ha! Who needs an umbrella when you have magic like that?" said Marisa with a smirk. "But… This fire may be too much for you to handle by yourself, Patchy…"

"I… I'll try my best anyway." replied the librarian and drew out a card.

"Just make sure you don't use one of your fire spells by accident."

"What kind of idiot do you take me for? Water Sign "Princess Undine"!"

Patchouli shot out several straight-line streams of blue water spheres into over a dozen different directions, making even Marisa quickly make an evasion maneuver so she wouldn't get hit.

"Whoa, Patchouli! I'm not on fire, you know…" she shouted at her friend, but she was already in the spell-induced trance and didn't respond to her.

Aside from the misdirected streams of water, Patchouli released long narrow ice shots, leaving only a narrow gap in-between them. Marisa found a safe spot in the air and watched the card's effect for a while before she shouted: "You could have picked something more effective. You're not having a danmaku battle! You're trying to extinguish a freaking huge fire, ze!"

Patchouli's spell faded and it looked like it didn't do anything at all.

"Come on, don't you have something more effective in that deck of yours?"

"Well… umm… I do… But it's still just experimental. Not tested yet…"

"Then I don't know what better opportunity for testing out your new Spell Card are you waiting for. Cast, cast, cast!"

Patchouli sighed, tentatively drew out her new water-based Spell Card and stared at its picture for a while. There was a wave-shaped pattern of small and large blue water projectiles drawn on its front side. The elemental sorceress raised her hand with the card and declared her new spell: "Tidal Sign "Airborne Tsunami"!"

The card disappeared in a flash of bright blue light and even Patchouli herself began glowing in the same colored light, which gradually faded and concentrated in her fingertip as a bright blue shining sphere. She pointed her finger in the direction of the fire and released thousands of bubble-like blue spheres of various sizes in a large horizontal layer. There were so many of the shots that it resembled a flood spreading across the air towards the fire. Then Patchouli raised her arms slightly upwards and lowered them again to create a huge curve in the brutal water stream and even intensified the stream below the "surface" of this spell, making it impossible for any potential opponent to evade the barrage by staying below the wave. The only option was either to find split-second openings in the walls of the waves themselves or to fly over them at the risk of getting hit by randomly scattered magical droplets of water. It was truly overwhelming. Definitely one of Patchouli's most powerful spells. Even though she didn't have the energy to keep it up for too long, the tsunami managed to put out the major part of this large forest fire with ease.

"Wow… Patchouli…" uttered the blonde witch who stared at the whole scene from behind her back. "When did you learn something so powerful?"

"Not too long ago."

"But as you can see, we've only put out one half of the fire."

The purple-haired youkai girl raised a brow. "We?"

"Well, you did it, hehehe~." giggled Marisa as she corrected her statement. "But what do you expect me to do? Use my Master Spark against it? Only you can do it. Cast that wave one more time!"

"Wait a second. You know haw exhausting it was to maintain that last spell? It'll take a little while for me to recharge my magic power."

Marisa didn't put any effort in order to hide her displeasure. "Oh, great. Now what are we supposed to do? Sit by and wait till the whole forest burns to ash?! I should have known that an asthmatic and anemic youkai with poor health like you wouldn't be much of a help…"

Patchouli lowered her head in self-disappointment and despite the fact that she found Marisa's last remark offending, to say the least; she didn't have any arguments to oppose her.

"Geez… At least I should have taken an umbrella. This hat doesn't provide too much protection from the rain." Marisa said another complaint.

Then, all of s sudden, both magicians were startled by an unknown girly voice shouting from behind them.

"Surprise~!"

"Whoa!"

"What the…?!"

Both Marisa and Patchouli exclaimed as they turned around in shock. For a while they silently stared with their mouths slightly open at the person who sneaked up on them from behind.

"Who are you?" Patchouli was the first to break the silence. However, Marisa already knew this person, unlike the librarian who rarely ever went outside of the mansion.

"K-Kogasa-chan?!"

"Tehehe~!" the girl giggled innocently and stuck out her tongue. "I surprised you both."

She was a pretty and young youkai girl with shoulder-long turquoise hair. She was wearing a same colored vest on top of a plain white shirt and a medium-length light-blue skirt. On her feet she had a pair of geta. One of the features that made it clear to anyone that she was a youkai were her dichromatic eyes – one turquoise and the other one dark-red. The second feature, and more obvious even from a greater distance was the purple umbrella that she was holding. It's not that umbrellas were something uncommon in Gensokyo that was exclusive to youkai, but this girl's umbrella had a one large red eye and a really long red tongue sticking out of its crooked mouth. Furthermore, it even had a mini geta sandal on its "foot" at the base of its shaft. She was a karakasa – an umbrella that aged at least a hundred years and became a youkai. The purple umbrella she carried was an independent part of her own self. Or perhaps it was something like remains of her "shell" after she transformed into human shape.

"You know her?" Patchouli asked Marisa, curiously eyeing the girl hovering in front of her.

"Kogasa-chan~!" Marisa repeated the girl's name with a happy expression. "I've never been so glad to see an umbrella… uh… I mean an umbrella youkai… That was a very pleasant surprise from you." she added and surprised the youkai by a spontaneous embrace.

"Um… Marisa? Are you feeling alright?" asked Patchouli with concern for her friend's mental condition. Even Kogasa herself was very confused by the witch's unexpected affection towards her.

"You know some water spells too, don't you?" Marisa asked her as soon as she let her go.

"Why, yes, I do…" the youkai girl replied. "Surprising, isn't it?"

Marisa knew that a youkai such as Kogasa wasn't really dangerous to humans, since instead of human flesh or blood, she fed on people's emotions. In Kogasa's case that emotion was surprise and perhaps a little bit of fear. The blonde magician took that piece of knowledge into good use.

"Do you know what would surprise us even more, Kogasa-chan?"

The girl's eyes widened and her slightly opened mouth made a little "o" shape on her face.

"What? What?" she demanded an answer. "What will make you even more surprised?"

"If you'd manage to put out this forest fire with your magic."

"Really? Ha! Just you two watch with surprise as I douse these flames with my beautiful danmaku~!"

Kogasa took out her card and flew towards the fire; just close enough to stay away from the choking pillar of smoke. Then she unleashed her magic: "Surprising Rain "Guerrilla Typhoon"!"

Not a second later a brutally dense magic rainstorm started pouring diagonally down out of thin air. What's more, it even turned normal raindrops into replicas of the magic water bullets that showered a very large area. The flames were not dying easily, but Kogasa was determined to keep her spell up for as long as it was necessary.

One whole minute has passed, which was already above the standard limit of this spell's duration and the youkai girl stared to lose her strength.

"Kogasa-chan~! Don't give up~!" Marisa supported her from afar. "You can do it~!"

The flames were gradually disappearing in white clouds of smoke, but so was the effect of Kogasa's Spell Card. She gritted her teeth, as her hovering was starting to become shaky and uncontrolled. She was giving it her all and pushed her effort beyond extreme. For the final few seconds, her rain barrage became so dense that it was literally a wall of magic water shots without any possible opening for a human to squeeze through. This put a finishing blow to the local forest fire for good. However, just as the spell ran out, Kogasa started falling down fast.

"Oh no! She fainted from the strain!" Marisa shouted and hurried as fast as she could to the girl, but she was too far. Kogasa would surely fall and break all her bones in the next second. Just before she hit the ground, Marisa closed her eyes so that she wouldn't see the gruesome scene…

She wasn't sure if it was due to the sound of the rain drumming on her hat or due to the sound of her heart pumping loudly from the shock, but she didn't hear any thud that would indicate Kogasa's fall. She tentatively opened one of her eyes and saw something really surprising…

There was another girl dressed in black with red and blue wings, holding the umbrella youkai in her arms, hovering just a meter above the ground. Just as Marisa processed her train of thought to realize what just happened, Patchouli caught up to her to see what happened to Kogasa.

"Nue~!" exclaimed Marisa joyfully at the black-haired girl who just saved Kogasa from the fall.

The girl looked up at the witch and winked with a smile. "You are the friend of that miko… Marisa Kirisame, am I right?"

"Oh, you remember~! Yes, that's my name, ze."

Patchouli gave Marisa a surprised glance and whispered: "It's almost suspicious how you're acquainted with everyone we meet…"

The witch shrugged and retorted: "If you ever went outside, you'd make a lot of interesting new friends as well, Patchy."

"So she's a friend of yours?"

"Well, not much, but at least she's not my enemy… I'll introduce you to her."

"Wait, you don't have to…" objected the sorceress, but was ignored completely.

"Nue-san, this is another friend of mine. Her name's Patchouli Knowledge and she just managed to put out one half of this huge forest fire."

"Really?" Nue kept smiling and just nodded to greet the Scarlet Devil Mansion's librarian. "I'm Nue. Nue Houjuu. Pleased to meet you, Patchouli. I'd even shake hands with you, but…" she beckoned with her head at the girl she held with both of her arms. "Looks like the poor karakasa overdid it with her spell…"

Marisa floated towards the unconscious Kogasa and noticed that she was still breathing slowly, as if she was just sleeping. "Looks like it, but… I'm amazed. She actually finished off this damn fire. We owe her a big one now, don't we?"

"That we do." acknowledged Nue and brushed away a strand of hair from Kogasa's eyes using her tail-like left wing. "I ought to take her to the temple…"

"Wouldn't Eientei be a better idea?" Patchouli suggested more suitable alternative.

"Eientei, huh?" repeated Nue and looked a bit spaced-out for a moment. "Perhaps that's a better choice, but… I've never been to that place yet, so I don't know the way."

"I could show you," Marisa volunteered to guide her, "but what about that last fire?"

Her question was answered by another female voice coming from above. "We just managed to put it out. Thanks to Captain Murasa, Ichirin and Unzan."

The witch and the librarian both looked upwards to see Byakuren Hijiri slowly descending to the ground along with the rest of her company: Shou Toramaru – the tiger youkai, Nazrin – the mouse youkai, Minamitsu Murasa – the ghostly captain of the Palanquin Ship and Ichirin Kumoi the youkai with ability to manipulate the cloud spirit Unzan.

"Byakuren-sama." Marisa greeted her by bowing and whispered to Patchouli: "This one is the monk who runs that new temple near Human Village."

"Oh…" muttered the librarian as she recalled what Marisa told her about this person. "It's a pleasure to meet you… Byakuren-sama."

A simple glance was enough for the Buddhist monk to tell that Patchouli was a youkai, but she never made any differences between humans or youkai. She treated them all equally and charitably.

"Likewise, Patchouli-san." bowed the monk and gave her a friendly tap on the shoulder. "Looks like all the fires have been stopped… Nazrin, Shou, did you have to rescue anyone?" she asked her friends.

"No, Byakuren-sama." Shou replied and shook her head lightly. "All of these fires were fortunately in mostly uninhabited areas and the youkai who dwelled near them all managed to escape without the need for our assistance. However, we had to drive a few tengu away who tried to put out the fires with their fans. They'd just help the fire to spread faster that way."

"That's good news." Nodded Byakuren and lowered her face to look at Kogasa in Nue's arms. "I'm fairly sure she'll recover just fine, but in any case, it might be better if someone more specialized in health care took a look at her as well. Marisa-san, would you be as kind as to go with Nue and show her the way to Eientei?"

"No problem, ze. But first I'd like to see if Reimu and Alice are alright."

"Very well, then. Let us go together. I'd also like to ask her a few questions…"

---

With that said, all of the girls headed off to Hakurei Shrine, this time flying at a slower pace, content that they managed to avert a major threat to Gensokyo's forests. Even Patchouli, who felt like she was no longer needed there, followed them. The rain invoked by Kanako was gradually weakening and by the time the girls reached the shrine, it stopped completely. They landed in front of the shrine's entrance and Marisa took a peek inside.

"Oh… Reimu, you're here. And even Nitori~! Hi there~!"

"Marisa. How did you do?" Reimu asked her and slowly stood up from the table, using her arms to support her weight. "Did you manage to find any help?"

"Actually…" the witch smiled and slid the shrine's door fully open to reveal all the other girls standing in the front yard of the shrine. Reimu's as well as Nitori's faces looked surprisedly at the group that has come with Marisa.

"Good afternoon, Reimu-san." Byakuren greeted her warmly and bowed to the Hakurei shrine maiden. "Can we come in for a while?"

"Uhh… yes, sure, come in…" she invited them, but her surprised expression still persisted.

The group of girls wiped their feet and with respect, they entered the shrine.

"It's a little messy at the moment, but I don't have the energy to clean up now…"

"Reimu-san…" Byakuren looked at the shrine maiden's wounds and torn-up clothes. "Oh my… Are you alright? We should take you to that Eientei place right away…" she said with concern.

Reimu just brushed her off. "I've been through worse… But I was planning on visiting Eientei anyway. Need to restock up on my medicine… Did you manage to do something about those fires?"

Byakuren nodded and gestured at the girls standing behind her, especially at Minamitsu, Patchouli and Kogasa, who was still unconsciously lying in Nue's arms. "These are the heroines who managed to put an end to that inferno."

"Oh, Patchouli… I thought I'd never see you at my shrine again." said Reimu and then glanced at Marisa. "How did you convince her, Marisa? Did you promise to return all of her books you borrowed?"

"Would you believe it was much easier than that?" smiled the witch and flicked the edge of her hat. "Patchouli didn't hesitate to help when she heard about the fires. And by the time we left the mansion, the fire at the Forest of Magic was put out already."

"Oh, that's right! What about Alice?" Reimu wondered. "Does anyone know where she is?"

"Alice-san… Yes, she was the one who came to us and informed us about the fires. Last time I saw her was flying to the Forest of Magic along with Murasa." answered Byakuren and turned to her ghostly captain friend.

"And the last time I saw her was on the clearing where I put out the fires." Murasa completed the information. "I'd say she's still there."

"So Alice went to ask you for help instead of Cirno…" muttered the shrine maiden. "She's smarter than I thought… We should see her if she's okay. Her house most likely isn't, though."

"I haven't taken my broom with me today. Are you still able to fly?" Marisa asked with concern.

"I don't know, but I'll try…" said Reimu and helped Nitori to stand up. "Oh, and this is another heroine of the day – Kawashiro Nitori, to those who don't know this kappa yet…"

Nitori blushed and denyingly shook her head. "That's not true… If it weren't for Reimu-san… and even Kanako-sama, we'd still be in trouble."

"I guess that every one of us did our part here." said Byakuren wisely and offered a helping hand to the injured shrine maiden. "We'll help you fly if you're too tired. Now, we'll stop at Alice-san's place and see if she's okay. After that, we're going straight to Eientei. I need to know where it's located in order to be better able to help those in need… Perhaps even establish some sort of cooperation between our institutes."

"Okay, then. Let's go…" said Marisa and was the first to take her feet off the ground.

Reimu tried to fly as well, but she couldn't maintain her altitude and so, Byakuren took her by the hand and carried a part of her weight.

"Reimu-san…?"

"Hm? What?"

"Do you know what started all those fires?"

"Yes. Fairies." Reimu replied tersely, still trying to recollect the earlier event that happened in Kazemura. Today's attack was remarkably similar – hundreds of fairies frantically attacking a certain area and everything and anyone within it. This definitely wasn't their natural behavior and the young shrine maiden doubted that the cause for their behavior was of natural origin either. Another thing that the miko found unusual about these attacks was the fact that they all happened mostly in the northeastern part of Gensokyo.

"There's definitely something weird going on in the northeast… Kazemura or otherwise… But northeast nonetheless."

"But the Forest of Magic was now also attacked. And that is pretty much in central Gensokyo." Marisa pointed out. "And your shrine too is just as close to the northern edge of the border as it to the southern one."

Patchouli also reminded everyone that the Scarlet Devil Mansion, which lies in the northwestern part of Gensokyo, was also attacked a few times, but all the attacks came from the east.

"We definitely need to focus our attention at the northeast. The idea that someone might be manipulating the fairies really bothers me." Reimu affirmed her previous claim.

"It'd be troublesome indeed." said Byakuren.

Reimu chuckled at Byakuren's understatement. "Troublesome? Just imagine that somebody would gain the power to manipulate all the fairies in Gensokyo and coordinate them to do their bidding… It would mean that that someone would have a nearly unstoppable army consisting of millions of immortal creatures. That wouldn't be troublesome; that would be catastrophic."

"But how are we going to find out the source of the fairies' madness?" wondered Marisa who was helping Nitori to stay up in the air as they were nearing Alice's home.

"Hmm…" Patchouli hummed thoughtfully. "Perhaps… No, no, no… That's stupid." She dismissed her idea before she even put it into words.

Marisa raised her eyebrow as she looked at her. "Your ideas were never stupid. Well, maybe if you'd drink too much sake, but I never saw you drunk either so… Just go ahead and tell us!"

"Well…" she started rather tentatively and shrugged. "My guess is as good as any, but… Maybe if we managed to somehow capture one of the fairies in that enraged state, we could learn more from it…"

"Well, that's a bummer, ze. Me, Reimu and Alice fried them all when they attacked us…"

Just as Marisa said that, the group had reached the flooded clearing around Alice's house which was now in very bad shape. They didn't land, just descended and floated a few centimeters above the water's surface.

---

"Geez. What a mess…" stated Marisa tersely, but accurately assessed the state of both the clearing and the house in front of her.

Captain Minamitsu Murasa gave out a semi-guilty giggle, as she was the one who caused the flood for the greater good.

"Alice~! Are you in there~?" called the witch before she floated into her house through the doorway that was missing a door. She found her there, standing at the kitchen table and putting those things that weren't destroyed in the fire on a pile. The Three Mischievous Fairies were all helping her with that. As Marisa entered, followed by Reimu and Patchouli, Alice turned her pleasantly surprised face at them.

"Ah… Marisa, Reimu… and even Patchouli… It's good to see you again. Is everything under control now?"

"If you're referring to the incidents, then hardly…" replied the shrine maiden negatively. "But if you meant the fires, then yes, at least those have been taken care of."

"Oh, by the way, I see that the three fairies have risen from the dead." remarked Marisa on a side note. "What did I tell ya?"

Alice smiled weakly as she glanced at them. "You were right… But it took them unusually long to resurrect. Even now they feel very weak. I tried to convince them that they don't have to help me gather my still useable things, but they insisted."

"But how did they die in the first place? Did they suffocate from the smoke?"

"No, Marisa. One of them started to act just as all those aggressive ones and killed the other two. I was forced to use deadly danmaku on her."

"So the symptoms are partially contagious…" muttered Patchouli to herself. "Which one of the three was it?"

Alice quietly pointed at Sunny Milk. "That one… But after her rebirth, she didn't remember anything at all."

"Just like those fairy maids of ours… Maybe it's some kind of virus. We should have them looked at by Eirin-sama." suggested the librarian.

"Yes, I was planning to go with them as soon as I gather my things…" said Alice and her voice suddenly became shaky with sorrow that she felt. "As you might have noticed, this house is no longer inhabitable…"

"Alice…" Marisa whispered her friend's name. "Don't worry… You can stay in my house for as long as it will be necessary!" she tried to cheer her up. "Heck, you can even move in permanently if you like!"

"That's very nice of you, Marisa." nodded the dollmaker, trying to suppress her sobs. "But your house is so messy that I don't think I'd be able to live there for too long."

"No worries, Alice! Look at Reimu. Her shrine was destroyed and rebuilt twice already. Your house is much smaller and it wasn't even completely leveled. It should get rebuilt in no time!"

It was those words of support that stopped Alice from shedding more tears.

"You're right. Houses can be rebuilt but human lives can't… We're lucky that nobody died today. At least not permanently…"

"Hey, Alice, just leave your things here as they are and let's all go to Eientei."

The puppeteer looked spaced-out for a moment, but then she nodded. "I guess we really should… Okay, fairies, we're going to take you to Eirin-sama."

Alice then chose three of her remaining dolls and made them take the weakened fairies in their arms and carry them. She floated out of her house and immediately noticed Byakuren and the rest of her "crew" waiting on the clearing. She took their looks as a reassuring sign that all of Gensokyo's forest fires were successfully stopped. Once all the girls left her ruined house, Byakuren again took Reimu by the hand and helped her fly.

"So, I believe we have nowhere else to stop but Eientei now."

Marisa confirmed Byakuren's guess by a nod. "Right you are, Byakuren-sama. Now just stay close and follow my lead. The bamboo forest is not that difficult to navigate through, but for a first-timer it can be very confusing."

---

As she said that, she took the lead and flew towards the southern edge of the Forest of Magic, following the aerial path towards Kourindou and proceeding further to the southwest. Byakuren watched and absorbed the landscape with her eyes, trying to memorize every detail on the way to this new location that she was eager to visit for some time. Now, she finally had that chance.

The group made flight above the grasslands and fields before they reached the vast Bamboo Forest of the Lost. Marisa kept her altitude above the treeline, so it would be easier for her to spot one of the small distant clearings where the legendary Eientei was situated. Looking below her, the Buddhist monk Byakuren noticed that the bamboo trees in this forest were growing diagonally, which could even further disorientate those who would venture into it.

"Now which one of those clearings was it again?" asked Marisa as she scratched her head in flight.

"That one over there, if my memory still serves…" Reimu pointed at the southernmost one.

"No." Alice disagreed with her and pointed at the westernmost one. "It's that one."

"Really? And I thought it was the other one." said Marisa and gestured towards the northernmost one.

"Uh… I hate to interrupt..." sounded Byakuren with a sheepish smile, "But do you girls even know where to go?"

"Of course we do!" said the shrine maiden, the witch and the puppeteer at the same time. "There!" and each of them pointed at a different direction.

Byakuren giggled and shook her head. "I see… I guess we're just going to check out each of those clearings.

"Not to worry, Byakuren-sama~. Nazrin will find anything for you~!" said the mouse youkai cheerfully and took off her crystal amulet to use it as a sort of dowsing pendulum.

"I really appreciate your help, Nazrin, but we're not looking for any treasures now…" replied the monk and Nazrin pouted in disappointment.

"I might have a better idea, Byakuren-sama." said Ichirin all of a sudden. "I could just ask Unzan to search the forest for us."

"That's a great idea, Ichirin-san." Byakuren praised her and nodded to give her the signal that she could start right away.

Ichirin then turned to the mysterious cloud spirit and repeated her request. Without a word, the cloud-man expanded in size and descended to the forest's floor. Since he was gaseous, the bamboo posed no obstacle for him and he could scour the forest quickly. After less than five minutes, the cloud returned to Ichirin and whispered something into her ear.

"Oh, he's back!" called Marisa when she saw him. "What did you find Unzan?"

The cloud spirit looked timidly at the witch and resumed whispering the information to Ichirin.

"Oh, come on~! Why can't he just tell us directly?"

Ichirin smiled and looked at Marisa. "You'll have to excuse Unzan. It's not that he can't speak, he's just very shy, you know…"

"So what did he tell you then, spokesperson?"

"He said that there's a huge Japanese-styled mansion hidden right over… there…" she and the cloud simultaneously pointed at a seemingly random bamboo thicket.

Marisa raised a suspicious eyebrow. "That's not a clearing. That's a thicket. How could a large mansion possibly stand there? Unless it has bamboo growing out of its roof that is…"

"Let's just take a look then." said Reimu who had no reason not to trust Byakuren or any of her friends. Although this wasn't her first trip to Eientei, Reimu sometimes still had difficulties finding it, and apparently, she wasn't alone.

The girls descended and weaved through the dense wall of bamboo and after a while, they caught a glimpse of the huge mansion standing among the leaning trees that blocked out the sky and sunlight. From above, it would be really difficult to spot the mansion's roof. That is not to say that it would be any easier to find the place if one decided to travel to it on foot.

---

Unzan really made the girls' search for Eientei shorter and easier. Now, when they were already standing on firm ground, they took a brief while to admire this building's impressive architecture. It was at least as large as the Scarlet Devil Mansion. It appeared to be very old, but at the same time, untouched by the tooth of time. The whole place gave away an impression that time has stopped flowing here. It was so peaceful and quiet; one could even think that the mansion was abandoned. However, as the girls entered its main hallway, they could all see that it was bustling with activity. Dozens of fairies were flying from door to door of this incredibly long hallway, carrying all sorts of stuff ranging from plates with food to clippers with papers and various bags with medicine. However, upon closer look, one would notice that these fairies had rabbit ears. Marisa and Reimu led the way along the corridor and surprisingly, both of them knew where to go. The doors in the hallway were not marked by any numbers to identify the rooms, but the girls still remembered from their last visit which door leads to the office of Eirin Yagokoro. After walking quite a distance, Reimu reached the 32nd door by her left and knocked on it.

A female voice from behind it responded almost immediately. "Yes~. I'll be right there~."

The girls took at as a cue to open the door and enter; and so they did. They found themselves in a not very large room furnished with shelves full of books, medicine bottles and bags, with two tables; one for administrative work and another one for medical equipment. A single round window let some faint sunlight into the room.

Reimu and Marisa were expecting to see Eirin there. However, the person standing at the work desk was not her. She was a tall, slender girl with a very long light-purple hair, reaching almost down to her ankles, and brightly red eyes. She was wearing a simple white shirt with a red necktie and a dark-blue short skirt. Two long rumpled rabbit ears jutting from under her hair indicated that she was not a human. She gave the girls who entered the office a once over-and with a formal tone she greeted them.

"Good afternoon… If you're looking for Eirin-sama, she's currently in the Intensive Care Ward on the third floor."

Uh… and where exactly on the third floor?" asked the slightly confused magician.

"Don't worry; I'll take you there right away… Just as soon as I fill in these documents here." said the rabbit girl and pointed at several sheets of pre-printed paper forms.

"Oh... I didn't know you're now doing administrative work, Reisen." said Marisa who just noticed a small ID card clipped to the girl's shirt with her picture and basic information – Reisen Udongein Inaba – assistant administrator – Eientei.

The rabbit girl sighed as if she was about to complain. "I really wasn't until recently… With so many patients, Eirin-sama is far too busy to bother with anything else. I was hastily named as her assistant in administrative tasks, but… I'm not even sure if I'm doing a good job about it… I sell medicine and study to become a nurse, but this… this isn't really my cup of tea."

"I feel your pain, Reisen." said the witch with a small hint of compassion as she tapped Reisen's shoulder. "But did you just say you've had many patients recently?"

Reisen didn't answer immediately as she thoughtfully pouted over one of the papers she was in the middle of filling up. She then scratched her head and resignedly put the writing brush back on the table with another heavy sigh.

"I think I'll just take you to her right now. I need a break anyway…" she stood up and answered Marisa's question. "Yes, we're currently taking care of over 50 patients. Five of them require intensive care, over 15 are recovering from physical trauma, more than 10 are awaiting a surgery and well over 30 are being treated from various minor diseases."

She walked right past Marisa and Reimu and opened the door of Eirin's office, waving her hand at the girls to tell them to follow her. Just when she left the room, she saw the rest of the group waiting there and chatting. As her eyes looked at the unconscious Kogasa, Reisen made an ironic grin.

"Oh look, another poor soul for Eirin-sama to take care of. Just in case she was getting bored up there… Follow me, okay?"

She then walked briskly towards the end of the corridor until she reached an intersection and a wide wooden stairway.

---

"This way." she gestured towards the stairs and took them by two as she walked all the way to the third floor of this immensely huge building. Once the girls have overcome the second flight of stairs, they kept following the rabbit girl along another seemingly endless corridor. Reisen suddenly stopped at one of the many sliding doors and gently knocked on it to announce her arrival. The rest of the girls silently followed her inside. They were now in a large room with several beds separated by folding screens. Out of ten beds in the room, half of them were occupied by people who were in critical condition and required nonstop observation. There were three male and two female patients. Standing over one of the patients with an infusion bottle in her hand was a tall young-looking woman. Her silver hair was also admirably long, reaching slightly below her waist. It was tied into a single thick braid in the back. She was wearing a short-sleeved dress with its upper part having a dark-red right half and a dark-blue left half. The skirt part of the dress had inverse colors on its respective halves, making her whole dress resemble four large chessboard squares. In addition, the dress was also decorated by tiny silver glittering dots arranged in order to represent constellations. Near the lower edge of her dress, there were trigrams. To complete her look, she was wearing a dark-blue nurse-like hat with a dark-red cross.

"Sorry to interrupt your work, Oshisho-sama." said Reisen as she bowed to her teacher. "It seems there's another patient who needs to be taken in. As for the rest of these girls… I'm not sure what business they might have here."

The woman understandingly nodded as she placed the infusion bottle onto a stand so that its content would slowly flow into the patient's system. Then she turned to the rabbit girl and briefly glanced at Reimu and Marisa with her dark-gray eyes.

"You may call them in, Reisen."

The assistant did as she said and called in Byakuren with the rest of her team and Alice with the fairies.

"Sorry to intrude." said Byakuren as she bowed to the woman. "My name's Byakuren Hijiri. Are you Eirin-sama?"

The silver-haired woman nodded. "Eirin Yagokoro. Pleased to meet you, Byakuren-san. I believe this is your first visit to Eientei."

"Yes, I'd like you to take care of this youkai girl here." she beckoned at Kogasa. "She fainted after overexhausting herself while she was casting a spell."

Eirin didn't hesitate and together with Nue, they put the youkai girl gently on another vacant bed. Then the doctor checked her vital signs and stated her preliminary prognosis.

"By the looks of it, she should be fine in a few hours, but you did well to bring her here regardless. Just as you said, Byakuren-san, this girl exhausted her energy completely. How unwise these young youkai… taking danmaku fights so seriously…"

"This wasn't a danmaku fight. This young karakasa might just have saved many lives today."

Eirin quizzically looked at the monk. "Really? Would you mind explaining the details to me?" she asked while she walked up to her next patient, ready to change her bandages.

Byakuren cleared her throat and retold the happenings of today's afternoon as simply and clearly as she could. The other girls completed the information by telling their own experiences as they had to deal with their separate problems. Eirin was so enthralled by their shocking information that she even forgot that she was in the middle of changing the bandages of one of her patients. As the girls explained the fairy attacks and their beyond-strange behavior, Alice asked Eirin if she could take a better look at the three fairies if she finds some time.

"Why of course I will." said the Lunarian doctor and smiled warmly at the little fairies, who were now feeling a little better, but still weak. "However, they don't require intensive care, so Reisen; will you please take these patients to the Rehabilitation Ward?"

"Yes, Eirin-sama." replied Reisen as she bowed and then she led the fairies out of the room.

"Who would have thought something like that was going on just a few hours ago…" muttered Eirin and resumed her bandaging. "Now it seems I'm also going to have to deal with psychological trauma as well…"

"We thought that the fairies contracted some kind of virus, but once they revived, they no longer showed the symptoms and a suffered a minor amnesia." explained Patchouli. "But if it was a virus, then the effects would persist. And I've never heard of a virus that affects the host's memory."

"Indeed, that doesn't sound like a virus." confirmed Doctor Yagokoro. "And now that you mention it, one of these patients was also recently attacked by her pet fairy. She showed the same symptoms as you have just described to me."

"Wait a minute… Who would keep a pet fairy?" wondered Marisa as she looked at the red-haired girl lying in the bed.

"Her name's Kurohana… Kurohana Ai – the girl who runs the newly established fairy post office in Human Village. Several of her postal fairies returned to her with their minds driven insane. All of them were neutralized by the local militia and subsequently taken here to Eientei for further observation. As for Kurohana-san, she was badly burned by numerous danmaku shots over 40 percent of her body. My medicine will heal her completely, but it'll take time. Right now, she needs to rest. I gave her a sleeping drug so that she wouldn't have to go through a lot of pain."

"Looks like you're really busy here, Eirin-san." stated Reimu as she slowly looked at all the patients from left to right. However, as she read the name tags, she suddenly found one of the names oddly familiar.

"Wait a sec…" she turned her head back to one of the beds to read the name once more. "Ishimaru? What? Hey, Marisa, isn't that Kyouichi-san over there?"

"Where?" the witch turned her head to the bed which Reimu was pointing at. "Oh… The name tag says it's him, but…"

Patchouli and Alice were also familiar with this name and stepped a bit closer to the bed.

"You know this young man?" asked Eirin curiously as she walked to his bed. The patient's face was completely bandaged and so was the upper part of his torso. "He's an outsider, just like the one lying over there... However, he was brought in more recently… Along with this man." she pointed at the third male patient with short brown disheveled hair. "That one is one of the militiamen from the village…"

Reimu still found it hard to believe to see the young outsider there in such a state. "What happened to him? Was he also attacked by fairies?"

"This one? No… Ishimaru-san received a direct hit with a powerful danmaku projectile right in the face. And from quite a strong youkai, or so I was told. What's more, I've been told that he was trying to hide behind some wagon or something and as a result, his upper part of the body was peppered with burning wooden splinters. It took us quite some time to remove them all."

"And… will he recover?" asked Marisa.

"He still hasn't woken up from the hit, but I assume it won't be long before he does. As for his face, it will take at least a week to heal up, but in the end, he shouldn't have any scars. If he was taken to the village hospital instead, that would be a different story."

"What did I tell you about being careful?" Reimu muttered at him scoldingly.

"I don't think he hears you, Reimu." said Marisa as she walked up closer to take a better look. "Come on. Leave him be. He needs to rest now… Besides, why don't you tell Eirin-sensei that you need treatment as well?"

"Huh? You're hurt, Reimu-asn? I'm sorry, I didn't notice right away… With so much work to do, I really don't know which patient I should tend to first."

"Don't worry, Eirin, I can understand that. Besides, the wounds aren't that serious."

"Every wound when untreated can become serious, young shrine maiden. Now go behind that folding screen, take off your clothes and let me patch you up, okay?"

Reimu nodded and slowly backed away from Kyouichi's bed. "Hope you recover soon…" she wished in her mind and went behind one of the corner folding screens to get treated. In the meantime, Eirin prepared her bag with medicine and bandages and looked at the other girls. "Before I proceed with treating Reimu-san's wounds, is anyone else of you hurt, feeling sick or suffered some serious shock, trauma, etcetera?"

The girls exchanged their looks for a while and shrugged, showing that none of them suffered anything. Alice and Marisa might have had some minor wounds and Nitori did feel a little weak, but they felt like they shouldn't bother the already busy Eirin with their petty discomforts.

"Good." nodded the doctor and disappeared behind the screen where Reimu was already waiting. "Don't worry, Reimu-san, this won't hurt a bit…"

"Kyaaaaaaaaah~!" echoed Reimu's scream over all of Eientei. All the other girls burst into laughter.

"Don't worry, Reimu!" shouted Marisa to cheer her friend up. "I'll avenge your death, hahahahaha~!"

Byakuren was probably the only one who wasn't laughing… and Patchouli as well, since she really couldn't due to her asthma. While she was here, she was pondering to ask Eirin again if she didn't have any special medicine for youkai to treat this disease. She did write several requests to Eientei in the past, but there was no effective cure for her yet. Eirin explained that treating the same illness of a human and a youkai patient are two different things, and that Patchouli couldn't use the medicine for humans, because it would be toxic for her.

"And… done…" said Eirin's voice from behind the screen.

"You said it wouldn't hurt a bit~." pouted the shrine maiden as she was putting on her ripped-up clothes again.

"Sorry, sorry~." Eirin apologized with a wry smile. "But if I told you that it would hurt like hell, you'd probably start flying all over the room. Who would be catching you then?"

"At least I would have been mentally prepared. Geez…" said the shrine maiden as she came out from behind the folding screen. "Lunarians have the best known medicine and yet they still can't make disinfection painless…"

"Nothing is perfect, you know." stated Eirin as she packed her leftover disinfectant and bandages back into her leather handbag.

"Not even your famous Hourai Elixir?" asked the blonde magician curiously.

"Especially that." confirmed the Lunarian with emphasis.

"But doesn't it work just perfectly? And its effect is irreversible, right?"

"Immortality can be a greater punishment than you may think. My mistress was aware of its consequence and thus, I agreed to make it for her to use. Only with her unique ability – to manipulate eternity was I able to concoct the forbidden potion. What resulted afterwards is all well known to all of you… As an exile, a traitor and Kaguya-sama's caretaker, I made a decision to always stay by her side. I was already impure in the eyes of the lunar people, so drinking my own invention wouldn't change anything to worse…"

"But immortality is exactly what that elixir is supposed to do." opposed Marisa stubbornly. "Wouldn't you call THAT perfect?"

"Perhaps there has been no success yet in attempt to reverse its effect, but that doesn't mean it's perfect. Besides, the recipient still feels pain from injuries or lack of food, water and oxygen if they don't eat, drink or breathe…"

---

As Eirin kept explaining all the negative aspects of eternal life, she led the other girls out of the room and asked them to follow her. Her steps were now headed to the rehabilitation ward, where she was now planning to take a look at the fairies who were brought in. She walked along the maze of incredibly long corridors when she finally stopped at another sliding door and entered the room. Reisen was still there, putting the three fairies into separate beds.

"Reisen, will you please go back to the intensive care ward and watch the patients for me? If something happens, please tell me right away."

"As you say, Eirin-sama." replied the girl with rabbit ears and apparently tired of walking the long corridors, she floated up into the air and took her leave.

The three fairies were now peacefully resting in their beds, but Eirin had to wake them up in order to check them up. She measured their temperature, listened to their breathing and pulse with a stethoscope and even took their blood sample. She then again opened her doctor's bag and took out a few bottles with some unknown chemicals and added a few drops of them into each of the blood samples and watched the reaction.

"Hmm… These fairies are physically healthy, but…"

"Is there something else wrong with them?" asked Alice who was out of all the girls probably the most worried about their well-being.

"It seems something weakened their innate magic powers. Similarly like that karakasa girl, they are fatigued… Whatever caused all the other fairies to go mad, it was of magic origin."

Reimu suddenly snapped her fingers as an idea just crossed her mind. "Wait a second, isn't Reisen able to cause lunacy just with her look?"

"You suspect Reisen?" asked Eirin and giggled amusedly. "Don't be silly, Reimu-san. She's been here the whole time, busy with tons of work just like me. Besides, it's just ridiculous. She wouldn't do something like that. You have my word on it."

Marisa had to agree with the Lunarian. "She's right, Reimu. Why would Reisen want to amass an army of fairies to wreak havoc all over Gensokyo? It doesn't make any sense. Besides, you said yourself that the attacks are coming from the northeast. That's exactly the opposite side of Gensokyo as Eientei."

"I swear, I'll get to the bottom of this…" the shrine maiden has set herself a straight goal. "But how?"

"It would really help us if any of those fairies actually remembered what was happening during their rage." Patchouli pointed out.

"I may be an expert doctor and pharmacist," said Eirin with all modesty, "but dealing with mental issues is something I'm still just an amateur at… I could try and ask Reisen to invoke hypnosis on our fairy patients, but I'm afraid it wouldn't help us much to uncover the fragments of their memories from the time they were enraged…"

"Just one of these three was enraged." Alice corrected the doctor.

"Hey, I know…" Reimu got a sudden idea. "What if we asked Satori to come up here and read their minds? Maybe she'd be able to see something in their minds that could lead us to the source of this…"

A serious silence spread over the room. Marisa was thoughtfully scratching her chin and the other girls were just exchanging their confused looks.

"Reimu…" said Marisa after a long thoughtful pause. "You are a GENIUS~!"

"Hey~! That was mean~! I was just… Wait… What?" the miko suddenly realized that Marisa actually didn't insult her.

"Of course…" the witch nodded agreeingly. "Satori would be perfect for this. We should pay her a visit again…"

Patchouli's eyes widened at the mention of that name. "Oh my… I almost forgot. I gave Ishimaru-san an amulet earlier which he was supposed to…"

"You mean the one that enables communication with Yukari?" asked Reimu as she pulled out the small bimetallic medallion out of her pocket. "We showed it to Satori as you suggested, but she couldn't read anything. Supposedly the boundary youkai is not currently in Gensokyo…"

Eirin also turned her attention to the conversation as she remembered something from not too long ago. "Now that you mention it, about two weeks ago we were visited by that tengu journalist, Aya. She told us to keep a lookout for Yukari and report to her if we see her. She supposedly went missing or so Aya said…"

"Yukari will have to wait." said Reimu as she was pocketing the amulet. "Right now, these raging fairies are our main problem."

"Well, it's still only afternoon. Feel like taking another trip to the Palace of the Earth Spirits?"

"No, Marisa…" Reimu exhaled heavily. "Not today… I'd be shot down by the first youkai we'd encounter down there. I need some time to strengthen up."

"What if I went down there in your stead?" Byakuren unexpectedly volunteered her help.

"Huh? Byakuren-san? But… you're a youkai. You cannot even enter the underground."

"Reimu-san, I was sealed away in Hokkai for well over a millennium and some of my friends as well. The former hell really shouldn't be a problem for me to enter. Besides, where did you gather that rumor about youkai being unable to enter underground?"

"Yukari herself said it…"

Marisa just snickered at Reimu's naivety. "And Yukari of course never ever told a single lie, right?" she asked with blatant sarcasm in her voice. "I say we give Byakuren a chance. If she won't be able to enter the underground, she'll just return and tell us. Then we can go there tomorrow."

"Hmm… If you insist." shrugged the shrine maiden indifferently. "But… Do you even know where to go, Byakuren-san?"

"I will do my best." smiled the Buddhist monk. "If I get lost, I'll just ask someone the way…"

"As you wish then. You know where the entrance to the underground is?"

Byakuren smiled sheepishly and scratched the back of her head. "Ehehe~. Well, not yet… But Nue-chan here knows, right?"

The odd-winged girl looked like she was just shaken out of a daydream, but then she slowly nodded.

"Good." Byakuren patted her on the head. "I say we can head out there right away."

After a brief moment of silence that again settled in the room, Eirin spoke again: "Well, if you have business, don't let me keep you…"

"Okay, my friends, let us see if we can go to the Palace of the Earth Spirits." ordered Byakuren and with a polite gesture, she took her leave of the room and followed the corridors back until she and her company found the exit. Only Reimu, Marisa, Alice, Patchouli, Nitori, Eirin and the three fairies remained in the rehabilitation ward.

"I think we should go too…" Reimu suggested, feeling that she no longer has any other business at Eientei, now that her wounds have been treated.

Eirin, however, thought otherwise. "And I think you should stay here at least overnight. All five of you. We still have plenty of rooms to spare. We can talk some more in the evening when I actually have time."

The girls hummed as they were considering this offer. Reimu wasn't really feeling like flying all the way to her shrine and thus, she agreed. The rest of the girls were rather indifferent about it, and since they saw the shrine maiden nod to Eirin's hospitality, they agreed to stay as well.

"Good." smiled the Lunarian doctor at them. "Would you like to have your beds in one room, or would you like to sleep separately?"

"Haha~!" Marisa chuckled amusedly. "We even have the luxury of picking how we'd like to be accommodated. It's like one of those things they have in the outside world… How are they called again?"

"You mean hotels?" asked Patchouli to help Marisa find the word she was looking for.

"Yeah, those... I sort of get the feeling that Eientei is like a hotel. It even has its own museum. Do you still hold that Lunarian exhibit, Eirin?"

"Why, yes, down on the first floor… But if you'd also like to hear a presentation to it, you'd have to ask my mistress in advance."

"Hmm… Maybe some other time, when that fairy incident gets resolved." said the witch as she waved her hand.

"As you wish. Now will you tell me if you'd like separate rooms or just one?"

"We're not sick; we shouldn't isolate ourselves from each other." said Alice and glanced at the other three girls to see if they share her opinion as well. Since they were silent, Eirin took it as a "yes" and nodded. "Alright then, follow me, please."

---

Again, the silver-haired doctor led them through the hallways that were so long that one couldn't even see their end. Patchouli was really thinking if this building didn't use a similar magic as the Scarlet Devil Mansion to increase the size of its interior.

"Those fairies sure are busy, aren't they?" commented Nitori as she watched the small humanoid creatures with rabbit ears and tails flying around and running their menial errands.

"Those aren't fairies, those are rabbits." Eirin led her out of her fallacy. "Both Earth and Moon rabbits live here at Eientei. The younger ones really do look like fairies, but as they grow a little, they are pretty much human-sized, like Reisen."

"Rabbits, fairies, it's almost the same thing…" shrugged Reimu who was now beginning to wonder where was Eirin leading them. "Say, Eirin-san, do we still have a long way ahead of us? I'm getting tired already. Not to mention hungry…"

"No worries, we'll be there soon." the doctor reassured her with a smile.

"You said that five minutes ago."

"But this time we're really here…" Eirin slid open a door near the end of the corridor. "A room with five vacant, clean and comfortable beds. If you'd like to take a bath, there's a bathhouse on the first floor as well as the dining hall. But you don't need to bother going down for food. The rabbits will bring it all the way to your room."

"Uh… Thanks for your hospitality, Eirin-sama." Alice bowed to the Lunarian with respect. "But why is our room so far away from others?"

"Oh, that's just a precaution, Margatroid-san. We certainly wouldn't want you to contact any disease from our patients here."

"I guess that makes sense."

"Not only that, but since some of the patients require regular check-ups, the staff, my person included, often walks the halls even in late-night hours. It would only disturb you from the rest that you all apparently need."

"Okay, I understand now." Alice nodded knowingly. "But I guess I could go for a nice hot bath right now…"

"Yeah, tell me about it." said Marisa as she put down her black pointy hat and wiped off sweat from her forehead.

"I'd rather eat something first." Reimu stated her priority in unison with her stomach's growling.

"Me too…" Nitori and Patchouli seconded the miko's opinion.

Eirin nodded understandingly. "Very well, just wait here. I'll send some food to you in a couple of minutes." With those words, she took her leave of the room and left the girls alone.

True to her word, Eirin sent several of the little rabbits with food to the girls' room. The girls were too hungry to even bother with any eating manners. Without any table in the room, they just sat into a circle on the ground and ate the food with plates in their hands, just like during the hanami event at Reimu's shrine.

"Ahh… Not exactly home cooking, but still good enough to fill the stomach." Marisa huffed as she finished her meal.

"What are you talking about?" Reimu raised her eyebrow. "Everything is better than your home cooking, Marisa."

"Oh, come on, Reimu… Don't start with that again." the witch pouted and poked Reimu's shoulder with a chopstick. "Just because I accidentally burnt one tamagoyaki, doesn't mean I can't cook at all."

"Well, I'm not saying that you can't. You can at least make tea… and your soups aren't bad either."

"Ha~! I bet I'm a better cook than Patchouli, here." smirked the blonde magician and gave a friendly palm smack on Patchouli's back.

The purple-haired sorceress blinked a few times, surprised by Marisa's statement. "M-Mukyuuu~…"

"She's so used to the luxury of being served by Sakuya, that she doesn't even know how to hold a ladle, ze." continued the witch with verbally chipping away at Patchouli's ego.

Once all the girls ate their meals, they put the plates on a stack and as soon as the rabbits showed up to take them back to the kitchen, the girls followed them downstairs.

---

"Quite a labyrinth, this Eientei, isn't it?" stated Alice who visited this place regularly, but usually just the small pharmacy outside the main building.

"It sure is." Reimu confirmed her statement. "It makes me wonder how can all the rabbits and the rest of its residents keep a track of which door leads to which room."

"Perhaps you too would become familiar with Eientei's rooms and corridors if you lived here for a few decades." Patchouli replied and made a turn to the right to follow the rabbits headed down to the first floor.

In a couple of minutes they were already walking in the more familiar main corridor where Eirin's office was located.

"Okay, so now we know where Eientei's main kitchen is." said Reimu as she thoughtfully looked at the hundreds of sliding doors on the corridor. "But where is this bathhouse that Eirin mentioned?"

"We could use the trial and error method…" Marisa mused as she rubbed her chin. "Or… We could just ask Reisen."

"Fine, I'm voting for the second option." said Alice and directed her steps towards Eirin's office, where the lunar rabbit was tasked to assist with the paperwork. After a double knock on the office's door, she heard Reisen's voice calling her in. However, Alice didn't want or need to enter, so from the doorstep she asked the Moon rabbit the directions to the bathhouse.

"Ahh… You know what? I've already done plenty of work for today. Seriously… Eirin-sama can't really expect me to bite through this pile of documents all in a single day. I'll show you the way to the bathhouse then."

Reisen apparently was only just getting used to her new assignments, so it stood to reason that she wouldn't be as competent as was expected of her. Putting aside the papers and writing brush, she stood up from the table, did a few simple stretching exercises and nodded.

"Okay, then, Alice-san. Follow me. Eientei is not that confusing once you get to know it a little better."

---

She led the group of girls just several tens of meters further down the main hallway and opened a sliding door to reveal a large room with a large traditional wooden bath placed in the floor. A white cloud of steam enveloped the room in a semi-transparent veil. Several candle stands with lit aromatic candles provided lighting as well as setting a relaxing mood. There were several wooden stools, a large mirror on one wall and a table full of various bathing oils, soaps and shampoo. There were also several wooden chests in the corner for the bathers to put away their clothes.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" Reisen asked them and entered the room. "Come on in."

"You're having a bath with us?" asked Alice, as she curiously watched the lunar rabbit taking off her business wear.

"Yes. Do you have any problem with that?"

"Ehh… No, no. Of course not. I was just… surprised that's all."

"Surprised? By what?" wondered Reisen who was now only in her underwear.

"Well, just that… Isn't Eirin-sama going to scold you for dodging your work like that?"

"Dodging work?!" repeated the Moon rabbit with an irritated tone. "Listen. Just for your information, I haven't even been sleeping for over 30 straight hours, because I was struggling with a mound of documents as tall as my ears are long. I'm at my limit. I want a nice hot bath. Now, hurry up inside and close that door."

Alice was a little startled by the slightly angered Reisen and without any more words, she and all the other girls entered the bathroom and closed the sliding door.

"Besides…" the rabbit girl continued, "even Eirin-sama does the paperwork at a slower and more relaxed pace. She has no reason to complain."

"Okay, okay, Reisen. You have a right to relax, of course." Marisa tried to calm her down as she began undressing herself as well. "As do all of us here…"

"I can't wait to get in the ofuro~." said Reimu wishfully as she quickly threw away her garments and without any care she put her torn-up miko outfit into one of the storage chests.

While all the girls were undressing, Nitori just shyly sat on one of the wooden stools, watching them and blushing.

"What's up, Nitorin?" asked the blonde magician, who noticed her passivity. "We're all girls here; you don't need to be so shy."

Reisen and Reimu were already comfortably sitting, bathed in pleasantly warm water with expression of relief and bliss on their faces. Alice was having a bit of a difficulty with the ribbons on her dress, while Marisa enviously glared at Patchouli's beautiful curves.

"Hey, Patchy… I didn't know you were so… well endowed."

"H-Hey…" Patchouli gave her a scornful look as she was covering her breasts with her arm. "Don't stare at me like that. It's embarrassing."

Marisa rolled her eyes down to her own chest and with a sigh she shrugged. "Well, I'm still just growing, so I guess I should be patient… By the way, Nitori, if you're not going to undress, I'm going to throw you into the water with your clothes on."

"Gyaah! You wouldn't dare!" called the startled kappa.

"Oh, really? Wouldn't I?" grinned the witch maliciously and stood up in front of Nitori with her body shamelessly exposed. "Do you really want to see how I wouldn't dare?"

"Eh… now wait a minute, Marisa-san. You don't need to give me an ultimatum…"

"Oh, yes I do. You've got ten seconds to undress."

"Hey, you really don't think that I can put this waterproof dress down that fast…"

"Six seconds…"

"Alright, alright, I'm undressing already! See…?" Nitori hurriedly unbuttoned her blue outfit and put away her boots and her hat.

"Your undergarments too." the witch reminded her just in case.

"Geez… At least don't stare at me like an old pervert."

"But I wanna see if I have bigger breasts than you~."

"Leave her alone, Marisa, and get in the water already." Reimu called at her friend with a lazy voice. "You're almost worse than Aya…"

"Fine, fine." the witch consented and slowly dipped her feet in the water. "I was just trying to help Nitori here to fight away her shyness."

"Yeah, right…" muttered the shrine maiden and exhaled into the water, making bubbles as air escaped her nose.

Once even Nitori was inside the ofuro, Reisen's curiosity made her ask the girls why they were all at Eientei.

"You're not the only one who's had a hard day." Reimu gave an uncertain reply, because she really wasn't in the mood for talking much. As a testament to her tired state, the young miko yawned and rested her back against the ofuro's wall.

"Oi, Reimu, be careful not to fall asleep in here." Marisa gave her a warning, but wasn't too sure if her friend even heard her.

"So you girls had some incident to resolve?" inquired the Moon rabbit as she shifted her look to the witch in hope of getting some more detailed answers.

"Yeah, you could say that. Festival preparations, swarms of berserk fairies, putting out forest fires, rescuing a few lives… You know… the usual stuff." said Marisa in an ironically nonchalant manner. "Oh and on top of that, looking for a certain missing person."

"You mean persons." Reimu corrected her. "Don't forget that nobody has even seen Ran or Chen lately, so I'm guessing wherever Yukari is right now, her two shikigami are there too…"

"Ahh… Speculations, speculations…" sighed Patchouli with disdain, since she was a person who preferred facts over hypotheses. "Seriously… Out of all the youkai I have studied, Yukari has to be the biggest enigma to me… There are endless possibilities. Endless ways for us to try and guess what could she be doing and where could she be right now, and they are all equally plausible. She's like a living Pandora's box."

"Hehe~!" Marisa gave out a silent chuckle. "Yup, that describes our Yukarin pretty well."

"But seriously, today's events were really something…" Reimu kept muttering to herself. "If THAT wasn't enough to get Yukari's attention, then I don't know what will."

"Maybe the crazed fairies are just a result of her absence." Alice presented her theory. "Without some kind of authority figure… some grand overseer, such as Yukari-sama, Gensokyo is gradually falling into chaos. And since there isn't even someone as a placeholder, like Ran to help keep the balance, the youkai are becoming restless. Perhaps even more than during the Imperishable Night… Today we've seen raging fairies; tomorrow we may see raging oni… I still agree that we should ask Satori-san for help once more."

After quite a while of silence, Marisa spoke. "So, you're saying that things will get even worse?"

"It's just a theory." shrugged the puppeteer. "Why are all of you looking so serious now?"

"Because that can actually happen, Alice." answered Patchouli.

"And you're a youkai too, Alice." Marisa added. "I really wouldn't want to go up against you if you went crazy like those fairies…"

"Perhaps humans will become affected too…" Reimu joined in brewing the theory.

"Oh, will you all stop with the apocalyptic visions already?" Reisen snapped them all out of the field of speculation. "Seriously… Spreading rumors like that would really throw Gensokyo into a state of panic and chaos. Is that what you really want?"

"Reisen-san is right." Nitori seconded her idea. "Let's give this topic a rest for today, okay?"

"As you say, Nitorin. But we all have to admit that the situation is serious regardless. We really should do something about it." concluded Marisa and flicked the water, making a few drops splash at Reimu's face.

"Yeah, we're going to have to make a thorough investigation in the northeastern Gensokyo."

"Wait a second… Remilia asked Ishimaru-san to carry out a little investigation for her in the village of Kazermura." recalled Patchouli suddenly. "He was supposed to go there sometime around today…"

"Ishimaru-san? The unconscious one?" Reisen raised an inquiring eyebrow.

"Yes. He was supposed to go there and just look and ask around a bit. Like a curious tourist from the Human Village. If he's hospitalized, I'm going to have to tell Remi that his investigation will be delayed indefinitely…"

"I think he's already been there." said Reisen thoughtfully.

"How do you know?" Patchouli wondered.

"I remember him because he was brought in simultaneously with that injured Ryuuken by three other militiamen… They said something about a caravan on its way to Human Village and something about an ambush and a battle. I think one of them said "Kazemura" too, but I'm not sure…"

"So maybe he was already on his way back… Maybe he learned something…"

"Yeah, but he was critically hit in the head. Eirin-sama didn't exclude the possibility of brain damage and she doesn't know when he might wake up."

"So he went with the caravan?" Reimu curiously passed her question to the Moon rabbit.

"I think so."

"And wasn't anyone else injured?"

"No just those two I mentioned. Takamori and Ishimaru…"

"That's some rotten luck he has…" remarked the shrine maiden on Kyouichi's address. "And who's the second outsider in the intensive care ward?"

"The second one? Oh, you must mean Asakura-san. He was found and brought in by Fujiwara-san. Supposedly attacked by some youkai while he was cutting bamboo in the forest. Apparently even when he was protected by a group of Ryuuken, he and several other woodcutters sustained serious injuries. He's been here for a week and should get discharged soon. His wounds should be almost completely healed by now. But seriously... We've had quite a lot of outsiders here as of late. Even Kaguya-sama doesn't find them interesting anymore. Once she used to summon every outsider that stepped into Eientei and ask them about various things from the outside world, but now, she just waves her hand in rejection when she hears that there are people from the outside visiting… Well, those two we currently have aren't in a state for a conversation anyway…"

"But you said that the other one will be discharged soon." Reimu pointed out.

"Yes, but to speed up the process of healing, Eirin-sama keeps him drugged, and so he sleeps most of the day."

"I see…" Reimu muttered and nodded understandingly.

"But if even Kaguya is getting bored by the visitors, why won't she come out and help us a bit?" the Hakurei shrine maiden suggested.

"What the princess does in her leisure is her choice alone… You could still talk to her about it. No doubt she'll be excited to hear that something interesting is going on in Gensokyo again."

"Hey, what if we asked her to participate in that tournament that you're planning for the festival, Reimu?" Marisa suddenly brought up a different topic.

"Now that you mention it, yeah we could…"

"What tournament?" Reisen wanted to know.

"Oh, we're planning to hold a little Spell Card tournament as one of the festival's attractions." explained the mko. "Everyone can participate. Naturally, you are also invited to the festival… Will you and Eirin come this year too?"

"Hmm… If we won't have any more urgent cases here, then we just might… But I'm not going to put my hopes up too high..."

"You're planning to hold a festival, despite the serious events we've all experienced today?" Nitori questioned Reimu's intentions.

"Yes, Nitori, I am. I'm not going to let a bunch of nutcase fairies jeopardize the Tanabata festival…"

"Yes, since it's the only time you ever get some donations, ze…" Marisa provokingly remarked.

Reimu gave her a threatening look and then she splashed some water into her face.

"Kyaah!" exclaimed the blonde in surprise. "So a splash war, huh? Defend yourself, ha!"

Marisa returned a bigger splash to her friend, but she also managed to hit Reisen and Alice with the wave.

"Now you've done it, Marisa." said Alice as she wiped her eyes. "Eat watery death!" she exclaimed semi-cheerfully and together with Reisen she whipped up a big wave that struck Marisa, Nitori and Patcouli in their faces.

"Mukyu!" uttered the youkai elemental sorceress in discomfort.

Nitori, on the other hand, seemed to enjoy having water splashed at her, as her expression was quite cheerful.

"Just you wait, Alice-san…" said Patchouli with a raised finger. Small blue sparks slowly gathering to a single point above it.

"Hey, hey, hey, wait a second~!" called Alice with her arms in blocking position. "No spells allowed!"

"Just kidding." Patchouli smiled and used her free hand for a well-aimed splash attack that hit its mark perfectly.

A full-blown splash fight ensued that lasted for several minutes. Squeals and giggles echoed in the bathing room as the girls splashed water at each other, friend or foe. They made quite a mess, but at least for a while they forgot about all their worries and mundane problems.

---

The rest of the day, the group, short of Reisen, spent their time resting in their room on the third floor. Since the shrine maiden and the magician had planned yet another visit to the Palace of the Earth Spirits for tomorrow's day, they needed to have a good, peaceful and undisturbed rest. Eientei, despite going through some busy days, could provide just the peace and quiet that the tired girls needed after a hard day.

As the evening fell upon Gensokyo, a gentle knock on the girls' room sounded and Eirin Yagokoro entered.

"As promised, I've made myself some time to have some talk with you, girls. However, if you're too tired, I'll just let you rest."

"We've had plenty of rest since afternoon." said Reimu as she propped herself against the headboard. "We don't mind you at all, Eirin-san."

The Lunarian pharmacist smiled and found a place to sit down on a small chair, which she took from the corner of the room. She slowly and carefully eyed all the girls in the room as she slowly turned her head from left to right. "Well, this is certainly a rare sight…" she remarked as she folded one leg over the other. "It's not everyday that I get to see all of you in one place."

"Today has been quite hard for all of us." explained Marisa with gesticulation. "Especially for Alice. Her house will need some serious rebuilding. And before that, we need to do something about that flooded clearing…"

Eirin nodded understandingly. "If you'll allow me, I'll take a closer look at all of you and treat all your minor injuries… We can still talk even as I check you up."

"Mm… Okay." shrugged Alice as Eirin stood up from her chair and walked to her bed. "But I don't think that I was hurt too seriously."

Eirin just smiled and began Alice's check-up. The puppeteer glanced back into her eyes and tentatively forwarded a question.

"Umm… Eirin-sama? About those three fairies that we brought in here…"

"Yes?"

"How are they?"

"You needn't worry about them. They are already fine and healthy, but I've decided to keep them for the night just in case…"

"Hey, Reimu…" Marisa suddenly interrupted the conversation. "Do you think it will be of any use if Byakuren drags Satori here and lets her take a look at those three fairies?"

"I don't know… I think that we should capture at least one of those crazy ones and let Satori take a look…"

"Satori-san?" Eirin repeated the name and curiously looked at Reimu and Marisa.

"Oh, right, you don't know her yet." Marisa recalled. "Well, she lives in the underground. A quiet and a little shy girl, almost like Patchouli… She's not very popular down there, though…"

"Well, at least youkai beasts are fond of her…" said Reimu. "She can read minds of just about anyone and anything that has any mind. In theory, if she was to look at a fairy in an enraged state, she could possibly see the source of this insanity…"

"That's why it might not be a bad idea to capture more enraged fairies than just one…" Patchouli made a suggestion.

"That's easier said than done, Patchy." Marisa turned to the librarian. "Average fairies usually take just a few shots before they die. Besides, we're most likely to encounter an entire swarm again. Not just one lone crazed fairy… It will be quite a chore trying to catch fairies while blasting away the other ones and dodging myriad shots."

"Hmm… I think I might be able to help you with that." said Eirin while she was tending Alice's minor wounds.

"You can?"

"Why of course I can." confirmed the Lunarian with a wry smile. "I could spare a couple of syringes with a special sedative that is too weak for humans or other youkai, but it should put a fairy to sleep in no time. It has no side effects."

"Still… We'll have to be chasing the fairies and catching them in order to give them the sedative…" muttered the witch as she thoughtfully rubbed her chin.

"And hold them down so they wouldn't have a chance of slipping away…" Reimu added.

"Well, either that or you could try throwing the syringes at them." suggested Eirin once she was finished with treating Alice.

"All of us are quite capable danmaku shooters." said the shrine maiden after considering Eirin's idea. "But I'm not too confident about my throwing arm…"

"Me neither…" Marisa looked down in self-disappointment and listened to the silence that settled in the room afterwards. Then, all of a sudden, Reimu, Marisa, Alice and Patchouli exclaimed at the same time.

"Sakuya!"

"Of course. Nobody can throw knives better than the Scarlet Devil Mansion's head maid. Throwing syringes with sedatives is in essence the same thing, right?" stated the ordinary magician and watched as the other girls nodded.

"So, I guess we'll be stopping at the mansion tomorrow. Good. At least I can get changed into clean clothes." said Patchouli and wishfully looked outside the window.

"You mean clean nightgown?" Marisa poked fun at Patchouli's daily outfit.

"I like my clothes comfortable." shrugged the youkai sorceress who found nothing weird about her light-purple attire. "By the way, Eirin-san, I was just wondering if you haven't developed anything to suppress my asthma…"

Eirin regretfully shook her head. "I'm sorry, Patchouli-san… You've seen for yourself that I've been very busy lately with tending my numerous patients. Research is something that I need a lot of time for. Time, peace and quiet…"

"It's okay, Eirin-san, I understand. Just thought I'd ask since I'm already here…"

"Perhaps one day I will invent a suitable medicine for you… But I do not yet know when."

"So I guess you won't have the time to come to the summer festival this year…" said Reimu as she shifted her look to the Lunarian.

"I doubt it… If more patients keep flowing in as they are, I'll be busy for at least another month."

"Looks like you could use some more doctors here…" Marisa expressed her opinion.

"Ha. Wouldn't that be great?" smiled Eirin back at her. "It's true I'm slowly passing down my knowledge to Reisen, but she's not yet ready to work as a full-time nurse. Having more qualified doctors certainly wouldn't hurt… But I guess none of you girls have any knowledge or experience in the field of medicine."

Patchouli cleared her throat to say that Eirin's guess is not entirely correct. "Well…"

Eirin tilted her face to the side and surprisedly blinked at the sorceress. "Or am I wrong?"

Marisa giggled and nodded. "Well, Patchouli does have the knowledge. She even has it in her name, hehe… But…"

"…I don't have too much experience…" Patchouli finished Marisa's sentence.

"Well, that's certainly better than nothing." nodded Eirin approvingly. "Picking up the skill doesn't take half as much time as it takes to pick up the know-how… So, Patchouli-san, would you be interested in offering a helping hand to my patients? Of course, you'll be accordingly compensated for your help."

Patchouli smiled warmly and nodded to the offer. "I'm always eager to learn new things."

"Then congratulations, Patchouli-san. You have now officially become my colleague. You can start tomorrow. I'll show you everything you need to know. Then you can work by yourself and ask Reisen for any assistance you may need. How long do you wish to keep helping us is entirely up to you."

Reimu thoughtfully hummed and gave Eirin another idea.

"How about you hired some extra help from the Human Village? At least as a temporary solution…"

"True, there are a handful of experienced doctors who work in that little hospital, but… I'm not too sure if they'd abandon the village if I asked them for assistance. After all, the reason that hospital was founded is the fact that Eientei is quite a bit of road away from the village. Not to mention hard to find…"

"You could at least try to ask them." shrugged the shrine maiden.

"Hmm… I suppose you're right. There's no harm in asking." muttered Doctor Yagokoro to herself.

"Perhaps with the extra help, you could even treat and cure all of your patients before the festival." said Reimu. "If we're planning a danmaku tournament, we definitely need a doctor too…"

"You're really serious about that?" asked Eirin as she gave the shrine maiden a curious look.

"Why not? After all, everyone likes watching these duels. And it's not like we're going to actually hurt anyone… too seriously…"

"Well, one thing I have to admit, Reimu-san, I admire your determination." replied the smiling doctor. "I'll try to do my best too and get all my patients to perfect condition. I'm thankful for your assistance, Patchouli-san."

"I haven't done anything yet…"

Eirin giggled. "True, but you are going to get really busy tomorrow. You'd do best not to push yourself too hard. I'm well aware of your health condition and I certainly wouldn't recommend you working longer than six hours a day."

"We'll see…" said Patchouli as she mentally prepared herself for her new assignment.

"I guess I should really let you all rest for now. You all have yet another busy day ahead of you…"

"Say, Eirin-san…" spoke Nitori who was just shyly and silently listening to the girls' conversation most of the time.

"Yes?"

"Don't you feel tired at all?"

Eirin's lips again bent into a light smile as the woman gently nodded. "Yes… Yes I do. Even Lunarians get tired, you know…" she then took out a small box out from the pocket of her dichromatic uniform and shook it gently with her hand, making its content rattle quietly.

"This medicine here helps me stay awake and active, but it's not healthy at all to keep oneself drugged for the sake of work. However, in exceptional cases when we get so many patients…"

"…I see…" nodded the kappa who got her question answered.

"Very well, enough chit-chat." said Eirin enthusiastically, but with a bit of reluctance to stand up from the chair. "Time for my night shift… If you need anything, just talk to one of the rabbits. They're smarter than they look and are making regular patrols around Eientei's corridors."

"Keep up the good work then, Eirin." said Marisa to the Lunarian who was already standing at the door.

Eirin's only reply was a silent nod before she left the room and closed its sliding door.

The girls all lay back in their beds and talked about everything that happened today and their plans for tomorrow before they grew tired and decided to call it a day.