Chapter 34 – Thirteen
After just about five minutes of flight Sakuya called out: "Oh, I see one!"
"Wait, Sakuya, don't…" Reimu tried to tell her not to waste the sedatives on some random fairies that weren't even crazed, but she was too late. Sakuya was lightning-quick and surgically precise with her throwing. She flung one syringe at the distant fairy figure and in just a few seconds, the little youkai was falling down in a spiral motion.
"Your precision is admirable, Sakuya, but I think I forgot to tell you that we're hunting only the crazed and aggressive fairies…"
"Ehehehe~…" the maid let out an innocent giggle. "Sorry…"
"Ah… Never mind." said Reimu tapping Sakuya's shoulder. "At least we know that the sedatives work. But now we only have five syringes. We shouldn't waste them like that."
"Wait, shouldn't we at least take a look at that poor fairy that Sakuya-san just shot down?" suggested Alice.
"Hmm… I suppose we should…" shrugged Reimu and propelled herself towards the estimated crash site of the tranquilized fairy. "Where did she fall?"
"Oh, there she is…" said Nazrin as she found the little youkai lying on the ground with a syringe jutting out of her shoulder. The rest of the girls flocked around her and formed a circle.
"Well I'll be…" said Marisa with an amused smile. "It's Cirno. Nice shot, Sakuya."
"Cirno, huh? Doesn't she usually hang around the Misty Lake?" wondered Reimu, watching the ice fairy's chest slowly heaving up and down.
"Well, we're not that far away from the lake after all…" Alice pointed out, since the lake was indeed just a few kilometers away from the girls' current position.
"I wonder if she was also affected by this strange madness…" murmured the shrine maiden. "She's one of the toughest fairies I've seen so far, but still…"
"Are we just going to leave her lying like that?" asked Alice whose soft heart felt compassion even for fairies.
"No problem, I can take her…" said Byakuren, pulling out the syringe from Cirno's arm. "Aww… She looks cute when she's sleeping…"
Byakuren picked the fairy up from the ground and her gentle motherly expression quickly changed into a shocked one.
"Aaah~! She's… s-so c-cold~!" she exclaimed, quickly putting the fairy back on the ground.
"Hehehe~!" Marisa couldn't hide her amusement. "Well, duh… She IS an ice fairy after all. On hot summer days like this, being near an ice fairy feels really refreshing, doesn't it?"
"But she's too cold to the touch…" added Byakuren and thoughtfully glanced at her crew. "Murasa, you can't feel cold. Why don't you pick her up?"
The ghostly girl looked back at her with a questioning expression. "Do we really have to take her with us, Byakuren-sama? You've heard the shrine maiden. We're supposed to take only the enraged fairies."
"But we don't know if she was or wasn't enraged." argued the monk. "We should take her anyway… It's better to err on the side of caution, right?"
"Yes, let's take her to Eientei." agreed Reimu. "Perhaps we can even learn why some fairies are immune to this lunacy… if they indeed are."
Minamitsu let out a sigh of reluctance. "Alright, I'll take her then."
"Let's keep flying, then. It's still a fair distance to Kazemura…"
With one fairy specimen acquired, the girls continued en route to the remote mining village where a small population of yama-bito and an even smaller population of humans lived peacefully. Even at their top speed, they didn't reach the village sooner than 20 minutes.
"Oh, so that little settlement is Kazemura, right?" asked Nitori who never ventured into this part of Gensokyo before.
"I bet there's some treasure in those mountains just waiting to be found…" murmured Nazrin whose heart was pounding with excitement.
"But I doubt they have any books worth borrowing." remarked Marisa as she looked at the simple wooden cottages, unaware of the fact that the yama-bito are culturally highly developed race of youkai with special interest in all things historical. Their literature too was highly valued not just among historians, but among their common folk as well.
"Okay, everyone, we should concentrate on the task at hand." Byakuren shook the other girls out of their reveries.
"But where or how are we supposed to find the crazed fairies?" asked Sakuya. "I've been to this village several times already, trying to investigate the source of their attacks, but I wasn't able to find anything."
"Oh, I might have an idea." said Shou, the tiger-youkai as a thought crossed her mind.
"Shou-san?"
"We'll split up and search a wide area. If any of us finds anything…" she pointed her index finger at the sky and launched a small, but brightly shining red danmaku shot which jetted upwards with a high-pitched whistle, leaving a long, bright tail of light and exploded into hundreds of smaller red sparks like a firework. "Then we'll signal the others."
"Oh… That's a good plan." agreed Sakuya. "But I don't have any explosive throwing knives which I could use as a signal."
"That won't matter if you'll be with someone who can use flashier danmaku. Nobody said that we should split up to individuals, Miss maid."
"Call me Sakuya, please."
"I think we should split into pairs or trios, since our count is an odd number."
After a while of deciding of who should team up with who, the girls split up, ready to make a wide-area sweep in search for crazed fairies. In the end, Ichirin wasn't teamed up with anyone, because she already had Unzan as a companion, who was very useful especially for searching assignments.
"Aww… I wanted to be teamed up with Alice~." pouted Marisa as she followed Reimu over the dense forests in the mountainous area near the mining village.
"No. She's too soft on you and you have a bad influence on her." retorted the shrine maiden coldly. "You'd probably talk her into sneaking into Kazemura to slack off…"
"Since when did you turn into a satori, Reimu?" asked the witch with an amused voice. "But I really find this strange about you…"
"What?"
"That you're usually the one who's lazy, except when some incident stirs up. Then you're all hyper all of a sudden."
"I'm a shrine maiden, Marisa, in case you haven't noticed this little detail yet. And a Hakurei shrine maiden to boot… It's my job to resolve incidents. If I was lazy during times like these, Gensokyo would be in all sorts of trouble."
"Okay, okay." Marisa admitted. "I suppose you're right… But how are we supposed to find the fairies? You know that they can hide their dwellings with magic so that no human can ever find them…"
"I know about that, Marisa. However, we're not looking for their dwellings, but the fairies themselves."
"For being the most common youkai in Gensokyo, they're sure hard to find in these woods."
Suddenly, Reimu stopped in midair and raised her left hand to give a silent halt signal to Marisa.
"What is it, Reimu?"
"Shhhh~!" the shrine maiden hushed her as she focused her ears to the subtle sounds of the forest. Except for the sounds of blowing wind and an occasional crackling of some thin branches, all was quiet. Then, all of a sudden a loud fluttering sound came from the more distant trees.
"Ambush~!" called Marisa, immediately grabbing onto her mini Hakkero. However, as no fairies showed up, she began looking at all directions with a confused expression.
"Yeah, a bird ambush…" chuckled Reimu, pointing forward towards the large flock of birds that took flight simultaneously.
"Something apparently got them startled… Let's head to where they took off from."
Just as Marisa was about to make a move, she noticed a bright purple flash in the sky with the corner of her eye. "Look, a flare!"
"Looks like somebody had more luck than us." commented Reimu as she turned to the shining purple danmaku orb. "Time to go~!"
"Hey, wait up a bit!" called Marisa before she jetted after her friend to catch up with her.
Since Marisa didn't have her broom with her, she wasn't much faster than the shrine maiden, but she still had no problem keeping up with her. Both girls followed the flare that was already beginning to fade, wondering who fired it. After no longer than two minutes, they already saw several distant figures quickly flying towards them. As they drew closer, Reimu and Marisa recognized them as Satori, Koishi, Sakuya and Minamitsu. It seemed they were fleeing from something.
"Satori, were you the one who launched the signal danmaku?" asked Reimu as the girls got within earshot. The young youkai seemed somewhat frightened and the other girls' expressions were rather startled as well. "What's going on? What are you fleeing from?"
"That…" replied Captain Murasa, pointing a thumb over her shoulder.
Marisa and Reimu hovered up a little so they could see over the other girls' heads. What they saw in the distance made them open their mouths wide. It appeared as a huge black cloud rising from the distant forest, but upon closer look, the cloud was actually an incredibly huge swarm of fairies that was apparently chasing the girls who fled from them.
"Now THAT is a lot of fairies…" said the blonde witch with a hint of respect in her usually confident voice.
"Where did they all come from?" wondered the shrine maiden.
"We can try to figure that out later, Reimu… How can we stop this huge swarm?"
"Well, for one thing, there's thirteen of us instead of just three like at Alice's house."
"Yes, but where are the other girls?" asked Marisa, turning her head around as she looked for the rest of their allies. "So far it's just you, me, Sakuya, the Komeijis and Captain Murasa.
"Then fire another signal shot." suggested Sakuya, we better be facing those fairies in full strength. This looks too much even for the six of us."
Without much hesitation, Satori launched another upward bright purple shot into the sky. Its explosion was a loud and clear signal to the other girls to immediately regroup and prepare for battle.
"Spread out, everyone!" Reimu ordered the other girls to assume a wide formation.
The fairies were still far away, but it wouldn't take them longer than a minute to reach the girls.
"Spell Cards at the ready~!" called the miko as she drew out one of her own cards. The other girls nodded and prepared their spells to counter the first wave of the fairy swarm. Just about two kilometers now separated the girls from the overwhelming army, consisting of over a hundred thousand little youkai. Marisa's grip tightened around her mini Hakkero. Sakuya took out three syringes out of the box, ready to hit three separate targets. Even if she wasn't as accurate as she used to be, she would have no problem landing a hit against such an incredible number of hostiles.
"Reimu-san?" asked the maid before the fairies got within range. "I'm not planning to run even if we tranquilize the necessary number of fairies."
Reimu remained silent, swallowing her saliva in a nervous manner. She had never faced so many enemies before and despite her seemingly unwavering self-confidence, she couldn't help but to feel uneasy about the upcoming skirmish. However, Sakuya was right. No matter the odds, they couldn't just leave this fairy swarm run rampant and cause even more severe attacks on Gensokyo's villages and forests. They had to be stopped here and now.
"Come on, Reimu, just stay calm…" she encouraged herself in her mind. Only Satori could hear her. "Compared to my battle with Yukari, this is nothing… I can't afford to show fear in the eyes of any enemy. I should be an example worth following. I better not show any weakness here in front of my allies."
As she thought this to herself and watched the black cloud of fairies grow ever larger and drawing ever closer, she could feel someone put a gentle hand on her shoulder. As she turned around she saw Satori, looking back with her usual serious face.
"Don't worry, Reimu-san… We're here to back each other up."
"…Satori?"
"If you could read my mind, you'd see a certain level of fear as well." admitted the older of the Komeiji sisters. "But even so, I am not going to back away… Like you, I also need to be an example worth following…" she smiled and glanced at her little sister. "This really isn't the right time to show our fears and weaknesses. This is a time to show our danmaku."
"I'm with Satori." Marisa agreed, placing her Hakkero in front of her lips. "We need to show these little pests some Master Sparks, ze!"
"And some knives." added Sakuya.
"And hearts~!" said Koishi.
"And anchors…" Murasa concluded with a sly grin.
The fairies were close; only five hundred meters away from the six girls who were determined to stop them. The first wave already began sending their first unguided shots against the heroines, missing them by several meters.
"Not yet…!" called Reimu at her allies, so they wouldn't activate their spells prematurely. "Not yet…!"
The swarm was almost upon them, but the girls all wanted their spells to be as effective as possible. In order to take down as many fairies as they could, they needed them to come even closer and once they were close enough, an incredible display of lights and colors started.
"Now!"
Marisa went for her old faithful Master Spark, which took out several hundred fairies at once, cutting through the huge mass like a hot knife through butter. Satori unleashed a card she called Recollection "Terrifying Hypnotism". The constant circular outburst of yellow projectiles combined with thin red beams shooting to all directions and complemented by semi-homing streams of large violet bubble-like orbs managed to keep the swarm at bay for at least a while. The girls wanted to avoid getting surrounded and so, they flew backwards while showering the fairy swarm with normal danmaku. The not-too-intelligent fairies fell for their diversion and began pursuing the girls who now split up, each heading to a different direction. Thus, they managed to separate the swarm into six smaller, but still overwhelming clusters. As Satori's spell ended, she was already being backed up by her sister who launched the same card as she used in today's game against Alice, Marisa and Nitori. She technically covered a part of the sky with a pattern made of pink hearts. Any fairy that came into contact with one of the projectiles went down like a swatted fly. Reimu used her "Spread" version of her "Fantasy Seal" when the cluster that went after her nearly got her surrounded. It didn't take out as many fairies as she'd like, but at least she managed to stay unharmed. She then continued bombarding the hostile youkai with her homing amulets.
"Harbor Sign "Eternally Anchored Ghost Ship"!" sounded Captain Murasa's voice, declaring one of her strongest Spell Cards.
In a bright flash of bluish light, 12 ghostly anchors appeared around her and with the speed of cannonballs they simultaneously shot out to their respective directions. The effect was devastating for the nearest fairies, which were instantly knocked down from the sky. Those that were missed by the anchors were quickly shot down by the trail of blue danmaku, which each of the anchors left behind. As the deadly anchors were slowly returning to their originator, the blue trail of bullets continued outward, hitting even more of the crazed fairies.
Sakuya figured it would be a good time to tranquilize some of these little youkai, so without hesitation, she threw three syringes at once. Each shot managed to perfectly find its mark. In a matter of seconds, three fairies were slowly descending to the ground, too weak to continue the fight. Sakuya hurried up and caught them in midair. However, with her hands full, she could hardly fight back.
The fairies took notice of this and didn't hesitate either to exploit Sakuya's momentary weakness.
"Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all~!" exclaimed the maid while fleeing from a large cluster of fairies and an even larger cluster of their danmaku. The extra weight she now carried slowed her flight down by quite a bit and it was no surprise that the fairies managed to catch up to her and bombard her without mercy. Surprisingly, though, their primary target was not Sakuya, but the fairies she had tranquilized. All three of them were literally assassinated by their own kind and left nothing but a small white cloud of glittering smoke as they died.
"What the…?!" Sakuya couldn't understand what just happened. It was just as if the fairies were killed on purpose. As if that mindless swarm knew that they should kill the captives so they wouldn't get betrayed by them. Sakuya now only had two more sedative syringes and not a tiniest room for error. Despite their obvious madness, these fairies now behaved in a strangely coordinated and organized manner, as if they had a single collective mind. This was definitely different from the few times when they attacked the Scarlet Devil Mansion a couple of months ago. The maid drew out her throwing knives instead of her last two syringes and rained death upon the legions of fairies. Every time she ran out of knives, she just stopped time for a while and picked up her knives back to use them again and again. When fully focused on her task, even the super-dense danmaku waves couldn't hit her.
For several minutes, the girls were putting up a solid fight against the overpowering odds, but the tide of battle was slowly turning towards the inevitable. They were growing tired and they were starting to run out of Spell Cards. Satori, Minamitsu and Marisa even got hit a couple of times and their fighting ability was thus slightly impaired. Even though they brought down thousands of fairies already, it still seemed like the swarm didn't get any smaller.
"Not good…" murmured Reimu desperately. "This is my last Spell Card. If I use this, then all I can do afterwards is use ordinary danmaku."
By this time the swarm of fairies managed to surround all six of the heroines, sending barrages at them from every side.
"I think you ought to use it and cut us a way out of this situation." Marisa suggested, cursing herself for even considering the idea of running away from a fight.
"Actually, I might have one crazy idea…" said Reimu as she watched the fairies quickly closing in on her and her allies. "When I use this spell, get ready to fly full speed towards Kazemura."
"You want to lure the fairies to the village?" asked Sakuya in disbelief. "A swarm of this size could level it in a matter of minutes!"
"But there's always a regular crew of Ryuuken stationed there. It's our best bet."
"You were right, Reimu." nodded Marisa as she blasted her beam-like shots everywhere. "That really IS a crazy idea… I say we battle them right here."
"Fine, but if we all die here, I'll know who to blame for it…" shrugged the shrine maiden while raising her last Spell Card above her head.
"I don't feel like moving to Yuyuko's place just yet." Marisa expressed her determination to survive this battle.
"Then you better do your best once this thing runs out of power…" Reimu told her while gently waving the card in her fingers. "Fantasy Heaven!"
"Now let's see if those dumb fairies can stand up to this!" Marisa commented with an evil looking grin. She knew all of Reimu's spells, but this was one of those she has seen just a few times. Reimu rarely ever used it because it was simply too powerful. As the card disappeared in Reimu's hand, she closed her eyes and her whole body became transparent – almost as if she was just a phantom. At first, many colorful lights appeared around Reimu's phantom form, just like during her more common Fantasy Seal. However, what followed afterwards could only be described as total and utter annihilation of any hostile target within a hundred meter radius. If one could imagine a long-lasting explosion of magic, emitting countless bright projectiles of different colors, each of which homed in on its target, then one should have no problem imagining the amazing effect of this spell. What's more, Reimu was rendered completely invulnerable to any form of harm, as any shot the fairies would hit her with just normally passed through her transparent body. No matter how hard the swarm tried to get closer to attack the girls, they stood no chance to avoid the homing colorful danmaku which instantly turned them into dust. While Reimu was fueling her spell, the other girls didn't linger and with their combined effort, they wreaked havoc upon the persistent little youkai with non-declared danmaku patterns. The swarm was significantly weakened, but as Reimu was starting to slowly shift back into material form, there were still enough fairies to overwhelm the six heroines. And when the moment came and Fantasy Heaven ended, the real hell began for the three humans, two youkai and one ghost who were still surrounded and attacked from all directions. Even with their maximum effort, they failed to blast a way through the ranks of enraged fairies and had no way to lure them towards Kazemura as Reimu suggested.
"Oh, crap!" cursed the blonde witch as her arm received a stinging shot from the side, which she had no chance to evade. "We're screwed!"
"No, we're not, this is fun~!" rejoiced Koishi who was having a good time evading the chaotic and random patterns of magic bullets. Even when she got hit enough times that would make a normal human hit the ground, she just giggled and fired her own danmaku back. However, her attacks were not very accurate.
Minamitsu was the only one of the group who didn't need to worry about dying, but the magic shots fired by the fairies left a painful sensation each time they hit her ethereal form. She kept on returning fire bravely, despite making a painful grimace.
"If this keeps up… I won't… be able to… fight… anymore."
Even when all the girls have used up all their Spell Cards, Sakuya still had one "ace in the hole" she decided to use in this dire situation.
"Everyone, listen up!" she demanded attention in the middle of a raging battle. "I can make the time for us to move faster for about ten seconds. When I say "go", we must break through their ranks and get as far away from them as possible. Then we can assault them at long range while driving the swarm in circles. We're faster than them so we can outmaneuver them easily."
"Sakuya…" Marisa threw an angry-looking glance at the maid. "Why didn't you say so sooner, dammit?! Get us out of this mess!"
The silver-haired maid took a deep breath as she clutched her silver pocket watch with her left hand. Then she made a slow movement with her right arm, as if she was drawing an invisible circle around herself. Once she made one full turn, she suddenly snapped her fingers and exclaimed: "Go!"
It was as if the time was slowed down to such extent that the danmaku fired by the fairies was now moving at only 10 cm/s. It wasn't just the magic shots. The whole world seemingly slowed down except for the six girls who heard Sakuya's signal, and without any hesitation flew directly at the dense cluster of fairies, easily avoiding every obstacle in their way while enjoying the sweet feeling of blasting their enemies in slow motion. It was during these few seconds that Sakuya took her last two syringes and injected two random fairies with the sedative. Before the flow of time returned back to normal, all six of the girls were quite far away from the zone of immediate danger. Sakuya now carried two stunned fairies in her arms.
"Wooohooohohooo~!" Marisa exclaimed with excitement. "This was the coolest experience since the first time I flew on my broom! Man... I think I should redirect my studies towards temporal magic."
"I never studied magic too much." shrugged the Scarlet Devil Mansion's head maid with a modest expression.
"Then you're like Reimu… Born with talent, but hates training, ze… Am I the only hard-working one around here?"
"Maybe you should try working as a maid at the mansion for a week or two and then try saying that again with a straight face…"
"Uhm… I hate to interrupt you two," said Reimu and pointed at the distant swarm, "but we still have a few million fairies to deal with."
"Don't exaggerate." Marisa brushed her off with almost nonchalant tone. "There's not that many of 'em… Looks like they still haven't figured out where the hell did their targets disappear to, hehe~."
"But now I won't be much of a help with these two in my arms." said Sakuya, beckoning at the two fairies she was now carrying.
"Oh… Then we better start barraging them now, while they're still far away." suggested the witch and took the honor of being the first one to start the long-ranged attack against the fairies, firing her standard magic missiles. As soon as her projectiles traveled the necessary distance and dissolved a couple of fairies into magic dust, the entire swarm was again set into motion, flying towards the source of this attack.
"Don't just stand there; let's give them hell, ze!"
Any girl who didn't have her hands preoccupied with carrying tranquilized fairies has joined Marisa's attack. The most successful was, of course, the Hakurei shrine maiden with her homing amulets that were strong enough to bring down one fairy per shot and precise enough to score one hit per shot.
"How many damn fairies do you think are there?!" Marisa asked the other girls just to keep the battle atmosphere a bit less tense.
"We've got most of them with Spell Cards, but I'd say still over ten thousand…" estimated Sakuya who had to throw her knives ballistically to hit her targets over such a long distance.
"Whoa… Where did you put those two fairies, Sakuya?" asked the surprised witch after she realized that the maid was already raining sharp metal upon the incoming swarm.
"Down below us… I just couldn't stand the idea of being the useless one around here." she replied with a smile.
"By the way, weren't you also carrying Cirno, Murasa-san?" Reimu pointed out once she realized it.
"Yes, I was… I put her down on a meadow near that Kazemura village before we split up to search for fairies. Looks like we've found more than we bargained for…"
"Let's just hope none of our specimens will get killed before we're done with this fight."
And finally, the remnant of the huge fairy swarm was again close enough to be dangerous for the girls. Perhaps they managed to lower the fairy count down to 8 or 9 thousand, but here they were again, still numerous enough to shoot the girls down… or worse.
"Scatter~! Don't let them surround us!" yelled the miko as she propelled herself full-speed backwards while not stopping her amulet barrage.
It was in this moment when a sudden and massive colorful salvo arrived from somewhere above and made short work of the nearest fairies that were about to catch up with the fleeing girls.
"What the…?!" Marisa opened her eyes and mouth wide in surprise. As she looked up at the sky while shielding her eyes from the sun, she noticed seven distant humanoid silhouettes blasting their magic at their enemies.
"It's the second half of our search party~!" she exclaimed, feeling a sudden wave of relief. "Damn… What took them so long?!"
Now the fairy swarm was being heavily assaulted from two sides, their numbers were diminishing rapidly. Surprised by this unexpected turn of events, the desperate swarm split up into two roughly equal groups. The first group kept pursuing Reimu and company, while the other fairy horde changed their target to the girls led by Byakuren. It seemed that the Buddhist monk and some of her team members still had a few spare Spell Cards, which under her orders, they effectively used to maximum effect. Five thousand fairies have been crushed in only one and a half minute.
Meanwhile, Reimu's team had to rely more on their flying and dodging skills. They led their pursuers in circles while causing heavy casualties. In essence, they had the situation already under control. They just needed a bit more time to neutralize the fairy threat than Byakuren's team.
"Don't worry, we're here already~!" Byakuren called at Reimu's team as she came to her aid in dealing the final decisive blow against the final remnant of the once great fairy army.
When there were just a few hundred of little winged youkai left, they began to scatter and flee to all directions, as if their sense of self-preservation had kicked in only now.
"They're fleeing~!" called Alice as she was shooting the retreating fairies from behind with a beam emitted by her doll.
"Oh, no, you won't…" Reimu released more of her homing amulets which finished off every single fairy before they could get away.
Finally… The battle was over and a deep silence has settled over the pine forests near Kazemura. The magic dust the fairies left behind after their death covered the treetops like a thin layer of silver snow. Everyone was exhausted, but still alive and in most cases unharmed.
"AHAHAHAHAHAAAA~!" Marisa bellowed in a manic laughter that echoed all over the highlands. "How do you like that, you idiotic fairies, huh?!"
"Speaking of which… Where's Cirno and the other two that we managed to tranquilize?" asked Reimu, looking at everyone present.
"Oh, just wait here a moment." said Sakuya as she disappeared and reappeared with two of the mentioned fairies in her arms.
"Good…" Reimu nodded, barely giving any praise as she turned her look to the ghostly girl, Minamitsu Murasa. "Do you still remember where you stashed the ice fairy?"
"Sure. Just follow me…" she replied tersely, leading the way back to the mining village.
"By the way, Byakuren, what took you five minutes to come to our aid after Satori launched two signal shots?" Reimu raised a question at the monk girl.
"I'm sorry, Reimu-san." she bowed apologizingly in the middle of flight. "We too were ambushed by a very large group of fairies over the forest west of the village. We've come to assist you as soon as we could."
"I see…"
"Don't worry, we didn't let any of them get away." added the monk after seeing Reimu's frowning face.
Reimu briefly glanced at her and mustered a weak smile. "Good job… You did really well… All of you girls did a great job. Now let us take the fairies back to Eientei."
"I put the ice fairy down on that meadow." sounded Minamitsu who pointed forward at a nearby grass field a couple of hundred meters away from Kazemura.
"Oi, Reimu…" Marisa spoke to the shrine maiden. "You better hold onto your clothes, because they look like they're about fall apart any moment, ze."
It was no wonder since she was still wearing the same miko dress since yesterday, which already got torn up during the battle at Alice's house. A few new tears and holes were added during today's battle as well. Reimu now looked more like a homeless beggar than a shrine maiden, but Marisa's clothes weren't in any better condition either.
"Take a look at yourself first, Marisa…"
"Oh… uhh… That's just… the latest fashion trend in Gensokyo, haha~!"
"Yeah, right…"
"Ah… There's that ice fairy, see?" Murasa gestured towards the little bluish figure curled up on the grass, sleeping like a baby.
"You're the only one who can carry her without getting frostbitten, Murasa-san, so please pick her up." Byakuren asked her in a respectful manner, even though she was basically her superior.
"I know, Hijiri-sama, you don't have to tell me…" replied the ghost as she lifted the sleeping fairy from the ground and floated up again, continuing her flight with the other girls to Eientei.
"You've helped us a lot, Byakuren." Reimu again expressed her thanks. "You don't need to go with us all the way to Eientei. You can return to your temple if you wish…"
Byakuren looked at her confusedly. "So… after such a long and hard battle you're telling me I'm no longer needed?"
"No, that's not what I meant…"
"You've done your part so now you can just go home? Is that what you meant to say?"
"No, Byakuren, you've got it all wrong…" Reimu shook her head denyingly, but got interrupted again.
"Do you really expect me to leave my work half-done and go to sleep with my mind at ease? Do you seriously think I'd be able to rest while knowing that entire Gensokyo is in danger? If that's the case, then you truly know nothing about me yet, Reimu of the Hakurei clan…" said the monk with intimidatingly determined and serious voice. "This incident concerns us all. I will accompany you and help you until it gets resolved and I won't take "no" for an answer."
"Okay…" said the shrine maiden with a weak chuckle. "I see you're just as fired-up as I am… But now I'm also hungry and tired… I could eat even Marisa's tamagoyaki."
Alice covered her mouth with her palm as she chuckled at Reimu's remark.
"Really? Why don't you come over to my place then? I can make some for you…"
"How about we just returned to Eientei already?" asked Alice. "Aren't you curious what will Satori-san find out when she reads the fairies' minds?"
"I already tried taking a look, but I can't see their thoughts clearly…" said Satori as she examined the sleeping fairies. "A sleeping mind is somewhat harder to read for me…"
"Let me take a look then, onee-chan~." Koishi volunteered her assistance and took a look at the fairies' subconscious. "Hmm… It seems the two small ones are having a dream about a danmaku battle… And the blue-haired one is having some nightmare… A giant toad has swallowed her… Oh no~! I don't like seeing people having bad dreams!"
"That won't help us in tracking the culprit behind this incident." frowned the disappointed miko. "We ought to wait until they wake up."
"Knowing Eirin-sama, I'm sure she has some drug to neutralize the effect of the sedatives and wake the fairies up." thought Alice aloud.
After a long flight on a hot summer day, the girls have finally reached the bamboo forest. The only relief from the hot sun was the pleasant cool air around Cirno, so the girls took turns at flying in close formation with Minamitsu who was carrying the ice fairy.
"A few more flights like this and I think I might actually memorize Eientei's exact location in this damn forest." jested Marisa as she followed Nitori, who was leading the way to the well-hidden mansion, guided by her tracking device.
"You know what they say; practice makes perfect." replied Alice as her stomach made a growl. "…I hope we'll get something to eat; I'm starving."
"Tell me about it. I could eat a whole chicken, ze."
"Ahh~. Here we are at last." Nitori exhaled as soon as she spotted Eientei. "This way, this way~!" she waved her hand and landed on the ground.
"Oh, thank goodness…" muttered Sakuya. "My arms are dead from carrying these two…"