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...?

47. Let the Festival Begin!

Chapter 47 – Let the Festival Begin!

Once they all found some place to stand, they focused their ears at what the shrine maiden was saying.

"And so… I'd like to welcome you all to the annual Tanabata festival, here at the Hakurei Shrine. This year, as you might have already heard or read, I prepared a spectacle that will hopefully become a traditional part of this festival for the next years to come. Yes. I'm talking about the Hakurei Shrine's Summer Danmaku Tournament, which I hope you'll all enjoy. But before we begin the tournament proper and other performances that you'll see here today, it is my duty and pleasure to officially begin this year's Tanabata with a traditional dance to express gratitude to all the gods that we were given yet another chance to gather here and celebrate. So… without any more unnecessary words, let the 125th Tanabata Festival begin in all its glory~!"

A loud applause and cheers echoed all over the shrine yard as the young black-haired miko raised her gohei over her head. The drummers began to make a rhythm, joined by the melodic sounds of koto, and finally, the high and low-pitched voices of flutes blended into the mix to form one wholesome body of music that was playing during Reimu's beautiful ceremonial dance. With graceful movements full of symbolism, she used nearly every square meter of the stage in her choreography. It seemed that her circular motion was meant to symbolize the Great Hakurei Border and the creation of Gensokyo, or perhaps only Kyouichi's imagination was too wild. In any case, Reimu's dance was a lovely spectacle and once it was over, a loud applause spread all over the shrine yard.

"Reimu-sama is amazing~!" sounded a girl's voice from somewhere nearby.

"Huh, Chitose?" Kyouichi turned his head in the direction of the voice he just heard. "There you are…"

"Ah, Kyou-kun~!" the young daughter of the Saitou family cheerfully waved back at him. "Isn't Reimu-sama wonderful?"

"Yes, that she is…" he nodded affirmatively. He didn't admire her just for her looks, but for what she was doing and for the fact that she was willing to help him leave Gensokyo. Chitose apparently admired her even more.

"I hope you're not sad about not becoming one of the tournament judges, Chitose-chan…" Kyouichi spoke to the girl who was now like his little sister.

The girl shook her head in negative response with a bright smile adorning her face. "Being here to see Reimu-sama is enough for me~!"

"Her dance was beautiful indeed…"

"Now, according to the program, Alice-san's Magical Bunraku is up next." said Chitose as she looked into a leaflet she was holding in her hand. "Alice-san is amazing too. I've seen her show last year and it was breathtaking. She controlled over 20 dolls simultaneously! And each of those dolls performed something different. That takes some real skill."

"And magic proficiency…"

"Of course. Alice-san is a magician after all."

And just as the crowd's applause for Reimu faded, the shrine maiden announced the following performer.

"Thank you, thank you… Now that the festival is opened, what would it be without Alice's Magical Bunraku? This time, the Gensokyo's most talented puppeteer has prepared a show that slightly hints at what will be taking place on this stage later this evening… This time, her show will feature an incredible number of 50 dolls, all of which were handmade by her, and unfortunately for all her fans, are not for sale. Too bad… But I digress. Ladies and gentlemen, humans, youkai, gods, ghosts, fairies and other undefined beings, I present you Alice Margatroid~!"

Again the crowd wildly cheered and applauded as the young short-haired blonde in light blue dress with pink ribbons was stepping up to the stage and taking place by Reimu's side, followed by a plethora of her magically controlled dolls.

"Yes, thank you…" said the dollmaker as she bowed to the audience. "As Reimu-san already suggested, this time, I've prepared a performance with more than twice the amount of dolls that I used last year. I hope that you'll like it. The performance is called War of Heaven and Hell."

"Music, start~!" Reimu called at the musicians that were standing just below the stage.

After that, the shrine maiden stepped down, allowing Alice to use its entire area for her performance. Despite being the person who pretty much organized the entire festival, she didn't know exactly what kind of performances were going to take place on the stage at the back of her shrine. That's why she was also waiting in anticipation for what Alice had prepared this time. She only vaguely heard from Marisa that Alice's performance was going represent some sort of battle, but no further details…

As the crowd's cheers went silent, Alice raised her left hand and 25 dolls from the group flew to the right side of the stage. As she raised her right hand, the remaining half of the dolls took their position on the left side of the stage. At first, it was hard to tell which side of the "battlefield" represented Heaven and which was supposed to symbolize Hell, since all the dolls were wearing the same dark-blue dresses with white aprons. That all changed when Alice snapped her fingers on her left hand. The respective group of dolls instantly changed their dresses to dark-red with black aprons and red headbands with tiny demonic horns. Each doll now had a pair of demon-like wings and held miniature black pitchforks as weapons. Their hair-color also changed to either red or black to match their dresses. For some reason they reminded Kyouichi of Patchouli's familiar, Koakuma.

Then the puppeteer snapped her fingers again, this time on her right hand. The opposing side of the dolls changed to resemble little angels. White dresses, small feathery wings and headbands with tiny halos attached. They were armed with tiny maquettes of flaming swords made of hardened paper. The only thing that these dolls kept from their previous appearance was their hair color.

Now that the scene was set, Alice raised her hands slightly higher, giving command to both armies to take off from the stage and hover roughly one meter above it. To the melody of the music playing, Alice waved her hands in the air like an orchestra conductor and her dolls began their performance in response. It all looked like synchronized swimming; only that it was synchronized flying. A spectacular ballet in midair with both sides performing their movements in different formations and patterns, but in the same tempo. This part was probably meant to represent the "peaceful time" before the actual battle.

Then the two factions slowly drew closer and closer to each other until one of the angel dolls and one of the devil dolls collided. At that moment the music stopped and both groups of dolls froze in motion. After a brief pause, the music changed to a bit more serious tune. The two dolls that bumped into each other exchanged their stares followed by the devil doll mimicking an angry reaction. The angel doll tilted her head to the side in response. The devil continued her angry gesticulation, waving her tiny fist at the little angel. The white-clad doll only scratched her head, as if unable to understand what the other doll was so angry about. This seemed to have provoked the devil doll into pushing the angel, making her hit another doll belonging to the faction of Heaven.

Now there were two angles involved in this trivial incident. The two of them decided to teach the little troublemaker from Hell a lesson, and in joint effort they returned the push. The little devil flew some distance and bumped into two of her own kind before she stopped. Needless to say that the two devils in question didn't leave this situation without a response. Together they flew towards the two angels and provokingly poked them with their pitchforks. The angels answered by a light poke with their swords. Not long after that the conflict was gradually joined by more and more dolls, escalating into a full-scale incident.

The first of the devil dolls gestured saying something angrily at the group of angels while raising her weapon high, then turning to her own kind and rallying them back at the end of the stage. Similarly, one of the angels raised her sword and turned back, rallying her sisters on the other side. A war was declared. Now, instead of pretty formations, the opposing armies arranged into ranks and files, and slowly drew close to each other to the melody of a military marching song. Finally the two groups were about to meet. They pointed their weapons forward and at the change of music, they engaged each other in a furious battle.

Well… furious was perhaps an exaggeration. The dolls might have represented two warring factions, but their battle was rather cute than violent. At first there was chaos on the battlefield, but then the music became more melodic again and the dolls all began "dancing" with their opponents. Each angel held one devil by the hands, they made several turns, then exchanged a few blows, all of which were blocked. This theme repeated itself for a couple of times, before the musicians switched the tempo to a fast one, again resulting in a chaotic melee.

One of the angels who lost her sword in a fight was attacking a devil doll with her fists. On the other hand, one of the disarmed devils was perched atop one of the angel dolls, looking like she was trying to bite her. The panicked angel ran back and forth while flailing her arms desperately. Another pair of opponents was struggling to get their horns and halo unstuck from each other, while some combatants were using their wings to exchange slaps.

Some of the dolls have "fallen" in this battle, with fire swords and demonic pitchforks stuck under their armpits. Several of the dolls pretended to be injured, holding a certain part of their body, as if in pain, and not continuing the fight. The remnants of both armies again flew back from each other, then as they reached the ends of the stage, they unleashed their danmaku. The audience seemed to like this performance very much. The devils had their shots colored in red and orange, while the angels fired blue and white magic bullets. Again, Alice's amazing dexterity made her battling dolls move to the tempo of the music in beautiful patterns, like she did at the very beginning of her show. Except this time, her dolls were now firing danmaku at each other. Even more amazing was the fact that Alice calculated the timing of the dolls' actions so precisely that their danmaku barrages never hit any of the dolls, flying right through the gaps in their formations. A clockwork precision on Alice's part. Even as the dolls' formations and their danmaku patterns kept changing, they never hit each other. Kyouichi thought that such coordination could be only achieved by using a computer program, so he was naturally amazed by the puppeteer's talent. But then to everyone's surprise, Alice made her dolls actually hit each other.

From the remaining armies of Heaven and Hell only a handful of dolls survived the final danmaku salvoes. It seemed as though they even ran out of their magic and stopped shooting. They descended to the ground, mimicking movements, as if they were panting for air out of exhaustion. Since none of the remaining dolls had any will or energy to continue in their war, two negotiators from each world tentatively approached each other, while other dolls formed a circle around them. The two dolls in the middle slowly extended their hands to each other and after a short dramatic moment, they shook their hands as a sign of peace.

After this moment, the other dolls raised their hands up, celebrating the end of their war. The angel dolls then "resurrected" their fallen warriors and the devil dolls did the same. Once all of the 50 dolls were up and standing again, they threw away their weapons and gathered near Alice. The youkai girl passed them a small box and had her dolls open it. Inside were miniature tables, chairs and tea sets. The dolls quickly arranged the tables and chairs and took their seats. Now instead of a war, the devils and angels were having a tea party. And as the music was getting to its finale, the dolls all stood up from their tables and formed a long line as they stood next to each other, holding their hands and bowing to the audience.

A great applause for Alice followed.

"Amazing~!"

"That was incredible, Alice-san~!"

"So cute~!"

"Great show!"

Those were just a few shouts of praise coming from the crowd of spectators. Even Alice herself seemed to be surprised to receive such an applause.

"How does she even do that?" Midori couldn't understand the secret behind Alice's skill.

"Magic…" Kyouichi came with the most obvious of answers.

"Duh…"

Now that her performance was over, Reimu again stepped up to the stage to announce the next performer.

"And that was Alice and her Magical Bunraku! Now to take a little break, and ease up the stress, we're going to enjoy the soothing sounds played by the popular band from the Human Village that you may know well from the tavern Uzume. Presenting the Flawless Raindrops!"

The majority of the people apparently knew this band of traditional musicians and gave them a loud, cheerful welcome as they stepped up to the stage with their instruments. After a few minutes of tuning, they began playing a beautiful and soothing melody that just perfectly fit the festival atmosphere. Kyouichi took his time to listen to two or three of their songs, but his feet were already tired from the constant standing and he decided to find some place to sit down. He figured that the shrine's elevated floor was just the right place to take a rest. As he made his way to the shrine, however, he saw a person which he didn't quite want to encounter. And that person noticed him as well…

---

"Reisen-san…"

"Well hello there, Ishimaru-san." the Moon rabbit greeted with an amused smile. "So, how was your walk through the bamboo forest?" she teasingly asked him about his escape from Eientei, though she didn't seem to be upset about it.

"Look, I had my reasons for that…"

"According to the letter that you left us, you acquired some kind of medicine from some hermit alchemist."

"I didn't want Eirin-sama to interrogate me like a prisoner. I know that the alchemist in question may be responsible for the greatest leak of top secret information in the history of the Lunarian society. I simply didn't want to be seen as an enemy in Eirin's eyes."

"And so you ran away."

"Yes, I ran… I can understand Eirin's interest in the potion, so I at least left the letter describing its origin. If she really wants it so badly, let her deal with the alchemist herself. I don't want to be involved. I'm just a customer."

"Rest assured that Eirin-sama doesn't see you as an enemy. Neither does she see herself as a part of the Lunarian society anymore. But you are right; she was very interested in the potion. And very surprised when she found your message… and even money for your hospitalization."

"That potion could help save more lives if Eirin-sama knew how to make it or at least, could buy it… That's why I decided to reveal the truth. Now it's all up to her and that half-snake. Though I honestly can't imagine them cooperating…"

"Only time will tell..." Reisen remarked wisely. "By the way, what about your friend?"

Kyouichi looked at her, puzzled. "My friend?"

"The one who escaped Eientei with you… Asakura-san."

"Oh, him…" Kyouichi nodded. "We both made it safely to the village somehow. He's here too. Although he… ehh… overdosed himself with alcohol. Now he's sleeping in the shrine. Hopefully he'll be fine before evening."

Reisen scoffed lightly and reached into the pocket of her shirt. A moment later, she pulled out a thin paper bag filled with some kind of powder and gently shook it as she held it between her fingers. "This should do the trick."

"What's that?"

"A remedy that suppresses the effects of alcohol intoxication. Just mix with water or tea."

Kyouichi was both amazed and amused by this Moon rabbit. "Do you always carry medicine in your pockets Reisen-san? And such a specific medicine at that…"

"Not really, but this is a festival after all. I know all too well how things go at festivals. Having a good supply of this remedy is a must."

"That's very predictive of you."

"Not predictive; preventive. I already have some experience with festivals and excessive alcohol consumption that you people seem to be so fond of… Here, take it. Say hello to your friend for me when he recovers." said Reisen and passed Kyouichi the bag with the remedy.

"Thank you, Reisen-san."

"No problem." smiled the Moon rabbit.

"By the way, Reisen-san… Where's Eirin-sama?"

"She's still in Eientei, tending to the last few of her patients. She should be here to watch the tournament, though. You wanted to talk to her?"

Kyouichi profusely shook his head. "No, no, no… I just want to avoid her if possible."

"I already told you that you don't need to fear her."

"I'd rather not meet her anyway. I'm not in a mood for being interrogated."

After a longer silent pause, Reisen nodded. "I understand… But I can do little to help you avoid her. She's coming to the shrine in a few hours, so keep that in mind. Fortunately, it's easy to hide in this huge crowd, so you're not likely to run into her anyway."

"Yeah… Thank you again for the medicine in Soudai's name. Now excuse me, I'll go and see if it can actually help him even in his current condition."

"In that case, see you later, Ishimaru-san."

---

And after the young outsider bowed to Reisen, he hurried to the shrine with a remedy for his drunken friend.

"Soudai~! Oi, Asakura~!" he shouted at the sleeping young man just as he barged into the shrine.

"Why are you yelling like that?" Reimu scolded him right away.

"I've got a remedy for him and I need him to drink it."

"Where'd you get a remedy?" asked Marisa who was standing at the table and mixing the dough for the dumplings in a big bowl.

"I met a rabbit from Eientei."

"Reisen?"

"Yup. She really got me when she pulled this out of nowhere." Kyouichi showed her the bag with the drug. "Could I ask you for another glass of water, Reimu?"

"Sure. It's up in that cupboard. And… you already know where the well is." the miko lazily directed him from her comfortable sitting position at her kotatsu.

As Kyouichi fetched the glass from the cupboard, Reimu yawned and looked again into her tournament chart. "Since Reisen is already here, I guess I should write her in… Has anyone seen my brush?"

"I haven't…" Marisa replied negatively.

"Somehow I doubt that you'd say otherwise even if you knew where it was." Reimu jokingly poked at her.

"I didn't steal it." the witch steadfastly insisted. "Maybe Akyuu confused it with her own and took it."

"Akyuu-chan, huh? Well, if it's her then I don't mind it… that much…"

"By the way, Reimu… How long are you going to stay under that kotatsu? If you're so worried about me messing up the dumplings, you should lend me a hand."

"What could you possibly mess up at making dango? Seriously… You'd have to be Cirno to ruin it now."

"Was that supposed to mean that you're not going to help me at all?" asked the blonde.

"You did everything just as I told you so far, right?"

Marisa nodded twice.

"And you used no other extra ingredients than the ones I told you to?"

Again the magician nodded repeatedly while staring at her best friend.

Reimu blinked in slight confusion. "Wait, was that a "yes, I did use extra ingredients" or a "yes, I didn't"?"

"The latter. I used only what you told me to."

"Than the dumplings should be just fine. All you have to do now is to shape the dough into dumplings, boil them, skewer them and add topping. How hard can that be?"

"But there's a ton of this dough! It'll take me long before I shape it into balls... Or perhaps I should make one huge dango and throw it into boiling water as it is…" the witch speculated.

"Just do it how it's supposed to be done. You don't have anything else to do right now anyway."

"Well, if you're not going to help, that surely means I can eat all these dumplings myself."

"If you're in a mood for making another batch afterwards, fine by me…" muttered the tired shrine maiden and stretched herself on the floor with two thirds of her body hidden under her kotatsu.

"Tsch… Is she trying to teach me how to cook by letting me do everything by myself?" grumbled Marisa quietly as she began the chore of shaping the huge mass of dough into small ball-shaped dumplings.

"I'm back…" Kyouichi announced his return, holding a glass filled with fresh water from the well. "Now to see if this magic powder can work its magic on this human wreck here…" he beckoned at the sleeping Soudai, who in response, mumbled something incomprehensible out of his sleep.

"Hey, don't worry, Asakura, I only meant that as a joke." said Soudai's friend and tore open the bag of medicine which he received from Reisen. He then emptied the content of the bag into the glass of water and watched the fizzy reaction that it made.

"I hope it's not one of those shady medicines with some radical side effect like that cold medicine you gave me back then." he addressed his words to the relaxing shrine maiden.

Reimu, however, completely ignored his teasing remarks and was just rolling over to the side.

"Oi, Reimu… Are you sleeping or what?"

"Ah~! There it is!" she suddenly exclaimed and opened her eyes wide.

"What is where?" Kyouichi asked in confusion.

"My brush! I dropped it over there, near the door." she pointed her finger near the rear entrance of the shrine. "Somehow, I doubt that Akyuu-chan would confuse my brush with hers, since she remembers everything perfectly… Could you pass it to me, Kyouichi?"

"Sure… Just say the magic word." the outsider smiled nicely at her.

Reimu blinked a few times, trying to figure what he meant by that. "Umm… Spirit Sign "Fantasy…"

"No, no, no…" he quickly interrupted her before she said the name of her favorite Spell Card. "The OTHER magic word."

"Then… Dream Sign "Evil-Sealing Circle"?" Reimu named another of her Spell Cards.

Kyouichi sighed resignedly. "You know what? That's close enough… Here you go." he amusedly smiled as he passed her the brush.

"Ah, thanks… Now what was I supposed to do again?" she paused for a moment to search her brain for the memory of what she intended to use the brush for in the first place. "Ah, that's right~! I wanted to add Reisen's name into the list…" she rolled over to her stomach, grabbed her chart and the brush, ready to write Reisen into it, when suddenly… "Does anyone know where have I put my ink flask?"

"She's hopeless today…" muttered Marisa from the table. "Maybe Yukari stole it from under your nose just to spite you!" she called a humorous remark at her.

"I wish you were right, Marisa…" sighed the miko and finally forced herself to abandon the comfort of her kotatsu and stand up on her feet. Even though she knew that Marisa was only joking, Reimu would feel much more at ease if she had known that Yukari has not completely abandoned Gensokyo after all. However, the reality spoke to the contrary now, and Reimu had no other choice but to silently deal with it.

"Now I see it. It's over there in the corner. How silly of me to leave it there…"

"If you'll be absent-minded like that for the whole day, I'm not sure if it's a good idea for you to participate in that tournament after all…" Kyouichi expressed his concern.

"I'm not absent-minded, I'm just…"

"Oh, yes you are." he didn't let her finish. "I bet you don't even remember what's today's date."

"Of course, I do… it's… wait a second… one, two, three… Oh, nice try there, Kyouichi. Everyone knows that it's Tanabata!"

"I was asking about the date, though, not the name of the holiday."

After another moment of brief hesitation Reimu exclaimed: "The seventh of Fuzuki! Do you take me for an idiot or what?!"

"No, I just feel like something's bothering you and without you telling me what it is, there's nothing I can do or say to help."

"Then resolve the fairy incident for me, will you?" she teasingly asked him. "What? You still here? I thought you wanted to help…"

Kyouichi realized that this conversation is not going anywhere and definitely resigned his attempts to help Reimu snap out of her bad mood. "O-kay, forget I said anything…"

Instead, he now shifted his attention on giving Soudai the alcohol remedy.

"She's just tired after patrolling the northeastern part of Gensokyo to make sure that the fairies aren't massing for another attack." Marisa entered the conversation, explaining the behavior of her closest friend to the outsider.

"You were patrolling?" Kyouichi raised his brow as he glanced once more at the shrine maiden. "That must have been exhausting."

"Less exhausting than having to stand against half a million fairies in a battle to the death." replied the last living Hakurei in Gensokyo.

"I was surprised too when she told me." admitted the blonde witch. "But, when I think about it, Reimu's always restless when there's an incident."

"And this one is taking me the longest time to resolve." Reimu added with a lowered voice.

"You're wrong, Reimu." Marisa corrected her. "The one with the long-lasting winter took you over two months. And the one with the weakened border between Gensokyo and the Netherworld still remains unresolved for over six years!"

"Now you make it sound like I'm incompetent or something." grumbled the displeased shrine maiden.

"Not at all, Reimu. All I'm trying to say is that some incidents can't be solved in a single day. Some can't be solved by a single person. And finally, some incidents, even resolve themselves."

"What kind of nonsense are you talking about now, Marisa?"

"Just hinting at the facts… We haven't seen a single crazed fairy ever since that day when the forest fires broke out. Maybe that was it for the whole incident, however anticlimactic it sounds… Maybe the culprit was one of those many fairies and we got her in that battle."

"Have you eaten some of those weird mushrooms that grow in your forest again?" Reimu asked her as she tapped her finger at her own head. "Just because there hasn't been any attack in a while, doesn't mean the incident is over. On the contrary, I think it's just the quiet before the storm. Bigger storm than we've seen a week ago. That's why I decided to make regular patrols to prevent another large-scale attack. I don't want my shrine to be burned down like Alice's house."

"In that case, you should probably ask some of the girls to make regular patrols as well. Just as a precaution until Eirin and Patchy learn more about the nature of this incident." advised Marisa.

"I already told Aya and she was all hyped up about it as usual."

"So you told her about it before you informed me?" Marisa was a bit surprised by Reimu's answer.

"The tengu have better eyes than humans. That's why I told Aya first."

"Hey, I'm not going to lose to some tengu. You can count on me patrolling around Kazemura as well, ze… We'll keep the fairies in check if we don't give them any time to regroup."

"I'd rather be going right after the person responsible for this," admitted the shrine maiden, "but this is all we can do for now… Okay, let me roll some dumplings too."

"Oh, so you're going to help me after all? I had already given up hope…" jested Marisa.

---

Meanwhile, Kyouichi was trying to make Soudai drink the remedy. "Hey, wake up, Asakura. I've brought you some medicine."

As expected, Soudai was too smashed to react to mere words of his friend, so Kyouichi lightly slapped his cheek to bring him back to his senses.

"Mnunmf… What the hell d'ya want? Can't you see I'm meditating here?" sounded the hoarse voice of Soudai, who at least showed some reaction to the slaps on his cheek.

"Good, you're still alive." Kyouichi smiled at him wryly. "Here, I need you to drink this."

"Wha…? Is that you, club prez? Sorry, I haven't found any new info about *hic* Yakumo Yukari…"

Again, Kyouichi couldn't hold back and amused chuckle. "You got my identity right, but you're in the wrong timeline. We're no longer looking for her…"

"Eh? How long have I been hybernatin'?"

"Three or four hours maybe…"

"Hey… club prez… Where the hell am I? Eientei?"

"No. Hakurei Shrine. It's Tanabata festival, remember? Now come on and drink this already, I ain't got all day to waste on you…"

"Drink? Hell no! I've had enough sake!"

"It's not sake, you blockhead. This remedy should make you feel better. Or put you out of your misery…"

"I *hic* suppose it can't get much worse than this… Give it here…"

And as Soudai slowly forced the dissolved remedy down his throat, Kyouichi made sure that he drank everything in the glass.

"Well done, Soudai, your momma would be proud." he mockingly applauded. "Now, I'm not sure how long it will take for this thing to take effect, so you can return to what you were doing."

"Mhm…" murmured Soudai with a sleepy voice as he returned to his previous horizontal position.

Kyouichi waited for a while, but after seeing no change, he figured that the medicine needed some time to kick in, and decided to leave his friend alone for now.

"Hey, Ishimaru…" the drunken outsider uttered at him, just as he was about to exit the shrine.

"Hm? Did you say something?"

"Thanks, man…"

Kyouichi smirked lightly. "Hm… Just hurry up and recover while this festival still lasts. After that our fun times are over and it's just blood, sweat and tears from then on…"

By his last words, Kyouichi was merely referring to his and Soudai's new job, which as they both could guess, was not going to be easy. That's why enjoying this festive day to the fullest was one of the top priorities to these two humans from the outside world.

---

Not longer than fifteen minutes, Soudai sat up, and with sober senses, he scanned his surroundings. The interior of the room seemed vaguely familiar to him, as did the pair of a blonde witch and a black-haired shrine maiden who were rolling dumplings.

"Oh, looks like he's already awake." stated Marisa nonchalantly.

"Oh… my… god…" uttered the outsider as he was slowly beginning to recall how he ended up here.

"Nah, you can simply call me Marisa." joked the blonde witch and with great amusement watched the expression of Soudai's confused face.

Soudai certainly felt better physically, but now he was starting to feel miserable in his heart.

"Damn! I sure got myself smashed… Where's that little horned one?"

"Suika? Somewhere outside…" shrugged Reimu. "But I think you better stay away from her for your own good."

"Don't have to tell me that again… And where did Ishimaru go?"

"I'm not his babysitter. Why don't you go look for him in that crowd outside?" the shrine maiden suggested bluntly. "More importantly, you should at least be a bit grateful for me letting you sleep here…"

"Ehh… Sure. Yes! Of course I'm grateful… uhh…" he paused in a desperate attempt to remember Reimu's name. "…Miss shrine maiden…"

"It's Hakurei Reimu. Try to remember it…" she poutingly re-introduced herself.

"Ah, yes, yes, I haven't forgotten your name, Hakurei-san, ehehe~… Sorry for causing you trouble."

"If you're really that sorry, you can make up for it by helping us roll these…"

But before Reimu finished her sentence, Soudai was already on his way out of the shrine and with words: "Please excuse me, I'll be going now…" he took his leave and wanted to reunite with his classmates and fellow club members from the outside world.

"That was one smooth escape he just made." giggled Marisa just as Soudai walked out through the door.

"Less talking and more rolling, Marisa."

"Yeah, yeah…"

---

Evening was slowly but certainly falling and Gensokyo was gradually being immersed into deeper dusk. Reimu lit the lamps inside her shrine before she resumed making dango with Marisa. They both still had a lot of work, having processed only about one half of the huge mass of dough. These dumplings were supposed to be for all of Reimu's guests, so she needed to make an appropriate amount. Marisa was already growing more tired and frustrated from the monotonous activity and so was the shrine's resident. They reluctantly glanced over at the remaining mass of dough in the bowl, and with heavy sighs, they kept making more dumplings, not caring much about their size or shape anymore. That's when they heard a knock on the door.

"Sorry to intrude~!" greeted a well known girl's voice as soon as the door opened. A short, silver-haired young female clad in green entered and bowed to the two girls she saw inside.

"Youmu~!" Marisa exclaimed and her face brightened up. "Man, am I glad to see you! Please, please, come right in!" she invited her, as if the shrine was her home. "We need some assistance here, you see…"

"Oh, hi there, Youmu." Reimu simply nodded, since bowing would require more energy.

"Oh? You're making dango? Sure, I'll help. Let me just put my swords down somewhere…"

And as Youmu was unstrapping her sword sheathes, Marisa began asking. "Where's Yuyuko?"

"Lady Yuyuko is just outside, taking a good look at the whole shrine yard. She's really excited and full of energy today… I'm having a tough time keeping up with her, so I thought I'd take a break here."

"I wonder what she's so excited about?" said the witch. "It's the same scenery as every year: tons of people and youkai, lots of flags, lanterns, wish trees, performers on the stage, food stalls everywhere…"

"Yes, THAT is probably her main reason." nodded the smiling half-ghost girl.

With a valuable reinforcement to the dango-making team, the remaining mass of dough was turned into neatly-shaped dumplings in no time.

"Wow, thanks a lot, Youmu!" Marisa appreciated the extra help. "Without your help, we'd be rolling these till midnight."

"Why didn't you start making them earlier then?" Youmu scratched her head.

"Ask her." the witch pointed a thumb at Reimu.

"I was busy with other things, okay?" the shrine maiden defended herself. "Come on, Marisa, let's put the first batch into the pot. We don't have much time before the tournament begins."

"Ah, yes, about the competition…" Youmu wanted to know a little bit more about it, since she wasn't there when Reimu explained the details. "Have all the contestants arrived yet?"

"Not sure." shrugged Reimu. "Maybe they're here and having fun outside like your mistress, or maybe they still haven't arrived. I hope for the former, though…"

"I think I saw Hijiri-san outside when we arrived here. But besides her, I didn't run into any familiar faces."

"Well, at least someone showed up."

Not long after Reimu said that, another person entered her shrine, not even bothering with such trivialities as knocking.

"Oh, there you are, Youmu~ ." called the sweet voice of Yuyuko Saigyouji, the ghostly princess of Netherworld. "I've been looking all over for you."

"Yuyuko-sama… I already told you that I was going to greet Reimu-san."

"When was that, I wonder~."

"Just the moment before we split up." the half-ghost replied with a smile.

"Okay… So now I can definitely write Yuyuko into the list as well…" the shrine maiden absentmindedly murmured to herself.

The pink-haired ghost girl suddenly widened her eyes and took a few whiffs of the air. "Oh my~. Are you girls cooking something~?"

"They're making dumplings." her loyal gardener explained tersely.

And after Yuyuko curiously peeked over Reimu's shoulder into the pot and at the pile of freshly rolled dumplings that were only waiting to be boiled, she couldn't help but to ask a very important question.

"It seems that you've made a lot of dango this year, Reimu-san… But aren't you going to make some for yourself as well?"

"As if they were all for you!" retorted the outraged shrine maiden.

"Oh, so is this the prize for winning in that tournament of yours~?"

"No."

The ghostly princess looked disappointedly at her. "Why not?"

"Because these dumplings are for ALL the guests. Besides, nobody but you would be interested to win such a prize."

"And… how many guests are you expecting?"

"If all the contestants arrive, that should be 26. Plus if that bunch of outsiders decides to stop by here again, that should be about 30 or more." Reimu made a rough calculation.

"All these dango… divided by 30?" Yuyuko grudgingly imagined how many dumplings would that make for one person and the result didn't please her at all.

"Luckily we thought ahead, right, Youmu~?" she sweetly addressed her multi-purpose servant.

"If you're referring to that big food basket, Yuyuko-sama, I've left it just outside the shrine next to the door… But haven't you eaten enough food from all those stalls that you visited?"

"I was only having a little taste…" Yuyuko smiled innocently.

"I'm not sure if ordering an extra large menu from each of the vendors could be considered "having a little taste"." remarked Youmu satirically.

"Wait…" Marisa halted the conversation. "So you're telling me you've only had one menu from each of the stalls? Are you on a diet, Yuyuko?"

"Not to worry, Marisa-san~. It's only early evening. I'll pay the stall vendors at least one more visit today."

"You must be a real celebrity for them."

"They are all very nice people~." acknowledged the ghost. "Mystia-san even let me have two portions for free… Then she said she had something urgent to do and disappeared somewhere. I wonder what business she had. She looked kind of nervous."

"Well, she better be there when the tournament begins, or I'm disqualifying her from all the categories." said Reimu while stirring the dango in the pot. "Have you prepared the toppings yet, Marisa?"

The witch was arriving just on time with large flat platters full of various toppings for dumplings. "Coming right up, ze!"

Soon, with Youmu's help, Reimu and Marisa finally finished their work.

"Phew…" the blonde witch wiped sweat off her forehead. "It's finally done."

"And just in time too…" added Reimu. "Fine… Everyone, follow me!" she commanded and headed for the door. Only one hour remained until the official beginning of the danmaku tournament and Reimu didn't even know if all of the contestants were here. She needed to make sure.

---

A band of actors dressed up in some fancy outfits, wearing youkai masks was just stepping down the stairs as they were leaving the stage after their act. Reimu figured that before she gives the signal to summon the contestants, she should at least go up there and announce the next performer. Looking into the program, she saw only one colon that remained before the main event.

"Wait here for a moment." she told the trio of girls as she hurried up to the stage.

"I wonder who's going to be up next~." sounded Yuyuko with her eyes anticipatively focused on the stage.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I apologize for my absence, but now that I've done everything that I should have, I can fully concentrate on hosting the festival properly. Coming up next is a group that needs no introduction. But in case you've been living under a rock, have just recently been released from the depths of Makai or recently spirited away into Gensokyo, that by some chance you DON'T know who I'm talking about, let me tell you~! The band that plays music that is able to touch your very soul. A group that can play any kind of music without sounding unoriginal. Lunasa, Lyrica and Merlin! I present you the Prismriver Ensemble~!"

A tremendous applause swept across the area near the shrine as everyone cheered for the arrival of the famous trio of poltergeist musicians.

The ghostly princess excitedly clapped her hands. "Oh look, Youmu, my favorite performers~!"

And shortly after Reimu's call, three figures ascended above the crowd and above the stage. As they floated towards the center of the stage, they performed a little air show, by flying in a symmetrical formation and spinning around one central focal point, all the while facing the same direction. And once they made it to the center and into the light of torches and lanterns, they became fully visible. One interesting thing about them was the fact that none of the girls were holding their instruments. Instead, they floated in front of them, similarly like Youmu's ghostly form always accompanied her physical one. On the left side of the stage stood the eldest of the sisters, Lunasa, the violinist. She had short blonde hair and was dressed in her typical black band uniform with white and red trim. Her hat, which was also part of the uniform, vaguely resembled Keine-sensei's in its shape and its color matched the uniform. Its tip was also adorned by a small red crescent moon decoration. Some people who saw her for the first time could confuse her with Rumia… The middle of the stage was occupied by the middle sister, Merlin, the trumpeter. The tallest of the girls had short light-blue hair and her band uniform was light pink with black and blue trim. Her pink hat sported a small blue sun-shaped decoration and her brass instrument was mysteriously hovering by her side. To some people she looked very similar to Remilia Scarlet… Finally, the right side of the stage belonged now to the youngest of the three, Lyrica, the keyboardist. Lyrica's hair had a very light shade of brown. So light, that from certain angles it looked as though she had white or silver hair instead. The band uniform which she was clad in was red with black and pink trim and her red hat held a green comet-shaped decoration attached to its tip. Her instrument was the most modern in the band. A floating winged keyboard with her initials written on it.

"Doesn't that remind you of something, Reimu?" Marisa asked her friend as she watched the band's descent to the stage.

"Yeah…" the shrine maiden tersely agreed. "Just like during the incident with missing spring. Except back then they were also littering the sky with their danmaku… Now that I think about it, that was the first time I met you two." she turned her face at Yuyuko and Youmu and smiled weakly.

"That's right~. They were invited to play at Hakugyokurou, but they never arrived. Instead, you showed up and did what you did…"

"Did you really expect that nobody would mind having winter all year round?" Reimu asked, still looking at the person responsible for the said incident. "What goes around comes around, as the saying goes…"

"Oh, I think you're misunderstanding me, Reimu-san… I already told you several times that I'm glad you showed up and stopped me from doing something… unwise. It's funny how life can turn things around, isn't it? Because of my curiosity and forgetfulness, I planned on doing something very foolish, unaware of the possible outcome. In order to achieve that, I needed the essence of spring, but I couldn't get enough of it in the Netherworld. Then I asked Yukari to weaken one boundary for me and she did exactly that... It turned out that the very means to my goal turned out to be the biggest flaw in my plan, as it allowed a living trespasser to enter the world of those who are dead. But a flaw in an already flawed plan is actually a fortunate occurrence. One that I wasn't aware of until I was formally defeated. Of course, then I remembered a lot of things and so, I'm actually grateful for you daring to stop me back then. Thank you, Reimu-san~ ." the cheerful and whimsical Yuyuko then took Reimu into a sweet embrace, simply because she felt it would be a fun thing to do.

"Kyaah~! Hey! What are you doing?!" asked the surprised shrine maiden as she unexpectedly found herself in Yuyuko's grip. But even though her words sounded like a protest, her body didn't put up much of a resistance. That was because this situation reminded Reimu of someone close to her. She remembered this kind of surprise hug from behind and couldn't hold back a smile as she recollected the memory.

"Have we come here to reminisce about past incidents?" asked the ordinary magician. "How about we just enjoyed the show?"

"That's right~!" agreed the pink-haired princess as she released Reimu. "But I wonder who made the request to invite the Prismriver sisters here?"

Reimu looked at her with crossed arms. "What do you mean "who"? How many hosts do you think this festival has?"

"But they usually play at youkai parties and accept invitations from humans rather rarely." argued Yuyuko.

"That's because not all humans take the experience from hearing their music too well." Youmu complemented the information.

It seemed that this bit of information was unknown to even the host of the festival. "Really? I didn't feel bad when I was listening to some of their songs."

"Well, I've invited them countless times to perform for me." said the ghost. "And they told me that the tones they play are not real, but simply phantoms of sounds. That's why they are not perceived by ears, but by the soul. However, Lyrica-san's keyboard is different. You can perceive its sounds with your ears… I recall them saying that some human listeners experienced states of depression and melancholy during their live performances, while others were said to display signs of hyperactivity similar to getting drunk. They said that their music should not be listened to by children and those with faint hearts."

"Oh…" uttered the shrine maiden with a strange feeling of guilt building up inside her. She certainly didn't want to endanger the human portion of the shrine visitors by subjecting them to this kind of music. "Maybe I should have given a warning about that…"

"I'm sure most of the people here are grown up and healthy enough to listen." Marisa tried to ease up the tension.

"And what about Akyuu-chan?"

"Well, technically, Akyuu-chan's spirit is over a thousand years old, so she should be just fine, ze."

"Oh… You're right." Reimu nodded affirmatively and exhaled with slight relief.

And once the audience was getting tired of cheering and clapping, the three poltergeists began their intro.

"Good evening, everyone." the eldest sister greeted politely with her mellow voice. "It is a great pleasure to be performing for such a large audience. Since the festival's tournament is going to take place on this stage in an hour, we decided to compensate for this by playing the second half of the concert after the competition. Tonight we will also play a few new songs featuring a popular vocalist, Lorelei Mystia-san."

The crowd went wild again as Lunasa made this announcement. It would be for the first time that the Prismrivers performed with someone else and everyone was filled with anticipation. However, for now, the trio of phantoms proceeded to play their songs without any vocal support, just as they had it written in their schedule.

"Let's start with the concert, shall we?" sounded the voice of Lunasa and her floating violin suddenly played a short melody.

"I am Lunasa Prismriver, the leader of this ensemble. My violin can outclass even the famous Stradivarius in terms of sound quality. Please enjoy its melody."

Yuyuko spread open her paper fan and covered her soft giggle with it. "And they always say these kind of lines before each of their live performances~."

"Makes you wonder if there's any truth to those lines." remarked the down-to-earth half-ghost.

"Well, it's true that I have no idea how would a Stradivarius violin sound like in the first place…" the Netherworld's princess admitted and returned her attention to the stage.

Next, the audience could feel the resonance emitted by the floating trumpet belonging to Merlin. After playing a few tones it went silent again, allowing its owner to say a few words as well.

"Greetings! I'm Merlin, and like my big sister said before me, I'm very excited about playing for a big crowd like this. Hope you'll enjoy the sounds of my trumpet, despite it being the phantom of a fearsome instrument that has taken the blood of many jazz trumpeters in the past." she added with an uncanny smile.

The crowd responded with another wave of applause, some of her fans even called out her name repeatedly.

"And finally…" sounded the shortest and the youngest of the band and her instrument played a short melody made of some very unique sounds. "I, Lyrica, will play my keyboard, a phantom of an instrument owned by once a famous artist who created new sounds that were too peculiar, so the keyboard never sold and fell into obscurity. I hope that won't be the case when I start playing it, though, hehehe~!"

"Let's prepare the atmosphere for the danmaku tournament and set the mood just right." spoke the band leader again. "Here we go…"

Despite being a solely instrumental band, the popularity of the Prismriver Ensemble was unrivaled in all of Gensokyo. Even those who saw their performance for the first time in their lives quickly understood why. It was the feelings that their music brought. A well balanced blend of calm, but passionate melody from the violin accompanied by the dynamic and fresh tones of the phantom trumpet, completed by the catchy rhythm of unique sounds played by Lyrica's keyboard… All of these things worked together to make the audience get the feeling of overwhelming awe. The feeling could be perhaps compared to a sudden takeoff into the sky during a thunderstorm, then falling full-speed down into a raging ocean and immediately ascending again. Truly an experience to remember, not just for the first-timers.

---

After the first song ended, Reimu snapped out of this trance-like feeling and realized that she wanted to summon the contestants. She launched a signal into the sky that for a moment got everyone's attention. Some spectators even mistook it for ambient effects for the concert of the Prismriver Ensemble and began cheering for the trio even louder.

"Now this will be fun…" muttered Marisa to her best friend. "…if nobody will show up when the tournament begins."

"That won't be fun. That will be a fiasco." Reimu corrected the statement.

"Then the four of us would need to have several rematches." Marisa kept joking around even despite Reimu's frown.

Fortunately, the shrine maiden's signal was well interpreted after all and some of the tournament participants began gathering.

"Is there something wrong?" asked Remilia as she arrived to the designated spot. "Why have you called us here so early?"

"Because I need to see if everyone who signed up for the tournament is actually here."

"Oh, I see…" the vampire understood Reimu's reason for concern and turned around, urging someone to hurry. "Come on, Patchy, Reimu needs to see us all…"

"So she's finally here." the shrine maiden commented the arrival of the youkai sorceress.

Marisa's reaction was slightly more cheerful, if not a bit exaggerated. "Patchy~! Come here, you…!"

"Yaah… Marisa…" the short girl struggled for air. "Let go of me."

"Yes, let go of her." Alice's voice from behind Marisa's back seconded Patchouli's request.

"Alice-chan~!" Marisa threw her arms around the puppeteer instead. "Good to see you again…"

"Hey… We've been away from each other for only a few hours, you know."

"Maybe it's Marisa's tactic to soften some of the girls up, so that she'd have the advantage in the tournament." Remilia made a humorous speculation. "Too bad that won't work on everyone, eh?"

"What is it Reimu~?" Suika came running to the stage with a curious look. "Is it time for another round for everyone?"

"It seems she has already forgotten that she actually signed up for this contest too." Remilia giggled at the oni's question.

"Good evening to you all." came a greeting from a more mature-sounding voice. Byakuren Hijiri has just found her way to the stage, followed by some of her loyal youkai companions.

"Ah, hello, Byakuren… and company." Reimu greeted everyone and ticked off their names on the list she was holding. "So there we have, Shou, Minamitsu, Ichirin and Nue… What about that mouse?"

"Nazrin's with us too, but she decided not to compete." the youkai monk explained briefly.

"I see… Well… what about the others?" she asked and took a careful look everywhere around.

"Boo!" a sudden call spooked the surprised shrine maiden into jumping. "I surprised you, didn't I?"

"Don't… do that… again… Kogasa." Reimu threateningly glanced over at the youkai umbrella, and with slightly unsteady hand, she ticked off her name in the list.

"Hehe~! I'm not hungry anymore…" said the smiling teal-haired girl with dichromatic eyes.

"Being hungry is truly one of the worst feelings in the world…" declared Yuyuko and turned her attention to the basket of food that was resting near the back entrance of the shrine.

"Resist the urge, Yuyuko-sama." Youmu tried to tame her whim. "You're not really hungry, you know…"

"Sorry if I arrived a bit late…" another voice could be heard nearing the group. "And good evening to you all…"

"Oh, Kamishirasawa-san. Good evening." Reimu raised her head and bowed to the teacher, despite the fact that she never attended her school. Everything that she knew, she learned from her parents and from life itself. That, however, didn't change the fact that she respected Keine and her job. "You're not late, but I need to make sure that everyone who signed up for the tournament is actually here."

"Is that so~?" sounded a childish voice coming from somewhere left of Reimu's position.

Rumia, the little youkai of darkness appeared almost as suddenly as Kogasa. Why was she even here boggled everyone's mind. She was standing there with her hands spread wide, wearing a happy smile.

"What do you think you're doing here?" Reimu couldn't believe her eyes. "You're not welcome here."

"What do you think she is doing here, you IDIOT~?!" another childish voice, belonging to none other than Cirno, the ice fairy shouted daringly at the surprised shrine maiden. "She came to sign up, of course!"

"Yes, Rumi-chan is our friend." declared the just-arriving night sparrow, Mystia. "Why shouldn't she compete when we can, huh?"

"Shut up!" Reimu rudely silenced both of them before turning her angry gaze at Rumia. "So… first you go hunting for humans right here at my shrine and then you just nonchalantly come here, as if nothing happened?"

"But I'm not hungry today…" the little red-eyed blonde defended herself.

"That's not the issue here! You crossed the line and right now, I'm using all of my willpower to keep myself from exterminating you on spot!"

"But the human ran away…" Rumia tried to make herself sound less guilty.

"Only after he fought for his life to shake you off."

"I don't understand…" the puzzled darkness youkai scratched her head. "I was only told that I shouldn't eat humans from the village even if I defeated them in Spell Card duel… But that one was not from the village. Smelled differently… No Spell Cards… Weak and tasty… Just like the ones I always used to feed on…"

Reimu wasn't as much displeased by Rumia's mass murder confession, as the fact that Rumia made her shrine yard her new hunting spot. It was like the worst kind of insult for the shrine maiden. "If I ever catch you hunting near this shrine, I'll tie you to a tree and make you eat Marisa's tamagoyaki for a whole month!"

This rather… unconventional threat elicited uncontrolled laughter from some of the girls who were watching the scene, while a certain ordinary magician pouted in response.

After a while, Marisa cleared her throat and decided to resolve this situation peacefully, which was quite unusual for her. "Hey, Reimu… Why don't we let this cannon fodder sign up too? I mean… she'll get beaten up anyway. Either way she'll get what she asked for."

"Hmm…" the red-white couldn't really argue with Marisa's idea. It took her a good while of hesitation, but in the end, she gave in to her friend's advice. "Very well…" she snorted as she picked up her list and a writing brush, as if she couldn't believe that she was doing this… She wrote Rumia into the list of contestants. "You're lucky that the number of our contestants is odd and that we need to make it even. You're in the tournament now… Hope you're ready." she leaned over Rumia's not too tall figure and grinned almost wickedly.

Rumia, however, despite being just a child by youkai standards, didn't have a very long list of things that she feared and the shrine maiden's current facial expression was not on that list.

"Yaaay~!" she again cheerfully spread her arms wide, like some sort of victory pose and put on her typical childish cutesy smile.

"Yaaaaay~!" her fairy and night-sparrow friends joined the cheering.

"What's all this commotion about?" an unexpected male voice diverted everyone's attention.

Kyouichi Ishimaru, a human outsider arrived to the scene, lured by Reimu's signal danmaku.

"Oh… uh… hello, everyone…" he bashfully greeted the gathered contestants. "Sorry to bother… I just saw your signal and wondered if you didn't make any sudden changes to the program." he explained to Reimu. "I know that you no longer need volunteers, but I just got curious, you see…"

In the meantime, the three young youkai girls took this momentary situation to their advantage, and with hushed giggles they disappeared somewhere in the crowd.

Reimu sighed and gave him a short briefing of the situation.

"Ah, so that's how it is… Thank goodness, I was worried that you'd change the program or something... Again, I'm sorry that I interrupted you all so rudely. I'll be on my way…"

"Hey, nobody's forcing you to leave." Reimu halted him. "You can stay here and watch if you like. Though there's nothing interesting going on here yet. Like I said, the tournament starts in an hour."

"What do you mean, nothing interesting is going on now?" Marisa threw a question at her. "We've just had a very dramatic exchange of opinions here just a moment ago, and with a dramatic music played by the Prismriver sisters in the background… We have a live musical here, ze!"

Kyouichi quickly shifted his eyes to Marisa, then back to Reimu. "Are you two arguing about something again?"

"No. Just making the final arrangements before the tournament."

"Okay… I'll just… step aside and let you mind your business then."

"Good. So, where was I?" the distracted shrine maiden again skimmed through her list. "Hmm, I thought Aya would be here… I wonder where that tengu ran off to…"

"Ehrm…" Aya cleared her throat and waved her hand to make herself more easily noticeable. "I was here this whole time, Reimu. Open your eyes."

"Oh, there you are… Well… that still leaves us with the Eientei bunch and the Komeijis…"

"So… is Eirin-san on that list as well?" asked the outsider cautiously.

"That's right." Reimu nodded. "Hope I won't have to cross her out of this competition and find a substitute…"

"How about you gave the summoning signal once again? Maybe she's here and just mistook it for ordinary fireworks." Marisa gave her an advice.

Once Kyouichi's worries were confirmed, he decided to distance himself away from Reimu and watch the whole situation from a safer spot, where he easily blended with the other shrine visitors.

"Oi, where are you going?" Marisa called after him.

He didn't respond and kept heading his way until he was in a safe distance from the gathered group. Then he saw Reimu pointing to the sky again and launching another bright-red orb that scattered shining amulets as it exploded above the shrine's roof. Soon after that, from the other side of the shrine, shadows of three figures could be seen making a slow flight over to the back yard.

"Oh, I think I can see someone coming." said the blonde witch. "Over here~!" she shouted at the three shrouded figures to navigate them. As they were beginning to descend, Kyouichi clearly made out the image of Reisen, Eirin and even the mistress of Eientei herself – Kaguya. As Reimu greeted them and gave them a short explanation of what she summoned them for, Kyouichi felt someone pulling on his hakama.

---

"What the hell?!" he quickly turned his face to the source of this sensation and saw a short black-haired youkai rabbit. "Oh… Tewi! How nice to see you again."

"Still trying to stay out of Eirin's sight, I see." she giggled through her palm. "And I see that my good luck enchantment worked if you've made it through the forest."

"Yes, I… Thank you very much for that. And yes, I think I better not cross paths with Eirin if I know what's good for me. But… wait… shouldn't you hurry and show yourself to Reimu if you want to compete?"

"I haven't come to take part in the tournament." Tewi shook her head. "I'm just here to watch and have fun."

"Do Reisen and Eirin know that you're here?"

"Of course they know. I was the one who urged them to hurry up and get going. Once I managed to convince the princess, the other two were much easier to convince."

"So are there still some patients left in Eientei?" asked the curious outsider.

"A few, yes. No serious cases, though. They don't require Eirin's nonstop attention and care. Even a doctor needs to take a break from her work sometimes…"

"Gotta agree with that… By the way, do you know anything about Eirin's research progress regarding the insane fairies?"

Tewi looked puzzled and slightly embarrassed, since she couldn't give an answer. "Sorry, I haven't really been paying much attention to what exactly she was working on… You'd have to ask her yourself, which I'm guessing you're not going to."

"On second thought, this information is not THAT much relevant to me. Just thought I'd ask since you're already here…"

"Well, I could ask Eirin about that in your stead." the Earth rabbit offered kindly. "But as I know the shrine maiden, she's surely asking her the very same question right now."

Though it was hard to tell what were Reimu and Eirin discussing right now, they both looked like they had a lot to tell to each other.

Kyouichi smiled lightly and nodded. "I guess so… You're a very smart girl, Tewi." he gave her a soft pat on the head.

Tewi closed her eyes for a moment and enjoyed the pleasant caress, but then she suddenly pointed forward. "Oh, look… Looks like the princess and the doctor are going somewhere."

And indeed, it seemed that way. Kaguya was waving at Eirin to get a move on, while Eirin was lightly bowing to Reimu, and taking her leave. Reisen then asked Reimu something, and as she got the answer, she nodded and followed her superiors into the crowd.

"Kaguya-sama wanted to see the concert of the Prismriver sisters at least once, so she probably wants to get to the stage as close as possible now." Tewi commented the situation.

"I see…" said the outsider and looked at the stage. The three poltergeists were just finishing up their second song.

"Well, even after hearing only one and a half song from them, I have to say they are amazing."

"The music can make you feel really weird sometimes, though, so make sure you're always perfectly healthy and in good mental condition before you decide to listen to their performance." advised the little youkai rabbit. "They haven't been in Gensokyo for too long, but somehow they ended up being the most popular band. I've been near their mansion a few times, but never had the guts to actually go in and pay them a visit."

"So you say there is another mansion besides the Scarlet Devil Mansion?"

"Yes, and not too far away from it, actually. You can find it just a bit to the southwest of the Misty Lake. If you go from here, through the Forest of Magic and take the old path to the northwest, you may come across it just before you leave the forest. Like the vampire's manor, their house was also spirited away from the outside world. Although the Poltergeist Mansion was here a bit sooner… It's a bit tricky to find, since it's mostly surrounded by dense forest, but you can often hear the sisters practicing. That's why if you hear the sounds of a violin a trumpet and other strange tones, and have an eerie feeling while walking in the middle of a forest, you know that you're near their house."

"That's sounds quite creepy." remarked Kyouichi. "But how did their house appear in Gensokyo in the first place?"

"I don't know that. Better ask either the sisters personally, or someone who knows Gensokyo's history a bit better than I."

"I doubt they'd let just anyone come to them and interview them after the concert, so I guess I'll just have to ask Akyuu…"

And just as Kyouichi was contemplating about the possibility of transporting entire buildings into a sealed off magical world, he heard his name being called.

After a few turns of his head, he noticed a waving arm sticking above the heads of other spectators, and a second later, several outsiders stepped out of the crowd and walked up to him. Leading the group was none other than Kyouichi's good old companion, Soudai.

"There you are, Ishimaru." Soudai pointed a finger at him. "Where did you run off to? And… hey… I've seen you somewhere." he shifted his extended index finger to Tewi.

"This is Tewi."

"That's the one who took your suspicious potion?" he gave the rabbit a mistrustful glance.

"And the one who helped us run from Eientei, let's not forget…" Kyouichi said in her defense.

"Oh…" Soudai paused himself in thought, recalling the reason he and Kyouichi ran from the House of Eternity. "Okay… Uhh… We appreciate your help, but… you've caused us some trouble too…"

"A lot of people tell me that." replied the innocently smiling Earth rabbit.

"By the way, why did you disappear on us all of a sudden, Ishimaru? I thought you wanted to see this concert."

"But I can also see it from here." he pointed out and gestured towards the stage, which was pretty well visible even from this place. "I only got curious why Reimu fired her signal just a while ago?"

"Why would you care? She already said that she doesn't need any volunteers."

"I know, but I was curious anyway…" Kyouichi explained his actions. "It looks like she only needs to make sure that all of the contestants are here, and by the looks of it, it seems that almost all of them have already arrived." he pointed at the group of girls standing near the shrine.

"Oh…" the older outsider opened his eyes wide as he observed the group with great interest.

"Hey, guys…" the foreigner, Daniel broke the short silence. "Is it just me or is that music making you feel like standing naked in a freezer?"

"You're not the only one…" Midori agreeingly nodded and rubbed her hands against her arms in an attempt to make herself feel warmer.

Kyouichi chuckled at his friends' reactions, because he felt exactly the same way now. "Takes a while getting used to, but I think I just have a new favorite band."

"You won't hear THAT kind of music on MTV…" said the pale-haired outsider.

"Or on any other channels and radio stations…" added Soudai. "But about those contestants… They really are ALL girls. All of them."

"Yup."

"Strange…"

"What's the matter, Soudai?" Kyouichi asked teasingly. "Don't you like girls?"

"That's not what I meant… I'm just surprised… Pleasantly surprised, that is…"

"Look, even Byakuren-sama is going to take part in it." Kyouichi pointed at the well known female youkai Buddhist monk. "And that beautiful girl over there… is Yuyuko-sama."

"Where?" Soudai sharpened his senses and focused his sight in the direction where Kyouichi's finger was pointing.

"Wait... Yuyuko-sama? But she's a…"

"A ghost, yes. But she's very, very nice and sweet, so no worries."

"Dude! Didn't we learn about her on Gensokyo's History at school?"

"That's right." Kyouichi positively replied to Soudai's question. "I was even more surprised than you are now when I first met her…"

"A real ghost… Then is it really true?"

"What do you mean, Asakura?"

"That she's the closest friend of Yakumo Yukari." Kyouichi's senior specified.

"Even if that is indeed true, regretfully, she probably won't be able to help us get any closer to finding the youkai than anyone else… Just forget about Yukari Yakumo. In three months we'll be out of here anyway. Reimu is the one we should look up to for this. She is our way home."

"And don't forget to thank her for letting you sleep in her shrine, you drunkard!" Midori scoldingly reminded him.

"Hmm… I guess I wouldn't want to leave a bad impression on Reimu-san. But she looks rather busy at the moment."

"No excuses, Soudai. Apologize properly, okay?" The female outsider braced her hands against his back and began pushing him forward towards the shrine maiden.

Kyouichi didn't want to miss a promisingly entertaining scene, so he followed them.

"Alright, alright, I'll go willingly; stop pushing me already!" Soudai tried to calm Midori's impatience. And once he was standing right there in front of the Hakurei shrine maiden herself, he began formulating his apology and words of gratitude.

"Yes, have you forgotten something in the shrine?" Reimu shot a questioning glance at him, but as she saw his other friends standing right behind him, she figured that was probably not the case.

"Maybe he wants another round." Suika giggled behind Reimu's back.

"No, Reimu-san… Uhh, sorry to interrupt your work, but… I've come to properly thank you and apologize for the trouble I've caused. Is there any way I could repay you?"

"Sure, go and make a prayer. And don't forget to throw some money into the box."

"Actually, we already did that." Kyouichi replied before Soudai.

"Have you?" Reimu's brown eyes brightened up a little. "Perhaps I should really check that donation box and make a withdrawal… But since you already prayed here, I guess that's all I want form you… for now."

"R-really?" Soudai blinked incredulously.

"Yeah, just try to stay away from this one here if you can." she stepped aside to fully reveal Suika. "If there's an opportunity for her to get everyone around her drunk, she'll take it. And don't ever think of accepting any of her challenges. Most importantly, don't make bets with her."

"O-kay… I'll keep that in mind."

"You can stay here with us if you want." Reimu continued, this time addressing the whole group of outsiders. "There's still a few contestants that haven't shown up yet, so it's not like you're interrupting anything. We're all just waiting here anyway."

"Well, if you don't mind us here, I'd really like to sit down for a while. My feet are killing me." said Midori and seated herself on the shrine's raised floor. Not long after that, she was already getting herself acquainted with some of the youkai girls.

"Wow… I've never seen so many youkai before." Soudai pointed out as soon as he took a good look at every tournament participant.

Kyouichi silently agreed with his friend's statement, as this was his first time he has seen such a large gathering of Gensokyo's residents. Since he was always a bit shy about talking to strangers, he took a seat next to someone he has known at least a little bit.

---

"Good evening, Youmu-san. Mind if I sit here for a while?"

The shorter half-phantom girl graced him with a pleasant smile and moved aside by a slight bit. "Not at all. Please, go ahead."

"Well if it isn't Ishimaru-san." Yuyuko sitting next to Youmu peeked out. "Good evening~."

The outsider was overjoyed by the fact that she even remembered his name. "Good evening to you as well, Yuyuko-sama."

"How do you like the festival so far?" the pink-haired ghostly beauty asked him.

"I really liked every part of it… The Prismriver Ensemble is great, isn't it?"

"That's right~. They are my favorite band as well. I invite them to play a private performance for me at least twice every year."

"I heard they come from the outside world."

"Yes, their house was moved to Gensokyo, just like Remilia-san's mansion."

"Was that by any chance Yukari's doing?"

"Yukarin? Well, the truth is, not even I know exactly…" sighed the Netherworld's princess. "She's not responsible for every spiriting away to Gensokyo, you know."

"I know. That's why I asked."

"But that isn't even of any importance, is it, Kyouichi-san? The important thing is that they are here now and playing for our enjoyment. I love their songs so much~."

"I wonder if they have a fan club or something." Kyouichi made a non-serious remark.

"Of course they do~." Yuyuko surprised him with her answer. "Several fan clubs even… The sisters sometimes make solo performances, and thus, there's a fan club of each of the Prismrivers."

"And there I thought I was being funny for a while." Kyouichi chuckled upon hearing this interesting piece of information. "Maybe I should join the fanclub then… But I already am in one club and it's not easy, let me tell you. Though if they sell one of them black t-shirts with band-name imprints, I'd buy one. I'd definitely buy one…"

Yuyuko put on a very curious expression and tapped Youmu's shoulder. "Umm… Youmu… Do you know what a t-shirt is?"

"It's probably something that is usually worn in the outer world, I believe."

Yuyuko's reaction stimulated Kyouichi to laugh again. "Oh, sorry, Yuyuko-sama, I'm just rambling as usual. But… I have to give Youmu-san some credit for her knowledge. She's right."

"Youmu goes out more often than I do, so she knows a lot of interesting things." Yuyuko smiled and praisingly patted Youmu's silver hair.

The half-ghost threw a sidelong glance at her mistress. "Umm… Yuyuko-sama? I know that information from one of your conversations with Yukari-sama…"

"Is that right~? I must have forgotten about it~. Maybe they sell some of those in Kourindou, yes?"

"Even I had one on me when I got here." recalled the outsider. "Unfortunately, it got shredded by danmaku and combined forces of friction and gravity."

"What a pity…"

Kyouichi sighed as he remembered his first day in Gensokyo. "It must be really nice there… In the Netherworld. You probably don't have to deal with crazy fairies there…"

Yuyuko leaned over Youmu's shoulder so she could look into Kyouichi's face and smiled as warmly as only she knew. "You'll surely see it, Kyouichi-san~. If you're that curious, I could arrange that even now."

"Y-Yuyuko-sama?" Youmu looked at her with a shocked look in her eyes. "Please don't abuse your power on poor outsiders. He's still young and has his whole life ahead of him…"

Even Kyouichi now figured out the meaning of Yuyuko's offer and shuddered at the mere thought. As a princess of the Netherworld, and even before she attained that status, Saigyouji Yuyuko was known for her unusual power. A very dangerous power, in fact. It was the power to invite any living mortal beings to their death. If using this power was Yuyuko's idea of giving Kyouichi a tour of the Netherworld, he certainly didn't feel like nodding to it.

"Don't be silly, Youmu~." the ghost reassuringly smiled at her servant. "I was merely referring to the fact that Netherworld is in fact accessible even to the living."

"Oh…" Youmu uttered as Yuyuko cleared up a misunderstanding.

"While I'm glad that you don't want to kill me here and now, I think I'd rather stay right here."

"Well, at the moment, I believe this place is somewhat livelier than my garden…" Yuyuko nodded in acknowledgement. "But it's a nice place. So calm, yet so bustling… And no, we have no crazy fairies there, unfortunately~."

"Why unfortunately, Yuyuko-sama?" Youmu scratched her head in puzzlement. "Be glad that we don't have them."

"I'm saying so because if we had that kind of fairies in the Netherworld, you wouldn't cut down so many ghosts with that sword of yours and you'd be busy keeping the fairies away instead."

Striking at Youmu's sensitive strings in a teasing way was one of Yuyuko's favorite hobbies, and reminding her servant of her bad habits was one way to achieve an insecure expression on the half-ghost's face.

"Like I said, Yuyuko-sama." spoke the silver haired girl in response. "Be glad we don't have to put up with such annoyances."

"It's still a sad thing what happened to Alice-san, isn't it?" remarked Yuyuko, slightly changing the subject.

"It's really a shame…" Youmu agreed with her mistress for a change. "Though the fairy incident does not concern us directly, we better keep a closer look on the development of the situation."

"Are you sure you're not just looking for an excuse for visiting Gensokyo more often so you could avoid tending the gardens and listening to my musings~?"

"No, Yuyuko-sama." Youmu's voice reflected the seriousness of her expression. "I'm talking about both of us. We should come here more often than just during festive days. At least until the incident gets resolved… And if need be, I'm willing to aid Reimu and others in its resolution."

"Oh my~. Such dedication. Do you owe Reimu a favor or something?" the whimsical princess continued in her teasing attempt, but Youmu was prepared with a counter-response as sharp and true as her blades.

"Yuyuko-sama… This incident very likely involves Yukari-sama, and if my memory serves, the two of you have been best friends for over a millennium. Reimu-san is likewise a very good friend of Yukari-sama's, as far as I know. Now tell me, Yuyuko-sama, is it really so unusual if two friends help each other out in a time of need?"

A rare moment when Yuyuko actually couldn't think of any funny retorts to ridicule Youmu took place. Her smile faded, giving way to a serious expression, not often seen on her face. Youmu's words apparently took their effect on Yuyuko's psyche. Despite the fact that there was no physical heart beating in her chest, she still had it and much kinder than most living humans.

"Youmu…" she gently whispered her gardener's name as her typical sweet smile stretched over her lips again. "I'm so glad that I have you. Of course… you are right. Friends should be a support for each other. And while I'm fully confident in Reimu-san's ability to resolve the current incident, I'll be there to help her, should she need it."

"I'm sure she'd appreciate it." Youmu copied the smile of her mistress and even her ghost half brightened up a bit.

"But that doesn't mean we'll let her win today's competition easily~." Yuyuko playfully remarked and covered her mouth with her fan as she giggled.

"The matches including the team battles are completely randomized, though. We might even end up standing against each other, Yuyuko-sama."

The ghostly beauty seemed to be pleasantly surprised. "Really? But that's even more interesting, Youmu~. What will you do if that scenario indeed happens? Perhaps you'll hesitate, or perhaps you'll want to vent your pent-up anger on me and attack me without mercy…"

"Was that supposed to be a joke, Yuyuko-sama?" Youmu quizzically eyed her mistress. "Sometimes I just completely fail to understand you. Why do you think I should be angry at you?"

Even though she has served her for several decades as her loyal gardener, bodyguard and swordsmanship instructor, the thought patterns of Princess Yuyuko always seemed to be far beyond her own logical grasp. While Yuyuko-sama in many aspects resembled her youkai friend, Yukari; Youmu, on the other hand, was much more of a straightforward, down-to-earth personality. Mutual misunderstandings between the two were pretty much a daily stereotype, but despite them, or perhaps because of them, Youmu learned to like her mistress and her personality. Yuyuko always seemed to have treated Youmu as someone more than just a mere servant and even when she enjoyed verbally teasing her, she deeply cared for her.

As Kyouichi kept listening to their conversation, he realized that a certain similarity existed between them and the pair of Remilia and Sakuya. Perhaps the saying "opposites attract" was more truthful than one would think…

---

"Oh, look, Youmu~!" the ghost princess suddenly pointed her fan slightly above the level of the stage. Three humanoid shadows, barely visible in the dark evening sky were making their way through the air towards the shrine. They arrived from the east, which would indicate that they came from "beyond the barrier", if the Great Boundary was a physical field of invisible force. However, even Kyouichi knew that was not the case. And even despite the fact that the shrine marked the easternmost edge of Gensokyo, one could still venture eastwards from there, although with serious navigation difficulties… If one was to take this knowledge to the extreme, than it could be incorrectly assumed that even the back yard of the Hakurei Shrine with all the spectators and performers on stage was in fact already behind this border, and thus, technically outside of Gensokyo. But the barrier's true nature was pretty much still mostly shrouded in mystery to most of Gensokyo's denizens. Few knew its secrets, and fewer still knew their way around the borderline areas.

As the trio of shadowy figures drew closer to the shrine, attracted by all the lights, sounds and smells, Aya was already waving at them. The tengu's eyes had apparently no problems recognizing these mysterious figures even despite the lack of natural light and the significant distance.

"The last of the contestants are finally here, it seems." Youmu commented the situation.

Once they were close enough, even the short-sighted Kyouichi recognized at least one of them before they made their landing.

A shorter girl, not too dissimilar to Youmu in both her height and hair length made a careful descent onto the sacred shrine ground in sync with her two companions. Clad in a light-blue blouse and light-pink flower-patterned skirt, this purple-haired girl was unmistakably the resident and mistress of the Palace of the Earth Spirits – Satori Komeiji. Who were the other two girls, however, Kyouichi dared not even guess. Then Reimu's voice interrupted his moment of contemplation.

"What the HELL?!" she shouted out and pointed at one of the girls standing next to Satori.

The tall girl responded with an innocently puzzled expression. "Unyu?"

She had a very interesting appearance that made her stand out even among the youkai. Aside from her impressively tall stature and waist-long hair as dark as the night, a pair of large black feathery wings protruded out of her back. She wore a white short-sleeved shirt with green hems along the buttons and collar, a short green skirt and a large hair ribbon of the same color. Her long cape was probably the most eye-catching piece of clothing Kyouichi has ever seen. Its outer side was plain white, but its inner side looked like a window to space – a beautiful starry sky pattern could be seen whenever this girl lifted her wings up a bit. As if that wasn't already enough to make her easily noticeable, right in the middle of her chest she had a red oval-shaped gem about the size of an open hand. The outsider wasn't quite sure whether this gem was a part of the girl's shirt or her body. At first glance it appeared that she was holding some sort of ocher hexagonal rod, but a closer look revealed that this mysterious object was attached to her right arm and gave away the impression of some sort of weapon. Finally, after shifting his gaze lower and admiring the beauty of her legs, the outsider noticed that her right foot was encased in something that looked like dried concrete, while her left foot, was being orbited by some tiny bluish particles of energy. She'd be really hard to miss, even if she was standing in the middle of the crowd of youkai and humans.

Reimu didn't look just surprised to see her there, she looked as though as her worst nightmare has come to life.

"Satori! You were supposed to come here with your sister and your cat. Why have you dragged HER here?!" she shouted the question at Satori while pointing unsteadily at the winged girl.

"Yes, I know and I apologize." replied Satori and bowed lightly to the shrine maiden. "But unfortunately, Koishi wanted to go to the Moriya Shrine and brought Orin along with her. So as an alternative, I took Okuu and asked Yuugi-san whether she'd like to come to the surface…"

The other girl with long straight fair hair was obviously a youkai as well. A single red horn extended roughly 30 centimeters out of her forehead. Her clothing consisted of a short-sleeved red-trimmed white shirt and a purplish semi-transparent skirt with red vertical stripes and trim. She wore a pair of geta sandals on her bare feet and both her wrists and ankles were shackled, but the chains on those shackles were torn apart or broken. Judging by her appearance, Kyouichi assumed she was an oni, which was confirmed just a moment later. Suika came running to her with her arms spread wide. "I can't believe it~! Yuugi! Hahaaaaa! You came up to the surface! This calls for a celebration!"

The shrine maiden, however, didn't feel much like celebrating. On the contrary, the presence of the winged black-haired youkai girl didn't please her at all.

"I can't let her compete in the tournament; she'll vaporize my shrine!" Reimu loudly protested.

"Don't worry, Reimu-san. I've told her to behave well." Satori defended her intentions. "Isn't that right, Okuu?"

"Yes, Satori-sama~!" replied the tall girl obediently and excitedly waved her wings up and down while putting on a lovely smile.

"Just like you told her last time when she got out of control and wanted to blast her way to the surface?"

"I've already told you that Okuu learned to control her new power better and I helped her control her temper."

"But she's still the same birdbrain as ever! Letting her fight a danmaku duel would end up worse than letting all those crazy fairies ravage Gensokyo as they pleased."

"I assure you that Okuu won't harm anyone or destroy anything while under my supervision." Satori promised.

"Oi, come on, Reimu~!" Marisa stepped into the argument. "You've already let Rumia compete despite your misgivings. Show some sportsmanship and let her sign up too. We already have one crow in the tournament anyway…" she glanced over at Aya.

The shrine maiden turned to the witch and sighed. "Look, I have nothing against a good battle, but with this one, these battles should really be held in areas with minimum possible collateral damage."

"It seems they don't trust you, Okuu…" Satori said to the winged girl. "Remember what I taught you about humans and their trust?"

"That it's hard to earn and easy to break?" Okuu answered a bit uncertainly, but correctly.

"That's right." muttered the mind-reading youkai and asked Okuu to lean forward. When the tall girl did as she was asked, Satori then praisingly patted her head, as if she was her pet.

Okuu closed her eyes and smiled widely. "Unyuuu~ ."

"And do you remember, Okuu, about the last time that I scolded you?" Satori asked another question.

"The last time you scolded me… Yes."

"Tell me, what did I scold you for?"

Okuu thoughtfully hummed for a while and then as her expression suddenly changed to an excited one, she replied: "That I shouldn't use Giga Flare for reheating food…"

"Ehh… no, Okuu-chan, I mean BEFORE that."

"That was… erm… uh… about not using my power to set the surface world on fire?"

"Yes, exactly that." Satori made a confirmatory nod. "You've tried to do something very bad, Okuu, that's why now Reimu-san doesn't trust you. But I know that you are not a bad girl, Okuu. You only needed to be shown the right way, since you didn't know what to do with your immense power. You might have broken Reimu's trust, but not mine."

"What should I do then, Satori-sama?"

"Exactly what I told you today. I can help you take your first step, but to show Reimu-san and everyone else that you are a good girl, you must keep your power as weak as possible…"

"I can do that, I practiced~." declared the winged girl proudly, again flapping her wings excitedly.

"I'm going to convince Reimu with words, but you, Okuu, you need to convince her with actions." and after saying those words, Satori turned to Reimu who was just in the middle of an opinion exchange with Marisa.

"I've already told you, Marisa, I don't want to risk a disaster!"

"There already are several youkai in our tournament with at least equal power to that bird. And I'm sure the spectators will enjoy seeing her in action."

"Provided there will be any spectators left alive."

"Sure there will!" Marisa reassured her. "Yuyuko is already dead, Kaguya and Eirin are immortal, and so are all the fairies, hehe."

"I bet you wouldn't have such funny remarks if the tournament was taking place behind YOUR house."

"Um… excuse me." Satori stopped the arguing girls.

"What now?" Reimu looked down at her with crossed arms.

"Perhaps a demonstration of Okuu's danmaku will convince you to allow her to participate."

"I don't even want to…" Reimu was about to resolutely protest against Satori's suggestion, but the young mind-reader spoke again before the shrine maiden could finish.

"Who said that this demonstration has to take place here? Let us ascend high into the sky if you fear for the safety of your precious shrine so much. Even though that is completely unnecessary…"

Satori's suggestion certainly made Reimu's mind race as the young shrine maiden began weighing her options. Though she still dreaded the thought of her shrine being burned down, a Spell Card demonstration in high altitude sounded reasonable enough to make her agree after a long while of thinking.

"Fine…" she threw a mistrustful glance at the tall winged girl. "I'll allow you to demonstrate, but if your spells will turn out to be too dangerous, you can forget about participating."

"I'll show you that I don't need to use full power to win danmaku duels." said Okuu confidently and jetted off into the evening sky. Satori and Reimu followed suit and rapidly ascended until the distance to the ground below them was approximately two thousand meters.

"I think we're about to see some lovely fireworks, Youmu~." Yuyuko remarked with her eyes fixed at the three tiny black dots in the sky.

"I think they are a bit too high for us to see well." Youmu dismissively waved her hand and resumed watching the concert of the Prismriver sisters.

"If the tournament battles are all going to be like this, I might as well buy myself a telescope." said Kyouichi as he blankly stared at the sky.

What he was about to witness, however, would probably be better observed with a welding mask rather than a telescope…

---

"Alright, hell bird…" Reimu scornfully addressed Okuu as they faced each other. "Show me what you've got!"

Satori was hovering further away, watching the two girls with anticipation.

Okuu grinned at the taunt and her red gem began glowing brighter. "One fried shrine maiden, coming right up~!"

Figuring that she probably shouldn't stand so close to her opponent, Reimu instinctively flew backwards to get herself to a safer distance.

Okuu didn't wait to demonstrate her first Spell Card. "Atomic Fire "Nuclear Fusion"!"

The activation of her Spell Card triggered a loud repetitive blaring sound sound that Reimu couldn't compare to anything. It was loud enough to be heard even from the shrine yard.

"Did I just hear some kind of claxon?" Kyouichi curiously tilted his head to the side so that his ear would be a little closer to the sound source. Not that it helped him, though.

A bright glowing sign in the sky was also created by the card's declaration. While illegible from the ground, Reimu clearly saw it shining behind her opponent.

The sign read: " CAUTION! "

As the card in Okuu's hand turned into a bright-orange orb, tens of similar orbs began appearing around her and slowly began moving towards the shrine maiden. At first, this pattern didn't look dangerous or difficult, but that quickly changed as the fiery orbs kept swelling and accelerating. Just a few seconds was all it took for them to glow as brightly as miniature suns and Reimu quickly felt the rush of adrenaline as several of these orbs missed her by mere centimeters. In addition, dozens of much smaller bluish energy orbs were being shot out into all directions from the place where Okuu held her open-palmed hand raised.

"Whoa, whoa~! Okay, that's enough!" she shouted at her opponent after dodging another tight formation of mini suns. "There's no way I'm letting you compete with this! Your danmaku will surely burn my shrine!"

---

From the ground, Okuu's spell didn't look any less impressive and dangerous. Even the Prismriver sisters stopped playing as they turned their sights upwards at the series of dazzling flashes that were firing up the sky.

"Oh… my… god!" Kyouichi uttered with his mouth ajar. "The doomsday is finally here."

Yuyuko happily clapped her hands at the sight of the spectacle. "Lovely fireworks, aren't they, Youmu~ ?"

The half-ghost didn't find the light show in the sky as lovely as her mistress, though. "If that's supposed to be "keeping one's power as weak as possible", I don't even want to think what that youkai is capable of when she fights seriously."

"The lights are so pretty that it's making me hungry~!"

"Ugh… here we go again…" sighed Youmu with a tired-looking smile.

"Say, Youmu-san…" Kyouichi whispered into the half-ghost's ear. "How often do you have to cook per day?"

"Despite the way it seems, It's not that terrible. I simply cook more food at once. Just enough to feed a family of five… And even Yuyuko-sama cooks the food sometimes, though she always says…" Youmu's sentence was unexpectedly completed by the ghostly princess who overheard their whispering.

"…Youmu's cooking is much tastier than what I cook~."

The silver-haired girl instantly straightened up in shock. "Y-you heard me?!"

"Of course, my dear Youmu~!" she replied with her sweet melodic voice. "You can always hear well those who are close to you… Right~ ?"

Youmu's face reddened up slightly.

"Although I wonder what Reimu-san has to say to that other girl~."

---

Meanwhile, about two kilometers above the shrine, the intense danmaku fest continued. Okuu didn't stop her Spell Card even after Reimu's repeated requests. The shrine maiden was already running out of patience and thought that she had no other choice but to fight back and break the youkai's spell. But that's when Satori stepped into the fray and did the most unexpected thing…

"Don't worry, Reimu-san." she briefly shot a glance at Reimu with a faint smile spread over her lips. Then she threw herself into the infernal barrage and disappeared among the blazing orbs.

"What the hell are you doing?!" the shocked shrine maiden shouted in disbelief to what she just witnessed. Did the young satori maiden just commit a suicide? However crazy this idea sounded, it appeared just as if it indeed happened.

"Satori!" Reimu shouted hopelessly into the fiery chaos and as she feared, received no answer.

"Stop it already, you stupid raven!" she yelled at Okuu as she was reaching for her own Spell Card. "How dare you kill your mistress?! Dream Sign "Duplex Barrier"!"

Two large purple squares of light appeared around Reimu as she raised her hand and activated her card. These squares were not harmful danmaku, though. They simply outlined Reimu's barriers. The size of the smaller square could be around five meters, while the larger one could have its sides three times as large. Once the two barriers were in place, Reimu unleashed a very dense spiral pattern of red and white square charms. As soon as they touched the outline of the inner square, they disappeared and appeared on the inner walls of the outer square, flying towards Reimu. Then as they made contact with the inner square's outer wall, they finally appeared on the outer wall of the larger square, flying in dense wave-like formations in all directions. Additionally, Reimu was sending out short streams of these charms directly at her opponent to increase the hit probability of her spell. But that spell wasn't enough to break through Okuu's card. That's why Reimu needed to get close to her and "seal" her within one of the two squares to assure a certain hit. But doing so would put the shrine maiden at a great risk of being hit by the many blazing orbs. Focusing herself as much as possible on the trajectories of the nearest enemy danmaku and reading the paths of the further projectiles, Reimu weaved her way through all that hell, and with a bit of luck, she managed to get close enough to see Okuu's figure. One final daring push forward, and the dangerous youkai found herself trapped in the Duplex Barrier, receiving countless hits from Reimu's charms. With one loud *poof* the blinding fire orbs were no more and Reimu exhaled with relief that the giant ball of fire that was just about to hit her disappeared harmlessly.

Okuu, however, remained flying, as if nothing happened. She looked only a little puzzled.

"Unyu? So you wanted to demonstrate a card too?"

"Idiot!" a stinging slap of Reimu's palm landed on the youkai's cheek. "What have you done?! She always loved you and took care of you… and you just… you just…"

"Umm… hello? I'm over here, Reimu-san." Satori's voice came from behind the surprised shrine maiden.

"S-Satori?!" now the poor young miko was utterly confused. "I thought you were… And why did you even…? And now…" she couldn't formulate a single coherent sentence as her brain struggled to grasp what just happened.

"That hurt…" muttered the winged girl, who Satori addressed as Okuu as she rubbed her cheek.

Satori found Reimu's state of mind and facial expression as quite amusing. "To answer your question, I purposefully let myself get hit by Okuu's danmaku to show you that while it looks just as dangerous as ever, its power has been decreased to nearly harmless levels. Basically, nothing would happen even if you received repeated hits. Nothing worse than some light singes, anyway… At first I thought that letting Okuu use her Spell Card would be enough to convince you, but since you weren't getting hit, I decided to demonstrate on myself."

Reimu's words still remained stuck somewhere halfway between her brain and her mouth, as she just silently listened to Satori's explanation.

"Why don't you try getting hit by one of Okuu's shots as well if you don't believe me?"

"You can't seriously mean that…" Reimu finally spoke up again only to protest. "But since you got away unharmed…"

"Give her a chance. Please…" Satori pleaded with a humble expression.

"I think the craziness of those fairies must have rubbed off on me." the shrine maiden muttered to herself. "Hit me."

Satori's lips bent to a soft, but happy-looking smile, and as she gave a confirmatory nod to the raven youkai, another Spell Card was declared.

"Blazing Star "Fixed Star"!"

The same repetitive blaring sound echoed over the sky and the same warning sign appeared for a while behind Okuu's back.

Eight blinding fire orbs, similar to her previous spell, appeared around the caster. Immediately, they began moving in two separate orbits, becoming especially nasty to those who had problems with focusing on facing their opponent while evading sideways shots. To make things even harder, Okuu generated a steady stream of smaller yellow orbs in a symmetrical spiral-like pattern. While these individual patterns might not have been too difficult to evade by themselves, their combination was a real pain even for experienced danmaku fighters such as Reimu.

This time, however, the Hakurei shrine maiden decided not to make a slightest movement. She just hovered there, waiting to get hit by the first projectile that would come her way. And she didn't have to wait long. One of those giant mini-stars collided with her and completely enveloped her in its immensely bright light. It was a hot and not very pleasant sensation… But Reimu didn't end up with any injury on her body. Even her dress seemed to be still intact, not even catching a darker shade after the exposure to the fiery danmaku.

"Has the hell raven finally learned the fundamental idea behind the Spell Card battles?" thought the surprised shrine maiden as another dazzling orb of light approached her. Again, Reimu felt as if she had suddenly jumped into a hot spring, and her head became dizzy for a moment, but physically she was perfectly fine.

"You can stop already!"

And to Reimu's great surprise, the youkai girl ceased powering her spell.

"Alright…" the shrine maiden nodded to herself once her eyes readjusted to the darkness of the sky. "Let's get back to the shrine. I need to add you both to the list of contestants…"

"Unyu? Does that mean…?"

"You convinced her, Okuu." Satori flew over to her and gave her another praiseful pat on the head. "You can compete too. I'm so glad for you, Okuu."

"Yaaay~! Now I can fight in the tournament and burn the whole world down~!" Rejoiced the raven girl childishly.

Satori shook her head as she breathed a sigh. "Uhh… Maybe I should have left you stay in the underground after all…"

"Why? Satori-sama?" Okuu asked as she followed her mistress in a fast descent back to the ground. "You don't want to burn the world down?"

"Of course not! What's with that idea anyway? From what I see, you heard some voice in your dream… But the voice said nothing about burning the world down."

"The voice…" Okuu repeated and dove into her thoughts. "It spoke only once… Before I got my amazing power. It told me how to gain it… and how to use it…"

"Yes, I know." muttered the young satori, who knew well about Okuu's dream and her rise to power. "But you already know how to put your power to good use. And whoever that voice was, it didn't want you to destroy. It wanted you to fuel creation…"

"And to win a danmaku tournament~!" Okuu cheerfully completed the statement, already looking forward to the duels that awaited her.

Satori giggled weakly. "If you combine your power with the right strategy, you just might…"

"Umm… Satori-sama?" asked the hell raven timidly, just a while before they would reach the ground. "What's a strategy?"

---

"And they're back already…" said Youmu as the three girls landed where they had taken off from.

"I can already guess that the tall one is going to be banned from the tournament." Kyouichi made his assumption based on what he saw taking place in the sky.

All he saw now, however, was Reimu walking towards the shrine. She went to fetch her list of contestants, and as she was passing by, Kyouichi couldn't help but to ask her what happened.

Reimu's reply was terse. "We can begin after the concert."

"Wait… you're letting that… Armageddon girl participate?! What about our safety?!"

"No worries…" she waved her palm as she entered the shrine.

"No worries?! What the hell?!" Kyouichi couldn't understand Reimu's calm and carefree demeanor. "Did Satori just mind-control her or something?"

"Good evening…" the mind reading youkai greeted the group of girls as she was walking towards them. She also wanted to take a seat on the shrine's porch. The tall black-winged girl followed her with a happy-looking face and also greeted everyone.

"Who is that youkai anyway?" Kyouichi muttered his question.

"I don't know." Youmu shrugged cluelessly. "I don't even know who the other two are."

"Can we take a seat next to you?" Satori politely asked Yuyuko.

"Why of course you can~ ." the lovely ghost welcomed her heartily. "Nice to meet you~. I'm Yuyuko and this is…"

"Konpaku Youmu…" Satori finished instead of Yuyuko and bowed to the half-ghost.

"Oh~. Youmu, why didn't you say you already knew this girl~?"

"Because I don't…" she replied as her face slightly reddened from the awkward moment.

"Komeiji Satori." smiled the short purple-haired girl and bowed once more. "Nice to meet you both."

"Uh… h-hello, Satori-sama…" Kyouichi shyly peeked out from behind Youmu's ghostly half to greet her.

"Ah, we already met once… Ishimaru Kyouichi." Satori immediately recognized the human's mind and appearance. It didn't take her long to read his current thought process and give an answer to his yet unasked question. "But I've already told you about Okuu, I'm sure of it…" she said as she gestured at the girl standing right behind her.

"Unyu?" Okuu tilted her head to the side as she donned her puzzled, but quite endearing expression.

"Have you?" the outsider was just about as confused as the tall youkai.

"It's there, alright…" the satori pointed her slender finger at his head. "Search your memory a bit."

"Hmm…" Kyouichi tried to recall the time when he met the mind-reader from the underground for the first time. "Okuu… Okuu… Didn't you say she's your… ehh… pet?"

Satori's light smile confirmed his uncertain recollection. "The yatagarasu hell raven. Her real name is Utsuho Reiuji, but I always just call her Okuu. She provides the heat for the furnace in the Hell of Blazing Fires."

"I… I think I remember something… faintly."

Satori giggled at the thought that played out in Kyouichi's mind, since his mental image of a hell raven was nothing like what he saw standing and smiling behind the mind-reading youkai.

"I can see some intense fear in your heart, Kyouichi…" she continued her observation of his mind. "Stay calm. Okuu is actually harmless, unless provoked."

"If you say so…"

"Hello to you too, Okuu-chan~ ." Yuyuko sweetly smiled and waved her hand. "I liked the fireworks that you made a while ago. Why don't you both take a seat next to us?" she invited them and softly tapped the wooden floor by her right side.

"Thank you, Yuyuko-san." Satori accepted and seated herself next to the ghostly princess. Immediately, a lively conversation between them ensued. Even when Yuyuko figured that her mind was being read, she still kept talking and explaining everything like to any normal person. It was nice seeing complete strangers becoming acquainted so quickly and naturally.

"Oh… So this is really your first time at a festival~?" Yuyuko surprisedly looked at Satori and her pet.

"Mhm." nodded the mistress of the Palace of the Earth Spirits. "And I haven't been much above ground either, unlike my younger sister."

"I used to play above ground from time to time." Okuu picked up on the topic. "When we were little, we often went on adventures with Orin together. It was before we met Satori-sama."

"Well, it's true that I don't come to the world of the living very often, but I love festivals~."

"And food." added Youmu.

As time went by, the conversation progressed to the point when they began discussing their personal lives and interests. Then Satori suddenly widened all of her eyes as she saw an interesting fact in the mind of the ghostly princess.

"Excuse me, but… You really are… Yakumo Yukari's best friend…"

"Yes~ ." she replied positively.

"The one that made an agreement between underground and surface youkai… And the one that I was asked to find with the help of an amulet by Hakurei Reimu."

"Oh, you know Yukari too~? How wonderful…" the princess joyfully clapped her hands. "I only wonder what better program she has that she isn't interested even in coming to this wonderful festival."

"I'm afraid that not even I know the answer to that." said the satori thoughtfully.

"And she used to love festivals, and flower viewings, and moon watching too…" Yuyuko continued with a spacey look. "Hope she comes home soon… Oh…" she suddenly turned away from Satori and focused her hearing sense. "They're playing my favorite song~. Let's get closer to the stage, Youmu."

"As you wish, Yuyuko-sama." the samurai half-ghost would follow almost any order and whim of her beautiful mistress.

"Aren't you going to take a closer look too, Satori-san?" asked the pink-haired ethereal princess. "The Prismriver Ensemble is the best music band in Gensokyo."

Satori hesitated for a moment, but made a positive nod and followed them to the stage.

---

Now it was just Kyouichi and the yatagarasu hell raven sitting on the shrine's wooden walkway. Despite Satori's reassuring words about her pet, the outsider felt very insecure to be even near her. From her danmaku demonstration, it seemed that this youkai could be about as dangerous as an unstable Russian high-yield nuclear warhead. The fact that she noticed him now and stared at him in silent curiosity didn't help either. He immediately stood up and trotted after the distancing figures of Yuyuko, Youmu and Satori.

"Wait a sec…" he uttered when he caught up with them. "D-don't leave me alone with this thing…"

"Wait for me, Satori-sama~!" Utsuho apparently didn't want to be left alone and followed her mistress.

"On second thought," spoke the human, turning on his heel, "I think I better stay close to the shrine."

"Unyu? Did he forget something?" Okuu wondered as she watched Kyouichi's sudden change of mind.

---

The young outsider ran back to the shrine in hope of evading any potential danger. He saw his friends standing under one of the many lantern stands talking to some of the tournament contestants. At first he was overcome by an unnerving thought that they were making some dangerous friends, but when he saw that they were getting acquainted with Byakuren-sama, he sighed with relief. Byakuren Hijiri was known to be a very nice person, even considered a youkai messiah by many of the followers of her temple. There was apparently a larger group of youkai and humans surrounding her. Since Kyouichi never spoke with her personally, or even saw her up close, he wanted to take the chance and have a look as he approached his friends.

"What's up, people?" he addressed Dan, Soudai, Midori and other members of the club.

"Oh, there you are, club prez." Asakura Soudai beckoned at him as he spoke to the youkai monk. "Now we're complete. The so-called Transfer Students' Club… Or what's left of it anyway. Kamishirasawa-sensei came up with the name, you see… We were all desperate to find a way back home, so we needed to organize ourselves somehow. A school club seemed like a good idea, and so… here we are."

"That's very interesting." said Byakuren as she listened to Soudai's story. Kyouichi silently observed her with reverence. Not only her deeds were worthy of one's respect, but her beauty as well. Now Kyouichi realized that her hair was actually gradient. Purple near the scalp and light-brown over the remaining length of her hair. When he saw her for the first time, he also noticed this anomaly, but thought it to be caused by the purplish light radiating from her magic scroll which she used in her ceremonies.

"Good evening, Byakuren-sama." Kyouichi quickly remembered his manners and snapped out of his reveries. "A real pleasure to meet you in person…" his greeting was followed by a deep bow.

"Likewise." Byakuren smiled and returned her greeting. "So you are the president of the club consisting only of people from the outside world?"

"Yes, Ishimaru Kyouichi, unless my friends here already mentioned my name… And I hope that Soudai wasn't bothering you too much."

"When was the last time that I bothered ANYONE, Ishimaru?" Soudai poutingly asked his friend.

"Well, think a little. It wasn't too long ago..." Kyouichi murmured a retort which no one else could hear.

"No, it was a very interesting story." Byakuren shook her head in response to his last statement. "I feel it to be my duty to be helping others in a time of need, but regretfully, I do not know how to get to this… Tokyo place. And I have never met Yakumo-san before, so I can't really help you much with that either…"

"That's alright, Byakuren-sama, there's already someone helping us with our little problem." he replied and shot a short glance at the Hakurei Shrine. "But we appreciate your good will."

Byakuren understood who that person was. "Hakurei-san, huh?"

"Yes…" the outsider and his friends nodded affirmatively. "Now that I think about it… You two have almost identical roles in Gensokyo, don't you? But, of course, the religion you follow is different… Do you get along or…?"

"You are indeed correct that our roles are similar." the Buddhist monk expressed her agreement with a smile. "Both Reimu-san and I are mediators between the gods which we serve and the people which believe in them. Sometimes even to those who don't believe… Another trait that we share in common is that we treat everyone equally."

"Really?" Kyouichi raised his eyebrow. "I probably wouldn't have claimed that about Reimu…"

"The truth is that I feel the same amount of love for everyone, human or youkai. Reimu-san also treats everyone equally, though her ways and perception of others differ from my own, just as our religions do."

"Perhaps I just know her too little to testify that. True, I've seen her get along well with some youkai, but not with all of them, that's for sure."

"Oh, but the way we treat individual people has only little to do with how we get along with them, Kyouichi-san. The same thing is true for me, as it is true for you, or Reimu-san, or anyone else… It's not just about how you perceive others, but about how they perceive you and how they act to you that determines your relationship with them. Even when I treat everyone the same, it doesn't mean that I get along well with everyone."

"And do you get along with Reimu?" Kyouichi returned to his unanswered question.

"I have nothing against her. In fact, I believe our relationship has improved slightly in the light of recent events. What she thinks of me, however, I do not know with certainty…"

"Recent events?" the outsider wondered which events could Byakuren be referring to.

"The forest fires, the trip to the underground and the Grand Fairy Regulation Initiative." the beautiful monk specified. "I cooperated with Reimu-san during these events… The fact that I even received an invitation to the festival and the tournament tells me that Reimu-san's opinion of me must have changed for the better, despite what happened in our first meeting."

"Why does she have to fight everyone first before becoming friendly with someone?"

"Because she treats everyone equally." Byakuren repeated what she already said.

"Guess I can count myself lucky that I haven't received the same kind of treatment when we got acquainted."

"Reimu-san has no reason to treat anyone with hostility unless she suspects them of something, or unless someone stands in her way during an incident."

"I should keep that in mind…" Kyouichi made a note to himself, since he knew that Reimu still hasn't resolved the fairy attacks or Yukari Yakumo's disappearance.

"From what your friends have told me, you people plan to leave Gensokyo with Reimu-san's help, but the village council doesn't approve of that…"

"We are currently working on a plan to get to the shrine undetected by the militia. I also managed to convince Reimu to use her storehouse over there to stash our traveling equipment. That should make things easier."

"In that case, I wish you all a safe trip home." said Byakuren to the entire group of outsiders. "Make sure you all stop by the Temple of Myouren so I could give you my blessings on the day of your departure."

"We will, Byakuren-sama, we will." Kyouichi nodded to her suggestion. "It just occurred to me, but… why is your temple called the Temple of Myouren? Why not Temple of Byakuren?"

"Because Myouren Hijiri was my dear younger brother. We were both monks working together. But when he unexpectedly passed away, I became… uncertain. I even began to question some of Buddha's teachings and did something which could be considered "straying from one's path"… I began studying magic and dark arts… I delved so deep into the magic, that I could no longer be considered human. But even when I learned how to use magic to my benefit, I was concerned that even that power might eventually fade away. That's when I began searching for youkai and those who needed help, I assisted. My intentions were not completely selfless. I was afraid to die. That's why I tried to find all the secrets of longevity or possibly eternal youth. Since youkai were known to live much longer than humans, I wanted to learn their secrets… I led two lives from then on. On one hand I was a monk, preaching to the people and claiming to be a youkai exterminator, and on the other hand I was protecting the youkai from humans who hunted them. I tried to keep the latter part of my life in secrecy, but it was only a matter of time before the truth about me would surface and become widely known. While I did achieve what I strived for, I became shunned, later feared and finally hated by the humans."

"You became a youkai to prolong your life?"

"That's right. Through the study of magic, I became a youkai magician. Perhaps you've heard of Alice Margatroid-san or Patchouli Knowledge-san… In essence, I'm the same as them."

"And the humans hated you because of that?"

"Oh, yes." Byakuren smiled wistfully. "They didn't share my visions of peaceful coexistence between humans and youkai and since I was a youkai myself, they naturally took my words as an insult... as blasphemy. As a punishment for my sins, they had me sealed away in the world of demons – in Makai. I was supposed to remain there forever, but… things happened and now I'm here."

"I heard about that incident from one year ago." Kyouichi nodded knowingly. "The Palanquin Ship… That ship was converted into the Temple of Myouren. I also read about it in the chronicle."

"Yes, the chronicle… I needed to study it too, since I spent the last thousand years in Makai." the female monk remembered her reintegration into the world. "It turned out that I owe my freedom to not only my loyal youkai followers and Reimu-san, but also to a certain youkai from the underground…"

"From the underground? Satori-sama?"

"No." the smiling monk shook her head gently. "You could see her up in the sky not too long ago…"

"Wait… You can't possibly mean…"

"Reiuji Utsuho-san."

Kyouichi disbelievingly opened his mouth. "H-how in the world did a hell raven help you break out of Makai?"

This time Byakuren shot a puzzled glance at him. "Didn't you just say that you studied the Gensokyo Chronicle, Kyouichi-san?"

"Not thoroughly." he admitted humbly.

"I see. Well, in that case, I can tell you a short version of an incident that preceded my liberation…" Byakuren took a deep breath and began her very own short history lesson.

"Two years ago, in 123, a new geyser erupted from the underground, not too far from here. That would be nothing unusual if the hot water and subterranean gasses were the only thing that made their way to the surface. Lots of evil spirits emerged from the geyser as well, and naturally, it didn't take long for the Hakurei shrine maiden to notice them and trace their source. She decided to investigate the underground in order to stop these spirits from swarming the area. During her way down, she came across the Ancient City and eventually the Former Hell. By the way… I've been there too recently, so I know… At the center of Former Hell, there's a mansion known as…"

"The Palace of the Earth Spirits." Kyouichi finished Byakuren's sentence. "So that's probably when Reimu first met Satori… And battled against her…"

"Yes, but Satori-san was not the cause of the trouble Reimu spoke of. It later turned out that one of her pets, a certain hell raven has suddenly gained an incredible new power that has reignited the Hell of Blazing Fires. The geyser near the Hakurei Shrine was a result of this hell raven's activity. The earth spirits, which still remained in Former Hell, had free access to the surface. But these souls wouldn't know about it, had they not been deliberately sent to the surface by another one of Satori-san's pets."

"So Reimu had to take care of these two troublesome pets, huh?"

"From what I read in the chronicle, only one pet was truly troublesome, though. The other one, a kasha, Rin Kaenbyou, was tasked by her mistress to oversee the spirits in the Hell of Blazing Fires and to do what all kasha do best - carry the corpses of sinners down to Hell and burn them to keep the fires lit. This kasha, being a good friend with the hell raven, was terrified by her friend's new power and her insane plan, so she drove the earth spirits to the surface in order to stir up an incident and get some powerful youkai to come down and help her."

"And that "youkai" was Reimu."

"Even when Reimu-san was no youkai, she still managed to do her job well and prevented the hell raven from achieving her plans of conquering the surface world."

"And now that hell raven is here… What was Satori-sama thinking to bring her here? And even let her fight…"

"Who knows?" Byakuren rested her finger on her chin in a thoughtful moment. "But if it hadn't been for Reiuji-san, I would still be sealed away in Hokkai."

Kyouichi's mind was still rather confused. "I still don't see how does that earth spirit incident relate to the Palanquin Ship incident."

"Simply." the youkai monk bent her lips in a smile. "The sudden rise of temperature in the Former Hell caused the geyser, which flushed out the sealed-away Palanquin Ship along with its crew up above the ground."

"Uhh… Oh…"

"Still confused, I see." Byakuren commented the look on Kyouichi's face. "I bet you're asking yourself: "How did a flying ship end up in the underground in the first place?""

"Good guess, Sato… uhh… I mean, Byakuren-sama." the outsider quickly corrected himself.

Byakuren's eyes appeared to be staring at some unknown point in the distance as she dove into her memories. "The history of that ship and of my beloved youkai friends dates back to the times when I could still be called a human being… My youkai followers are all here, but most of them are randomly wandering about, probably having fun at some game stalls or perhaps they're somewhere in that crowd under the stage… This is Shou Toramaru…" she placed her hand on the shoulder of a youkai girl standing by her side. Like Byakuren, Shou's hair color was also rather intriguing. Her short blonde hair had occasional black stripes like the hide of a tiger.

"Nice to meet you all." she nodded and put on a smile brimming with confidence and charisma.

"I appointed Shou to serve at a temple dedicated to the god Bishamonten in order to gain the trust of the youkai dwelling in the mountains. Later on, a servant was assigned to Shou by Bishamonten… a mouse youkai called Nazrin… I bet she's scouring the shrine yard for dropped coins now… Then there's also Ichirin-san… If you see a girl followed by a strange pink cloud that appears to have a human face, you know you've met Ichirin Kumoi. She's a youkai who can communicate with and control nyuudou. Her companion, Unzan, follows her faithfully for many centuries. The origin of the Palanquin Ship, however, is connected to another of my followers… Minamitsu Murasa. Back when I was hiding the fact that I was a youkai from the humans, I was sent on a mission… That mission was to stop a vengeful ghost on the seas, who had gained much infamy for capsizing numerous ships. I boarded a ship and set sail to the open sea to confront the restless spirit… Minamitsu-san once told me that she had known that a famous monk was on her way to exterminate her and that by sinking my ship, she'd gain the power to spread her influence even farther or perhaps even break her connection to the ocean and would become able to attack the humans on land as well. When she appeared for the first time, she didn't talk much. She summoned her ghostly floating anchor and breached the hull of our ship. And as the water was flooding the ship's hold, she floated over to the ship's mast and used her ladle to flood the deck. Our ship went to the bottom like a brick. But I had known all about Murasa-san and her tragic death and knew that a direct battle with her would have been pointless. I wasn't proud of what I did, because on that day, the whole crew of my ship was lost to the sea. All except me."

"Whoa! That's harsh…" stated the outsider. "But how did you manage to survive?"

"I was already a youkai, remember?" the monk reminded him. "So Minamitsu-san sank the ship… I used my magic to hold my breath for long enough to reach the bottom and to build a shining new vessel which I intended to give the to the ghost as a gift. I built it in the shape of a ship that she died on and offered her to become its captain. She accepted the offer and became one of my most loyal followers."

"Wait a minute. So you let her sink your ship and kill the entire crew so that you could magically build a new ship for her and bribe her to join your cause? I think I'm starting to understand why the humans sealed you away…" his impression of the "youkai redeemer" now changed significantly.

"Kyouichi…" Midori gave him a warning look so that he wouldn't be rude to Byakuren.

"It's okay, Midori-san." Byakuren smiled reassuringly at her. "He's right… Because of this, I think that my imprisonment in Hokkai was well deserved. But sometimes you simply can't avoid making sacrifices, Kyouichi-san."

"You just said that you treated everyone equally. Why didn't you try to help those drowning people?"

"It was a very hard choice, believe me. But it was for the greater good."

"Greater good? What are you talking about?"

"A sacrifice that had to be made. Those sailors had all volunteered to take me to the ghost of Minamitsu Murasa, even when they knew about the danger that this voyage meant. Fighting the ghost would only serve to arouse her wrath, so there really was no hope for any of the crew members…"

"You knew that it was going to happen. You had this planned from the beginning, didn't you? If you knew that your ship was going to sink either way, why didn't you tell those men that they shouldn't come with you?"

"Because of two reasons, Kyouichi-san." replied Byakuren with a trace of guilt in her voice. "I knew nothing about sailing or navigation, so I couldn't get to Murasa-san on my own. And secondly, even if I could do it by myself, insisting on sailing to the open sea alone would make the people suspicious and I didn't want my youkai identity to go public."

"Then you could have simply declined that mission and save those sailors' lives." Kyouichi told her off like a condescending parent scolding a child.

"And allow the vengeful ghost to haunt the seas and capsize as many ships as she could?" Byakuren retorted flusteredly. "No! This was the only way and my only chance to put an end to her capsizing spree. The only chance to put her spirit at ease… And if you think that I'm not sorry for those sailors, you're greatly mistaken."

The outsider suddenly ran out of words. While he shunned Byakuren's act, he also silently admitted that her choice was more than well justified. It was really hard for him to imagine what must it have been like for the monk to make that decision and even harder to imagine how would he decide, were it him in Byakuren's position. Perhaps he was just a naïve idealist, thinking that there is always a way to resolve a conflict with both parties satisfied. That there always is the "golden middle path", that life wasn't merely about choosing the lesser evil… A very foolish, utopian idea of life, as he came to realize... And it was this conversation that had opened his eyes to the truth. Then he recalled when he was first told about Byakuren by the father of Marisa Kirisame… He was told that Byakuren had always strived to achieve peaceful and harmonic coexistence between humans and youkai. And he even remembered that he was skeptical towards this vision. No… Kyouichi was not an idealist. Right now, he was more or less being a hypocrite. Blaming Byakuren for letting her ship crew die in the ocean so that she could save hundreds or perhaps even thousands of lives in the long run was quite childish on his part. To judge others without giving their actions some thought – a trait common for most humans. The world was never a perfect place and neither were the people inhabiting it. Making mistakes has always been an inevitable part of life, and sometimes life traps people in a situation when they need to choose between making one mistake or an even bigger mistake.

"Would I really have what it takes to do the right thing? To make the right choice?" these and similar questions were resounding in Kyouichi's mind. "What gives me the right to pass judgement over others…?"

Everyone's a sinner. And the only ones with the true right to judge are the gods.

"I… I'm sorry, Byakuren-sama…" he bowed to her in apology.

"It's alright." Byakuren didn't seem to take his previous words as any form of offense. "I have no reason to hide the truth about my past from anyone. The good deeds and the bad ones. I'm really glad that people and youkai in Gensokyo were kind enough to accept me and still see me as a spiritual leader in spite of my past mistakes… The ship that I made for Minamitsu became later known as the Palanquin Ship."

"And this Minamitsu… she no longer kills humans?"

"She became a captain of her own ship and found a new meaning to her existence. No longer a slave to her grudge from the fate that she met at the sea, Captain Murasa became indebted to me. However, after my banishment to Makai, she suffered similar fate. Her ship was buried, and since her soul was tied to it, she became sealed away as well. But after the events in year 123, things were set into motion… It was she who navigated the ship through the skies of Gensokyo, through the depths of Makai, in order to free me… After I decided to settle down, and the ship was rebuilt into a temple, Minamitsu's duty became maintaining and protecting the temple. She even cooks for us every now and then… You'll see her in the tournament too. But right now it's just me, Shou and Nue standing here…"

"Nue?" Kyouichi shifted his look towards the shorter black-haired girl standing close to Byakuren and the tiger youkai.

"Hello there~! I'm Nue~!" she cheerfully smiled and waved her hand as she introduced herself. She almost seemed a bit mischievous for some reason. Then she revealed her asymmetrical wings which she was hiding behind her back in order to surprise the onlooking humans from the outside world. Some of the outsiders gasped in shock.

"Nue!" Byakuren looked at her scoldingly. "Please behave yourself."

"What the hell is that?!" Soudai took a step back.

"T-those are the second most intriguing-looking wings I've ever seen…" Kyouichi commented Nue's most distinctive body parts.

"Eeeh?! Second?" the girl was slightly surprised by his statement. "Who am I losing to?"

"I didn't mean that you're losing to someone…" Kyouichi tried to defuse her sharp glance. "I simply meant that I saw one vampire who also had a very interesting pair of wings and since I met her before you, I said that your wings are the second most interesting that I've seen…"

"I see…" the surprised youkai girl seemed to understand and sulked a bit.

"What about Mokou-san then?" Soudai reminded him of yet another person with a pair of wings that was certainly worthy of mentioning.

"Oh, yes… her…" Kyouichi nodded agreeingly. "Those wings were so "interesting" that they made us run for our lives…"

"Wait a minute." Midori joined the conversation. "Wasn't there a legendary creature called nue?"

"Like I said, I'm Nue~." the girl reintroduced herself, indicating that Midori's assumption was correct.

Midori thought that there was a slight misunderstanding. "No, I'm talking about a monster with the head of a monkey, body of a raccoon dog, legs of a tiger and a snake as a tail."

"Oh you mean like this?"

*poof*

A sudden flash of light and a cloud of white smoke appeared where Nue was standing and in her place… stood the mentioned beast from the legends, sitting on its hind legs and wagging its serpent tail like a dog.

"Yaaaah~!" the frightened Midori almost tripped and fell as she stepped back in terror.

"Uhh… should we run now?" Soudai asked Kyouichi as they exchanged glances.

"What did I tell you about behaving yourself Nue?" Byakuren crossed her arms as she talked to the beast.

*poof*

The beast was gone in a flash, returning back to her previous shape. "Come on~. It's not like I'm hurting anyone. It's been a while since I was playing that charade, hehe…"

"You're the mythical nue!" Midori still couldn't believe her own eyes and words.

"Hehe~." Nue giggled amusedly. "This used to be one of my favorite disguises, but some humans took my pranks a bit too seriously and began hunting me. Many humans have nearly killed me, so I chose to don other "masks" to save my life. But eventually, like a lot of dreaded youkai, they sealed me away in the underground, and like the flying ship, I was flushed up to the surface by a geyser…"

"Yes." Byakuren confirmed by a nod. "Nue-chan is an old youkai, but she's the most recent of the temple residents."

"I followed the ship out of curiosity, not originally knowing what was its crew planning. It turned out that they were on their way to revive Byakuren and for that they needed to assemble two treasures. The sacred pagoda of Bishamonten and the fragments of Tobikura. But as I said, I had no idea of that at that time. I just wanted to play a little prank so I planted the Seeds of Unknown Form into the fragments of Tobikura that subsequently scattered into the air. Then I saw a shrine maiden following the ship and collecting these fragments, thinking they were… something else. I just watched and occasionally showed up as a shiny orb to surprise her, but she was persistent… Then one of the ship's crew… the mouse youkai, found one of the treasures, while the shrine maiden had the other necessary part. And even though she intended to prevent the crew's plan, she decided to unseal Byakuren herself. Perhaps she was curious, perhaps she was paranoid… I don't know… But that day, Byakuren Hijiri was released from Makai and made her way to Gensokyo. Then I learned what kind of person she was… Treating all with kindness, even youkai such as myself… I became hesitant whether I should try to meet her, because my pranks might have even foiled the plan of her revival. But she really is a nice person." she paused and turned at the monk with a thankful smile. "And she kindly accepted me to live in the Temple of Myouren. Thank you again, Byakuren-sama."

"My pleasure, Nue-chan." Byakuren returned the smile and patted the youkai girl's dark disheveled hair. "But seriously, your gags might scare away some of the temple visitors…"

"But it's fun~…"

"So you're a shape-shifting beast?" Kyouichi still wasn't exactly sure of Nue's true nature.

"A youkai~! Not a beast." she corrected him poutingly. "But I can change into any form I want."

"So what you showed us a while ago is your original form?"

"Nooo~!" she vigorously shook her head and flailed her arms in denial. "Weren't you listening? That was just one of my many disguises… THIS is my true form~!"

"Oh… cool." he showed an approving thumbs up "But since you are the youkai from the legend… "nue" is your ehh… species; not your name right?"

"It's my name~. Nue. Houjuu Nue."

"And her species, yes…" added Byakuren with an affirmative nod.

"So in other words, you are a nue… called Nue." Kyouichi repeated just to make sure he got things right.

"Yes~!"

"A Nue-nue…"

"That's right~."

Kyouichi couldn't hold back his urge to chuckle any longer. "Hahahaha… Now who does this only remind me of?" he asked with a sarcastic tone. "Maybe you should shake hands with Satori-sama, since she is, who would have guessed it, a satori!"

"Already met her, yes…" Nue waved her palm. "We didn't talk much… At least I felt like I didn't need to talk much…"

"Hehe, yes, since she already knows what you're going to say. But I'd never think I'd meet another person who's name is identical with her youkai species."

"Well…" the youkai girl shrugged. "Here I am."

"Nue-nue… Hehe…" Kyouichi really liked the sound of it and found it somewhat cute. Then all of a sudden he began singing: "Nue-nue kyun, nue kyun, nue kyun-kyun~ …"

Nue stared at him with her mouth ajar and a blank expression. "…What… was that?"

"I suddenly see an image of Nue-san wearing a maid costume in my mind…" muttered Soudai, who recognized this short part of the song.

"Okay, sorry that was bad…" the outsider quickly apologized to her. "I just couldn't resist… But thank you all for bearing with us and telling us your story. It's really amazing how one thing can lead to another, isn't it?"

"That's right." said Byakuren. "Life really knows how to weave events together. I still haven't properly thanked Utsuho-san for causing that incident that led to my return…"

"Then you can do that tonight."

"Yes, I think I'll take this opportunity."

"I better keep my distance from that hell raven after seeing what she's capable of…"

"If you follow this kind of logic, Kyouichi-san, then you should probably keep your distance away from us too…" replied the Buddhist monk. "Not that I'd intend to frighten you… It's natural that people fear some youkai. Even more understandable in case of people who were born into a world that openly rejected the existence of magic. But at least I would like to be an exception for people like you that not all youkai need to be feared."

"Yes, we understand your point, Byakuren-sama." Soudai seemed to partially agree. "But since we are new here and don't know much about the youkai and their nature, we fear them all by default… As a sort of precaution… Even the club prez here constantly keeps reminding us not to address anyone we are not familiar with. Especially if they are youkai."

"And I perfectly understand your situation." said the monk and bestowed her compassionate smile upon the whole group of outsiders. "It must be a really tough place for people like you… But do you know how the locals sometimes call Gensokyo? Paradise… Really, it's true. They even sometimes refer to Hakurei-san as "the shrine maiden of paradise"… I once had a vision where youkai and humans lived together in peace and wanted to make at least the first step to make that impossible dream at least a little closer to becoming reality… But when I learned of how things go in Gensokyo, it warmed up my heart. It's almost like I had imagined my vision… almost. It's not perfect and I know that it can't be, but it's much better than how it used to be in the past. For people born in Gensokyo, the youkai don't necessarily represent mortal danger thanks to the Spell Card System. For people from the outer world, however, it's an entirely different story. That's the greatest flaw in the system and in Gensokyo itself, but like I already said - nothing can be perfect. I understand your desire to return to your homes, but know that some youkai may turn out to be better friends than humans ever could…"

"So basically, since we have no magic whatsoever, we are not included in any of the rules of the Spell Card System that forbids the youkai from eating even defeated humans." Kyouichi made a terse recapitulation. "In other words; what is not forbidden is allowed, and so, the youkai who love humans in gastronomical sense are not restricted by any means from hunting us and consuming us."

"That's the sad truth, Kyouichi-san. And thanks to meeting you, people, I realized that I still have a lot of work to do in order to change things for the better. For the sake of all the unfortunate spirited-away outsiders, I should do my best to make Gensokyo a less dangerous place."

"You really are a very sweet person, Byakuren-sama." Midori was touched by her kindness, even when she was trembling from Nue's show of power just a while ago. "But wouldn't it be better if people like us would have no way of being spirited away in the first place?"

"That, I'm afraid I cannot change, my child." Byakuren sadly lowered her head. "I can, however, try to use whatever influence I have to make at least some of the youkai more… open-minded and less hostile."

"That's… really commendable of you." Kyouichi also admired Byakuren's good will and determination. "I hope that future generations of outsiders will have less things to fear… But for me at least – the more things to fear in Gensokyo, the greater the motivation to return home."

"Still, this meeting with you people was very meaningful for me, and I wish you the best of luck in your endeavor."

"As we wish you the best of luck in yours, Byakuren-sama…" Midori respectfully bowed before the monk and the other outsiders followed suit.

Byakuren was truly glad to have met these people and set herself yet another goal to strive for.

"Now that we all became acquainted, are you going to root for me in the tournament~?" she asked in a playful way.

"Of course!" feeling that she had just found a new idol in her life to follow, Midori exclaimed without hesitation.

"Heck, I'll be rooting for everyone!" Kyouichi replied more diplomatically. "Unless I get blasted away in the process. Stray danmaku seems to like me for some odd reason…"

"Oh~!" Nue suddenly pointed at him, as if she had recalled something.

"What is it, Nue?" Byakuren threw a curious glance her way.

"Weren't you in Eientei recently?" the shape-shifter asked, still pointing at the outsider's face.

"Why, yes… But… How do you know?"

"I knew your name sounded familiar."

The outsider was still without a clue. "Excuse me, but, I don't recall seeing you in Eientei. Unless you shape-shifted into someone else that is…"

"No, but when the forest fires broke out, I helped Byakuren-sama and others to put them out. Then I ran into one youkai who overused her spell in order to stop the fire and fainted, so we all went to Eientei to take her there and get some answers…"

"A girl who overused her spell?" Soudai found this information somehow oddly familiar. "Wait, wasn't Kogasa-chan in our Rehabilitation Ward treated because she used up all her energy?"

Kyouichi shrugged in response. "It's possible."

"Yes, yes~!" Nue nodded repeatedly. "The young karakasa girl. We brought her in and while we were in the ward, a witch named Marisa noticed your name written on one of the beds. I didn't know you, of course, but she seemed to remember."

"Did I look like a mummified corpse?" Kyouichi asked her just to be 100% certain.

"Sort of…" admitted the legendary youkai as she was suppressing her chuckle. "Stray danmaku, huh? Dangerous stuff… Really, I once got hit by a stray arrow. Well, okay, maybe it was a whole volley of arrows and several of them hit me in the back. Had to take a few days off from scaring humans. Yes… fun times…" she recounted her experience with a humorous tone.

"Well, I wasn't exactly asking that youkai to give me a headshot, but then again, maybe I did, since I chose such a poor excuse for cover during his Spell Card. Anyway… I feel better now… My friend, Soudai had much serious injuries and look at him now – good as new. All thanks to Eirin-sama's help."

Soudai's carefree smile was suddenly wiped away by the mention of the Lunarian doctor's name. "Ehh… yes… Eirin…" he looked nervously at his younger friend. "I just hope we won't meet her here."

---

As if he was asking for it to happen, a very loud applause spread across the shrine yard and the Prismriver sisters were bowing to the audience, having just finished the last of their songs of the first stage of their concert. After the wild crowds have calmed down a bit, people and youkai began massively moving further away from the stage. Everyone knew what was about to follow next. The long-awaited Tanabata Danmaku Tournament.

"Listen…" Kyouichi leaned close to Soudai's ear, because the crowd was very noisy. "Eirin is somewhere in that crowd. If we don't want to risk running into her, we ought to move somewhere else. All the tournament contestants will be assembling here shortly."

"I hear you, bro…" Soudai nodded affirmatively. "Luckily for us, I thought about this possibility and got us these!" He reached inside the paper bag which he was holding this entire time and took out two carnival masks. One of them was a long-nosed red tengu face and the other one looked like a face of some sort of aquatic creature.

"I won these at the ring tossing stall with Midori." he explained as he was putting on the tengu mask. "Go ahead, try it out."

As Kyouichi took the mask, he noticed it had a tiny slip attached on its inner side with information about the product and manufacturer.

"The Kappa King? What the hell…?"

Soudai just waved his palm to signify that Kyouichi should not concern himself with petty details. "Hey, I don't care if the kappa king looks like this or not, or if the kappa even have any king. Just put it on already. I'm getting this funny feeling that Eirin might show up around here any moment…"

And so, with a bantering expression, the young outsider put the mask on his face. "Wow… Who would have guessed it that the two of us would become youkai?"

"Suddenly I feel a bit safer for some reason."

"Yeah, just make sure you won't accidentally bump into Reimu with that thing on your face. Then we'd have a reason to look for Eirin instead of trying to avoid her."

Another bright-red danmaku signal was sent into the sky by the Hakurei shrine maiden. As the contestants were gathering near the shrine's rear entrance, the spectators were reassembling around the stage, keeping the necessary distance to increase their safety. Figuring out that it might be better to find a good spot before they all get occupied and to avoid running into the Lunarian doctor, they blended into the crowd and moved with the flow.

They didn't even cross ten meters when the older outsider with the tengu mask suddenly stopped in front of Kyouichi, who almost failed to evade a collision.

"What's up with you, Asakura? Your operating system froze?"

"K-Ka-Kaguya-sama~…" he mumbled through his mask without even turning his head.

Kyouichi knew that this wasn't a good omen. "What?! Kaguya? Where?"

"Kaguya-samaaaa~ ." Soudai was now in a completely different world. Not that his younger friend could blame him for admiring the impossibly beautiful Moon princess, but the last time he checked, she was accompanied by Eirin, and that meant trouble.

"Oi, Asakura…" Kyouichi desperately grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him up. "Snap out of it! If you see Kaguya, that means Eirin must be close. Just don't do anything dumb and act natural."

"But it's Kaguya-sama…" he kept repeating the same thing over and over like a broken record.

"I can seriously relate to your feelings, but we need to keep moving!" Kyouichi gave him a push in the back.

"Oh… Look there's also that bunny-nurse that was tending to us… Reisen…"

The fact that Kyouichi was running out of patience was being reflected on the tone of his words. "Yes, Asakura, you owe her your current soberness… Now get a move on!"

"Oh, my god… and that's her… Yagokoro Eirin." Soudai commented in a hushed voice as he was being pushed forward.

"Do you really want her to see us, dammit?! Just move along and keep your hollow head low!"

Finally, Soudai seemed to have come back to his senses and did the hardest thing in his life – he looked away from Kaguya Houraisan and kept walking forward. The two outsiders have successfully managed to evade confrontation with Eirin…

Or have they…?

---

"What is it, Reisen? Why are you suddenly stopping?" Eirin turned a curious glance at her apprentice. The Moon rabbit just suddenly slowed down and her rumpled rabbit ears twitched, as if they were tuning in to some kind of signal.

"I… I think I just heard someone call my name."

"Yes, that would be me, just a second ago."

Eirin's attempt to make a joking retort seemed to have landed on a barren soil, since the Moon rabbit's face remained serious.

"I would have sworn…"

"Maybe it's Reimu-san, wondering what's taking us so long to get to the meeting spot." Kaguya made her guess.

"No, my lady… It was a male voice from the crowd."

"What? A male voice?" Eirin smiled wryly at her. "You've become really popular among the villagers while you've been selling medicine to them… Nothing strange about that…"

"Probably not, Eirin-sensei, but… the voice sounded… like I've heard it somewhere before."

"Considering that the majority of the Human Village has come here to celebrate this festival, there's nothing unusual about running into some of your regular customers, Reisen."

Eirin had a point, as always. Reisen realized that even if her ears were not playing tricks on her, meeting someone familiar here and now would not be anything unusual.

"Let's go, already, Reisen. You know how the miko acts when you keep her waiting."

"Yes, Eirin-sensei…"

---

Just as the rabbit resumed her march towards the shrine, a loud girlish voice distracted her again. She knew that voice too, and this time, she was absolutely sure about the person it belonged to. It was a voice of a fairy who was recently discharged from Eientei…

"Hey~… What are you two funny-faced youkai doing, crouch-walking like that~? Playing hide-and-seek?"

"Oh, great, just what we needed…" muttered the annoyed Kyouichi when he ran into a blue-haired ice fairy.

"Huh? Cirno-chan?" Soudai looked curiously at her through his tengu mask.

"Hey? How do you know me?" wondered the fairy. "Oh, but of course… who DOESN'T know me? Cirno the strongest~!" she flexed her questionable muscles on her thin fairy arms. "But how come you talk without moving your lips? Are you perhaps… a ventriloquist~?"

"Shhhh~. Not so loud, Cirno-chan." Soudai tried to hush her boisterous voice. "It's us… from the Rehabilitation Ward." he moved his mask aside to reveal his face.

"Oh~!" Cirno's azure-blue eyes widened as she recognized him. "You're that human… uhh… from Eientei~! And you must be the other one." She looked at Kyouichi and pulled his mask to take a look.

"Hey… Let go of that…" *slap* "Ugh!" the fairy released the mask and the rubber band returned it painfully back to the outsider's face.

"It IS you~!" the fairy happily floated up and made a few circles around the two humans. "You bought us sweets last time! Do you have some more~? Huh? Huh? Do you?"

"Please, Cirno, calm down…" Kyouichi's attempt was just as futile as Soudai's. The excited ice fairy kept circling around them, hoping to receive some sweet treat. A different approach was necessary…

"Shoo, fairy! We don't have anything for you! Go bother someone else!"

Even though Kyouichi had nothing personal against her, the fairy was now attracting some unwanted attention, and so, he tried to shoo her off. But while doing so, he raised his voice a bit too high...

---

"Well, well, well…" spoke a mature female voice that made the hearts of both outsiders stop for a split second. "Who do we have, here…? It seems your hearing is as sharp as ever, Reisen."

The person they wanted to avoid the most was amusedly looking down at them together with her Moon rabbit student and the former Moon princess.

"Our two runaways have come here to celebrate too…" her smile sent chills running down the spines of the two humans.

"Exposed…" uttered Soudai hopelessly.

"Busted…" Kyouichi also made his one-word comment.

Even Cirno took off somewhere, leaving the two poor souls to face their problems alone. Both outsiders straightened up and took their masks off. There was no point in any attempts to deny their identity anymore. Then as the Lunarian doctor took a step towards them, the two humans took a step backwards.

Eirin took another step. And so did both outsiders. They kept retreating step by step, but Eirin just always closed the distance between them… And again, and again, and again, until their backs encountered the solid wall of the Hakurei Shrine.

"W-what the hell?!" Kyouichi tapped his hands against the barrier that would not let him and his friend retreat any further. "Oh no… It's the shrine…"

"What kind of monster would build a shrine behind our backs just to trap us?!" Soudai called out in desperation.

Reimu, who was waiting for the contestants just a few meters away noticed them and wondered what they were doing. "Hey… What's up with you two?"

"Reimu~! Our only hope!" Kyouichi hurried to her and hid behind her back.

"Help me~! Eirin~!" Soudai shouted and also took refuge behind the shrine maiden.

Still confused, Reimu glanced up at the group from Eientei with a face that silently demanded an explanation from them.

"I don't know why are you two overreacting so much." said the doctor. "As if I was going to hurt you…"

"Don't listen to her, Reimu-san!" Soudai pleadingly looked at the Hakurei shrine maiden. "That woman is dangerous! She's an alien spy sent down to Earth to extract data from live subjects!"

Both Kaguya and Eirin exchanged their amused glances before they both burst into laughter.

"Look, guys…" Reimu turned at the two cowering humans. "I'm in the middle of some important business here, and I really don't have any time for your outside world jokes."

"Did you know, Reimu-san," Eirin continued with her chillingly calm voice, "that the two young men behind you have run away from Eientei?"

"What?" Reimu naturally wasn't aware of this fact. "You two have run from Eientei? Are you both out of your minds?!"

"I'm frankly quite surprised that they even made it safely to the village through the bamboo forest. But somehow… I believe that it wasn't a coincidence."

"Now seriously…" Reimu crossed her arms and looked expectantly at the two outsiders. "Explain yourselves. Why would you do something as stupid as running away from Eientei of all places?"

"Okay, okay, okay,…" Kyouichi raised his both hands over his head as a sign of surrender. "I'll explain, I'll explain everything… Just please… No truth serums, Eirin-sama…"

"Truth serums?" the confused shrine maiden repeated after him.

"There's no need to explain yourself again, Kyouichi-san." Eirin said calmingly. "I already read your letter that explained it all."

Finally, the young outsider stopped seeing her smile as scary, but as rather… reassuring.

"I'm not going to bother you with any questions… And that truth serum was just a little… intimidation on my part. I'm sorry if I scared you both into running…"

"Don't listen to her, Kyouichi!" Soudai pulled the sleeve of his friend's kimono to get his attention. "She's just lying to fool us all."

"My, my, Asakura-san." Eirin amusedly shook her head at his remarks. "You seem to be even more frightened than your younger acquaintance… But rest assured, I have no ill intents towards any of you."

"So… wait a minute…" Reimu interrupted Eirin's explanation. "What exactly are we talking about?"

"As I've recently found out, Reimu-san, there's a person living in Gensokyo who dabbles in potions and alchemy and is able to produce medicine that, I hate to admit, surpasses my own…"

Reimu confusedly blinked at her. "What? Kyouichi?"

"No, no, no…" the giggling Lunarian waved her palm denyingly. "Of course not… Ishimaru Kyouichi was just one of the customers… He bought a certain amount of that person's healing potions and used them on himself as well as on one of the other patients…"

Reimu curiously glanced over at the long-haired outsider. "Is that true?"

Kyouichi silently nodded.

"Who did you get that medicine from?"

"A certain snake youkai known as Xeng-Yao, living in seclusion near the village of Kazemura." announced the voice of Patchouli Knowledge, who heard the conversation and unexpectedly joined it…

"Patchouli?" Reimu was now completely baffled by her sudden entry.

"Indeed." Eirin nodded to confirm the information provided by the sorceress. "Allegedly a veteran from the First Genso-Lunar War, led by none other than the Gensokyo's most infamous youkai… Yakumo Yukari. Apparently he got his hands on some of the Lunarians' knowledge about making superior medicine and perfected that knowledge to some extent… I can hardly wait to meet that youkai in person. I have quite a lot of questions for him."

"So… Are you going to pay that youkai a visit?" Princess Kaguya asked her.

"I believe the answer to that question is quite obvious, my lady. Yes, I'm going to meet him personally."

"That means we could go together with Patchouli-san and others." the Moon princess joyfully smiled and clapped her hands.

"Are you serious about going on that… "archeological expedition", Kaguya-sama?"

"I believe that the answer to that question is rather obvious, Eirin…" Kaguya smiled, returning Eirin's own words to her. "I am… I already know every nook and cranny of Eientei, and while I like it there, sometimes a little change of environment won't hurt…"

"And how come everyone knows about that… EXCEPT ME?!" the shrine maiden agitatedly raised her voice. As the peacekeeper of Gensokyo, she really disliked it when someone was hiding something from her, especially when it concerned the land's balance and security.

"Umm… we were about to ask you to join our little expedition with Marisa-san." Patchouli decided to clear things up for her. "We need to observe the ruins closely and determine whether or not are these ruins the cause of the fairy incident. You and Marisa are expected to be the part of the team."

Reimu shot a suspicious glance at the purple-haired librarian. "And why didn't you tell me sooner then?"

"Well… actually… I…" Patchouli struggled to find the right words for a moment, but she soon found the courage to tell Reimu the truth. "Marisa told me that you were… a bit on edge today because of the tournament, so I wanted to tell you about my plans after the danmaku competition."

"If you must know," Reimu flusteredly crossed her arms, "it's not the tournament that troubles me…"

"I see… Well… I understand if you don't want to join us in Kazemura, but…"

"No, Patchouli." she interrupted her half-way. "On the contrary. I need to go there with you… We're blundering in the dark. Without a clue what to do or who to suspect, there's not much I can do for Gensokyo."

"This is not just your personal affair, Hakurei Reimu." Patchouli reminded her of the serious nature of this incident. "All of Gensokyo should be concerned and all of us should do our best to put things back to normal."

"So when are you going to visit that place and… what are you hoping to find there?"

"As soon as I manage to fully assemble a team. I specialize in arcane arts, but I also need a linguist, a historian and someone who can sense the presence of divine powers, and non-arcane youkai magic. Not to mention someone to watch our backs in case of another fairy ambush… And as for what I hope to find there? Nothing less than the cause of the fairy incident, of course."

"Well, take a look around." Reimu spread her arms and gestured at all the girls that had gathered at the shrine for the tournament. "I don't think there is going to be a better opportunity in the near future for you to assemble that team. Ask that half-beast teacher from the village, or Akyuu-chan if it's about history… I can sense the presence of divine powers… to a certain degree and so should Sanae… A pity that she's not here, though. As for the unusual youkai-related powers… I'd guess that the gods and goddesses can sense those, but I'm not sure. Unfortunately, I haven't seen any kami here… You should probably stop by Moriya Shrine, Patchouli…"

Patchouli was a little surprised by the shrine maiden's insight, but she was really glad that Reimu agreed to join the expedition to Kazemura without any arguments.

"Very well… Let's not waste any more time."

But just as Patchouli was about to walk away and drag some of the tournament participants into her team, Reimu grabbed the back of her nightgown and stopped the short youkai girl dead in her tracks.

"Mukyu!"

"But you're not going to do this now, you egghead! I cannot delay the beginning of the tournament any longer." Reimu checked the names in her list one last time before she tapped her gohei against the wooden porch of her shrine to get everyone's attention.

"Alright, ladies~! The main dish of today's program is about to be served!"

"Main dish~?" Reimu's metaphor has obviously caught all of Yuyuko's attention. "Mmm~… I can hardly wait, Youmu~. Can you please pass me that food basket~? Just a little appetizer before the contest…"

"No."

Yuyuko looked at her servant almost teary-eyed. "Why not~?"

"You know, Yuyuko-sama," the half-ghost maiden turned to her mistress with a slightly wry smile, "there's a saying that a hungry wolf fights harder…"

Meanwhile, Reimu continued: "I know that this tournament has been hastily planned and not very well thought through, but I hope that we can make it a success! First category is going to be the Spell Card Survival, followed by Double Duels, the main event – Single Duels, and finally, the Spell Card Visual Contest as the icing on the cake…"

"Mmm… cake~." muttered the ghostly princess in a daydreamy voice. "Why are you teasing me so much, Reimu-san~?"

"Fine… Now I need you all to get on that stage with me to greet the spectators!" she commanded and headed towards the empty stage. The contestants followed her one by one.

"Well, I'm glad that you two are safe after your reckless escape." Eirin threw one last glance at the two outsiders, adding a smile and a wink. "And I'm also glad that we have cleared up this misunderstanding. And the fact that you even left money to cover your hospitalization… very commendable."

Before any of the two young men could muster any words for a coherent reply, the inventor of the Hourai Elixir was already walking away and joining the other contestants.

"Wait…" Soudai finally spoke up after a few seconds have passed. "So… does that mean she's not going to lobotomize us?"

Kyouichi just chuckled softly. "Sometimes I get the feeling that you've already undergone that procedure, Asakura…"