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...?

50. The Night is Still Young

Chapter 50 – The Night is Still Young

Shameimaru Aya for the last time tonight resumed her role of the announcer.

"Ladies and gentlemen~! Tonight we've seen battles both even-matched and one-sided, but this time all violence goes aside. The Visual Contest is a discipline where each of the contestants shows off one of their selected Spell Cards and it's up to you, the audience to pick the most beautiful pattern of them all~! That's right, folks, the contestants are no longer judges in this discipline. All the responsibility rests on your shoulders now. After all 26 girls present their danmaku, you'll pick one of these voting cards, write the number of the contestant of your choice, rip the card in half along the designated line and put it into this box. Remember, you can only vote once and only for one of the contestants, so take your time to decide. In the end when all votes are counted and the winner is announced, we will be drawing 10 cards from those that voted for the winner and the owners of the second halves of these cards will win a certain prize~! Now aren't we generous~? Let's not waste any more time then. Contestants, line up on the stage and present your wonderful Spell Cards~!"

---

And so, the final tournament discipline has begun. All the 26 girls have stepped up onto the stage, which included the tournament announcer herself. The idea behind the whole discipline was already explained. The lined up girls would stand in the back, and the one performing the card will step forth. After showing her card, she would return back to her place. Or such was the original plan…

"Waaaaah~!" a panicked scream of Remilia cut the calm atmosphere and just as everyone turned their heads towards her, the vampire girl had literally disappeared beneath the stage.

"My lady!" Sakuya covered her mouth, shocked at her mistress's sudden disappearance.

Even Reimu opened her mouth wide as she saw it. "Y... Yukari?"

"Uwaaaa~! What's going on?" Remilia's cry sounded from the place where she was last seen.

Everything was explained in the next moment. The section of the stage's wooden floor has begun to fade and a large gaping hole which was made after the final battle of the Single Duels category has reappeared.

"Nope~! Nue Houjuu." laughing Marisa answered Reimu's question.

The hole wasn't deeper than 150 centimeters, but as it was masked by Nue's Seed of Unknown Form, nobody noticed it and whoever walked over it was in for an unpleasant fall.

"Auuu~!" Remilia stretched out her hand out of the hole and Sakuya quickly pulled her out.

"Are you alright, my lady?"

"Ehehehehe~…" Nue giggled bashfully as Reimu turned her infuriated face at her.

"Nue…" the shrine maiden grumbled her name through her clenched teeth.

"Though it was actually Utsuho who slammed Nue against the stage, ze." Marisa added after her laughing fit from Remilia's unfortunate fall subsided.

"Utsuho…" her menacing gaze shifted from the mysterious youkai to the nuclear hell raven.

"Unyu?" Okuu cluelessly looked back at the shrine maiden. "What?"

"You'll fix this stage or I'll make yakitori out of you." the miko didn't ask. She announced it to her, adding her usual exaggerated threat.

"But she made the hole." Okuu tried to shift the blame back to Nue.

"Uhh , girls?" Aya stepped into their conversation.

"I meant both of you!" Reimu completely ignored her and kept staring at the two youkai girls, as if expecting them to get to work immediately.

"Girls…" Aya spoke up softly again, but her tone changed drastically. "Will you shut up for a minute and let me do my job?!"

Everyone fell silent and obediently stared at the tengu reporter.

"Thank you~." she returned to her normal tone. "So… Even with the stage being a little damaged, let us continue with the competition~! As the host of this tournament and festival, the privilege of being the first contestant in this discipline goes to Hakurei Reimu. Step forth, Reimu-san and show us your most beautiful Spell Card~!"

Still throwing sidelong glances at the two youkai responsible for damaging her stage, Reimu stepped forward and readied her spell….

---

There wasn't as much excitement during this particular discipline of the tournament as during the battles, but the onlookers were always cheering when they could see the girls performing their danmaku art. Some girls chose to use the cards that they already used in battles; other contestants have picked different cards especially for this part of the competition. In fact, there were fewer girls who have used the same spells for this discipline. Some particularly interesting and beautiful cards were made by Yuyuko, Patchouli, Aya, Eirin, Meiling, Kogasa and both oni girls, Suika and Yuugi. Even during this contest, the crow tengu kept taking pictures of the danmaku patterns of all the other girls. And when the last contestant has shown her last card, Aya stepped forward again.

"Thank you, ladies and gentlemen; thank you, all contestants~! I loved all of your Spell Cards. Especially those new ones. However, some of these were a little too strong to be legal in regular danmaku duels. But since this contest is about the beauty, I suppose a little tweaking to your spells to enhance their bullet density is only a plus. Now, ladies and gentlemen, it's time to vote for the most beautiful Spell Card. You have 30 minutes to place your votes. After that we'll close the voting and declare the winner~!"

It was expected that after Aya's announcement the human/youkai crowd would now begin to shift towards the front part of the stage where the voting box was located.

The tournament was practically over, but for some reason a large group of contestants was still standing on the stage, having a heated conversation.

---

"So once again, slowly…" Reimu asked Marisa to repeat what she told her "How exactly did this happen?" she beckoned at the large hole in her stage.

"I already told you, didn't I?" the blonde magician crossed her arms. "It was the final duel. Nue got behind Utsuho, but she turned around and they both attacked each other simultaneously. Both were hit, but Utsuho's attack was so powerful that it flung Nue against the stage with enough force to make a hole in it…"

"Eeeh?" Reimu still looked as puzzled as the first time when Marisa tired to explain it to her. "So... umm… who won the final duel anyway?" the shrine maiden asked her out of the blue.

"Nue did. By just a split second, ze. You should have seen it! Oh… and she even got me in the semifinal."

"So you're the Single Duels champion, huh?" the black-haired miko glanced over at the ancient nue, who nodded in response.

"Why are you asking?" she wondered. "Didn't you watch the matches?"

"Eh… No she was… ehh… collecting her donations." Marisa saved her friend from having to explain her absence to everyone who was still standing on the stage.

"Hey~! Don't you worry about this little hole in the stage, Reimu~!" Suika suddenly showed up. Her voice already showed signs of a certain degree of drunkenness. "Remember that time when your shrine was wrecked by that earthquake? We rebuilt it in just a couple of days. Such a small hole in the stage can't take more than a few minutes to repair. Uh… do you have any spare wooden planks, Reimu?" her cheerfully confident tone immediately changed to an uncertain one.

"How should I know?"

"It's alright, Reimu~. I'll take a look into your storehouse, so leave it all to me~!"

"Suika?" Reimu tried to halt the little oni, but she already took off, heading for Reimu's small storehouse standing in the northern part of the shrine yard. "Wait~! Suika~!"

"So anyhow…" Marisa continued the conversation, as if nothing happened, "…you missed a lot of action, Reimu, but… It's alright. I understand… I would be feeling a bit depressed too if you or Alice suddenly went missing."

"What are you talking about?" Alice, who was standing right next to her, raised her eyebrows at her strange remark. Of course, she wasn't there when Marisa and others went looking for Reimu, so she had no idea what was Marisa referring to.

"So~… How about we all gathered at the shrine and finally started the party?" she changed the topic again.

After a sigh of resignation, Reimu consented. "You're right. Let's go, everyone!" she called at the remaining girls standing on the stage and took off towards her shrine. Being hungry and thirsty after the whole day, the thought of finally starting the party at her shrine sounded well to her.

"Hey, girls, wait for me~!" Aya called after them. "I still need to announce the next performance in the program." she then turned to the bulk of the crowd. "So… Even during the break between your voting and the announcement of the winner of the Visual Contest, the program of this Tanabata festival will keep us all entertained~! Ladies and gentlemen… the Prismriver Ensemble returns, featuring Mystia Lorelei as vocalist~! Now this should be interesting, to say the least. Please enjoy their performance~!"

The return of the three poltergeist sisters has caused enough commotion among the shrine visitors to make them briefly forget about the voting. Even the night sparrow, Mystia was flying over to the center of the stage, ready to make her first performance with this phantom trio. But then out of nowhere, Suika landed on the stage, holding a bunch of wooden planks and a box of nails.

"Umm… is she also a part of our performance, onee-chan?" Lyrica asked her eldest sister.

"I don't think there was anything written about a second vocalist in our program." the puzzled Lunasa replied.

"Oh… You girls are performing now?" Suika looked at the three sisters confusedly. "Ehehe~! Don't mind me; this will only take a second… Oh… that's right." she raised her finger as she got a sudden idea. "Wait here, okay, I'll be back in a second."

Suika was lucky that Reimu already entered her shrine, because if she saw her interrupting the program with her drunken antics, she'd definitely give her some harsh scolding, most likely in the form of danmaku.

"Was that some kind of joke…?" Merlin exchanged quick glances with her sisters. "Because I don't get it…"

"I'm sure you're not the only one." Lunasa shook her head as she watched Suika flying to the shrine.

True to her word, she was back in a moment. And oddly enough, Sakuya Izayoi, the maid of the Scarlet Devil kept her company on her flight back to the stage.

"What's going on here? Really…" even Mystia was at a loss for words when she watched these two girls literally stealing all the attention from them.

"Okay, Sakuya, do your stuff~." Suika asked the maid to use her time-stopping ability.

A little reluctant to take orders or even requests from anyone but, her mistress, Sakuya crossed her arms as she looked down at the ginger-haired girl.

"I don't recall being in your service, though."

"But Remilia isn't even paying you. Come on… Can't you do me and Reimu a little favor? I'll let you have as much sake as you want." she gently patted her greatest treasure.

Sakuya tilted her head to the side, while eyeing Suika with suspicion. "Is that a bribing attempt?"

"Hey, I'm just trying to fix a hole, which incidentally your mistress fell into… And I don't want to delay them too much…" she pointed her thumb at the Prisimriver Ensemble, "so I'm asking you to use your power to help me."

Reluctant as she was, Sakuya knew that Suika was right. Her mistress really did fall into this hole and she'd actually be doing her a favor by helping Suika fix it.

"Very well." she took her pocket watch in her left hand and snapped the fingers on her right hand. Suddenly the noisy crowd went silent. All the ambient noises – the rustling leaves on the trees in the wind or the flapping of festival flags, everything became perfectly quiet as Sakuya made the time flow only for herself and Suika.

"Oooh… Cool. So this is what it looks like when the time stops." the little oni slowly turned around as she watched her surroundings being frozen in complete stillness. She found it so mesmerizing that she almost forgot that she wanted to fix the stage. "This is so amazing~! And to think that a mere human is capable of such a thing…"

"Ehm…" Sakuya cleared her throat to remind the oni of her original intention.

But it seemed that Suika didn't even notice that.

"Ooooh, hey, hey, Sakuya~! Look…" she opened her sake gourd and tried to spill some of its content. As expected, the sake remained perfectly still and wouldn't pour out. That's why she made a rapid 360 degree turn with her gourd and created a ring of small blobs of sake around herself.

"So cool~!"

Sakuya watched as the little oni was having fun catching the blobs of sake with her mouth, and a growing feeling of impatience was beginning to fill her heart.

"Hey, Sakuya~! Look, look…" she opened her mouth and swallowed the last sake blob wile levitating a few centimeters above the stage.

"Hey, look over here…" the maid diverted Suika's attention to several throwing knives that she flung at her while Suika was having fun exploring the physics of frozen time. The tips of these knives were pointing at Suika, but due to the flow of time being stopped, they only served as a little warning for the oni.

"How about you got to work already?"

"Oh~! That's right! Let's get this stage repaired!" she declared with an endearingly cheerful voice.

She knelt down next to the damaged section of the stage and proceeded to remove all the broken boards from the wooden construction. Her immense physical strength allowed her to pull out the nailed down planks effortlessly with her bare hands.

"Alright…" she dusted off her hands when she was done. "Now I just need to nail down these new planks."

Sakuya curiously looked at the short oni girl and shifted her gaze slowly to left and right.

"I see that you brought some nails with you, but… you have no tools. How do you want to nail these planks down with no hammer?"

"Hehe~!" Suika giggled while she took the first plank and placed it on the supporting construction of the stage. "Like this…"

She took the nail in her left hand and using the pinky finger on her right hand she simply pushed it down all the way. The 15 cm nail went through the plank like a hot knife through butter.

"Oh… I see." Sakuya gave her an acknowledging nod and watched as the oni girl nailed the rest of the planks down without any tools.

But when she was about to put down the last plank, Suika realized there was a slight problem that her amazing strength couldn't solve.

"Oh no~! This one's too wide~! It won't fit~!"

"Obviously, these planks were not made for this stage." Sakuya stated matter-of-factly.

"But… but… how are we going to fix Reimu's stage now~?"

The cheerfulness in her voice was suddenly replaced by uncertainty bordering with panic.

"You should have brought some tools with you after all." remarked the silver-haired maid.

"We'll need to cut off about five centimeters from this plank to make it fit…" murmured Suika as she roughly measured the plank's width.

"Why are you looking at me? My knives aren't suited for sawing wood."

"I know… But… Oooooh~!" Suika exclaimed suddenly as another ingenious idea crossed her drunken mind.

"So you have an idea?"

"Wait here a moment Sakuya~. I'll be back in a moment~!"

Wondering what kind of idea Suika just got, Sakuya decided to follow her out of curiosity. The ginger-haired oni was apparently headed for the Hakurei Shrine again, probably with the intention to drag someone else into helping her. It turned out that Sakuya's hunch was right, Suika was already leaving the shrine, dragging the motionless Youmu Konpaku who didn't even struggle, since she was like everyone and everything, put into stasis by Sakuya's power.

"Eh? Konpaku-san?" Sakuya turned her head as Suika with Youmu flew past her.

"Hey, hey, Sakuya~!" Suika called after the maid. "Put Youmu in the same flow of time as us, will ya?"

"Uh… I see now…" Sakuya slowly realized what kind of idea Suika had come up with. She pointed her finger at the half-ghost girl and in the next moment, Youmu became "alive" again.

However, the shock from her sudden relocation from the porch of the Hakurei Shrine to the middle of the stage was now more than apparent on her flabbergasted expression.

"A….ahh….EEEEEEH~?!"

What she found even more unsettling was the fact that her ghostly half was still floating around her original position near the shrine. Suddenly, her eyes widened and her knees began to tremble. It wasn't long before she collapsed on the stage's floor as her soul hurried to get to her body.

"Oh damn~!" the oni cursed and covered her mouth upon realizing what she has just done. "Youmu~! YOUMU~! Are you alright?"

Youmu was alright, but having her soul too far away from her body could have tragic consequences for this half-human girl. She only experienced a light shock, but both Sakuya's and Suika's hearts were racing in panic, hoping that they didn't hurt her.

"Where…? How…? What happened?" Youmu blurted out questions as she was catching her breath and getting a hold of herself.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry~!" Suika began repeatedly apologizing to her. "I didn't realize what could have happened…"

"And… what did happen exactly?" the half-ghost gardener was still more than just confused.

And so, Suika began to explain her intentions and the reason why she has taken Youmu to the stage.

"So you just wanted to repair it?" she asked the little oni.

Suika nodded twice.

"And you want me to cut off 5 centimeters from this plank to make it fit?"

Again, Suika nodded her head affirmatively.

"Well… It's not that I couldn't do it, but… you could have just asked me instead of giving me such a shock."

"We're sorry, Youmu~! We only wanted to get it fixed before the next performance so that Reimu wouldn't be mad."

"Fine." the half-ghost, just like Sakuya, wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible. "Show me again how much should I cut off from this plank…"

"About this much…" Suika put the plank in vertical position and put her finger on its top to show Youmu the point where is should be cut.

And the straightforward servant of the Netherworld's princess didn't wait for anything. In a blink of an eye, she drew her Roukanken and made a swift downward slash, missing Suika's finger by just a millimeter.

"Awawa~!" the horned girl exclaimed in shock, immediately retracting her hand, even though Youmu has already cut through the wooden plank. "Do you want to cut my fingers off~?!"

The half-ghost just gave her sly grin. "Don't worry. I'm pretty good at this."

"But you surprised me~!"

"That's for dragging me to the stage when Sakuya-san stopped the time."

"But I apologized~!"

"Apology accepted, Suika-san." said the silver-haired girl and sheathed her long katana.

Since the time was still stopped, the plank didn't fall after Youmu cut it with her sword. After Suika had calmed down a bit, she stepped closer to check out the result of Youmu's work.

"Wow~. So clean and precise…" she commented as she traced the edge of the plank with her fingers. The cut was flawless. But it was not just Youmu's skill alone that made it possible. If she had used any other sword than her youkai-forged Roukanken, this masterful cut would most likely end up in a failure.

"And it even fits perfectly~!" the oni rejoiced as she placed the plank over the rectangular hole in the stage. All that was left to do was for Suika to nail it down.

"And done~!" she dusted off her hands and a contented smile brightened up her face. "Good as new~!"

"I guess we can finally resume the flow of time." said Sakuya.

"Then we better get off the stage first." remarked Youmu.

"We are a good team, eh~?" sounded Suika as she was following the girls in their flight to the Hakurei Shrine.

Once the girls returned to the shrine, Sakuya snapped her fingers one more time, and the flow of time was back to normal.

---

"Whoa… Suika… Sakuya… Why did you suddenly appear here out of nowhere?" Marisa asked them with a puzzled expression.

"Oh my~! Youmu~! You surprised me." the ghostly princess reacted similarly when Sakuya resumed the flow of time. From her point of view, it seemed that her loyal servant, who was sitting by her left side, suddenly disappeared and reappeared by her right side.

"I was surprised too, Yuyuko-sama…"

Even the Prismriver sisters and Mystia only saw Suika and Sakuya suddenly disappearing from the stage, which was now repaired. They too were surprised, but they now had to focus on their performance, so they just had to pretend they didn't see anything.

And so the poltergeists started playing their instruments without even touching them and Mystia began to sing a song that surprisingly didn't make anyone go night-blind.

Meanwhile the crowds continued to place their votes for the most beautiful Spell Card and a very small group of humans from the outside world stepped inside the Hakurei Shrine.

"Is there still room for a few more people, Reimu?" Kyouichi asked the host of the festival.

"I think so." replied the shrine maiden, who was a bit preoccupied by serving dango to all of her guests.

"Welcome~!" Suika was waving her hand at the outsiders.

"Who are all these humans, Satori-sama?" Okuu didn't hide her curiosity as the group of strangers walked into the shrine and took their seats on the floor.

"What did I tell you about pointing your fingers at people, Okuu?"

"Unyu… I'm sorry…"

"We're all outsiders, Reiuji-san." Soudai didn't hesitate to reply to her. "Oh, and by the way, you were awesome in the tournament."

Satori apologized for her pet's straightforwardness and began explaining what business these humans had with the Hakurei shrine maiden.

Meanwhile, Yuyuko was having a bit of a dilemma.

"Youmu~! Look~!" she addressed her servant while looking outside through the opened sliding door. "The Prismriver Sisters are playing again~! And they even have a singer now."

"So, do you wish to listen to their concert, Yuyuko-sama?"

"But Reimu is serving those delicious dango~. What should I do~?"

"You can simply go outside and I'll bring you the dumplings." Youmu suggested to her.

"Hmm…" the lovely ghost thoughtfully bit her lower lip, still not shifting her gaze away from the performance outside. "But looking at that night sparrow is making me… hungry~."

"Somehow, I kind of expected that answer from you…" Youmu smirked and decided to lend Reimu a hand with serving the dumplings on the plates.

Suika was generously filling the guests' sake cups, Aya joined the conversation between Satori and her pet hell raven, Byakuren was shaking Nue's hand and congratulating her for winning the Single Duels discipline, when Cirno shyly hovered up to her and pulled her gently by the cape.

"Oh… Well, if it isn't our brave little fairy~. What would you like of me, young miss?"

"Well… I…" Cirno nervously looked down, as if she was hoping to find the right words on the shrine's floor. "About earlier…"

"Yes?"

"Well… umm… not that I was afraid to take you on in a danmaku fight, but… thank you…"

The usually loud, playful, carefree and sometimes even a bit aggressive ice fairy was now looking so docile and shy that Byakuren couldn't suppress her joyful smile and the heartwarming feeling that began spreading over her body. Cirno just thanked her for her decision to forfeit the tournament.

"You don't need to thank me at all, my dear. It wouldn't be right if I battled against you."

"But that Eirin was so mean~!" Cirno began complaining to her, despite the fact that the Lunarian doctor was sitting just a few meters away from her. "Even worse than that miko over there..."

"You were saying…?" Reimu turned her face to the fairy with her menacing smile.

"Uhh… nothing."

"Should I have your portion of dumplings for myself?"

"You made some for me too?" the surprised fairy slowly dared to look into Reimu's eyes.

"Maybe I did. Maybe I didn't…" the miko teased her with her ambiguous reply, but she did stretch her arms out with the plate of dango in her hands, as if prompting Cirno to take it.

The ice fairy blinked a few times, wondering what trickery was Reimu about to play on her. But after several seconds have passed, Cirno didn't resist her temptation and slowly hovered to the shrine maiden.

"I don't have all night just for you, so hurry up and take it already."

Cirno quickly grabbed the plate from Reimu's hands and tentatively took one small bite from one of the dango. The sweet and slightly sour taste filled her mouth. The dango were delicious and the little ice fairy was now compelled to express her gratitude… in her own fairy-like way.

"Th… thank you... I'll give you a frozen frog in return next time~!" she said with a cheerful smile adorning her childish face.

"I'll pass." muttered the resident of the shrine and returned to tending to her other guests.

---

A few meters away from that scene, Remilia was amusedly looking into Suika's face as the oni filled her cup with sake.

"Considering what the two of us said to each other before the tournament, we didn't even fight each other in the end…"

"Oh, yes~. We both got eliminated our first battle, didn't we?" Suika recalled.

"Heh…" Remilia let out a weak chuckle. "Even Cirno made if further in the tournament than us… How ironic."

"I wonder if Byakuren-san would do the same if I got her as an opponent."

"But this tournament is just an innocent game compared to real duels." the vampire continued, as if she was ignoring Suika's contemplations. "I can already see that such duels are going to take place in the following months…"

"Eh~? A premonition?" the ginger haired oni curiously titled her head to the side.

"I was just looking at the fate strings of those present here and some of them... no, many of them tell me about impending conflicts."

"Is it somehow related to that fairy incident?"

"Hard to say. But perhaps it is so… Or perhaps it means that we'll get into some serious disputes in the near future."

"Hmph~!" the oni's carefree smile wasn't wiped off her face by Remilia's ominous words. "Well in that event, I'm not afraid to take your challenge again. In a serious battle…"

"Oddly enough, Suika," the vampire continued with a serious tone, "I don't see any future conflicts between us two in particular."

"Odd indeed… Oh, by the way, Remi, can you tell if there are going to be any more fairy attacks?"

Remilia took a quick look at the few fairy guests in Reimu's shrine and shrugged her shoulders. "That I don't know. But at least these girls won't be causing any serious trouble in the upcoming days."

"I see." said Suika after a while of silence and waved her hands in the air to get everyone's attention. "Hey, has everyone got their cup filled with sake~?"

After a wave of positive replies from all the present guests, the little oni raised her gourd high.

"Well then… Let the fun last all night~! Cheers~!"

"CHEERS~!" everyone called in unison and emptied their cups.

After everyone has put down their cup, a very interesting idea raced through Suika's mind when she turned back to Remilia.

"Oh~! This sake is giving me such brilliant ideas~!"

When Youmu heard her say that, she quickly turned her nervous face at the oni and her ghostly half began to tremble in air slightly. However, Suika's idea didn't have anything to do with kidnapping people this time.

"Hey, Reimu~! Would you please pass me that amulet that we got from the Scarlet Devil Mansion?"

The look on Reimu's face was somewhat similar to Youmu's. "Huh? What for? Just take some 5 yen coin if you want to do some of those so called "magic" tricks…"

"No, silly~! I want Remi to take a look at it~!"

"Eh?" uttered both girls in unison.

"You stole something from MY mansion again?" asked the vampire with an agitated tone.

"I don't see the point." Reimu hesitated to comply. "If it's from that mansion, then Remilia surely must have seen it already anyway."

"Hey, what amulet are you two even talking about?" Remilia was getting lost in their conversation.

Patchouli, who was so far just quietly enjoying the taste of dango immediately sharpened her senses when Suika mentioned the amulet. The amulet was given to her by the youkai of boundaries personally to serve as a communication device. Although used just once for this purpose, the elemental sorceress believed that it could be used to track down the exact position of Yukari Yakumo if it was given to a youkai with mind-reading abilities. This theory was perhaps based on truth, but it turned out to be of little import, as the mentioned border youkai wasn't even present in Gensokyo. But she knew that Reimu was right. Remilia was the one who suggested locating the boundary youkai by this amulet and she had already seen it many times.

"Oh, the one we gave to that outsider to deliver it to Reimu~!" Remilia seemed to suddenly recall. "Yeah, I've seen it already, Suika. There's no point in looking at it again."

"Oh…" Suika's enthusiasm seemed to have died down a little. "And did you see anything interesting?"

"Hmm… but you know… It might actually not be a complete waste of time to look at it again after all." the little vampire changed her mind. "May I see it again, Reimu?"

"I don't really get what you're hoping to see, but… sure, why not?"

Reimu walked up to a small table in her room, where a small decorative wooden chest was standing. She took a key out of her pocket and unlocked the ornamented box.

Marisa was probably the only one besides Reimu who knew what this box contained. It stored all sorts of items that were used by Reimu's late family, or were simply a memento of the times when they were alive. Old black and white photographs, aged documents, drawings, old-fashioned omamori trinkets, a few rusty coins, a hairbrush, a bunch of writing brushes, and even Reimu's first gift – a small wooden cat-shaped toy. Reimu could never hold back a smile when she looked at this old toy, marked by tiny bite marks from the times when she was chewing on it as a child. Even after all those years, this wooden cat had survived up to this day, reminding Reimu of her early childhood.

All of these items had little if any monetary value, but to Reimu, they were some of her greatest treasures, the sentimental value of which rivaled even her donation box. And among these treasures, rested the small, circular ornamented amulet made of gold and silver. Reimu took the medallion by the chain and gave it one more look before she handed it over to the vampire.

"Hmm… This is interesting indeed." noted Remilia after taking the amulet from the shrine maiden. She wasn't even looking at the amulet as much as the people and youkai in the room.

"What's interesting~? Tell us~!" Suika was impatiently waiting for the result of her observation.

"At first I thought it was just because me and Patchy are the owners of this amulet, but now that so many of us gathered here, I can see…"

"What do you see?" Reimu prompted her to hurry up with her answer.

"Not just mine and Patchouli's fates are tied to this amulet, but almost everyone else's in this room too."

"And… what does that mean?" the oni demanded an explanation.

Remilia herself wondered about the meaning of this knot of fate strings that loomed over the mysterious amulet. "Actually, it can mean all sorts of things. Good or bad. But you, Reimu, Suika, Yuyuko, Youmu, Aya, Eirin and Kaguya, and even those outsiders over there… our fates are linked to this small piece of metal."

"Why didn't you see this before?" the shrine maiden asked her.

"I can only see the strings of fate within a close vicinity of a person or an object. Sort of like an aura. So even if two things or persons are bound by fate, I cannot see this bond unless the physical distance between them is small."

"I guess that's not such a big surprise, since we're all trying to find Yukari." said Suika. "Perhaps it means we'll succeed, right~?"

"Either that or her scheming will affect all of us." the vampire gave another possible explanation.

"Just as I thought." Reimu let out a sigh. "There was no point in showing it to you again."

"No, but it made me realize something." Remilia gently traced the amulet's surface with her fingertip, "That we should keep it close by in our search for answers."

"We've already discussed the date of our expedition to the quarry of Kazemura with Eirin and Kaguya." Patchouli announced to her. "Akyuu and Keine will join us too. We'll probably take a few days to thoroughly analyze the ruins, so you might come with us if you like."

But Patchouli's offer didn't sound too lucrative for the spoilt vampire. "I would certainly not trade the comfort of my mansion for some inn just so I could watch you digging around in the dirt. But I suppose I could keep you company for a little while."

"Oh, right, you told me about that earlier today, didn't you?" Reimu turned her face to the librarian. "When are we going to go there?"

"It would be best to do so as soon as possible, but I understand that we all need some time to prepare. We'll go there next week."

"Next week, huh?" the shrine maiden stared thoughtfully at the ceiling for a moment. "Fine, we'll meet up here then…"

"I want to come too~!" Suika excitedly waved her little arms over her head.

"And maybe we should go too, Youmu." Yuyuko expressed her interest in this expedition.

While Reimu thought that too many people looking for clues would only get into each other's way, the expedition wasn't even her idea, so she remained silent.

Patchouli didn't seem to have anything against a few extra members in her team. On the contrary, she accepted them happily, adding that it wouldn't be a bad idea to get help from other sources too.

"It's very important that our observation is thorough and that we won't miss even the smallest detail." she continued in all seriousness. "Keep in mind that we are looking for the source of the fairy attacks which, as Eirin-san pointed out, is the result of their possession by evil spirits. We are only going to find out whether or not the newly unearthed ruins in Kazemura are somehow tied to this incident or not. Apart from simply studying them and trying to understand the signs written on them, we must look for any sources of power that could attract evil spirits to that area and making them possess the bodies of the fairies. That includes powers other than magic. We should take anyone who has the ability to perceive something with us. Remilia, you're vital to this expedition too. Reimu-san can try to detect any divine powers and…" she suddenly stopped and looked around, as if looking for someone in particular. "…I heard you three fairies can detect any living creature within a large radius of your vicinity." she said while looking at the trio of fairies – Luna, Star and Sunny.

The fairies were having a much more carefree conversation with their friends, but as soon as the purple-haired youkai sorceress addressed them, they became mute for a while. After what happened to them a few days ago and after they heard the ominous news about crazy fairies rampaging around the northeastern Gensokyo, they now feared that area more than anything else.

"E… ehh… it's only Star-chan, who has this ability."

"But Patchouli," Remilia tapped her friend's shoulder, "I don't think taking the fairies with you would be the best idea. What if they get possessed?"

"Yes, what if Sunny-chan goes crazy again~?" Star Sapphire also seemed to share Remilia's concern.

"In case of any fairy ambush, it would be good to be warned before we get surrounded. And should you become possessed, it would be a wonderful opportunity for me to observe this phenomenon first hand, which would be of great benefit to…"

"NO WAAAY~!" three fairies shouted in unison before Patchouli even finished her sentence.

"Fufufu…" Remilia giggled amusedly. "Perhaps you should have kept that dark little intention of yours to yourself, Patchy."

"We're not going to come with you even if you bribed us with all the sweets in the world~!" Sunny continued to protest. "Uh… well… perhaps that wouldn't be so bad, but… NO~! You can't just force us to come with you and treat us like guinea pigs~! That's against the rights of fairies~!"

"What is there to worry about?" Patchouli didn't quite understand their fear. "You technically cannot die. And what's more, you'll be under our protection."

"Like that's some convincing argument~!" yelled Star.

Patchouli figured that she shouldn't have been so honest about her desire to see the possession of fairies first hand, so she had to choose a different approach.

"Reimu-san is an expert at dealing with evil spirits and exorcism. Am I right?"

The shrine maiden replied positively. "I can even give you a blessing to ward you against the evil spirits, so you should be safe if you'll stay with us."

"Reimuuuu~!" Suika suddenly exclaimed with another brilliant idea on her mind. "That's it! We may actually reduce the fairy attacks or even stop them completely~!"

"Eh? How so?"

"I could use my gathering ability to attract Gensokyo's fairies to the shrine, and you'd just give them your warding blessing."

"Do you even know how many fairies are there in Gensokyo?!" Reimu called out. "My blessings are only good for individuals or small groups. And even if I blessed all zillion of them, that would only be a temporary measure. We need to stop those evil spirits."

"Then wouldn't it be a good idea to have one more shrine maiden in our team?" Marisa suggested.

"Sanae? Hmm…" Reimu hummed thoughtfully. "Definitely not a bad idea considering that we now know what we're really dealing with."

"And one of the goddesses or both of them could be of great assistance too." added the witch.

"And let's not forget about Satori-san." Patchouli looked at the mind-reading youkai, expecting her assistance during the expedition.

The satori from the underground had no qualms about heading out to the mining village. She was even the part of the group that managed to stop an incredible number of possessed fairies a week ago. Her kind heart and desire to help the other girls resolve this incident made her not only agree with joining Patchouli's expedition, but also suggest another member for the team.

"I should also let Koishi know about this trip. It would be good to have her with us."

And so it turned out that the expedition team to Kazemura was not going to be a small group. The younger of the Komeiji sisters would certainly be a valuable asset to this team. Not only due to her power to see the subconscious, but her high-level danmaku arsenal and exceptional physical endurance made her a force to be reckoned with.

"Yeah, Koishi should go with us." Marisa seconded Satori's suggestion. "I wonder how this tournament would have ended if she had come here instead of Utsuho."

The girls from the Temple of Myouren also wanted to offer their help with the resolution of the fairy incident, but after a short discussion, it was decided that they'd focus on protecting the Human Village during the expedition.

"It would be unwise if all of us gathered in Kazemura." Patchouli pointed out, "If the swarms of possessed fairies decided to take their attacks further to the south and west, we'd be leaving those parts of Gensokyo completely unprotected."

"Very well, Patchouli-san." Byakuren nodded. "We'll stay vigilant. I hope your expedition goes well, so that we may really have a reason to celebrate."

"Thank you, Byakuren-san." the librarian bowed lightly to the head of the Myouren Temple. "We shall try. But we can't guarantee our success. Only deserve it…"

---

After all the details of the expedition were made clear, the rest of the night continued like any good festival should. The girls who were once rivals or enemies were now peacefully talking about their everyday lives, complaining about their work or just joking around. Some of the more curious individuals even began asking the group of outsiders about various things regarding the life of modern humans.

Midori was talking to Byakuren and some of her followers, Soudai gathered his courage and started a conversation with Princess Kaguya and Reisen, and Kyouichi somehow found himself chatting with Youmu and her mistress.

He found that Youmu was probably one of the most down-to-earth girls he ever met. Despite he was always a bit distracted by her ghostly half, talking to her felt so natural and relaxed that it seemed like he was talking to his old childhood friend. Yuyuko, on the other hand, often seemed to escape his rational thinking with her seemingly random and off-topic remarks, but then she always managed to explain what she wanted to say. She was no doubt a very interesting person to converse with.

With good mood the time seemed to flow much faster and it only seemed like a little while has passed when Aya announced that the voting for the winner of the Visual Contest has been closed and it was time to count all the votes. Several girls, including Reimu, have followed the tengu out of the shrine. But the feast continued without interruption.

"Hey~! Why are you talking with the dead, Kyouichi~?" Marisa nonchalantly interrupted Kyouichi's idle talk with the girls form the Netherworld.

"Because I can't do that where I come from, Marisa." he replied with laughter. "Is there something you want?"

"Suika's serving another round, ze. Come join us~!"

"Suika-san's feeling generous today." the ghost princess commented as she floated over to the small circle of people and youkai who were holding sake cups in their hands as Suika was refilling them. "Enjoy your sake slowly, Youmu, okay?"

"I'll only have a little bit, Suika…" Youmu tried to tell her before the oni poured the maximum amount of sake into her cup, but of curse, Suika didn't listen.

"I said I'll just have a little~!"

"It's a festival~! Have as much as you like~!" the cheerful oni ignored her protests.

"But, but…" the half-ghost's voice got drowned in the cacophony of voices as everyone raised their cups and drank the second round.

---

After no longer than five minutes, Aya peered inside the shrine.

"Hey, everyone, all the votes have been counted. All of you who care to hear the winner's name, step outside~! Oh, and Suika… Reimu wants you to make more tea for everyone."

Some of the girls left the shrine to hear the official announcement, but some remained inside the shrine, even though they were participating in the contest.

"Hey, it's not like I'm expecting to win it anyway…" murmured Suika as other girls were leaving the shrine.

"Same here, ze…" added Marisa, who was reluctant to stand up from the comfortable cushion. "I'll just leave the door opened and watch it from here."

"I didn't even compete, so I'll just stay here and have these delicious dango." said Tewi.

Just a few girls were occupying the interior of Reimu's shrine. Kyouichi was about to step outside as well, when he overheard Suika saying something to Marisa.

"So you say Reimu was acting strange today? …Eh~? And she lost because of that~?"

Kyouichi didn't need any complementary explanations to figure out what they were talking about. And despite the fact he was about to leave, his growing curiosity has pushed him back into the shrine.

"We should do something to get her into better mood~." the oni declared as she patted her sake gourd.

"Not sure if getting her drunk is going to do the trick, though." Marisa gave her a doubting look.

"Of course it will, hehe~! Actually... I set myself a personal objective to get everyone drunk tonight~!"

"Yeah? Well good luck with Yuyuko or Eirin. And Satori will probably just want to drink tea… Not to mention your old friend Yuugi will probably take a lot of sake to get drunk."

"Hmm… Yuugi…" Suika thoughtfully scratched her chin. "I have a great idea~! Wait here while I go find her." she giggled mischievously. "This will be fun…"

As she turned around to head out of the shrine, she noticed Kyouichi standing in the doorway.

"Oh… Did you forget something?"

The outsider shook his head. "I just…" he sighed and spilled the truth. "I overheard a bit of your conversation about Reimu."

"Oh." Marisa nodded understandingly. "No doubt you have a lot of questions…"

Indeed, Marisa couldn't be more correct.

"I'm just a bit confused…" he euphemized his current state of mind.

"What you heard is true. Reimu really does care a lot about Yukari."

"But didn't she once say that she's nothing more than acquainted with her?"

The blonde witch let out an amused giggle. "That she did… Hey, remember that time when you asked me what real Reimu is like?"

"Uhh… yeah." he tried to recall the day when he first flew with Marisa on her broom.

"Well, this is what she's like. Claiming one thing and meaning the opposite."

"A tsundere?" Kyouichi jestingly associated the common anime and manga character archetype with the Hakurei shrine maiden.

"Don't know what that is exactly… But Reimu doesn't despise all youkai as she says. Unless they get in her way or cause trouble, of course…"

"So… why Yukari?"

"Indeed, she wasn't the first youkai Reimu encountered, but she's the one who eventually became the closest to her. Having grown up without parents couldn't have been easy for Reimu and I think that Yukari acted like her parent or her older sister in many ways… Making her train to summon the powers of the gods, teaching her various things, resolving incidents with her, enjoying parties or lonely days with her, and of course even playing an occasional prank on her… Those two are really close. It's not that hard to imagine why Reimu misses her."

"I see." Kyouichi finally got a clearer idea about Reimu's personality and her relationship with the youkai of boundaries. He'd probably never find out about this from Reimu's words alone. For the whole time the shrine maiden was refusing to tell the truth to anyone. Even Marisa, whom Kyouichi thought to be her best friend couldn't manage to pry it out of her…

"Perhaps she didn't want to bother us with her personal problems." Kyouichi thought aloud.

"More like she feels a bit embarrassed to talk about such things." Marisa gave a more plausible reason.

---

Meanwhile, Suika returned to the shrine along with her old friend, Yuugi. She even caught the last bit of Marisa's and Kyouichi's conversation.

"I always knew that Yukarin likes Reimu~." she stated matter-of-factly. "Actually it's was almost like her tradition to watch over the Hakurei family and help them on occasion. But after the unfortunate deaths of the head priest and priestess – Reimu's parents, Yukari took pity on her and decided to look after her."

"But they first met six years ago." the blonde witch pointed out. "If Yukari really cared about the Hakurei family, she would have shown up sooner, or prevent Reimu's parents from dying in the first place, don't you think?"

"Her ways are strange even for me to understand." Suika admitted. "But when Reimu became orphaned, she told me this: "It's too early for her to meet me in person, but we will meet soon enough. Either I'll come to her, or she will come to me." So I figured that before they first met, Yukari has not only been keeping an eye on her, but also secretly and subtly helping her in all possible ways."

"And what about Yuyuko-sama?" Kyouichi asked. "If Yukari is her best friend, it must be just as tough for her as for Reimu."

Suika smiled light-heartedly. "She doesn't look too gloomy to me."

"Ah, Yuyuko has known her for hundreds of years and surely there were times when she didn't see Yukari for longer than just 6 months. She's probably used to it." Marisa speculated. "The same could be said about you too, right, Suika?"

"It's true that there were times we didn't see each other for a long time, but I admit, I'd really like to see her soon."

The ginger-haired oni then turned her face to Yuugi.

"So, Yuugi-chan~… As I said, we plan to get this party lively and cheerful, like the ones we used to have."

"Hehe, I'm listening." the blonde oni grinned slyly.

"We know that not everyone is a good drinker, so we'll help them get into the right mood~."

Marisa and Kyouichi exchanged their worried looks.

"To put it simply," said Suika with her index finger raised, "we're going to make a super-concentrated sake~."

"Oh boy…" Marisa already had a bad feeling about this.

"Super-concentrated sake?" the outsider scratched his chin. "Won't that be like… lethal to humans?"

"Nonsense~!" the little oni dismissively waved her hand. "I've already done the math and elaborated an optimal dose of sake required to get an ordinary human into the right mood just from one cup… Okay, Yuugi-chan, let's get to work~!"

Yuugi already had her sake tray full and Suika added a little bit of her own. "Alright~! Now, using my powers of gathering, I'll make this quantity of sake super-dense."

"Super-dense?" the ordinary magician curiously observed the procedure.

It looked almost like one of Suika's Spell Cards. The sake in Yuugi's tray turned into some sort of swirling mist-like substance that began to rotate and gradually shrunk until it was just a tiny ball of mass. Then after a few sparks have erupted from it, it turned into a solid substance.

"Ta-daaah~! It's done~!" the two-horned oni rejoiced as she grabbed the tiny transparent ball.

"Is that something like a bottle of sake in a pill?" wondered Kyouichi.

"You could say that." she replied and a very mischievous smile appeared on her face. "Come on, Yuugi, we have to make more before the girls return~!"

And as the two oni did their alchemy, Marisa couldn't resist the temptation to take one of those suspicious sake pills and take a whiff.

"It doesn't smell like sake anymore… Are you sure you haven't turned it into some kind of poison?"

"Realaaax, Marisa~. We've done this before. You'll get drunk if you eat it, believe me."

"And how do you expect the other girls to eat these? These pills look more suspicious than some of Eirin's medicine."

"Simply. We'll just let them dissolve in their tea." explained Yuugi and chuckled along with Suika.

Kyouichi opened his mouth in awe. "You want to spike everyone's tea?"

"Not everyone's." Suika corrected him. "We'll only slip it into the cups of those girls, who don't like to drink sake very much. Everyone else will get drunk normally."

"Is one of those girls Reimu?" the outsider asked tentatively.

"Reimu usually drinks quite a bit, but in her current mood, it might be better to let her have this." said the short oni while rolling the solidified ball of sake between her fingers. "And since most of the girls are youkai, we should make their doses more… adequate."

And so, they repeated the process of gathering multiple doses for humans into even more concentrated "sake pills" for youkai.

"Okay, be careful not to eat this one." Suika warned the two humans about the recently made sake pellets. "You could overdose yourselves with alcohol."

Suddenly a loud cheering and applause from outside the shrine diverted their attention.

---

"Congratulations, Marisa-san~! You ranked third in the visual contest~!" Aya apparently started announcing the winners. "Huh? Marisa? Where are you, Marisa-san~?"

"Whoa! Who would have guessed it?" the blonde witch hurriedly stood up from the floor. Not even putting her hat on, she hurried outside to enjoy the brief moment of glory.

Kyouichi, Suika and Yuugi also congratulated her before she hopped on her broom and darted off to the stage.

The two oni girls did not let the announcement distract them from their mischief and they continued making super-concentrated sake candy like a small workshop. Only faint flashes of yellow light coming from the shrine were indicating that something suspicious was going on. Fortunately for them, nobody really paid any attention to that.

"Ah, there you are, Marisa~!" Aya waved her hand at the arriving witch. "Once again, let me congratulate you to your success."

"Thanks for all your votes, ze~!" Marisa addressed those words to all the shrine visitors.

"And that was Marisa-san, and her Spell Card called "Black Magic "Event Horizon"."

The Spell Card was indeed a strong candidate for winning this non-combat discipline. It was pretty much the upgraded version of her "Magic Sign "Stardust Reverie", which she used in battle against Reimu. The Event Horizon consisted of a denser cluster of unwinding spiral-shaped patterns consisting of star-shaped danmaku that changed color as it moved, much like a huge 3-d kaleidoscope.

"To tell the truth," Marisa continued, "I was tempted to use one of the Spark spells, but I thought this one looks really pretty, so I used this card."

"I see." Aya nodded. "Good choice then, Marisa… And now, ranking second in the Visual Contest, with a total of 659 votes…" she paused to dramatize the moment and to tease the audience, "Saigyouji Yuyuko's "Resurrection Butterfly -80% Reflowering-"!"

The applause and cheering was a sign for Yuyuko to elegantly float over to Aya and gently bow to the audience.

"Congratulations, Yuyuko-sama!"

"Thank you, Aya-san, and all of you who voted for me."

The Resurrection Butterfly – a spell that looked too strong to be used in ordinary danmaku duels. It looked like a one minute long continuous explosion of colorful transparent butterfly-shaped danmaku in a beautiful, symmetrical fashion. Aside from thousands of these ghostly butterflies, the spell implemented beams and the large bubble-like orbs that seemed to be popular among many Spell Card users. And to complete the look, Yuyuko even managed to imply harmless, but beautiful cherry blossoms into the mix. With that, she had herself a rightful second place in the Visual Contest and admiration of many shrine visitors.

"And finally," the crow tengu spoke again to silence the cheering crowds, "who is the winner and the owner of the most beautiful Spell Card? I have the results right here~! Let me tell you, then~! Scoring a total of 731 votes, the card that managed to impress and appeal to the most people and youkai tonight is… "Rainbow Sign "Over the Rainbow" by Tatara Kogasa-san~! I'd say: "What a surprise~!", but I guess it really was a very beautiful spell. Congratulations, Kogasa-san~!"

It was actually quite a surprise that Kogasa was in possession of such a beautiful danmaku pattern. A cascading rainbow-shaped and colored stream of magic bullets accompanied by random, vertically-falling blue shots that symbolized drizzling rain.

"So, how does it feel to be a winner, Kogasa?" Aya immediately began interviewing her.

"I… I… I don't even know…" the blue-haired girl stuttered as she tired to answer. "It surprised me too… ehehe."

Her nervousness has caused some of her supporters cheer for her even more, lending her courage to add a few more words.

"I'm always trying to come up with new ways to surprise humans, so I made a spell that looks surprisingly beautiful."

"And since you're a youkai umbrella, we can all see the connection to the rain too." added Aya.

"Yes, and to see a rainbow without a rain will surprise you, won't it?"

"Actually those blue falling danmaku looked like raindrops."

"Ah..." Kogasa opened her mouth as if she had just realized it now. "So… are you saying I should remove the blue bullets from the pattern? But then it would feel too bland…"

"Hahaha!" the tengu reporter laughed lightly. "That's your card and your choice, Kogasa-san, I can't say that I didn't like it, though."

"Oh~!" Kogasa suddenly exclaimed. "I forgot to thank everyone for their support!"

"Ah, yes, go ahead."

"THANK YOU ALL VERY, VERY MUCH~!" she called out loudly while putting her left hand to her mouth to amplify the sound of her voice. "Thank you for being surprised~! I'll try even harder next time, okay~?" she finished while giving everyone an endearing wink. And as she turned to leave the stage, the large tongue of her purple umbrella accidentally licked Aya's face.

"Ugh… what the…?! Ewww~."

"Aah~! I'm sorry!" the karakasa girl bowed to her in apology.

"Just… be careful where you point that thing, alright?" she wiped her face with the back of her hand.

And so, after a couple of more apologetic bows from Kogasa, Aya finally announced the definite end of the danmaku tournament and the continuation of the Prismriver Ensemble concert.

When the poltergeists began playing, all the girls who participated in the tournament gathered in the shrine to have a feast.

---

By this time the mischievous oni girls have already prepared everything necessary to carry out their plan to get everyone drunk. Kyouichi and Marisa were the only ones who knew about this. But the two oni have soon realized one major flaw in their plan when the girls returned to the shrine.

"Oh carp~!" Yuugi covered her mouth as she cursed.

"What's wrong, Yuugi-chan?" Suika calmly asked.

"Satori…" she whispered while pointing at the purple-haired short girl just entering the shrine along with her pet hell raven.

"Oh…" Suika's carefree expression instantly faded away. "We mustn't think any suspicious thoughts, Yuugi."

"That's easy to say, but…"

"There are too many of us here. Let's just hope she won't notice our thoughts and ruin the fun."

"Ahh~! Finally the whole tournament is over~!" Aya exhaled with relief as she assumed a comfortable position on one of the futons spread on the floor. "I'm so hungry now…"

"I know how you feel~." Yuyuko sympathized with her.

Soon Reimu's shrine became so full that there was barely any room to sit down.

"Don't just stand there like strangers," Marisa called at the group of humans from the outside world who were hesitating to sit down, "make yourselves at home~!"

Of course, Kyouichi was already sitting, but his friends who have just returned were hesitantly looking for any vacant place to rest.

"You say that as if you owned the place." Reimu gave her chiding glance.

"I'm just trying to be nice to the guests, ze…"

"Just sit down anywhere." the shrine maiden waved her hand. "Marisa, help me serve the food."

Marisa wasn't the only one who offered her help. Sakuya, Youmu and even Alice and her dolls also made the food distribution a lot faster and easier for the shrine maiden. After no more than 3 minutes, everyone had their plate loaded with one delicacy or another.

"Itadakimasu~!" said everyone before they indulged themselves in their food.

"This is definitely livelier event than my birthday party…" remarked Akyuu as she enjoyed her meal.

"Ah, that's right~." Aya nodded. "It was your birthday last week, wasn't it?"

"Eh?" when Reimu heard that, she immediately turned at the little chronicler with her jaw dropped and a single noodle dangled out of her mouth. "It was Akyuu-chan's birthday~? Last week?"

"Why yes, Reimu-san." Akyuu shyly smiled at her. "It was just a small family event. Keine-san was there too…"

"Why has nobody informed me about this? I could have at least prepared some small present for you…"

"It's okay, really." the chronicler tried to calm her down. "I don't really need any presents."

"So… at least… let me congratulate you to your… uhh… thirteenth birthday?"

Reimu apparently didn't know Akyuu's exact age, so she tried to guess. The chronicler and Aya responded with an amused laughter.

"Akyuu-chan is 16, hahaha~!"

"That's right." giggled the purple-haired girl. "But I admit, I don't look much like it."

"WHAT?!" the shrine maiden couldn't believe her ears. And apparently, she wasn't the only one.

"Akyuu-chan? Sixteen? You're kidding, right…?" Kyouichi also didn't expect her to be in her mid-teens.

"Whoa… Have you stopped growing when you turned 12? I never would have guessed that either, ze~!"

"You… you're just two years younger than me?" Reimu was still struggling to process this thought.

"Indeed." the crow tengu confirmed this fact. "You and Marisa were too young to remember anything, but when Akyuu was born, it was your family that held a festival here at the shrine to celebrate that event."

"So there even was a festival here?" the shrine maiden was still in a daze-like state. "And I was about two years old…"

"Yes, of course I remember you too, Reimu." smiled Aya. "Both of you were so cute~! Yes, I was here too to write an article about this event. I don't have it with me, but there's an old issue of my newspaper in my archive from the year 109. I could bring it to show you, but I don't feel like flying right now…"

"So you too have known me before I even met you."

"I don't know why you are so surprised about it, Reimu. I have lived in Gensokyo for over a thousand years. And as a journalist, it's a matter of fact that I'd come into contact with all of the important people and youkai."

After Reimu gave it some though, it didn't strike her as so odd or surprising anymore. There were probably even more people and youkai who have known her before she even became self-aware. But what her mind struggled to stomach was the discrepancy between Akyuu's age and appearance.

"You really don't look like you're 16… Are you sure you're not a half-youkai or something?" she asked her in jest.

Again, the compiler of Gensokyo Chronicle laughed at her question. "Not even a one-percent youkai."

"I guess Akyuu-chan has been like this even in her previous lives. I can still remember our tea parties and idle conversations from a couple of hundred years ago. Just the two of us, Ayas enjoying tea while talking about business matters or just having an idle chitchat. Seems like yesterday to me…"

And while Aya was reminiscing about Akyuu's previous incarnation, one little oni took the advantage of the situation.

"Surely this calls for a celebration~!" Suika deviously attempted to get Akyuu drunk conventionally. "A toast to Akyuu-chan's birthday~!"

"I'm sorry, Suika-san, but…"

"Cheers~!" the oni loud voice drowned Akyuu's futile protest. "You don't need to force yourself, of course. Just have one symbolic cup with all of us here~."

Reimu still remembered the hanami when Suika forced a good amount of sake down the poor chronicler's throat, and was getting quite weary when she heard the oni's suggestion. However, she really wanted to at least recreate the birthday party atmosphere, and a toast was an inseparable part of it.

"A… a toast to Akyuu-chan then!" the shrine maiden was rather easily convinced. The young reincarnating chronicler has apparently grown on her quite a bit.

"Well, if you insist, Reimu-san…" the purple-haired girl hesitantly took her cup.

"Happy, birthday, Akyuu-chan~! And may you live long!" the shrine maiden said these words as she lifted her own cup and everyone in the room did the same.

As expected, the petite chronicler took only a modest sip of sake, unlike most of people and youkai in the shrine.

"I'll just chase it down with some tea…" muttered the chronicler, since the taste of oni sake was a bit stronger than that of normal sake.

Marisa and Kyouichi wanted to give her at least a warning, but Akyuu took several hearty gulps of that spiked tea to wash away the strong taste of sake in her mouth.

"Oh gods…" Marisa covered her face as Akyuu chugged down the whole teacup.

"What's with that look, Marisa-san? …Kyouichi-san?" she didn't understand the reason behind their expressions.

"Hmm…" Reimu also took a light sip from her own cup. "Tastes a bit weird… What tea did you make, Suika?"

"Uh… a blend… hehehe~." the oni giggled nervously as the shine maiden's eyes gazed upon her.

Trying to figure out the components of this "blend", Reimu took another sip. "Not bad, but… I wonder what sort of tea has this aroma…"

Satori could already sense that something was amiss, but before it became clear to her she had already drunk a good dose of tea herself.

"Okuu… Don't drink that tea!"

"Unyuu? Is it bad, Satori-sama? Hehe, don't worry, I'm drinking this sake instead~." she declared with a happy smile and showed her the full sake cup in her hand.

"Looks like your little trick has been revealed, ze." the witch looked at Suika and her partner in crime, Yuugi.

"Doesn't matter now, does it?" the short oni sported an almost malicious grin.

It would be troublesome if Satori figured out their intention sooner, but now that almost everyone has ingested the spiked tea in their cups, Suika and Yuugi could consider their plan as successful.

"What do you mean?" Reimu confusedly glanced from Marisa to Suika and back. "What trick are you talking about?"

"The tea is mixed with alcohol." Satori stated quite flatly.

"Really?" Aya instantly emptied the whole cup, like it was nothing and shrugged. "Doesn't seem like too much…"

"Are you trying to get us all drunk?" Reimu began to interrogate her oni friend.

"Hey~! Not bad for a guess, Re-i-mu-cha-n~!" she syllabicated her name with an endearing suffix and the happiest smile that she could manage.

"I knew you'd do something stupid, but this…"

"I don't taste or feel any alcohol in it…" the crow tengu complained. "May I please have some more of that sake, Suika-san?"

"Hehe, sure~!" Suika was always glad when people were asking for a refill, and she happily obliged. "Even though I've already given you a decent dose."

"Oh… ooooh…" Reimu suddenly put her hand on her forehead. "Wha…? What's this? How much alcohol was in that… tea?"

The concentrated sake was apparently taking its effect very quickly.

"I don't mind a little bit of alcohol if I have some delicious snacks to go with it, Right, Youmu~?" Yuyuko spoke to her servant, but didn't get a reply.

"Youmu?"

"Yesss, Yuyuyu…Yuyuko-shama?"

Poor half-ghost girl struggled to pronounce her mistress's name correctly.

"Oh, damn… it's already starting to work!" said Kyouichi as he watched the reactions of those drinking the tea. "Seriously, don't drink that stuff…" he gave a warning to Soudai, who was also curious to see if one little cup of tea could get him drunk.

"There's no need for us to worry about such things." Eirin calmly spoke to Princess Kaguya. "And you have nothing to worry about either, Reimu-san. Reisen has come well supplied with alcohol remedy for everyone."

But Eirin, Kaguya, Yuyuko, Minamitsu and Aya were just the few rare exceptions that didn't show any apparent signs of excessive alcohol intoxication. Of course, Suika and Yuugi always seemed like they were drunk all the time, but for them it was quite natural.

"I'm starting to feel dizzy, girls…" Alice also began to notice that her vision was becoming blurry and her mind hazy. But even in this state, she managed to make Shanghai act as though as the doll was drunk herself.

"I… I think I'm going to need some of that Remedy, Eirin-san." Byakuren was never used to drinking and the prank of the two oni didn't go easy on her.

"I'll be right with you, Byakuren-san." the pharmacist assured her.

"Furthermore, one of Buddhism's precepts is temperance… I have sinned…" the monk of the Myouren Temple continued, but her complaints were drowned out by Reimu.

"Suikaaaa~! Why did you do thissss to meee~?" she called at the oni as she struggled to keep her balance.

"We didn't want you to be sad about Yukari~." she answered in her loud voice.

Suddenly, the noisy living-quarters of Reimu's shrine became almost too quiet.

"Ooh, great! So now… now… everyone knows about this~?" the miko called out. "Fine, go ahead~! Tell that to everyone! *hic* I don't care anymore! Make a damn article 'bout it!" she addressed the last sentence to Aya, who only tilted her head to the side in both confusion and amusement.

A mix of murmurs and whispers flooded the room as everyone exchanged their thoughts on what they just heard. Seems like Reimu's aloof behavior from before and during the danmaku tournament was a mystery no more. But the shrine maiden really didn't care. On one hand she wanted to forget, but the other part of her heart didn't. More than anytime before, she wanted all the current incidents to be resolved as quickly as possible. Even though it was a day of the festival, she could barely keep her mind off the future and her next steps in attempt to solve these anomalies. But she knew that she'd have to be patient and that she wouldn't be able to pull it off by herself.

"Here, Reimu-san~." Yuyuko was holding a roll of sushi with her chopsticks in front of Reimu's face apparently intending to feed her. "A little bit of delicious food will make you feel better~!"

For a good while Reimu just blankly stared back at the ghost princess of the Netherworld, before a question came out of her mouth.

"Say… Yuyuko…*hic*" she wiped her mouth uncouthly with her sleeve. "Don't you miss her too? You always… seem so… carefree and happy-go-lucky… like nothing ever bothered you. *hic*"

"Reimu." Yuyuko said the shrine maiden's name while still holding the sushi roll in front of her. "It's true that I'm a little disappointed that she's not enjoying this party with us. I keep smiling, because I know her. I know that she will be back one day…" the princess gently stroked the top of Reimu's head. "The longer you are parted from someone you like, the happier the reunion~."

Perhaps it was the effect of alcohol, but somehow, Yuyuko's words sounded so reassuring that Reimu even made a soft chuckle.

"Thank you." she muttered under hear breath. She was grateful to Yuyuko for keeping her hopes up, even if her own faith was starting to betray her.

"Yuyuko-samaaa…" Youmu moaned on the floor while stretching her hand upwards, as if trying to stand up.

"Ah, don't worry, Youmu, I haven't forgotten about you…" Yuyuko smiled and patted her servant on the head in the same fashion as she did to Reimu."

"Why is everything… spinning?"

"Umm… Eirin-san? May I ask you to take a look at Youmu for a moment? She doesn't look so well."

"It's a good thing I was too lazy to leave the shrine when they announced the winners of the last discipline." stated Kyouichi. He would have probably ended up just as Soudai did when he lost his bet with Suika.

"Yeah, me too." Marisa nodded in agreement, being the only other person knowing about the prank of the two oni.

"Sakuya~." Remilia pulled the sleeve of her maid. "I want you to punissssh… that oni~."

However, the silver-haired servant didn't look to be in a good enough state to comply. "But my lady…" she spoke while facing Cirno. "I still haven't prepared the main course."

"So many voices…" Satori was holding her head. "Which ones are voices and which ones are thoughts…?"

---

The initial reactions to the sudden alcohol shock caused by drinking the spiked tea varied from person to person, but this seemed to last only a few minutes. Even those girls who were not given Eirin's remedy, seemed to have recovered from the delirium and continued their idle conversations, as if nothing happened. Some of them even praised the two oni for pulling a good joke on them.

"Hey, hey~! Everyone~!" Suika was again, lively as ever, calling for everyone's attention. "When are we going to get changed to yukatas? Didn't we agree on that before the festival?"

"Yeah… We did, didn't we?" Marisa nodded agreeingly.

"I don't recall agreeing to that." Kyouichi objected.

"Hehe~! Don't worry, Kyouichi. A shrine maiden's outfit suits you the best anyway~."

The outsider breathed a sigh and buried his face into his palms. "I had to open my mouth…"

"Actually, that's not a bad idea." Reimu who managed to get a hold of herself and resisted the urge to pass out, seemed to agree with the suggestion.

"Eh? So you have a yukata too, Reimu?" Yuyuko asked her.

"I do, but I only had it on a few times. But now, with so many guests… I don't know where we are going to get changed. I guess we'll use the bathroom as a changing room."

"I wonder what you'll be wearing, ze." Marisa pointed at the princess of the Netherworld.

"Why, my usual kimono, of course~."

"Eh? Well… it does look like a yukata, but I think it's kind of boring to always wear the same thing. By the way, are you even able to change your attire? Your kimono looks just as ghostly as you do. As if it was a part of you."

"You want to see~?" Yuyuko teasingly slid a piece of her ethereal kimono down to reveal her shoulder.

"Ooooh~!" the blonde witch widened her eyes at the sight, and she wasn't the only one. "So you can, huh? Never would have guessed…"

"Why are you so surprised?" Reimu waved her hand. "If she can eat normal food, why should getting changed be a problem for her?"

"Ufufufu~." Yuyuko giggled at the remark. "Speaking of food, maybe I should give all the food stalls another visit before you girls get changed to yukatas."

Meanwhile, Eirin has mixed a remedy for Byakuren and let her drink it. "You should start feeling better after 15 minutes or so."

"Ah~! Thank you very much, Eirin-sensei."

"No problem." the Lunarian winked and proceeded to treat another case of light alcohol overdose.

"I think I'll go get some fresh air."

With that, the youkai monk with gradient hair color slowly shuffled her feet to the widely opened back door of the shrine and sat down on the elevated wooden floor.

---

The Prismriver sisters and their guest vocalist were just in the middle of another one of their songs.

"They actually complement each other quite well…" she murmured under her breath as she watched the concert.

That's when Byakuren noticed a short slender figure standing just a few meters away from her and looking at her.

"Um…" a timid girl's voice sounded from the shadows. "Are you… Hijiri Byakuren-sama?"

"Yes. And you, young lady are…?"

The girl stepped out of the shadows and her expressions gradually changed from timid to confident. "I'm Kasodani~! Kasodani Kyouko~! Pleased to meet you~!" her voice was surprisingly loud for someone so small. Sporting short teal hair, eyes of the same color and a pair of distinctive brown dog-like ears, Byakuren could easily tell her youkai species.

"Ah, a yamabiko? The youkai of mountain echoes…" she commented as she eyed her from head to toe.

The girl was dressed in long shirt, colored in the shade between pink and light-brown with several teal flower-shaped buttons and a white skirt with a thin black hem that was nearly entirely covered up by her top

"Yes, I'm a yamabiko." she spoke after a while. "I heard about you, Byakuren-sama… That you are a person who's in charge of the new temple near the village. And that you have many youkai disciples training as monks."

"That's true. Are you perhaps… interested in entering priesthood, Kyouko-san?"

The young youkai of mountain echoes giggled shyly. "It's a lovely concert, isn't it?" she derailed the topic and turned her head to the stage. "And that new vocalist looks like she's having fun~. I wonder if I could also try something like that once…"

"So you want to be a singer or a musician?" Byakuren raised her eyebrow.

"Hehehe~! I don't know… Maybe I just want to find my true purpose in life."

"A purpose, huh?"

"The truth is, there aren't many yamabiko living in the mountains anymore. Even here in Gensokyo, people are gradually forgetting about us… The yamabiko are losing their purpose as fewer people believe in us."

"That's quite a problem, isn't it?"

"Don't you think that a world without youkai like us would feel… empty, Byakuren-sama?"

"But if you follow the right path, you don't need to worry about losing your purpose."

"That's exactly what I've been thinking, Byakuren-sama." Kyouko smiled and her yamabiko ears twitched a little. "You give many youkai hope and new purpose in that temple of yours."

"To be honest, I'm also looking for the right path in life." Byakuren confessed. "And I've come to believe that Buddhism is that path. I myself am only a monk in training, unlike my brother. And I haven't always been a true follower. I pursued the path of monk for quite a selfish reason – to keep myself eternally young… At first I used it nearly to cover up the fact that I was helping the youkai and dabbling in dark, demonic arts."

"Eh~? I had no idea…" Kyouko surprisedly stared at the youkai monk. "But you don't seem like a bad person at all."

"It's a bit ironic, really, that during my selfish pursuit of immortality, I've realized that a world where humans and youkai could coexist peacefully was what I truly strived for."

"I only heard that the humans have sealed you away in Makai." said the yamabiko.

"That they have. For a long, long time…" Byakuren confirmed and her heart became heavy as she still had her over a millennium lasting imprisonment in fresh memory. As if something like that could be forgotten at all.

"I'd think that to have something like that happen to you, you'd hold a grudge against all humans."

"I don't hold any grudges, Kyouko-san. After all, those humans that banished me are already long dead, and it's not like all humanity was responsible for my banishment."

"I guess you have a point. But still… you act as though nothing had happened. Do you still believe that you can achieve your dream?"

"What do you think has kept me sane during the thousand years of loneliness in Makai?" Byakuren asked with a bitter smile. "My faith has… My faith…"

After taking a while of gazing at the starry night sky, she added. "And I'm so happy that even after so many years, my faithful friends have not forgotten about me."

"Faith is so amazing, isn't it?" Kyouko knew about Byakuren's past only vaguely, but now that she heard first-hand, she found it to be very impressive. "Even if you are a youkai now and you were sealed for a thousand years, faith of your followers and your own has prevented you from disappearing. I don't want to disappear as an obsolete youkai…"

"Then you are welcome to join my temple and its followers, my dear. I won't let you disappear from the world."

"Join the temple? I… I would be honored, Byakuren-sama. But…" Kyouko's ears lowered a bit and she put her index fingers against each other. "I don't know much about Buddhism."

---

And so, a new friendship was born. Actually, perhaps it would be too early to call it a friendship, but Kyouko has made her life-changing decision and joined the disciples of the Myouren Temple. Byakuren returned to the shrine with a content smile, leading her new trainee.

"Hm? And who's this?" Marisa was still relatively sober to notice a new person entering the shrine.

"This," she placed her hand on the teal-haired girl's shoulder, "is our newest disciple. Please give her a nice welcome."

"Hi, everyone~! I'm Kyouko~!" she shouted and her greeting echoed a few times inside the shrine.

At first, Marisa looked at them seriously, but in a moment she couldn't suppress her laughter. "Uh… you sure are smashed, Byakuren. Hahaha~!"

"I've taken Eirin-san's remedy, so I've got a firm grasp of all my faculties. And I'm being serious."

"A new follower?" Shou curiously observed the yamabiko. "Are you really serious, Byakuren-sama?"

"Why of course I am. I'm giving her a chance and I want all of you to do the same. Please treat her as one of us."

"I understand…" Shou bowed lightly to Byakuren and once more to Kyouko. "Welcome among us, uhh… Kyouko-san."

"Hey~!" Yuugi waved her hand at the new guest. "Yeah, you! Come o'er here and have a round with us~! You won't be able to taste this again when you begin to serve at the temple."

"Ehehe… Thank you, but I'll pass."

"Should have prepared a few extra doses of our super-sake." the one-horned oni murmured in disappointment and quickly lost interest in the new girl.

And while the circle of Byakuren's crew was welcoming the yamabiko girl, Eirin was serving her remedy to Akyuu. Poor chronicler didn't have a high alcohol tolerance and so, the doctor from Eientei had to give her the special medication. Once all the critical "patients" have been treated, the party continued smoothly and in a cheerful atmosphere.

---

Some of the girls started playing cards, shogi, go, or other games as they waited for their turn to use Reimu's bathroom to get changed to their yukata.

"Eeh?! I lost again?" Remilia stared incredulously at the cards in her hand and those lying on the table. "That's it. I'm not playing with Satori anymore. She's cheating~!"

Some of the girls were more interested in the Prismriver Ensemble concert, others chose chatting and eating snacks as their favorite form of entertainment.

The two oni decided it would be fun if they tested their strength in an arm-wrestling duel.

"Hey, easy on the table you two." Reimu warned them, since she didn't want them to break her furniture.

"Relax~!" Suika reassured her with a grimace on her face, as she was exerting great effort against her opponent. "It's not like we're… umph... going to slam each other's arms over it, right~?"

Surprisingly the duel didn't last very long. Even though both girls were oni, and thus incredibly strong, Yuugi obviously had more brawn than her ginger-haired surface-dwelling counterpart. True to their word, they even kept Reimu's small table intact when their little game was over.

---

In the other corner of the room, a certain ice fairy was circled by her friends and some other girls like Marisa, Alice, Tewi and Nue. She certainly seemed to be quite popular.

"Ahh~! It's so convenient to have an ice fairy around on hot days like these…" the witch was comfortably lounging by Cirno's side.

"Isn't it?" muttered Alice who was also lazing close to the fairy of ice.

"Stop treating me like some tool." she pouted at them, but her fairy and youkai friends were also enjoying the benefit of her pleasantly cooling aura.

"We're not." said Star Sapphire and clung closely to her. Sunny and Luna followed suit and clung to her as well. "We love you, Cirno-chan~! Hehehe~!"

"No, I love Cirno-chan even more~!" an unfamiliar green-haired fairy with a blue and white dress, similar to Cirno's was trying to pull the other fairies away from her.

"Dai-chan, don't pull on my wings~!" Sunny expressed her discomfort.

"Oh… who's that green-haired fairy with a ponytail?" Kyouichi asked Marisa.

"Huh? That's Daiyousei or Dai-chan in short… But… wait a second. What ere you even doing here? Didn't you say you were afraid of fairies? Hehe…"

"Well, I did say that. But I've learned that not all fairies are hostile. And I personally met four of these fairies while I stayed at Eientei. Except for this… Dai-chan. By the way, is that really what she's called? "Greater fairy?" Sounds kind of strange."

"Everyone just calls her like that, so yeah… you could say that's her name, ze."

"Oh, it's that human from Eientei~!" Sunny took notice of him after a while of struggling with Daiyousei. "Got any more sweets for us~?"

Kyouichi took a look around and nodded. "Sure… Why not?" he grabbed some random plate from the floor loaded with dango and other homemade sweets and passed it to the sunlight fairy. Since no one was eating from it at the moment, nobody was probably going to miss it.

Marisa let out a snickering sound. "Don't spoil the fairies. Otherwise you'll never get rid of them."

"Ehh… Really?" the outsider was starting to feel slight regret. "Well, too late…"

"More dango and desserts~!" Sunny greedily accepted someone else's plate and every fairy took a roughly equal share from it.

"Man it sure is hot…" Alice was cooling herself down by letting Shanghai wave a paper fan at her. "And this hot tea is making me feel even hotter."

"That's why I took the strawberry lemonade instead." Nue took a light sip from her cup.

Besides tea and sake, Reimu and her friends have made a few batches of their homemade lemonade flavored by various kinds of fruit.

"I wonder if there are any ice cream stalls around here." said Kyouichi.

"Oooh~!" Nue exclaimed as a good idea crossed her mind. "Ice cream~…"

"Hm? Where?" Alice turned around to see the nue girl passing her cup of lemonade to Cirno.

"Would you mind holding this for me for a moment?"

"Eh~? What for?" the ice fairy couldn't understand Nue's intention.

The black-haired youkai didn't explain anything, though. She just smiled and tapped her foot against the floor, as if she was waiting for something that was going to happen any moment.

"Ah, thank you." the smiling Nue grabbed the cup again with one of her blue tentacle-like wings. She pulled the spoon and revealed that the content of the cup was frozen sold. "Strawberry ice cream… mmm~ " she began eating it like a popsicle.

Nue's ingenious idea shook Alice out of her lethargy. "Whoa… This is wonderful! Is there any more of that lemonade left?"

"Sure…" the nue replied while pointing her thumb backwards.

It wasn't long before a line of girls formed in front of the ice fairy, asking her to turn their beverages into ice cream. Some of the more polite ones even left her a few yen for her service.

---

As time went on, the number of girls dressed in yukata was gradually increasing. Some even took extra effort to change their hairstyle to fit their clothing. However, some girls, such as Yuyuko and Kaguya were more comfortable with their original clothes on.

"Eh? Who ate all my dango and cookies?" wondered Reisen when she returned from the bathroom, now wearing a purple yukata with yellow crescent moon patterns.

Kyouichi who was guilty of giving that plate to the fairies was feigning innocence by whistling a melody and slowly backing away from the Moon rabbit.

None of the fairies were stupid or brave enough to confess their mischief.

---

After two hours, the Prismriver Ensemble and Mystia Lorelei have played their final song of the concert, reaping a tremendous applause as they bowed to the audience and left the stage.

"Come in, come in~!" the energetic crow tengu was welcoming the trio of poltergeists and inviting them to join the feast. Even the night-sparrow was heading for the shrine. While Kyouichi was keeping his guard up when she passed him by, Mystia didn't appear to be interested in him or any humans in particular. She only got along well with a certain group of her youkai friends.

The program on the stage still continued, with some human actors doing what appeared to be a stand-up comedy. However, none of the youkai or people who gathered inside the Hakurei Shrine were paying attention to it.

Instead, the girls were parading their beautiful yukatas and enjoying the abundance of food, drinks as they continued to party until early morning.

Soudai Asakura, one of the few outsiders who was a part of this party, was now having a conversation with one of the girls he liked the most – Kogasa Tatara.

"Even if you didn't win many duels in the tournament, you were so amazing in the Visual Contest."

"Ehehe~! Thank you."

"Of course I voted for your Spell Card. Such a beautiful rainbow…"

---

Meanwhile, Midori Iwakami, another outsider was trapped between some of the heaviest drinkers – Suika, Yuugi and Aya. She was lucky enough not to drink any of their spiked tea, but in her current situation, it was all the same. The two oni and the tengu were constantly encouraging her to drink more and more.

---

Kyouichi was also getting drunk even though he kept his safe distance from the oni. He didn't even care who he was chatting with anymore. Since almost all the girls were now dressed in their yukatas, he had a hard time identifying them in his drunken state.

And since the girls were often switching their places with each other, Kyouichi somehow found himself sitting next to someone he thought he remembered…

"Oh… Hey, I know you~." he spoke to a short blonde girl in a red yukata. "You're… uh… yeah, uhh…wait a second… no… Remilia's sister has those colorful wings."

The alcohol in his bloodstream was inhibiting his ability of rational thinking and leading an intelligent conversation. "Flandre… yeah, I think you'd have wings if you were her…"

"Eh~? Is that so~?" the curious blonde girl replied with a question. She too was a victim of Yuugi's and Suika's little prank and couldn't quite tell who she was dealing with.

However, Kyouichi got a sudden flashback as the girl in front of him yawned.

"Oh. Wait a second."

"Hm?"

He took a skewer with dango from one of the plates and said: "Ehehe~! Say "aaah"~!"

"Aaaah~!" the girl in red yukata opened her moth like an obedient child and expected to be fed. But while she had her eyes closed, the outsider rolled up his left sleeve and revealed his scars after being bitten by a certain youkai. Then he put his left forearm against the girl's open mouth to compare her jaw with his bite marks...

A perfect match.

"Mnmf?" the surprised blonde girl opened her eyes as she noticed that she was being fed something else than a dango.

The outsider finally recognized her. "Rumia-san, huh~?"

Indeed, it was Rumia, the youkai of darkness who kept no secrets about attacking and eating humans. A chill ran down Kyouichi's spine and he immediately pulled his forearm out of her mouth just in time to escape her bite.

"Whoa… that was a close one."

"I don't remember you~." Rumia couldn't recall when she saw this stranger or why he remembered her name.

"You tried to eat me, hahahaha~!" Kyouichi was so drunk that instead of trying to get away from her, he started laughing at his past experience with this youkai. "Couldn't tell it was you in that cute yukata…"

"Eat you?" the blonde youkai scratched her head. "I only eat…*hic*… what was that again?"

"Hey, hey, Rumia-san." he interrupted her as she tried to remember what she usually eats. "Let's play shogi~!"

"Shogi? Is that what I usually eat?"

If Rumia and Kyouichi were sober, they'd probably never end up having a conversation and a game of shogi, but this festival has been the birthplace of many even stranger situations.

---

The dawn was eventually falling upon Gensokyo. The noises of the festival have died down, as most of the humans have returned to the village, escorted by the militia. There was a lot of mess left in the shrine yard and nobody seemed to exert even the slightest effort to clean it up.

Inside the Hakurei Shrine, the party has also lost its intensity, as many of the girls, be them human or youkai, have succumbed to fatigue and excessive alcohol in their bloodstream…

"Myooon~…" muttered Youmu with a blank stare at the shrine's ceiling.

"Mukyuuu~…" Patchouli appeared to be having a bad dream.

"Unyuuu~…" the hell raven was adjusting her position, using Youmu's ghostly half as a pillow.

"Ayaya*hic*yaya~…" even the tengu had reached her limit and was just blowing away as the whole world was spinning from her point of view.

"Shanghai, Shanghai, Shanghai, Hourai, Hourai, *hic* ehehe~!" Alice wasn't making any more sense than the other girls slumped on the floor.

"Is that…sooo~?"

The majority of the girls were either sleeping or mumbling incoherent nonsense in their delirium.

Even Kyouichi just realized that he woke up from a nap after he passed out. The air inside the shrine was heavy and so he clumsily made his way towards the sliding door to get some fresh air into his lungs. And just as he slid the door open, he saw Reimu sitting on the porch of the shrine next to a short purple-haired girl in a pink yukata. She held the girl in a light embrace with one arm as she cuddled against her shoulder…

---

"…Now everybody's probably thinking that I can't *hic* resolve this incident on my own. It's not that I can't do it without Yukari, but *hic* you know how I feel, right, Akyuu-chan?"

The purple-haired girl who was being caressed by the drunken shrine maiden nodded lightly.

"I know exactly how you feel, but…"

"Ah~…" Reimu sighed heavily and tightened her embrace. "You're so nice, Akyuu-chan~, *hic* Akyuu-chan~ ." she cooed as she patted her head.

"Umm… I'm Satori…" muttered the girl in a low voice, but didn't struggle to free herself from the drunk miko's embrace.

Trying to hold back any vocal reaction to the awkward, yet adorable situation that he just witnessed, Kyouichi closed the door and returned back to his original place.

"That was so cute~." he thought to himself as lay down on the floor. With a content smile on his face, sleep soon took over his senses.