Chapter 54 – Unlikely Reunion
As the next wave of possessed fairies approached the village, Eirin was applying the bandage to Patchouli's wound.
"I need to take her to safety at once!" she carefully picked up the wounded youkai from the ground and headed inside the tavern as the nearest place with relative safety.
But that's when the fairies swarmed the village again.
"Come on you little wimps!" Remilia taunted them as she drew another Spell Card. "Hell Sign "Mountain of a Thousand Needles"!"
She declared her spell, but instead of turning into a massive could of danmaku, the card harmlessly fell down onto the dirty ground.
"Huh?" Remilia blinked at the dirty Spell Card in puzzlement. "Don't tell me that…"
As much as she hated to admit it, her magic was completely depleted and she could no loner fight in this battle.
"My lady," Sakuya took her by the hand, "it's not safe for you out here. You should hurry and follow Eirin-sensei into the tavern."
"Nonsense!" the vampire ripped her hand out of Sakuya's grasp. "I don't need any stupid magic to fight! I'll tear those sorry excuses for youkai apart with my bare hands!"
"Remilia-sama!"
The maid's attempt to make her mistress see reason failed just as terribly as Remilia's Spell Card. The Scarlet Devil took off into the air and engaged the nearest flock of fairies in melee.
Ignoring the pain from taking a portion of their salvo, she grabbed one of the fairies and used her as a living shield to block off the rest of the shots. Her shield was not built to last long, though. After the fairy took a few hits from her own allies, she dispersed into tiny sparkles that were doused by the heavy rain.
"Hyaaaa~!" the vampire engaged another unfortunate fay creature with a powerful clawing attack. The little youkai was slammed against the ground with such force that her tiny body left a small crater. Another swing of her arm, and another fairy was swatted like a fly.
It's true that she wasn't as effective in melee as opposed to having an ample arsenal of spells and danmaku, but she was not intending to retreat from this fight even if Sakuya suggested so. The maid sighed resignedly and took off to assist her.
And while the eternally young mistress of the night was busy with her aerial melee, Reimu decided to provide some additional cover fire for Eirin, who needed to carry the wounded librarian into the tavern. She fended off a couple of smaller groups of enemies with her classic homing amulets, but even with her effort, Eirin was still taking hits. Not long after that, the fairies rallied together into a massive formation. As if driven by a collective mind, they attacked the girls who were in the most vulnerable situation.
"Reimu-san! Watch out!" Eirin tried to warn the shrine maiden who was escorting her, but the giant danmaku barrage was faster than the girl's evasive reaction. However, someone was there to protect her.
Turning around, Reimu noticed that there was a person standing right behind her, spreading her arms wide in a desperate attempt to protect her and Eirin from the deadly hail of danmaku.
"Ka… Kaguya-sanma!" Eirin immediately recognized the princess.
Kaguya didn't turn around; she remained standing there like a statue for a while. Then all of a sudden she fell to her knees and subsequently the rest of her body collapsed forward, digging her face into the soaked ground.
Reimu was at a loss for words. The Moon princess just sacrificed herself for her. Though the shrine maiden knew that she'd soon stand up again, she couldn't help but to be grateful for her selfless act.
"We have to keep moving, Reimu-san!" said the Lunarian urgently. "Princess will be alright, but we must get Patchouli-san inside! Keep those fairies off my back!"
Reimu knew that the situation was very serious, but she still hesitated about using her ultimate combat technique. Instead, she switched her homing amulets with a more direct and faster "Persuasion Needles" that ripped through the thick mass of fairies more effectively. With Patchouli in her arms, Eirin was slowly closing the distance to the tavern. Reimu kept up her step with her, all the while pouring her needle-shaped danmaku at the enemy. But the coordinated fairies were quick to regroup and respond with another devastating barrage.
"Uh-oh… They're turning around. Eirin, hurry up, I'll have to dodge their attack if I want to live!"
"I'm almost there!"
The fairies obviously targeted Eirin, but even so, Reimu was in their way, so naturally, a good portion of the enemy danmaku would hit her too. There was another option that she could do instead of dodging, and that was using a Spell Card. However, she was standing too close to Eirin, so the Lunarian would surely take the damage as well. And the same would go for the wounded sorceress. The fairy swarm was almost upon them.
"Sorry, Eirin!" she shouted an apology while darting off to the side, just to graze by the hideously large danmaku cluster.
As she turned around to see if Eirin made it, she exhaled with relief. The doctor form Eientei took shelter inside the tavern just in time. The building was hit by a multitude of magical shots that significantly damaged its front wall and broke a few windows. Under normal circumstances, the building would most likely catch fire, but in this rain, the fairies would have to try much harder to ignite something. As soon as Eirin put Patchouli down in a stabilized position, she hurried outside to rejoin the team in defending the village. She just saw as the fairy swarm was currently regrouping for another assault. And more were coming from all sides. Much more…
"Patchouli-san is safe for now… Has the princess recovered yet?"
Just as Eirin asked that, she noticed Kaguya slowly moving her arm to support her body and stand up.
Reimu took a brief break from shooting to check Kaguya's status. She appeared to be a bit shaken, but otherwise her body was without a scratch thanks to the Hourai Elixir. Though now she was all covered in dirt, just like Reimu.
"Hey, Eirin!" the shrine maiden called at her. "Have you seen the Three Fairies of Light anywhere?"
"No, but I think they're hiding somewhere inside the tavern. Why?"
Reimu didn't have enough time to answer her question, as the fairies, now with fresh reinforcements attacked again, trying to surround them completely.
"Eirin, I'll use a Spell Card so make sure to keep away from me, okay~?"
The Lunarian hovered back while spraying the area with a wide fan of danmaku as cover fire. Even when everyone in the village was doing their best to eradicate the invaders, it seemed that every fairy in Gensokyo was possessed and bent on destroying everything in Kazemura. They formed a huge sphere around Reimu, cutting off any potential escape routes.
"Reimu!" the other shrine maiden shouted at her. The situation looked hopeless, but Sanae dashed right towards the swarm, ready to create an opening for Reimu with a spell.
"Esoterica "Forgotten Ritual"!"
The Spell Card conjured up ten pentagrams around her. Five red and five blue stars consisting of smaller danmaku shots spread out and twisted, gradually dispersing into a chaotic maelstrom. A lot of fairies were taken out just by the initial wave. Just as the wind priestess charged up for a second wave, she could hear Reimu's voice from below shouting something.
"Fantasy Nature~!"
A bright light shone through the swarm of fairies and soon after, a spectacular show began. Reimu's ultimate spell combined with the flashy pentagram barrage from Sanae gave the aggressors a clear message - this village will not fall this day.
A secret and quite extreme technique, handed down by the generations of Hakurei shrine maidens and priests enabled Reimu to float away from reality, becoming completely invulnerable, while unleashing an unceasing stream of powerful homing ofuda. Originally it was not a Spell Card, because according the rules the Spell Card had to give the opponent at least a slight chance to win. The one who made it into a Spell Card was Marisa by giving it a name. Due to Spell Card Rule restrictions, Reimu agreed to reduce its duration in formal duels to just about 35 seconds. Of course, the current situation was anything but a formal battle, so these restrictions could be calmly ignored. The other girls have added their own danmaku into the fray, disposing of thousands of possessed fairies in a matter of seconds. Even the downpour paled in comparison to the combined danmaku fire. Kazemura became the epicenter of a true bullet hell. Seeing that staying in a tight formation was making them easy prey, the fairies dispersed erratically and attacked everything. Houses, villagers, the tavern… everything except the uncovered ruins.
After Reimu's Fantasy Nature ended, the situation became even more serious. As a retribution, the fairy swarm attacked Sanae right after her card ran out of power. Poor girl had no chance to dodge their counterattack. She fell down, just like Marisa did at the beginning of the battle. Her two goddesses were too far to catch her, but luckily for her, Aya Shameimaru stopped her fall in the nick of time.
"Another wounded!" the tengu reporter let everyone know of Sanae's condition.
"Get her inside the tavern then!" Eirin requested her. "Hurry!"
When a crow tengu hurries, one usually doesn't even notice what happens. Suddenly, Aya jetted off to the tavern with Sanae in her arms, and flew back out empty-handed in the next few seconds.
"How many more of those fairies are there?" wondered the Hakurei shrine maiden. She never thought she'd see more fairies than that time when she was catching live specimens for Eirin's research, but given the current state of affairs, she was convinced that tonight she witnessed the largest gathering of fairies in Gensokyo's history.
"We'll see~!" said Suika with a card ready in her hand.
Reimu's intuition told her the most probable spell that the oni was about to use, so she floated away from her out of caution.
"Night Parade of One Million Demons~!" Suika's voice activated the spell embedded in the card.
Reimu's hunch was right as usual. Suika went for the same spell that she used during the Tanabata's tournament; although that time she wasn't successful against her old friend Yuugi. In this fight, the ability to gather the huge swarms of fairies into one place and showering them with equally huge danmaku barrage was very handy. The card darkened and imploded into a miniature black hole while unleashing an all-directional avalanche of magical projectiles. Again, smaller objects, rocks, raindrops and the fairies were being dragged towards Suika by the spell's gravity field. Even when the fairies struggled and returned fire, their danmaku harmlessly disappeared into the blackness.
"It's working…" Aya stopped fighting and just watched the Spell Card with great respect. The overwhelming numbers of possessed fairies rapidly diminished to the point when they no longer outnumbered Kazemura's population. It seemed that the battle was won. The other girls swiftly finished off the rest of the enemies. Oddly enough, the losing fairies did not scatter or retreat when their numbers were swallowed by Suika's black hole. They remained to wreak havoc to the very end.
"Oh, gods…" Reimu sighed in relief. "Is it all over?"
Seeing no more fairies nearby, Suika dispelled her card and landed on top of one of the ruins' obelisks.
"What are you doing?!" Aya shouted at her. Her superior eyesight enabled her to see the distant fleets of fairies rushing towards the village. "There's another wave coming! Don't stop fighting!"
"Damn it!" Reimu cursed and tightened the grip on her gohei. She was already tired, but she didn't want anyone to notice it.
Remilia, on the other hand, seemed to enjoy taking the fairies on in hand to hand combat and now she was taunting for more. Sakuya took some hits in the battle, but was still in a good condition to continue. But Sanae, Marisa, Patchouli and both goddesses of the Moriya Shrine were unable to defend the village.
The Komeiji sisters were pretty much without a scratch. Patchouli was right. The spirits that have possessed the fairies avoided attacking them directly, and the two satori have taken great advantage of it.
Another one who could boast a perfect condition in this fight was Princess Yuyuko. Being already dead, she didn't have to focus on dodging or hiding. Her servant, however, was not invulnerable and Yuyuko took it upon herself to protect her. For many decades, it was Youmu whose sword was always there to guard the Netherworld's mistress. This time, the ghostly beauty was merely repaying a favor.
Time was short before the next wave of fairies would hit the quarry village, and the girls from the expedition team, as well as the villagers, were running out of magic and ideas on how to stop these attacks.
Eirin might have been the brightest mind of the team, but she already had her hands full with other urgent matters. She was just helping Marisa walk into the tavern before the fight would continue.
But there was someone who came up with an interesting idea.
"I'll try to hide the village and make it seem like it never existed, just like that time when the Moon was replaced with a fake one." the half-youkai teacher from Human Village suggested. At first she was hesitant about using her history-devouring powers, because Patchouli explicitly wanted the fairies to attack the village. But Keine Kamishirasawa didn't know the reason why would the elemental sorceress want such a thing to happen. Now that Patchouli was wounded, and the situation obviously out of control, Keine decided to protect Kazemura by any means necessary. She clasped her hands together and closed her eyes, like she was praying. She was actually charging up her power in order to devour Kazemura's history. She thought it would be easier than hiding the Human Village during the Imperishable Night incident, since Kazemura was much smaller, but she soon realized, just like Remilia, that in the heat of battle she had used up a major portion of her magic. Her spell faded before it was completed.
"This is bad." she shook her head in self-disappointment and her face reflected worry about surviving the following minutes.
The storm was still raging above them, not showing any signs of calming down. Just like the seemingly endless downpour of fairies that has targeted this small mining settlement.
"Sleep time is over, ladies!" Aya announced with the tone of a military commander. "Here comes the second wave!"
It was bullet hell all over again. The disorganized team of girls was gradually weakening. Soon, Keine ended up just like Remilia – unable to shoot any more danmaku. A few minutes later, Sakuya ran out of energy not only to use her time-altering powers, but even to fly.
Another Spell Card had to come into play.
"Losing Hometown "Lost Soul's Village –Suicide-"!" Yuyuko Saigyouji declared it just in time to save Youmu from the enemy storm of danmaku. Several wide waves appeared by Yuyuko's sides, consisting of blue, green and yellow projectiles that had only small gaps between them. As they spread out, they intersected each other, resulting in a dangerous crossfire. To top it all, Yuyuko swung her decorative fan that launched five read beams, each of them deadly to the fairies. As she made a half-spin with her fan, the lasers burned every fairy that they came into contact with. But while Yuyuko and Youmu were winning on one side of the battlefield, the fairies have overrun the village from the other side.
Alice and Reimu used their last Spell Cards only so they could survive the wrath of the possessed fairies. But to defeat them, they'd need much more spells…
Even during the second wave, the swarms seemed to have completely ignored the Komeiji sisters and their pet, Rin. But the other girls and villagers were not spared from their attacks.
Seeing how the fairies were attacking everything in their path save for the ruins, the girls decided to use the obelisks for cover. It worked… to some extent. But it was only a meager help in this desperate situation.
"I… I can't shoot danmaku anymore~!" Reimu lamented as she was trying to catch her breath. Never before she had to fight for so long without rest. "At this rate, the village will be one with these damn ruins."
As she peeked out from behind the stone obelisk, she noticed that the fairies have started breaking into the houses through any openings they could find. And when they couldn't find any, they made them with danmaku. The tavern building was no exception.
"The wounded ones…" she gasped in shock. "Everybody, fall back to the tavern! NOW!"
Reimu was on the verge of ending up like Sakuya – unable to fly. Now she was only able to fly short distances, so she proceeded to the tavern in a leaping fashion.
Naturally, Aya and Hatate were the first ones to make it inside. When even the Hakurei shrine maiden entered the establishment, she could see chaos and desperation as the other girls and the innkeeper were trying to barricade the windows and fix the door that Remilia removed from its hinges. Not to mention they were doing it while fighting against tens of fairies that have already invaded the tavern's interior.
"Help meee~!" a girl's voice called desperately form somewhere upstairs.
"Get off me!" Kaguya struggled with a fairy that somehow ended up tangled in her long black hair.
"Fire in the kitchen!" the innkeeper's wife ran out of the room, followed by clouds of white smoke. "They're everywhere…"
"I'll take care of that." Suika volunteered to help put out the fire.
"And what are you going to do?" Reimu raised her eyebrow. "Douse it with your sake?"
"No, silly Reimu~! I'll become a thick mist and put it out, but I need everyone to get out of the kitchen."
"The kitchen's empty." the woman replied. "Please hurry before we all burn here to death!"
"Actually…" Eirin muttered as she was checking out Sanae's condition, "We would sooner suffocate from the smoke than burn alive, but that's beside the point."
"Okay, Suika, do what you have to do." Reimu gave her approval. "I'm going upstairs. Who's with me?"
"I'll go." Youmu Konpaku stepped forth without hesitation.
"M… Me too!" Remilia also volunteered to join Reimu, though her voice didn't sound too certain.
"You can't even shoot simple danmaku anymore." the miko remarked.
"Well, neither can you!" Remilia opposed. "But I can still give those fairies the old one-two."
"Fine, let's not waste any more time. Up we go!"
As Reimu and her two teammates ran upstairs, Suika rushed into the kitchen. She was just about to close the door behind her, when she saw a small group of fairies inside.
"Don't shoot us~! We haven't started the fire!" one of them begged with her arms covering her face.
"You…" Suika recognized them at once. "What are you three doing here?"
"It… was Sunny's idea to go here and look for some snacks. Then the other fairies attacked and we were scared so…" Luna began to explain, but the oni silenced her by raising her hand.
"Ok, ok, you can tell me later. For now, you need to get out of here."
"Yes~!" the three fairies replied unanimously and flew out of the smoke-filled room.
"And close the door~!" Suika shouted after them.
The kitchen's door was slammed shut by the last leaving fairy, giving Suika the signal to start her transformation. Density manipulation allowed her to become a cloud of thick mist, much thicker than the smoke rising from the burning furniture. By doing this, she cut off the oxygen supply to the spreading flames, which died out before they caused any serious damage.
At least one part of the problem was solved.
In the meantime, the girls upstairs followed the voice who was calling for help. They opened every door on their way through the corridor until they found the person in a distressful situation.
"Akyuu-chan!" Reimu saw the chronicler hiding under the bed while fairies from the outside were letting themselves into the room through the smashed window.
"I'll get those little pests!" Remilia threw herself at one of the winged creatures and snapped her neck. "Get the girl out of here!"
Youmu went after the other fairies with her katana. With a few quick and precise lunging attacks, she helped the vampire secure the room.
Reimu trotted to the bed and offered her hand to Akyuu so she could get out faster.
"Ah, Reimu-san… Thank you. But is it really any safer downstairs than here?"
"I don't know for sure, but you can't hide under that bed forever. Come on. On your feet…"
As Reimu pulled the chronicler from under the bed, Youmu suggested that the girls should use the mentioned piece of furniture to barricade the smashed window.
"Not sure how barricading one window is going to help us…" muttered the vampire, but she was already lifting the bed up together with Youmu and placing it at the window.
Reimu took Akyuu by the hand and hurried back downstairs. That's when she heard some suspicious noises coming from one of the closed rooms.
"What was that?" she paused for a second to listen. Even Akyuu curiously stared at the door. It sounded like pieces of glass clinking against each other. Reimu pictured a similar scene as she witnessed in Akyuu's room when the fairies have broken the window.
"Akyuu-chan, run downstairs!" the shrine maiden wanted to send her to safety as she put her hand on the door's handle.
Akyuu nodded obediently and left the corridor via the only stairway leading to the ground floor. Reimu recalled that her powers were almost entirely used up, so she called for Remilia and Youmu to back her up while she'd open the door of the room where the noise was coming from.
"Three… two… one… NOW!"
Reimu swung the door open, while Youmu readied her sword for a vertical slash. At the first sign of movement, she commenced her attack, but she realized that the person standing in front of her was not one of the possessed fairies. The half-ghost's blade stopped just centimeters in front of his face.
"You!" Reimu pointed her finger at the surprised man. "You're that youkai who came here with Eirin and Patchouli."
Xeng-Yao, the immortal half-snake youkai alchemist froze in shock at the sight of Roukanken's blade that wasn't far from chopping his face in two. He protruded his forked tongue and touched the sword's tip.
"Umm… why ssssuch hosssstility, young lady?"
"What have you been doing this whole time?!" Reimu barked a question at him. "The whole village is a battlefield!"
"That fact hassssn't esssscaped me, missss shrine maiden. But it takesss ssssome time to prepare these thingssss without proper lab equipment."
"Prepare what?"
Xeng gently patted a large leather backpack that he carried on his shoulders. Its content let out a few jingling sounds, just like what Reimu heard before she opened the door.
"Everything you might need to help you fight."
Reimu, Youmu and Remilia exchanged heir glances before focusing on the alchemist again.
"We have some wounded downstairs. Think you can help them?"
"Think?" he let out a hissing chuckle. "I've got ssstuff that'll get them on their feet again and ready to fight on. If we had the sssame thingsss back on the Moon, we would have taken the capital for sure."
Reimu made a shrugging gesture. "Then don't waste time up here and get busy!" she beckoned to the staircase.
Xeng sighed and calmly walked out of his room. "I'm alwayssss busy…"
The group returned to the barroom of the tavern. Everyone who still had some magic reserve left was fighting the fairies guerrilla-style, shooting though the windows in short bursts and taking cover.
"Here they are." Reimu pointed at the girls lying on the ground. "Marisa and Sanae should be fine, but Patchouli took the worst of it."
"What about me then?" Kaguya remarked sarcastically.
"You don't count." the miko brushed her off.
Xeng briefly looked at the injured girls and started unpacking his potions. "Ahh, the wounded - an inevitability of every battle… Let me take a closssser look at you."
"Hmm… An artery wound. But it lookssss like it's already ssstabilized. Decent work… very decent."
"That's because I treated it." Eirin brought the alchemist's attention to herself.
"I ssssee. Poor Patchouli-sssan… Seemsss the injury affected her vocal chordsss too. But don't worry. We can sssspeed up the healing processss by leapsss and boundssss." He took out a flask filled with dark-red liquid and shook it lightly before opening.
"Wait…" Remilia gripped his hand with strength that would cause pain to a normal human, but Xeng didn't perceive it as pain. "I don't trust this youkai. Just what are you going to make Patchy drink, huh?"
"A sssspecial Earth-Lunarian cocktail with nearly instantaneous healing effectssss. It hurtssss a little at firssst, but I think it'sss a worthy tradeoff."
"So that's what you sold to one of my patients." Eirin recalled the events in Eientei, when two of her human patients recovered unnaturally fast.
"I sssold a lot of variousss potionsss to a lot of people. I run a businesss just like you, and like you I've kept my residence a sssecret from the general population for ssssome time. Now I'm more open. And don't you worry, little vampire girl," he turned to Remilia, "this potion isss for youkai. The potionssss for humansss mussst use different ingredientsss. I'm not going to poissson your friend. Though, I have to admit, I don't sssspecialize in medicine… Thisss isss mossstly Yagokoro Eirin's recipe, ssso if you trussst her, you can trussst me."
"A regenerating concoction of this strong and fast effect would require pure ingredients…" the Lunarian sage reasoned. "Ingredients unobtainable on Earth."
The half-snake chuckled and looked up proudly. "That'sss a little trade sssecret of mine, but yesss, you're right. I would be looking for the necessary ingredientsss for these potionssss on Earth in vain. But there are waysss…"
"So she supplies you?"
"Hm? Who?" Xeng didn't get Eirin's question.
"You know well, who I mean."
"Yakumo-ssama? No, no, no…" he shook his head in denial. "I haven't ssseen her in a very long while. I wonder how she'sss doing. And if she still looksss as pretty as when I sssaw her lassst."
"That's what you say." the pharmacist doubted his words.
"Oh, come now… Haven't we already been through all thisss? Hey! You, girl with that red eye over your chest, look at me… Am I lying?"
Satori fired a flurry of danmaku out of the window before responding to his question. "He's telling the truth. He doesn't have a supplier. His ingredients come from…"
"Alright, alright, alright… That'ssss enough." he raised his voice to silence her before she'd reveal his well-guarded business secret, "there's no need to go into details."
"I think there is." Reimu disagreed. "Otherwise you will remain suspicious."
"Do you want me to help your friend or not?" the alchemist changed the topic, trailing his glance off to Patchouli.
After a while of hesitation, Remilia released his wrist. "…Fine."
"Now why don't you tell us about your way of obtaining those ingredients?" Reimu continued the interrogation.
"If you come to my lab, I'll show you…" he muttered his response as he was lifting Patchouli's head and prompting her to drink from the potion bottle.
"You'll tell us NOW." the shrine maiden didn't let herself get brushed off and demanded an immediate answer.
"I grow the ingredientsss in sssspecial containersss that emulate the pure environment of the Moon. Are you happy now?"
"My, that would be quite interesting to see." Eirin was already making plans on revisiting Xeng's cavernous dwelling to it for herself.
The alchemist ignored her and focused on not spilling too much of his potion while making Patchouli drink it.
"That should be enough…" he backed away from her slowly and watched her reaction.
Patchouli confusedly blinked her eyes and put her hand over her bandaged wound. Not long after that, her eyes widened with the arrival of the potion's negative side-effect. Strong searing pain overtook her wounded neck and the youkai girl started stirring about on the floor. She kicked down a nearby chair as she tried to endure it. Remilia was not pleased to see her in that state at all. But just as suddenly as the pain arrived, it left, leaving only a faint afterglow deep inside the librarian's throat. She tried to speak, but only a faint whisper escaped her lips. It would still take some time before her voice would return back to normal, but at least she was able to stand up again and perhaps even continue to fight.
"Patchy~!" Remilia threw herself at her. "Are you alright?"
The purple-haired girl opened her mouth, but no words came out. However, she was still able to muster a smile. With a few pantomimic gestures she requested for something to write with. Akyuu was willing to rip a few blank pages out of her notebook and even offered her a writing brush.
The first words that Patchouli wrote down were: "Thank you, everyone."
"Patchouli…" Remilia again couldn't help herself, but to tightly hug her friend once more. The sorceress looked a little baffled, but she slowly raised her hand and patted the Scarlet Devil's head. When Remilia finally let her go, Patchouli wrote down: "I'm alright now, but it still hurts when I try to speak."
"Patchouli, listen..." Reimu spoke up to her. "You got what you wished for. The fairies have swarmed the village in tens of thousands. We're cornered in this tavern; we're tired and wounded and we don't know how much more fairies will come even if we manage to beat those that are here. Do you have any suggestions what to do now?"
To everyone's relief, the librarian nodded and started quickly scribbling something on the paper sheet. The curious girls who weren't currently preoccupied with shooting the fairies outside the tavern gathered around Patchouli and impatiently peeked over her shoulder to see what plan she had in mind.
Satori would be able to tell them sooner then Patchouli would write it, but she was one of those girls who were busy with fighting.
When the elementalist was done with writing, she picked up the paper and showed it to everyone.
"The warding blessings have worked with the three fairies of light, as they were not possessed…" Reimu started reading the text aloud. "The vengeful spirits rarely act with such coordination as we've seen here. I suspect that they are manipulated by someone. And that someone is somewhere close by."
"I knew it all along!" Remilia called out. "The culprit is hiding in this village. We should go out there and gather every villager and have Satori look at them to find out who's doing this."
"However…" Reimu continued reading, "it's also possible that the spirits are manipulated by a master spirit… Wait, what?"
Patchouli put the paper down again and hurried to scribble an answer. The sounds of battle, explosions and screams from outside were filling out the otherwise quiet tavern. Patchouli showed the paper to the girls and the shrine maiden took the initiative to read it again.
"In one of the many books on occult – the Binding of Souls, I found a very interesting passage about necromancy and the art of binding one's spirit so that it wouldn't leave the mortal plane even after one's death. Especially on page 489 where…"
"Umm… Patchy?" Remilia interrupted Reimu's reading and looked into Patchouli's eyes. "Could you be a bit terser?"
"Yeah…" Reimu seconded the vampire's suggestion.
A bashful smile settled on the librarian's face and she lightly bowed in a gesture of apology. She took the writing brush and underlined the key part of the text, showing Reimu what they should focus on.
"In the past, some necromancers undertook a ritual to seal their souls inside their bodies, so they'd achieve immortality."
"Such foolishness…" Eirin muttered and disapprovingly shook her head.
"Sure it issss… an elixir of immortality is a much better method, isss it not, Lunarian?" Xeng-Yao asked her with clear sarcasm in his tone.
"I'd say being a vampire is the best way to go." Remilia voiced her opinion.
"The best way to become immortal is to leave it all to the natural order of the universe and simply die." Yuyuko added her bit of wisdom into the discussion.
Eirin was about to retort, but Reimu graced her and the youkai alchemist with a silencing gaze. When both of them understood that there was no time for their bickering, they allowed the shrine maiden to continue reading Patchouli's explanation.
"With their bodies dead, but their souls still residing inside, they continued their lives as corpses retaining their intellect, memories and abilities. These undead necromancers, commonly known as liches could manipulate other undead and use them as minions, and were even able to re-attach their souls to another dead body as a precaution. They could still be killed if their body took significant damage and their soul could no longer hold it together. In rare cases, a lich could possess a living being, but only if his or her soul was strong enough to take over and dominate its host's soul. That's why they preferred to possess small animals as creatures with weak spiritual resistance. If my theory is correct and we are facing a lich, we must take into consideration that it could be one of those possessed fairies."
"Eh…" the shrine maiden scratched her head. "That's interesting and all, but… how are we supposed to find a lich's spirit amongst the zillions of fairies?"
Patchouli ran out of space to write on, so she turned the paper and started writing the answer on the other side. After a while she showed it to the shrine maiden.
"There are several ways to find this out: Remilia's fate vision, Satori-san's mind reading or Yuyuko-sama's invitation to death… I see. And after we take out the right fairy? What's going to happen? I mean… what prevents that lich spirit from simply taking another host?"
The elemental sorceress nodded repeatedly and dipped her brush into ink again. After a half a minute she presented her reply.
"Unless a lich performs another binding ritual beforehand, slaying its current body will return it to the cycle of death. The sinful spirits usually go to hell or wander eternally on Earth, but they lose their power to manipulate other spirits. Without this power, the fairies will be thrown into disarray. But I already have a better plan than just slaying the master fairy. Yuyuko-sama already knows what to do… Huh? Yuyuko?" Reimu's glance shifted to the ghost.
"Why, yes~." Princess Saigyouji confirmed with a nod. "I'm not afraid to go out there again, but what about the rest of you?"
That's when Marisa's voice diverted everyone's attention. "Ahh… Whoa! What was that drink you gave me?" she wiped her lips with the back of her hand and jumped up on her feet. "I feel awesome!"
"Don't mention it…" Xeng-Yao was satisfied with the result and proceeded to treat Sanae. "Now for the lassst patient… Oh, so she's a shrine maiden too? So we need a potion sssafe for humansss."
"Actually, she's a living goddess." Kanako corrected him. "But otherwise, yes, a human…"
The alchemist paused for a moment, giving Kanako an intense stare. Only now he noticed that she bore signs that separated her from both humans and youkai. "That mirror and shimenawa circle… You… you are a goddess too, aren't you?"
"That's right; I'm Yasaka Kanako, from the…" she suddenly interrupted her introduction when she saw Xeng prostrating in front of her."
"I'm sssory that I didn't notice sssoner."
A little confused, Kanako exchanged her glance with Suwako. "Uhh… Thank you for your gesture, but right now we really don't have any time for this." she prompted him to stand up.
"Please, just help our dear Sanae like you helped the other two girls."
"Of courssse…" he stood up again to prepare a dose for the wounded shrine maiden. "Okay, thisss should be enough… He measured an appropriate amount of potion and made Sanae drink it.
The pain of rapid healing was more intense depending on the seriousness of the injury. Sanae was only lightly injured, though, so her recovery wasn't too hard for her to endure. In a matter of seconds, she was fully recovered and healthy.
"Thank you."
"My pleasure, Sssanae-san." the half-snake mustered a crooked smile. "Now you can fight the fairiessss in full strength again."
"Actually…" Reimu raised her finger in objection. "I ran out of energy… I should rest, but I can't! Look at what's going on outside. And I'm not the only one…"
"Well, why didn't you ssssay so sssooner?" the alchemist pulled out a large bottle filled with a peculiar opaque blue liquid. "Bartender, bring us ssssome shot glasses! Thisss round is on the houssse."
The owner of the establishment thought that Xeng was joking about it, but the alchemist's eyes were staring back at him, radiating an aura of urgency and seriousness.
"Sure, give me a second."
The man reached for a serving tray and loaded it with over a dozen shot glasses.
"Do I get a taste too?" he asked as he put the tray on the nearby table.
"Not unlesss you're going out there to fight."
"What a pity."
When Suika saw the scene, she couldn't hide her curiosity. "Oh~! What drink are you serving?"
"Thisss juice will replenish your magical energy. It's not a medicine, ssso it's sssafe for both humanssss and youkai to drink. Even when you feel exhausssted, the potion will charge you up." Xeng explained as she poured the blue liquid into the shot glasses. "Cheers, everyone! Don't be shy."
"Cheeeers~!" the oni didn't hesitate to have a taste. Everyone else cautiously watched her to see her reaction.
"Awww… What is this~? I can't get drunk from this."
"Hmm…" the alchemist thoughtfully rubbed his chin between his fingers. "Perhapsss I should invent a tastier brand of these magic replenishersss."
Reimu, Sanae and Sakuya were each holding their glass and staring at its content with suspicion. Marisa, on the other hand, didn't have any qualms about trying out new potions.
"Ya, know, I also dabble in alchemy a bit, and I still remember the thrill of my first taste of my first potion from the mushrooms that I harvested in the forest… Let me sample that blue stuff, ze!"
She downed the glass just as quickly as Suika and exhaled deeply. "Hmm… I don't mind the bitter taste, but is this potion supposed to make me feel refreshed? Because I can't say that I feel any diff… oh…" she paused herself in the middle of the sentence as a strong feeling of warmth began spreading from her stomach throughout her entire body.
"And the poison has begun to take its effect…" Reimu remarked jokingly.
"How do you feel, Marisa?" Alice asked her.
"Like I could brawl with an oni!"
Suika crossed her arms over her underdeveloped chest as a sign of accepting her challenge. "Really, Marisa-chan? Shall we go outside then?"
"Eh… that was just a metaphor, Suika." the witch bashfully backed one step away. "But seriously, I feel like Master Sparking some fairies. You should try it too, Reimu."
The black-haired maiden still had her doubts, but she let Marisa convince her. She threw the glass's content into her mouth and swallowed it, without trying to savor the potion's flavor.
"You know," she spoke after she drank her dose, "I'm a shrine maiden, and as such, I use divine powers rather than magic."
"Reimu-san has a point." Kanako nodded agreeingly. "As a goddess, will drinking this potion really help me and Suwako?"
The immortal youkai from China fluttered his tongue in the air as he thought about the question. "That I don't know, Yasaka-sssama. I've never tesssted the stuff on a god before. There are some thingsss that I can put into a bottle and sssome that I can't. You can ssstill drink it if you like, but I can't guarantee it will work."
"Well, it's not like it could kill me anyway." the goddess of wind and rain shrugged and sipped the potion to the bottom. Suwako followed suit and so did Sanae.
Kanako waited for a while for any strange sensations, but she was only met with disappointment. "Well, I can't say it did the trick, but at least it was worth a try."
Likewise, the shrine maidens from both of Gensokyo's shrines felt no difference after ingesting the magic replenishing potion.
"Hmm~." Yuyuko also gave it a try, even though she was aware that it would bring her no benefit. She drank it just for the sake of tasting something new. "I think it could use a little more sugar."
Remilia, on the other hand, felt the magic rush almost instantly. Despite being drained from the rain and hard battle, just one shot glass of the elixir restored her magic to full amount. Almost like after drinking a satisfying amount of human blood.
"Sakuya." she addressed her maid without making eye contact.
"Yes, Remilia-sama?"
"Drink it up and meet me outside."
"Wait, mistress, what are you…?"
Before Sakuya could formulate her question, her mistress took flight and exited the tavern through one of the smashed windows.
"Thought you've seen the last of me? Come at me, you fools! "Scarlet Gensokyo"!" her taunts and Spell Card declaration could be heard from outside even through the noises of battle and thunder.
Just as the name of the spell suggested, the card flashed in a bright scarlet glow and launched a spiral of large violet orbs that began exploding from the center and making the neighboring danmaku bubbles follow suit in a chain reaction. Each exploding bubble produced several smaller red fragments that littered a wide area. Although slow in movement, the resulting projectiles were so dense and so numerous, that the fairy swarm couldn't do much to avoid them. And while Remilia was launching wave after wave of decimating magic barrages, Sakuya quickly obeyed her order, drank the potion and hurried outside to add some sharp metal to her mistress's danmaku patterns.
Alice and Marisa didn't want to waste their time inside either, and both of them returned to the battlefield, lasers blazing. All the girls left the tavern with the exception of Reimu, Sanae and the two goddesses. The potion failed to restore their divine powers, so they decided to lay low and protect Akyuu.
Xeng-Yao apologized that despite his extensive knowledge of alchemy, he could not create a drinkable substance that restores divine power. He put away his half-empty bottle and slowly approached the tavern's window.
"Hey, where are you going?" Reimu halted him as he was about to climb outside through the broken window. "I know you're a youkai, but… can you even fight? You don't look like it…"
"I took part in the first Genssso-Lunar war, dear shrine maiden and my reward was a recipe for immortality. I'll be fine."
"Hmph…" she let out a snort of indifference. "I'm not worried about your life. Taking part in a war and fighting in it are two different things. I was just wondering if you had any danmaku to fight the fairies with, considering how you were hiding in one of the guest rooms when we found you."
The alchemist unstrapped two small bulb-shaped bottles from his sash and showed them to Reimu. They were filled with a bubbling liquid of bright orange color. "Thisss is my danmaku." and with those words, he slipped outside into the fray. When he saw a thick cluster of fairies, he flung one of the bottles at them with all his might. With so many fairies, it was quite hard to miss. The flask shattered on the face of one unfortunate fairy and as soon as its content came into contact with water, a violent explosion followed. Over a dozen of enemy youkai were scattered into all directions from the power of the shockwave. The exploding potion also created a small cloud of highly toxic gas that continued to reduce the enemy ranks before it dispersed. He didn't have much combat experience, but with most of the expedition team soaring above, the fairies didn't pay him much attention even when he was throwing his explosive concoctions at them.
Everyone was fighting hard. Even Patchouli didn't hold back and joined her friends in the grand battle, this time paying extra attention to incoming enemy projectiles. With the rain powering the element water, she kept casting water-based danmaku as her basic attack.
The youkai dollmaker got an interesting idea how to aid her allies. With magic energy to spare, Alice summoned a horde of dolls, all of them bearing large kite shields and commanded them to form a protective cocoon around all the other girls. With this additional protection, the girls were effectively breaking the fairies' offensive and began pushing them back beyond the premises of Kazemura.
When Keine saw this, she hurried to Patchouli to ask her how to proceed.
"Patchouli-san…" she interrupted her sentence to fire a burst of shots. "Do you want me to hide this village's history? I have enough magic to do it properly, just give me the signal."
Patchouli locked her eyes with hers and shook her head profusely. She pointed her finger at Yuyuko, then clenched her fist slowly and finally waved both of her hands sideways.
"I'm afraid I don't understand, but I hope you know what you're doing."
The teacher parted with her and continued to chase down the dwindling groups of fairies with the rest of the team.
"Patchouli-san." Satori came flying to the librarian with interesting news to tell. "The spirits… they are returning back underground. All of them are thinking the same thing, like they're driven by something…" She threw a quick glance at Remilia with her third eye to analyze her thoughts. The vampire was still sending the fairies to the ground by dozens with her Spell Card, not having any time to report what she saw. But Satori could see her thoughts and even slightly tap into her fate vision. What she saw warranted Patchouli's highest attention. The fairies each had two particular fate strings that distinguished their fate. One was leading towards the center of the quarry pit and the other one was trailing off somewhere to southwest before fading into nothing. When Satori broke the news to her, Patchouli knew that this was the right time to act. She pointed her finger at the sky and shot a bright-yellow signal bullet. Right on cue, Aya arrived to meet up with them.
"Ayayaya~! You gave the signal, so I'm here!"
Perhaps Patchouli couldn't speak yet, but Satori was there with her to help her convey her thoughts to the tengu.
"Oh, I see… So you've tracked down our primary target? Then we must strike without warning and surprise the mastermind!"
"Let's not forget to bring Yuyuko-sama along with us." Satori reminded her.
"Alright, I'll let her know!" the reporter nodded affirmatively. "I'll be right back."
In a few seconds, she returned along with the Netherworld's princess by her side.
"So we finally rooted out the source~?" the ghostly girl asked when she saw the group.
"Hey~!" another girl's call sounded. "You haven't thought of tracking the culprit down without me, have you?" Remilia Scarlet finally finished her spell and rejoined them, even bringing an extra member to the team. In her arms, a desperate possessed fairy was quivering violently, trying in vain to break free from the vampire's unyielding grip.
"Remi…" Satori spoke out Patchouli's thoughts aloud. She sounded a bit awkward, addressing the vampire so informally, but she didn't have the time to explain that she's merely reading the librarian's mind aloud. "Okay, I see you've captured one alive… Together, we'll find a way to reach the manipulator of these spirits. Lead the way!"
With a slight flap of her bat-like wings, Remilia followed the fate string's trail of the fairy that she was holding.
"Wait~!" Yuyuko called after her, "You're going a little too fast~!"
Soon the girls realized that a significant portion of the fairies that were raiding the village suddenly shifted the center of their attention to the Scarlet Devil.
"Ayayaya~! I think we have company!"
Satori rolled her third eye at the fairies that pursued them. "Just like that time when we were trying to catch specimens for Eirin…"
"What are you talking about?" Aya didn't understand.
"Their thoughts are now focused on eliminating the fairy that you're holding, Remilia-san. Whoever is manipulating these spirits must be aware that we've captured one and is trying to prevent us from finding them."
"Well, tough luck!" Remilia began flying even faster. "They're not catching us!"
"Butterflies, butterflies, pretty, pretty butterflies~!" Yuyuko who was tagging behind the rest of the girls was flying backwards and covering the team from behind. Her trademark butterfly-shaped danmaku was making it hard for the fairy swarm to achieve their goal.
And while Yuyuko was having fun with the fairies, Remilia was only focused on that thin red string that was showing her the way.
"Aya, can you see anything?"
The crow tengu who was holding both Satori and Patchouli to help them fly faster indeed noticed some suspicious movement in the distance. "Keep flying, I think I see another group ahead."
"How many?"
Aya made a quick and rough estimate of the enemy number. "Hmm… About a few hundred."
"Ha! We'll obliterate them in seconds!" declared the vampire with strong confidence.
They pressed on, not afraid to face another battle in this terrible weather. Remilia was again starting to feel her magic quickly draining and she wanted to reach the mastermind before the rain would wash it away completely.
"I can see them." She halted about a hundred meters away from the enemy fleet of fairies.
Satori again looked inside Patchouli's thoughts and figured that the librarian was pretty much about to say the same thing as her.
"Just show us which fairy harbors the leader spirit and let Yuyuko-sama do the rest."
With the captive fairy still struggling in her arms, the mistress of the Scarlet Devil Mansion focused her sight at the group ahead and trying to identify which of those fairies was the fate string pointing to. The opposing fairy swarm was much smaller compared to what she faced over Kazemura's quarry. But despite their relatively small number, the fairies attacked with uncanny ferocity. The target was, of course, Remilia's captive.
"Here they come! Spread out and hold your fire!" Satori took the leading role in this fight and issued a command.
"Hold our fire?!" Remilia spewed out. "What the hell is she thinking?!" She just narrowly dodged a straightforward burst of magic orbs that were thrown at her and proceeded to strike back.
"Eat this!" she began rapidly casting danmaku out of her right hand while still clutching the captured fairy tightly with her left arm. Satori and Patchouli noticed that she disobeyed them and started killing the enemies without discrimination.
"Remilia~! Stop!" Patchouli spoke through Satori's voice. Even when repeatedly asked by her best friend, the stubborn vampire continued to exterminate the small winged youkai. Her uncontrollable behavior was threatening Patchouli's plan to end the fairy incident here and now. She was worried that the chance to stop the vengeful spirits would elude her when she already had it within her reach. She swallowed her own saliva and with great disgust over her own decision, she aimed her finger at Remilia's back. A single watery projectile was summoned from her fingertip. It traveled a short distance before it splashed on Remilia's back.
"Kyaaah~!" she let out a surprised shout. The shot was weak and technically harmless to a youkai like Remilia, but Patchouli still winced at the thought that she had to use it against her.
"What the hell are you doing?!" the vampire yelled at her. "Have you become possessed too?"
Satori wanted to explain Patchouli's plan to her, but the hostile fairies didn't allow her any time for that.
"Satori-san, look out!" Aya grabbed her by the back of her shirt and pulled her away from an incoming volley of enemy danmaku.
As if things weren't bad enough, another squadron of fairies took advantage of distracted Remilia and attacked the fairy she was holding in her arms.
"Gah! Damn it!" all she could do was to utter a curse as her captive was assassinated.
Infuriated and frustrated, she continued killing every fairy in sight. "NOBODY… MESSESS… WITH REMILIA… SCARLET!" she bellowed as she kept repeatedly flinging smaller versions of her danmaku spear.
"She's completely out of control." was what Satori saw when reading Patchouli's current thoughts. If one of those fairies was possessed by a mastermind spirit and it made another binding ritual beforehand, killing it would not solve anything. On the contrary, it would make things even more complicated, because the girls would have to search all over again. Patchouli and others were just watching helplessly as the Scarlet Devil wiped out half of the fairy swarm. But due to the rain, she could not keep her magic strong for too long.
"Why?" she suddenly turned at Patchouli with a blaming look in her crimson eyes. "Why did you tell me not to shoot them?"
Instead of answering her question, Satori asked her: "You can still see them, can't you?"
"What…?"
"The strings of fate." the mind-reader specified. "Even if you lost your hostage, you can still track the position of our primary target from the fate strings of other fairies. If you haven't killed her already…"
When she ran out of danmaku to shoot, Remilia was finally able to calm down and realize the mistake that she was about to do. And even if she slipped and stumbled, she could still help make things right again. With as few words as possible, the satori explained to her the importance of following Patchouli's plan.
"I… I will." she nodded repeatedly. "I can't shoot danmaku for too long in this damn rain anyway. I'll show you which fairy is in charge of all this mess…"
She spread her wings again and soared up, paying close attention to the curving and heading of the enemy fairies' fate lines. The fairies, of course, were still relentlessly assaulting the other girls, but they decided to just dodge and stand down until Remilia designates the main mark.
"Hurry up, Remilia." Aya muttered impatiently as she kept circling around and avoiding shots.
She could already see the massive cloud of fairies that abandoned the fight at Kazemura getting closer to their position.
After about 30 seconds that seemed like eternity, Remilia's unique vision finally saw what she was looking for. At the rear of a small fairy squadron that was somewhat holding back compared to the rest of the fairies, there was an odd one out. There was a huge knot of fate strings spreading out from her head to the heads of other fairies that were nearby.
"That's the one~!" Remilia shouted at the other girls while extending her finger at the target. "The one in the black dress! After her!"
"It was about time!" Aya exhaled in relief from the fact that she could now defend herself and annihilate any other fairies without holding back. Once she swatted down the most annoying and persistent fairies that were attacking her, the reporter took a closer look at the fairy that Remilia was pointing at.
"Why, that's Lily White!" she identified the host of the mastermind of the vengeful spirits.
"Indeed~!" Yuyuko confirmed. "Though not so white anymore."
A blonde fairy with dark feathery wings, all dressed in black was calmly observing the battle from a distance.
"I thought she only appeared in springtime."
"She's truly acting out of character." the ghost remarked as she followed Aya. "Now to see if Patchouli-san's theory was right…"
It didn't take long for Lily to notice the impending danger, so she tired to flee and hide herself among the other fairies that were arriving from Kazemura.
"She's trying to get away!" Remilia alerted the team to the sudden movement of their primary target.
"Let's see if she can get away from me!" Aya accepted the challenge. "Sorry, Satori-san, I'll let you go now so I could fly at full speed."
A silent nod of consent came from Satori, and the tengu girl was already chasing Lily White down like a hungry dog chases after bacon.
Of course, the fairy's maximum flight speed could not compare to that of a crow tengu, and it wasn't long before Aya crossed Lily's path.
"Gotcha!" she grinned ominously. She extended her arms to grab the fairy, but the spirit that possessed Lily White did not want to give up easily.
"What the…? Kyaaaaaah~!"
The fairy that normally announced the arrival of spring surprised Aya with an attack that she'd never expect from her. Out of her palms she fired a beam not unlike Marisa's favorite Master Spark. It was a bit smaller, though, and instead of producing dazzling light it sported a somewhat dark shade of violet.
"Aya~!" Remilia shouted at the falling tengu. Even if she hurried as fast as she could, she would not be able to catch her. She could only watch as Aya's unconscious body disappeared among the treetops, followed by a series of loud snaps and cracks of tree branches and rustling of leaves.
"Aya-san…" Yuyuko uttered her name, hoping that the tengu didn't suffer a mortal wound. But she couldn't go and see if she was okay at this moment. Lily White had to be stopped here and now by any means necessary.
"I'll get you for this, you little bitch!" Remilia's anger again boiled up her vampiric blood. Just like a couple of minutes before when she ran out of magic, she decided to incapacitate the fairy's movement and perhaps give her a weak slap or two, just not to kill her.
This time it was Patchouli who worried about her friend. Remilia fearlessly engaged the black-clad fairy in melee. But to her great surprise, Lily fought back with physical strength that was unheard of for a fairy.
"Take this! And that! And… ungh! What the hell?!" she didn't know whether her opponent was so strong or whether the heavy rain has made her so weak, but Remilia was having a hard time pacifying her.
And while the two of them were wrestling with each other, the bulk of the fairy armada from Kazemura has finally caught up to them, followed by a part of the expedition team that was shooting them down from behind. The center of the battle was now shifted to a forest not too far from the mining village.
Yuyuko hurried to help Remilia, but she and Lily were already swallowed up by the rest of the swarm.
"Aaaaaaargh!" Remilia's pained shriek helped the ghostly princess find her even in the whirlwind of fairies and danmaku. It seemed that Lily has just slipped out of her grasp and replied with a powerful projectile right at the vampire's chest.
"Remilia-san!" Yuyuko could see that the blue-haired youkai was shaken by the hit and the fairy that she wanted to catch was charging up for a finishing move. The other girls from the team were too far to lend her a hand. But Princess Saigyouji did not need anyone's help. She already knew what to do…
Just as Patchouli told her, she was aware that she was probably the most important part of the team because of her unique ability. The very ability that had driven her to suicide over a thousand years ago. Now, that ability could be actually put to good use.
"Now, herald of the spring's arrival," she addressed the fairy with a chant-like tone, "I shall free thee of thy tormentor."
The ghostly princess spread her arms wide, as if ready to embrace someone. "Gaze upon me and abandon thy husk, for I am thy death… Embrace it!"
As Yuyuko was slowly closing her arms and embracing the air, Lily White's facial expression changed from a hateful grin to a lifeless, empty stare. As she fell backwards, a white cloud-like form escaped from her open mouth and the fairy's dead body crashed on the ground. Suddenly, it was as if the time stopped for a moment. The fairies stared with awe at their fallen leader and in the next moment, they began scattering and bumping into each other in confusion. Some even seemed to have forgotten that they were in the middle of a grand battle just a while ago.
"They're retreating!" Keine called out loud as a huge burden has fallen from her heart.
Some of the girls from the team tried to hunt down the confused fairies, but it was obvious that they could not get them all. Nevertheless, they didn't need to.
"You did it! You really did it, ze!" Marisa and Reimu have just met up with the mistress of the Netherworld.
"Yuyuko-sama!" Even Youmu couldn't hide her elation when she saw her hovering there calmly, as if nothing happened. "You were amazing~!"
"WE, my sweet Youmu." she corrected her loyal gardener. "We were all amazing."
"The culprit was caught…" Reimu still struggled to process the sudden end of this grueling battle.
"I thought fairies were immune to Yuyuko's death invitation." Marisa scratched her head in puzzlement.
"They have lifespans and they can die when mortally wounded." Keine began to explain. "But they always rise again after a while."
"Who's the culprit~? Who's the culprit~?" Suika repeated her question as she just arrived to the scene.
"Yeah, who was behind all this?" Reimu was also curious to know. "And are you sure that the culprit won't run away from us?"
"I'm absolutely certain about that." Yuyuko reassured her. "Because I was the one who invited it to death. Just like Patchouli-san asked of me…"
Only a few other girls from the entire team were aware of how Yuyuko's power over death worked. Patchouli, being one of them, has specifically chosen Princess Yuyuko for the task, because without her, it would not be possible.
Not only could she invite mortal beings to their death, but she could also gain absolute control over the spirits of those that she has killed in this way. The spirit that she extracted from Lily White's body was completely at her mercy. It could neither run, nor fight back.
"And as I expected, this spectral mass consists of two souls. Just like with every other possessed fairy." she pointed her finger at the formless, swirling ghostly cloud. By a simple movement of her finger, she separated one soul from the other.
"Reveal yourself!" she commanded one of the two apparitions.
The white mass began to shift and twirl until it gained humanoid features. In a moment, it formed into a clear image of a short winged blonde girl wearing a white dress and hat.
"Lily-chan." Yuyuko immediately identified the fairy's original soul. The confused spirit of Lily White blinked back at her, uncertain of what just happened.
"Go freely, my dear, and be reborn as your true self." With a flick of her fingers, Yuyuko broke the spell of domination over her and Lily's soul began to descend down, returning to its body.
Moments later, the same fairy that led her other minions into battle resurrected and soared up again until she reached Yuyuko. She locked her shy eyes with the ghost girl for a while and tentatively hovered closer.
"Like I said, you are free to go, Lily-chan."
The fairy of spring planted a fleeting kiss on Yuyuko's cheek out of gratitude. Before the ghostly princess could react, Lily White pulled her face away, waved her hand and dispersed into a flurry of glowing sakura petals.
Yuyuko smiled sweetly. "So cute…"
All that was left to do was to identify the soul that possessed the poor fairy, and so, Yuyuko ordered it to reveal its true form.
Just like with Lily's soul, the second spirit began to form a recognizable human shape. When the transformation was complete, Reimu and Marisa exchanged glances with their mouths ajar.
The person that formed out of the mist looked around herself, bearing the same signs of confusion and puzzlement as Lily. But at least she was able to recognize someone.
"Ah… It's been quite a while, hasn't it, Reimu?" she addressed the shrine maiden like she knew her for a long time. "And you've changed quite a bit too, Marisa…"
"Well, I'll be damned…" the witch shook her head in denial.
"Mima…" Reimu spoke the spirit's name.