Chapter 79: On a Witch Hunt

Mew took his time climbing the stairs to the second floor. The length of them currently reminded him of the time it took to get to the top of the Pyramid. And thinking about it, it was surprising that those events only happened not even a year ago.

And that's roughly the same amount of time he's known Auris. He's seen every side of her. The cold, rough, uncaring clairvoyant. The firm, headstrong and caring mother. The pleading, desperate, and longing wife. These were all the same person, wearing difference masks depending on what she was dealing with at the given moment.

But today she was the caring mother. Now more than ever she needed to be strong for her daughter, whose cries continued to penetrate the walls and floor and made Mew hesitate in his advance.

They weren't as loud as before, but that's because Shina was still at her core only human. She lost her strength, regained it, and cried some more. Until her lungs collapsed and she fell asleep, she'd keep crying, and then wake up to cry some more.

Mew stopped at the very final step, staring down into an abyss separating him from the second floor. Behind him darkness had crept up and swallowed the way back. Essentially telling him "You can't go back".

And he laughed. Dryly.

Mocking the very concept of hesitation, he took the next step forward, even as his whole body trembled to resist him. This was the path he had chosen. Always moving forward, never moving back.

He never would've been able to look Riku in the eyes again if he made a big hurrah out of this moment, only to climb back down and take a seat on the couch like it was any other day.

He stood face-to-face with the door to Shina's room. She was taking a break from mourning the loss of her baby. Mew raised his hand to knock on the door, then curled it up back to his chest almost immediately.

"'Hey Auris, can we talk?' Yeah, that'd be smooth..." Mew took a deep breath and paused to think, "'Auris, do you have a moment?' No, that's not right either."

He closed his eyes and let out a sigh, "There's no good way to say this."

Suddenly the door creaked open, making Mew's heart jump in his chest as Auris pulled herself out of the room, taking a brief moment to stare back in with a frown. Her cheeks were damp and the redness in her eyes was being forced back against her will.

She silently shut the door, leaning against it while exhausting a tired huff of air from her lungs.

Only once she began to peer her eyes open did Mew stiffen up and look at her back. She stared at him, long and softly, waiting for him to make the first move.

He hesitated, choking on words that hadn't fully formed in the back of his throat. So Auris picked herself up, put a hand on his shoulder, and whispered to him directly, "You don't need to say anything. Just...let her rest."

Mew swallowed hard and felt a lump in his throat. He tried looking past her at the door, wondering what was going on beyond there. His imagination filled in the blanks. He saw Shina with eyes swollen red, laying limp upon her bed while Kairi hung over the side trying her best to comfort her. Gabriel watched on silently, disturbed at the tragedy that went down here today.

And right now Mew just wanted to push Auris aside and walk into the room, offer just a little comfort in this trying time.

He didn't consider how rotten it'd be to have his face there to remind her of Alex. To keep her sinking further and further, through misery, through agony, through loss, until there was nothing left to keep her spirit strong.

But it was to both his and her fortune that Auris got him back on the straight and narrow with a simple whisper of, "Mew, are you listening to me...?"

Mew shook his head and his plans to go in were immediately shot. He looked at Auris and, steeling his heart, mind and soul, asked her, "Can we talk for a moment? In private?"

Her discomfort was immediate. She knew. Of course she did. His eyes were as plain to read as an open book. Nevertheless she turned towards the stairs and whispered, "Lets go to the basement."

They made their way down the stairs, walking down a different path together. On the way to the basement Mew passed Riku on the couch. He had withdrawn into himself and looked miserable. He didn't even seem to know they were there.

Mew looked away and followed Auris down the stairs into the dojo, where he had helped Kairi train once, so, so long ago...

The walls contained sound very, very well. Perfect place to hurt or kill someone without alerting anyone else...

Auris had a grim air around her, her eyes hazy with visions of death as she peered over her shoulder at him. She drew out a couple of cushions onto the mat and took a seat on the farthest one.

She then gestured to the other, where Mew sat down and looked straight at her. The atmosphere was cold and hostile, with Mew hearing only the sound of his own heartbeat.

She was kneeling perfectly, even after staring into the face of tragedy her poise and posture was sublime. But it came with one flaw...Her body was radiating a killer's intent. One wrong move, and her hand would spring forth. She had put just enough distance between the two of them so that the tip of her blade would be on his neck the moment she disliked what he had to say.

And that was a 100% guarantee.

Not even someone trained in the art of speech could word this subject correctly. Yet Mew was expected to speak of it?

He had only one hope and that was, rather counter-intuitively to the mood, just be himself: Honest, and speaking without hesitation.

So he looked her square in the eyes, swallowed one last lump of doubt, and told her straight up, "Auris, I need you to tell me who the witch connected to the 'higher-ups' is."

And her reaction was to pull her head back, staring at him with the devil's cold furnace empowering her irises, while grinding her fingertips deep into the skin of her knees.

"How dare you..." Her words quaked within Mew's heart, but he didn't budge an inch as her voice continued to try and tear him to pieces, "You heartless, opportunistic bastard...! Did you honestly think that I would change my mind, just because my grandchild's passing wounded me?!"

"That's not...!"

"You better have a damn good explanation with the next breath you take, because if its unsatisfactory, it WILL be your last." And her words cut sharper than any sword she could wield.

Mew grit his teeth and in the spur of the moment blurted, "Lunis and Riku are having a baby...!"

Auris became paralyzed, her eyes losing all their luster. And Mew felt a sinking feeling in the pit of his gut, horrified that he had just betrayed his brother without a second's hesitation.

But he wasn't at fault. Truly not. He was only human.

Auris clasped her hand over her mouth and turned away. She was taking this news harder than Mew excepted.

"From one daughter to another...?" She gasped out in a frightful tone.

"...That's right, she helped raise Lunis, I forgot." Mew realized.

Auris turned to him ever-slightly and remarked, "How long?"

"Three months old." Mew swiftly answered.

"And now he..." Auris pulled her hand away slowly and bobbed her head like a pendulum. Left to her own devices, she eventually returned her gaze unto him and glared.

"This changes nothing." She was firm in her tone, but didn't seem intent on cutting him across the throat. But that spoke of being a final warning to him.

"...It changes everything." Mew said just as firmly.

"Had I known you could be this callous I would've never allowed you up here." Auris spoke indirectly at him.

"I'm sorry, Auris, but you were stupid to think you'd be able to keep this 'higher-ups' stuff buried forever."

Auris shifted her head towards him in an instant, her glare feral and writhing with hate, "I'M stupid?"

She threw herself upright and drew her sword towards Mew's neck, using the tip of the blade to nudge his chin up, laying cold steel upon his thinned tendons.

"If I am the queen of idiots then what are you? Nothing more than a suicidal jester wasting his last breath on a terrible comeback."

Mew steeled his skin and nerves to their limit, forcing his eyes to look at Auris' face to the endangerment of his own life, "Even if you got me to drop it Riku isn't going to! Its the whole damn reason we're having this conversation!"

Auris stilled her blade and demanded of him, "Speak."

"Right now Riku's sitting up on your couch panicking that his child won't live to see tomorrow because of the threat the 'higher-ups' pose," Mew grit his teeth and bared down as hard as he could, "I'm the only one who has pieced together how to find them. All I'm missing is one name!"

Auris pulled her head back and shouted with a haughty smirk, "You've pieced it all together? YOU? How absurd..."

"Auris, please!" Mew pleaded without losing the strength of his soul, "I have to do this for Riku's sake!"

"And that's exactly the problem," Auris grit her teeth and scowled, "You want to bear the weight of his problems on your shoulders along with everyone else's. A selfishness born of selflessness...That's the very same flaw that destroyed Sarajin!"

Mew had to try and take a deep breath as he told her gently, "I'm not Sarajin..."

"You speak like him, you act like him, you even almost look like him!" Auris shouted, breaking down into a fevered rant, "What's the one thing that makes you different?!"

"I'll come back home," Mew whispered, "That's a promise I won't break."

Auris' lips puckered and quivered, the grip on her blade shaking until it fell out of her hand, and she dropped to the ground on hands and knees with one fatal gasp.

"Bastard...!" She gasped right after, punching right through the mat below.

Mew closed his eyes and relaxed, standing up off his seat and staring down at this whimpering, broken wife.

And all he could say to her was this: "Please, Auris. One chance. That's all I need."

She was silently for a solid minute, roughly curling her fists into the nails were digging into her palm. She rose to full height, her head hung but tears trickling down both cheeks.

Mew's heart thumped loudly.

"All it takes is one chance for us to perish." She whispered.

"I know." Mew said with a nod of the head.

"And then nothing will have mattered. Not your words, not your deeds, it'll all vanish from history."

"I know." Mew said, not a hint of clout in his words.

Auris craned her head up to look him in the eyes with but one simple, poignant question, "What IS your plan, Mew?"

Mew raised and waved his hand around all loftily, "I uhhh, was just thinking I could talk with them?"

Auris' pupils expanded and she looked at him all dumbfounded. What she heard must have been so absurd because she laughed, for ten seconds a few unhinged laughs left her mouth. Then they turned somber, as she began to weep and hang her head, disconnecting from any semblance of joy.

"...Maybe he wasn't the wrong choice after all." She whispered.

She slowly locked eyes with him and lifted her hand onto the middle of his chest. His heartbeat quickened, as her face tried to force a smile.

"Maybe...its not impossible to stop the inevitable. After all," Auris smiled with more genuine enthusiasm as tears ran down her cheeks, "Our present lives are the proof of that. And you're to thank for that."

Mew held her wrist and told her, "Auris, I swear, I won't let anyone down."

"That is impossible to accomplish." Auris gently pulled away and walked past him.

"If you do this now, you might never reclaim the bonds you'll lose."

"As long as they're happy I don't care," Mew turned around and wagged his hand out towards her, "But this can't wait. Who knows when the 'higher-ups' will act."

"..." Auris closed her eyes and bowed her head, "Yukari Yakumo."

"H-Huh?" Mew stuttered.

"The name of the witch you seek is Yukari Yakumo, the Phantasm of Gensokyo."

"Really...?" Mew was shaken but not too roughly, "Wow I...never would've figured that out on my own."

He crossed his arms and muttered aloud, "Yukari Yakumo...So she's the one who targeted Alex..."

Auris turned aside and glared his way, "Didn't you just emphasize the urgency of this mission?"

Mew flinched upright and shouted, "S-Sorry! You're right!"

He then dashed towards the stairs, only looking back to say, "I'll be back as soon as I can, Auris! Thank you SO much!"

Auris brushed the back of her hand against her chin and grinned, "Haaa, I'm going to have to train Kairi extra-hard to be able to handle that one..."

She curled her fingers and whispered, "Return home safely, Mew."

Mew went back to the living room but entered it quietly. He took one quick look at Riku sulking on the couch and then with a silent breath, he was about to speak up.

Only to clamp his lips shut, remarking in his head, "No I shouldn't say anything. They'll only try and drag me down..."

He tip-toed past the couch and took one look at the staircase. There were feelings of hesitation present as he thought about Kairi, "Sorry. But you need to be focusing on your sister, not me."

He then raised his hand towards the front door, only to have it swung open on him by Lunis. Mew recoiled and the two stared brazenly at one another, Lunis blinking a few times with her glossy lips puckered into an "o".

"Oh sorry Mew! Almost ran into ya!" She must have just arrived, how else could she be so happy?

"Ah, don't worry about it." Mew said, sneaking a gaze over her body. Having the pregnancy pointed out to him really made the belly stick out more. She was wearing a loose shirt and bell-bottoms and her hair was done up in a ponytail.

She looked positively radiant, and her smile was one of sincere joy, shining as bright as the full moon. Mew smiled softly and felt relaxed just looking at her.

"She really is the right one..." Mew patted her on the shoulder as he passed her by, taking a quick look at her puzzled face to say, "Hey. Congratulations."

"Uhhhh, ok?" She fluttered her eyes in a ditzy manner and then fully entered the house, while Mew left it behind.

He stopped and craned his head back towards the sky, "I almost forgot it was sunny out."

He then closed his eyes and remarked, "Don't you think this is a bad time to be out for a breath of fresh air...Gabriel?"

He looked over his shoulder at the samurai leaning up against the side of the door, his arms folded neatly against his chest.

"I could say the same of you," He bemoaned, peeling himself off the wall with a hand planted on the tip of his blade's hilt, eyeing Mew in a judgmental manner, "Or perhaps, you have somewhere you plan to go?"

Mew arched his brows and tucked one hand in his pockets, gesturing the other before him, "I just need to take a walk for a bit to clear my head."

"Yes, don't we all..." Gabriel closed his eyes and rubbed his chin, "I heard Gensokyo is a nice place to walk around."

Mew stiffened and nudged a brow towards him accusingly, "You were listening?"

"To every word," Gabriel said, his words rife with disappointment, "Lady Auris may have had her final say in the matter..."

He drew his blade from the sheath and grasped it in both hands with one fluid motion, "But I will not let you leave."

"...No offense Gabriel but," Mew turned his eyes into a glare and said coldly, "You can't stop me."

"That was then," He twisted his hands around the hilt and narrowed his eyes, "Now, I still stop you in three moves."

Gabriel lunged forward and sliced down, cleaving gently through the air. Mew drew his blade to defend himself and wound up getting repelled away.

Gabriel immediately thrust forward without any hesitation and locked blades with Mew, pinning him down so hard that his legs began to bend back, weakening his ability to use all his strength.

Then, with their eyes locked through their blades, Gabriel said, "So you will abandon Lady Kairi at her most vulnerable hour?"

He grinded steel against steel, venting his frustration with a raised voice, "She needs your shoulder to lean on!"

"N-No she doesn't! Auris can-"

"Stubborn fool," Gabriel bemoaned, "Is your ignorance the only thing of yours with depth?"

"I'm not going back, Gabriel!" Mew pushed forward, but the samurai did not budge.

"Nor shall I...!" He tightened his grip and kept Mew locked down, stubbornly refusing to give an inch, "I have watched over two-thousand years of Aurian history unfold before my eyes. I shall see to it that it is not repeated!"

"Then trust in me!"

"The trust we share is exactly why I stand in your way!" Gabriel arched his brows and with one grunt swiftly lodged his blade under Mew's hands and freed his blade from his grasp, emptying all the strength Mew had stored up and causing him to fall square on his butt.

With his sword lodging itself in the ground, Gabriel put the katana at his neck and remarked, "I've seen that look in those eyes once before. I know exactly what you plan to say."

"I'm doing this for everyone's sake, even yours!" Mew retorted.

"And do you think they'll care?" Gabriel firmly murmured, "I had the disservice of meeting them once when I assisted Sarajin on a mission to another world. That titanic beast that leads them, how he looked down upon me as I was but a speck of dust to be tossed away by his mere, sleeping breaths, is a moment of humility I shall never forget."

"There is no humanity to appeal to. No...friendship you can forge with them. You approach them with those words and you'll only be left at their mercy."

"And Lady Auris does not need another husk to weigh her down..."

"...So you'll kill me to change the outcome?" Mew remarked calmly.

"..." Gabriel's katana trembled, "Were it so easy, I would have ended this cycle before it ever began."

He pulled his katana back into the sheath and let out a long, tiring sigh, "But once more, I must let the opportunity slip me by."

Mew stood up and recalled his blade to the ether. Gabriel smirked and shook his head, wondering aloud, "What is it about you that makes you different...?"

He extended his hand towards Mew and said, "I suppose I'll soon find out."

Mew paused for a moment and then shook his hand firmly, the samurai wishing him, "May your journey be well, young Mew."

"...Just like that?" Mew said with a tilt of the head.

"If you hesitated, I wouldn't have." He made quite clear.

Mew swallowed hard and then withdrew his hand, the samurai letting out a dry chuckle before grabbing chin with a smile, "No matter what occurs, I am glad to have met you, Mew. But now, you can consider my debt to you repaid."

"Debt...?" Mew tilted his head the other way.

"Heh, nothing," Gabriel turned back towards the house, "I'll try and keep them from finding out you left as best I can. You need to go find Catherine and have her give you a ride to Gensokyo."

"Thanks, Gabriel." Mew turned and ran off.

"Think nothing of it." He replied, in the short span he had for it to be heard.

Mew sprinted through Sancturia towards the Pyramid, but after a couple shorts minutes he began to slow down, until eventually coming to a complete stop.

"..." He swerved his head to the left, towards a hut that seemed the same as the rest. But, there was currently someone important to him inside of there.

He took a deep breath and strolled up to the front door, rattling the side with a few taps of his knuckles.

Up walked a teenager wearing some kind of prototype prosthetic legs and using crutches to get around. He immediately looked surprised by familiar with Mew.

"Oh you're...!"

"Yeah hey? Is Maria here?"

The boy turned his head back and shouted, "Maria! Your dad's here!"

He then stepped aside and gestured one of his crutches up to invite him in. Mew walked into the living room and saw Maria and her two friends sitting on the couch watching some kind of sci-fi flick.

Maria reached for the remote to pause the movie and then turned her head with a bit of surprise on her face, "Papa? Why are you here?"

Mew tucked his hands in his shoulders and shrugged, "Can't I just pop in and say hello?"

Maria hopped off the couch and ran up to her. She was smiling from cheek-to-cheek, her rosy cheeks perfectly complimenting her yarn-like red hair. And she was standing right below the bottom of his chest.

"She's gotten so big already..." Mew suddenly picked her up as light as a feather and hugged her close.

He leaned his head upon her shoulder and closed his eyes as she began to hug back.

"You be a good girl now, ok?" He whispered only to her ear.

"...Papa?" She murmured, unable to comprehend what he said.

He then let her down gently and patted her atop her head, "Heh, I'll be back soon. You go have fun with your friends now, alright?"

"O-Ok!" She ran on back to the couch, leaving Mew to exit the house with a comfortable lack of weight upon his shoulders.

He craned his head back and took one last deep breath through his nose, swiveling to his left to face the Pyramid in the distance.

"Nothing left to it, huh?" He continued to sprint towards his destination.

He made his way to Saturn's floor in record time, and was surprised to see that the portal was still present. He waltzed right on inside, winding up in her new garage...That looked about the same as the old one, just with a ton less vehicles inside it.

Mew cupped a hand around his mouth and shouted, "Hey Saturn! Are you here?!"

"Of course!" She shouted from behind, making him jump around to see her standing just an inch away.

She leaned in with a wily smirk and walked towards him while he backed away, but her tiny legs let her keep pace surprisingly well until she finally rolled her chin up against his chest and held him there.

"So, you need yet ANOTHER ride, eh?" She sounded rather annoyed but what else was new?

"...Gabriel told you?" Mew replied with a dry smile.

"I'm not a gosh-darn taxi service! I got galaxy saving duties to attend to dang it!" Saturn propped herself upright and spun around, carrying her lab coat with her with a dramatic flourish.

"Buuuuuut it sounded important so I GUESS I can spare a little of my barely available free time."

Mew tucked his hands in his pockets and chuckled, "Thanks a lot."

Saturn swung her head back and declared, "Some day I'm gonna cash in all these favors you owe me and you'll be soooo sorry, ya miscreant!"

"Hehehe!" Mew laughed it off, much to her annoyance.

She guided them to one of her two-man ships and they took off for outer space. A straight beeline to Gensokyo, with no detours in-between. Neither party said a word, Mew was too busy thinking about what was going to happen next.

"Yukari Yakumo...I didn't think it'd be someone from a world I knew about. She's the one responsible for what happened to Alex," He heard a cracking sound and looked to find his fist tightening by his hip. He shook his hand up and thought, "Focus Mew, this isn't what you're going for."

Saturn's ship popped out of hyperspace right above another planet Earth and she announced their arrival like a flight attendant, "Here we are! North side of the universe, Gensokyo!"

"...Well, sort of," She looked back over her chair to say, "That mysterious realm ain't exactly visible from space."

"I know how it works," Mew began to stand with his hand against the roof of the glass, "Thanks for the ride, Catherine, you can go on and head on back."

Suddenly he heard the glass lock and stopped in place, watching Saturn take a firm seat on her chair with a finger hovering over the lock button.

"...Catherine?" She flipped her chair around and laid her heels on top of Mew's legs to force him to sit, then folded her arms against her chest.

"Mew, what the heck are you doing?"

Mew tried to budge but she nailed him back down while shouting, "Sit boy!"

"No wise cracks? No banter? Just a 'Hello', a bunch of silence, and then 'Goodbye'?"

"Catherine-"

She raised her pointer finger and shouted "Ah!" to shut him up then thrust said finger into his face, "What'd I say about using that name? We aint' pals, pal!"

Mew grinned and closed his eyes partway, "Yeah you're right. We've never gotten along that well, have we?"

Saturn crossed her legs up and raised a mighty pout, "Yeah well that's totally your fault, you big, dumb moron."

"W-What?" Mew said, dropping his jaw flat out.

"Oh come on! We're both supposed to be heroes yeah?" She rolled her eyes then leaned her upper body forward forcefully, "Can't you let me stop believing I'm talking to a neanderthal for just one second so we can talk hero-to-hero?"

"...Cather-"

"HMMMM!" She moaned loudly.

"...Saturn," Mew replied plainly, "Its already been a very long day."

"Then take a break for a moment," She replied cheerfully, "Nobody can be very heroic when they're stressed out."

"Hup!" She plopped her feet to the ground and leaned back in her chair.

"...Alright," Mew lifted his head up and rubbed the back of it slowly, "There's a very real possibility I might not be coming back."

"...Ah, marching right into the flames of Hell for one last battle?" Saturn closed her eyes and smugly propped up her glasses, "I guessed as much!"

She then whipped her hand out and nearly took Mew's face off with it, had he not dodged in time, "What are you stupid?!"

Mew rose back up much to the endangerment of his face and shouted, "Wh-What's with that reaction?!"

"Hmph! Don't you get it?" Saturn puffed out her chest and railed on him hard, "I classify you as a cockroach! You're impossible to get rid of and anything that doesn't kill you only seems to make you stronger!"

She tapped the bridge of her glasses and frowned, "But contrary to your nature, everyone seems to like being around you whether they want to admit or not. You're like some...strange adopted pet bug."

"...Thanks?" Mew muttered.

"What I'm TRYING to say is..." Saturn turned her head away in a huff and puffed her cheeks to declare with certainty, "You're going to make it back."

She pushed her glasses up until her eyes were hidden behind the flare, "Your existence defies the odds. That sums up my dissertation of the one called Mew Whiter."

Mew stared blinking at her face for a long while then cracked a goofy grin and teased her, "Are you saying you like me?"

Saturn flipped her head back and shouted, "I'm SAYING that I MIGHT, SORT OF have SOME GROWING RESPECT FOR YOU."

Mew began to open his mouth and she stamped her heels down on his knees like two tiny hammers, "And if you make anything more out of it I'll do a U-Turn and jettison you into the nearest black hole I can find!"

"Hahaha!" Mew gestured his hand out and said, "Alright, fair enough."

"...Now then!" With a mighty "Hmph!" Saturn flipped her chair around and undid the lock on the glass, "Go get 'em Mr. Hero!"

Mew raised his hand to raise the glass, surrounding himself with air to protect against the vacuum of space, "Thanks! I'll find my own way back, don't worry about that."

"I'm not!" She declared firmly.

Mew shut the hatch and then pulled away, watching Saturn do a U-Turn out of there, the shockwave pushing him closer to the planet.

With no obstacles left, no guilt left to share, he turned to his final destination and flew straight towards it. Geographically this Earth was the same as his, but if he wanted to reach Gensokyo, he needed to make his way towards Japan first.

But as he began to dive through the atmosphere towards the birthplace of samurai and anime, the sights around him began to distort heavily. All manners of colors formed before his eyes, creating a mosaic mess of blended sights that left him feel like he was tumbling into a realm of madness.

He suddenly lost control of his flight and began to drop, pulled straight down by immeasurable levels of gravity. He could feel nothing but the air around him, as he continued tumbling further and further down the rabbit hole.

Then all of a sudden, he crashed down on solid ground and his chest lurched out to let all his air loose.

"Ooooooowwww...!" He slowly pulled himself up, rustling through auburn leaves and broken sticks while rubbing his sore back.

As he turned around to get his bearings, he paused upon the sight of a new landscape. Pushing beyond the nearby trees to get a closer look, he was greeted by a magical land, where a giant castle floated upside-down from the clouds, an old time English mansion sat at the edge of an ice cold lake, and lots of fluttering, tiny fairies filled the air.

The sky was crisp and the sun was shining bright, even the crunch of the leaves below his feet sounded so alive.

He let the gentle breeze rub his face as she smiled brightly in wonderment and whispered, "So this is what Alex must've seen..."

He curled his knuckles against the bark and gave it a light jab to push himself away and step out into the open view, then with a dry smack of his lips he muttered, "Time to find my witch."

He locked eyes with a small shrine sitting atop a towering flight of steps in the northeastern corner of Gensokyo and realized, "And I know JUST who to ask!"

He flied right to the shrine, not even bothering with concealing himself cause, quite frankly, flying was normal here.

"This'd be a nice place to go on vacation," Mew said, surveying some of the other sights down below, "Oh well, maybe next time!"

He started to drop towards the shrine with a flip so he'd land upright, then stumbled along the stone path from the torii towards the shrine.

He noticed a certain red-white figure and her certain black-white magician friend sitting on the porch of the shrine, both drowning in the rays of the sun despite their shorter clothes and the presence of clay water bottles at their sides.

Mew tucked his hands into his pockets and strolled towards them carefully to not catch them by surprise.

"Aaaaaaye," Marisa, the black-white magician, took her hat off and used it as a makeshift fan, "The heat's really killer today, Reimu."

Reimu, the red-white shrine maiden, kicked her sandals off and wiggled her toes in the air, craning her body back to the point she looked ready to collapse flat on her back, "Whose crazy idea was it to make the sun? I wanna go beat them up."

"Pretty certain Amaterasu's to blame," Said Marisa, "What, gonna go beat up one of the big Gods?"

Reimu sat back up and drew three paper seals from her sleeve, then summoned her gohei in the other hand, "Might as well get the jump on them before they start an Incident."

"Eh sure, I'm down!" Marisa pulled her broom up from beside her and stood ready and rarin' to go, "Anything's more fun than melting alive on your porch!"

Both were standing tall to go on an adventure when Reimu turned her attention forward and froze stiff at the sight of Mew.

Mew lifted his hand out of his pocket to shout "Yo!" to them.

Reimu hunched forward and shifted her paper seals out like a fan while declaring, "Who the heck are you?"

Marisa crossed her arms behind her head and gave it a curious tilt, "Oi, Reimu, haven't we met this guy before?"

Reimu squinted long and hard at Mew then with a slack of her jaw remarked, "Its not ringing a bell."

"Oh I got it!" Marisa said, struck with a bolt of inspiration, "He's that one guy who popped in looking for a stone or some trinket like that. Alexander the White!"

"A-Alex Whiter..." Mew groaned in embarrassment.

"Eh, I was close." Marisa shrugged and then propped her broom down beside her.

"Why are you back here?" Reimu asked.

"I'm not the same guy," Mew withdrew both his hands out and gestured one at them, "Name's Mew. Alex was my brother. You must be Reimu Hakurei and Marisa Kirisame, yeah?"

Reimu stood up and withdrew her seals for the time being, "Yeah that's right."

"Howdy!" Marisa said, using her broom to tip her hat in greeting.

"Yeah, howdy," Mew waved his hand out and smiled, "As much as I'd love to stick and chat I'm kind of on an important mission. Do either of you know where I can find one Yukari Yakumo?"

Reimu raised her brows while Marisa answered immediately, "Ha! Good luck figuring that one out buddy. She shows up whenever she wants."

"Mostly to steal sake and be a nuisance." Reimu grumbled.

"Well that's not very nice, Reimu." An alluring voice came out from a rift with eyes sandwiched between the two of them.

As Reimu sprang up in surprise a blonde-haired lady wearing what looked like violet night clothes pulled her upper body through the rift and leaned upon it with her elbows.

"I only do that to keep you company." The lady smiled so innocently, betraying any sense of suspicion or devious intent she had lurking in her head.

She then slipped free from the rift and broke into a stroll carrying a nice, flowery parasol over her head. Mew edged back a little and his glare tensed up, making the lady pause a few feet from where she had started.

"How unexpected," She said quite knowingly towards his presence here, "To what do I owe this visit...Phoenix of Rebirth?"

Mew's arms became riddled with goosebumps and he clicked out a smirk, "So you know about all that eh? Can't say I'm surprised...Yukari Yakumo."

Yukari craned her head back slightly and smiled, letting loose a soft, tender chuckle.

"Aye hold up," Marisa chimed in, "Phoenix of Rebirth? He's got a title just like that other guy did?"

"They know about that too?!" Was more surprising to Mew.

Yukari peered coldly over her shoulder and remarked, "Perhaps you should be quiet just this once, Kirisame."

Mew got the conversation back on track with a couple coughs and then addressed Yukari more formerly, "So I'm gonna guess you were the one who allowed me into Gensokyo?"

"That is correct." She replied, creasing out a smile.

"What, couldn't have greeted me at the entrance?" Mew chuckled.

"I was a little...preoccupied," Yukari was ashamed to admit, "Just very recently, I've come to adopt a baby into my care."

"What?!" Was the collective reaction of those around her.

Reimu drew her seals and gohei together then remarked, "You better not have kidnapped them...!"

"Oh dearie me, no," Yukari tilted her body to the side, "I may spirit away some humans to Gensokyo for a little fun every now and then but I would never kidnap a baby."

She closed her eyes and let out a drawn out sigh, "The child just happened to wander into my realm, as many humans have in the past. Having nary a clue as to who their parents were, I felt amused by the idea of taking care of them myself."

"Poor kid." Marisa remarked.

"Tee-hee~" Yukari giggled like a little girl.

Mew folded his hands behind his head and remarked, "Yeah as interesting as that is, that's not what I came here for."

Yukari turned back and remarked, "I'd imagine not. Then why, pray tell, have you come to Gensokyo?"

Her eyes narrowed and a pale yellow light shone in her irises, "Do you seek vengeance for Alex Whiter's death?"

Reimu and Marisa paused upon hearing that. Mew vehemently shook his head and grit his fists tight by his hips. He then looked Yukari straight in the eyes, penetrating her cold exterior with ease, and told her, "You didnt kill Alex, but you sure as hell led him down the path to his grave."

"And now Shina not only doesn't have him, but their child didn't make it either," Mew narrowed his glare and told her, "Live with that guilt, if you even can feel that."

Yukari stood there motionless for a few seconds, then folded her parasol upon and brought it to the center of her body. Leaving no obscurity to her expression whatsoever, she looked back at Mew and told him plainly, "I'm truly, genuinely sorry to hear that. I never wanted her to suffer for his crime of existing."

Mew tightened his fist some more and was one second away from punching her in the face. But he eased up, for his mission was more powerful than his vengeance.

"Yeah well..." Mew said in a disgruntled fashion, "Look, that's not what I'm here for. I want you to take me to meet the 'higher-ups'."

Yukari closed her eyes and whispered aloud, "Interesting..."

Then with a giggle she remarked, "And why should I do that?"

Mew wasn't expecting to get walled so hard by her response...And he didn't really have a way to answer her.

"Don't tell me you traveled all the way out here just for that reason." Yukari was practically mocking him to his face.

Mew looked her in the eyes and nodded, "Yeah. And I'm going to get there, even if I have to force it out of you."

"An intriguing proposal," Yukari brushed her parasol off the ground and pointed the tip right at Mew's face, "Why don't we make that a reality?"

"...Huh?" Muttered Mew.

"Surely as an Elemental Overlord, you have the power to defeat a weak old thing like me," She said with an impish grin, "If you can manage that, then I will take you to meet the 'higher-ups'."

"Alright fine," Mew raised himself up and swung his arm out with his sword drawn into his grasp, "So I'll fight you with Spell Card rules then!"

"No, not this time," Yukari brought her parasol back to the ground and smiled, "We'll fight as we normally would."

"Uhhh, no you're not," Reimu suddenly chimed in, tapping her gohei on her shoulder in an irritated manner, "We have these rules for a reason, remember?"

Yukari smiled back over her shoulder and chuckled, "Oh Reimu. I can break the rules if I want to. After all...I made them."

"Peh...!" Reimu spat in disgust, "Fine whatever. Just don't do it around here."

"Oh I have no intention of dirtying the shrine," Yukari faced Mew and lifted a hand before her face. Summoning a rift, she pulled out four glowing needles from it between her fingers, "But this is the perfect place to channel...this!"

With one flick of her wrist all the needles were sent flying to four corners surrounded her and Mew, where they dug into the ground and immediately created a three-dimensional barrier to trap them inside.

Reimu and Marisa were forced back outside to observe and nothing else.

Mew looked around at the misty lavender barrier and then tightened the grip on his sword, hauling it behind his back. He then stared at Yukari and grinned, "That's fair. I wouldn't want to damage the shrine either."

Yukari floated off the ground, gesturing her hand to the left to coolly draw a fan from another rift to wave before her face. She then took a seat upon a rift adorned with fancy ribbons on the side and crossed her legs.

"I never considered the possibility that we'd face each other like this," Yukari said, clearly humored by what hand fate has dealt her. Hiding a smirk behind her fan, she left her aggressor mystified by the aura that raised her hair like a gentle curtain of golden silk behind her, "But you have grabbed my attention, Phoenix of Rebirth...No, Mew Whiter."

Mew slashed his sword down to his side and narrowed his eyes towards her.

A dozen rifts opened behind Yukari, filled with either light or darkness, "Show me what lies beyond a heart adrift between a sea of black and white..."

Next Time: What Defines a Hero?