Li's house in Tomoeda, next morning.
Reimu had an annoyed look on her face as she asked:
Hey, what's the meaning of this? Weren't we just supposed to go for a walk? You're trying to steal my job now?
If we all dress like this, it will be less suspicious. People will just think we're doing group cosplay!-explained Tomoyo, dressed as a shrine maiden as well, setting up her camera.
Hmm, those are surprisingly comfy to move with...-said Meiling, checking her own new shrine maiden robes.
And how did I let you convince me to wear this as well?-Asked Syaoran with a frown on his face, not only dressed with shrine maiden robes but also wearing a long blond wig as well, reaching all the way down to his waist.
You look really cute, Syaoran-kun! It suits you surprisingly well!-cheerfully said Sakura with a completely innocent voice, storing her cards inside her new detached sleeves.
Yeah, Sakura's right, you can surely can pass off as a girl, boy!-sneered Reimu.
Sakura then hugged Syaoran and exclaimed:
Boy or girl, I love Syaoran-kun the most either way!-and then she gave him a kiss on the lips before stepping away, smiling to herself. The cross-dressed boy blushed heavily.
Ugh, if word reaches Gensokyo that I got defeated by somebody like you, I'll be the laughing stock of the youkai for days...-said Reimu, turning her head away from the two young love birds.
There's no shame on being defeated by Sakura-chan, wonderful shrine maiden of Tomoeda!-squealed Tomoyo, having started her recordings.-So, where would you like to go visit first, Reimu?
Hey, you're the locals, whatever's fine with me.-replied the shrine maiden with a shrug.
To the karaoke then! We can finish our match from the last night there, Reimu!-stated Meiling.
Kara what?-asked Reimu with an incredulous face.
Oh, you'll love it, I'm sure of it, Reimu-chan!-smiled Sakura, starting to pull the shrine-maiden's hand towards the door to exit the house. Reimu felt kinda awkward being dragged around by a younger girl, specially one with such a cheerful and kind attitude. She simply wasn't used to be treated like that.
Syaoran walked at her side, and for a moment his and the shrine maiden's crossed when nobody else was looking. Reimu saw a cold look of determination on the boy's eyes, the look of someone ready to fight her all-out should she ever stand against him again. The shrine maiden smirked. She clearly wouldn't get bored in this place.
Gensokyo
The Myouren Temple was a majestic wooden structure, home to Byakuren Hijiri and her youkai followers. Many other youkai passed trough it to check the so-called youkai saint and listen to her buddhist teachings, but rarely did they stick around much time, due to their fickle nature. But today more than usual were gathering around, for the head priestess of the temple, the great Byakuren, had been reciting her holy sutras with exceptional devotion for twelve hour straight, atracting the attention of many youkais in the surrounding.
Five days later, on the training room of the Li's house in Tomoeda
A young shrine maiden dueled a younger chinese girl in elaborate martial art clothes. Neither side used magic, just their own naked limbs and sharp red needles.
Faster! Harder! Don't think, just follow your own instinct!-shouted Reimu, sending a flurry of needles from inside her sleeves towards her opponent.
Ka!-shouted Meiling, jumping over the path of the incoming projectiles and pulling two stacks of needles from her own sleeves, throwing them against her opponent below.
Reimu jumped back, finding herself trapped against one of the corners of the room, and as Meiling landed in front of her, the shrine maiden rised her left leg to deliver a high kick against her opponent. Meiling rised her own left leg on an equal movement to counter Reimu's attack.
The girl's limbs clashed, sending a shockwave across the room that made the training devices inside tremble, and Reimu was the one forced to step back, reeling from the impact. She hit her back against the wall, finding herself with no more space to move. Meiling lunged forward in a flash, pulling one more needle from inside her sleeve and pressing it against Reimu's neck.
I win! Again!-grinned Meiling. Then suddenly the pinned "Reimu" exploded in a shower of ofudas, startling Meiling, before she felt a powerful kick on her flank.
Don't get too cocky, kid. You may've surpassed me in pure martial arts, but your opponents will have a variety of magic or other supernatural abilities to their advantage. You cannot hesitate in a duel. You don't stop attacking until your opponent is on the ground begging for mercy!
Ouch... Yes, sensei Reimu...
The shrine maiden smiled and helped Meiling get back up. Meiling had started calling her sensei out of her initiative, and that was but one of the several perks Reimu had started to enjoy after her defeat a few days earlier. Her days were now spent traveling trough Tomoeda with Sakura, Syaoran and Meiling as guides (and Tomoyo recording everything), experimenting the wonders of the modern world like parfaits, movies, arcade houses, and karaoke, as well as sparring sessions with the chinese girl. There was even a big shinto shrine in the city, and Reimu had explained to Meiling how she could make her own exorcising needles with wood taken from the local holy tree. And how to hide multiple stacks of them inside loose sleeves.
No youkais lurking around every corner, and no need to worry about wherever her next meal would come from. She wasn't allowed to fly or use spellcards, yes, but the streets were safe and filled with interesting things, and there weren't other beings jumping out of nowhere to challenge her to duels. And Meiling had proved herself a worthy sparring partner last night, so not like she lacked a willing opponent if she felt like fighting. Reimu felt like she could get used to this kind of life style. She really could. Still, the shrine maiden wondered how things were back at her land.
Myouren Temple
There were many more youkai today, and much more focused on the buddhist sutras being recited by Byakuren nonstop at the temple's entrance, so everybody could hear it. She smiled with self pride. The results of her days of continuous preaching were finally showing. Then she paused for a moment, breathing deeply.
It is time. Prepare our transport. Tell Yukari to start opening the border. Leave a chorus behind to maintain the seal.
At once, great one!-answered four humanoid kneeling Youkais shrounded in shadow behind her, before they stood up and left towards different directions..
After a few moments, the temple started floating upwards towards the sky and away from its foundations, while simultaneously morphing and changing shape into a new, longer form. The youkai who had been listening to the sutras took flight and flocked to it. Nobody noticed a small object falling from an open window on its side and carried away by the wind.
The next day
A young woman floated over Tomoeda, holding a massive open parasol. She took care to keep herself directly under the bright summer sun, making sure anybody looking from below would be unable to see anything else besides a black spot that they may consider an optic illusion. The floating woman in turn had a nice view of the humans walking on the streets below her. Eventually she spotted what she was looking for: a girl with red-white shrine maiden robes, accompanied by a red-haired girl, a kid with long blue hair, and a chestnut-haired boy. The youkai smiled and pulled a card from inside her clothes.
Rain Sign "A Rainy Night's Ghost Story"
Out of nowhere, black clouds filled the sky, blocking the sun, and a terrifying downpour started.
Sakura, Reimu, Meiling, Syaoran and Tomoyo were caught completely by surpise by the sudden rain. They started running in search of cover when suddenly they saw a large, purple umbrella laying on the floor. It looked big enough to protect all of them from the rain, but they all felt a strange sensation looking at it. After some moments of standing under the rain, Sakura was the one who stepped forward and said:
We can't just leave this here...
The card mistress slowly approached the strange fallen object, picked it up, and stared at it with intensity.
Then Sakura threw it on a nearby trash can.
There, people shouldn't leave garbage on the middle of the street!-claimed the red-haired girl with her voice filled with the pride of having done a good action.
Was I the only one who felt something unusual about that?-asked Syaoran.
Of course you felt something unusual, that's the ugliest umbrella I've ever seen. I'll rather get soaked from the rain than letting someone else catch me using that!-said Meiling.
Sakura-chan's so cute when she's doing her civic duty!-squealed Tomoyo, recording everything.
Hey young miss, it's rude to throw away perfectly fine tools!-came a female voice from the trash can.
Sakura turned around. The purple umbrella now had a large eye in the middle of it. Then a mouth opened in the middle of it and out came a long red tongue that licked her face while shouting:
BOO!
G-GHOST! KKYYYAAAA!-Sakura jumped back screaming in terror and ran behind the rest of her group.
Sakura-chan, honestly, do you think a ghost would be solid? Besides, you're the card mistress. Even if it was an actual ghost, you should be able to deal with them no problem, geez.-pointed out Syaoran with a disappointed face.
Ghosts are scary... But then, what are you?-asked Sakura, swiftly recovering her composure and approaching the talking object again.
The umbrella started floating upwards, then opened by itself, and from its interior fell a young woman with short turquoise hair, one turquoise eye and one red eye. She wore a blue-green vest with white sleeves and a light blue skirt. She was sticking her tongue out while grinning.
I'm Kogasa Tatara, the Cheery Forgotten Umbrella! I'm just a cheerful youkai who lives to surprise people.
Ah, nice to meet you. You sure surprised me!-answered Sakura, making a polite smile and bowing to the youkai.
Oh my gosh you're sooo ccuuutteee! Even your surprised face was extra cute! I knew I was right in leaving Gensokyo to search for you!-squealed Kogasa jumping out of the trash can and landing near the card mistress.
Sakura-chan's the cutest one there is!-agreed Tomoyo from the back, still recording everything.
Reimu, you know this Kogasa? Is she dangerous?-asked Syaoran, pulling an handful of jufu talismans from inside his robes as precaution. He didn't feel any ill intent from this new arrival, but he preferred to play safe.
Meh, she's just some random small fry wandering youkai. Mostly annoying, doesn't even eats people, she earns her sustenance from their surprise. Not even that admired to see her here either since she was a city-born youkai in the first place. Aka not my problem right now. This is your turf anyway.
I feel like she just wants to play with us, isn't that right, Kogasa-chan?-asked Sakura to the youkai.
Actually, I was kinda expecting you could capture me. You see, I was born out of the angst of being an abandoned umbrella. Nothing would make me happier than having a new owner that would put me to good use!
Sakura started backing away slowly from the youkai before replying with a nervous smile:
Ah, well, Kogasa-chan, I kinda can only capture cards... Besides, no offense, but even if I could turn you in a Sakura card, I'm not sure I would want to ever use any that looks like you, so you kinda would be left idle... But I'm certain there's a special one waiting for you somewhere! You'll just have to keep looking for them!
The youkai threw herself on the ground, laying a bunch of spellcards at Sakura's feet, each one of them with the ridiculous purple umbrella as its center motif, before starting to beg with tears on her eyes:
Pleasepleaseplease capure them, even just two of them would make me happy!
Hmmm...Tomoyo-chan, help me here a bit, could you improve Koagasa-chan's looks?-asked the card mistress, looking at the blue-haired girl for help.
Tomoyo, the genius girl who had created dozens of wonderful designs for her beloved and her boyfriend, able to always catch someone's best side on camera, talented video editor, looked for a moment at the youkai squirming in the wet ground, still holding the umbrella that looked like a giant eggplant with an eye and a tongue, before replying to the card mistress:
Sakura-chan, you're the magic girl who can perform miracles here. I can't help you with this.
Please, Kogasa-chan, let's just be friends, alright?-said Sakura with a warm smile to the animated umbrella.
The youkai stopped squirming and stood up, glaring at Sakura while cleaning up her tears:
...Just friends? Fine, if you can't understand the feelings of a youkai like me, I ought to mess you up a little! Beware the umbrella left there forever!
In one swift movement Kogasa pulled a card from her deck and threw it up in the air, striking it with the ferrule of her purple umbrella and chanting:
I am the tube of my canopy
Wood and metal are my body, light and and rain are my blood
I have possessed over a thousand umbrellas
Lost in storms, or abandoned by their owners
Have withstood pain to recover many umbrellas
Yet, those parasols will never be holded by anything.
So as I pray, unlimited umbrellas works.
[Umbrella Sign] "Flurry Traveler" !
Suddenly, hundreds of open umbrellas, of the most varied colors and designs, materialized in the sky above them and started quickly falling towards Sakura.
Hhhooeeee...-was all that the card mistress could do at first as she saw the ridiculous attack coming towards her.
Sakura however quickly recovered from the surprise effect and reached for the star key on her neck, when suddenly a series of jufus flew upwards, intercepting the umbrellas directly above her and making them burst in flames, swiftly reducing them to ashes in mid-air.
KAAAAA!
The card mistress then saw Syaoran leap towards Kogasa, just after having throw his jufus, and deliver a flying kick directly to the youkai's face, sending her crashing against the building behind. The umbrellas still on the air started vanishing.
Let's get this over quickly, Sakura-chan!
Yes!-answered the card mistress, pulling her star key and starting to chant:
O Key that conceals the power of my star, reveal your true nature to me, by my power I command you! Release!
Sakura grabbed her unsealed staff floating in front of her, spinning it around a bit before pointing it upwards:
Return to the form you were meant to be in, Kogasa card!
The leftover umbrella energy flew towards the tip of Sakura's wands before coalescing in a new card, that flew towards Syaoran's hand, that looked at it for a moment with a frown on his face before tucking it away inside his clothes, not intending to use it ever again.
Kogasa stood up and floated upwards, throwing a new spellcard into the air.
I'll take the next one!-declared Sakura, holding her wand with both hands. Syaoran nodded and jumped backwards to her side, summoning his sword and holding a defensive stance.
Umbrella Sign "Parasol Star Memories"-Kogasa started spinning her umbrella over itself, and it started glowing with an intense purple light, before starting to shoot out a slow stream of mystic bullets in a spiral pattern along some more umbrellas in an erratic pattern.
Syaoran prepared to deflect the incoming attacks with her sword, but Sakura swiftly picked and threw one of her cards in front of her:
RAIN! RELEASE!
A small blue jester girl holding a rain drop sitting on a small pink cloud appeared and flew over Kogasa, dodging the bullets and flying umbrellas, before starting to clap her hands merrily. A waterfall-like downpour instantly started to fall over the purple spinning glowing umbrella, overwhelming it and making her drop and crash on the street below. Sakura dismissed her card and sprinted forward, swinging down the star wand over her fallen opponent:
Return to the form you were meant to be in, Kogasa card!
As the umbrella card was captured, Sakura kept holding her wand over it and kept chanting:
Card originally created by Kogasa. Abandon your old form and reincarnate, under the name of your new master Sakura!
The captured card started to spin wildly and glowing, and suddenly transformed, gaining a slightly different appearance, now a series of pink shades with the umbrella's eye replaced by a girly red heart, a star pattern at the back.
Kogasa then stood up, completely soaked, bruised face and both her clothes and umbrella in tatters.
*sniff* *sob*I...I, an umbrella, lost against rain? What's even my purpose on life then?Y-you meanie! I'm leaving this place! WWAAAAA!-And with this Kogasa quickly floated away, disappearing into the rain. A few moments later, the rain stopped and the skies cleared as suddenly as they had become darkened.
The Rain?-asked Meiling with an incredulous face. Wow, I didn't even knew you had that card. Why did Clow even create it? Don't you already have The Watery and The Cloud? At least it looks like it was finally useful for something...
Clow Reed had a twisted sensor of humor... Anyway that some great thinking, Sakura, humiliating the youkai in her own field to make her leave right away!-congratulated Syaoran.
Thank you Syaoran-kun, but I was just trying to calm her down... Also I was hoping that when I transformed her card that it would end up looking better, but instead it 's now like this...-said Sakura with a defeated smile as she showed the new card to everybody else. Indeed the ridiculous contrast between the purple umbrella and all the pink around seemed like something out of a little girl's dream after a sugar rush.
Don't worry Sakura-chan, I'll edit this part of the video to make your newest card look wonderful!-said Tomoyo with an encouraging smile.
So, why didn't you try to battle that youkai, Meiling? She could have make a good practical training opportunity for the techniques you've been learning from me.-asked Reimu to the chinese girl.
Meh, that umbrella just looked so pitiful I wasn't in the mood. Sakura and Syaoran looked more than capable of dealing with her, no need for my help.-replied Meiling with a faint smile.
However, don't you think it is weird that this Kogasa youkai from Gensyoko knew about Sakura-chan?-asked Syaoran, his face changing to a serious expression.
Hmm, now that you mention it, that was a bit suspicious... I would be careful if I was you. Whatever winds carry Kogasa around are rarely good news.-commented Reimu.
As long as I'm with Syaoran-kun, there's no challenge we can't overcome!-let out Sakura, stepping to her boyfriend's side with her arms behind her back, smiling and staring at him on the eyes.-Right, Syaoran-kun?
Ah, yes... But let's be on guard anyway.-blurted out Syaoran, blushing a bit, before his face turned serious again and he looked back at Reimu-You're supposed to be the shrine maiden responsible for the Hakurei Border, are you not? Perhaps the barrier separating Gensokyo from our world are weakening because of your absence. Shouldn't you head back?
Ah, don't worry about that. That thing can hold out at least for six months without any maintenance on my part (I know that because I once slacked off on it for six months). There's only one other being on Gensokyo that could possibly weaken it directly, and she's the one with least reasons to do so. Sometimes minor youkais like Kogasa slip away trough the cracks, but the big shots can't openly manifest their presences in this world anymore. And no way I'm cutting this paid vacations short. Well, let's get going, I could use a bite.-calmly replied the shrine maiden, starting to walk towards the next street.
Above the skies of Tomoeda, some hours later.
A massive purple gap opened in the sky. From it slowly came out a massive, flying wooden ship, with white sails filled with sutras. Both its deck and the air surrounding it was filled with a variety of youkai, most with their heads covered with monk hoods, chanting together:
Hail to the Buddha Amida!
Sitting on top of the main mast of the ship in a lotus position, Byakuren smiled upon her followers, picking a closed scroll from inside her clothes and unfurling it on the air over her head. Instead of paper and ink, it was composed of floating glowing characters of different colors that seemingly just hovered in mid-air, forming an intricate rainbow pattern from one end of the magic scroll to the other.
What is our motto?-she asked
Those who advance are sure of salvation, but those who retreat will go to hell!-chanted the youkai as one, filled with divine fervor.
Yes, there's no more turning back for us. We can only go forward from now on.-said Byakuren as the flying ship ended exiting the dimensional gap, and it closed behind them.
Hail to the Lotus of the Divine Law!-chanted the youkai again.
O Dharma, please show us the path to enlightment!-started Byakuren- [Good Omen] Nirvana's Cloudy Way in Purple"
Out of Byakuren's glowing scroll spread out a thick purple mist, that soon clouded not only the skies and the very sun, but fell all over the city of Tomoeda, hiding everything but the tallest buildings from view.