Chapter 3: Reimu (I)
The day that had passed since The Voidborn had restored Gensokyo felt like the longest day of Reimu's entire life. The conflicting memories that battled in her mind had eventually begun to settle themselves, yet she still had trouble overcoming the sensation that time had essentially folded in on itself and doubled. For that, she envied Marisa, who did not have to share that feeling.
"Still, Reimu... that's quite the story you've got there," Marisa said, in response to Reimu's retelling of what she believed to be the true series of events that had transpired recently. "I mean, you gotta admit, it sounds pretty damn crazy. How do I know ya aren't just pullin' my leg on this one?"
"Marisa. Have I ever lied to you about anything this serious before?" Reimu turned toward Marisa, just as the two touched down on the ground in front of the Hakurei Shrine. It only took that one look at her for Marisa to realize that Reimu was telling the truth. Or at least, she thought she was telling the truth. It seemed that without someone to corroborate her story, it was the best that Reimu could hope for. "You're my best friend, Marisa, and I wanted to tell you first. That's why I came to tell you, the first thing this morning."
"And... you haven't told anyone else this crazy story yet, have you?" Reimu could tell from the tone of Marisa's voice that she'd begun to actually question Reimu's sanity. In some ways, Reimu wondered about that herself.
"No, not yet. But I wanted to tell everyone who was with us in Makai, when we fought against Rumia two days ago." It really had seemed so weird to Reimu how well she could remember both versions of events. It was almost frightening, in fact. "That would include Alice, Miasma, Youmu, and Sanae."
"What about Sakuya? She was there too, don't ya remember?"
"Sakuya was here at the shrine, when The Voidborn restored us all. She already knows," Reimu clarified, as she stared down the shrine's pathway. She happened to be standing in the very spot where she'd been returned to Gensokyo the day before, the exact moment when her memory had doubled up on itself. "Yukari and Akyuu both know too, but I doubt they're going to tell anyone. This is supposed to be kind of a secret, okay?"
"Weird bunch of people to pick, to remember something like that. Dunno why she wouldn't pick me too, since I help Gensokyo about as much as you do, ze.~" Marisa grinned, but when she saw Reimu staring off into the distance, the expression faded and Marisa shrugged her shoulders. "Whatever, I'm headin' inside. Hope ya don't mind me swipin' some food before I go."
"Yeah, fine," Reimu replied, rather absentmindedly. She remained in her dazed state, still processing everything that had happened in Gensokyo recently, for only a few more seconds, when a loud cry of shock from Marisa caught her attention. Shit...! It can't be Rumia again, can it? Reimu thought to herself, as she quickly turned to run to Marisa's aid.
It wasn't Rumia at all that Reimu found inside of the shrine, and Marisa had not cried out in fear, merely surprise (much to Reimu's relief), but who she had met inside wasn't much better than Rumia herself. Someone Reimu hadn't seen in over ten years. "M... Mima...!?"
"Well, it really has been a long time, hasn't it Reimu?" Mima, the evil spirit who had been the bane of Reimu's existence for much of her young life, now hovered in the main room of the Hakurei Shrine. The last Reimu had seen of her had been shortly after her first visit to Makai over ten years prior, when she'd first met Shinki. Reimu had later heard that both Yuuka and Mima had entered Makai shortly after her own visit, and the two had together destroyed much of Makai's population before becoming bored. The last that Reimu could recall, she had last seen Mima during one of her routine haunts of the shrine, and she had apparently considered becoming a god herself. Since then, she hadn't seen Mima once.
"Whoa...! Lady Mima, when did you come back to Gensokyo!?" Marisa asked, jumping forward to the center of the room. Reimu could easily see the admiration in Marisa's eyes, remembering that Mima was the one who had taught Marisa how to use magic in the first place, back when they were just kids. Reimu wasn't nearly so eager to see her back in Gensokyo, though.
"Oh, just today, actually," Mima said, and it was all she would say on the matter. She stared down at both Reimu and Marisa, taking in the changes that the two had undergone since she'd last seen them, and she had to stifle back laughter. "I thought you would've grown up to be taller, Marisa." Mima's laughter caused Marisa to frown slightly. "And you, Reimu... you let this place turn to an even bigger dump than it was when I left!"
Admittedly, Reimu couldn't deny the shoddy state that her shrine was in. She hadn't had the time to repair the damages done in the first battle against Rumia and Kana. But Mima didn't know that, not if she really had just returned to Gensokyo, and the mocking tone stung all the same. "What the hell do you want, Mima? And why did you have to show back up now of all times?"
"Speaking of, where were you all this time, anyway?" Marisa added onto Reimu's own list of questions, though they both certainly suspected that Mima had been off somewhere in the Outside World, up until recently.
"That's none of your business, really," Mima replied, using this as her answer to both of the girls' questions. "I was searching for something in the Outside World." Reimu could feel her own anger starting to boil up inside of her. It really was just one nuisance after another these days, wasn't it? She was even about to voice this with Mima, fully prepared to go on an anger-fueled rant at the ghostly woman, before Mima spoke out yet again. "Tell me. What has happened in Gensokyo since I was here last? I feel that things are... different, somehow."
"You expect me to just tell you everything, while you're just going to float there, and not give us any explanation about where you've been, and why you came back?" Reimu balled her hands into fists, and contemplated reaching toward some of her concealed sealing talismans. She could never manage to seal Mima, at least not for very long, when she was younger. But she had gained a lot of experience since Mima had last seen her, and Reimu felt that if it were to come to a fight, she would have the distinct advantage for once. (How powerful could Mima even be if Reimu had been able to hold her own when she was only about 10 years old, after all?) With everything that had happened recently, and with all the mental stress she was under as a result of The Voidborn's meddling with the timeline, Reimu was almost itching for a fight.
"Calm down, Reimu. I don't really feel like fighting you today, and I'm not here to cause trouble." Reimu didn't particularly believe that last comment, but she unclenched her hands all the same. "As for why I came back, there isn't really a reason. I concluded my business in the Outside World, and I simply decided to come back. Now, are you going to tell me what has happened in the last ten years, or not?"
"Well, up until really recently, I don't think you missed anything hugely big," Marisa said, before Reimu could even add her own take on the matter. She wasn't even sure if she wanted to tell Mima anything yet, but she supposed that Marisa would've told her if Reimu wouldn't. Marisa did, after all, still look up to Mima as her mentor. Even if Mima was a troublemaker. "Before that though, it was fairly typical stuff. You know, people stealing spring, eternal nights, geysers and hot springs randomly popping up, that sorta thing."
"Marisa, I don't think any of that sounds very typical," Mima said, but Reimu could at least understand where Marisa was coming from. Things had changed since Mima left Gensokyo, particularly with Reimu's own introduction of the spell card rules shortly after Mima's departure. She and Marisa both were simply just accustomed to the sorts of strange incidents that occurred on a frequent basis in Gensokyo. "Fine, just tell me everything, starting from the time I left, if you don't mind."
It hadn't been the first time that Reimu and Marisa had given an overview of their most famous incidents to someone who had otherwise been left out of the loop. After all, they had done the same with Miasma, only just over the most recent summer. They had started with the scarlet mist incident, and gave Mima a brief overview of spell card rules in case she did get herself into any fights, covering the most major details up to the more recent incidents, including the one caused by powers of the Miracle Mallet. It was only when Reimu came close to explaining everything that Rumia had caused that she became hesitant to continue. She was particularly wary about divulging any information relating to The Voidborn.
She had just finished touching on the subject of Kana's most recent possession of the shrine, the one that had preceded Rumia's first appearance following the removal of her seal. "So Kana possessed your shrine? Sure she seemed strong, for a poltergeist anyway, but I can't believe you wouldn't be able to exorcise her properly after all these years. That's like Shrine Maiden 101 right there."
"Yeah, well. I don't think Kana's a normal poltergeist, exactly," Reimu said, as she finally decided to approach the subject that Mima would really want to know, and the one that Reimu was most hesitant to tell. At least, she told herself, she wouldn't have to mention The Voidborn at all. She could simply cover the events that everyone in Gensokyo, Marisa included, had remembered.
Almost as if on cue, Reimu could hear her name being called out from the shrine's path outside, and she turned to see just who was approaching now. Coming up the path were Akyuu and Kosuzu, the latter of whom being the one who had called out, and who also seemed to be carrying one of those demon books from her library. Reimu only suspected it meant more trouble, but on the contrary, Kosuzu seemed particularly excited. "Hey, Reimu!"
"Oh... hey Kosuzu, hey Akyuu." Reimu only barely acknowledged the two, before her gaze shifted back toward Mima. The spirit woman barely seemed interested in these newest arrivals, and only seemed to be waiting for Reimu and Marisa to continue where they had left off. Reimu hoped that whatever they wanted wouldn't take long. She'd rather finish telling Mima what she wanted to hear so she would just leave already. "You two don't usually come out all this way. What's up?"
"We found something today that Akyuu thinks you really need to hear." Kosuzu held up the demon book in her arms as she spoke, indicating her discovery. When she noticed Mima, however, her expression became almost awe-struck. "Who's this, Reimu?"
"I am Mima, the evil spirit of the Hakurei Shrine, and the greatest magician in Gensokyo.~" Mima said, gesturing proudly at herself with a smug grin.
"Don't associate yourself with my shrine!" Reimu blurted out.
"I've never heard of you before, though," Kosuzu said, much to Mima's shock.
"I've heard of her, but I didn't document her into the Gensokyo Chronicle," Akyuu said, now eying Mima more warily than she had been previously. "Reimu, I thought you said that Mima left Gensokyo over a decade ago?"
"She did leave," Reimu said, shooting a glare back at Mima. "She just showed up here in the shrine today when I came home."
"As much as I would love to enlighten you both on the subject of my history with Reimu, you happen to be interrupting our little discussion," Mima said with some impatience. "If you aren't going to tell me, I'm sure Marisa would be delighted to tell me everything I want to know." The way that Mima grinned suggested that she knew that Reimu was keeping something secret from her. And she also suspected that Mima could very easily persuade Marisa to tell her everything, and that included everything that Reimu had told her that morning.
"Fine. I'll tell you, Mima," Reimu replied irritably. That satisfied grin on Mima's face didn't make matters any better, either. "I told you that I managed to exorcise Kana from my shrine again, before Akyuu and Kosuzu showed up. But that turned out to only be the start of the real trouble."
"Are you telling her about everything that's happened over the last couple days?" Akyuu asked, and Reimu nodded in confirmation. "Our news can wait, then. I wanted to hear a complete account of what happened in Makai, anyway." Mima raised an eyebrow upon hearing mention of Makai, but said nothing.
"Well, what happened, was that Kana apparently snuck off somewhere and met up with this crazy darkness youkai, Rumia," Marisa picked up from where Reimu had left off, taking her part in explaining the story to her former mentor. "And the two ended up overthrowin' Shinki, and takin' over all of Makai!"
"Now, wait just a moment." Mima raised her hand, silencing Marisa immediately. "You said Kana, a poltergeist of all things, teamed up with Rumia, and they took over all of Makai? I encountered Rumia at least once before I left Gensokyo, and she was a terribly weak youkai. Especially by Gensokyo standards. Kana may have been powerful when I met her, at least by poltergeist standards, but I hardly think she'd be powerful enough to take over Makai. I don't believe a word of that."
"Believe what you want, Mima. It happened." Reimu wasn't about to put up with Mima's disbelief. If she wanted to hear the story, she'd have to learn to keep her mouth shut. "The ribbon in Rumia's hair was apparently a seal on her powers, put in place by Yukari a thousand years ago, in order to prevent her from going on a rampage. But Shinki took the ribbon off, not knowing what would happen."
"Now that I can believe, that the Makai goddess would do something so reckless," Mima commented briefly, before allowing Reimu to continue.
"After that happened, Rumia and Kana came back to Gensokyo, and went on a rampage. They killed a large number of people, including Miko, who I just told you about, and eventually we managed to draw them out." Reimu pointed back at the hole in the wall where Rumia had crashed through during that first fight. "The two of them nearly destroyed my shrine that night, but we drove them back off into Makai."
"After that, Yukari dropped a bunch of us off into Makai to finish the job. And Kana turned Shinki's whole fortress into this crazy, twisted gauntlet that she tried to make us run through!" Marisa resumed the story, starting off with what Reimu now knew to be the alternate history of events. "The whole place was basically this big death trap. But me and Miasma, she's another friend of ours, we managed to bust through the wall of the fortress and escape."
"Youmu and Sanae stayed behind to take care of Kana," Reimu said, with the memories of that timeline of events taking frontal focus in her mind. She found that if she tried to focus on one version of events, the other would quiet itself in her mind for a time. "The rest of us, Marisa, Sakuya, Alice, Miasma, and myself, all went on ahead to confront Rumia."
- o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o -
Reimu couldn't help but feel amazed, watching Marisa and Miasma crash through the strongest barrier that Pandaemonium had in its defenses. Especially for someone so young, Miasma was frighteningly strong, despite her magical ineptitude. Reimu doubted that even Yuuka could have broken through those throne room doors.
Alice was the first to follow Marisa and Miasma into the throne room, while Reimu stayed back for a moment to stare back at the collapsed exit on the second level through which they had escaped. She'd have no way of knowing how Youmu and Sanae would fare alone against Kana, and she was horrified to think too strongly on the subject. She remembered her own fight with Kana the night before, and how she'd nearly been killed before Marisa and Alice had come to their aid.
Reimu shook her head, telling herself to hope for the best, that those two could handle Kana. Fighting spiritual beings like ghosts and poltergeists was Youmu's specialty, after all. With this in mind, her fears somewhat alleviated, Reimu followed Sakuya down to the throne room, where Rumia no doubt waited inside.
A haze of crystal dust hung in the air, uplifted by the destruction of Pandaemonium's last line of defense, mildly obscuring their vision. It was the first time Reimu had actually seen Makai's throne room (her battle against Shinki had taken place atop Pandaemonium's roof), and its size was certainly befitting of everything she'd come to expect. The ceiling itself was even higher than it had been on the first floor, and there were still many remnants of the ornate decorations that had once lined its walls. Most of these, however, had been either destroyed or modified on Kana's whims.
"Well, well. I had a feeling you'd all be showing up right about now." Rumia's voice echoed through the massive throne room that she had now claimed as her own. As the dense crystal dust settled to the floor, and the visibility cleared, Reimu could see Rumia perched atop a tall crystal throne at the back end of the room, a jagged and mangled thing that bore no resemblance to Shinki's original creation. Rumia sat lazily across it, legs draped over the side as if she'd been napping in that position while she awaited their arrival. "I knew that eventually one of you would get fed up with Kana's little game, and try breaking down the door." Rumia grinned a particularly hateful snarl down at Miasma. "Should've known it would be the temperamental little brat. Guess that means I win the bet, Kana thought it was going to be Alice.~"
"Is this some kind of game to the both of you!?" Alice shouted in response at Rumia. Reimu could sense the anger seething out from the woman's normally calm exterior, and she couldn't help but wonder if Alice would be able to control herself. "You destroy my home, turn my mother's fortress into some kind of... savage labyrinth, and then you start making bets on us!?"
"This is just a game to me," Rumia said, with remarkable disinterest in her tone. "I thought that after a thousand years, there might be someone in Gensokyo worth my time. But none of you would even stand a chance against me on your own." Rumia sighed with exasperation, as she propped herself into an upright position on her twisted throne. "It wouldn't be a fair fight, or even interesting to me, if I just picked you off one by one."
Reimu suspected that to some degree, Rumia was right. They'd managed to hurt Rumia once, but she had let her guard down against Miasma, and Alice had taken her by surprise. Reimu hadn't forgotten the wounds that Rumia had suffered only the night before, the beating she'd taken from the few blows Miasma had managed to connect with, but there was no sign of injury on her now. She certainly recovered quickly. Reimu had hoped that striking back quickly was their best option, to catch Rumia at her weakest, but it seemed that it had been a rather pointless effort.
"Kana's not gonna save ya this time, Rumia," Marisa said, swinging off her broom and pointing it at the darkness youkai. "It's five against one. Don't think you can beat all of us, ze.~"
"We're on my turf now, Marisa," Rumia flashed the witch a hungry-looking grin, showing off her pointed teeth. "I've grown accustomed to Makai's magic-enriched atmosphere, and I'm more powerful than I was in Gensokyo. More than you could ever imagine."
"You're still outnumbered, Rumia. And our magic is enhanced by Makai's atmosphere as well," Reimu said, snatching up several sealing talismans from within her sleeve. As she channeled her energy through them, they glowed faintly, empowered by the enriched air of Makai.
"I doubt you forgot what I did to you last time, either," Miasma said, slamming one first into the palm of her other hand.
"Oh, no. I didn't forget. I didn't forget a damn thing." Rumia snarled, and stood up on her throne. "In fact, I have a special surprise for you, you uppity little shit." Rumia seemed particularly proud of whatever it was she had in store, yet what she'd done only disgusted Reimu and everyone else that witnessed it.
Darkness gathered in Rumia's palm, growing in size and eventually taking physical shape, a humanoid shape. Miasma's eyes opened wide in horror, a hand clutched over her gaping mouth, as she realized what Rumia had done. Medicine Melancholy's corpse, that of Miasma's own mother, hung limp by the neck in Rumia's grip. She had been impaled through the chest by Rumia's sword, and newly dry blood (if Reimu could even call it that; it was so dark that it was nearly black) stained what remained of Medicine's tattered clothes. Reimu took notice of a deep scar running down along the side of Medicine's face, from a wound that seemed too old to have been inflicted by Rumia, yet she was certain it hadn't been there the last time she'd seen Medicine (which, admittedly, hadn't been since before she'd met Miasma).
"The little bitch hardly put up a fight. It was almost sad, really. It was as if she didn't even care.~" Rumia tossed the doll youkai's corpse down onto the floor in an ungraceful heap. "I felt sick just hanging around the pathetic thing. No wonder you left. I did you a favor, I think. Now you never have to worry about this piece of garbage hanging over your head."
"Shut up! Just shut up!" Miasma shouted, and she stomped a foot against the floor, causing the room to shake faintly. Tears streamed down Miasma's face, but her expression showed little sadness. Only fury, all of it directed at Rumia. It seemed that Miasma and Alice shared that in common. "You had no right at all! Even if things... were bad between us... you've ruined any chance of ever putting things right!"
"Oh boo hoo. Cry some more, you big fucking baby. See if I give a shit." Rumia's cruelty seemed to have no end, and had Reimu been in Miasma's position, she no doubt would've reacted similarly. With a scream of rage, Miasma leaped forward, prepared to smash Rumia into oblivion if given the opportunity, without any regard to her own safety.
"Miasma, wait...!" Reimu heard Marisa shout from nearby, but she knew it would do no good. In some ways, Reimu shared Miasma's anger, and knew nothing would be able to talk her down.
"Pitiful," Rumia uttered with a sigh. Miasma never even came close to laying a finger on the darkness youkai. Without moving even a muscle, a swirling barrier of dark energy materialized between Miasma and her target, trapping the young youkai girl within its grasp. Reimu could hear Miasma's gasps of pain as the darkness constricted, and Rumia merely laughed. "Learn some self-restraint, you little brat, and just maybe you'd have lived to see my next surprise. Unfortunately, I think you've just about worn out the last of my patience." Several shadowy spikes emerged out from the floor beneath Miasma, and the darkness that held her began to writhe around its prisoner. "So long, brat.~ It's about time I repay you for last night."
The darkness that held Miasma released her at that moment (more like threw her, really), sending her plummeting down toward the jagged, deadly spikes that protruded beneath her. She never would've had the time to react and fly to safety, not at the speed at which she'd been thrown down, and Reimu knew she'd never reach Miasma in time. But to her relief, it was Sakuya who had. In one instant, Miasma was dropping toward the floor, and in the next, she was gone, held instead by Sakuya nearby. "Are you alright, Miasma?" she asked, and Miasma nodded, but it was clear that the younger girl's anger had not dissipated even in light of her near death experience.
The triumphant grin on Rumia's face only gave a slight twitch to indicate her disappointment, before spreading even wider across her lips. "Just as well, then. I would've been a little disappointed if you lot didn't give me some sort of fight."
"Just what are you playing at, Rumia?" Reimu asked, trying to remain as calm as she could manage. Her expression was stern, but she showed no indication of the emotion beneath it. With Miasma and Alice no doubt both emotionally compromised, Reimu would have to maintain her composure. "What next surprise are you talking about?"
"Where's my mother, Rumia?" Alice asked suddenly, in a surprisingly quiet manner. Reimu could see the fear in her eyes, wondering if perhaps Rumia had done to Shinki what she'd likewise done to Medicine.
"Oh, she's around," Rumia said rather casually, with no more than a dismissive wave of her hand. Seemingly catching on to what Alice suspected, she continued, "She's not dead. Not yet, anyway, if that's what you're so terrified of. No, I have an entirely different surprise in mind. And I just hope that most of you are still around to see it." Reimu had no doubt that any amount of further questioning would yield no better results, and so she kept her silence.
Alice at least seemed to be relieved to hear that Shinki was still alive, for the moment anyway, but that did not cause her hatred to subside any. Reimu supposed that it was a good thing, if it meant Alice would fight seriously. She noticed that Alice had taken her grimoire, a powerful spell book that Reimu had only seen her use once, many years ago.
(At this point in Reimu's story, Kosuzu expressed a clear interest in wanting to see Alice's grimoire, as it was no doubt a demon book very like the ones she owned, and no doubt most similar to the ones she had encountered in Patchouli's library.
(Her interruption had been met with a rather stern look from Reimu, who had never quite approved of Kosuzu's collection, as she thought it to be a rather dangerous hobby.)
If Alice intended to use her grimoire for the first time in more than ten years (and probably for only the second time ever), Reimu knew that she had every intention of wiping Rumia from the face of the Earth even at the cost of her own life. Magic of that level, which had been locked away in that grimoire for good reason, took its toll on those who wielded it.
"Well.~" Rumia broke the silence that had fallen upon the throne room with a clap of her hands. "That doll proved to be entirely inedible. And with that succubus whore stealing my food, I've grown ravenous with hunger." Rumia licked her lips as she surveyed the five that stood below her. "Now, I wonder who should be my next meal... I don't suppose I have any volunteers~?"
Tensions rose between Rumia and her five pursuers in the silence that followed. No one had been sure who should make the first strike against Rumia, and of course, no one would've actually volunteered to become Rumia's dinner. It was Marisa who finally got fed up with the uneasy atmosphere that had fallen upon them. She kicked off the floor, swinging her broom back down to propel herself upward. "You aren't gonna be eatin' anyone today, Rumia!" Marisa declared, as she produced her mini-hakkero and aimed it at Rumia. With her other arm, she waved outward, producing a large number of star-shaped danmaku shots that rapidly approached their target. Reimu had to take a moment to marvel at just how powerful Marisa's attacks appeared to be in that brief moment, amplified by the magic enriched atmosphere of Makai.
It was an advantage, however, that was shared by Rumia as well. She vanished like a puff of black smoke before any of Marisa's attacks had even come close. "Sounds like we have a volunteer," Rumia's voice echoed from every direction, issuing from seemingly every shadow within the room at once.
"Marisa, behind you!" Alice shouted, raising up a wall of her dolls to begin her strategic maneuvers. Of these, she issued two of them to fly, lances aimed and ready, seemingly directly toward Marisa.
The witch panicked, momentarily thinking that Alice had turned on her, and she ducked down, clutching her broom. She swung around until she was hanging upside-down from it, while Alice's dolls flew overhead. She heard a grunt of minor pain from above her head, followed by the sight of one of the dolls being flung to the side in two halves. Looking back up, she was met with the sight of Rumia, half-materialized from the shadows where Marisa had been only seconds before, sword in hand, and one miniature lance lodged into her shoulder.
"You and your worthless toys," Rumia grunted out, as she tore the lance from her shoulder, splattering a tiny bit of blood onto Marisa, who for the moment seemed to have gone momentarily unnoticed. Reimu and Sakuya, who flew up to catch Rumia's attention, both saw to that. "You wouldn't be the first dog I've defeated in this very room, Sakuya. You should go back to your mistress with your tail between your legs, before she has to find herself a new bitch."
Sakuya held several knives in her hand, and flung each of them at Rumia. In the moment that she caused time to stand still, the number of them had doubled, and then doubled yet again, until there were more than a dozen in all. Mixed in with them, however, hidden beneath the knives themselves, were several of Reimu's sealing charms, cleverly disguised. Rumia would've only then noticed that Reimu and Sakuya had joined hands before launching their attacks, freeing Reimu temporarily from Sakuya's time-stopping abilities. Yet Rumia figured herself far too clever to be so easily outsmarted. Not one of the projectiles even met their target, before they seemed to freeze in place mere inches from Rumia's body, bound only by the very shadows that they produced.
"You'll both have to do better than that if you want to stop me." Rumia touched one of the frozen knives, and it immediately dropped to the floor with a metallic ring. "My own abilities are stronger here than you could ever believe, little dog and shrine bitch. But I'll admit, it was a moderately clever trick."
Reimu grinned, and it served to only piss Rumia off more. Perfect, Reimu thought to herself. "We weren't trying to hit you, Rumia."
"What-?" Rumia uttered, before her eyes opened wide in shock. Her gaze trailed down to stare down at Marisa, still hanging upside-down from her broom, who she had completely forgotten about for that short moment. Rumia's eyes fell upon the mini-hakkero Marisa held, which was crackling with hot energy.
"Eat this, Rumia!" Marisa shouted, as the light of her mini-hakkero began to burn bright. "Love Sign: Master Spark!"
A bright flash illuminated the immediate vicinity as the blast of energy shot out toward Rumia. The youkai only had an instant to react, and she jumped back to avoid the worst of the blow, which only singed her front. Irritating, no doubt, but not especially troublesome. It was only what happened afterward that sent Rumia into a vulgar rage. With the light of Marisa's Master Spark brightening the room, the shadows that had bound Sakuya's knives and Reimu's charms were no more. While Reimu's charms were incinerated by the heat of Marisa's attacks, Sakuya's knives remained unaffected, and connected with their target easily enough. Rumia bellowed several inarticulate screeches of rage as the blades pierced her skin, as well as numerous obscenities that Reimu would later leave out of her retelling of the battle.
"You think you're just so fucking smart, don't you!?" Rumia shouted as she ripped the knives from her body, and disintegrated each one of them into the darkness as she did so (seemed she was smart enough to realize that Sakuya would've just picked them back up later, otherwise, Reimu mentioned).
Rumia was cut off from speaking once more by the sight of another wave of Alice's dolls flying in her direction. With her shadowy blade still clutched in her hand, Rumia swung at the dolls, slicing each of them in half. The grin on Rumia's face was short-lived, however, as each of the dolls exploded mere seconds after having been cut open, and the darkness youkai was lost in the flames and smoke that were created. When it had cleared, Rumia was gone, vanished back into the darkness.
"You can't win, Rumia! You can't keep track of all of us at once!" Alice declared, her eyes shifting carefully through the room, searching for any sign of Rumia. She had noticed the swirling darkness behind Marisa earlier, and had saved her life accordingly. Unnoticed by Rumia, she had stationed her dolls at regular intervals along the walls of the room, and had prepared herself for nearly any situation.
"You can't hide forever, either. You'll have to show yourself eventually, or else you'll never be rid of us," Reimu said, as she touched down to the ground not far from Alice.
"Is that right~?" Rumia's mocking voice echoed from the shadows once again, and it was followed by a ringing, unpleasant laughter. "What's to stop me from, say... returning to Gensokyo right now? I could kill anyone I felt like, perhaps another family member of the brat, that dog's mistress, or maybe just a close friend of one of you~? All while you stand around here, like a group of gaping idiots, just waiting for me to show my face again."
"I don't think that you're a coward, Rumia," Reimu said, and of this, she seemed certain. "Everyone that you've killed so far... has been to either develop your power, or to antagonize us into confronting you directly. As we have, right now." Reimu paused, and looked around the room, yet still there was no sign of Rumia. Nor did the dark youkai reply. But Reimu could sense that she was listening, she knew that Rumia was listening. "All of us are here, Rumia. You wanted a fight like this all along, didn't you? What's the point of all that power if you never have a chance to really put it to the test?"
"You think that I won't do it, Reimu? That I won't just leave right now to do as I please, with Gensokyo defenseless, and pick the rest of you off at my leisure?"
"I don't think you will, Rumia," Reimu said, with a certain sureness to her voice that made a few of the others rather nervous. "If you leave us with nothing to fight for, we wouldn't be able to fight you at our best. You'd never be able to try out that strength you seem to be so proud of. Just think of how boring that would be."
More silence. For a time, Reimu even suspected that her words had fallen on deaf ears, and that Rumia truly would do as she had suggested. Reimu's fears were put to ease (partially, anyway) when Rumia reappeared from the darkness once more, directly behind Alice this time, with her blade pressed against the doll maker's neck. "You're more persuasive than I ever gave you credit for, Reimu. It's no wonder you've been so good at solving all of those other incidents."
Alice made a move to try and direct her dolls once again, but Rumia seized her wrist with her free arm, and twisted it back, eliciting a sharp cry of anguish from the magician. "None of that, now," Rumia said. She ran her tongue along the back of Alice's neck, causing her to shudder with revulsion, and attempt once more to pull herself free. It merely earned her another harsh tug on her arm, putting a stop to any further escape attempts. "Those dolls of yours are a considerable nuisance. I think I'll kill you first."
"We aren't going to just sit back and let that happen, Rumia!" Miasma called out, and Rumia turned to see the young girl running in her direction. She had snatched up two of Alice's dolls, one in each hand, and had already begun to throw one of them in Rumia's direction.
"I'm not falling for that again, you little shit!" The doll's shadow rose up from the ground to meet it, impaling the doll long before it was even close to its target. As Rumia had suspected, the doll exploded upon impact, but too far from its intended target to do any damage. And yet, there was still one more doll in Miasma's possession. Sneering wickedly, Rumia did the same with the second doll, stabbing at it while it was still in Miasma's hand.
Only it hadn't exploded like the first. At least, not in the way that Rumia had expected. Instead of a burst of flame and smoke, the doll burst into a flash of bright light even more luminous than Marisa's Master Spark, and it blinded Rumia completely. "You fucking cunts! You fucking blinded me!"
Rumia clutched her hands to her eyes, dropping her sword to the floor as she tried to clear her mind of the searing pain that the light had caused her. She couldn't see a damn thing with the light as offensively bright as it was, and she never saw Miasma charging just blindly at her again. Even if she had, without any shadows to retreat into, there was not a thing Rumia would have been able to do in her defense. It was only once the light had begun to fade that Rumia felt Miasma's fist crashing into her chest. A sickeningly loud cracking sound filled the room as the blow connected, and Rumia was flung across it, crashing into the far wall on the opposite side.
When the visibility of the room finally returned to normal, and everyone but Miasma and Alice (who had been aware of what would happen, and had shielded their eyes accordingly) regained their vision again, they finally saw the aftermath of what had just transpired.
(Mima took that moment to actually acknowledge and compliment the impromptu teamwork of Miasma and Alice, though in a manner that came across to Reimu as an attempt to insult her own skill in battle. She chose to simply ignore Mima for the time being.)
Rumia sat slumped against the far wall, looking to be in a rather sorry state. Blood dripped from the corners of the woman's mouth, and had stained the white of her shirt. It quickly became apparent to Reimu just what that sickening sound had been, when her eyes fell upon the one jagged spike of rib that protruded at a disturbing angle from the youkai's mid-section. The bright red spot of blood on her shirt that surrounded it grew steadily, like a rose blooming outward, with that fractured rib as its stem. When Rumia got uneasily to her feet, she coughed dark red blood into a growing puddle on the floor. Reimu knew that if Rumia had been human, she would be either dead or dying at that moment.
When Rumia touched a hand to fractured rib, she flinched with pain, but did not take her hand away. Instead, she grasped her hand around the bloody bone, and jammed it harshly back into her body, aligning it back into its proper place. And still, Rumia grinned at them, her shark-like teeth stained scarlet with her own blood. "That really hurt, you know..." Rumia laughed, but it was a pained, half-insane sound. "Perhaps you were all right... I am outnumbered."
Rumia took one step forward, and everyone else stood at attention once again. Injured or not, Rumia was still dangerous. Perhaps even more so if she had truly gone mad, as her expression and laughter would've suggested. Rumia stumbled, and for a moment, it seemed as if she would fall to the ground right then and there. She kept one hand clutched to her chest, her ribcage shattered no doubt, while the other shakily pointed out toward the five girls from Gensokyo that had caused her so much anguish. "I'm not done yet you stupid fucks. Far from it."
"We will kill you where you stand if you keep this up, Rumia," Reimu said. She glanced around the room, noticing that the majority of Alice's dolls were still in place. She suspected that they could take Rumia alive, if Alice could trap her like last time in the shrine. It would be best, so they would at least be able to find Shinki with Rumia's help and free her, rather than search blindly. Or worse still, finding Shinki trapped in some sort of impenetrable barrier that only Rumia would be able to remove. Yet if Rumia gave them no choice, she would gladly finish her off.
"Will you now...? I'm not sure you have it in you, Reimu," Rumia said, and she licked her blood-stained lips. "But I think it's time that I evened the odds."
"Just what are you talking about, Rumia?" Reimu asked, but was met only with laughter as Rumia flung both arms out in front of her. At first, Reimu was unsure of just what it was that Rumia had done. That was until she felt a pair of hands grasp at her ankles, attempting to hold her in place. She turned away from Rumia, looking down at her feet, only to be met with the sight of her own shadow pulling itself up from the floor. It was a near perfect duplicate of her own body, though lacking any color or the finer details.
Rumia cackled madly from the opposite side of the room, and Reimu noticed that the others were facing a similar dilemma, trying to pull away from their own shadows. "How's that, Reimu!? If I can't take you all out myself, I'll just let your shadows do the work for me!" Rumia lapsed into another coughing fit during her subsequent laughter, and she sprayed more of her own blood onto the floor.
Sakuya and Alice were both quick to try an attempt at finishing Rumia off, launching knives and dolls respectively at the heavily wounded youkai, but their attempts fared no better than their previous ones had. Rumia's own shadow rose to her defense this time, either deflecting the projectiles, or taking them into itself as though it were a sort of living shield. The time they had taken to launch their attacks had also given their shadows a chance to gain the upper-hand, as they wrenched themselves up from the floor completely, and were able to wrestle at Sakuya and Alice and hold them in a vulnerable position.
Marisa was the first to free herself of her shadow's hold, blasting away at it with a few of her star-based danmaku shots and loosening its grip. Marisa took to the air on her broom, but her shadow quickly followed. Even as Marisa sped around the room, firing wave after wave of danmaku at the shadowy replica, her opponent seemed to match her every move, conjuring up pure black copies of her every attack. They found themselves dodging identical patterns of danmaku, in an increasingly frustrating display of futility.
Reimu and Miasma both found themselves in a frustrating situation of their own, each trying to repel their own shadows from fully emerging from the floor as the other three had done. Reimu's sealing charms, what few of them her shadow would allow her the chance to retrieve, seemed to have a moderate effect on repelling whatever dark magic Rumia used to power the shadow's advance. Miasma was not quite so fortunate, as her physical blows seemed to do little more than slow the advance of a creature that seemed to feel no actual pain.
Reimu grunted with irritation, at one point wrenching her arm free of her shadow's grasp, so that she could grasp several more of her most powerful sealing talismans. Her shadow took that moment to pull itself the rest of the way free, grasping onto the shrine maiden's waist for the support needed to finish the job. Clutching one of the charms in her hand, Reimu slammed it forward and stuck it onto her shadow's forehead. Reimu at once muttered a spell under her breath, and the charm began to glow brightly, before exploding with a burst of energy. Reimu felt the shadow's grip on her body loosen, and she jumped free to avoid the blast radius. One look down at the floor after having escaped was all the confirmation she'd needed to know that her plan had worked, and that she'd managed to dispel Rumia's control over her shadow. In fact, it was right back where it should've been all along, clinging flat to the floor where shadows belonged.
Free, and for the moment safe, Reimu glanced back in Rumia's direction. Her escape had not gone unnoticed by the darkness youkai, but it seemed that Rumia did not seem to even care, and was also otherwise preoccupied. Rumia's own shadow had sunk back to the floor, but numerous shadowy tendrils had risen in its place, most of which seemed to be latched onto Rumia's body. It occurred to Reimu that Rumia was using her shadows to try and mend the wounds that Miasma had inflicted, with the shadowy tentacles rearranging and forcing her broken bones back into their proper places, while simultaneously closing her open wounds. It seemed to be an extraordinarily tedious process, one that Rumia never would've been able to do if her opponents hadn't been so preoccupied. Reimu was mentally hitting herself for letting Rumia get such an opportunity. She certainly wouldn't let her get it again.
Reimu gritted her teeth, and with several of those same charms still in hand, began to charge toward Rumia. She flung each of her sealing talismans at the other four shadow duplicates that were still harrying her friends, but she hadn't taken the time to watch and see if they would connect with her targets. Not when she had the chance to strike Rumia while she was vulnerable.
Reimu clutched her gohei and charged at Rumia, gathering up all of the energy that she could muster. "You're finished, Rumia!" Reimu cried as she prepared to swipe her charged gohei at the youkai while she was vulnerable.
All at once, Reimu ground to a halt, as a severe pain clutched the inside of her body. Rumia bellowed another insane bout of laughter, and another surge of agony coursed through Reimu's body, as if something was squeezing her internal organs directly. Reimu shuddered, and took one look at Rumia, seeing that her right arm had seemingly vanished into the darkness.
"What's wrong, Reimu!? Does it hurt!?" Rumia cackled, and Reimu could see no sanity in the woman's current expression. Another wave of anguish left Reimu unable to respond. "It's a special trick I used against that pathetic maid of Shinki's. There's darkness inside of you, Reimu! It's hard for me to control normally, but I'm more powerful than ever inside Makai!"
"R... Rumia..." Reimu muttered out, feeling as though her insides were being torn out.
"Why don't I rip your guts straight from your body, and then shove them back down your throat, so you fucking choke on them? How does that sound Reimu!?" Rumia gave another sharp tug, and for a moment, Reimu was certain that Rumia had every intention of following up on her threat. "Let's see what the great Reimu Hakurei looks like turned inside-out!"
Rumia's insane rambling was put to a stop once more, however, when another of Alice's dolls flew to Reimu's aid, exploding near Rumia's face. The darkness youkai screeched out in rage, and swiped away the next two that flew in her direction. "You fucking whore bitch! You and these fucking toys!" Rumia had lost her concentration, and with it, her hold on Reimu, who collapsed to the floor, desperately trying to catch her breath. She had never in her life felt so close to death as she had in that moment.
As Reimu looked around, she could still see Miasma and Sakuya grappling with their respective shadows (it seemed their physical attacks were nearly worthless), while Marisa continued her own battle overhead. Only the charm Reimu had thrown toward Alice's aid had found its target, it seemed, and Reimu was relieved for that much. Alice stood beside Reimu, a serious expression on her face, and Reimu noticed that Alice had finally opened her grimoire. Her body had begun to glow with magical energy, filling her with the grimoire's might.
Rumia threw her arm outward, the one that had been inside of Reimu which was now stained bloody, and attempted to direct her shadows to focus on attacking Alice. The youkai was met with another wave of Alice's dolls from all corners of the room. Most were skewered by Rumia's shadows, but Alice had only needed one to reach their intended target; the shadowy tendrils that had been laced into Rumia's wounds. One doll caught the stringy darkness and continued flying past, wrenching open the wound that Rumia had so carefully mended. Blood splattered out from it, and Rumia's pain had returned in full force, as given away by her screams of rage and agony.
Several more dolls had approached Rumia with alarming speed, and many more had begun to circle around the dark youkai. Rumia's shadows lashed out at each of them in turn, destroying nearly every one, yet it seemed that Alice did not care. Rumia bared her teeth and spat her blood at Alice, while her shadows resumed their work of lacing up their master's wounds.
Alice flipped the page of her grimoire, and began to mutter an incantation, causing the aura around her body to become scarlet in color. "Now, burn!" Alice pointed her right hand at Rumia, causing several massive fireballs to appear, flinging themselves at Alice's intended target.
Rumia's eyes widened briefly in alarm, before raising her arm, so that the shadows would rise to her defense, creating a shield against the oncoming fire attacks. Alice's attack had been quick, and while Rumia's makeshift barrier hadn't protected her entirely (parts of her body were still badly singed by the fire that had seeped through), she avoided any fatal damage. More importantly, it had allowed for her wounds to continue being healed, though the process had slowed considerably.
Alice flipped her grimoire to its next page, and her aura changed to an icy blue. Instead of fireballs, numerous shards of ice were flung at Rumia instead like jagged spears. Rumia's barrier held against the onslaught, but it was weakening. The same thing had happened at the shrine once before, when Rumia had been sure her barrier could hold out against Miasma's physical attacks. Yet she'd been able to break through, and Rumia had been caught in an extremely vulnerable position. And now, here was Alice, using the magic of her grimoire to achieve the same result.
When Rumia spied Alice flipping the pages of her grimoire once again, she took the only chance she would have, during the brief respite between Alice's waves of magic. Rumia's shield broke apart on her command, but it did not disappear, not entirely. It re-purposed itself into countless shadowy spears, all of which were thrown in Alice's direction. Four of the magician's dolls came to her aid, arranging themselves into a rectangle in front of her, generating a shield that protected their controller from harm. Most of the shadow spears were deflected by the shield, while others simply flew past Alice on either side or above her.
Rumia grinned, and closed her fist, causing all of the shadow spears to stop mid-flight, generating a fresh look of alarm from Alice. Once more, Rumia reshaped her darkness, taking the form of numerous shadow hands that now surrounded Alice from every side. They stretched out and reached for her, grasping at her arms and pulling them apart from each other. She wouldn't be able to flip through that grimoire of hers so freely if her arms remained bound.
"Looks like your little plan failed, Alice," Rumia mocked, as she placed a hand over her chest. Her shadows her done their job, and her wounds were nearly healed. "Thinking you could take me out while I was weak... and you say I'm cruel.~"
"Don't be so sure of yourself, you bitch." Alice began to mutter another incantation, and though she no longer could flip through her grimoire, both it and Alice began to glow with energy once more. As she continued her incantation, at first, it was unsure what exactly Alice was trying to accomplish. The magical strings that Alice used to control her dolls, which were normally invisible, began to appear as faint bluish strings in the air. It wasn't until Reimu looked over at Rumia that she realized what Alice was doing. Alice's dolls had been working to surround Rumia with their normally intangible and unseen strings, and now she was bound within them. But worse for the youkai, when the shadow that had first closed the wound in her chest had been pulled free, one of Alice's doll strings had been closed in with the second shadow tendril.
"What the fuck did you do!?" Rumia screeched, as she tried to claw at the glowing doll strings that had been laced into her body, attempting to pry them back out of her body.
"You're done, Rumia," Alice replied flatly. Both her body and the grimoire took on a reddish glow, a color that quickly spread to the various interlacing doll strings. The strings burned away at Rumia's flesh, and broke her concentration. The shadows released Alice, and likewise, the shadow duplicates fighting against Marisa, Sakuya, and Miasma faded away.
Steam rose from Rumia's body where her skin was being burned, though the sizzling hiss that it produced was drowned out by Rumia's shouts of pain. To everyone's alarm, the shadows began to engulf Rumia once more, trying to pull her to safety. But Alice's reflexes were quick, and she took quick notice. She had one more flash bomb doll, it seemed, and it was enough to illuminate the room and vanquish Rumia's shadows before she could escape. Though this prompted many more profanities from her.
When the light cleared, Alice's doll strings had faded back into invisible intangibility. Rumia had not moved, but she no longer screeched vulgarities and cries of pain. Though the strings no longer held the youkai in place, she had no way of escaping now. Reimu had arranged several charms in sealing circles around Rumia, which served to both weaken and trap the youkai. Sakuya, now freed from the grip of her creeping shadow, held a blade to Rumia's neck, should she try to dispel Reimu's seals.
"It's over, Rumia," Sakuya said. "Kana isn't here to bail you out this time."
Rumia tried to turn her head, but Sakuya only pressed the knife tighter against the youkai's throat; hard enough to draw a thin line of blood. Rumia kept still from that moment on.
Alice took a step forward. She stumbled, and fell to her knees onto the floor. Her grimoire fell beside her, slamming shut. Marisa, who was closest, ran to help steady the girl, and pull her back to her feet. "I'm fine, I just... it takes a lot out of me."
"You sure you're alright, Alice?"
Alice placed a hand over Marisa's and smiled back, smiling in an an attempt to convey that she was alright. That smile faded, however, when she turned back toward Rumia. "Now... where is my mother, Rumia?"
"Oh...?" Rumia tilted her head, and her lips curled into what seemed to be a mocking sneer. Yet there was a certain acceptance in her features now, which suggested that finally, she had given in. "She's... around, really. You'll see her again." Rumia's eyes shot over to the other side of the room, seemingly toward the throne room's main entrance, but it was only for a fraction of a second. Yet it hadn't gone unnoticed by Reimu, who watched the entrance out of the corner of her eye.
"Don't play games with me, Rumia," Alice took another step, and Marisa helped to keep her balance. "You tell me where she is right now!"
Rumia did not answer. Alice had been about to ask again, when Miasma instead strode over to Rumia, and bashed one of her fists into the woman's stomach. "You already killed my mother. I'm not going to just let you stand there and toy with Alice about hers, too!"
Reimu thought that perhaps it would have been best to stop Miasma from delivering a second blow to Rumia, but she did not. Her mind was elsewhere, half of it watching closely at the throne room door, the other half pondering on some of Rumia's actions. There was no doubt that they had defeated Rumia, but Reimu's intuition seemed to suggest, against all rational thought, that there was more trouble to come. Something that Rumia was expecting this entire time.
In spite of Miasma's physical assault, Rumia would not answer to her or Alice's demands. Instead, she turned her gaze fully toward the opened throne room gateway, the one through which Reimu and everyone had burst through in order to access Rumia, and grinned that disgustingly cunning grin of hers. "Why don't you come out now, you thieving witch?"
"Hey, I'm right here, and I didn't steal nothin' from you!" Marisa shouted, but her words went unacknowledged by Rumia, not as much as a glance in her direction.
Reimu's eyes narrowed as she turned her full attention toward the entryway. She heard a woman's breathy sigh from beyond her line of sight. From beyond the columns that lined the throne room's outer entrance stepped Lilith Maestra, her wispy dress trailing near her feet like black fog. "I would hardly call it thievery, Rumia, when the humans were never yours to take." Lilith's tone was almost sweet, in a way, as if she were gently scolding a child who had unintentionally performed a minor misdeed.
Lilith donned that disarming smile of hers as her eyes swept across the room, surveying the assortment of individuals gathered before Makai's throne; nearly all of whom were relieved to see that if had been Lilith to saunter into their presence, and not Kana. All that is, except for Reimu.
- o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o -
"Why are you stopping?" Mima asked, after Reimu had fallen into a period of prolonged silence. Reimu had recited the entire tale, with a few additions from Marisa whenever Reimu broke to rest her voice, up until the arrival of Lilith. "I want to know the rest of what happened, so get on with it."
"I'm embarrassed to say that because of Lilith's intrusion, Rumia is not only still alive, but Lilith escaped with her life as well." More than that though, Reimu wasn't particularly sure how much about Lilith she wanted Mima to know about. It was probably best that Mima didn't know all of the details.
"And you've yet to tell me why that was a particularly bad thing," Mima said, rolling her eyes. "You said that this Lilith was holding the souls of the villagers safe from Rumia."
"We thought she was," Reimu clarified. "Lilith was only trying to gather enough human souls to be able to become a god. Rumia apparently knew about this, and set the whole thing up as a trap to lure Lilith into Makai."
"In the end, Rumia ended up forcin' Lilith to lose all those souls she took, so she ran off before we could do anythin' about it," Marisa said, shrugging her shoulders. "No one's seen Lilith since then. Who knows where she's holed up? But Rumia basically just gave up after that for some reason, and well... we still ended up with both Rumia and Lilith still free. Even if Rumia says she ain't gonna cause any more trouble."
Mima raised an eyebrow at this, and after everything she'd heard (if she even believed it all), that was suspicious. "And after everything you've claimed she's done, you believe that Rumia will stay true to her word?"
Marisa looked at Reimu, wondering the same thing. She hadn't believed Rumia either at the time, but Reimu's account about The Voidborn had cast some doubt on what exactly Marisa believed. Reimu wondered about this, thinking back on Rumia's final actions leading up to her confrontation with The Voidborn, and what had happened after she'd been restored. Finally, Reimu nodded her head, not uttering a word.
"If you say so, Reimu," Mima said, sighing heavily. "I still think most of you are keeping something rather important from me, but I won't push the subject. For now." Mima smiled, and it was the sort of conniving smile that Reimu recognized well from her childhood. In some ways, she trusted Mima even less than she trusted Rumia. The latter, at least, had a tendency to be much more straightforward about her violent ways.
"Akyuu, what did you find that you wanted to show me?" Reimu asked, not even bothering to give Mima any more acknowledgement than she deserved. Which wasn't a whole lot at all, in Reimu's mind.
"Kosuzu is the one who found it, actually," Akyuu said, pointing out the demon book that Kosuzu still clutched in her arms.
"Oh, right! Here, lemme find it again." Kosuzu flipped open the book, reaching the page that she had marked, way toward the end of the smallish book. "It's an ancient prophecy, from a youkai seeress that lived thousands of years ago. I found one that I think has something to do with Rumia and Hana, and everything that happened recently."
"Hana?" Mima asked, curiously trailing her gaze between Kosuzu and Reimu. "Another person you neglected to tell me about, Reimu?"
"She's Yuuka's other daughter, the younger one. She can control light, but she's still really young. Otherwise she might've been able to help us against Rumia."
"Another daughter, you say?" Mima chuckled with amusement at the mental image of Yuuka being stuck caring for of a couple of children. "I did try to warn Yuuka that her habits would eventually come back to bite her in the ass."
"What is it, Kosuzu?" Reimu asked a second time, ignoring Mima yet again. Mima frowned in disapproval. She wasn't so used to Reimu dismissing her quite so easily, and it irked her greatly.
"Well, here, let me recite it for you," Kosuzu looked down at the page she had opened the book to, and coughed to clear her throat. "'The resurgence of darkness shall come herald by the child of the moon. It shall sleep for a thousand years, until the light is born of the avatar of the sun. The darkness shall return to cover the Earth, and draw the creeping emptiness'"
The shrine fell silent as all those in the room began to ponder on what Kosuzu had just read. It was obvious, to Reimu at least, that the 'darkness' was referring to Rumia, and her reawakening a thousand years later due to the actions of Shinki. Mima broke the silence, however, with an observation that had also struck a chord in Reimu's mind. "So, this 'light' refers to Yuuka's daughter, Hana, doesn't it? The one who can manipulate light?"
"Yes, we think so. Hana is also the daughter of Utsuho Reiuji, the hell raven who ate the Yatagarasu and inherited the powers of nuclear fusion," Akyuu said, and this seemed to satisfy Mima somehow, as though she had drawn some kind of conclusion that Reimu and Marisa hadn't yet come to. "There's something else, too. About Rumia being the child of the moon."
"Oh, come on... don't tell me that Rumia's mom ate some kinda moon god!" Marisa cried out. Reimu could sympathize with her, though. Rumia was already bad enough on her own, she didn't need the powers of a goddess at her disposal.
"Worse than that, I'm afraid." Marisa groaned again. "I believe that Rumia is the daughter of an actual moon goddess, by the name of Selena Marama."
Mima uttered a short laugh. Reimu didn't like the sound of it one bit. "What's so funny about that, Mima?" Reimu asked.
"Nothing at all. That is just simply a name I haven't heard in quite a long time, that's all." Mima smiled back at Reimu, and she just knew that Mima was hiding something. If she could know what Mima was thinking, she had no doubt that whatever Mima was keeping secret, she only imagined it was payback for the things Reimu herself had been keeping under wraps. "I don't particularly care to hear the rest of whatever it is you have to say. I'll be taking my leave."
"Aw, come on, Mima!" Marisa said, stepping up almost between Mima and the shrine's front door. "Ya just got here, aren't ya gonna stick around and tell me what you've been up to all these years?"
"Oh, don't you worry your pretty little face, Marisa," Mima said, patting her former apprentice on the head. "I'm not leaving Gensokyo, this time. Merely visiting an old friend.~ One day, perhaps soon, I'll tell you all about what I've been up to." Mima drifted off past Marisa and toward the shrine's exit, giving only the briefest wave as she passed through. "Things really have gotten interesting in Gensokyo since I've been away. I'm hoping they stay this way.~"
Just like that, Mima was gone once more, having vanished off into the sky. She's heading toward Mugenkan, Reimu thought to herself, watching the direction that Mima had flown off in. She knows this Selena person, somehow. I'm sure of it.
"So hey, Akyuu. What's the deal with this Selena chick, exactly?" Marisa asked, drawing Reimu's attention back to the matter at hand.
"Ah, yes... well, after Kosuzu told me what she'd found, I remembered what The Voidborn had called Rumia, using the surname 'Marama'. I had heard of a goddess with that same surname in one of my first lives, but it had been an incredibly long time ago."
"So, after Kosuzu told you... you remembered who Selena was, or you found her name in another book? And you think she's Rumia's mother?" Reimu had never heard of a moon goddess by that name before. The only god in relation to the moon that Reimu was moderately familiar with was Lord Tsukuyomi. At least, in regards to moon deities that were familiar in Japan.
"Exactly. And I believe that Rumia killed Selena shortly after her birth, as well. There is no record of her existence, or of just about any moon-based deity in the world, for the last thousand years," Akyuu finished, and this gave Reimu the chance to think on the matter. It fit, really. Rumia's strength was tied to the phase of the moon, and she was at her most powerful on the night of the full moon. She was thankful that she'd never encountered Rumia on such a night after she'd been unsealed. She wondered, as well, if there was any connection between Selena and Lord Tsukuyomi. Perhaps, if she ever met Yorihime again, she could ask about it.
"So who do ya think Rumia's other parent is, exactly?" Marisa asked. Akyuu and Kosuzu looked at each other, and they both shrugged. "Heh, I got no clue either. They've gotta be someone powerful though."
"Akyuu. You've told Kosuzu everything, haven't you?" Reimu was referring to the true history, involving The Voidborn, of course. She remembered the segment of the prophecy about the 'creeping emptiness'. Even that seemed to fit perfectly with what had happened.
"You mean about the whole Void thing, right?" Kosuzu answered before Akyuu even had the chance to speak. "Yeah, she told me the whole thing. Don't worry Reimu, I'm not telling a soul! Top secret, right?"
"Aw man, so you weren't just having some weird delusion, Reimu?" Marisa said, earning an incredulous look from Reimu.
"You sound almost disappointed that I'm not crazy!"
"Well, yeah! Then I'd have someone to share it with, because we'd both be nuts!" Marisa began to laugh, and Reimu couldn't help but laugh with her. Reimu was actually glad that she could laugh like that again, after everything that happened, and all the turmoil that had filled her mind.
Things in Gensokyo are finally going back to normal, Reimu thought to herself. At least as normal as things ever are in Gensokyo.
For that, Reimu felt more relieved than she had since the whole Rumia Incident had started. Despite everything that had happened, she almost felt as though she could begin to look back on it as just another incident.
Normalcy in Gensokyo, in relative terms, was hard to come by. Reimu was intent on relishing it.