Look to the Eastern Sky Chapter 6: Fires Burn, a touhou project fanfic

Look to the Eastern Sky

Book One of the Clockwork Devils

Written by Achariyth

"Hello? Earth to Mary. Wake up, sleepyhead," Renko said, shaking the blonde woman's shoulder. How the blonde woman could fall asleep in the designed for no comfort at all train seats was beyond her.

Maribel Hearn woke up and rubbed her eyes. "Are we there yet?"

Renko Usami giggled. "You and trains."

Maribel yawned. "I can't help it." She rested her head in the crook of her arm. "The rhythm just puts me to-" The blonde snored.

"Oh, no, you don't," Renko said, shaking even harder.

"I'm dreaming of Gensokyo," Maribel said, raising her head. "Let me be."

"But you promised to help me with my astronomy homework," Renko said.

"Ugh, more Newtons Sleep. Why can't stars be something more than just flaming hydrogen?" Maribel said, bleary-eyed.

"Ever think you might have a sleep fixation?"

"At least magic happens there," Maribel said. "Let me dream."

"If you don't want to help with mine, let me help with your homework instead," Renko said. Maribel aversion to higher math was legendary.

"But I'm tired," Maribel said. "Why won't you leave me alone?"

"Because this is the only way I can share your dreams." A slight smile crossed Renko's lips.

A white flash covered Maribel's sight, leaving dark afterimages. She seized the back of a nearby chair to steady herself while her head spun.

"Whoa!" Renko said, holding her forehead. She sat her bonnet on the chair next to her.

"You felt that too?" Maribel said, blinking away the last of the aura obscuring her sight. In the instant before it vanished, when she looked at Renko, she thought she saw a large red ribbon bow in her friend's hair.

"We must have drank too much last night," Renko said, rubbing her temples.

"Lightweight," Maribel said, sticking out her tongue.

"Just because you can put away that tap water Americans call beer by the barrel doesn't mean you're any less of one," Renko protested. "Try something stouter next time."

"Oh dear, we'll have to fix that," a mirthful voice whispered inside Maribel's head.

"The good stuff spoils on the way here," Maribel pouted. Indeed, most imported beer tended to go foul on the ships. Maribel's favorite, a good German hefeweizen, tended to suffer poorly through the import process. "Besides, just because you love math doesn't mean you have drink Guinness exclusively. Nerd."

"Hey! They did a lot of important work in statistics, sasanach," Renko said, using an Irish insult for the English.

Maribel stared at her friend in disbelief. "You can say that, but you trip over 'Maribel?' I don't get you."

"Whatever, Ms. Yakumo," Renko said, smiling.

"Huh?" that voice not Maribel's own said in her mind. Maribel wished she sounded as refined.

"I told you, Lafcadio is no relation of mine," Maribel said, pouting. The writer Lafcadio Hearn emigrated to Japan and took the name of "Koizumi Yakumo." Renko had made that into a joke as soon as she learned Maribel shared the same last name.

"But its easier to pronounce," Renko said.

"Barbarian."

"Sasanach."

The women giggled.

"So, shall we try to find a way into Gensokyo again this weekend?" Maribel said.

"Don't you ever get tired of the search for Gensokyo?" Renko asked, soberly.

"No, because its one of the few times I feel alive instead of just living," Maribel said, smiling.

"I'd like to try to find a boyfriend for once," Renko said, returning the smile.

Maribel wrinkled her nose. "I'd like to not get hit on. Just for one weekend." Japanese men found Maribel's blonde tresses irresistible.

"Blonde she-devil temptress," Renko said, forcing a stern frown before smirking.

"You forgot sasanach that time," Maribel pointed out.

Chapter 6 - Fires Burn

The earth can shake,

The sky come down.

The mountains all

Fall to the ground.

But I will fear

None of these things…

-"Shelter Me," Tab Benoit

A Return

"Faster!" Mokou bellowed as she flew through the air, buoyed by a harsh tailwind. She steered towards the Hakurei shrine, its ruins illuminated by constant showers of danmaku fireworks.

"I'm trying," Sanae said, grimacing as she slipped closer to the phoenix girl. The wind priestess dropped a glowing card. Flittering through the slipstream, it vanished and a mighty wall of wind pushed Mokou and her impromptu squad even faster.

Twin brilliant flashes cut through the heavy flak surrounding the shrine. The lethal light show slackened. Mokou grit her teeth as another gust slammed into her from behind. She glared at Sanae, whose ashen face was locked in grim determination.

"That can't be good," Keine said, struggling to remain upright. The wind caught the hakutaku's horns, and only the most heroic effort kept Keine from tumbling through and out of the sky. "We shouldn't have waited."

"You needed us," Sakuya said. Patchouli and Youmu flew behind and above the maid in a die triangle. "If that thing withstood two witches, a goddess, and Yukari's pet, I doubt a priestess and an umbrella would have made much of a difference."

"Just you wait," Kogasa muttered as she sailed ahead of the group. "I have a surprise with your name on it…"

Mokou rolled her eyes. She'd let Sakuya think whatever she would; the delay was just long enough for her to create a pair of spell cards. Finding the Scarlet Mansion staff on an errand was just a bonus.

Up ahead of the formation, Kogasa cried out in alarm. Spell cards slipped into hands as the girls dispersed into a wide cloud. A brown speck far below leapt into the air.

Like the others, Mokou scattered danmaku below in a thick rain of magical harm. The speck twisted and slipped through the deadly shower.

"Cut that out!" Suwako shouted hoarsely. "Or by my name, even Hina won't be able to save you from my curses." Her eyes settled on the priestess as the magic faded. "I know I taught you better than that."

"Sorry," Sanae said, flying closer in a wide, banked turn. She gasped. Suwako's clothes were torn, and the goddess's skin resembled old dried bone in color. "What happened?"

"Am I glad to see you," the goddess croaked, tackling the priestess in mid-air. As Suwako bathed in Sanae's faith, color returned to her cheeks.

"Let. Go," the priestess wheezed as Suwako glomped the air of her lungs.

"Where is he?" Mokou growled. Sure, the reunion might be a touching scene, if one ignored the blue blooming across Sanae's skin.

"I'll tell you, say, for a little faith?" Suwako said, turning towards the phoenix girl and ignoring her glare. Sanae gasped for air as her goddess eased her grip. However, the priestess had enough energy to swat at Suwako. "Oh, alright. The Djinn's gone. So's Marisa. They disappeared at the same time and we can't find either."

An uncertain shiver ran through Mokou. Sure, Marisa was one of the strongest spell card users in Gensokyo, but she also had trounced all of the girls present handily and repeatedly, sometimes without warning. Pride warred with shame, and a quick look at the others showed that Mokou was not alone in her conflicted emotions.

"Time to get my books back," Patchouli murmured, ignoring Sakuya's cutting glare.

"What now?" Youmu asked.

"Go to what's left of the shrine," Suwako said, perching on Sanae's shoulders as though the young priestess was giving a piggy-back ride. "Alice might have more for you."

"What about you?" Keine asked.

"Sanae and I are going to make sure he's gone," Suwako said. Beneath her, Sanae nodded, stone-faced.

"I'll go too," Kogasa said, twirling under her umbrella through the air.

Red-faced and scowling, Suwako opened her mouth. She paused and shook her head. "Fine. But first, how about a little faith?" The trio vanished in a heavy gust of spell card augmented wind.

Rolling her eyes, the phoenix girl dropped out of the sky, landing in a three-point crouch. Next to her, Alice stood on polished stone, surrounded by a small ring of dolls. The witch rapidly flicked cards into the air from a small deck in her hands. Each card glowed, vanishing as though it were made from flash paper. Occasionally, a doll would joined the circle at her feet.

"What are-" Mokou began, She shrank away from the Witch of Death's glare. Immortal as the duchess may be, she could still die for a time, and resurrection still hurt.

As Mokou's four companions landed around Alice, the magician huffed. The last spell card from her deck fizzled in her hands. The witch sighed again and pulled out one last spell card seemingly from the air itself. Three more dolls appeared and took their place in the ring of dolls, each resembling one of the mischievous Fairies of Light.

"Stand back," Alice commanded, opening her grimoire. Power pulsed from the witch, pushing Mokou and her group away from Alice. "Further."

A black magic circle formed on the polished stone foundation, circumscribing a complex star with a doll at each spoke. Mokou stood still, transfixed by the otherworldliness of the witch's magic.

"Stop gawking," Keine hissed, pulling Mokou away from the foundation. The hakutaku bounded away, yanking the phoenix girl through the air.

"Hey!" Mokou protested as they landed. She rubbed her shoulder and froze as she glanced at Alice. "What the hell?"

The circle pulsed as it grew rapidly, flinging the dolls outward until Alice, eyes closed, stood in the center of a wheel of dolls and magic over a hundred meters wide. Wind swept through the shrine grounds, but neither the pages of the grimoire nor Alice's dress moved with the wind.

Keine glided next to Mokou in a display of elegance that would have provoked Sakuya's jealousy if the maid wasn't hiding from the aura of power. She gasped as the dolls, the magic circle and Alice levitated into the air as one unit. "She's actually doing it!"

Mokou shrugged. Except for when Reimu forced the use of spell cards, the duchess preferred a bloodier hands-on alternative to solving problems than using magic.

Keine rolled her eyes. "You know how Alice always knows where you're at, even when she's never looking at you? She's found a way to combine what she can see through those dolls."

"So?"

"What she's seeing through those dolls right now would put a hawk's eyesight to shame. Right now it's like she's looking through a telescope as wide as that circle."

"And?"

"No optical telescope in the world is that big," Patchouli said, floating behind Mokou and Keine. She had a sleepy look on her face that belied the fact she was scribbling frantically into a worn notebook. "Some magicians have seen through the eyes of their familiars, but no one's thought to link multiple familiars into an array like that."

Mokou smirked. "So someone's finally done something you haven't."

The witch snarled. "What makes you think I want to see what Koa does in her spare time? Besides, Nitori thought of it after she borrowed one of Sanae's textbooks, from something called a Very Large Array."

The dolls spun slowly around Alice, tilting until the ring stood vertical. Rotating slowly around the Witch of Death, the magic circle twisted and turned as various things caught its mistress's interest. The dolls stopped, hurling thick beams of ruby laser light into the surrounding land.

"More like a Cutely Dangerous Array," Youmu said, drifting with Sakuya towards the group.

"What was that for!" Mokou called out.

"Spider youkai near human campers," a dozen dolls answered in the witch's voice. With the barrier down, humans from outside and youkai from inside Gensokyo had begun to spill across the lands. As the echo faded, the Cutely Dangerous Array spun once more, stopping again without warning.

"Do you see the Djinn?"

"No. No sign of him or Marisa," Alice's dolls sang out. Low hisses echoed across the shrine grounds. "Rumia…"

"Where?" Sakuya snarled. Knives flashed into the maid's grip as Alice pointed with her free hand. "We're on it," she said. Youmu nodded, and the inseparable pair left on their hunt.

Mokou watched as the disk started its rotation again, the novelty of Alice's magical construction fading. She stumbled as Patchouli forced herself between Keine and herself. Mokou snarled, to no avail. Wide-eyed and quivering, Patchouli beamed at Keine.

"You've got to see this!" the magician gushed, tugging on Keine's shoulder. She pointed to where the ember blazed above the rock foundation. "Hearthflame?"

Keine sought Mokou with her eyes. "Sorry," she mouthed, before Patchouli jostled her away; the magician bounced with each step. The historian pursed her lips as she consulted Gensokyo's history. "Too energetic-"

Mokou sighed, rolling her eyes. At the first strains of magical technobabble, she rushed away. A low, keening cry stopped her in her tracks. A cat's mewling answered, higher in pitch but just as strong. The fox cried out again, as Ran and Chen mourned their lost mistress in the privacy of some unseen nook. Sad, moving, and ultimately beautiful, the duet of tears reached through Mokou's armor of indifference. The phoenix girl dropped to her knees, blinking away tears.

A Retreat

"Kaede, hand me that IV," Reisen Udongein Inaba ordered, cinching a ratchet strap tight. The lunar hare hovered over a litter bearing Nitori Kawashiro's spasming form. A short length of rubber hose jutted out of the kappa's arm.

"Yes, Ma'am," the lupine medic shouted, holding a bag filled with a clear yellow liquid over the kappa's stretcher.

Reisen attached the tubing to the bag and sighed. "Hold that up. How's Miki?" She pointed to another stretcher carrying a wolf soldier missing a leg.

"Stable, although Lady Eirin might need to take a look at her," Kaede said, holding the IV gingerly. She had popped one all over her patient earlier in her training.

"Normally, I'd take that as an insult, but under the circumstances-" Reisen said, as she checked Nitori's breathing and pulse.

"Are they ready to move?" Sergeant Momiji Inubashiri growled as she knelt next to the medics. As Nitori spasmed again, Momiji grimaced and rested a hand gently on the inventor's shoulder. "Can't you do something for her? A little magic-"

"A whole lot of magic caused this," Reisen snapped. "I just about lost her from some weird resonance when I tried a simple scrying spell."

"We're about ready to leave," Momiji said, wincing. Four wolves stood behind her, standing ramrod straight, one of Alice's dolls tightly bound to their assault packs.

The hare stood up and looked around. In the span of minutes, Momiji had organized a sprawling mess of an impromptu aid station into soldier's packs and one oversized litter. Reisen shook her head. If only rabbits were so efficient. "Well, they aren't getting any healthier out here, and I'd really like the Master's help with Nitori."

"I'm more worried about what's out there," Momiji said, flashing a set of hand signals to her squad. The wolves stepped back out of their formation and settled at the ends of the three litters. Momiji took the IV from Kaede and took her station by Nitori's head.

"I need a medic," Hatate shouted as she swooped in from the sky, Yukimi dangling from her arms. The wolves ducked low, and the ring of metal sliding against metal could be heard as swords were drawn.

Reisen rolled her eyes. "She's only passed out. Probably from fright. You'll just have to carry her. We're going back to the manor."

"We don't have the bodies for another litter," Momiji said. At her glare, her soldiers sheathed their weapons.

"I'll hold her," Miki said from her stretcher.

Momiji nodded to Hatate, who set the diminutive rabbit in the fallen soldier's arms. Kaede frowned, but secured the rabbit tightly to the stretcher, just in case.

"Carry that end," she ordered, all but shoving the litter's handles into Hatate's hands. The tengu protested, but one growl from Momiji silenced her.

"Ready!" the sergeant called out. Six pairs of hands grasped stretcher poles, while the medics crouched next to their charges' heads, alert to any changes in their conditions. "Lift! And fly!"

With those commands, the survivors in Momiji's squad began the journey to Eternity Manor.

A Race

"Where did she go?" Sakuya shouted, running through the thin woods at the edge of the day's battlefield.

"I swear that I just saw her," Youmu shouted. She flew above the maid and the trees. Indistinct ghostly images swirled around the swordswoman in wide sweeping circles.

"Which one of you saw her?" Sakuya said, sidestepping around a thicket of heavy brush. It had taken some time to adjust to the fact that Youmu's ghostly twins were as much her as her physical body.

Youmu closed her eyes, soaring away from a particularly large tree in her path. "Over there," she pointed to the south with an open hand. Her ghost selves formed a line in the direction she pointed. "There's a shadow darker than all the others."

"And those campers?" Sakuya asked. With the barrier down, several of the outdoorsmen that passed through the country around Gensokyo had accidentally crossed over. The unsuspecting strangers had attracted attention.

"Also over there," Youmu said, opening her eyes.

"Come down here," Sakuya said, pulling the Lunar Dial stopwatch from a pocket hidden in her skirt.

The ghost girl fell through a clearing, floating to a stop at the very last moment. Youmu saw the pocket watch and shivered, Her afterimages floated into her body, giving the pale swordswoman a luminous aura.

Sakuya grabbed Youmu's hand and fed her power through the stopwatch. Colors drained from the forest until only monochromatic blue remain. Trees shifted out of the girls' way as space ordered itself according to the elegant maid's will, leaving a direct path to a large black sphere.

The maid pulled on her friend's hand, and both sprinted down the makeshift path. As powerful as Sakuya's dominion over time and space could be, she could only bind the world to her will for a short time.

"Seeing that always creeps me out," Youmu said, shivering. Though a brave warrior, the swordswoman took fright easily at anything that remotely touched on the supernatural.

"I just saw my best friend possess herself, so we're even," Sakuya replied as she stopped in front of the black globe. She reached inside and fished around in the darkness before pulling a small girl out. Youmu froze, colors fading away as Sakuya released the embodied ghost. A knife flashed as it pressed against the new girl's throat.

The Lunar Dial ran down. Colors burst into being as Sakuya's hold on time and space fell away. The maid hissed as she pressed the knife harder against the youkai. "Rumia."

"Leave me alone," the youkai of darkness said, shrinking away from the blade. "They aren't natives; they're fair game."

"Not any longer," Youmu said, her ethereal selves spiraling free of her body.

"But they look so tasty," Rumia whined. An avowed carnivore, somehow she had once had a taste of the monster crack that was human flesh. Now the young girl chased and schemed like a junkie for the next bite from an unsuspecting human. Sakuya pitied the youkai; Rumia was quite pleasant when not in the throes of her addiction. Still, a certain shrine maiden had to beat the first rule of survival into the youkai girl. Don't hunt Gensokyo's humans. Humans from outside, however, seemed to be fair game, as long as they vanished before Reimu set eyes on them.

"The barrier's down now," Youmu said, resting a hand on the hilt of her sword. Sakuya recognized a classic iaido stance as the swordswoman waited for the right moment to draw free her sword.

"The rules have changed. No hunting any humans. Ever," Sakuya said. She froze time again, making her point with several more knives aimed at each of the youkai's major organs. Time sped back up, but Sakuya's control of space kept the knives floating in the air. "Break that one, and we'll hunt you down."

"Is that so? How unlucky," Rumia said. Darkness covered the three girls. Sakuya stabbed with all the knives she controlled, and a gust of wind announced the all-too-close passing of Youmu's blade. Rumia giggled as the darkness passed. The blonde girl stood next to a thick tree out of Sakuya and Youmu's reach. "I guess you win today."

A card glowed in Youmu's hand. The ghost girl practically teleported behind Rumia, her blade shining in the fading sun.

Rumia leapt away, blowing her attacker a raspberry. " But let's see what changes first, your good luck against my bad." A shadow fell over her, and she vanished. "Maybe I'll even be lucky enough to catch you." Rumia's voice echoed hauntingly through the trees.

Youmu sheathed her blade. "She only has to be lucky once. We'll have to stay lucky."

Sakuya held up the Lunar Dial as her eyes searched the trees. "We'll make our own luck."

A Report

Three hours.

Three arm-aching-leg-numbing-locked-at-parade-rest-unable-to-move-never-to-be-sufficienty-damned hours listening to the false sympathies and muttered accusations towards what few of her fellow soldiers were left.

Ordered to remain outside her commander's office, Sergeant Momiji Inubashiri silently and slowly depleted the vast store of profanity she had built up over her long career as a soldier.

She knew this drill, and had even used it herself when privates under her care invariably made mistakes. The delay was nothing more than a power game designed to combine the agony of waiting with the agony of a stiffening body to illustrate one single point:

You done fucked up, soldier.

Typically, Momiji would let the condemned stew in their own juices while she worked herself into a good fury. After all, a good ass chewing, like any piece of art, needed time to properly develop. However, it was doubtful that her commanding officer, no gentleman he, was working himself into a fury inside his office. Instead, he was probably chasing crow tengu fledglings who thought themselves to be more sophisticated than the silly little girls they actually were. She had caught the cur panting after Hatate numerous times. Fortunately for the crow reporter, she was too caught up in her work to notice most of the time. Unfortunately, the unintended hard-to-get act only stoked the lecher's fire.

Her commander, a graying wolf, waddled past her hunching over. Out of the corner of her eye, Momiji could see the reddish outline of a handprint on the beast's cheek.

"Stuck up Himekaidou tart," he hissed, slamming the door shut behind him.

Momiji vowed to buy Hatate a double round of her favorite drink. Repeatedly imagining Hatate's foot turning her commander into a gelding took Momiji's mind off of the pain growing in her arms. Yet it was another half hour before the platoon sergeant greeted her.

"Get your ass inside that office," he snarled.

Momiji snapped to attention and walked to the commander's door. Knocking three times, she waited for the mumbled response before entering.

The office was small, dominated by a wooden desk that sat next to a tall bookshelf. She ignored the inevitable "I Love Me" wall filled with the commander's personal mementos, including pictures of his avian conquests. Momiji marched with parade ground precision to the proscribed three paces in front of the desk.

"Sergeant Inubashiri reporting as ordered, sir," she said, bringing her right hand to the tip of her eyebrow in a perfect salute.

The commander glared at her, waiting three long breaths before returning the salute. Momiji suppressed a growl at how sloppy it was. Officers…

He looked down, shuffling folders before opening one. "Tell me, Inubashiri, what am I supposed to do with you? No matter what, Lord Tenma won't let me make you dance the hemp fandango. What should I do with an idiot sergeant who lost half of her squad?"

"Sir," Momiji said. Long years of experience had taught her that "sir" could be a versatile response meaning many things to the speaker without tipping her hand to the listener. In this instance, Momiji meant, "a promotion, if your record is anything to go by."

"But no, you didn't just lose half of your squad. You compounded your blunder by razing the shrine, smashing the barrier, and losing the shrine maiden. Not to mention losing the witch and the boundary witch as well. We should give you a medal for that last one, but we'd look silly rewarding someone so far in the doghouse that even fleas won't touch her.

"Congrats on leading the worst military debacle in Gensokyo's history. You've embarrassed the tengu, and like any embarrassment, we're going to speed you out of sight. You've lost half your squad and now you'll lose the rest. How is up to you."

The commander slid a sheet of paper towards Momiji. "This is your notice of court martial, Inubashiri, and we've taken the time the put together as good of a kangaroo court as we could marshal. As I said, I can't kill you, but I do wonder how long you'll last in the darkness with nothing but bread and water. Your girls will be gone as well, just another failed experiment that never should have happened."

The words struck Momiji like a thunderbolt, but she would be damned before she let this slime have his satisfaction. She stood ramrod straight, her face expressionless.

"However, Lord Tenma has decided to take your years of service into account. You may sign this resignation and walk out of here. No court martial, no civil trial. With any luck, shame will take you from us. I recommend twenty-six Reds and a bottle of wine. It gets the job done without the mess of falling on your sword. Here are your choices, private-convict or citizen. Either way, I'm out an embarrassing pain in the ass who doesn't know her place. It's your choice which way this plays out, but you are not walking out of this office a sergeant."

Momiji stared at the desk and grabbed a paper. With a quick splash of ink against the page, she stormed out of the room.

A Reunion

"I'm sorry, Alice," Komachi said, sipping from one of Alice's teacups. "The boss hasn't seen Marisa, Reimu, or Yukari."

In the aftermath of the battle, Alice had asked Komachi, Youmu, and many other servants of the various chthonic rulers of underworlds and paradises to keep an eye out for the missing. To her surprise, Komachi had readily become her agent to the underworlds. Alice suspected this was an excuse to shirk work, but she was glad for the help.

"'Sorry?' That could be good news," Alice said, reclining in her chair across from Komachi. A pristine Shanghai doll poured honey into her teacup.

"Only if they aren't already in an afterlife."

"Well, we know from Tenshi that none of them are in heaven," Alice began, leaning forward.

Komachi interrupted, beaming between bites of a thin white cake. "I beat that out of her myself. Too bad the boss didn't let me drag her out of heaven, but I socked her hard enough that she'll remember me every time it rains."

"Delightful," Alice grimaced. She sipped at the tea and grimaced again as she set the cup down. The Shanghai doll added more honey and stirred.

"You have no idea. She's plagued us ever since she cast off the name of Chiko," Komachi said. Tenshi's immortality had been beaten out of the reapers who attempted to send her to be judged. None were strong enough to carry her to her appointed judgment.

Alice rolled her eyes. "Can we focus on the task at hand? Did Eiki say if any of the other judges saw her?"

Eiki Shiki, Judge of Xanadu, presided over the souls of the recently departed, sending them to their final reward, celestial or, too often, infernal. A statue given life, the Judge had kept her statuesque appearance, although it was readily apparent that her sculptor had favored shapely legs.

Komachi shrugged, tapping the side of her cup. "The boss has sole jurisdiction over the residents of Gensokyo. Even if they expire in Argentina, she will judge them."

Alice blinked as her hand hovered over her teacup. "Why Argentina?"

"I had to help another reaper track a Gensokyo soul there during Carnival. Now, that was one hell of a good party," Komachi said, a sly smile growing on her lips.

"Interesting as that may be, that doesn't help me find them." At least the tea now met Alice's approval, if little more of the last week had.

Komachi shook her head. "No one has found them yet. Not Yuyuko, not Satori, not even Byakuren nor the goddesses."

"No one's asked her yet?" Alice said, raising an eyebrow. Her smile grew tense.

"That's something only you can do."

"Certainly Eiki talks to the Mistress of Hell-"

Komachi raised her hand. "The boss has and does, but Shinki is adamant that she'll only talk to you in the matter."

Alice sighed, slumping against the back of her chair. "Joy. Thank you, Komachi."

"It's alright. I owe you for helping even the score with Tenshi," Komachi said. The reaper winced as though deafened by a mighty shout. "Look, I hate to eat and run, but the boss is screaming for me," she said before fading away.

Alice sighed, and stared at her locked grimoire for a long time. Without warning, she opened the grimoire to a page marked with a red ribbon. Unwrapping the ribbon, she traced a short verse with her index finger. Clearing her throat, Alice muttered the spell in a language that never originated on Earth. A purple window appeared in the air before Alice, coalescing into a kindly portrait of a pale-haired woman.

"Lady Shinki, Mistress of Hell, I stand before your portrait in my home and call to you," Alice said, invoking the ancient forms of the Endless.

The image of the woman faded into flesh, and Shinki stepped out of the portrait. "Greetings, daughter. Given that you never call, to what may I owe the pleasure of your company?"

A Revelation

"Thank you," Nitori said, steadying herself on Shou's shoulder. Her knee buckled again, and the tiger grabbed her before she could fall.

"We're almost there," Shou said, stepping through the barren field surrounding what was once the Hakurei shrine. She glanced at the cluster of tents next to the polished foundation and growled at the white chalk markings beneath her feet.

"Why did Patchouli insist on this?" Nitori said, wincing as bubbling pain rippled through her leg. Shou had helped Nitori follow the etched chalk road at the elemental magician's request.

"She said it was called a labyrinth. It's some sort of Western concentration magic to focus your mind. I think," the tiger avatara said, glowering at the thought of foreign magic.

"I'm focused clearly on my leg," Nitori said, stumbling. She sighed, clutching at Shou. A week had passed since exposure to the ember at the shrine had given the kappa symptoms similar to nerve damage. "Eirin said this should pass soon."

"You could have waited until you recovered," Shou said, following the last legs of the chalk lines as they looped ever closer to Patchouli's purple tent on the Hakurei shrine's foundations. Youkai resilience was legendary. Any creature that could shrug off death tended to shrug off permanent injury as well.

Nitori shook her head. "I need to know what happened to me and to Marisa and also why what happened to her didn't happen to me."

"Byakuren thinks that they've found some answers," Shou said, brushing the tent's flap open.

"Couldn't we have flown?" Nitori said, gritting her teeth as she knelt to walk inside.

"Patchouli was insistent," Shou growled as she entered the tent. She cut a glare at the magician's back.

Patchouli Knowledge stood in front of the ember, fiddling with a rainbow ring of crystals. Various flashes illuminated facets from inside the stones according to some unspoken whim of Nature. She muttered under her breath as she thumbed through a thick leather tome at her side. "To think we never knew this was here. Koa!"

The demonic assistant floated over, her arms filled with stacked books. "I finally translated Watkins's The Old Straight Track like Byakuren asked."

"Did you get Atkinson's Telephone Leys?"

Koakuma rolled her eyes. "We're standing next to a ley focus. It doesn't make sense to read someone who claims they don't exist."

Byakuren drew next to the devil's side, taking the stacked books from her hands and setting them down next to a green crystal. "Sometime critics have breakthroughs that advocates miss."

Nitori sat down, wincing as her leg spasmed. "What are they talking about?"

Shou shrugged as she knelt next to the kappa. "Ley travel. Although they're discussing it on a level far beyond what I understand or care to."

"Have we mapped the telluric currents yet?" Koakuma asked, stretching. Ley lines connected sites along straight lines that also followed energy flows inside the earth.

"Can we tell where Marisa or the Djinn went?" Nitori called out. The saint, the witch, and the devil spun around at the sound.

"Not that type of mapping. Think of all magic as a form of three-dimensional geometry showing relationships of Power-" Patchouli began, a pedantic moue of disdain on her lips.

"Don't tell me you're a proponent of the Sullivan-Browning theory," Nitori snapped. Next to her, Shou rolled her eyes and sighed.

"It sometimes helps for visualization," Patchouli said, primly.

"How does that relate to ley travel?" Nitori asked. "I've never heard of it before today."

"Most of the leading work is English in origin," Byakuren said, frowning as Shou rubbed her temples.

"I'm going to go clear my head," the avatara said as she leapt out of the tent.

"Aren't you from there?" Koakuma asked as she thumbed through an ancient codex.

"Ley magic is ancient Briton in origin, which I am assuredly not," Patchouli said, glowering at her assistant.

"British, Briton, it's all Dutch learning to me," Nitori said, shaking her head. She used the old Japanese phrase for foreign learning.

"Provincial," Patchouli muttered as she turned back to the crystals. Byakuren and Koakuma joined her, adjusting the sequence of flashes as they pulsed through the crystals in the ring.

Nitori drummed her fingers against her leg as she watched. Her mind drifted, thinking back to the design Marisa had stolen. A phrase she had come across in Patchouli's library inspired her Endless Knot; now another dancing through her recollections.

"Is Briton kinda like Celtic?" Nitori asked.

"Yes. The Britons were Romanized Celts," the magician said in a huff.

"Does the phrase 'the time between times' mean anything?" the kappa asked.

Patchouli turned around, her face blanching. "Where did you hear that?"

A Restoration

"Compared to the other shrines, this one seems different," Keine said as Kanako led her about the mountain shrine. With the barrier's fall and Reimu's disappearance, citizens mobbed the remaining shrines and temples in Gensokyo seeking solace.

"It is," Kanako said. "Tell me, Keine, have you been outside?"

The teacher shook her head. "There's always been too much to do for my classes."

"Outside, there's a natural tendency for people to pick and choice from Shinto, the teachings of Lao Tzu, the Enlightened One's path, and the society of Confucius. Since none of these faiths are exclusionist like those of the sons of Abraham, we Japanese are natural syncretists. This fractures the faith available to any one god or goddess, a faith already diluted by peace and prosperity."

"That's why you came here," Keine said, nodding. Lady Akyu would love to have heard this, but Keine's fellow historian spent most of her time writing these days.

Kanako shrugged. "The number of cults is skyrocketing. But none of this explain the peculiar rituals of our faith. I find that I must make a confession."

Keine laughed. "Shouldn't I be the one confessing?"

The goddess grew grave, "At the height of their persecution, Suwako and I sheltered whole villages of the Hidden."

"Christians?" Keine said, blinking. After a failed bid at political power, Japanese Christians were violently persecuted, and, for the most part, wiped out. Small enclaves survived by hiding. The stigma and the enclaves lasted for centuries.

"We were curious and what do goddesses care about the pride of feudal lords? The poor Hidden just wanted to live in peace, unmolested by the powers that be, just like anyone else. Their faith was so strong, like a work of art. Who could fault us for preserving such beauty?

"They pretended to outsiders to follow our way, so we shielded them from the lords' purges. In turn, of their own free will, they turned us into saints, or maybe angels. In doing so, the Hidden changed us, for the price of receiving faith is to become worthy of faith."

"No more 'Goddesses Gone Wild?'" Keine said slyly

Kanako laughed. "You're going to go there? I've heard stories about you and Mokou during Spring Break…"

"Rumors," Keine said, squirming. "So, what exactly changed?"

"We picked up two things from the Hidden; an increased desire for personal relationships with our followers and the idea of a contract between us and our followers. Well, and some of the liturgy, suitably changed, but that's more a matter of fashion than content. But the covenant is what important. People believe in and obey us, and we do our best to improve the quality of their lives. Why else do you think we've worked with the kappa so much?

"Lady Kanako!" Sanae shouted from the doorway of the shrine.

"If you would excuse me," Kanako said as she slipped away.

"Another Moreya shrine conspiracy?" Keine said, laughing.

Kanako rolled her eyes. "More like a private religious ceremony."

The goddess glided into the shrine. Glancing at her priestess, she sighed. "What's wrong?"

"I'm worried. I competed enough with her that people will talk," Sanae whispered, wringing the hem of her dress. "I'm not trying to replace her."

"You think I want to be compared to Yukari?" Kanako said. "If Ran herself hadn't suggested this after that spider youkai almost ate those boy scouts who wandered in here-"

Sanae shuddered. "If Youmu and Sakuya hadn't been nearby-"

"JSDF would be flooding Gensokyo as we speak." And if the Special Defense Forces did not descend on Gensokyo, teams from the private monster hunting companies would. JSDF would have more mercy…

The green-haired wind priestess shook her head. "With Youmu and Sakuya out hunting youkai like Marisa and Reimu did and you and me doing this… Nothing feels right anymore."

"It's what Gensokyo needs."

"And Suwako-"

"Makes a better war goddess than I do," Kanako said, shaking her head. That admission was never easy.

"Any idea what she meant by her special plan to gather faith?"

"You should know Suwako by now. She doesn't always share her schemes."

Sanae sighed, pursing her lips. "There's a limit to the amount of change a girl can handle. And my life's been nothing but change lately."

Kanako sighed. "If I could hit 'Pause,' I would, but the world won't let me. If you're too nervous to help, you don't need to. I can do this myself."

"I'm your priestess. You asked me to be part of your work. Did you think I would say no?" Sanae said. Upon seeing her goddess's smile, she continued. "Shall we begin?"

Sanae stepped out into the courtyard and called upon the wind. As leaves circled around her feet, she spun in place, her skirts billowing as the growing winds caught them. The wind priestess cried aloud, a triumphant shout echoed by her goddess as she too glided across the courtyard.

Shout and spin turned into song and dance. Sanae opened herself to the wind and to the rhythm of human life, channeling the human magics through herself. With each step and note, she wove the weft of life and hope against the warp of Kanako's newly spun sky.

Closing her eyes, Sanae gave voice to the chorus welling up from within. "Wash over me, wash over me 'til I can't take any more." She repeated it again and again, stepping through the dance of time. Kanako smiled, echoing the simple heartfelt chorus.

A choir joined Sanae and Kanako's duet. Sanae opened her eyes, to see the greater fairies dancing in circles around herself and Kanako. The fairies of light sung the light of sun, moon, and stars into Kanako's sky, while Cirno, Daiyousei, and Lily sung winter, summer, and spring into Sanae's winds. The song grew with the voices.

"I dream that my voice is heard

in the secret place where I bear my face.

Come wash over me, wash over me,

'til I can't take any more."

Eight voices sang to the heavens, their dance knitting a circle around the borders of Gensokyo. From the ground up, sky, wind, and light coalesced, trapping the residual energies of the destroyed barrier like fish in a net. With each turn of priestess and goddess, the 'net' tightened as though hoisted into place by twin capstans until the energies cemented together into a shimmering mesh of aqua light.

Gensokyo had a barrier once more.

In the future, humans, youkai, and goddesses would build upon the foundations, but for the moment, the symbol of the land's protection was renewed. The dance stopped; the dancers panting but otherwise unwilling to break the silence.

Kanako Yasaka looked upon her handiwork.

And she saw it was good.

A Recessional

Eternal light shine

And still lead me home.

Grant me sight until I'm

where I belong.

- "My Unspoken Words," Phil Keaggy

Author's notes

Touhou Project belongs to ZUN and Team Shanghai Alice. The Ifrit, Dream of the Endless, the Kildar, the happy horned smiley face, and all other references and cameos belong to their respective authors and creators. I own nothing, and I will remove this work of fiction from any site I can upon request from any of these parties or their legal representatives. I also request that any site that publishes this work agree to do the same.

To all who have read Look to the Eastern Sky, I extend my most sincere appreciation. For those who have reviewed, thank you for helping me improve my writing. Thanks go to Kerreb17 for proofreading. As always, all mistakes are mine alone. Thanks also go out to the Let's Danmaku forum crew for putting up with and commenting on snippets of this for the past six months. If you want to see what many of the Touhou writers on this site are up to, it's a good place to check out.

Look to the Eastern Sky got its start as an experiment. I have written fan fiction on and off for the past fifteen years, but I had worked mostly in one-shots or grand co-writing experiments where putting up a good chapter in a short time was more the name of the game than nursing a story from start to finish. So these six chapters represent the longest form of fiction I have written, as well as multiple gambles and experiments in the continuing quest to write well.

I am compelled to point out the strong influences of the works of Stephen Lawhead, Terry Pratchett, Fred Saberhagen, Neil Gaiman, Tom Kratman, Howard Taylor, and Eric Flint upon the structure and themes of this work. Without these writers, the world of science fiction and fantasy would be a much drearier place.

This is the first complete story in the ongoing tale of the Clockwork Devils. I've started the next two stories. "In Visible Light" follows Youmu and Sakuya as they deal with what seems like a normal incident. "Nightfall" follows Nitori and Momiji as they travel through the ley portal. A third should start soon, and it'll be a collection of various subplots. Expect to see more of Alice in that set of stories. I hope you'll join me for those stories as well.

Sincerely,

Achariyth

Omake: Homecoming

Gruagach. Tomte. Kobold.

Cultures throughout the world have names for any of a host of parasitic beings that use curses and terror to extort a living from humanity. In the Province of Suwa, the locales call these beings "Mishaguji," and unlike most of their brethren, they had once amassed great power.

That a dozen mishaguji now huddled in a dimly lit smoke-filled room showed how far the race had fallen from their peak. Long before magi saw a star in the west and pondered its meaning, the goddess Moreya had shattered their reign. However, the goddess had vanished without a trace months ago, allowing the mishaguji to play their tricks once more, if their newfound courage did not fail them.

Bottles of liquid courage, imported from Kentucky and extorted from a local bartender, littered the bare rock floor. With a final shouted toast, the decision was made. Suwa would belong to the mishaguji once more.

The door flew open, slamming a mishaguji into the wall. Danmaku shotgunned through the room, spreading and shredding in its path. Two iron rings ricocheted off walls and skulls. Whenever iron or danmaku touched serpentine flesh, skin burned. Two great earthen hands sprang from the earth, clapping together to crush the most unfortunate.

In the chaos of fire, earth, and iron, not a single soul noticed a straw hat glide across the floor and into the center of the room. The hat shot up as an child-like figure in a purple dress sprouted from the earth. She held out her hands, catching the rings as they flew by. She twirled each ring once, before looping rings around the necks of the last two mishaguji standing. As the mishaguji squirmed against the scalding cold metal, she drew the rings together.

The mishaguji made a delightful thump as their skulls crashed together.

Suwako Moriya towered over a dozen groaning mishaguji on the floor, every inch the dread goddess of nightmare and memory. A feral grin lit up her face.

"Hello, boys. Miss me?"

Omake: Wanderlust

In a flash of light, Marisa Kirisame appeared on the summit of a barren sandy peach mountain. A chill wind bit through the fabric of her dress. She shivered, panting in the too thin air. Stumbling around for shelter, the witch opened her mind's eye, searching for the now familiar edge between what she called "here" and "not here."

As a witch, the denizens of Gensokyo often called on Marisa to make the hard decisions. Reimu, Sanae, and all the other priestesses, hermits, and anchoresses in Gensokyo might teach people how to live; a witch stood there at the transitions of life. As midwife, healer, the last giver of mercy for those whose pain was too much, even as judge, Marisa helped those trapped at the edges between life and death, right and wrong, single and married, and today and tomorrow. Edge magic, her mentor called it, and ever since that fight with the Djinn, she had drawn on it more and more.

Holding her head and wincing, she saw a shop next to train tracks, an odd sight at the summit. Crunching her way across the sand and gravel, Marisa stepped towards the shop. In her mind's eye, she could feel the eternal presence of her ancestors, although the vast plains to the east proved she was not on the Isle of the Mighty. The script in the shop's glass doors seemed familiar, though.

Needles ran across Marisa's skin as she sensed the peculiar feeling of "not here." Unlike previous times, at least this one was easy to find; it was warm. Hot even, although any heat was welcome as her chill grew worse.

Marisa rolled her eyes. Of course it would be on the other side of the summit from the shop. With one last look at the warm inviting shelter, she shivered her way towards the fence and that sensation of "not-here." With a flare like a candle being blown out, the witch vanished in front of a sign that read "Summit: Pikes Peak. 14,110 feet."