Past Sins and Future Possibilities

"How did this happen?" the princess demanded as she bustled through the streets, ignoring the admiring looks of the people she passed. Behind her, her mentor struggled to keep pace.

"We don't know," came the weary response. Her mentor looked completely haggard, an unusual look for her, but the current situation would justify the slip in her normally regal bearing. "Something happened when the caravan reached the top of the mountain."

Growling, the princess stopped to spin around and glare her mentor down. "What kind of something?" she demanded.

"I just said we don't know," her mentor replied, not at all intimidated by the princess's ire. "It was some kind of attack. They reached the mountain, that much is clear, but something killed the emperor's men, and the Elixir was not among their bodies."

"Sun, moon, and stars," the princess muttered. "And you are certain it was not destroyed?"

"If it had been, we would know it," her mentor responded, a touch of irritation in her voice. "Volcanic eruptions tend to be rather noticeable."

A blushing young man approached the princess, a yellow flower clutched tightly in his hand. "Ex-excuse me princess," he said, nervously holding the flower toward her. "But I, ah, I wanted you to have, ah, I mean I saw this flower, and thought you'd want-"

Giving him only the briefest of contemptuous glances, the princess reached over to grab the young man's face with her hand. A shove, and he went flying all the way across the street and into the open doorway of a incense merchant. "So, not only did that bastard reject our incredibly generous gift, not only did the idiot try to destroy it, he couldn't even finish the job and let it get stolen!"

"So it seems," her mentor confirmed. Across the street, the young man stumbled out of the door in a daze. "She…she touched me," he said, awe in his voice. He grabbed a passerby and shouted into his face, "The princess actually touched me!"

"Well, great!" said the princess, throwing her arms into the air. "That's what we get for trying to butter up the local chief monkey! Now, some schmuck of a bandit gets to live forever! It's bad enough we have to live among these savages, but now one of their lowest of the low gets the single greatest accomplishment of the Lunarian people. I almost feel defiled, knowing that I'm going to be sharing this rock with that imbecile for the rest of eternity." Shaking her head, she turned around and resumed her angry pace through the town. "What was the emperor thinking, anyway? What kind of utter fool would throw away something like that?"

"Perhaps he disbelieved our claims of the Elixir's power?" her mentor suggested. "Maybe he thought we were trying to poison him. As I understand it, he is already quite upset with you for rejecting his offer of marriage."

Gritting her teeth, the princess snarled, "Don't start with me, I am not in the mood."

"As you wish, my lady," her mentor replied.

Folding her arms, the princess stormed through the streets, heading toward the carriage that would take them out of this monkey nest and back to their home. "How did this happen?" she muttered to herself. "How-"

"-did this happen?"

Body eyed her twin. "Well, it's quite simple," she said, speaking slowly as if to an idiot. "First we opened what looked like the door to our room. Then it started producing some kind of powerful suction that pulled us right through and crash-landed us in that park over there. Then we woke up to find-"

Head dug her thumbnail into the back of Body's hand. "Twit, I know! I meant, how did all this happen?" She waved a hand at the admittedly very lovely city that now stood where the Bamboo Forest of the Lost should have been. "So far, all the really detailed places all came from our memories, while all the weird, new places were all messed up. But we sure as hell never been here, and yet it's even more detailed than that crappy town that started worshipping us for one whole minute."

"Good point," Body admitted. "Maybe deep down, we've always wanted to tear down the forest and build a city?"

Head felt stricken. "But…but I like the forest?"

"I know, I'm just brainstorming." Body shrugged. "Well, when we find someone to interrogate, let's make a point of asking them."

Agreeing, Head quickened her pace, pulling Body along with her. The sooner they were off the streets, the better.

The toughest part was dealing with all the people. Kaguya wasn't exactly accustomed to crowds. Oh sure, Eientei would fill to capacity every time she hosted a party, and she had moved through large groups of people during her rare visits to the neighboring communities, but by-and-large, those had all been people she knew or were at least familiar with.

This throng was something else entirely. As Head and Body moved their way down the street, there was not a familiar face among them. That was discouraging, as they had been hoping that this confounded dream would dig into Kaguya's memories to find its cast of extras, but instead it had dropped them into a city of strangers.

Worsening the situation was the realization that the lack of recognition was very much mutual. No one seemed to know who they were. There was no flash of recognition in any of the faces that passed them, which couldn't bode well. Head had been nursing some hope that Kaguya Houraisan would still be the acknowledged head of state of this fictional city, but unless the populace was wholly ignorant of what their leader looked like, it seemed that she and Body were just a couple of pretty twins to these people.

Fortunately, their Hogwarts uniforms were contemporary enough to keep them from standing out. And while the city's residents weren't giving them the reverence that their status as former Lunarian royalty and current local Ringerleaders deserved, at least people around here seemed nice enough. The Kaguya twins got many friendly nods and smiles from those who made eye contact, though there were a few that looked annoyed when Head and Body accidentally brushed against them, along with a couple whose eyes lingered just a little too long on the girls as they walked by. That was actually comforting in a way. Having a city full of happy and nice people was all well and good, but you still needed a handful of jerks and letches to provide balance, because otherwise things just became creepy.

Head just wished that they could save time by flying all the way to Eientei, but judging how no one else was flying, it was presumed that doing so was discouraged, if not outright illegal, which was common enough in many communities. Until they had a better handle on the situation, blending in was all important.

"You know what this reminds me of?" Body said suddenly, startling Head out of her musings.

"Huh?"

Body waved a hand at the city all around them. "You know that one new goddess, Kanako Yasaka?"

Head gave her twin a withering look.

"Right, sorry, dumb question," Body quickly said. "But you know how she's always going on about how Gensokyo needs to stop living in the past, that progress is something that needs to be embraced, that science and magic can coexist just fine, yadda yadda yadda?"

"Sure," Head said, shrugging. "What about it?"

They stopped at an intersection and stood with a group of people waiting for the signal to cross. "Well, I was just thinking that if she ever saw this, she's probably cream her panties," Body said, rising up and down on her toes.

Head found herself agreeing. "No kidding. Hey, maybe that's what this means? That deep down inside, Kaguya agrees with her?"

The possibly made Body frown. "I…don't know. I've never really given it much thought, you know?"

"Obviously," Head drawled in her driest possible voice.

"Well, yeah. But maybe…" Body shook her head. "You know, I don't know about you, but this whole thing about us being the same person is starting to weird me out."

Head smirked. "Try not to think too much about it. We'll need all the sanity we can get, and Mokou is of absolutely no use in that department."

The signal changed, and everyone started to cross. As they fell in step with the movement of the crowd, Body said, "Oh, and speaking of which, how exactly is this going to work when we get free of Rin Satsuki? Will we just get absorbed back into a single person again, or will Kaguya have a split personality or something?"

Letting out a groan, Head said, "Body. Seriously. Shut up."

"Well, I'm just saying, it's something we need to think about."

Head shivered. While Body certainly had a point, the long-term implications of their current condition were too disturbing to think about right now. "Yeah, but later. One mental crisis at a time."

Pursing her lips, Body nodded. "Okay, fine. But seriously, there'd better be a later."

"Yeah, fine. Fair enough. We'll…we'll…" Head sighed. "Okay, maybe you got a point, and maybe Mokou did too. This whole thing with us arguing is just too freaking strange."

"Put Mokou and me on the same side again and I swear we're solving this existential crisis right here and now," Body said, her brow knitting into furious scowl. "Violently." This just made Head roll her eyes. This was starting to take self-loathing to its most literal extent. Maybe it was Mokou's absence that was making them snap at each other. They just needed someone to argue with.

The Kaguya twins reached the other side of the street and stood before Eientei v2. While the building materials and general aesthetic theme was the same as the original, this was no simple mansion. It was a huge, H-shaped building with five stories. Nestled between the two lower arms was a wide, white courtyard bordered by stone benches and rows of hedges bearing tiny violet flowers. In the courtyard's center, a raised, circular platform sat in the middle of a four-sided pool of water, with a statue of a rabbit soldier standing at attention at each of the pool's corners. As the twins came in closer, they noticed that a pattern had been etched into the platform's surface in gold, that of an ornate spoked wheel inside of as equally ornate ring.

Body frowned. "Hey, wait a minute. Isn't that our royal sigil?"

"Sure is," Head confirmed as she stretched onto her toe tips to get a better look. "Huh, I guess we are in charge around here."

"Then why in the hell doesn't anyone recognize us?"

"I don't know, could be anything. Maybe it's the outfits, maybe it's because there's two of us, maybe this version of Kaguya has a different haircut. Hell, maybe Kaguya Houraisan impersonators are a common sight these days."

"Dream on," Body said, rolling her eyes. "Which, I should point out, is exactly what we're doing."

Head raised an eyebrow. "So, forget the rational explanations and just chalk it up to the dream being a dick?"

"I think that's the safest thing to do. Unless we've got some deep-seated self-esteem issues we need to address."

"Yeah, no," Head said with a dismissive snort. She tugged on Body's hand. "Come on, let's go see if there's a third one of us running around."

She started toward the sliding glass doors, but was brought short when Body, still holding onto her hand, didn't follow.

"Problem?" Head asked.

After a moment of hesitation, Body said, "Well, I was thinking, maybe we should try the hospital first."

"The hospital…Wait, you mean try to find Eirin?"

"Why not?"

Head considered this. Actually, it was quite a good idea. Mokou had already run into a dream mentor taking the shape of someone she cared for and trusted, and had gained valuable information as a result. If they managed to locate some sort of manifestation of Eirin here, there was no reason why she couldn't do the same for them.

Besides, now that she thought about it, she really didn't have much of a desire to try to locate another duplicate of Kaguya Houraisan. Being split into two was interesting at first, but given the potential long-term problems, she wasn't eager to add a third to the mix, especially one that had been manufactured by the dream instead of being spun off from the original.

"All right," she said, turning away from the door. "Let's go find Eirin."

To Mokou's astonishment, the door to Keine's school actually led to Keine's school (and wasn't it just a perfect representation of how unbelievably fucked up things were when doors actually opening to the places they were supposed to was considered an anomaly?), or part of it anyway. Mokou found herself in the hallway that ran across the front of the building, with the children's cubby holes arranged in neat rows to her left and several photographs of varying sizes hanging on the wall to her right, all of them of Keine standing with the various classes she had taught over the years.

There were a few noticeable differences though. The left-hand wall was missing its windows, and the right-hand wall no longer had the two doorways, one at each end, to the classroom itself. Furthermore, Mokou could not see an end to the hall. It stretched on seemingly into infinity.

That was just fine with her. She wanted to put as much distance between her and the burnt door as possible.

Mokou started to run, her long, powerful legs propelling her faster and faster. The hallway kept going and going, with no exit coming into view, and no windows or doors appearing. However, as she pressed on, she couldn't help but notice a certain change occurring.

It started with the framed pictures. As Mokou ran, they continued to fill the wall to her right, far exceeding the number of classes the real Keine had taught and eventually starting to display her standing with ones that had never existed. There were classes comprised of fairies, of wild youkai, of ghosts, of Kaguya's rabbits, of leering adult men, of desiccated corpses, of cackling witches, and so forth. There was one "class" made up entirely of bloody Mokou pieces, and another of more wild youkai, these ones of the unfriendly variety, looking like they were surrounding their next meal rather than standing with their teacher. And yet, in every single one, Keine looked exactly the same, standing with her hands folded over her lap and a motherly smile on her face.

The other wall wasn't much better. While the cubby holes didn't multiply themselves endlessly, the wall itself changed. The texture darkened, became rough. In fact, the whole hallway was. Mokou could feel the floor roughening beneath her bare feet, could see the ceiling warping as well. The further she got, the more the hallway looked less like Keine's school, and more like…

Oh no.

Mokou increased her speed, but that just made things worse. Now the pictures themselves were extending and moving about, their frames wrapping around each other like crisscrossing roads. The hallway itself seemed to be losing shape, twisting round and round so that the floor passed over where the ceiling used to be and back again, though there was no change in gravity.

She narrowed her eyes, focused on a point directly in front of her, and kept running. Sooner or later, she would come out of the freakiness or it would take the form of something within her power to deal with. Until then, she just had to keep moving, to get as far away from the burnt as she could. It terrified her for reasons she couldn't fully explain. Sure, the handle rattling and those whispers were certainly creepy, but creepy she could handle, no problem. It was the implications that scared her, that the door was connected to a memory she had no eagerness to revisit, even if she wasn't exactly sure what memory it was.

Or rather, she knew exactly which memory was clawing out of the recesses of her subconscious, but she didn't want to fully confront it, not on any level.

And then gravity looked her way, saw what she was doing, and decided that it didn't like it.

Mokou fell forward, the spiraling hallway becoming a pit. Rather than let herself tumble head-over-heels, she straightened herself out, pressed her arms to her sides, stuck her legs straight up, and plummeted headfirst like a comet. The walls flew past in a dizzying blur, the endless framed pictures bleeding into each other. She ignored them and kept her attention on what was directly in front of her. Sooner or later, she would reach the bottom. Then she could take stock of her new surroundings and figure out her next move, or die on impact, resurrect, take stock of her surroundings, and figure out her next move.

Then the tunnel twisted around, becoming horizontal again. Mokou plunged forward regardless, turning her fall into flight. The tunnel curved up and down once, twice, three times, humping like a bumpy road.

And then she was out. The tunnel opened up to a large room. Mokou, who had been engaging in deadly dogfights centuries before dogfights were even named, turned sharply upward, looped around, and dropped to the floor, landing in a crouch. She didn't even bother arresting her tremendous velocity, trusting in the weirdness of the dream to keep physics from shattering her legs.

It did, and Mokou stood up.

The room she was in was perfectly square, and made from wood so burnt that it was almost ash. The tunnel's exit was directly behind her. And what she saw before her sent her heart plummeting as fast as she had just a moment ago.

It was the burnt door, the same one she had been fleeing. The handle was still jiggling as something on the other side tried to get through. There were no whispers, but the improvement was marginal.

Hanging above the door was one final framed photograph. Like the others, it showed Keine Kamishirasawa among group of children. But while the others cast her as a teacher standing before her students, this one had her as one of the children. It showed Keine as she had been sixty years ago, a tiny, skinny shrimp of a girl in a grey uniform. She had always been small for her age, and looked several years younger than she really was. Everyone had assumed that she was simply a late bloomer, but unknown to everyone save for Keine, her closest circle of friends, and Mokou herself, the real explanation was her youkai blood, which had slowed her aging by half. Even now, though she was over seventy years old, she looked like a woman in her thirties.

Swallowing, Mokou stood transfixed by the picture. Standing to one side of the children was a tired, but kind looking woman, whose wrinkle-lined face and brown hair shot through with grey made her look much older than she had been. It had been years since Mokou had thought of Satoko Yume, the headmistress of the Aoki Yume Children's Home. Despite being the woman's elder by a considerable amount, Mokou had held a great amount of admiration for Satoko. Her selfless commitment to the children under her care had been both fascinating and refreshing to Mokou, whose incredibly long life had revolved around endless hate, pain, and death.

But more eerie than seeing Satoko's face again was seeing her own. Mokou herself was in the picture. She stood in the back, across from Satoko, wearing the baggy red pants held up by suspenders and white blouse that would in time become her trademark, though at that point in time it lacked the many fireproofing charms she had sewn into it and tied into her hair. Her hands were in her pockets, and she was looking at the camera with an expression that might, with some imagination, be taken for a small smile. Standing around her were four other adults, three women and one man, the other helpers at the children's home.

And then there were the children. All told, there were eighteen of them, ranging from being barely old enough to walk to their late teens, each of them wearing the same grey uniform as Keine. Mokou's hands had developed a slight tremble, but she continued to stare at their faces as the memories came roaring back. Standing next to Keine was the ever-cheerful, always in trouble Kohta Momoi, wearing his perpetual wide grin. Over there was bratty Haruko Kamijima, who, with the assistance of her cronies Eiko Goto and Hayate Maeda, always tried to bully the other children and was always frustrated about how Mokou never let them get away with it. Off to the side was loopy Kana Anaberal, who always had her head in the clouds and would often wander off to chase butterflies and fairies. Near the back was Melissa Garcia, the western girl who had entered Gensokyo and the orphanage fairly late in her childhood and had been entranced by everything. Over there was slow-witted but very kind Keiichi Matsuda, who could always be counted on think with his stomach first.

And there were others, whose names and faces Mokou had long forgotten but jumped out at her as soon as she saw them, dug up from whatever sealed-off part of her subconscious they had been tucked away in. Children whom she had helped take care of and protected for two years. Children whom Mokou, who was not known for easily opening up to people, had grown close to, become fond of. Children whom she had tried very hard to forget.

But there was one child in particular that seized her attention: the spunky blonde-haired, brown-eyed girl standing to the other side of Keine, whose nature was best defined by her mischievous smirk and the fact that her right hand was creeping up behind Keine's head in the form of bunny ears. Rumia Yagami herself. Rumia the troublemaker. Rumia the prankster. Rumia, Kohta's partner in crime and Keine's self-appointed protector. Always getting into fights, always seeking out new and creative ways to break the rules, constantly picking on the kids who she didn't like and sticking up for the ones she did. She had been a real handful, that was for certain, but while Keine had always been Mokou's favorite, she had harbored a special fondness for the rest of that terrible trio.

Which would explain why it had taken her so long to remember Rumia in the first place. Having a kid that you liked and looked after end up tortured and murdered in horrible fashion would definitely make for good motivation to block her from one's memory.

Except that had apparently not been the case. Rumia was alive. She had survived what those men had done to her, and in the process turned into…something else. A youkai at the very least, and her scary competence and how easily lying came to her meant that she wasn't one that should be taken likely.

Of course, it was still possible that this was simply a random youkai who shared her name, but all things considered she truly doubted it. Or maybe she was just another nightmare, albeit a highly advanced one, formed from memories long since buried. But that didn't really add up, seeing how Rumia didn't act anything like any of the other dream-people. Even Keine, the most "natural" acting one she had met thus far, hadn't displayed anywhere near the level of free-thinking that Rumia had.

And then, almost as if it felt the need to drive the point home, the picture started to burn. Tiny licks of flame appeared on its surface and spread outward in three places to eat it away. As Mokou stared, the group of children burned away, their faces crisping and turning to shreds of ash, until nothing was left, save for the tiny scrap in the corner that held Mokou's face and the part near the bottom that Rumia occupied, though the girl's eyes had been burned away, leaving two black holes.

Okay, that couldn't mean anything good.

Mokou's gaze dipped from the ruined picture to that literally damned door. The jiggling persisted still, as whatever was on the other side tried to come through. Mokou tensed her muscles.

Sure enough, the whispers begun again. "Miss Mokou, save us."

"Please let us out."

"It's too hot. Let us out."

Her hands squeezed into trembling fists, Mokou managed to control the panic she felt rising and ask, "Who are you?"

It was something of a redundant question, as her returning memories already gave her a very good idea of who was trapped beyond the door. But still, some line of communication had to be established, and it was as good as an opening line as any.

Unfortunately, it went unanswered. "Please. Please let us out."

"It's too hot."

"We're burning up."

That did it. Mokou gritted her teeth, forced her legs to carry her over to the door, and grabbed the partially melted handle. Despite the claims of intense heat, it was cold to the touch, perhaps too cold. Bracing herself, Mokou turned the handle and pulled the door open.

An angry wave of flame roared out of the doorway, bowling her over.

As soon as the Kaguya twins entered the hospital, they immediately noticed several differences between its waiting room and the one back in Hourai Clinic. For one, nothing was made from bamboo, though there were several living bamboo stalks growing out of planters that lined the walls. For another, instead of a small little rectangular receptionist desk off to one side, this one was donut shaped, round with a hollow center, sat in the center of the room, and had no fewer than six receptionists dressed in smart uniforms helping patients and visitors as they came in. Furthermore, while Eirin had managed to jury-rig a few overhead fans to keep the place cool, the hospital's climate was obviously controlled by a far more advanced system. Also, they looked absolutely nothing alike. Except for one minor detail.

Frowning, Head leaned over to examine one of the magazines that sat on a low table. "Uh, yeah, I think we've got this same one back at the clinic."

"We do," Body confirmed after flipping through its pages. "And it's still out of date. Some things just never change, I guess."

"Except we don't know if this is an alternate universe or possible future," Head pointed out.

Body let out a very unladylike snort and tossed the magazine back onto the table. "If it's the second, then it's really out of date. Like, it should be in a museum or something."

One of the receptionists was currently free, so the twins headed toward her. She was a youkai of some kind, presumably a moth, if her feathery antennae and powdery wings were any indication. Seeing the twins approach, she smiled warmly and said, "Hello, and welcome to Hourai Hospital! How can I help you?"

Hourai Hospital. So, like the clinic, it also bore Kaguya's name. Well, that at least was a promising sign. "Yes, you can," Head replied. Summoning up as much regal authority as she could, she said, "We are here to see Dr. Eirin Yagokoro. Contact her immediately."

The moth's smile wavered, but steadied. "Do you have an appointment?"

"Appointment? I hardly think one is required," Head said, sending off her best "I am better than you, so don't you dare annoy me, you worthless peon" glower. "After all, she will want to see us."

Now the receptionist's eyes were starting to narrow. "I'm sorry, but the doctor is very busy today. May I have your names, please?"

That told Head two things: firstly, that Eirin existed in this…whatever the hell it was, which was good. Unfortunately, it was increasingly possible that Kaguya Houraisan did not. Hoping that their alternate self was simply known for having a different sense of fashion, Head said, "Of course. Tell her that Princess Kaguya Houraisan is here to see her." Exchanging a glance with Body, she added, "In the plural."

All conversation around them ceased immediately, and everyone turned to stare at them. The receptionist's face froze, that smile dying on her lips. Head felt a small measure of satisfaction. So, her name was known after all. That was a step in the right direction.

"Princess…Kaguya?" the receptionist said at last. "You are claiming to be Princess Kaguya?"

Adding her glower to her twin's, Body said, "We claim nothing. Who we are is who we are, and requires no verification. And to be quite frank, we have better things to do with our time than waste it conversing with a witless-"

That was when a very large hand came down onto her shoulder. The hand was attached to a very large arm, which in turn was attached to a very large chest, which finally belonged to a very large rabbit youkai, who was dressed in a sleek, black security uniform. A very large sleek, black security uniform. Accompanying him was an equally large Human, dressed in the same uniform.

"That's enough, Miss," he said in a voice deep enough to plumb. "Come with us."

Head glanced at the security guards and sighed. "I guess we should have said 'Please,' huh?"

"It really wouldn't have made a difference," said the receptionist.

"Somehow I am completely unsurprised." Stepping away from the desk, she glanced to Body, who had a sullen look on her face. "Well, okay. It was worth a shot. Now let's-"

"Oh, hell with this!" Body snapped. Then, before anyone could react, she grabbed the wrist of the rabbit security guard, shoved her backside against him, and tossed him over her shoulder and sent him sprawling over the desk, where he collided with the startled receptionist and knocked her backwards, sending them both to the floor in a messy heap.

Before they landed, Body was already in motion. She jabbed her elbow sharply into the Human's solar plexus, knocking the wind out of him and causing him to involuntarily double over with a pained gasp. This just made his chin collide with her raised knee, snapping his head back again and sending him stumbling back a couple of steps. Body then leapt into the air, drew her legs back, and slammed them both into his chest.

The man looked strong, but despite still looking like a teenaged girl, Kaguya was a physical powerhouse. He went flying.

Everyone recoiled from the sudden display of violence. Some fled, while others were too shocked to move. Head had to admit that she was a little surprised by how quickly things had gone downhill, but not by much. Body had been born from the same person as herself, after all.

Still, she was a bit annoyed. "Oh yeah, sure," she said as Body landed on her back. "Brilliant idea, Conan. Just beat them up. They'll be so eager to help us now."

Glaring at her, Body drew her legs back and leapt up to her feet. "Excuse me, but have you forgotten that this isn't real? That these people are literally figments of our shared imagination? We don't have time to play these stupid games! We need to find our way back to Mokou, take out Rumia, and get back at Rin Satsuki, and we need to do it now!"

"Right," Head drawled as she casually leaned back against the desk. Out of the corner of her eye, she noted that those who had not yet run away were exchanging uncomfortable glances, with many of them slowly edging away from the identical crazy girls. "And remind me: how exactly will acting like a violent lunatic and getting a full security detail sent at us speed things along? Because if I recall, almost every time we've had to fight an army, things got complicated. Remember the sailors?"

"Remember how easily they went down?" Body countered. "Besides, we don't need to beat anyone, just get past them. And let's face it, with the two of us, that'll be a cakewalk."

If for no other reason than to rise to her challenge, more uniformed security guards burst onto the scene. About ten of them rushed out from the hospital's interior and took up position on either side of the security desk, while another dozen came in through the front door. Any remaining onlookers were quickly rushed away as the Kaguya twins were surrounded.

Head shot a dirty look at her twin. "See?" she said.

"Well, at least they're taking us seriously," Body remarked. Not looking at all concerned, she quickly surveyed their opponents while calculating the odds in her head. Her eyes fell upon the cowering receptionists and her gaze turned ugly. "Okay, just out of curiosity, which one of you fools tripped the alarm?"

"Body, tell me honestly: does it really matter?"

"All right you two," said a guard whose uniform was a bit different from the others, evidently an officer of some kind. "Let's not have any trouble. Now, get down on the floor and put your hands on your head."

Body glanced at Head and arched an eyebrow. "Well?" she said, smirking. "You heard the man. Get on the floor so I can put my hands on you."

"Aha. Aha. Ha. No." To the guards, Head said, "All right guys. Look. This is a real pretty scenario thing you've got going. But Body's right. We know what's going on, and you know what's going on, so let's stop playacting."

In response, each and every security guard present, including the two Body had thrown around, pulled out a small, white card and held them at the ready.

Gaping in disbelief, Head and Body stared at the grim-faced men and women surrounding them. Then they looked at each other. Her mouth moving silently, Head gestured toward the guards. Body shook her head and shrugged.

Then they burst out laughing. "S-s-seriously?" Head sputtered. "Spellcards? You're…you're going to use danmaku on us?"

"Oh wow, this is too much," Body agreed. She looked again at the now confused guards and fell over the receptionist desk, cackling.

And then a glowing red arrowhead smacked into the back of her hand. It exploded upon impact, leaving a small scorch mark.

Body stopped laughing. A look of surprise on her face, she straightened up again and goggled at the back of her hand. Though the black smudge disappeared quickly, everyone had seen the bullet it.

"Sun. Moon. Stars," she breathed. Her eyes flitted up to stare at Head. "They are using danmaku! That's adorable!"

That did it. Head and Body fell over each other in hysterics, neither of them able to remain standing. "Danmaku," Body kept repeating as she clung to her twin, as if she were trying to convince herself. "They're using danmaku!"

The security officer stared at the strange sight before him, as did everyone else. It was clear that this wasn't how any of them expected this encounter to go, and were at a loss about how to deal with it. "So!" he said, trying to sound authoritative. "That, ah, was a warning shot! Now, you…you two better start cooperating, or…or things will get. Uh, nasty?"

In answer, Body just sat up long enough to point at him and screech out, "Danmaku! BWAHAHAHA!"

That did it. Nobody, mindless NPC's included, enjoys being openly mocked, especially not by a couple of potentially mad teenaged girls who earlier assaulted their coworkers without warning or provocation. The security officer's eyes narrowed into dangerous slits as the bewilderment melted away into anger. "All right, think spellcard rules are real funny, do you? Like to laugh at danmaku? Well, in that case, you won't mind being buried by it." He glanced to the gathered guards and took a deep breath. "OPEN FI-"

"NO!" shouted a new voice, one louder and much more commanding than his. "This foolishness ends NOW!"

The Kaguya twins' laughter died immediately, and less than a second later the whole room went silent.

A pair of hard shoes clip-clopped their way through the room at a brisk pace, and the newcomer said, "This is a hospital. We do not have shootouts in my hospital. Everyone will stand down now, or I will be quite put out."

Head slowly inhaled, her lungs expanding as her head raised and her eyes went wide with surprise and hope. Her gaze met Body's, who wore much the same expression.

"Doctor," the officer said, though not disrespectfully. "These girls have-"

"I know what they've done, captain. We saw the whole thing on the cameras. This changes nothing. Stand down."

And then another voice, this one intimately familiar, joined the first. "You heard the doctor. We'll handle things from here. Shoo, now. All of you."

Body made a squeaking sound of surprise. Head did not, though that was mainly because she had forgotten how to use her vocal cords. It couldn't be…

The lobby cleared so quickly that it was difficult to imagine that there had been a fully armed security detachment surrounding the girls not five seconds earlier. The civilians disappeared with them, as did the receptionists. Head and Body were left alone with the two newcomers.

Trying to swallow and finding her throat so dry as to render the act nearly impossible, Head separated from Body and the two rose to their feet. A woman stood just behind the recently vacated receptionist desk, a Lunarian like Kaguya. Tall and perfect, she was in possession of ethereal beauty and regal bearing. Her skin was pearl-white, her posture perfect, and she moved with strength and confidence. The lines of her face were sharp but not to the point of severity, and her piercing eyes were the color of thunderstorms. Her silver hair flowed down her back in a tightly controlled braid. She wore a dark blue knee-length skirt over black stockings, a vest of the same color, high-heels, and a blood-red button-down shirt.

She was beautiful, yes, there was no denying this. But she wasn't attractive. She was beautiful in the same way a black hole was beautiful, the same way a raging blizzard was beautiful. It was a beauty that was to be admired and perhaps feared, not lusted after.

Head would have called out Eirin's name, but the sight of the other person frazzled her mind. Eirin's companion was in many ways similar to the doctor, in that she was also a Lunarian of the noble stock thus breathtakingly beautiful. Her glossy hair was so black that it seemed to absorb all light, and was cut in the classic Hime style. She wore a pale lavender pantsuit and had a golden emblem of a tiny bejeweled branch pinned to her tie. Her dark eyes were crinkled with amusement as she watched Head and Body react to her presence.

Eirin, however, was not so amused. She glowered at the twins, her arms folded over her breast. "Well now," she said icily. "You two have finally arrived. And within less than five minutes, you have assaulted my employees and disrupted my lunch with the prime minister here. Really now girls, I know the road has been hard, but was all that really necessary?"

"Oh, go easy on them," murmured Prime Minister Kaguya Houraisan. "Let's not forget who was responsible for their education."

"Sun. Moon. And Stars," Head breathed as she stared openly at her new mirror image, the second she had met today.

Body was agreement, though she forwent Lunarian terminology for a far more appropriate Earth phrase. "Hot. Fucking. Damn!" She looked to her twin. "That settles it. As soon as we get back, we're getting one of those suits."

"Absolutely. Hey, uh, you're not getting the same thoughts I am, are you?"

"Only if the word 'threesome' features predominantly."

"Yeah, it kinda does."

Sighing, Eirin turned toward Kaguya. "Your doppelgangers seem to have raised narcissism to an art form."

"I thought that was already well-established," the Prime Minister said. "If their earlier sexual encounter was any indication."

Head's brow rose. "You saw that?"

Kaguya inclined her head. "Indeed. My compliments on quickly taken advantage of the situation."

"Huh." A lecherous grin spread across Head's face. "And…it didn't give you any ideas, did it? Regarding other possible situations and things that could be taken advantage of?"

"Tempting," Kaguya said, touching her chin with one hand and resting the other in the crux of the opposite elbow. "But I'm afraid I must decline. Time is, as they say, of the essence. And you two need to come with us."

"Now when you say come-" Head started to say, but Body stomped on her foot.

"Where to?" Body asked.

"Where do you think?" Eirin said. She tilted her head over her shoulder, toward a pair of doorways that Head assumed were the elevators. "To my private office. There is much we need to discuss."

Mokou was of course unhurt by the flame itself, but the force of it still knocked her head over heels. Her instinct, honed and sharpened by centuries of constant hand-to-hand combat, took over, and she added her power of flight to her momentum; not with the intention of stopping it, but to control it, turning and twisting her body around so that she landed in a wary crouch, facing the open door and ready for whatever came out.

She was to be disappointed. The fire itself tapered off after that initial blast, and though plenty of smoke flowed from the doorway, there was nothing else to welcome her. The whispers had stopped, and if anyone had truly been standing on the other side, they were long gone.

Even so, Mokou remained in place. The smoke didn't harm her any more than the fire did, but it still obscured her sight, so she stayed in her crouch and waited for it to clear.

After nearly a minute had gone by, enough of the smoke had dispersed for her to see that there was nobody within. Not letting her guard down, Mokou rose up and moved with caution toward the door. Then, when nothing leapt out to tear off her face, she went through, fully expecting a nightmare.

She got one, though not the one she had been expecting. Rather than coming into the burnt-out husk of the Aoki Yume Children's Home, it led her outdoors. She stood on the edge of a wide, grassy field, bordered by a forest. It was night, and the sky overhead was blotted out by a canopy of angry black clouds. A harsh wind blew, bitter and cold.

Mokou's blood was already running cold, but now it froze up completely. This was no dream, this was a memory, one just as deeply buried as the rest from that time. She had once stood on the edge of this very field, gaping at the scene in horror. For her, it had been the end of the happiest two years of her life, cut off in the cruelest manner possible.

The grass was all dead, shriveled black. In the field's center a circle had been forcibly cleared away by some kind of blast of energy. And within the circle were corpses.

Some were maimed, there limbs broken and scattered. Others were cut right through by some kind of sharp instrument. Others were still whole, but that didn't make them any less dead. Many of them had fallen beyond the borders of the circle, as if they had been struck down while attempting to flee. All of them had their flesh was as withered black, just like the grass, and those who still possessed recognizable faces were permanently twisted into grimaces of pure terror.

Mokou's shaking fists tightened and she closed her eyes. Get a grip, she ordered herself. You've seen this before, you can do it again. Remember what you know now, and learn what you can.

Once she was sure that she was calm enough, Mokou entered the field.

It was strange, how real everything felt. Granted, everything about this nightmarish adventure had felt real, no matter how surreal the scenario might have been, but if she didn't know better, she could have convinced herself that she was back in Gensokyo. The dry grass crumbling to dust under her feet, the chill wind pulling at her clothes, and, most of all, the smell of ash. It was thick enough to make her nose itch and her eyes water. That in itself was disturbing, as her resistance to such things should have filtered it out. That, more than anything else, had told her that things were horribly wrong, even moreso than the corpses.

However, while the air was certainly filled with death, it did not smell of it. There was no reek of rot. All life had been fully sucked away from the field, leaving nothing but withered husks behind.

She did her best to ignore them as she stepped into the circle. Instead, her attention was on the pile of wood in its center. Most of it was obviously the remains of a bonfire, one had been long since spent. A crude wooden cross stuck crookedly out of the pile, one that was on the verge of falling over. Stuck to the end of each crossbeam was a skeletal hand, their wrists impaled by rough iron nails. That was it, just two hands. The rest of the unfortunate crucified person was gone.

Her mouth dry, Mokou forced herself to investigate the scene. The first time around, she had seen this charnel house and assumed the worst. This time, she went to each corpse individually, turning them over with her foot if she had to, and examined their faces.

In time, she found was she was looking for but hoped she would not find: the body of a little girl. The child was curled up on her side, arms hugging her stomach and legs brought up into a tight ball. Unlike the others, this body was not completely shriveled black, and she could still make out the shredded remains of the uniform she wore, enough to confirm her as one of Satoko's.

Mokou's life was driven by hate and anger, but it was wholly directed toward an individual who could take it. And as much as she often felt otherwise, she wasn't a monster. As far as she had fallen, as many horrible things as she had done, she had never, ever stooped so low as to hurt a child. Even her twisted mind refused to entertain the idea, and even her hardened heart was soft enough to be stricken by the sight of such senseless cruelty.

"Is it as horrible as you remember?" a voice said softly from behind her.

Mokou stiffened. She hadn't heard anyone approach. She whirled around, her hands igniting into flame. Then she saw who it was.

"Satoko!" she breathed, and extinguished the fire. The Aoki Yume Children's Home's headmistress stood there, among the bodies, hands clasped in front of her lap.

Mokou instinctively moved toward her, perhaps to embrace her, perhaps to confirm that Satoko was really there, but stopped when she saw the look on the headmistress's face. Satoko glowered at her with barely restrained fury. Her cheeks were trembling, and sparks flashed in her bespectacled eyes. Even so, her voice was calm and collected.

"I asked you a question, Mokou," Satoko said. "I would appreciate an answer."

Shuddering, Mokou stepped back and reminded herself that this wasn't the real Satoko. This was just another manifestation. But even so, she still owed the lady an answer.

"Yes," Mokou said after composing herself. "If anything, it's even worse."

"Explain."

Mokou glanced over the tableau of carcasses. "The last time…the last time I didn't know what to expect. I didn't know what I would see, and…and I didn't stay long. I didn't want to see, so I left quickly."

"You forgot. Afterward, you forgot all about it."

"Yeah," Mokou said. It was the truth, after all.

"You made yourself forget," Satoko said. "Forced it out of your mind and buried it. Buried us." Her eyes, already narrow with anger, were now little more than slits.

Mokou tried to swallow and found that she couldn't. "Y-yeah," she said, and started coughing.

"Why?"

"Because-" The rest of her answer was choked off by the coughing fit. Mokou doubled over, hacking. When she had regained sufficient control, she slowly straightened up, wiped her mouth, and said, "Because I…I didn't want to remember. It was too much. You guys were…were the only thing that's made me happy since I drank the Hourai Elixir thirteen hundred years ago, and remembering you meant remembering…remembering this." She gestured to the horror that surrounded them. "And remembering what happened to your home. I…" Again, her voice was starting to choke, this time not by ash. "I couldn't. I…just couldn't."

"Couldn't let yourself remember," Satoko said, her eerily calm voice devoid of compassion. "Couldn't bring yourself to live with how you failed."

Mokou couldn't answer.

"Failed," Satoko repeated. "Failed to save us. You, the immortal, the only one of us who would not have been threatened by those men. You, the avatar of the Phoenix, who could have kept the fire from hurting us." Then something in Satoko seemed to snap, as all the rage she had been keeping out of her voice poured forth.

"You, the killer!" she snarled as she marched forward and struck Mokou across the face. Given Satoko's slight physique, the blow should have hit with all the power of a gentle summer rain. Instead, it knocked her off her feet and sent her spinning into the dirt. "You, the murderer! You could have stopped those men, killed them in their tracks! You could have saved us all!"

"No," Mokou coughed as she pushed herself to her knees. "No, I'm not…not that kind of killer. Kaguya doesn't…doesn't count."

"Oh, you're not, are you?" Satoko spat on her. "Liar."

"I'm not," Mokou insisted. "I don't hurt mortals."

Then Satoko threw her head back and let out an ear-splitting cackle. Mokou could only sit and stare at the spine-chilling sight. Satoko's laughter was broken and deranged, completely at odds with Mokou's returning memories of the kind, motherly woman.

"She doesn't hurt mortals," Satoko mocked. "Oh my, what a web of lies we have woven."

The earth split, and a holocaust erupted. The entire field was consumed by a raging inferno. For some moments, Mokou's vision was completely obscured by the flames, and then the fires died down enough for her to see…

Lord Sonozika, on his knees before her. His armor was in pieces, partially melted in places. His face was streaked with ash, and he bled from a forehead wound. His eyes were wide with fear and madness.

All around him, the bodies of his guards lay burning, scorched down to the bone. His one remaining warrior had fallen and was trying desperately to crawl away.

"What…what are you doing, you fool?" Lord Sonozika choked out. "Do something! Stop her!"

Instead of leaping to his lord's defense, the warrior stumbled to his feet and fled. Smirking, Mokou let him go. The shame of his cowardice would be worse than anything she could do to him.

"Where are you going?" Sonozika called after him. "Tsukito? Get back here, you-"

Mokou raised a glowing hand, and Sonozika's calls for help died on his lips.

"No," he said, scooting back with one hand while raising the other in front of his face. "No. Mercy, I implore you!"

Oh, this was so sweet. The great Lord Sonozika, broken and defeated before her. Not only that, instead of facing his death with the solemn dignity of a warrior, he was now begging for his worthless life.

"Mercy?" she repeated, mocking his pleas. "Is that what you want? Like you showed my brother, hmmm?" She laughed. "No, there is no mercy. Not from me, and not for scum like you."

"No!" he shouted. "No, you cannot-"

-and the fires vanished. Still caught up in the memory, Mokou fell to her hands and knees, gasping.

Now that hadn't been a memory she had willingly buried, nor was it one that she was especially ashamed of. Lord Sonozika had been as much to blame for everything she had lost as Kaguya was; more, actually. And unlike the Moon Bitch, he hadn't come back after she had slowly roasted his body from the outside in, laughing as his skin had darkened, turned brittle, and cracked; watching the upper layer of fat melt and leak through the cracks in runny, yellow rivulets; savoring the smell as his flesh burned away, exposing his flabby muscles, which in turn became nothing more than cooked meat; and his screams, oh his screams! That had been the best part! Watching that arrogant, sadistic bastard bake inside his own armor, all the while squealing like the fat pig he was, that had been a memory worth treasuring.

"And was it?" demanded a gruff voice, one that was most definitely not Satoko's.

Still shaking, Mokou looked up to see a pair of sandaled feet standing before her. These were attached to a pair of trunk-like legs covered by the folds of a long blue robe, which in turn supported a wide-chested torso. Even before she got to the face she knew it would have dark brown hair slicked with silver; long, hollow cheeks with a thin, wispy beard at the tip of the chin; and dark, piercing eyes, boiling with contempt.

Her father. Only he no longer wore a Lunarian uniform, but was dressed in the colors of the long-dead Fujiwara family. Furthermore, he was no longer ignoring her. She wasn't sure if this was a good thing or a bad thing.

Crossing his thickly muscled arms over his chest, the memory of the long-dead Fujiwara no Fuhito glowered down at the single survivor of his forgotten family. "I asked you a question," he rumbled. "You will answer."

"What?" Mokou said. She cringed at how stupid she sounded, but given the numbness of her mind, it was difficult not to.

But rather than reprimanding her, he simply clarified: "That memory. Was it worth treasuring?"

Taking a deep breath, Mokou pushed herself up to her feet so that she and her father were at least eye-to-eye. "I thought so at the time," she said.

His arms still folded, her father tilted his head to one side, waiting for the rest of her answer.

"He…he had taken so much from us, from me," Mokou said. "F-from you. I hated him so much, so when I knew he couldn't stop me anymore…"

"Yes," he said. "He could not. No matter how many times you were struck down, you rose up again. His warriors and his sorceries could not stop you. It was very well done."

His words were closer to a sneer than a congratulation. Mokou had to fight the urge to drop her eyes in humiliation. If her father had actually been standing before her, she doubted she would have been able to resist.

He walked past her, hands dropping to clasp behind his back. "And yet, while your attack certainly cut off the head of the Sonozika family and smashed its teeth, you left the job noticeably incomplete." There was a lengthy pause, and then he said, "Why?"

"Incomplete?" Mokou asked.

"Yes," he said without turning around. "You had the chance to atone for your…misjudgments. You could have won the war for us right then and there. And yet, while you were successful in achieving your revenge, both on him and his hired swords, the Sonozika family remained. They regained their power. In fact, I do believe they are currently the most powerful Human family in Gensokyo, or am I mistaken?"

"You…you mean I should have wiped the rest of them out?" Mokou asked. "B-but family weren't a part of the war…his children weren't grown!"

"So?"

Mokou had to remind herself that she was not actually speaking to the ghost of her father, that this was nothing more than a manifestation of her unresolved "daddy issues," as Rumia had called them. Setting herself, she said, "I may not be a saint, but I don't make war on children."

Fuhito let out a dry chuckle. "Oh, do you not? And what would the town of Kamakura say to such a claim?"

His words almost hurt as much as if he had physically punched her. So, the whole self-loathing gang was going to take part. "Kamakura was an accident," she said.

"An accident?" Satoko said.

Mokou's head whipped around. Satoko was still there, standing behind her. "An accident," she said again. "Well. I'm sure the people who dwelled there would find your words to be comforting. All those families who burned like kindling, those children whose flesh melted away from their bones, much like Lord Sonozika's melted away from his."

Mokou gritted her teeth. "An. Accident."

"An accident, you say?" Fuhito said as he turned around to face her. "Perhaps. But Lord Sonozika. His warriors. The pirates. Were they an accident?"

"Of course not! They deserved it!"

"Did they? And what of Iwakasa? Did he deserve it?"

Mokou sucked in a sharp breath.

A cruel smile twisting her lips, Satoko said, "You remember him, don't you? The leader of the emperor's soldiers responsible for destroying the very Elixir that gave you your immortality. Became quite friendly with you, didn't he? Helped you up the mountain, gave you water when you collapsed, and saved you when that mountain god starting killing his friends. But when you found out what he was carrying, how did you repay his kindness?"

Mokou tried to answer, but the only noise she could make was a strangled choke. She stared down at her hands, and at-

-the blood-splattered stone knife as it slipped from her fingers to land in the dirt. In front of her, Iwakasa had fallen to his knees. He clutched at the gash in his neck, as if he could stifle the flow of blood with his fingers alone.

"Wh-wha-" he tried to say, but the blood choked off his voice. He looked up at his murderer, his eyes wide with confusion, as if his imminent death were beyond his comprehension. Considering the source, it probably was.

Mokou felt numb. She hadn't been planning to kill him; it had just happened. One moment they had been arguing about the eventual fate of the Moon Princess's Elixir of Immortality, and then things had gotten jumbled and confusion. And now…

Iwakasa's eyes went blank. He fell limply onto his side, bloody fingers still around his neck.

"No, wait," Mokou said. She dropped to her knees and shook him by the shoulder. "I…I didn't mean to…it was a…"

"…an accident!" Mokou screamed. "An accident! I didn't mean to-"

Then she realized that she was back in the dead field, on her knees and hands outstretched to touch a dead man that no longer there. Feeling the glares of her accusers, she took a shuddering breath and stood to her feet.

"And yet you claim to not war upon mortals," Satoko reminded her. "You deny your murders with one breath, and attempt to justify them with the next."

Mokou didn't try to argue. They had her with that one. And yet… "If there's a point to all this, let's hear it."

"Have you been struck deaf?" Fuhito demanded. "Were you not paying attention?"

"You thoroughly destroyed those who had murdered your brother, wiped them out within minutes," Satoko said. "Innocents have too suffered and died by your hand. And since then, you have only become more skilled, more deadly, more powerful."

"Centuries of constant practice will do that to a person," Mokou said. Despite the shame these memories had elicited, she was starting to get annoyed.

"You could have used that power to save us!" Satoko shouted. "You've had no problems destroying those who hurt you before, why couldn't you do it then? Why weren't you there? Why didn't you-"

"Enough!"

Satoko fell silent.

Mokou looked from her former boss to her dead father, two of the only people she had held in high esteem, and the two people she had failed the most thoroughly. There was no denying the things she had done, or failed to do. There was no denying the pain she had wrought or could have prevented. They were right.

But again, she had to remember that they weren't real. The actual Fujiwara no Fuhito and Satoko Yumi were long dead and now existed as nothing more than memories. Was she tormented by guilt over how she had hurt her father, how she had failed and forgotten Satoko? Did the memory of Iwakasa still haunt her? Of course. She couldn't be caught in this nightmare if she wasn't.

But she didn't have time for regrets now. Time was of the essence, and she needed to get moving. After all, she had eternity to suffer for her sins afterward.

Both Fuhito and Satoko stood silently, watching her and waiting. Mokou licked her lips and said, "I know I deserve your hate, but I can't take back what I did to you. I don't have that kind of power."

"You only have the power to survive," Satoko said. "And destroy."

Mokou nodded at her. "Yes. You're right. But right now, I need to do something different. I need to find someone and-"

"And do what?" Satoko snapped. "Once you've found Rumia, what are you going to do her? Finish the job? Succeed where those monsters failed?"

"I…don't know," Mokou admitted. "I don't know what I'm going to do, because I don't know what she's become. But I do I need to find her, somehow." She spread her hands. "I need to talk to her. Maybe I'll be able to get the truth from her, find out what happened. Maybe I'll be able to help her."

"And if you cannot?"

"Then…" Mokou swallowed. "Then maybe I'll be able to keep her from being the same kind of monster as the ones that hurt her."

"You mean destroy her," Satoko said, a note of accusation in her voice. "Kill the child you couldn't protect."

Mokou met her dark eyes without flinching. "If that truly is Rumia, then that child died years ago."

Satoko didn't answer.

"Please," Mokou implored them. "I need help. Help me find her. Help me find Kaguya. And help me do…whatever I'll need to. Afterward, feel free to plague me with nightmares until the heat death of the universe, I don't care. Wake me up screaming every night if you have to! But for now, I need your help."

Fuhito's eyes narrowed. "That…might not be enough."

"What?" Mokou blinked. "What do you mean?"

"He means you've been betrayed," said another voice, this one just as familiar but far more welcome than the others.

"Keine," Mokou breathed. She whirled around. Keine had appeared in the field and was now walking toward them. Relief surging through her, Mokou bolted forward to embrace the memory of the one person in the world that did not hate her.

Keine held her warmly for a moment, and Mokou felt some of her tension ease away. For all her faults, for all her failures, for all the people she had hurt or let down, at least she had not failed Keine. She was not a complete blight to society. It felt good to be reminded of this.

"Took you long enough," Mokou murmured. "Any longer and they would have started trying to convince me to kill myself."

Keine let out a small laugh. "They would have been disappointed then. They'd have an easier time convincing a rock to fly."

"Mmmm. No kidding. And in Gensokyo? There probably is one that can."

They parted, albeit reluctantly on Mokou's part, and Mokou touched a hand to Keine's cheek. "I'm sorry," she said simply. "That I couldn't help you friends."

A small smile, sad but not regretful, tugged at Keine's lips. She reached up to cover Mokou's hand with her own. "Then let's hurry up and get your out of here. That way, you can tell me in person."

"Agreed," Mokou said. She let her hand fall. Keine's hand followed, and closed around it tightly. Strengthened by the support, Mokou turned to face her accusers, who were standing silently and watching the pair with smoldering eyes.

"Well?" she said. "Come on, I may be immortal, but I don't have all day. Tell me what I need to know."

Fuhito slowly inhaled, filling his massive chest, and let it out in a low growl. "Ask her," he said, inclining his toward Keine.

"Hmmm, good point." Mokou turned back to Keine. "Okay, what do I need to know? What did you mean when you said that I was betrayed? You mean by Rumia? Because at this point, that really isn't an earth-shaking revelation."

"Granted, but that wasn't what I meant," Keine said. Her eyes grew troubled. "I meant by Kaguya Houraisan."

Mokou blanched. "W-w-what?" she stammered. "She…Kaguya…huh? She released Keine's hand to grab at her own head as she tried to make sense of this contradictory information.

At any other time, had someone told her that the Moon Bitch, her most hated enemy, had turned on her, Mokou's reaction would have been a deadpan, "You don't say?" But now, with the two of them stuck together in this hellhole, she had at least counted on them to be on the same side, at least for the duration of this nightmare. Why would Kaguya betray her now? Cooperating had been her idea, after all! Moreover, who had she betrayed her to in the first place?

Seeing Mokou's confusion, Keine clarified, "No, not the part of her you've been traveling with. Not Head and Body. In fact, they're as much the betrayed as you are. More so, in fact."

Mokou stopped fretting. She raised one white eyebrow and said, "Okay…You're really going to have to explain that better."

"She means you've been betrayed by Kaguya's subconscious," Satoko said, reentering the conversation. "We all have been. It has ceased its attempts to destroy Rumia and has entered into an alliance with her."

Mokou's head whipped toward her. "Wait, you mean the part of her that sent that velvet-"

"Velmick."

"Right, ugly worm thing. That sent that thing and those rabbit soldiers and all those stupid monsters from her stupid games?"

"Yes," Keine said. Her mouth set into a straight line. "Apparently, it has concluded that the best way to be rid of her is to hurry her along her way, and has agreed to concede to her demands in the meantime. And she had demanded that the two of you be used to open the way out."

"It has already snared Kaguya's conscious mind," Fuhito said. "As we speak, she is being deceived and led along like a chicken to the slaughter." He smiled savagely. "I will admit, it is not a distasteful state of things, but in the long run it runs contrary to your purposes."

"Rumia must not be allowed to escape," Satoko said. "While we do not understand her full intentions, it is clear that the long-term ramifications will be…"

"Ten shades of horrible, yeah I kind of figured," Mokou said. She shook her head. "So, Kaguya's own mind turned on her, huh?"

"In a manner of speaking, yes," Fuhito said.

Mokou laughed. "Oh, I can't wait to rub this into her face."

"You might want to hold off on that," Keine said. "After all, she's not exactly…unique, in that regard." She nodded toward Fuhito and Satoko.

Mokou shrugged. "Hey, self-loathing is one thing. This is the first time I've heard of someone's mind launching a full-on conspiracy against them." Then she turned somber. "And I need to go save her from the kid I used to be friends with. What a world."

"One that would not have come to pass," Satoko snapped, "had you been there to prevent-"

"Shut up, Satoko," Keine said. Satoko huffed but complied.

To Mokou, Keine said, "You need to hurry. Find Head and Body, and tell them the truth. Find Rumia, and…find out the truth. From there, do what you must."

Mokou grimaced, but she nodded. She had done horrible things before. This was just going to be another one.

The ground trembled, and a door rose out of the ash. Mokou raised an eyebrow. It was again the burned door of Satoko's orphanage, though viewed from the other side.

"Where will that take me?" she asked.

"To the absolute last place you want to go," Keine answered.

Mokou folded her arms and waited.

Sighing, Keine clarified, "Kaguya's subconscious has independently created quite the intricate dream, and is trying to trap Head and Body inside. This will take you to them."

"Ah," Mokou said, nodding. "So I'm headed deep into the Moonbitch's mind. Well, isn't that a world of suck." She glanced at the door and frowned. "But wait, if you guys represent my subconscious, and you're sending me there, does that mean I subconsciously want to go-"

"Mokou?" Keine interrupted, stopping Mokou with a hand to her shoulder. "Do us all a favor and don't think too deeply about it."

Mokou nodded again, conceding the point. There were too many disturbing psychological implications connected to this conversation as it was. Perhaps it was time to admit that her basket was full of cracked eggs and seek some professional help.

"Mokou, do you really believe that will do any good?" Keine asked. "Most everyone in Gensokyo is one kind of a basketcase or another. It's practically a country-sized asylum."

"Stop reading my mind," Mokou said.

"Mokou, we are your-"

"That's it, I'm done," Mokou said, throwing her hands into the air and stomping toward the door. "This detour started off horrific and terrifying, and now it's just stupid and annoying. I'm going to get plenty of that in Kaguya's idiotic excuse for a mind, I don't need it from my own."

Fortunately, the door remained perfectly inert as she approached. Reaching out to touch the handle, Mokou took a moment to steady herself. She had seen a good portion of Kaguya's subconscious already, and it had been an atrocious experience. Now she was about to head right into the thick of it. Oh yeah. This was going to suck.

"Mokou," her father said suddenly.

Mokou stiffened. Manifestation of her unresolved issues or not, this was the first time during this whole miserable excuse for an adventure that her father had said her name.

"Y-yes?" she said, glancing over her shoulder.

Curiously enough, her father was not looking at her with contempt. Rather, his expression was contemplative, as if a strange thought had just occurred to him. "Why do you hate Kaguya?" he asked.

The question actually made Mokou reel on her feet. She spun around and braced her back against the door for support. "W-what?" she gaped. "The hell? You? You of all people is asking me that question? You're both my father and my freaking subconscious! If anyone knows, it should be you!"

"Yes," he said with a nod. "But do you?"

Unable to think of a response, Mokou just stared.

Glancing at Mokou's father, Keine put in, "He's right. I think you'd better consider the question and come up with a concrete answer, before this is over."

Her skin crawling and her face twisting up in confusion, Mokou shook her head, turned around, and turned the handle.

The door didn't open.

Frowning, Mokou checked to see if it was unlocked. Seeing that it was, she jiggled the handle harder, trying to get it to move.

"It gets stuck, when you try to open it from within," Satoko pointed out. "You need to really-"

"Fucking hell," Mokou growled. She leapt into the air and slammed both feet into the door. This time, it gave way enough for her to shove it the rest of the way.

That done, Mokou plunged through, slamming the door shut behind her.

And here is the final update for the three-year anniversary of writing fanfiction! I…honestly don't have a whole lot to say that hasn't been said already, except that RoSD has only a couple more updates to go before it's done. What will happen to Kaguya and Mokou then? How will they deal with the Rumia problem? What effect will this have on Imperfect Metamorphosis? Stay tuned to find out!

Until next time, everyone!