Marisa, Rumia and Yumeko left Pandemonium through a portal which led to the gate that Yuki and Mai protected in the Realm of Ice and Fire.
"Hey, Yumeko, Rumia, where ya go... wait a second..." Yuki said, before looking at Marisa with suspicion. "Why are ya' dressed up like me?"
"I thought you were the one following my fashion sense ~ze." Marisa said, obviously lying.
Yuki looked irritated, but held back, partially because Mai gave her the sort of look which said 'I'm staying out of this'.
"So, you're going to the Ruins of Vina." Mai said. "Those guys creep me out. It's annoying that we were forbidden from doing anything to stop Seiga, but if I froze her to delay her that might kill Alice."
"Speak not of me burning them." Yuki added. "Anyway, we should come too!"
"No." Yumeko said sharply. "With me gone your jobs are even more important, and even then, you would just be in the way at the Ruins of Vina."
"What do you mean, we'd just be in the way?!" Yuki said angrily.
"This journey is dangerous even to me." Yumeko said coldly. "Now, with me admitting that, do you still think you would be anything but a liability that could get us all killed if me or Rumia protected you?"
Yuki looked at the floor quietly. "I've been training so hard though. So's Mai..."
"Yuki, don't you realise how much faith Yumeko has in us? She is leaving the defence of Pandemonium up to us alone." Mai said.
"Yeah, I guess." Yuki said.
"Well now that that's settled, can we get to the part when I can blow someone up?" Marisa asked."It's been so long since I've been able to give someone a good sparking."
Rumia gave Marisa a questioning look, and the witch sighed. "OK, it's been a while since I sparked someone during an incident."
The trio moved on, out the plains of Ice and Fire, and into the Provincial Region of Makai. The land was very hilly and uneven, the ground red and black. In various places, there would be what seemed to be networks of tunnels in the hills, and Rumia would see various witches, or creatures usually thought of as daemonic around these places. Occasionally there would be a humanoid who was not a witch, but still felt like they had a powerful magic.
"What are those things?" Rumia asked. "They are not a Witch, not a daemon, and not a human."
"They do not really have a species name. They are beings created directly by Shinki's actions, instead of being a result of the natural chaos in Makai. Alice was one of them, as am I. They vary in power and potential greatly, of course." Yumeko said. "I would say there are only three who are strong enough to give us worry, and two of them you already know, myself and Alice. And the third is friendly, we should be coming across her soon."
"This place looks like the place we went with the Myouren Crew to Hokkai." Marisa said.
"Yes, Hokkai is in this region. It is the area that Shinki redirects banishment spells to. For some reason when people try to banish people to another dimension, they very often end up opening a portal to Makai. I think this was part of Lady Shinki trying to atone for her past. This caused a few problems, having Makai as the dumping ground for the scum of the other dimensions was not exactly good for order in Makai, so Shinki created Hokkai. She frequently goes there to talk with the inhabitants about other dimensions and to try and make them suitable for life in Makai without causing trouble." Yumeko explained.
Rumia opened her mouth to ask, and Yumeko figured out before she spoke what was going to be asked. "That's how she and Lady Hijiri became friends. Shinki wasn't happy when she found out Hijiri certainly did not deserve to be banished to Hokkai, but Hijiri also refused to leave Hokkai. She seemed to know she would be rescued by her followers one day, and found the place quiet and good for her meditations and prayer."
"Yeah, that sounds like Byakuren." Marisa said, folding her arms behind her head as she flew on her broom.
"By the way, Marisa, do you know what Alice whispered to Shinki that day?" Yumeko asked.
"Huh. No, Alice never told me what she whispered to Shinki." Marisa said.
"It sounds like you haven't figured it out either. Well, it's not my place to tell you." Yumeko said.
Marisa looked at Rumia, confused. "Hey, Rumia, do you know?"
"I have an idea what it might have been." She said. "But honestly I don't think I should tell you either."
Marisa grumbled in frustration, as Rumia chuckled. It felt good to be on the other end of the teasing about couples for once.
Even at the high speed that the trio was flying, it took a while for the scenery to really change. The red and black hills abruptly stopped, and ahead of them seemed to be, for lack of a better term, an asteroid field. Small blue lights of magical energy danced between the rocks.
"This is the barrier that separates Inner Makai from Outer Makai." Yumeko said. "Outer Makai is filled with unsavoury beings who came to Makai with selfish or harmful intentions, through their own power. There are also numerous abominations created by the chaos of Makai. That far away from Shinki, Makai's energy is less stable, so the life created by the entropy is also less stable."
"Yep, that's right Yumeko, although it's pretty rare for you to want to go to Outer Makai." A voice said. Rumia turned to see at her side a somewhat well-built woman, wearing a red dress, and white scarf of sorts, with pink hair.
"Who's this?" Rumia asked.
"I remember you, you're that one who was blocking the portal to Makai way back then!" Marisa said. "Uh... what was your name again?"
"Sara." The stranger said.
"Those trusted by, and close to Shinki receive a portion of her power. For example, my power over Space is so powerful because Shinki gave me a part of her power over space. Yuki and Mai have fragments of Shinki's own power over Fire and Ice. Alice has the Grimoire, a source of pure magical knowledge. Sara has raw physical strength, and patrols this area in case of any unsavoury characters."
"Raw strength eh?" Rumia asked. "So, how strong are you?"
"She's not that strong, I beat her easily way back when." Marisa said.
"I'm not good with magic." Sara protested. "Physical strength rarely equates to magical prowess."
"I agree there, I mean, Yuugi isn't that good with danmaku." Rumia said.
Marisa shrugged.
"But, I don't think of Shinki as being physically strong. I always thought physical combat would be her weakness." Rumia said.
Sara laughed. "Just because Shinki prefers ranged combat does not mean she cannot punch a hole through you with a casual flick of her wrist! Besides Shinki herself, I'm Makai's strongest woman!"
"Did you see a blue-haired woman come through here?" Yumeko asked Sara.
"No, might have missed her. But if I missed her odds are Louise saw her in the feild. Say hi to her for me, by the way, Yumeko."
"There's a stray." Yumeko said calmly, pointing to an area a bit behind Sara, to her left. Rumia and Marisa looked and saw a massive asteroid flying from the belt towards one of the hills.
"Something that large, if it slams into the ground it'll be dangerous! I'll stop it!" Rumia said, Marisa flying with her, before Yumeko appeared in front of them and stopped them.
"There's no need. This sort of event is pretty common, and is why Sara works here." Yumeko said, as Sara ran over to the path of the asteroid, which was at least twenty times larger than her. Sara just smirked, and pulled her fist back, before punching the air hard enough that the shockwave itself broke the asteroid into dust.
"You were wondering how strong I was? There you go!" Sara shouted.
Rumia and Marisa just floated there stunned.
"I'm not sure I could have blown that up with my spark..." Marisa said.
"I'm not sure one of my Dark Energy or Chi punches would have worked either." Rumia admitted. "I'll never doubt Shinki's physical strength again."
"Makai is filled with monsters like her, isn't it?" Marisa said.
"No." Yumeko said calmly. "I would say that Sara is among the ten strongest beings in Makai. All she has going for her is her brute strength. She's hopeless with magic, she's not that smart, and she isn't even that durable. But in the regard of raw physical might, I would say she is possibly above even those Deva you Gensokians look up to as paragons of raw strength. The fact her leg strength makes her move pretty fast helps her too."
"Ah, so if she fought someone like you, she wouldn't stand a chance, she'd never be able to land a hit." Rumia said.
"Yes. But despite her weaknesses, she's still very good at what she does. After all, the only ones from Gensokyo to enter Makai during that period were Marisa, Reimu, Yuuka and Mima, all of whom are considered to be very powerful within Gensokyo." Yumeko said, causing Marisa to laugh.
"Yes, that's me, Marisa Kirisame, remember that I kicked everyone's butts here at least once!"
"With help from the other three." Yumeko reminded her.
Rumia just looked away and chuckled, since Marisa basically just did the aerial equivalent of roadkill to her during the Scarlet Mist incident.
"Anyway, we are on a timer here. We are in pursuit of Seiga, after all." Yumeko said, before she nodded to Sara, who nodded back, and the three continued into the field of asteroids.
Rumia never thought she would call an asteroid field beautiful, but somehow, it was. The rocks were glistening with various coloured gems encrusted within them, each one reflecting the twinkling magical lights dancing between them. Marisa seemed equally entranced, and seemed to grab a few of the shinier stones with a quick laser blast and a swift hand on occasion and stuff them in a pocket. Yumeko noticed this and just shook her head.
"That witch just cannot keep her hands to herself." She said.
"Hey, these stones look pretty and they might be useful for my magical research. They are from Makai, after all." Marisa said, before attempting to stuff one of the glowing blue lights into her pocket as well, but her hand just passed through it, so she gave up.
While beautiful however, the place was highly dangerous as well, with multiple rapid movements needed to evade the rocks flying about. Then, Rumia heard a groaning sound, and looked towards it, to see Louise floating on her back. She looked beaten up.
"Yumeko, Louise is there... looks like she tried to stop Seiga." Rumia said.
"Louise isn't that strong of a fighter, she prefers to use either long-range attacks or misdirection to cause her targets to crash into the rocks. She might have brought us time, however. She'll be alright like that, she's a half-ghost anyway, the rocks can't harm her, she just lets them phase through her." Yumeko said.
The three kept going, although Rumia felt guilty at leaving Louise like she was. It did not take long to leave the field and enter the outer reaches of Makai.
"Be on guard." Yumeko warned the group, as they looked upon the wasteland. There was nothing in sight except red plains, and the occasional black, bubbleing pit, which looked almost like tar, but Rumia could tell from the magic it gave off was something far, far worse.
"That goop, it feels like the same energy that the other me had..."
"Yes." Yumeko said. "You resurrected out of one of these pools. While distilled, these pools still contain the essence of the Heart.I guess you could claim that your remade body was created out of this very substance. We call this substance Daemon Tar. I would advise to stay away from it. While it would not be toxic to you like it would be to me, a creation of Shinki, I would wager if you fell into it you would be corrupted again."
"What about me?" Marisa asked while Rumia shuddered.
"You would become a mindless, twisted abomination, as with many who have been tempted by the allure of the Heart. You would think of nothing but blood." Yumeko said. "Sadly, often some of them enter dimensional rifts that occasionally open, Makai being a place of chaos, after all, especially in these outer reaches. Abominations have escaped into other worlds before, although we try our best to kill them before it happens. I can't help but think the Heart is the one causing the portals in these places to open... they always seem to open near one of those Abominations."
Suddenly, a being came out of the nearest pit. It was a horrible creature made of pure black. It looked like some horribly mutated skeletal insect/human hybrid, that let out of blood-curdleing screech. Instantly, Rumia recognised the overall appearance.
Rika had told her about eight months ago what made her like she was. Her parents were killed by a youkai unlike any she had seen before. A twisted, mutated monster.
Yumeko pulled out one of her swords to fight the beast, and Marisa readied her Hakkero, but Rumia put her arms out, a look a determination on her face.
"This, I fight alone." She said.
"Why?!" Marisa shouted, surprised.
"Go on ahead and chase Seiga, I'll catch up. There's more than enough darkness in this place for me to do so. This monster... this monster reminds me of what Rika told me killed her parents. Her parent's deaths started her down her path of madness. And now I know where they come from... who's responsible... I have to do this alone. It's personal."
"So you see this as a blow against the heart for screwing up another thing in your life? Fine." Yumeko said. "Just don't take long, and show it no mercy."
"You sure it's personal Rumia? I'd say you just want to avenge Rika."
"Shut up Marisa." Rumia said, before she took off towards the beast, with Marisa and Yumeko flying in their original direction. Although she did hear Yumeko speak as they left.
"Marisa, Rika is what I was getting at as the 'other thing the heart screwed up'."
Rumia shook her head, before she looked at the beast. "This won't take a minute."
Author Notes: Bah, I don't like descriptive writing with scenary and such too much. So I've thrown in a fight scene and a bit more backstory to Rika and Rumia at the same time. Basically, both of their lives were screwed up by the Heart, as the monster that killed Rika's parents, which she thought was a youkai, was actually an abomination created by the heart.