Chapter 6: Flight of the Bamboo Phoenix
Down on the ground, Eirin stood where she had remained before. Her eyes were like microscopes observing details down the smallest molecule, while her brain recorded those details faster than even the strongest supercomputer. With such ease of thought, not even the fleet feet of her apprentice had slipped under her radar.
"How long are you planning on standing around here, Udongein?"
The rabbit's ears perked up over the fence and she rounded the corner, ending up directly in front of Eirin's stern line of sight. She kept her cool and said, "The rabbits have doubled their efforts to make up for lost time. We're right on schedule for the festival."
Eirin closed her eyes then slowly pivoted her head back up. Reisen blinked a couple times, for the years she spent with her master clued her in on the subtleties of her expression. Thus, the rabbit quietly looked back up at the Spell Card duel unfolding between duos familiar and unfamiliar to her.
What troubled her the most about this though she spoke up without a lick of hesitation, "...Master, did you...do something to Mokou?"
"No." She replied right away.
"But-"
"Even those whose hatred stretch across eternity can unite under common interests..." Eirin peered down from the corner of her eye and remarked, "And they aren't the only ones curious, no?"
Reisen's lips sank with an undeniable cause for concern as she looked at the unknown newcomers and asked, "Master Eirin...who...who are those two?"
Eirin put a little more attention upon her apprentice and told her, "I know little about the girl, but the boy? The boy has a particularly interesting soul inside of him..."
"He houses a soul? How is that possible?"
"That's not important. What is, however, is the identity of that soul," Eirin closed her eyes and looked to a past so far away yet at the same time as close as yesterday, "You were born after this name became commonly feared amongst the Lunarians, but...Have you ever heard of the 'Elemental Overlord'?"
"Ummm...can't say I have?"
"That's because on the moon, he's referred to by his pseudonym..." Eirin's mouth spread out into a chilling smile as she calmly spoke the dreaded name, "The Butcher of Sin."
Reisen's body shivered and she cuddled herself as though she was cold. The sensation passed in an instant, though to her the effects lingered for longer. She turned to Eirin, her pupils the size of needle tips, and said, "T-The Butcher of Sin? H-He's the one who-"
"Ah, so the Elders turned that moment of history into little more than a boogeyman tale for the youngsters. How shameful..." Eirin spoke up to drown out Reisen's fright, all while shaking her head and clicking her tongue against the roof of her mouth.
She then laid her arms down before the waist and remarked, "Just keep watching, Udongein. Let your curiosity guide your every move and thought, even if it burdens your emotions."
Reisen did not question a word of her master's advice and looked up with a gaze that was almost snow white. Around this point in time, Mokou and Kaguya were about to activate their Last Word...
"Last Word! Flight of the Bamboo Phoenix!" The two declared as they repeated the same song and dance with this Spell Card as they did the first. But as they parted to their respective sides in solitude, the effigy of the Phoenix began to stir. It was set ablaze in an inferno that could devour the whole forest in an instant, its wings folding over and blanketing the moon.
Shina panted and tried to recover to the best of her ability, and after a tense swallow stood up and took aim at the immortals. Before the first Danmaku could be fired, she bombarded them both with her own spray of bullets, her aim rocky and uncoordinated. Many bullets grazed her opponent's body, but some just flew straight off towards the sky never to be seen again.
She pulled her arms back and upgraded to a pair of shotguns. The phoenix let out a screech that shook her body and then spread its wings, having left its scars upon the moon. As its wings spread a full width of fifty feet, a flurry of smaller fiery birds flew out from its awe-inspiring grasp. The birds were no bigger than Mokou and Kaguya, their wingspans ten feet in width. Acting as a pseudo-skeleton were rods of bamboo, all of them quickly burning to ash. Yet, it was that same bamboo that added an extra layer of divinity to the already god-like foul, for as it burned the flames grew brighter, sparkling like comets streaking across a pitch black night sky.
Four birds on each side swept the skies back and forth in a curve, offering their bodies as protection for their dysfunctional masters. Shina took aim with her shotguns and fired the same bursts of energy as before, but a couple of them were swallowed up by the birds. Now as far left and right as the wingspan of the larger bird, the tinier birds flapped their wings and each sent out a spherical barrage of blue paper seals.
It was a close pinch, but Shina push forward past the seals without getting hit by a single one. But now the birds were edging in closer, and she could literally feel the heat off their wings. There was another wave of birds incoming behimd them, doubling the amount of paper seals flying around when they stalled mid-flight. Shina backed off and managed to slip between them again, but noticed that dozens of seals came dangerously close to touching her this time.
Then, as though things weren't tight enough as is, a third wave of birds emerged to hunt. The first wave was now inches away from Shina, forcing her to suck her gut in and press forward between them before she was pincered in. There was enough of a gap between waves of birds for her to linger around, but she had restricted herself to horizontal movement in the process.
The seals surrounded her in a tight knit cage, and all she could do was minimize the number of hits. Her already weary body suffered worse for it, but she took advantage of the opening provided to blasted the two immortals with her shotgun blasts. Her arms dropped right after and she panted, sweat dropping off her lips and landing on the tip of the tongue.
She had to go on the move right away and back off as the second wave got closer. The first wave flickered out of existence, thinning the web that she had to weave through. She fired another attack, but this one she knew was weaker in power. She took more seals to the chest and back but swallowed the pain and kept pressing on. Nudging past the third wave, she raised her guns up and took another shot, but missed by a good foot or so.
The birds were all gone, but there was a tension present that the worst was yet to come. The ravaged symbol of the moon pulsed with pure lunar energy, and Kaguya reached her hand out towards it with a delicate longing touch. The moon swallowed the flames of the phoenix and began to vibrate terribly, as though ready to split apart.
The hairs on Alex's arms stuck up on end, and Shina seemed all the unaware of what was happening. Right as one massive crack split down the center of the moon, Alex screamed at the top of his lungs to overpower the roar of the phoenix, "SHINA! MOVE LEFT, NOW!"
"W-Wha..." So out of breath that she swore his voice was a fever dream, Shina's body nevertheless obeyed the command all on it's own and flew limply to the left. The moon burst wide open and unleashed a cone of silver flames upon everything in it's path. Alex flew up, while Shina just made it to the corner near Mokou, only one of two safe spots.
The skies trembled for a good couple seconds until the flames died out, the ghostly embers left behind scattering to the four wings. Shina took a quick shot at Mokou and then flew away before the embers reached her. The moon restored to its normal pristine, where the Phoenix left its imprint once more and started anew its pattern.
Alex blinked a few times and thought, "Wait...I knew that was coming?"
He lowered back into place and held his arms out, waiting for the flaming birds to come out again. This time he paid closer attention with eyes wide open, noticing that he could feel where the Danmaku was going ahead of schedule.
"This Danmaku has elemental energy...? Then that means..." He slanted his brows and flew straight out, laying her hand softly on Shina's left shoulder and then shunting her back with as gentle a touch he could manage. She widened her eyes and felt all the stress in her body vanishing instantly, instead replaced with happiness.
Alex cracked his knuckles and bit his teeth down with a battle ready grin, then set his arms ablaze with raw electricity, "Take a rest Shina, I got it from here."
She breathed in deep and looked at his back. He exuded so much confidence that she felt hers being refreshed too. He faced down the incoming Danmaku and squeezed his fingers in twice, condensing the electricity into the hands. The fiery birds appeared to slow down, allowing Alex to calculate the very moment they'd leave an open enough gap of attack.
He punched his arms up and struck the immortals with lightning bolts, then swung them down to refill them with electricity, having enough time to smite them once more before the paper seals went flying. He hovered back and turned sideways, letting them slip on by all while raising his left arm up.
"Focus just one of 'em down Alex!" Shina yelled out.
"Got it!" He swung the arm at Kaguya and pounded her with two quick lightning bolts, then concentrated on the the two waves of birds and outmaneuvered their pinching movements. He did take into consideration that what he's doing might be cheating, but his desire to win overshadowed it.
Alex kept up with the lightning bolts between sweeps, and managed to avoid every seal with utter ease. All the while, he had the biggest shit-eating grin that he wanted Eirin to see. After the three waves of Danmaku ran their course, Alex centered right in front of the moon as the laser was prepared and shook his arms free of even the tiniest sparks.
The skies trembled and he licked his lips, swinging his right arm and leg back as a fireball formed around the fingertips. Shina blinked, swearing she was seeing things as she asked, "Ummm...Alex, you ARE gonna dodge that, right?"
With a quiet, cocky chuckle he let the approaching flames glisten in his eyes and continued to fuel his own. Shina's pupils shrank as she caught the signs of overconfidence and tried to nip them in the bud with a raising of her voice, "Just cause you're on a roll doesn't mean it's wise to tank a laser!"
"Don't worry about it! I'm only taking advantage of the opportunity your stubbornness gave me!" Alex proclaimed.
Shina just remained blank-faced as she high-tailed it higher up and the laser fired. Alex stood in the center of it, his body vibrating as though amidst a city-wide earthquake. Hot hurricane winds wanted to sweep him away, but he still faced down the brunt of it pushing his burning palm out towards Kaguya's direction.
"This is..." The very moment the flames died out and he was surrounded in deadly embers, his whole arm shot out like a launched torpedo, the bones clattering within as he pounded the air, "OUR victory!"
The sphere of fire collapsed to a molecular level and then exploded in a massive beam of fire that annihilated Kaguya's body so fast she didn't even blink. The effigy of the mighty phoenix broke apart and dispersed into white hot ashes in the wind, while the moon crumbled and became a glittering snow. The canopy of the forest became scorched a mile across, while Mokou stood by and let out an impressed whistle, though she was more or less doing so to mock her nemesis for their swift demise.
Alex lowered his smoking arm and left not even a trace of malice in his behavior as he stood up, clapped the smoke off, and said, "And that's game..."
Kaguya reformed a couple seconds later, brushing the left sleeve of her peerless dress up against her mouth while giggling, "Oh no, it seems as though we have lost."
She swung towards Mokou and saw a little irritation burrowing itself into her forehead, seeing that as a prime moment to tease her, "You should have pulled your weight a little more, Mokou."
"What?!" Mokou swung her head back and declared, "I was the one doing all the work! You barely contributed to our Spell Cards!"
"My Danmaku was keeping our opponents on the ropes. Your garish flames were too predictable." Kaguya's eyes gleamed with the authority more expected of her prestige, and she looked at Mokou like she would a commoner.
Mokou flicked her left hand out, throwing an explosive fireball into Kaguya's face that took out her entire head, all while roaring in frustration, "That's it princess! Partnership over, time for you to die!"
Kaguya's head reformed and she kept her sleeve right where it was, whisking the other one out as though a fan was held within it, "If you're so eager to lose some more, then I suppose I shall oblige."
The two started bombarding each other with Danmaku, killing each other in a matter of seconds. They went at it like rabid dogs the moment they reformed, and all Alex could do was cross his arms, look away, and try to wash his hands of this nonsense.
"Weirdos..."
Upon noticing Shina recooperating quickly, Alex floated on over to her. He knew he'd have to face the music sooner or later, so decided upon the former. Starting off with a rough 'Ahem!' to get her attention, he rubbed the back of his eyes and couldn't stand to look her in the eyes as he told her, "I'm...sorry you had to put up with that for so long."
"Well, maybe ya coulda jumped in just a liiiiiitle bit sooner than ya did..." Shina deactivated her Drive and waved the left hand out, "What was up with that by the way?"
"...What was up with what?"
"You bowing out so early."
"Oh that." Alex widened his eyes and let out a gasp of air as though beginning a sentence. He choked, however, on what should've been an easy five word sentence.
"I didn't want to lose..." That's it, that's all he had to say andShina would understand AND believe him. Instead he made things awkward by pursing and smacking his lips a couple times while she left him feeling exposed with her blank, anticipating stare.
"Well...I just..." He swung his head up and smiled, "Didn't want to take all the fun away from you!"
"Huh?" She blinked twice as he presented her a guiltless look in his eyes and continued to weave a terrible lie, "We're only going to be facing these guys once. I'd be a total asshole if I hogged all the fun for myself."
He crossed his arms and gave a firm nod of the head, secure in his powers of deception. Shina's eyelids fluttered faster and she began to itch the side of her face with a grin, laying her feelings clear out in the open, "Well...I guess it was a lotta fun, if tense."
She pressed her hands together next to her chest and winked, "But can ya give me a heads-up next time ya wanna swap out?"
"Sure, absolutely!" He proclaimed in haste, just glad that she believed him. His heart grew heavier as she turned away still wearing that cute smile of hers. He gripped the part of his shirt near his heart, and it felt cold underneath.
"...I'm sorry Shina, I'll make up for this embarrassment later...I swear it."
Without a care in her heart she swung her right arm overhead and exclaimed, "Hey teach! Did we pass ya test with flying colors?!"
Alex's heart got a brief shock and then he tilted to the right. Eirin's face hinted at neither pride or disappointment as she hollered up, "Come on down and find out!"
"This better have been worth our time Yagokoro." He tucked his hands into the pockets and went down after Shina, whose anticipation dropped her like a stone in water.
She stumbled forward a couple steps to end up on the edge of the porch, then faced Eirin with a glimmer in her eyes. The doctor didn't say a word until the very moment Alex's feet touched the ground, but what she had to say was very surprising.
"Udongein, what do you think of our guests after that battle?" She closed her eyes and left her guests' focus all on the poor rabbit, who was forced into the spotlight without preparation.
"What? Why m-"
"Answer the question Udongein." Eirin's voice got colder and stern, and the very atmosphere changed from spring to winter for a moment after.
Reisen shivered and lazily crossed her arms above the waist, giving herself some time to gather her thoughts. It wasn't easy with Alex and Shina looking at her with differing degrees of anticipation, but she managed somehow.
"Well...Well..." All it would've taken is a chalkboard behind her to perfectly recreate the horrible anxities of high school classes. Eirin, the impatient teacher, shook her head and delivered her apprentice salvation in the form of a reworded question.
"Ok...How about this? Say there was an object that could elevate a mortal to the realm of the gods. Would you trust this girl with that power?"
The question surprised Alex more than it did Shina, who assumed to himself, "Wait a second...Did she actually know where the Cosmos Drive was this whole time?"
Reisen responded faster, but was puzzled still all the while, "I guess there'd be no harm letting her have it...I-I don't think she's got a bad bone in her body? Honestly, she's too disgustingly sweet."
"Interesting. And the boy? Does he deserve his power?" Eirin didn't miss a beat in her words, but none of that was surprising anymore.
Alex quietly groaned as he realized the truth behind this test, "Oh christ, this is more of that 'judge of character' bullshit."
"Ummm..." Reisen's deep groan of hesitation was as subtle as Mokou's hatred of Kaguya.
Alex stamped his foot down to break the porch while he exclaimed, "Alright I get the point!"
Fear of Eirin's wrath meant nothing to him now. He swung around, got in close to her, and rammed a finger right up below the center of that smug little nose of hers and said, "Ok you lunatic doc, enough stalling!"
He pressed the finger up until it bent back, trying and failing to intimidate a person who has outlived far too many terrors to start getting shooken up by some upstart whippersnapper. She didn't lay a finger on him in retaliation, and let him vent.
"Either tell us the real reason you called us here, or I'll shove my fist so far up your ass that even YOU won't be able to surgically remove it!"
Reisen's jaw dropped and threatened to detach. There was only one other person in Gensokyo who had the balls to stand up to Eirin before now, but their method of handling her was subtle, frightening, and planned to the finest detail. Alex was straightforward and aggressive, like a thug attempting to mug a bystander. The rabbit just stood there and did nothing, believing her master more than capable of handling this ungrateful miscreant.
The doctor's expression even started to change, with the widening of her smile doing far, far more to shake Alex up than anything he could throw her way. She closed her eyes as the boy's hand started to lower, and with no emotion in her voice she asked one simple question, "Are you done?"
His throat dried up even as he gulped a huge wad of saliva, and the tension around Eirin started to affect Shina too. She backed off the porch and bowed to Alex, telling him in a casual but not regretful tone, "Well...it was nice knowing ya Alex."
His heart pumped against his chest, and he imagined Eirin as a towering giant with him just barely taller than her toes. With teeth grit tight, he stared right at this indomintable monstrosity and wheezed out, "I'm...not afraid of you."
"...Good!" Her mood lightened up in an instant, and the tension deflated so fast that Alex's knees were left on the verge of collapse.
"G-Good? What the hell do ya mean good?!" Alex stammered.
"Now you've passed the test."
"...Ok, I repeat...What?!"
"Udongein, can you please escort this girl around Eientei for a little bit while I have a talk with the boy?"
Eirin's one-track, manipulative mind just led the boy to draw one pitiable conclusion regarding her, "I guess the old hag's gotta get her rocks off somehow..."
But more importantly, he had to put his foot down on her request, "No no no. If you've got anything to say about me, then Shina deserves to hear it too."
"Alex..." Shina was taken aback by the gesture of good-will, which served as a comfy cushion after how rough things were getting.
The doctor closed her eyes and gave a nod of acceptance, "Very well...Then do whatever you wish Udongein. I can handle things just fine on my own."
Reisen split right then and there, not even leaving dust in her wake. Eirin shrugged and turned for the shutters, glancing back just to say, "If you'd give me a moment..."
She headed inside, and after some silence the two plop back onto their cushions. Immediately after that, Eirin returned and sat down too. Alex didn't even get a chance to tuck his hands into his pockets and instead settled on holding his knees.
"Alright. Like you said, no more stalling," Eirin remarked, staring Alex right in the eyes as what she said next was the utter truth, "The reason I did all this was because I wanted to gauge your worth as people."
"Yeah, I already figured that. But why? You're a genius. You should be able to tell what a person's like without all this ridiculous setup."
"I may be the smartest person in the solar system, but I'm also a Lunarian...Not a human." Eirin admitted with surprising humility.
"The Princess and I were exiled to the Earth long ago for committing the sin of creating immortality. We spent centuries hiding from our people, who wished to deliver a greater punishment after I killed the emissaries who wanted to bring the unwilling Princess back home. To hide ourselves from our pursuers, I easily created an endless night in Gensokyo to seal the passage to the moon, but in doing so drew the attention of the shrine maiden and her colleagues. Needless to say, my spell was broken, and our existence had been exposed to all of Gensokyo."
"I presumed afterwards that we could live amongst its residents by claiming to be humans...But a certain, troublesome woman taught me a very valuable lesson about what it truly means to be human," She opened her eyes and seemed to reflect upon those events in a pleasant manner as she spoke, "To be human...is to fear the unknown."
"Ever since you've arrived here in Gensokyo, you've been too lax...You didn't even bat an eye when the Princess died and revived before your very eyes. So I think its time..." She reached into a fold underneath her chest and pulled out a carefully placed glass vial no bigger than a thumb and pinched it before her face. Inside the vial was something nasty pulsing with a dark violet energy. Whatever it was, the mere sight of it made Alex's heart race.
"That I inject you with a little bit of that fear..." Eirin's smile turned crass and mischievous.
"Where...where the hell did you get that..." Alex wheezed quietly. A cold pair of hands entangled his heart and suffocated his brain, digging in like thorns of black ice. Shina shivered the longer she looked at the vial, finding it more repulsive than the most rotten, dirty pile of decayed trash she could imagine.
Alex swung forward and slammed his hands down to crack the table, "I said where the HELL did you get that?!"
"A-Alex...?!" Shina stammered, the sight of the boy's beastly expression fooling her into thinking he had been replaced by someone else entirely.
Eirin faced Shina and asked her, "Shina...what do you feel when you look at this?"
"...Emptiness...Depression...The antithesis of everything we hold near and dear in this world..." She gasped without another second's thought, and with a hand clapped over her mouth she murmured, "No way...is...is that really what the Anti-Genesis Theorem looks like?"
Alex glanced back and eased up, his scrambled mind at a loss for words. Shina tilted her head around, as though trying to make certain she was right in her assumption.
But once he sat back down, it was Alex who confirmed her suspicions with an admittedly disbelieving disposition, "Shina, how in the bloody blue blazes could you possibly know about the Anti-Genesis Theorem?"
"How do I? How do you? The Anti-Genesis Theorem was a creation of the Aurian Ten Sages..." The two, colliding in a crossroad of confusion, turned their sights on Eirin.
"So what was that earlier about Aurians? Eh, Eirin?" Alex's nostrils puffed with steam as he began rhythmically tapping his fingers on his elbows.
"I meant what I said. I've never met a single Aurian until now. So...this is a rare chance for me to be enlightened with new information." She turned to Shina at the same time as Alex, and though their respective gazes inviting nervousness throughout her body she hastily said what she knew.
"W-Well...Our history books say that the Ten Sages created the Anti-Genesis Theorem as a deterrent against the Elemental Overlord. It was imprinted onto two people...The Dark King...and my mother."
"Your mother? So...you also have it?" Alex said with plenty of cause for concern.
"No no no no no!" She insisted with many waves of the hand before her flustered face, "It's not a bloodline thing Alex. Its more like..."
"A magic glyph." Eirin interjected.
"Yeah! A magic glyph!"
"...Look, I'll be frank with you Shina, this isn't my first rodeo with this piece of shit 'glyph', so it'd be nice to FINALLY know why it only hurts me." Alex closed his eyes and leaned back, trying to cool down.
"There's...really nothing in our history books about how it was made. I reckon Gravitus didn't want anyone to try and copy the formula..."
"Why? It's just an Elemental Overlord counter."
"Your line of thinking is narrow, young Overlord," Eirin wiggled the vial around and the ghastly energy stirred, "This isn't just a deterrent for elemental powers...Its also a gateway to many other forbidden powers."
"The reason its called the Anti-Genesis Theorem? It is because this formula's very existence is a complete, blasphemous perversion of God's creation of the universe. The building blocks of the universe...Nature, Water, Wind, Electricity, Stone, Ice, Fire, Light, Dark...and Life. All these fundamentals have been so thoroughly twisted and tainted that by all means reality itself should've rejected this formula's existence. But ironically, its that same unified corruption that pieced this whole puzzle together, and allows it to exist."
Shina's eyes widened, both in awe and with fear, as she found a lot more respect for her ancestors, "The Ten Sages were amazing!"
"Not really..." Eirin calmly noted, clutching the vial in her hand and putting it down by her hip, "I could create it myself, but the risks far outweigh the benefits."
"This glyph brings suffering to those forced to bear it...I'd never use this on a living being, even in my crueler youth."
The atmosphere grew melancholy, and so Alex quickly diverted the topic back on course, "That's all fine and dandy, but that doesn't answer my first question."
He widened his glare towards Eirin, "How the hell did you get a hold of this formula Eirin?"
"...I'm under no obligation to tell you that." She perked her lips up with a smile.
"Bullshit. You don't just happen upon something like that taking a stroll in this forest." Alex scowled and crossed his arms.
"...Would you believe me if I told you I got it from the throat of a sick Youkai?" She gave a humored response, and with a gruff 'Fine' Alex decided pressing her was a waste of time. Ironically, she had just told him the truth.
"Then...can you please hand it over?" Shina asked. Alex turned slowly at her to stare, his cold heart warmed by her initiative.
Eirin looked at her too, causing her to flinch but not back down, "Alex isn't a threat to anyone. I know he's rough around the edges, but..."
"You don't have to speak up regarding the validity of his character. I already know he can be trusted." Eirin waved her hand down a couple times then laid it on her kneecap.
"You're different than the original Elemental Overlord. 'Rough around the edges' might be putting it lightly, but...As far as I can tell, you're still a human."
Alex's heart skipped a better. Never in a million years could he have expected the Brain of the Moon to compliment him like that. So, in turn, he hoped that she would hear him out on something that had been bugging him this whole time.
"Eirin...Being human is why I've been so frustrated ever since coming to Gensokyo," He glared straight into her eyes and looked more exhausted than anything, "Humans don't live long. Shina and I have already spent almost two years trying to find this Cosmos Drive. We've been toyed with, led astray and hurt so many times that its ridiculous. All I want at this point is to get Shina home safe and sound, and not waste time catering to the whims of Gensokyo's residents."
Shina's heart went aflutter, the blood rushing into her cheeks as she turned away from Alex and pressed her hands against them. Eirin closed her eyes and shuffled her legs back, leaning upon the curve of her hip before gesturing the right arm out.
"There's some advice I want to impart unto you, which had been passed on to me by another long, long ago..." She got into a recollective mood pretty easily, her voice getting smooth and relaxing like a librarian's.
"There was a time when the universe was much smaller, and traveling to other worlds was as simple as knowing how to jump. Gods battled gods for control of their territory, and I was amongst them. But there was one territory we couldn't encroach...Even the angels of that world were stronger than us. One such angel defeated me without so much as a scratch, but showed me mercy. He saw this war hungry child as pitiful and narrow-minded, and thought he could save me with his sagely advice."
"What did he say?" Shina interrupted, engrossed by this ancient tale.
"...The world ends with you. If you want to enjoy life, expand your world."
Shina had to sealed her lips extra tight to avoid letting a gasp slip through, then looked over at Alex. He was dumbfounded, but let Eirin continue unimpeded.
"It took millions of years before I finally understood what that dead old bastard was getting at. If I had never escaped the bonds of war, I never would've formed a bond with the Princess. If I didn't come to Gensokyo, I never would've come to see humans for who they truly are beyond their sinful desires. Being the smartest or being the strongest doesn't mean anything if that's all you strive for. You have to live every day like its a new experience, for there are no second chances."
She raised her head and laughed, "So when you tell me that your experience so far has been a waste of time, I just have to sit back and laugh at you. You've learned how play Danmaku, gotten to spend time with vampires, and learned a little bit more about the universe from yours truly."
"How is that a waste?"
"..." Alex closed his eyes and tensed up. He tried to recollect his journey with Shina up until this point, but no matter how deep he went there was only a couple things he could take away. His relief at leaving every world...and falling in love with Shina. Nothing's changed in almost two years. And he hated it. That nagging feeling of emptiness chewed away at his mind, and drove a terrible voice to speak up for him.
"Burn...EVERYTHING to dust...Make this universe as empty as us..."
He stood right up with goosebumps on his skin and turned away from the porch. Shina reached up and whispered his name, but he just tucked his hands into his pockets and said, "Eirin...keep the formula."
"...In exchange, I want you to make me a promise...If I ever become a threat to Gensokyo, then you have to be the one to stop me," He clenched his fists and raised his head up high, "But I'm not going to become a threat to anyone. I will change."
He then wiggled his stiff shoulders around and said, "Come on Shina, lets get out of here."
She stood up and ran after him, her expression muddied with confusion. She clasped her hands together and mouthed a 'Thank you' to Eirin before rounding the corner and vanishing from sight. The doctor stood up and clutched the eerie vial around her left fingers, and parted the shutters with a single wave of the hand.
"...So that's the Phoenix of Destruction? Hmmm...looks you've been paranoid for nothing." She shook her head and entered the mansion, arrogantly certain in her lofty presumptions.
Walking out of the forest at that point was a breeze. The two just went in a straight line for a couple hundred feet, and they found themselves on a dirt road in the middle of the forest's two halves. Now freed from the mystifying spell that separated Eientei from the rest of Gensokyo, Shina leaned her head over Alex's shoulder and saw him deep in thought.
She smiled softly and whispered into his ear, "I'm really proud of ya Alex."
"Haaa...well, don't get too ahead of yourself Shina," He leaned his head back and looked to the sunny skies, "I'm not going to change right away. You're still going to be dealing with this same old grumpy-"
A black and white streak sped through the sky faster than a jetplane, and a thick bundle of paper smacked square into Alex's face a second later. Shina's lips puckered as she fought back the urge to laugh, while Alex's face contorted into something too obscene to be seen by human eyes. His eyes glowed brightly, literally burning holes through the paper.
Shina, however, caught a strange slip of golden paper sticking out from the side and plucked it out before it was an unfortunate victim of Alex's laser vision. As he blew and coughed the ashes away, Shina unfolded the paper and took it a sneak peek at its contents.
"Uh-oh..." She slapped a hand against the side of her face and shook her head.
Alex turned his head with narrow eyes and asked, "Uh-oh? An uh-oh from you's never a good sigh."
"Well..." She handed the letter over for Alex's perusal, but not without warning, "Lets just say ya'll be putting Eirin's advice into practice sooner than later..."
He snatched the letter up and embraced himself with a sigh before reading it off, "Dear Elemental Overlord (And friend)...You are cordially invited to our shrine atop the Youkai Mountain. As a fellow warrior of renown, I figure there is plenty the two (three)[four] of us can talk about. So please, if you have time to spare, come and visit. I'll (we'll) be sure to make it worth your while. Sincerely, Kanako Yasaka (Suwako Moriya) [Sanae Kochiya]. P.S. Ignore the stuff lazily inked in by my fellow occupants."
"Well, what do you think?" He looked to Shina for advice.
"Weeeeell...the Moriya Shrine's ground we'll hafta cover eventually if we want to find the Cosmos Drive..."
"Yeah, might as well knock it off the checklist," He burned the letter to ashes and looked annoyed, "But at least Eirin had the courtesy to use my real name..."
"Its pretty cool your title's recognized all the way out here though!" Shina tried to put a positive spin on Alex's grievances, but he shot it right down.
"Yeah, but not because of anything I did," He crossed his arms and looked back up at the sky. The horizons were vast, but so were all the possibilities for him to explore, "It doesn't matter though...Someday I will make my own accomplishments, with my own power."
Next Time: A Conspiracy of Faith