Author's Note:

There's been a few of these happening throughout this story, but I feel I should address this issue now.

Yes, there's been a lot of moments in recent memory where I've taken long breaks from uploading Clash of the Elements. Sometimes its just been a couple days, but this last break was almost two weeks.

I'm not going to explain why that break happened, but you do deserve an explanation for the frequency of them.

I've been working on this story for over five years now. At least as far as writing goes. I've been planning out the details of it for much, MUCH longer. But its only recently that I've been looking at my work and thinking "Hey, maybe I could be doing better?" So that's led to some periods where I just stare at the word document I type in for a while and just lose motivation to write because I feel I'm not living up to my true potential.

So I apologize to any of my loyal readers for delaying between chapters so much, and I'll try and be more consistent going forward. I mean, this story should've been done already given my usual pace, but we're instead only 2/3rds of the way through after this chapter.

I'm never going to give up this story unless I die, so don't worry about that.

Chapter 20: Perception from the Third Eye

Alex and Shina flew right down towards the base of the Youkai Mountain. The second visit was nowhere close to being exciting compared to the first thanks to the thick early morning fog still hovering about. It was a pity, but Alex wasn't in much of a mood for sight-seeing after hearing Hecatia's story and then having to relay most of it to Shina.

Now he was focused simply on finding the answers the playful goddess suggested laid buried in Gensokyo's underground. The hunt for the entrance was simplified via Alex's powers, but going inside proved difficult thanks to Shina.

She paced about at the lip of the cavern entrance for ten seconds while Alex tried to listen in on her murmurs. When it seemed impossible to decipher what she was saying, he just waved his hand out and asked outright, "Ok Shina, what's the matter?"

She poked her heads up and curled her left fingers in slowly until only her thumb stuck up, then but the tip of the fingernail and spoke with a shiver of anxiety, "Are we gonna be alright down there?"

Alex laid his hand on his hip after a dull pause and shook his head, humoring her with his answer, "What, afraid of some bat guano falling in your hair?"

Her nodding vigorously after was the last thing he'd expected to see, and with a brief scoff he smiled and said, "Shina I'm just kidding..."

"Filthiness is no joke Alex!" She puffed her cheeks with a dopey pout as she swung her fists up by her chest, "I don't got a super immune system like you! What if I get infected with Typhoid fever, or the chicken pox? There's a couple Youkai down there that'd love to infect a poor pitiful young maiden like me!"

"And where does that leave me, the after meal snack?" Alex cracked a joke he thought was funny in his head then pooled his efforts into reassurance, "Then stay close by. I'll ward off those ne'er do well infestations for ya."

"How close?" She asked with a glimmer of intrigue in her eyes.

"Whatever you feel's best..." The moment he gave permission, Shina latched onto his right arm tighter than a crab's claws and gave him a hug. She rubbed her face against his, and it got him to smile. Perhaps he was just getting used to these shows of affection, because his body no longer shook from her warm, gentle touch.

"Alright, better?"

"Mmm-hmm..." She relayed her serenity with a soothed hum.

The two then turned around and dropped straight into the Underground. The caverns were dark, dank, and smelly like rotten carcasses. But surprisingly, it was well lit for how spacious it was. Alex breathed a sigh of relief over not having to his free hand as a torch, and pressed on through the tunnel with Shina keeping pace.

Any Youkai would likely spring out and surprise them from the cracks and stalagmites in the ceiling, so Alex chose to keep his eyes looking up at all times.

After a few minutes of uneventful traveling, Shina brought to his attention, "Alex, are we gonna get lost?"

"Huh? No, of course not!" He spoke and shook his head confidently while continuing to stare upward. Shina tilted her head, and her drawn-out sigh could be felt bearing down his neck, "I-I mean...This place is linear...I think."

"Noooot inspiring a lotta confidence here Alex..."

"...As long as I've got my powers, we'll be fine." He grumbled quietly right after. And sure enough, he was proud of himself to be right. It didn't take long after of following the trail of bedrock for the two to arrive in a much, MUCH more spacious domain.

The ceiling was a wide and large dome of smoothed over rock so devoid of light that it reminded them both of the night sky. Below them was an ancient town even bigger than the Human Village, which was covered by a pale orange light similar to what they saw at the festival the night before.

But whereas the Human Village indulged in the splendor of evening festivities once in a blue moon, this town was trapped in its own eternal parade of self-indulgence. The Youkai living down there couldn't be described as cute, or even human-like. They were the purest of beasts, the worst Gensokyo has to offer.

There were giant ogres and grotesque slobbering onis drowning their gullets with sake by the gallon load. Surrounding them were a dancing quartet of skittish imps and devilish trolls, who fed themselves the rotting meat of sinful humans and flossed their teeth with their decaying bones.

They were too self-absorbed in these pleasures of life to notice two specks haplessly pass them by overheard. Alex and Shina's faces equally twisted up in disgust, and he made a diligent effort to swiftly leave this barbaric scene behind as soon as possible.

It was baffling how this place could offer such a sharp contrast to the merriment up above, yet exist in relatively the same dimension. Trying to rub out the thoughts of those monsters partying relentlessly, Alex mumbled in relief, "Thank GOD we don't have to head down there..."

His smile was almost gleeful as he said that. But with his thoughts led astray for that moment, he quickly stumbled to regain a general idea of where they were going, and looked down at the edge of town. There was a river that ran through the center of this place that'd lead them to their true destination even further down the caves. The river was grimy, but not with the smell of blood thank god.

"Alright, I'm 90% positive we're almost there." He turned to Shina and saw her looking back towards the village, that curious, crystal clear glint her eyes suggesting she had much she wished to say.

"Penny for you thoughts?" He egged her on jokingly.

"I wonder if we're still in Gensokyo..." She pondered almost to herself.

It was a somewhat poignant line of thinking, and it got Alex realizing that they had indeed farther down the metaphorical rabbit hole than seemingly feasible, "We HAVE gone quite a ways so far...You'd think we'd have rammed into the barrier by now or something."

But upon inspecting Shina's expression closer, he noticed something off about it and murmured with half a grin, "But that's not what you mean, is it?"

"Its like we got flung into a whole other time period. Everyone's drinking and partying like Barbarians, or Vikings!" Her tone was almost akin to pity for those vicious creatures.

Alex could have jumped to a rash conclusion about the Underground Youkai, but there was one thing about their festivities that caught his attention. How, in any way, was their partying any different than what the Youkai above ground tended to do? Was it really they way they behaved that set off their disgust, or was it merely the initial shock of seeing creatures so outwardly different in appearance from the ones they'd seen so far that led to this revulsion?

Alex realizes that, perhaps, it wasn't right to so prematurely judge these kinds of Youkai, and spoke up calmly to Shina, "Probably because they've lived that long. And if living in the past's working out, then who are we to judge?"

Shina looked at him with puckered lips and a short nod, then said with a cheerful bluntness, "That's a pretty mature thought from you Alex..."

He grinned and pretended to take a bow complete with an arm crossed before his chest, "I have my moments."

With her giggling satisfactorily, the two were able to continue pressing onward. Perhaps they'd visit that little village again some other time, just for the...Hell, of it.

The river guided them through the remainder of the Underground to yet another strange and curious sight. There was a large Western-style mansion built into the cavern walls, seemingly signaling the end of the road for any brave travelers. The mansion was white enough to create its own light within the endless dark, while its walls were littered with breathtaking stained glass windows.

It'd be easy to assume a powerful demon lived in this mansion, given that the front doors were ten feet taller than either Alex or Shina, but while there was reason to fear the mansion's owner, their size was far from their deadliest trait.

After landing near the mansion's entrance, Alex looked down and saw Shina cuddling his arm with a blissful look in her eyes that he sadly knew he'd have to push aside for now. He gave his arm a slight waggle and said, "Alright Shina, we made it safe and sound."

She looked to him with puppy dog eyes and begged to him, "Awwwww, can't I stay just a little longer? Your arm's very, very warm!"

She nuzzled her cheek against it some more, and with a slight blush and dry cough he had no other choice but to get a little rough and pull his arm right out of her grasp. She puffed out a 'Phooey' and hung her head a bit, but otherwise went right back to smiling in the blink of an eye.

Alex gently shook his head out of slight amusement and approached the door. He raised a hand to give it a swift hard knock, then froze it in place as he expected the door to start opening like all the others he'd encountered thus far.

"Huh, weird." He accepted this normality with a dull shrug of the shoulders and a couple more knocks for good measure. The sound surely must be reaching someone, he figured, cause if he can hear his knock echoing from the other side, then either the owner's deaf, or just plain rude.

"Probably the latter..." So he determined, in standard Alex Whiter fashion, that he'd respond to rudeness with his own brand of it, by breaking and entering. Of course, breaking down a door this large miiight earn him the stink-eye from Shina, so he'd have to be just a teensy bit more delicate than usual.

Lucky for him, a door this big didn't require a lock and key to keep intruders out. All he had to do to open it was use his powers to grab onto one side and pull it open. For being so big and thick, the door didn't make a sound. He stood at the door's side and gestured his hands inside, and after pretending to part a dress skirt Shina passed him and headed inside.

"Wooow!" Her eyes immediately lit up in awe the moment she stepped foot inside the mansion. When Alex headed inside, he could understand exactly why she felt that way.

They were greeted by a long hall that seemed to span endlessly into a void of darkness, with walls and support pillars made of crystalline marble on both sides. The floor had a checkered pattern, and was bathed beautifully in the light that somehow peered through the stain glass windows. The mansion had this soft, rosey hue that put one's mind at ease, and made anyone who'd walk inside expect a chorus of heavenly doves to greet them. Ironic, considering this place rested on the precipice of a former Hell.

There was something different about this place that Alex couldn't quite put his finger on. It wasn't dreary like Remilia's mansion, it wasn't homely like the Moriya Shrine. For the first time, he could feel as though he was walking into something ripped straight from the pages of a fairy tale. It was a palace of pure wonderment.

But as fun as it'd be to loiter around and take in the scenery, they had a palace owner to find. And given the vast nature of its halls, that might take some time. Thankfully, Shina was already getting to work on that by yelling out 'HELLO!' enthusiastically down the halls.

But he personally preferred to rely on his eyes than his voice to find their target. There was plenty of space to search around, especially as some of the arched passages led to other halls. Alex had to stick to Shina's sluggish, curious pace the whole way through, but neither of them were having any luck so far.

He had recalled the owner being a bit of a recluse, but it was almost like they were invisible. Any power they may've had would be a speck on his radar, which robbed him of an advantage. Then he smacked the side of his head and went "Duh!" upon remembering Shina's own advantage.

But as he was about to ask she thrust a finger outward and gasped in amazement, "Look Alex! Its a kitty cat!"

"A cat?" He faced where she pointed, but only ended up disapppointed. It was just a calico cat. An abnormal sight in Gensokyo, certainly, but he was more expecting something with two tails. The cut stared at them a bit with its beady pupils then raised a hind leg to lick itself.

"...Maybe this means we're close..." Alex believed.

Yet as he was about to move on, another creature of nature, a beautiful, slender deer, pranced into view from the right. Alex froze up, but Shina obviously didn't get the memo on how to handle deer.

"Haaaaaaaaah!" Her lungs deflated like a balloon full of helium to let out that squeal of delight. The deer's head sprung up in an instant towards them, and shina squeaked with both hands pressed against her cheeks, "Oh its so adorable!"

The deer suddenly jolted their way with long energetic bounces, and they swung aside to let it pass by. Shina giggled all the while, and Alex felt his heart race. The deer carried with it a pure, spring scent.

"...What the hell, are we in a zoo?" He grumbled.

"Wrawk! What the hell, are we in a zoo?" A gravelly repeat of his words came from right above. Shina closed her lips and struggled not to laugh as she pointed to the top of his head.

Alex looked up as high as he could, but couldn't see the colorful parrot that used his hair as a perch. He slowly squinted his eyes shut and asked, "Shina, please get this thing off me...?"

"Wrawk! Shina, please get this thing off me!" The parrot echoed. Shina kept giggling and told Alex, "Look, like he likes you!"

Alex closed his eyes fuly and slowly reached for the parrot while growling "Son of a bitch..." But then the parrot retaliated by bending over and pecking him between the eyes. The peck stung like a bee, but what the parrot echoed stung much, much more.

"Wrawk! Sumbitch!" It must have been satisfied with itself, as it flew off right away. Alex briefly flicked the bird the 'bird' and sighed out, "I think that's enough safari'ing for one day. We need to..."

Just his luck, the zoo tour was nowhere close to being over. As he turned forward he clammed up, for behind the unsuspecting calico a fully-grown, real-life tiger had suddenly appeared. It stood tall on all fours and continuously growled. Alex shut up for once in his life, but yet again Shina didn't get the hint and gasped excitedly, "A tiger too?! Could this day get any better?!"

"Just settle down for a moment. Who knows what'll set that beast off..." As Alex whispered that through tightly grit teeth, Shina knelt down and kneaded her fingertips into the ground while gently coercing the tiger with the luxurous sound of her voice, "C'mere kitty kitty..."

"He's not a kitty kitty!" He growled louder, watching as the tiger began to stir. It delicately raised its paws over its smaller relative and hunched its head down, eyes staring straight towards Shina. If it did something to harm Shina, Alex would react, but he really, REALLY didn't want to hurt someone's pet.

Shina stood up but leaned forward, patting her knees and continuing to treat the proud hunter of the night like a domesticated kitty, "Its ok! We won't hurt you."

Alex's right hand twitched and a few embers flickered between the fingers, but the tiger continued to advance. He had given his warning, and if the cat went any further it was all on them. Shina stood up, clapped her hands, and remained smiling and relaxed. The tiger suddenly pounced straight forward and tackled her to the ground, pinning her arms down with their front claws.

It continued to growl, and Alex could hear Shina's heart racing from where he stood. Yet in spite of all nervousness, she continued to smile at the beast. The tiger then bent its head down, and started licking her face with its big rough tongue.

"Hehehe! C-Cut it out, that tickles!" She couldn't stop laughing, and as the tiger slowly pulled its claws off her arms she rubbed the side of its head and heard it purr.

NOW, Alex had seen everything. He dully stretched his right hand out towards the tiger while telling it, "Ok you, get off my girlfriend."

The tiger turned its head and bore its fangs to growl savagely towards him, and instinctively Alex retreated. The tiger then went back to nuzzle its face against Shina's while she commented in a humored manner, "Animals must not like ya much Alex."

He crossed his arms against his chest and sighed, "The stories I could tell you about this one goat..."

He then waved a hand out and murmured, "Well I'll leave you to this...tiger?" It was hard to believe he was looking at one still, and shook his head with a sigh.

"...Riiight." He was ready to head off when he saw what he was originally expecting to the first time Shina mentioned a cat. There was a black feline with two tails, each one tipped off by a tiny red ember. The cat stared at him with pure red eyes for a few seconds and then sped towards him faster than a cheetah. Before Alex could brace himself, the cat pounced and transformed in a puff of hot smoke, forcing him to the ground with its newfound weight.

"Gotcha~!" The cat declared proudly in a normal, chipper young girl's voice. With the side of his face squished against the ground, Alex stared up to see what asshole had him pinned down.

The cat had transformed into a human-like girl with fiery red hair styled into twin braids with a black ribbon adorned at the top and bottom. She wore a lovely black decorated dress with green frills, and her fluffy cat ears remained atop her head. She stared him down with fiery dark red eyes as though he was little more than a mouse she'd happened to snatch. The cat, known as a Kasha, had a simple but fitting name.

Rin Kaenbyou ~ A Playful Little Hell Cat

The cat crossed her legs and sat firmly atop his shoulders. He wasn't resisting because he liked it, but because it wasn't worth the effort to throw off a fly. With a smug smirk, the cat raised two of her right fingers in the shape of an "L" and remarked, "You thought you could casually intrude into Lady Satori's palace? Your corpse is gonna be condemned for eternity if ya keep behaving like that!"

Alex raised one hand up and remarked dryly, "Ok yes, we did intrude in your palace..."

He then spread his fingers out and brought to her attention angrily, "But its not like you've got a damn doorbell out front!"

"Door...bell?" Rin tilted her head with a finger resting upon the side of her face.

"...Never mind," Alex growled and laid his hand flat upon the ground, "We just came to visit your master, ok? If we meant any harm, do you think that unsightly thing would be happening right now?"

He pointed to the tiger that was still having fun nuzzling Shina, whose smile was a little bit weaker due to how much the beast was wearing her down with its weight. She turned to Alex and pleaded quietly, "Alex, I don't think I can feel my stomach anymore."

Rin pinched a couple fingers into her mouth and let out a shrill whistle that made the tiger heel. She then wagged her hand towards herself and said, "Ok you! No more hasslin' the guest!"

The tiger slowly backed off, allowing Shina to try and stand up with legs as stiff as lumber. Rin hopped off Alex and let him get up too. Then she waved her right hand up and said with some exasperation, "Sorry about that. I thought you were up to no good. Not like we get much company down here, you know?"

"Right, cause Youkai from above aren't allowed to come down and most humans aren't stupid enough to try." Alex remarked while crossing his arms.

Rin laid her hands back close to her hips and leaned forward, peering at Alex's face with a soul-piercing stare, "You aren't a Youkai, but you smell odd for a human. Kinda got that 'fresh soul' scent I've seen on corpses numerous times."

As the Kasha's wiggling, hungering lips left him feeling uncomfortable, Alex hastily distracted her by saying, "So can we see your master now or what?"

Rin sprang up and replied merrily without hesitation, "Sure~! I'll show you to her quarters, follow me!"

She trotted down the hall with her hands snug at her hips and a merry tune whistle through her lips. As Alex and Shina followed, he created a warm, wet rag for her to clean her face off with. To Alex's relief especially, the two of them hadn't been that far off from where they needed to go. A minute's walk through a couple archways landed them and Rin in front of a smooth wooden door with a doorknob made to look like a glass rose.

Rin turned the knob and pulled the door open, greeting the person inside with a cheer of, "Lady Satori! Lady Satori! You have some visitors!"

Alex and Shina peered over the Kasha's head to take a look inside. The room had a crisply lit fireplace that carried the scent of cinnamon through the air, putting one's mind at ease. The room had a quiet atmosphere thanks to how little lighting there was, and the plentiful number of novels shelved on both sides made it clear the owner liked to read. And right now, that's simply what she did.

In the comfort of a small, cushioned chair with a silver frame, a young woman with short, messy purple hair topped by a black hairband with a small yellow heart on its left side. After flipping the page of her thousand page mystery novel with a humdrum murmur of curiousness, she leaned her head back and looked to her company with eyes half shut. But she didn't just look at them with two. There was a third red eye hovering by its lonesome from the side of her chest, attached to her body through a series of intertwining veins. Her wardrobe was simple, consisting of a blue shirt with yellow heart buttons and a pink collar, and a pink skirt with faint flowery patterns along with a pair of pink slippers. Her first name had been mentioned already, so it'd be uncouth not to include her last.

Satori Komeiji ~ Reclusive All-Seeing Eye

With a docile tilt of the head, Satori laid a bookmark flat on the page and put the closed book on the little table to her left. She then stood up sluggishly as though her body was ill, and gave her company a tiny smile while cupping a hand around the top of her third eye.

"A rare vistor, and a pair of them at that..." Satori spoke slow and eloquently, then closed her normal eyes and murmured quietly, "I see, your names are Shina Aurora and Alex Whiter..."

Shina laid a hand flat before her face and gasped, "H-How did-"

"You know?" Satori finished that sentence perfectly, devoid of any ill-will in doing so. She then squinted one eye open and commented, "'Oh that's right, a satori can read minds'. That is what your heart is saying to me."

Shina got embarrassed with herself for forgetting that, and bonked herself lightly on the head. Alex shook his head and remarked, "Yeah, so try not to think unnecessary thoughts Shina. Last thing we want-"

"'That annoying satori should clam up and leave our minds alone'." Satori remarked without a hint of self-restraint. She smiled a little and poked some fun at the boy, "Then perhaps you should work on making your thoughts less...obvious to me, yes?"

"Bitch..." He loudly grumbled in his mind. Satori winced for a moment, then shut her eyes and dryly muttered "No comment" as she dropped her hand down by her hip and proceeded to make her way towards the door.

The three of them stepped back so she could exit, and along the way she made a nonchalant remark of, "So you came to visit me specifically. Does it have something to do with a...Cosmos Drive? Or perhaps it has to do with-"

She peered back at Alex, who crossed his arms and counteracted his stray thoughts by specifically requesting of her in his mind, "I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't mention that in front of Shina."

Satori closed her eyes and slowly turned back, continuing on naturally in a docile manner, "Something else?"

Shina squeezed her fists by her chest and perked up to say, "Yes! We came down here searching for the Cosmos Drive! If ya can already read our minds, then-"

"Your heart has spoken for you already. I understand," Satori leaned back a bit and had an aloof, but empathetic stare towards the young Aurian, "And I will let you explore my palace to find what you need."

"That easily?" Alex was vastly surprised, yet a tad annoyed after all the shenanigans leading up to this point.

"...You really shouldn't complain so readily when someone's offering their assistance, no?" Satori commented with a snide wit.

"Hmph..." He replied while laying a hand against his hip.

Satori then turned to Rin and requested with a soft, pleasant voice, "Orin, can you please escort Shina around the palace for me?"

"Absolutely Lady Satori!" Rin responded with an eager bow of the head before latching her hand around Shina's left wrist and bouncing a couple times, "Come on! Come on! Lets get searching!"

"W-Wait a second! Rin!" Shina got dragged away against her will and looked back at Alex with wide eyes of bewilderment as he waved his hand up and said, "I'll catch up with you two in a bit!"

When they were gone, he looked back at Satori, who faced him with a quiet glint of curiosity plain as day in all three of her eyes. He crossed his arms and tapped his foot a bit, grumbling over the fact that he has to repeat the obvious, "So, you already saw what I was thinking..."

"Let us go for a walk." She casually responded. Alex didn't raise an objection to that, and followed the satori in the direction opposite the way Shina went.

He kept his distance from her, as he found her presence and powers eerie to be around. She could expose any one of his deepest, darkest secrets if he wasn't careful, and he sadly recognized his own lack of discipline necessary to avoid letting his mind go astray.

She laid one hand upon her Third Eye and murmured out of a resonance towards his wayward thoughts, "There's no need to resist so vehemently. I can only dig so deep into your thoughts."

"Doesn't make it any less creepy..." Alex remarked with a bothered scoff.

"Yet you came regardless. But...I suppose you were led do to so by more than one person, weren't you?" Satori closed her eyes and could vividly project their appearances in her own head, "A tanuki, and that oddly dressed goddess..."

"You met Hecatia?" He inquired, only for the satori to shake her head and remark, "Only heard of her in passing. But I know her word is to be trusted. And yet..."

It was subtle, but Satori's faced twisted slightly in confusion as a dour expression led to her staring from the side of her face towards Alex, "She wanted you to ask me about a battle between the Underground and the tengus?"

"She said it was important for me to know," Alex could feel that something was terribly off with Satori's hesitant tone of voice, and peeked her way with a slow, inquisitive remark of, "Don't tell me you don't know what she's referring to."

"Perhaps there were struggles for territory between the two in the olden days, long before I was born...But as of recent? The Spell Card Rules would readily put an end to such insanity."

Alex opened his mind a bit for her to read his memories of the fight with Shadow Junko, but only to prove a point he had to make, "But the rules clearly aren't concrete. Can you think of any reason, any whatsoever, that would lead to the two forces going to battle?"

Satori hung her head and went deep in thought while continuing to read Alex's mind to help herself along, "If anyone were to instigate a battle, it would be the Tengu. For the Underground to be their target, one of us would have had to breech their territory..."

She hummed in a mildly disturbed manner, and remarked without the slightest hesitation, "...There is the possibility that I may have been responsible, but there is only one reason that I'd be willing to go above ground."

"And that is?" His attempt to egg her on only led to her shaking her head and saying with dismay, "I'm afraid I cannot say. This is mere conjecture to begin with, and above all else it is absurd to imagine it having happened in reality."

Alex scowled and lightly kicked a foot up, "Then that'd mean Hecatia tricked me."

"Which doesn't make sense, even from what little I could gauge from the kind of person she is. She gains nothing from sending you here on a wild goose chase, which can only mean one thing...And it is even more absurd than my own theory."

She lifted her head and peered him straight in the eyes, saying something that was truly ominous, "Everyone involved in that 'battle' had their memories wiped of it."

"Amnesia?" Alex gasped in shock as he couldn't even begin to imagine how many tengu and Underground Youkai could have been involved, "On that big a scale?"

It didn't seem possible that Yukari could have accomplished such a task on her own, and yet...What had happened on other worlds was enough proof that the reach of her power was not to be underestimated. He clenched his teeth tightly and jerked his head hard to the right, leaving even Satori feeling off being in the midst of such intense frustration.

"...So she's the one you feel's responsible? Yes, you presume this based on similar dealings in the past..." Satori closed her eyes and murmured deep in thought, "That Youkai...she helped the red-white maiden when she came here before."

"Are your memories resurfacing?"

"No. But something about recalling that Youkai rekindled a spark of familiarity in my heart." Satori stopped near the palace's foyer, which had a stairwell that split two ways to a second floor, and had a large stained glass canvas beaming down onto the floor.

"I have an idea. And yes, I know you're thinking 'Ugh, what now?', but it would be nice if you went along with what I have planned."

"You know, I'm really not surprised your only friends are your pets..." Alex threw some quick shade out of pity, but Satori flung it right back by making what he said come off as a good thing, "The less noise there is, the more reading I get down. I fail to see the downside."

"Now come..." She murmured while swaying an arm out and heading for the foyer, "We are going to have a quick Spell Card Duel, which I know you just love to take part in."

Alex lagged behind her and dug his feet firmly into the ground, shaking his head a bit and sighing, "Ok fiiine, I'll bite. Why do you want to have a Spell Card Duel?"

"A mind cannot permanently forget something. It may become difficult to recall, but the subconscious offers permanent storage for any and all memories. Proper mental stimuli can coerce these dormant memories out into the open. So even if I expose myself to the faintest traces of that Youkai's presence in your mind..."

"You'll eventually be able to recall your lost memories," It wasn't a bad plan, Alex had to admit, but one part of it didn't make sense, "...So why the Spell Card duel again?"

"What? Do you see me as so dull and revolting a creature that the idea of me wanting to have fun is simply too foreign to comprehend?" She remarked with a rather slick smile, having read the boy's mind like an open book.

He leaned back with a sharp 'Tsk!' and then swung his right arm out, his heart igniting with a drive to do battle, "Whatever Satori. I'll gladly accept your challenge s'long as you don't slack off!"

Satori reached the foot of the staircase and turned around, clasping her third eye as an intense gleam was reflected in all of her eyes. A silent wind lifted her body off the ground, and she rested her free arm out with a tiny smile on her face, "My Third Eye reads all that the heart lays bare. Secrets are like the pages of a book to me. Even you cannot hide your darkest secrets from me, young Elemental Overlord."

"Well that's not what we're focusing on." Alex said as he assumed his battle stance.

"Then do your part and show me what it is I need to see," Satori held onto her Third Eye and concentrated deeply on Alex's mind, "Hmmm, you've been working on a Spell Card in your head?"

"U-Ummm..." He couldn't outright admit that she was right, even if she already knew. Somehow, warming up to the idea of Spell Card Duels was just that embarrassing for him.

"Then perhaps I shall make that envisioned Danmaku come to life," She projected a Spell Card from her Third Eye and cupped her hands around it, saying the name that Alex had planned for it, "Reflection of the Inner Soul 'Seven Elemental Purge'."

The Spell Card shattered, and quickly was Satori surrounded by three pinwheels made of fire, lightning and ice. The ice one resembled a snowflake, the fire one resembled a firework sprinkler, and the lightning one resembled just a normal pinwheel. Each pinwheel spun around and sent flurries of their respective element out in many condensed waves spread out to cover multiple directions.

The foyer was wide open enough to dodge around them at first, but he knew that there was more troublesome additions on the way. Drops of rain slowly pittered from above, and vines stretched inward from both sides. Flowers grew from the vines and spread Danmaku out in fuzzy clouds made to look like pollen. It didn't seem too bad, and in his honest opinion he had created a pretty fair Spell Card so far.

It was just so bizarre to have someone else utilizing his elemental prowess like this. He hadn't faced anyone like that since-

"An evil clone? What a fascinating twist on your tale." Satori rudely blurted out, and in swift, bitter retaliation Alex drowned her mind with visions of the one she should be focusing on.

A few of the fire, electricity and ice Danmaku scraped against his body as he was backing off from the water and grass. The vines retracted momentarily and opened the way for Alex to charge forth and pound the air with close range blasts of fire upon Satori. She flinched a little but didn't lose focus on her goal.

Alex flipped back, twisting and turning between the Danmaku waves until he landed safely far away from the onslaught. Then the ground trembled, and a stalactite erupted beneath his feet. He leapt to the right at the last second, but there wasn't just one of those to be concerned about. A trail of stalactites tracked him down wherever he hopped off to, making for a more difficult time when it came to dodging.

Alex had fleet feet to be sure, but even this proved to be a bit much. Satori was the one who spoke his thoughts plain as day, "Yes, this may be a little unfair."

"Well! Glad I could be a guinea pig for my own damn card!" Alex kept on the run and decided 'Screw it!' on occasion just to flick some fireballs Satori's way.

"For being called a 'Seven Elemental Purge', you appear to be missing the wind." Satori commented, acting more as a critic than the silent observer he was hoping she'd be.

"Wind's ethereal, you can't make Danmaku outta that!" Alex remarked before rolling between a pair of stagnant stalactites and thrusting his hands out to fire two large lightning bolts. He then got right up and flipped back away from the next rising stalactite, firing a few fireballs as he spun in mid-air.

The moment he landed he zipped forward and leapt over the incoming stalactite, squeezing tightly between many waves of bullets while clasping his palms together to send a very large fireball at Satori. He fell into a roll forward and then made a long leap back, rapid-firing compressed air by the dozen load.

His right pant leg snagged on a rising stalactite and tripped him into a thick swarm of Danmaku, wearing him down quite a bit. He stood up and felt his heart race as he escaped the next stalactite in his part, followed by him weaving between the rain and pollen to once more approach Satori.

"Having any luck so far?!" He demanded to know.

Satori shook her head and critiqued him bluntly, "You're not focusing hard enough. Is our duel to blame?"

"Doubt it!" He fiercely denied while keeping up the pressure with his own attacks. After a few more seconds of this, the Spell Card suddenly broke, much to Alex's surprise.

"Seriously? How is a card I made that weak...?" He slumped and shook his head, then looked up at Satori, who was mulling something over with herself.

"There's gotta be a better way to do this." He bemoaned with his hands laid aloof.

"The problem is that your mind wanders too much, even outside of battle. But...I think there is a way to fix that," She raised her Third Eye and from it came a wavy, psychadellic pulse of energy, "Just stare into my Third Eye and I shall dig deep into your psyche, and force the proper memories to surface."

"W-Wait, I don't think that's a good ide...a..." Alex quieted down for a few seconds, his pupils losing that flicker of life and making his eyes appear completely blank. His mouth hung agape as Satori did what was necessary to pry the proper thoughts free.

But as she reached into his deeper subconscious, she saw something, someone, staring her back. It tickled her mind with a slightly unhinged giggle, and a jolt up her spine froze her body stiff. Alex snapped back to reality shaking his head, then immediately lashed out at Satori in anger, "Hey hey! None of that hypnotism shit! I mean-"

Yet upon looking at the satori, she saw that all her eyes had turned completely blank, like her soul vacated her body and left a puppet corpse suspended eeriely in the air. Her hands slowly magnetized to her Third Eye as her body released a heart-pounding pulse of raw power that Alex recalled with dread.

He leaned back and bit his teeth into a scowl, murmuring internally with the freedom of his mind restored, "That's...that's not a good sign..."

From her Third Eye, Satori created a Spell Card. But there was no pretense of hope or imagination in this Spell Card, which was as black as the blackest depths of space. Destruction, despair, fear, that is the power that dominated this Spell Card. The intensity of the negativity it represented set the card ablaze between her cupped hands, with her feeling no worse for the wear.

As though it was possible for her to sound even more monotone, Satori spoke the name of this forbidden card, "Visions of Turmoil 'Hellfire of Destruction'..."

A powerful blast of flames burst forth from in front of Satori and struck Alex head-on, forcing him back ten feet. Smoke lingered on his body for a bit, and a scorch mark was formed on the ground even though that was clearly meant to be Danmaku. Before he could begin to comprehend what was happening, chaos unraveled before his very eyes as more spurts of equally powerful flames erupted all-around Satori and brought destruction and devastation to the palace.

Pillars of stone were broken like rice paper, the beautiful stained glass portrait shattered to dust, and the floors were scorched beyond feasible recognition. Alex evaded the fire blasts, able to keep up with their random nature due to the fact that he'd fired many attacks similar to this in the past. The intent was not to win a Spell Card Duel, but to raise as much Hell as physically possible. This was not Satori's doing, and it sure as heck wasn't his...In some manner of speaking.

Pure unrelenting destruction signified one answer, and that was that Satori had accidentally made contact with his other personality buried deep within and her mind has temporarily broken because of it. Alex cursed himself for letting that happen, and knew he had to make this right before the whole entire palace collapsed on top of them.

Blasts of flame were intersped with rings of vicious hellfire capable of wiping out entire cities in an instant. Disobeying the rules they may have been, but this Danmaku still operated under the assumption that they were in the middle of a duel. Alex couldn't use his powers to dispel them, he just had to charge straight at Satori and break this chaotic card through sheer brute force.

But as he leapt from the ground and rocketed her way, a blast of flame struck him with all its might and forced him back to where he started, leaving the front of his body singed as though he'd just gotten out of an oven. He clenched his fists, bit his teeth down, and charged forward again without a second's hesitation. The fire tried to fend him off, but he just kept going at it unrelenting in his determination.

"You're not going to ruin anymore lives, you blasted other self!" He buckled down against the might of his own power, straining every muscle in his body to keep the flames from forcing him away. They came in such great a number that it seemed as though breaking through would prove impossible.

But if there was one thing Alex had defined his life by, it was defying the impossible, even when it came to himself. It was that same will of mind that Satori needed at this very moment, and Alex was sure as hell not going to let her succumb from a lack of one.

Even through the flames of chaos, Alex could perceive the pain the satori was suffering. Her body shook, and a trickle of blood was coming from her left nostril. Being forced to command this power was something she would have never been prepared for even after a thousand years of practice. It was in her nature to be a satori and nothing else. An annoying, snooping satori, but a satori nonetheless.

It was a cursed fate to be so detached from others due to one's birthright, but that didn't mean she deserved to suffer for that curse. Alex knew that in her heart there was a genuine love for both her pets, and for a little sister whose mind she could no longer read.

So Alex kept charging towards the flames of destruction, defying his own cursed fate in the process. He smashed every pound of his body into the flames and continued to slowly make progress towards the satori. When he was but inches away, he reached both his hands out and grabbed onto her shoulders. The flames continued to rebel against his advances, pressuring his body with forces rivaling the propulsion of a rocket ship.

Yet with his lips flapping about and his face feeling ready to peel off, he leaned his head back in, and roared loudly at the satori, "Wake...UP!"

He smashed his forehead into hers, and with a thunderous break the fragile Spell Card stopped instantly. Her eyes widened with a blanketed stare of confusion, and as Alex suffered the last recoil the Spell Card had to offer she began to collapse towards the ground.

He shook his head and bolted to her aid, using a hand to gently grab the back of her head and keep it from colliding with the broken, craggy staircase. She was then left unconscious for a few seconds as he carried her down to the somewhat smoother floor.

But as she woke up, her immediate course of action was to rub her head and groan quietly, "...What was that all about?"

"You might've dug a little too deep into my head there." Alex chose to be at least a little honest. She deserved that much.

She shook her head and got up after he let go. Touching her Third Eye, she could feel the lingering sentiment of anger inside Alex's head and questioned him thusly, "What was that thing...?"

"Do you really want to get into that now?" His firm tone of voice combined with a gesture towards the destruction the Spell Card caused during its brief stint dissuaded any further prodding from Satori. She silently shook her head and then closed her eyes, trying to brush the matter off with a swift change in subject matter.

"...It was a rather roundabout way of going about it, but...I think I'm starting to remember what happened."

Alex knew he shouldn't be happy that it took a traumatic shock to rattle those forgotten memories loose, but hey, he'll take what he can get at this point. But as she was about to open her mouth regarding those memories, fate, of course, had to kick him in the nads one more time.

"SHRAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"

A powerfully shrill shriek echoed up from deep, deep underground. It was a shriek of incredibly power, that rattled even the stoic Satori to her core. She began to sweat, and gripped her Third Eye tightly.

Alex looked around, his eardrums throbbing in pain, and exclaimed in utter disbelief, "What the HELL was that?!"

"I-I don't know, but it sounded like it came from..." Satori's eyes widened to the point of bulging out of her sockets, and she immediately dashed for the hallway while proclaiming frantically, "Alex Whiter! Come with me, quickly!"

"H-Hey!" Alex pursued after her, a part of him beginning to worry about Shina's well-being as he inquired, "Where are we going?!"

"...To the Hell of Blazing Fires." Hearing that name spoken from a woman with skin now more pale than snow left a feeling of dread welling up inside Alex's stomach. He knew who was down there, and if that shriek belonged to them...Then once more, Yukari had dug her claws deep into another hapless victim.

Next Time: Nuclear Duo, Orin and Okuu