Its been said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results. And to some extent that is true. For example, is someone insane for repeating an activity that they find fun multiple times, even if the end result is always failure?
What about a socially awkward person attempting to find love, only to be shot down everytime? If they keep trying, in spite of failure, then does that make them insane, or determined?
How about attempting to cut food to try out a new recipe for the first time? Lets say you're clumsy, and you cut your hand every time. Even though they're minor wounds, they keep adding up. So should you stop? You're doing something that is actively hurting you, and you're not getting any better at it.
Or perhaps you want to try rock climbing for the first time. You find a place to practice, a gym perhaps, but you're not very good at it. You always jump too early, you always apply improper grip, you always fall down. Your peers worry about you. You worry about you. But you keep going anyways, ergo you should be classified as insane.
But eventually that person will get good at that activity. They will find someone to love. They will stop cutting themselves. They WILL scale that rock wall. As long as the possibility remains for change, then change will happen, even if they aren't aware of it.
No, true insanity lies in expecting change to come from outcomes that have long since been destined to occur.
A blind man will never be able to see through their own eyes again.
A writer cannot be expected to get better on their own, they must learn from other materials, from other authors.
A loved one will always die before your very eyes, gripping the cold knife upon which they took their own life with.
And a hero will eventually fall to their own inner turmoil, and become that which they despite the most.
You can either willingly accept this outcome, or struggle in vain to change it. But when you push so hard to change the impossible, that is when you truly turn insane. And sometimes, not even death will free you from insanity.
...Yet, that's the curious thing about insanity. There's no peak to it. Inevitably, insanity loops back around to sanity. If you live long enough or are smart enough, you will see how true this is. Then, and only then, can one truly fight the impossible.
The key to outwitting the whims of fate is to face the impossible with an impossibility of your own. Something so equally insane that it changes any preconceived notions of cohesive scripture the universe may have had. Yes, there is really no other option left.
To change the future, insanity MUST be victorious.
Chapter 26: Border of Life I: The Black Stained Blossoms
The immediate confrontation between Yuyuko and her guests was a silent one. She viewed them both with a carefree air around her as she levitated beneath the shade of the hollow tree's branches. She saw Alex's fists tense up as he hid them in his pockets, his teeth snarled like a wolf's fangs. She saw Shina cautiously hold her weapons partway towards her, as though hesitant to make the first move.
Her gardener Youmu was on the ground directly below, painfully perplexed as expected. Yuyuko wordlessly vowed to make it up to her later, but her part in all this was now over. Thus with a gentle lift of her folded fan, held even with the length of her arm, Yuyuko winked one eye shut and whispered, "Youmu, will you please stand aside?"
Youmu shot right up and her right eye winced shut. She turned around and grabbed onto her blades, her eyes drawn towards the invaders, "I-I can still fight Lady Yuyuko!"
"Youmu." Yuyuko spoke once, her tone no different than before, and Youmu froze up and slowly swerved her head back. Her aggression was disarmed through a single smile which she soon hid back behind her fan, which was waved gently.
"I kindly asked you to stand aside. Would you, please?"
Youmu tightened her grip on her blades and her lips quivered. She then stood up with head hung low, and wallowed in her failure as she stepped off to the left. Shina felt bad for her, but knew she wouldn't have been receptive to pity from the enemy.
Yuyuko then descended a few feet lower, ending up ten feet above the ground, and closed her eyes. What kept Alex from attacking her then and there was an outright lack of hostility.
Her emotions were genuine, but her body didn't project the same feeling. If she held him in disdain, then it'd only show at her discretion.
"But being Yukari's friend, its obvious how she feels..." Alex thought. There WAS her power to consider to. Yuyuko could kill anyone instantly. Quite the gruesome power for one who looked so pure from a distance, but it was something that rested in the back of Alex's thoughts as he worked out how to proceed.
He couldn't "poke the angry lion" so to speak. He didn't know how Yuyuko's power activated. Was it through words? Thoughts? Could she even kill them from where she was?
Or perhaps he was being overly paranoid? At this point he wouldn't admit that, but it held some degree of truth. Perhaps Yuyuko just simply won't use her power...
"I'm not taking any chances. We've come too damn far!" Alex resigned himself to standing back as a silent observer, a role Yuyuko likewise shared.
It was Shina who first took action. She swung her fists down and raised her voice in protest of the situation, "What do ya want from us?! Heck, what does Yukari want from us?! Come on, don't we deserve some answers?!"
Alex quickly regretted not telling her to be quiet as she laid out her questions to Yuyuko without fear. He quickly leaned her way and growled through his teeth, "Are you TRYING to get us killed?!"
Shina reeled back a ways from Alex and swung her hands up, puzzled as to why he'd be getting mad, "D-Don't gimme that Alex, you're thinking the same things!"
After swinging a finger up to her face his mouth gawked open before being swiftly clamped shut, upon which he crossed his arms and grumbled, "That's not the point Shina."
"But she's not wrong you know." Yuyuko interjected, her soft-spoken voice somehow managing to reach.
They faced her, and she waved her fan around before her face while she spoke, "You made it this far. Your efforts should be rewarded. But whether or not I have the answers you seek...That is something I'll leave up to you."
She stiffened her fan in place, tilting her head with a giggle, "Go ahead. Ask away."
Alex dug his hands into his pockets and faced Yuyuko, "Fine then. Lets start with the most obvious question."
He thrust one hand up in the blink of an eye to point at her. His eyes were flared wide open, devoid of restraint that carried through into his voice, "What the HELL is Yukari's plan here?!"
Yuyuko shut her eyes and remained upright. Only her dress moved, swept up by the gentle breeze. Alex curled his finger into a fist and grit his teeth. When Shina heard his knuckles crack she said to try and calm him down, "She's not going to tell us Alex..."
His eyes squeezed shut and as he brought his arm back down he asked instead, "Why AREN'T you going to tell us?"
"Because its not my place."
"Why not?" Alex growled.
Yuyuko went silent again, but this time time there was something resembling melancholy behind her actions. "Perhaps she simply did not know?" Would be what someone even an iota more rational than Alex would think.
But that was a concept unfathomable to both the blind and the enraged. A scowl formed on the left of his face, his pupils shrank, and he bitterly snipped at Yuyuko, "This is a goddamn waste of time."
He then swung his hand back up more viciously than before and yelled, "You're not telling us anything!"
Yuyuko closed her eyes and waved her fan some more. Shina then laid her hands atop his arm, her soft touch making it easier to lower it. With a gaze into his eyes she softly nodded.
He looked away, ashamed, and kept his arms down. Then Shina turned just her head towards Yuyuko and asked, "...Is the Cosmos Drive here?"
Yuyuko shook her head, and Shina bit down tensely on her lower lip. She thought it over, then asked again, "Do you know where the Cosmos Drive is?"
"Maybe I do? Maybe I don't?" Yuyuko playfully teased. A curious way to respond, certainly, but Shina was inclined to believe that she was telling the truth.
"Ok then..." Shina rolled her lips back and mumbled a bit to herself, making sure her next question was worded right, "Does Yukari know?"
"Of course she does..." Alex grumbled, prompting her to quietly hush him then gesture for him to pay attention to Yuyuko. The princess went silent, then lowered her fan a bit to reveal a smile. She didn't say a word, yet ironically spoke enough.
Shina nodded twice then pumped her fist up with a quiet "Yes!" of celebration. And after divulging this information, Shina's next course of action was obvious, "Then that means Yukari's in possession of it, yeah?"
Yuyuko's eyes slowly creaked open, revealing her wily intentions, "I never said that. She knows, and I may or may not. Does that mean its here in Gensokyo? In her hands specifically? I imagine it'd be rather difficult for her to have it."
Shina fluttered her eyelashes and muttered, "Huh? Whaddya mean by that?"
Alex crossed his arms and thought and thought until he couldn't think anymore. There was one question stored away in the back of his mind that had been nagging him all day. Mamizou didn't know the answer to it. Shikieiki was certain in hers, but there was room for doubt. But Yuyuko? Yuyuko would either confirm it directly, or through her silent treatment.
"Is Yukari Yakumo dead or alive?" He asked.
Shina swung towards him, understandably bewildered, "Yukari's dead?! But Alex, you JUST said that she-"
"I know what I said Shina, but..." Alex scratched the side of his head and murmured sheepishly, "Remember how I said I first suspected Yukari when I talked to Mamizou?"
"Yeah?"
"Well...By Mamizou's account, Yukari was killed a couple years ago by Tenshi."
Shina's mouth dropped a little, then she glanced aside and rolled with it, "Uhhh, ok..."
Before Alex said a word she shook her head and wildly swung her arms down, "No no no! That makes no sense! If Yukari's dead, like...DEAD dead, then how could she've been the mastermind?"
"Ex-ACTLY," Alex snapped a couple fingers up from his left elbow and looked at Shina as she fluttered her eyelashes some more, "Our encounters with the mastermind contradict Mamizou's story. Yukari pulled the wool right over their eyes, and faked her death."
Shina rubbed the side of her face and pondered, "But...why?"
"That witch can answer for herself 'Why'," Alex swung his pointer finger towards Yuyuko and yelled triumphantly, "No more of this silent treatment bullshit Yuyuko. I want answers! Yukari's alive, isn't she?"
Yuyuko folded her fan, making a fine snapping sound, then planted it atop her open palm. Her papery curtain fallen, she revealed a serene look on her face that allowed her to look the boy straight in the eyes and say without pause, "No, she is not."
Alex's hand reeled back, and shivers ran through his heart. His right hand lowered, trembling all the way. His head slowly shook, its pace quickening as denial ran rampant through his mind.
"There's been some curious circumstances happen' after her so-called 'death'. Like how I've actually been seein' her around a few times since then."
"If Yukari Yakumo were to ever cheat death, there'd be no escape for her. Either a Shinigami or a Kishin would have been sent to deal with her offense."
These two statements were in direct conflict with what Yuyuko just revealed. It should've been painfully obvious that the ghost was playing a joke, but she lacked an expression of joy. No giggle, no smile. She was dead silent, as though in mourning.
Alex clutched his fists and hunched forward with an unforgiving snarl, "Getting real sick and tired of all this leading on. You'd be better off telling us the truth, Yuyuko."
The princess patted her fan down twice, then smacked it down extra hard, lifting it straight up unfolded before her face. She turned her body, poised with grace, and looked towards him with one eye partially open, "You break into my home, attack my gardener, and then call me a liar?"
The way her face moved after suggested she was smiling, "And then you besmirch my friend's name after death. How very rude."
"Rude?!" Alex's body flared up, as did his eyes, full of rage and disdain. He shook his head and sounded like he was simply done with everything, "I don't want to hear that! There's no way in HELL Yukari's dead!"
"Where's your proof?" Yuyuko asked sternly.
Alex swiped his right arm down and declared, "You know who I am! Phoenix of Destruction ain't exactly something that comes up in casual conversation!"
Yuyuko shut her eyes and met his deductions word for word, "But that doesn't prove that she's still alive now, right? She could have told me all about you before she died."
"Could she?" Alex grimaced and started to think, "Yukari 'died' two years ago...That's months before our journey began. Yuyuko could've been told everything about me before hand, but..."
He was reminded of what else Mamizou had said, how Yukari was aware they were coming five years in advance. He had just gotten his start as an Elemental Overlord at the time though...
"But Hecatia said Yukari works for the 'higher-ups', so she'd have known about me taking up his mantle." That reasoning didn't gel with what he just recalled.
"...Five years ago?" His eyes wandered downward, with him biting his teeth down and feeling colder by the second, "Rethink this through Alex...Yukari knew about my other title, and that I'd be coming here five years ago. Two years ago, six months before me and Shina went searching for the Cosmos Drive, she 'died' to Tenshi. By Mamizou's account, Yukari was damn certain that she'd be able to survive to stop the Phoenix of Destruction. She could've gotten overzealous and died from something she couldn't have predicted, but that doesn't make sense..."
"Anyone who has the foresight to predict someone's arrival five years in advance wouldn't have been taken by surprise...Which means Yukari's 'demise' was all according to plan. But how did she come back to life without attracting Shikieiki's attention? How did she accomplish everything she did as the 'mastermind'?"
Alex's eyes sagged. The more he thought, the more tired he got. He could've sworn for a moment that his brain was going to have a stroke if he kept this up, and started rubbing the front of his head as the pain inside swelled and throbbed.
"Goddamn it..." Was one way to describe all this.
With somewhat blurry vision he looked over to Yuyuko, knowing one thingthat is true, "She's full of shit. Yukari's alive. Probably even watching us right now and laughing her ass off."
He looked to Shina, whose eyes were blank while the rest of her face was perplexed trying to solve this mystery. He saved her the trouble by bluntly telling her, "Don't waste your time Shina."
He said, glaring his eyes through Yuyuko's ghastly, hollow body, "This is all just a game to her."
She shivered and laid her fan directly against her face, "Oh my, so much hostility in the air. Perhaps they call you the Phoenix of Destruction because you destroy the happiness of any place you enter?"
"Quit the joking around already, your act's grown stale!"
"Where was the joke?" Yuyuko gleamed at him through one eye, "How many places would've been better off if you hadn't shown up?"
"Shut up," Alex's wild emotions left him unaware of how little control he had over his body as he started to raise his right hand up and clutch his fingers together in an aggressive manner, as though squeezing the ghost's heart, "If you're going to be Yukari's mouthpiece, then its better you haul the bitch right out here for us!"
"She's dead. What part of that don't you get?"
"I've got...zero reasons to trust you."
Shina was in agreement, albeit nowhere near as harshly as Alex was portraying the issue as, "It doesn't matter if Yukari's dead or alive. What about you Yuyuko?"
The ghost closed her eyes and whispered, "Whatever do you mean, Shina Aurora?"
Shina crossed her arms before her chest and quietly pondered, "Do ya plan on being our enemy too?"
Yuyuko folded up her fan, and put it in the pocket of her kimono. She then laid her arms down, and admitted the truth lied buried in her heart, "I plan on finishing what my friend started years ago."
She turned her head and smiled. It was genuine, just like what she said, "This is your last chance to leave, Shina Aurora. Will you take it, or will your corpse join your lovers' in feeding the cherry blossoms of the Netherworld?"
"I think it miiiight be kinda late for me to look the other way?" Shina's confusion over everything left her uncertain up until she thrust her pistols up towards Yuyuko, upon which she declared firmly to her face, "I get you're Yukari's friend and all, but can ya really overlook what she's done?"
Yuyuko played along with Shina's puppy-like obedience of Alex's assumptions while wearing a smile, "Sometimes you have to stick by your friend's side, even at their worst. If she was alive, I'd agree with what she had done in a heartbeat."
She stared towards Shina, and her voice deepened somewhat, "Much like how you have willingly overlooked the destruction the young Elemental Overlord has caused."
Shina's face tensed up with a slight scowl, and she glanced a little towards Alex. He looked at her back, but only for a moment. She swung her head forward, and held her shaking pistols in close proximity to one another.
Yuyuko hung and shook her head, clicking her tongue as though feeling a mild sense of pity for the girl, "Its not your fault for being misled by the Phoenix of Destruction's cries for sympathy. You're young. You don't know any bet-"
A fireball briskly flew past Yuyuko's face, singing a few strands of hair clean off. She widened her eyes and looked towards Alex, whose face showed no emotion except tiredness. He squeezes his smoking fingers into a fist, holding it up towards the ghost. When his teeth grit into a scowl, tears drop from his eyes. These were not tears of anger...
"Shut up already..." He growled, frightening Shina a little as the twinge of insanity in his voice reminded her of that monster his split-personality had become.
"I haven't done CRAP to deserve being treated like the villain. Yukari's the one who has aligned herself with villains across multiple worlds. Yukari's the one responsible for any deaths and destruction they caused. There is nothing righteous about her cause. She's just some bitch that treats the people around her like playthings, including you!"
...Yuyuko stood there, as dead silent as the air around her. She drew her right hand up, and from it summoned a Spell Card glistening as pale as her ghastly skin, "And you let yourself be played, even until this fated moment. When you finally accept the embrace of death, Alex Whiter, remember this..."
Her eyes widened and became as blank as the depths of space. Her voice became hollow, devoid of the most basic emotions, which left Youmu scared, "You could have lived."
Her fan slipped from her sleeve and fell onto her open hand, which she then clutched firmly and opened, using it in a graceful piourette that culminating in her delivering a clean slice through the Spell Card.
"Blossom of Spring 'The Ignoble Fall of Winter'." She stated in her normal voice while basking in the glow of the petals that suddenly appeared on the giant tree.
She held her arms aloft and floated higher up, closing her eyes as the vestiges of her first Danmaku blended in with the luminosity of the cherry blossom. They emerged in countless numbers, five of them bundled close together to make them resemble the first blossoming flowers of springtime. Their colors were bright and cheery, ranging from pink, blue and yellow.
Then the bullets spread apart, flying towards the two in perfectly aligned lines. Alex and Shina watched them for a second then turned to each other. Their emotions were at an all-time peak, but they weren't about to lose each other over it. They were so close to the end of their journey, and regardless of how deep Yukari's machinations went or how many of her allies were thrown their way...They would defeat win, standing side-by-side as they had from the very beginning.
The two took flight holding hands, then broke off in a haste as the Danmaku got closer. Alex attacked from the right, slingshotting past all the bullets coming his way while flicking as many fireballs he could towards Yuyuko. Shina went to the left, weaving around the Danmaku as her own bullets flew straight towards their target.
Yuyuko added petal shaped bullets to the mix, making them rain gently like newly formed snow. Alex endured the attacks and kept trudging closer, hitting Yuyuko with bigger fireballs. Shina remained patient and weaved away, sticking to fast paced weaponry.
She noticed how some of the petals were coming apart in a foggy manner, and yelled across the battlefield to Alex, "Watch out! There's a trick to these bullets!"
Alex responded in turn, "I'll be fine! Focus on hitting her with everything you've got!"
He clasped his palms together and blasted Yuyuko with a large explosive fireball, shaking some real petals off the cherry blossom trees and sending a hot, blustery breeze towards Shina. She kept an eye on the petal bullets, ready to swing out of the way if they tried anything funny.
When some of the petals started breaking apart, eight wispy white trails no thicker than fog spread out and collapsed towards Shina. She slipped between a couple of them, and upon all eight pressing together they burst into a flowery, circular array of bullets as big as a tree.
Shina was snared by a few of them, feeling the warmth of spring inside each and every one. She was fighting for her life, yet her opponent still treated her Danmaku with beauty and delicacy. It almost threw Shina off-guard. Almost.
Meanwhile Alex failed to heed Shina's advice, and when the wisps flew his way they struck him full force one-by-one and shoved him far over the field of cherry blossom trees. He shook his head and charged right back towards Yuyuko with a growl, running rickshaw through her Danmaku until he was point-blank to strike her with a lightning bolt.
Her lips moved independent from the rest of her body to form a smile, and a flash of brisk crimson-pink appeared on both sides of her body. A laser emerged from those lights and swept Alex aside as it split apart into five others, one side going down while the other went up. It was like watching a dancer unfurling a pair of fans as they twirled in place, mystifying the audience with their beauty.
Shina had better luck getting out of the way, but then ran into a few of those trails and was knocked back. Her and Alex shook the disorientation off and flew simultaneously back towards Yuyuko, who sent more lasers forth in opposing directions.
Alex tucked his legs in and held his breath after a gasp. He then thrust his hands out and focused two massive lightning bolts on Yuyuko, their impact shaking the foundation of the Netherworld. The tremors troubled Shina's aim along with her concentration on her foe's Danmaku, making her ram straight into plenty of them.
Yuyuko was showing no signs of fatique, perhaps the one blessing being a ghost granted her. It annoyed Alex, however, who kept pounding her with his strongest lightning bolts as though this was an actual fight. The princess' elegant storm chipped away at his stamina and forced him back, repeating the cycle of him charging forward and attacking in futility.
But when combined with Shina's carefully planned assault, the two stood a chance of weathering Yuyuko's Spell Card to the very end. Between the vibrant cherry blossoms and her beautiful Danmaku, it was an unforgettable sight to behold. It was almost a pity that between everyone who could possibly be observing this, only one person would care...
Through a war of attrition, Alex and Shina's efforts bore fruit, and Yuyuko's Danmaku shattered and scattered to the four wind like bright ashes. She lowered her arms and slowly opened her eyes partway, her company surrounding her on both sides with their hands raised. Shina started to lower her guns, while Alex's remained raised with an animosity to rival that of a god of war.
Yuyuko's lips twisted up into a smile as she tilted her head and prepared for summon another Spell Card. Alex's eyes and nostrils flared open, and he bolted straight for her while proclaiming, "We're done playing games!"
He stretched his hand out prematurely to reach for her arm, only for his path to be diverted by a vicious grip around his wrist. His arm was forced down, dislodging his shoulder partway, and five claws tips easily dug into the nerves of his hand and held him in place through pain alone.
Alex's heart thumped hard, and the echoes of a primal hound's howl entered his mind. He forced himself to look up, and was greeted by eyes as bright and yellow as the full moon. They belonged to a woman of fearsome discipline and intellect with short blonde hair and nine fox tails. The blue and light purple dress she wore made her appear sagely, but all Alex saw was what lied on the surface of her eyes.
A ferocity unlike any other shone inside, subtle as the movements of a puppy. Comparing her to a puppy was quite apt, for Alex could only recognize her as such. But she didn't belong to just anyone. No, her loyalty lied only with Yukari.
Ran Yakumo ~ The Proud Kitsune on a Leash
She stared at Alex with a rustled nose and a tiny scowl that was enough to bear a fang. She then sent Alex flying with a gentle toss, and he felt weightless until he was able to regain control. He grabbed his bleeding wrist and shook it around, staring at the kitsune as she put her back to Yuyuko and placed both arms in her sleeves.
"Miss Saigyouji, why are you playing around?" She spoke with a deep, alluring maturity.
Yuyuko placed a sleeve up by her face and chuckled, "Am I not allowed to have fun? I hope you didn't come all the way here to spoil it, Ran."
The kitsune guffawed and closed her eyes, "Hardly."
She then drew her claws, stained with Alex's blood, towards him as a taunt. She leered at him with shrunken pupils and an undisturbable stature greater than a mountain's, "In fact, I'd be honored to fight at your side, Miss Saigyouji."
"Great, now the fucking lapdog's here..." Alex sighed, although this was pretty much expected to happen anyways. Ran showing up just saved him and Shina the trouble of hunting her down later.
With a smile filled with fangs that could shred steel, Ran boasted to the tense Overlord, "I've waited a long time to feast on you, Phoenix of Destruction. May your souls satiate me with a bountiful banquet of howls!"
Next Time: Inescapable Death