Carrying the both of us while also flying, fighting and trying to capture flying objects required a little reorganization to be at all feasible. Instead of the usual configuration with Renko and I holding either one of Sanae's hands, she had me hold her left hand with my right and hold Renko's hand with my left. In Renko's left hand was the old rice sack, to be used for scooping up UFOs.
"Will this work?" I asked incredulously as we lined up outside of our office.
"On a mission like this, it's bound to! You two can be my options. Don't tell me they don't have Gradius in the future."
I looked at her, baffled, but Sanae just smiled. "Here we go!" she cried. As before, the winds swirled around us and lifted us into the air. First Sanae, then myself and finally Renko, who dangled for a moment before seeming to find the air solid enough to stand on. Our little formation wobbled slightly, listing to one side, but it seemed to work.
"It's not the most elegant, but there's no time to waste, Sanae. Where's the last place you saw the treasure ship?"
"Near the mountain, but it was headed toward the Forest of Magic. It's probably there by now."
"Then that's where we should head. Hifuu Detective Agency, launch!"
Dutifully, Sanae kicked off of a mid-air pentacle and we sailed away. Over the course of our journey, which bent south from the Forest of Magic, over towards the Garden of the Sun, past the Bamboo Forest of the Lost and then towards the Hakurei shrine in a widening counter-clockwise spiral, Sanae shot down numerous fairies. Some of them did indeed seem to be playing with or hoarding more chunks of glowing wood, some the size of toothpicks and others larger than my hand. Renko dutifully herded them all into the bag. Most of the fairies were simply wandering about aimlessly, but some of them fought back, in some cases attacking us from behind without provocation. All of them seemed oddly aggressive and possessive of their wooden treasures. There was little time to question it though as we moved along at such a pace that we barely had time to see a flight of them buzzing through the sky before Sanae would dive or curve toward them, whipping projectiles from the tip of her wand. At the edge of the Forest of Magic we also happened across a youkai who attempted to bar our path, in the form of a flying girl with an umbrella who leapt up out of the canopy of the forest in an effort to ambush us. Being as the attempt was made in the middle of the open skies though, there wasn't much to be surprised about.
"Come on, it's a little surprising, right? How often do you see an umbrella flying through the sky like this?" the youkai had pleaded in response to our deadpan reaction.
"In this day and age they're making tiny helicopters for kids that you can fly around inside your room. No one would be surprised by something like that," Sanae replied.
"So I'm behind the times?"
"Well karakasa obake are a pretty old fashioned kind of youkai. They're in cartoons and stuff, so not even little kids are afraid of them anymore. And your umbrella is the color of an eggplant. You look like a mascot character for a supermarket or something."
The look of utter despair on the youkai's face in response to that comment had been almost heartbreaking. Sanae had looked over at me awkwardly as the youkai started sniveling, asking "Did I say something wrong?"
I merely shrugged in response but Renko had leaned around me, looking up at Sanae. "We need to keep moving, Sanae, before the ship gets any further away."
Sanae had nodded resolutely and dispatched the youkai with a wave of her wand that sent the umbrella girl tumbling end over end, blown away by a wall of forceful wind. As we resumed our forward flight, I watched her tumble downward into the trees, still clutching the deep purple umbrella, which appeared to have a two meter long red tongue lolling out of its canopy.
"Hey, does that count as a youkai extermination?" Sanae asked, looking toward Renko. "I can see why Reimu does this, it's fun! Maybe I should get in the habit of going on regular youkai hunts to drum up faith for the Moriya shrine," she said, her eyes sparkling with excitement. Between this excursion and our previous trips taking Sanae around Gensokyo to pick fights at the Scarlet Devil Mansion or in Heaven, I wondered if we had awakened something in her that might have been better left dormant.
-.-.-.-.-
As we proceeded onward, chasing the occasional, distant glimpse of the ship through breaks in the clouds we encountered Reimu and Marisa, racing eachother off in the distance, both headed toward the ship as well. Renko had been busy trying to keep all of the gathered UFOs from flying out of their bag with one hand, and hadn't noticed the pair of them until after Sanae had already called out, waving with her wand still in hand.
"Oh hey! Marisa, Reimu! Over here!"
Renko swiveled her head around to look, as one of the smaller chunks of wood slithered its way out of her bag. "Achaa..." she said, grimacing and pressing the bag to her forehead as our course turned to intercept them. Honestly I don't know how she could have harbored any hope that we could have reached the ship without meeting the two of them, given how little information she had given Sanae. Reimu and Marisa slowed their pace slightly and adjusted course, pulling along side us and calling a momentary truce in their competition.
"I wondered what you were getting up to after we both flew off to find the treasure ship," Reimu said to Sanae, "but I wouldn't have expected you to go get those two. I guess I'm glad you're not still at my shrine, going through the cupboards."
"An Incident like this where the objective is to find something hidden is a job for the Hifuu Detective Agency, don't you think, Reimu?" Renko asked. "I'm in the unfortunate position of being unable to fly unaided, so here we are."
"Sanae, I know you're new here, but don't bring a regular human who can't fly with you to an Incident! It's dangerous!" Reimu scolded.
"You bring Marisa all the time, and she can't fly without a broom. Besides, they're being protected by a living god! They'll be fine."
Marisa was about to protest that categorization, but Reimu shoved her out of the way, floating closer to Sanae. "At least balance them out. If they get killed because you can't dodge, people will blame me for getting a villager caught in an Incident. Marisa, let Merry get onto your broom."
"Why do I hafta?" Marisa protested, shoving her way around Reimu.
"Because you're the only one who doesn't have to hold on to them to keep them flying. I'll leave Renko with Sanae, but I'm counting on you both to keep them safe."
"You're just trying to slow me down so you can get there first. Well it won't work. Hop on, Merry, but hold tight, I'mma beat Reimu to that ship anyway."
I looked nervously over at Renko, but at Marisa's insistence, we all floated closer together and awkwardly rearranged ourselves. I settled myself onto the broom and wrapped my arms around Marisa's back.
"Oh, which way did the treasure ship go?" Sanae asked as she passed Renko from one hand to the other then drew her wand back out.
"It's down there, somewhere in that cloudbank," Reimu said, squinting as she peered into the fluffy grey expanse.
"What should we do? Wait for it to come out?"
"Nah," Marisa said, fishing her hakkero out of an apron pocket. "I'mma find it."
"Wait a minute, what if you hit the ship!?" Renko cried, reaching out to try to interfere.
"Then that counts as me callin' dibs on the wreck when it hits the ground!" Marisa said with a grin as she drew a Spell Card out of her pocket with her other hand. Reimu and Sanae both instinctively drew back, taking Renko with them and shielding their eyes as Marisa leaned to the side and locked her arm to fire.
"MASTER SPARK!"
There was the briefest of pauses as the light coalesced into a point at the front of the trigram reactor. It was just long enough for me to shut my eyes, but at this distance, that seemed to do nothing. The roaring sound pouring from the furnace left a ringing in my ears and the light was so intense that although I closed my eyes, I could feel the light and heat of the laser on my skin as if I were tanning in the sun. When the roar died away a few seconds later, the afterimage of the beam still clung to my retinas, but I was able to tell that the cloudbank had been reduced to a wispy ring encircling an enormous void. Near the edge of that ring, the Holy Palanquin floated, listing as it rapidly turned, coming about to port. Before I even had time to comment we were in motion, diving at a breakneck pace, reeling from the kick of acceleration as the broom surged into motion.
I didn't have to be told to hold on as the sudden descent dropped the pit of my stomach out from under me. My legs instinctively clamped onto the broomstick and my arms tightened about Marisa's waist as she poured more power into the broom, driving us downward beyond the speed of freefall, making the wind whistle over us. My cap, a constant companion since the day of our arrival in Gensokyo, flew off my head, twisting away in the wind. By the time we evened out and I recovered my sense of balance enough to risk opening my eyes, I saw that we were rapidly approaching the ship, which now loomed large in my sight, it's shattered mast poking up jaggedly from the deck, the scattered holes in its hull ringed with sharp splinters that looked like wooden teeth. All around the massive ship, the wispy remnants of clouds clung to the hull as tattered streamers, trailing as it's impressive bulk rotated before us.
"Oh, we're getting close!" I said, hoping futilely that Marisa might slow down.
"We're not gettin' close to it, it's comin' to ram us!" Marisa cried as the prow of the ship, with its shattered bowsprit came around to face us. The enormous ship shuddered as it began accelerating with impossible, sourceless alacrity, going from a near stop to racing towards us in an instant. Marisa rolled her broom to the side, skirting close enough to the hull of the ship as it passed that I might have been able to kick it if I extended my legs. My sense of equilibrium spun wildly as we rolled through the sudden turn and came back upright again, yawing away from the side of the vessel. Streamers of cloud trailing from the ship whipped past us as we raced along, seeming to gather all around us, drawing closer and closer as they amassed. I looked up just in time. Several of the scattered bits of cloud had drawn together behind us and were arranging themselves into a puffy form... of an enormous, car-sized fist.
"Marisa! Dive!" The words were barely out of my mouth when we dropped precipitously again, just in time for the fist to whistle over our heads. It looked like it was made of cloud stuff, but I had seen those same fists demolish rocks just a week ago.
"Humans? The fairies were bad enough, but have humans come to rob our stash now?" called a voice from behind us. Marisa wheeled the broom around, cutting a sharp arc through the sky and changing direction from flying past the ship to pursuing it again. We had just passed the rear of the Palanquin and could see the back of it from here, but just ahead of us, interposing between our flightpath and the ship's was Ichirin, hovering in mid-air with her arms crossed, a bladed ring in each hand and Unzan looming over her shoulder.
"A 'stash?'" Marisa shouted back to her, "I like the sound of that! What kinda treasure you guardin' there?"
"No questions!" Ichirin declared. "And no mercy for bandits!"
Before I could call out to her, Unzan's fist rushed toward us again and Marisa pulled an aerobatic dodge, cutting her lift so that we suddenly dropped as she turned and kicked the thrust back in, sending us racing forwards, then upwards into a long vertical loop as more blows from Unzan whistled around us. Anything I might have been trying to say was drowned out by the wind and my own voice becoming a long wordless whoop of fear and excitement as we raced through the maneuver.
"What the heck is that thing with her, a flying giant?" Marisa asked and we juked and spun, weaving around Unzan's fists and through a field of strobing laser bursts directed at us by Ichirin. If Renko had been here, I have no doubt she would have corrected Marisa, saying something like 'no, the Giants are a Tokyo team, he's a disciple of Bishamonten, so he's more likely to be a Hanshin Tigers fan.'
"Screw this fight," Marisa said, worming out my grasp and leaping to her feat on the broom as we shot past Ichirin. "I'mma just shoot the whole ship down. We can pick up the pieces later."
"Wait!" I cried, lunging forward and grabbing at her leg.
"Ah! Merry, what're you doin'?" She wobbled unsteadily, staring back at me, then yelped in alarm as another massive punch raced towards us from behind. Marisa kicked off of the broom, sending it spinning again just in time to rotate me out of the way of the punch and launch her over it before falling, missing the broomstick with her foot and ending up draped over the front of the speeding broom, clinging to the shaft with both arms. "Don't block my shot, Merry! I can't keep you safe and fight at the same time! I gotta bring 'em down so I can drop you off."
"I know her, Marisa! She's a friend! We don't have to fight!" I tried to turn around to call out to Ichirin, but the broom was headed in the wrong direction and with my legs locked around it I couldn't turn all the way around.
"Say what?" Marisa was trying desperately to clamber back onto the broom. As she pulled down on the front of the stick, our trajectory curved around to one side, bending far enough that I could see Ichirin as she sped towards us, her blades crossed in front of her and Unzan racing just behind her.
"Ichirin!" I shouted at the top of my lungs, "It's me!" She was too far away, or perhaps the howling of the wind was too loud. I could see from her fierce glower that she didn't see me. She wove the blades through a complicated arcing cut and Unzan loomed up from behind her to attack from above. A cannonball of a fist rocketed towards us.
"Some friend!" Marisa managed to say as she found her seat and pulled sharply upwards. The dodge was too close, we avoided the fist by a mere hair's breadth and the edge of a knuckle clipped the straw of the broom's tail. The broomstick bucked and tilted in reaction, overbalancing me into Marisa, shoving her out of position. She threw me back into my seat with one arm, but by the time she looked up Unzan's other fist was already racing towards us.
I squeezed my eyes shut. Two human beings overcome and hopelessly outmatched by a nyudo. I wondered if we'd have to fall all the way to earth or if the impact of Unzan's fist would be enough to carry us across the Sanzu river. I attempted to meditate, focusing my thoughts on the most horrible ways I could haunt Renko for dooming me like this...
The shock I was waiting for didn't come. Cautiously, I opened my eyes. Marisa had stopped short and tried to turn us away, but her maneuver hadn't been quick enough. Unzan's punch would have smashed into us both dead on, if not for the fact that his fist was hovering in place, unmoving, just centimeters away. I blinked in surprise, staring at the wall of pink muscly cloud before me.
"Merry!? Is that you?" Ichirin's voice came from behind the wall and a moment later her head peeked out from over the top of the fist. "I'm sorry! I never would have known it was you if Unzan hadn't told me! I'm so glad you're not hurt! I thought you were a bandit!" She bowed her head several times rapidly, leaning both hands on Unzan's knuckles.
Marisa glared up at her, her shoulders still hunched up from trying to pull the broom away from the fist. Slowly she relaxed them and reached one hand out to brush against the surface of Unzan's fist. "We good here? What kinda relationship do you have with someone who punches first and recognizes your face later?"
Reimu and Sanae (with Renko) caught up to us a moment later. They arrived just as Ichirin was bowing down, apologizing deeply to Marisa for having mistaken her for a thief. "What's the situation here?" Reimu asked, looking over our relative positions in confusion. Is your head so thick you won by getting punched or something, Marisa?"
"Ichirin! Over here! Yoohoo!" Renko called out as Sanae drew up alongside us. Ichirin looked over to her and gasped in surprise.
"Renko! You're here too! We were on our way to come to try and find you two in the village, we had no idea that you'd be coming to us. Who are all these people you're with?"
"Wait a minute," Reimu said, brandishing one of her ofuda and glaring at Ichirin. "You already know Renko? You must be the mastermind then. She's always in cahoots with them."
"No, Reimu, it's not like that..."
"Um, boss? How do you know someone from the treasure ship? And why didn't you tell me she had a big fluffy stand?" Sanae asked.
"Uh wait, I can explain..."
"I don't wanna hear it from you." Reimu snapped to Renko, then turned back to Ichirin. "Just tell me yourself. Who are you and what are you hiding on that ship?"
All eyes followed Reimu's, turning to regard Ichirin, who blinked in surprise. She seemed about to respond when Unzan's face suddenly drew close to her ear. As always, I neither heard anything nor saw his lips move, but she seemed to be listening intently.
"...What? Are you sure?" Unzan nodded in response to the question. "Merry, Renko, Unzan tells me that you and your friends here have all brought us several of the missing pieces of the mast! Is that true? That must mean that you're all here to assist with the holy mother's resurrection. Oh Renko, thank you so much! You've been busy gathering allies and pieces of our holy treasure this whole time!" Ichirin bowed deeply again, quivering with emotion.
"We're helping with what, now? What was that about holy treasure?" Reimu asked incredulously.
"Yeah, speak Japanese, especially the 'treasure' bit. Say that again." Marisa commanded.
"Boss, is she trying to trick us or something? Can her stand read minds?" Sanae asked.
"No, no. Look Reimu, Marisa. Did either of you grab any UFOs on your way here? Weird-looking little flying things, like the ones in this bag?" she asked, trying to show them the contents of the sack, with only one hand.
"Yuefohs? Sanae was saying something about that. Do you mean these things?" Reimu asked, drawing a chunk of wood out of her sleeve.
"Oh, those?" Marisa asked, taking off her hat and reaching into it to retrieve another glowing sliver.
"Hah! I got more than both of you!" Sanae crowed, helping Renko with the bag.
Ichirin peered into the sack and let out an elated gasp. "That's them! You've gathered so many treasures! With this and what we've already caught, we may have enough to release the seals! Holy mother be praised! Renko, you must be a living saint."
"Wait, are you saying those things are treasure?" Reimu asked, incredulously.
"Is your mothership full of hundreds more UFOs?" Sanae asked, confused.
"Where's all the silver an' gold?" Marisa asked, incensed.
"Silver and gold?" Ichirin asked in response. "The treasures left to us by the holy mother transcend worldly desires. They contain her sacred power, that it might continue to illuminate this world after she was sealed away. The sparkle of gold cannot compare to the divine radiance of the holy mother!"
"Hold on, something's suspicious here, who's this 'holy mother' you keep talking about?" Reimu asked.
"All your questions will soon be answered," Ichirin said, her voice giddy with excitement. She reached down and took the bag from Renko, gathering up the splinters Marisa and Reimu were holding as well. "Come and join us on the ship and you can witness the resurrection of mother Hijiri alongside us! Unzan, please carry Merry and Renko, it's the least we can do for our guests." With that, Ichirin departed, flying back toward the ship, which was some ways away now. Unzan unfolded his palms, forming them into soft platforms for Renko and I to sit on.
"It's OK, Sanae, let me down, Unzan's a big softie." Renko said with a grin. Sanae looked unsure as she deposited Renko onto the nyudo's palm. I climbed off of the broom and rolled gracelessly onto his other hand, happy to not have to suffer through any more aerobatics.
"Well Reimu, what do you think?" Marisa asked.
"I think I don't like it," she said, scowling. "I don't know what any of this is about, but it seems suspicious from top to bottom. Even more so if those two are part of it. Let's go and see what they're up to on that ship."
"Fine by me. I hate the idea of having come all this way just to leave empty-handed."
Renko beckoned to Sanae and she followed along behind us as Unzan turned and carried us toward the ship. As we departed, I almost thought I heard Reimu say "besides, we need to follow Renko and Merry. If I didn't know better, I'd think the two of them were behind all of this, human or not." I decided to pretend very hard that I hadn't.
Thus, without further confrontation, the five of us, Reimu, Marisa, Sanae, Renko and myself, all boarded the Holy Palanquin on it's voyage to Makai to release Byakuren Hijiri from captivity.
