I suppose this might be what Sanae would call a 'heel turn'. Betrayal, brainwashing and the sudden pitting of allies against one another was the stuff of any good shonen manga, but to see something like that happen in real life was nothing less than terrifying. Marisa and Sakuya were both moving and acting like themselves, it was only their motivations and intentions that seemed twisted. To think that any one of us could turn on even our closest friends if we were just provided with a nudge in the proper direction is the sort of dark and ugly truth that most people can't bear to consider.

"What did you do to them?" Reimu shouted angrily as she backed away, trying to watch both Marisa and Sakuya at once.

"Not a thing. All I did was give their tools more power. Those people were already so attached to them that it was easy for the tools to turn the tables and use the humans instead. This is the nature of our revolution! This is the reversal that your precious order is due for!"

I wondered what it would feel like to be controlled by an out-of-control tool. Were Marisa and Sakuya even conscious of their actions right now? From the way they had been talking, it sounded like their rational minds had justified the idea of attacking Reimu to themselves. Perhaps the empowered tools had simply called up some desire latent in both of the girls to really see who the strongest human in Gensokyo was, or perhaps they had simply filled each of the girls with a spirit to overturn the order of their relationships with the miko. I suppose ultimately no one but the people affected could know the truth, but at any rate, the battle against Shinmyoumaru, which up until a moment ago had looked like it was going to be a match of three against one, had quickly and decisively become a match of one against three. Moreover, while Shinmyoumaru was an inchling, Marisa and Sakuya were both not only formidable adversaries in their own right, but seasoned Incident resolvers who would be familiar with all of Reimu's tricks at this point. I wasn't entirely certain that Reimu could win against them, especially if she was trying not to hurt them but they weren't holding back, and especially not when they were both wielding powerful weapons and Reimu was without her gohei. Reimu's expression as she backed away from them was grim and angry but also perhaps a little bit scared.

"I take back what I said about knowing your place and keeping quiet," Reimu said. "You're not just an inchling, you're a real villain in need of extermination."

"It's too late for you to learn from your mistakes now, but I'm glad you can spend your last moments knowing what it feels like to live as a weakling in a world that belongs to the strong!" Shinmyoumaru took up a fighting stance, needle balanced in one hand with the mallet held high in the other. Surging forward in her bowl she formed up alongside Marisa and Sakuya as they pressed Reimu further and further back. "Now, let's have that three against one battle."

I felt a hand grab my shoulder and shove me back into the room as someone pressed past me. A red and white streak rocketed past, propelled by a hot burst of flame and all at once there was another figure hovering just beside Reimu in the air. "Actually," Mokou said, "It's three against two."

"Mokou?" Reimu asked, sounding surprised, but never taking her eyes off of the forces advancing toward her.

"You don't want to fight your friends, but I don't have that problem. I'll let you fight the inchling and get rid of that mallet. You're the Incident resolution expert, after all."

"They're dangerous, you know. Those tools they're using are really strong now."

"Then it's a good thing I can't die. I only came here to see this Incident resolved, Reimu. I don't care how that happens or if I have to die a bunch of times to achieve it. See this through, I'll keep them off of your back."

"If you get killed, I don't owe you anything, since you can just come back, right?"

"I'll die without any regrets. Without any new ones, anyway."

"Let's go!" a handful of voices shouted all at once. And then, in the smoldering, blasted and sunset-lit hall of an upside-down castle, the light and spectacle of a chaotic two-on-three danmaku match broke out.

-.-.-.-.-

I have written before about how mere words couldn't hope to convey the complexity, speed and chaos of a danmaku battle. I have also, on occasion, complained how the art of my writing was inferior to the task of describing the poetry of motion present in the matches or the grace and beauty of each dodge, feint, pattern and surprising twist to emerge in the midst of the battle.

The same is still true here, of course, but I will say one thing about this fight: This was not a beautiful battle. There was little in the way of showmanship, art or grace to be found here. This was a knock-down, drag-out, brutal and viscous street-fight of a danmaku match and any concept of rules, sportsmanship or civility was largely ignored. It was fascinating and surprising to watch, but overall, I rather wish I hadn't seen it. Certainly it was nothing like the spectator-friendly matches between the religious institutions that we had seen plenty of earlier in the summer. If anything, it harkened back to some of the first danmaku matches I had seen, when Reimu and Remilia had gone all out to vie for dominance against each other. I suspect in actuality it probably more closely resembled something even older than that, what battles must have been like here before the institution of the Spell Card rules, with each side using all their power and every trick they could muster to try to come out on top of their opponent.

Mokou fought with reckless abandon, frequently sacrificing her body in order to land a hit or force an opponent to abandon their position. I saw her head and neck get obliterated by a laser at one point just so she could land a left hook that knocked Marisa clear off of her broom. Marisa fought with similar abandon, attacking with no regard for her surroundings and causing tremendous collateral damage. There were several more holes in the walls and much of the room was burning by the time the battle was done. Sakuya was exactly her opposite, striking precisely, carefully and with consideration. She rarely landed a killing blow, but her strikes were aimed with a disquieting precision that suggested a deep familiarity with human anatomy and a butcher's practicality. Her sword strokes severed limbs, sliced tendons and pried apart bones, seeking to either immobilize or induce enough pain in Mokou to take her out of the fight. It wasn't pretty to watch.

If this were to be an action story, this battle would be the climax -a grim but exciting conclusion to all of the raised tensions we had witnessed thus far. I have neither the skill nor the space to record such a climax here though and the complexity and brutality of the match had nothing to do with the conclusions my partner would ultimately reach. As such, I hope you can forgive me for leaving my description at that. If you simply must hear all the heart-pounding details for yourself, I'd ask you to visit the Hakurei shrine or Mokou's shack in the Bamboo Forest of the Lost to get the story from its heroes directly.

-.-.-.-.-

Shinmyoumaru's bowl lay on the ground, split into two neat halves. The crackling, smokeless black flames which had been growing alarmingly along the walls and toward our room guttered and winked out. The mad gleam in Sakuya's eyes faded away.

"Huh. So you really are an inchling," Reimu said, raising one hand above her head so that she could see the tiny figure dangling in her hand. She had lifted Shinmyoumaru up by the belt of her kimono, pinching it gingerly between thumb and forefinger. With the power of the miracle mallet broken, the girl was only about as tall as three apples stacked on top of one another.

"Owww. What the hell kinda danmaku was that? You just about broke my jaw you damn zombie." Marisa sat up and rubbed at her face, her hat, broom and hakkero laying momentarily forgotten all around her.

"I agree. Not having the decency to die when you're cut up is rather uncouth. I'll have to find someone else to feed milady."

"If I couldn't come back from being dead, I couldn't have fought you two. I was almost worried infinite lives might not be enough for a bit there."

Almost absent-mindedly, Reimu whipped her left arm out behind her. A pair of talismans flew from her hand and arced through the air, sticking themselves fast to Marisa's Hakkero and Sakuya's knife.

"There. Those are sealed for now but you lost, so put everything back the way it was."

"The mallet is almost out of power anyway. I can call the miracles it created back, but it will take weeks for all of its power to return. After the mallet's power is all used up, it has to recharge for a really long time."

"Are you saying my gohei is going to keep moving on its own? I guess that's not so bad. It's actually been kind of useful for chasing Suika away..."

"Its power will return to the mallet eventually. Then all of the tsukumogami the mallet created will go back to just being tools..."

"I don't suppose I could get you to leave just that one as it is? It might be handy if it could go youkai-exterminating for me."

"It doesn't work that way..."

"Hey," Mokou said walking up beside Reimu. "You saw that amanojaku who was here before, right? She escaped before the fight started. Should we try to chase her down?" They both turned to look through the large hole in the wall. By now the sun had completely set and the storm clouds that had been whirling around the castle had dissipated. The starry sky was dark and still.

"Let her go. What harm could a weakling like her do? This inchling is the only one who can use the Miracle Mallet, right? All we have to do is keep an eye on her."

"I suppose so. As the Incident resolver will you be doing that? I could probably destroy that mallet if you want."

"It's a cursed item. If you burn it you'd just be releasing the curse to go everywhere. I'll make sure she doesn't use it."

"Alright then, I'll leave that to you. Good work then, I guess. Are we done here? I'm new to Incident-resolving."

"You're done. I'll make sure everything left is taken care of. You just get those two home," Reimu growled, nodding toward Renko and I. I had managed to get a hold of Renko and force her back to the ground again and it didn't seem like her coat was trying to lift her into the air any more. She still hadn't taken it off though, so I'm not sure if it had returned to normal or not yet. She had retrieved her hat, and was running her fingers thoughtfully around its brim while we watched. Her expression didn't really seem at all relieved.

"What's the matter, Renko?" I asked, turning to her.

"There's a few things..." she muttered. "Bits that don't make sense." She turned and looked out into the night sky as Mokou strode towards us. "22:15," she said. "And 41 seconds. Mark my words, Merry. This Incident isn't over yet."