Once you wake up, a dream becomes just that: an ephemeral, vanishing vision with no bearing on your existence, no matter what perceived reality you might have been inhabiting just moments ago. When I woke up the next morning Renko was sitting cross-legged at the edge of my futon, still in her nightgown but staring expectantly at me. It was entirely too early in the morning to deal with anyone whose eyes were shining so brightly as hers.

I looked at her, then sighed and closed my eyes again while she continued to perch and stare at me like a cat about to pounce. "Good morning, Renko,"

"Good morning, Merry. Did you have a nice dream?"

"No, actually. I had to listen to someone expounding insane theories all night. I get enough of that when I'm awake, thank you."

"Learning in your sleep is very efficient. You should be thanking me." She grinned even broader and raised her arms over her head, stretching out her back. In the end we had told Doremy what she had wanted to know. After Renko had come to her own (baseless) conclusions about what the Administrator of the dream world was really after, she had determined that any invasion the lunarians might be planning couldn't possibly be more than a feint -a token effort that would only serve to get the attention of Reimu and the other Incident resolvers. As such, Renko had told Doremy everything she knew about conspiracy theories involving moon landings and hidden civilizations on or inside of the moon. I can only hope that either her information was useless or that she was right about the Lunar Capital only sending an invasion force as a feint to draw out a response. For my part I had said nothing other than to ask Doremy to apologize on our behalf to the rabbits we had met on the moon for getting them caught up in all of this. I had little hope, however, that my message would be delivered.

Giving up on sleep, I got myself out of my futon and walked over to the washroom to freshen up and brush my teeth. As I walked back in Renko was still staring excitedly at me. "So what is it that you think we should do about this situation?" I asked.

"I'm not sure at the moment. I don't think there would be much point to going to talk to Dr. Yagokoro about it. She'd feign both ignorance and disinterest, but she also probably already knows about it from her contacts on the moon. Telling Keine or Reimu also wouldn't have much of an effect. If they even believed us that an invasion was coming from the moon, having advance warning that it's just going to be a feint might dissuade them from making a counterattack. As far as the Lunar Capital is concerned it would be best if we held onto this information and didn't say anything. Maybe that's what Doremy meant when she was asking me about applying prudence to deduction. Sagume or whoever she's working with must be pretty confident that Reimu could repel whatever terrorist the lunarians are dealing with up there, so I don't anticipate their invasion will really be anything for us to worry about. I guess all we do right now is wait, Merry."

"That's surprisingly passive coming from you, Renko. Staying inside and minding your business in the middle of a terrorist attack? I wouldn't have expected that of you."

"Maybe some of your hikikomori is rubbing off on me, Merry. But it's more that we have better things we should be worrying about at the moment. If the lunar invasion turns out to be something serious then the youkai sage herself will no doubt respond to it. That means that just maybe we have foreknowledge of where she might appear. If we play our cards right we could put this Incident to use and I could finally get a chance to meet her. We can leave the actual worrying about the Incident part to Reimu. We've already met the mastermind, after all."

"Do you really think it will be that easy to put an Incident to use for your own purposes, Renko? Do I need to remind you that everyone we know who tried that got exterminated at one point or another?"

Ultimately, Renko was right though. There was nothing we could do to avert a lunar invasion at this point, and it didn't seem like it was about to happen overnight either. In all likelihood, something like that would probably take weeks or months to plan and execute. As for the idea of using an Incident as a means to achieve something else... well we were planning to do just that tonight already. Remilia's plans for the full moon were already taking shape and Patchouli had confirmed that she would meet us at the shrine once everything began.

"Now, as for those 'better things' we have planned. Are we ready? You still have the amber, right Merry?"

I went over to the chest of drawers where I had been keeping it. Sure enough, it was still there, sitting right where I had left it. It was odd to see what had once been such a mysterious, almost legendary object for the two of us twinkling silently in my underwear drawer. Somehow, it's mystique had faded somewhat by being so close at hand, but where else was I supposed to put it? It was still a jewel, so I didn't want to leave it out where other villagers might see it, and carrying it around all of the time seemed to be a bad idea as well as Patchouli had made it clear than any youkai we met would be able to tell that I was carrying a powerful spiritual something right away, even if they couldn't see the stone. Leaving it unattended at our home there was always the possibility that the youkai sage might open a gap and take it when we weren't looking. But honestly if she had wanted it, there were plenty of opportunities for her to do that no matter what we did. She could have taken it while we were sleeping or even if she sent Ran to our door we would have been powerless to keep her from walking off with it. I didn't doubt that she knew that we had it, but the fact that she hadn't acted yet must mean that that fact didn't bother her. We had no plans to put the amber to use for anything prior to the evening's planned club activities at the Hakurei shrine, so all there was to do now was keep from losing it. As such, I had given it its current home.

Taking it out, I showed it to Renko. "It's still here."

"Good, then for now all we have to do is wait. Let's tackle the mystery of the Hakurei shrine first."

That's how we thought about things at the time, the Hakurei shrine and it's unseen god were one problem and the Lunar Capital and its plans were another. The two didn't seem to be related at all, not until much later, anyway.

-.-.-.-.-

That evening we were invited by Keine to have dinner with her and Mokou out in the Bamboo Forest of the Lost, as was typical of every night of the full moon. Keine of course had no way of knowing that we had plans for the evening after dinner, and neither did Mokou. But Renko couldn't help but drop the occasional hint. Maybe that's just how her mind works. We hadn't mentioned the amber or the Lunar Capital all evening, but being as we were hanging out with two people who had strong connections to the moon on their own, its natural that the topic might come up.

"So Mokou, how are things with you and the Princess of Eientei going these days?"

Renko had raised that question while she and Mokou were sitting around the shogi board after dinner while Keine and I cleaned up the dishes. Mokou, who had been just about to place her lance, froze in position, the piece in her hand suspended above the board. She looked up at Renko and frowned.

"What's this all of a sudden? Are you trying to distract me from our game by mentioning her?"

"No, no. Nothing like that. I just was thinking that I couldn't remember the last time Keine complained to us about you getting into another fight with her and needing to be patched up. I was hoping maybe the two of you had gotten tired of killing each other."

"I was tired of it a long time ago. That doesn't mean she doesn't deserve it though. I don't think I've changed any but she seems a bit different since Eientei became visible. Now she mostly plays with the rabbits all day. The less I see of her, the better." Mokou placed her piece on the board with a notable snap, but her finger lingered on it. After a moment she let out a small sigh. "I hate to say it but I think we might have been killing each other so frequently for the last three hundred years because neither of us had anything better to do. Now that I have people I care about in my life... well, I'd still kill her if I could, but I don't feel the need try to do it every day."

Saying that, Mokou released her piece and leaned back from the board, looking up as she reminisced. Is it possible for an immortal who had lived for more than millennium to grow a bit more mature? It almost seemed like it. Then again, during the Tsukumogami Incident, she had gotten into a killing rage at the mere mention of Kaguya's title. I probably shouldn't assume too much.

"Well I think that's a very healthy outlook, Mokou," Renko replied, picking up a piece of her own but staring over Mokou's shoulder toward the kitchen and Keine's back rather than the board. "having someone who means the world to you in your life is a wonderful way to give your life meaning."

Mokou twisted around to glance behind her then growled as her face reddened slightly. "Hey shut up, I wasn't talking about her. Or not just about her, anyway."

"Why Mokou, I didn't know you felt that way. I'm honored, but you know I have Merry. Besides, Keine would headbutt me if I let you cheat on her."

"Idiot. That's not what I was saying."

Renko smiled as she placed her piece. "So maybe you're starting to let your hatred of Kaguya go then. Just a little. What do you think you would do if she were to go back to the moon?"

"I... What?" Mokou, who had been studying the board intently as Renko placed her pawn looked up, her expression becoming suddenly serious. "Why are you asking this all of a sudden? Have you heard that she's planning to go back or something?"

"No, this is purely a thought experiment. A hypothetical." Renko waved her hand dismissively.

Mokou sat back and groaned, ignoring the game for the moment. "Seriously, Renko. This is suspicious. It's been several months since you last had me guide you to Eientei. What's going on? Did Reisen let something slip while she was in the village or something?"

"It's nothing like that, I'm just asking a simple question."

"You don't ask simple questions, Renko. You use questions as tools to chip away at people and get them to say something the didn't intend to. What are you trying to get out of me?"

"You're too suspicious, Mokou. I'm your friend, remember? I've just been thinking about the future a lot lately."

Mokou scowled at Renko for several seconds before making a pronouncement. "You're up to something again." She glanced toward the kitchen then leaned forward, whispering to Renko over the board. "It's something you can't tell Keine about, right?"

"Well you're not wrong..." Renko admitted with a grin.

Mokou frowned. "Try not to cause any trouble for her. I won't tell you not to do it though. You wouldn't listen. As for Kaguya, if I found out she was leaving, I'd try and stop her. I'd do everything in my power to keep her here, in fact. I'm not letting her run away until she and I have settled things."

"How do you expect to ever be able to 'settle things' if neither of you can die?"

"I'll keep killing her until she admits she was wrong. Until she gives up. If she accepted responsibility for all the lives she's ruined, I'd be willing to let her go. Until then though, I don't want her to disappear suddenly. There's too much unresolved business between us."

Knowing Kaguya, that almost sounded to me like Mokou was saying she wanted the princess to stick around forever. Mokou certainly knew Kaguya better than I did, so maybe there was something to her personality I was missing, but the thought of her ever admitting fault of any sort seemed rather improbable. While I was thinking that, Mokou had picked up her knight. Jumping it across the board, she muttered something more, in a voice that was nearly too quiet to hear.

"...I wouldn't want you guys to disappear suddenly either..."

"Sorry, what was that Mokou?"

"Nothing. It's your turn, Renko. Make your move already."