Alice fretted, pulling on a long purple wing out to inspect it. Its membrane was smooth, shiny and unblemished. One would never have guessed that it had looked like a curtain that had lost a fight with a cat a mere few hours earlier. Her mother, Shinki watched placidly as she poked and prodded at her wings.

"Are you certain you are fit to be exerting yourself so soon, mum?"

Her mother just laughed at that, wrapping her in a large purple wing.

“Nothing to fear, my dear. Those four intruders were strong, but as you can see” She gestured to herself. “I am perfectly well. So there is no need to concern yourself. You’re a few centuries too young to be getting grey hairs.”

Alice huffed at her mum’s antics. Well, at least, she was still in good spirits. Feeling a little reassured, she turned her mind to the state of Pandæmonium City. Those two green haired women had really done a number on the place. The purple haired girl and the red haired girl had both hurt her mum- the former much more than the letter- but they didn’t set out to cause as much collateral as the ghost and the flower lady.

“Well, I’m glad to see you are as chipper as ever.” Alice said, untangling herself from her mum’s wing. “I’m going to assist Yumeko and the others in the rebuilding efforts.” With a thought, her feet left the ground as she began to float. As she was leaving, she turned around to address her mother one last time.

“See to it that you take some time to recuperate. Please.” She pleaded.
Her mum gave her a small grin. “Alice. I can’t leave my people to work out there alone. As their creator, I have to take responsibility for their well-being. That is something I cannot ever shirk from.” Despite the reassuring smile, voice made it clear that she wasn’t going to be moved on the matter.
With a flap of the wings, Shinki, God of Makai took to the air, and made a declaration.
“Come on Alice, last one to Pandæmonium’s a rotten egg!”

She shot forth, 6 wings pumping to send her careening towards the tattered city.

Alice wanted to say something about how her mother could be joking at a time like this, but her pride refused to let that insult stand. “Who are you calling a rotten egg! Mum!” She shouted, rocketing after her mother in hopes of overtaking her.

---

Shinki and Alice landed near the City at the same time, a plume of dust rising as Shinki touched down with a thump.

From the corner of her eye, Shinki could see Alice land more daintily, hardly producing a sound.

‘I’ve spent long enough recuperating’ Shinki thought to herself. ‘Time for me to do my part.’

Closing her eyes and fanning her wings, she began to exert her power over her domain.

She felt her soul reach out and connect with every denizen within several kilometers of her.
She felt diligent Yumeko, who had evacuated the town, and the unflinching faith she had in her creator. She felt clever Alice, her daughter in heart, who watched on with a mixture of intrigue, confidence and concern. She felt the fear and hope of all of those who had called Pandæmonium City home, praying that their goddess would be able to repair the places where they had made their livelihoods and families.
Time to live up to those expectations.

Shinki began to move all of the pieces of Makai back into their proper place.

The glass which littered the street began to flow back into windows and panes of glass.
The soot and ash which had caked the ground of the city began to disappear and dissipate in the air.
Bricks which had been knocked loose began to slot back into place.
Homes which had been toppled began to-
Shinki bit back a curse as she felt her magic falter.

Another attempt to call it brought no results, save for a searing pain being driven through her core.
She could still feel her connection to all of her charges. Her children.

She felt their gratitude, their faith. But she also felt their doubts. They knew she could rebuild, but what then?

She had lost to the shrine maiden. The flower youkai and the vengeful spirit had been driven back, but escaped Shinki’s pursuit and left a trail of destruction. And even the witch had given her a damn good fight.

Her children no longer saw an infallible goddess, but just a woman. A powerful woman, but one who could bleed. One who could lose. Maybe even one who could die. And that frightened them.

Still, Shinki forced herself to smile as she pulled back from her power. Showing her doubt would only confirm everything her people were fearing.
She’d have to instill some faith, the old fashioned way

---

Shinki held the hand of an old Makaian- one Akatami Kuroi, as he looked at his house. The house of his father, and his father before that. The home he had been planning to pass on to his own son. And to him she made a declaration

“Do not worry about your son’s rightful inheritance. So long as I draw breath, I will see to it that he is not denied what is his.”

---

Shinki kissed a baby on the forehead as her family watched on, tired grins adorning their faces. The little girl herself gave a delighted giggle at the attention. Shinki cooed at her, making a variety of wild facial expressions. But soon enough, it was time to hand the child back to her parents.

The child’s mother gave a slight curtsy.

“We thank you for taking the time to play with our child, lady Shinki.”

Shinki could tell that she meant that. But she see the anger, the slight resentment in the woman’s eyes. But still, she gave a reassuring smile.

“I am glad to be of service. Please, we’ll be moving everyone to Makai City for the time being, please follow Ayana here.” She gestured to the blonde haired woman- almost a ringer for Yumeko save for her starry dress and white ribbon in place of Yumeko’s maid outfit- who gave them a smile and wave.

The young woman gave her one last, uncertain and unsteady grin, before turning on her heel and moving to Ayana with her family.

---

Shinki shook a young woman's hand, noting her firm grip. Louise her mind noted. A free spirit- and not just because she was part ghost- who had travelled all over Makai.

"Thank you for coming to speak with me, Lady Shinki." She said, pulling out a notepad and pen.

"Oh, it's no trouble at all.It's always a pleasure to talk to one of my citizens." Shinki grinned at the shorter woman.

"Well, it's my honour to talk to you my lady. I hear you encountered those four horrible girls that came into Makai."

Shinki gave a nod of agreement. Though, she could only really call 3 of them 'girls'. The Flower Youkai seemed like she was only a few centuries younger than Shinki herself.

"Can you believe them. I was just trying to go visit the surface, and they beat me up for no reason! The nerve of some people, I swear." Louise pouted, drawing a sympathetic pat on the shoulder from Shinki.

A few moments(and some venting) later however, the young lady looked up at Shinki in concern. "Hey, Lady Shinki, are you gonna be alright?"

Shinki gave her a reassuring and motherly smile. "All will be well. There is no need to fear for me."

Louise was unconvinced. "But... I hear those four really beat the crap out of you! What if they come back for more?"

Shinki had to concede that she had taken a lot of hits today. She had been beaten, bludgeoned and burned. If not for her healing, she would have been down three wings, an arm and a leg. But pointing that out would just spread panic.

"They won't be back." Shinki said instead. "They've gotten what they come for. Besides, if they come back, I'll be ready for them." She boasted, flexing a bicep a little

Louise gave a little giggle at that, but clearly wasn't entirely at peace. She took Shinki's hand into her own and locked eyes with her.

"Just be careful, okay? You mean a lot to a lot of people here."

Shinki nodded seriously in response.

"I won't be going anywhere any time soon. I promise you that."

---

Alice sat before the fireplace, looking at her doll contemplatively. Her mum was calmly reclining in a large chair, while Yumeko was diligently sweeping the floor. For the fourth time in as many hours.

Right now, they were in Makai City. It was the largest city in the realm by far, and therefore best suited to take them and all the refugees from Pandæmonium. Though hopefully, the repair work should be concluded within the week, if not the day.

“Hey, mum.” Alice asked, not taking her eyes off Shanghai.
“Yes, dear?” Her mother responded sleepily.
“What you said earlier, about caring for all of your creations… what if they just don’t like you? What if they end up hating you?”

“Well, that’s a risk you have to take. When you give a living being sentience, you never know what they’ll evolve to do. But it’s one of the greatest joys a creator can have: uncertainty. It makes things more meaningful. Because It shows your creations are people. And people can surprise you in all sorts of ways automations cannot. That means you will do wrong by them sometimes. And that they will do wrong by you sometimes. But that provides an opportunity for growth and reflection.”

Alice listened to her mother speak. To the words she spoke, yes, but also to the love with which they were spoken with. As always, it made her wonder. If she were to achieve her goal, to make her dolls sentient, would she have what her mother had? Could she care for Shanghai, Horai, and the rest of her dolls the same way her mum cared for her, Yumeko and everyone else in Makai?

She didn't know, but she wanted to find out. And she wanted her longest companion to find out alongside her.

But if she wanted to accomplish her goal, she would need to learn and advance in magic. And as much as she loved her mother, the goddess was too talented to be a good teacher. Creating life just came naturally to her.

She would need to head further afield, some day, but right now, she wanted to complete her current project; the Grimoire of Alice.
It would give her firepower, and Alice had just seen how much that was worth in this world.

She would need to visit Hokkai soon.

Reimu stood on her tiptoes, flapping her arms in hopes of getting into the air. Her mom was floating in the air, leaned forward to better keep an eye on Reimu. The early rays of the dawn framed her face and struck her hair, highlighting the glossy black and the traces of grey alike.

“Calm down, Reimu. Just breathe for a moment, alright?” Reimu’s mom called out to her.

Reimu gave a frustrated cry “But mom, I wanna fly! Even Marisa’s better at it than me.” she whined.

She knew that Marisa struggled to fly without a broom or another tool, but she could at least go for a few minutes by herself. And needing a tool was a whole different story from needing a whole other person(or turtle, in this case) to carry her everywhere.

“Different people learn different things at different speeds. Do you think Marisa is as good at making barriers as you are?”

“Well, no, but I’m only good at that because I’m a-”

“You’d be surprised. I certainly wasn’t very good at making barriers when I was your age, and if there’s anything we Hakurei are known for, it’s that.” her mom cut her off.

Reimu wasn’t entirely sure she believed her. She couldn’t see her mom being bad at anything- well, anything about being a shrine maiden, at least. Fighting, ceremonies, making amulets, charms and needles- her mom did it all with a certain grace that Reimu wished she had.

Her mom must have seen Reimu’s doubtful face, pinning Reimu with a serious look. “I’m being serious, you know. Flying, making charms, using auras- all of that came to me quickly, but I could barely understand barriers any better than I could one of Rinnosuke’s lectures.” A mischievous grin crossed her face, and Reimu could feel something tugging at her own cheeks.

“Okay mom, I’ll keep at it.” The painful ball of fear in her tummy was gone now. She was feeling a lot less stressed.

“Good. Alright now Reimu, now close your eyes for a minute.”

Reimu listened to her, the world becoming dark. The woody smell of the shrine and the sounds of the birds singing outside became clearer to her.

“Now, clear your mind. Just focus on your breath and my voice.”

Reimu complied, tuning everything else out. At that moment, the only two things to exist in her world were herself and her mother.

“Alright, Now. Reimu. Rise”

Reimu complied. She began to rise, to float in the air. She could no longer feel the ground beneath her feet.

Reimu took a moment to realize what just happened. Her eyes snapped open as she looked down.

She was flying!

… And now she was falling!

Before she could slam into the ground, however, her mother jumped into the air and caught her, floating gently down to the ground.

Then she gave Reimu a proud nod.

“Good. We just need to get you used to doing that.”

Reimu jumped out of her mother’s arms with determination blazing in her eyes. She was making a start. She would master flying eventually.

And then she’d rub it in Marisa’s face.

---

Marisa’s fingers twitched in anticipation as she stared down the fairy in front of her. The fairy (Eternity Larva, what she said her name was) in turn, had an excited grin as she began to flap her butterfly wings faster and faster. The pair of yellow antennae that sat atop Eternity’s blue-haired head began to twitch, just a little.

Marisa decided to make the first move, reaching behind her and drawing her magic wand- a ruby(well, iron painted red) star affixed to a white birch base. She spooled her magical power together in a matter of moments, shooting a thin beam of light at the fairy.

Eternity rolled to the side, deftly avoiding the laser with a giggle. She did the same with the next laser, and the one after that. “Missed me!” she called out cheerfully, clapping her hands and sending a wide spread of scales towards Marisa.

Marisa pulled back, her eyes darting to look for any gap. But as the scales continued to fly towards her, they began to drift off towards the sides. Eternity was wide open.

Marisa took advantage of that opening, shooting a spray of stars through the gap in Eternity’s attack, which smashed into her abdomen and left her reeling.

Hoping to score a decisive blow, Marisa charged a laser and pointed her wand at the flailing fairy.

But Eternity pulled herself together a lot faster than Marisa had thought she would. With a spread of her wings, she exploded in a cloud of scales.

Unlike before, these clouds harmlessly brushed over Marisa’s skin, doing no damage.

She was really glad she wasn’t allergic to bugs though, because the flakey things were getting everywhere.

Marisa narrowed her eyes, watching the cloud for any signs of movement, before-

“Hello!” Eternity’s cheerful voice rang in Marisa’s ear, as the fairy’s fist rang her bell. She’d managed to sneak up from below!

Marisa had to give her this: she knew how to throw a good punch. But compared to Reimu’s kicks?

It was nothing.

Marisa barely flinched from the uppercut, jabbing her wand into Eternity’s stomach. She fired her beam point-blank into Eternity’s stomach, sending her flying backwards, smashing through one tree and slamming into another.

A few moments passed, Marisa letting Eternity recover while she caught her breath herself.

The fairy shook herself out of her stupor, catching herself as she began to fall. She gave a breathless laugh, clutching at her stomach a little.

“You’re pretty good at this! Well, I guess I should’ve known since you beat Yuuka with that other girl” Eternity complimented.

“Yuuka? Oh, the flower lady? Ya know her?” Marisa asked, surprised.
The fairy nodded vigorously in response. “Yeah, we both live in the Garden of the Sun when it’s summer!”

Marisa felt for the fairy. She couldn’t see the flower youkai being a very pleasant neighbor. Though, she supposed being an immortal nature spirit would mean that she wouldn’t have to worry about the woman killing her, at least.

Eternity seemed to recover then, taking her hand off her stomach and shaking herself off.

“Hey, I can keep going a bit longer, you know. You wanna keep going?”

Well, it would be pretty sad to get outlasted by a fairy, even if this one was abnormally tough.

“You’re on!”

Eternity ascended with a powerful flap of the wing. Marisa harried her with a continuous gush of stars, but while a few hit, the majority sailed uselessly into the distance. After a few seconds, Marisa had to pause, careful not to use up all too much magic too quickly. By then, Eternity was almost directly above her.

Eternity fluttered her wings and held her hands in front of her, a rain of sharp scales pouring downwards towards Marisa.

Normally, she’d dodge an attack like this. But she suddenly remembered what Kourin had said about convocation.

Marisa grit her teeth, focusing her magic on the very tip of her wand.

A few scales slammed into her, leaving behind shallow but painful cuts. But she endured, sending forward one large star. It flew slowly, before exploding in a wave of heat and light.

Marisa, having been ready, had already pulled her hat down over her eyes. Eternity, on the other hand, was not so prepared, if the squawk of pain was any indication.

The scales which had been raining down on her were disrupted by the explosion. Most just went flying wildly, but the updraft sent many of the scales flying up into Eternity, battering her with her own attack.

Eventually it was too much for her, as she began to plummet.

Marisa raced forth, catching her before she could slam into the ground.

Her outfit was looking a little burned, which was a bit of a shame. It wasn’t something Marisa would be caught dead wearing, but it suited the fairy herself quite well.The three-layered effect, looking like a caterpillar at the bottom, and then a cocoon which burst to look like a butterfly went really well with her wings.

“Oh, thanks!” the fairy nodded to her. “I’m pooped though, I think I’m gonna go and sleep.”

“Alright, nice fighting ya. Take care!” Eternity wriggled her way out of Marisa’s arms and began to fly off. Suddenly, she stopped for a moment, turning back to look at Marisa.

“Say, if you were offered power in return for eternal servitude, how would you respond?”

It took Marisa a few moments to understand what Eternity was asking. Servitude was like being a servant, right?
“I mean, forever? I don’t think I could do that, and besides, I don’t wanna have to be told how I live my life.” Not by her father, who wanted her to ‘uphold the traditions of the village’... and not by Lady Mima, either.

Eternity held her gaze for a few more long moments, before nodding and returning to her previous grin.

“Good answer. Well, I had fun, but I’ll see you around, bye!” Eternity darted off as Marisa called goodbye and waved.

Still, at the end there, Eternity seemed so intense, almost like that goddess in the underworld, Shinki. What was with that…?

No, that had to just be Eternity messing with her. Fairies were known for pranks after all. If she let herself be intimidated by a fairy, then there was no way she’d ever get her hakkero back from Mima.

For now, she had to keep training, and keep fighting strong opponents. Maybe she should go and spar with Reimu later? For now though, she’d fight any and every youkai in the Forest of Magic if she had to.

---

That evening, as the sun sank low in the sky and the stars began to glimmer, Marisa returned to Kourindou. Surprisingly, she could hear voices coming from within.

Inside the store, Kourin stood behind the counter, as was expected. A tall woman in a red and white miko’s uniform, with a metal arm stood talking to him on the other side of the counter. And stood at her leg was-

“Reimu? What are you doing here?”

Reimu turned around and blinked at her. There was some dirt on her outfit, and a bandage on her forehead.

“Marisa? I should be asking you that!” Despite her words, there was little anger or confusion in her expression. Instead, there was excitement. The same excitement Marisa was sure was in her own eyes.

“I could explain that… If you beat me in a fight!” Marisa pointed her wand at Reimu in challenge.

Reimu pointed her gohei at Marisa in response. “Bring it on!”

Reimu smiled at Marisa accepting her challenge. She would get the chance to show off her ability to fly!

A loud cough broke her from her thoughts. Her mother and Rinnosuke stood looking at her and Marisa. Her mother held a fist to her mouth, while Rinnosuke was holding onto her metal arm.

Reimu felt her face heat up and opened her mouth to say something, but Marisa spoke before her.

“Mrs Haru! Good to see you! What brings you to… uh, never mind. "She cut herself off, glancing first at Haru’s stump and then the metal arm which Rinnosuke was inspecting even now. Haru gave a little giggle, causing the witch to fluster.

“Marisa. I’m glad to see you as well. How are things for you? What brings you here, yourself? Are you eating well?” Her mom didn’t waste the chance to pepper Marisa with questions.

“Oh, um, I’m good! Some of my experiments went wrong, so I just needed to stay somewhere for a bit. And Kourin's been feeding me.” Marisa said, getting quieter and quieter.

“Ah, yes, Rinnosuke lived in the same household as you, didn’t he? How has-”

“Mom” Reimu cut in. “Can I please go fight Marisa?”

Her mother looked at Reimu and the increasingly uncomfortable Marisa, exhaling and nodding.

“I suppose that’s fine. Though if you want to show ‘that’ off, I’ll be coming with you to observe.”

Marisa looked up, obviously curious about what Reimu’s mom was talking about. Reimu gave a grateful nod; she didn’t want her mom to spoil the surprise ahead of time!

Her mom gave them both a smile, before turning to Rinnosuke.

“I trust you can look over my arm in the meantime?”

“Of course,” the shopkeeper responded. “Performing maintenance on your prosthetic should be a relatively straightforward procedure.”

“My thanks, Rinnosuke. Now, let’s find somewhere you girls won’t have to worry about breaking any windows, shall we?”

---

Reimu and Marisa stood opposite each other, a gentle breeze sending their hair fluttering.

Marisa surged towards her, rushing in with an overhead swing of the broom. Reimu caught it on her gohei, parrying the attack and countering with a lunge. Marisa leant just out of the attack, and ducked under the subsequent swipe.

Well, seeing as how Marisa had just lowered her face to perfect kicking level, who was Reimu to deny her? With a spin on the heel, Reimu smacked her foot into Marisa’s face. But Marisa was quick to recover, grabbing Reimu’s outstretched leg and sweeping her other leg from under her.

Reimu tumbled, falling onto the grassy floor. From above her, she could hear Marisa laugh at her. The witch soon came into her vision, a victorious smirk on her face. She helped Reimu to her feet, brushing the grass off her back.

“That was a tie. One hit each.” Reimu stated, not wanting to let Marisa and her big stupid head get one over on her.

“Oh really? Well, from where I’m standing, it looks like you were the only one to eat dirt. Dirt-eater.” Marisa responded smugly.

“Shut up Marisa. Your face still looks like my shoe. Shoe-face.” Reimu shot back.

Marisa blew a raspberry. Reimu blew a raspberry back. Both of them gave each other a competitive glare, before jumping back to get some space.

Now, the real battle would begin.

Marisa summoned four orbs, in red, blue, yellow and purple. Her Orreries- a move she had learned from Mima. Unlike the vengeful spirit however, she kept the orbs around herself, much as Reimu and her mother did with the Yin-yang orbs.

Reimu, just as quickly, summoned two Yin-yang orbs to her side. The glow of dragon gem weapons had quickly become a familiar comfort to her, as they had with Haru. Especially now that she didn’t have to rely on bouncing the thing around.

A storm of bullets flew from Orrery and orb alike, magic and divine energy lighting up the area as though the stars had come down to the ground.

Marisa was winning in terms of quantity, flooding the area with her shots. But Reimu’s attacks were homing, not striking the witch herself at first, but her Orreries. Blue, red, purple yellow- all of them cracked and broke in time. Reimu had taken a few hits, but nothing too bad.

Once all of her Orreries had popped, Marisa spread her arms and fired off a cloud of stars, each small but bright some of them got to Reimu, but danced harmlessly off her skin. They acted to block Reimu’s vision, obscuring the witch’s location.

Reimu’s eyes darted around, looking for where Marisa could be.

Reacting on pure instinct, she leaned back, just as a laser sailed through where her head had been a moment previous.

Reimu spun on her heel, arm leaning back to throw an ofuda-

Just in time to take a beam to the face. Reimu growled in frustration; Marisa’s ‘hit-and-run’ stuff was so annoying!

Stabbing her gohei into the ground, Reimu filled both of her hands with ofuda, tossing them in every direction. Most of them missed, but she could feel two of them carve a path through the stars, curving and homing in on a target.

Then she heard a yelp of pain from Marisa.

“Found ya!”

Both Yin-yang orbs re-oriented in that direction, an outpour of divine energy bullets streaming towards Marisa’s location. They hit home; Marisa being forced to let the cloud of stars go, diving behind a tree for cover.

Reimu just scoffed. Marisa should have known there was no point in hiding, she had just seen why.

She leaned down, gripping her gohei and wrenching from the earth. Then she focused her mind, closing her eyes for a second.

A dozen homing amulets appeared in the air above her. With a flick of the gohei, they went flying towards the tree where Marisa had hid.
The sound of wood chipping and cracking resounded in Reimu’s ears, but no cry of pain or shout of frustration from Marisa. Either she had just toughed it out or-

With a sudden cry, Marisa leapt from the tree, one arm cocked back-

“Yo Reimu! Catch!”

-and tossing something at Reimu.

Reimu backpedaled, throwing up a barrier in case she was too slow. The object Marisa threw- a glass tube, she could see it now- slammed into the barrier, the green water within it dripping harmlessly down.

Then the smell hit Reimu’s nose. It stank, worse than the time a rat had died under the floorboards!

Reimu cringed, her barrier flickering, then fading from existence entirely. Making use of her moment of distraction, Marisa produced her wand and nailed Reimu in the face with a beam. Her quick backstep turned into a tumble, the world spinning around and around.

Coming to an abrupt and painful stop at the base of a tree, Reimu, dazed, saw Marisa moving in, still hot on her heels. She grinned. Marisa was always finding ways to surprise her, wasn’t she? Well, it was time for the witch to be the one surprised.

If she had tried to scramble to her feet, she would absolutely have been too slow to avoid Marisa’s next attack, a sea of stars already flying towards her location. Fortunately, she didn’t have to do that anymore.

Reimu rose from the ground with a thought, Marisa’s attack flying harmlessly underneath her. Twisting and kicking off the tree, she rocketed towards Marisa.

Marisa launched another array of stars, then another, and then another. But something must have been wrong with her wand, because rather than fly straight, they all suddenly curved when they were about to reach her, allowing her to get through unharmed.

Seemingly realizing that her attacks weren’t working, Marisa began to fly away from Reimu, trying to get some space. Reimu grit her teeth in frustration. Marisa had always been faster than her; she needed to catch up while she still had flight time!

She hadn’t really had the chance to try before, but she’d have to try attacking while flying. She focused, slowing down a little and mentally pulling her orbs in front of her. After a moment, both of them released a stream of homing amulets. They were smaller and weaker than the ofuda she could summon in her hands or with her gohei, but made up for it by sheer numbers. They were less draining to use, too.

The homing amulets did their job, homing in on Marisa and striking her all over. However, Marisa endured, turning around to her and firing a powerful beam. Reimu rolled out of the way, beginning to feel the strain of flight. But the beam wasn’t just to harass Reimu, no; the force of it was being used to push Marisa forward faster!

Reimu pushed her speed as high as she could. She only had a bit left! She had to get to Marisa before her flight time ran-

Before she could finish that thought, she felt her heart drop into her stomach, feeling gravity suddenly pulling her down again. She plummeted down, screaming all the way. Marisa’s eyes widened for a moment, before propelling herself down at Reimu as fast as she could.

But she wasn’t going to make it!

Marisa seemed to realise the same thing, leaping off her broom for a little bit of a boost, reaching down for Reimu…!

Suddenly, Reimu felt something impact her back. It was surprisingly soft, sagging down as she slammed into it, allowing her to land softly as though onto a pillow.
Looking down, she could see a light blue energy below her. A barrier. The softest barrier ever!

Her mom appeared, her only hand outstretched, glowing with light blue energy. Gently lowering her palm, the barrier lowered to the ground, dissipating and leaving Reimu on the ground. Surging forward, her mom looked her over for any injuries. The same was done for Marisa, who was sitting, blinking the surprise out of her eyes about an arm’s length away from Reimu.

Once that was done, her mom crouched down, meeting Reimu eye to eye.

“What were you thinking, Reimu?” She asked, not gently, but not quite sharply either.

“I just wanted to catch Marisa! I thought I would have time to land safely.”

Her mom shook her head. “Let this be a lesson to you Reimu; in an aerial fight, all sorts of things can go wrong. As you learn to fly without Genji, you must be more mindful of your surroundings and your own limits. Failure to do so will mean that you defeat yourself long before the opponent does. Do I make myself clear?”

Reimu nodded her head, feeling her ears burn. She had really made a fool of herself, hadn’t she?

“Good. That being said, how are you?”

“I’m alright.” Reimu mumbled. “

Her mom turned to Marisa next. “And you, young lady.” She began, causing Marisa to shrink in on herself. “Are you alright?”

Whatever Marisa had expected her mom to say, it wasn’t that. The witch blinked in surprise for a few moments, before responding. “Yeah, I’m fine. Uh, aren’t you mad at me for…?”

“No, that wasn’t your fault. When Reimu was first learning to walk, she fell over- a lot. Learning to fly isn’t much different for her, apparently”

Marisa smiled at that, while Reimu gave a squawk of embarrassment.

“Alright then. Marisa, if you ever need someone to talk to, just come around to the shrine, okay? Reimu, we should head home.”

Her mom turned around, starting to head to the shrine. Reimu and Marisa shared a glance with each other.

“Mom!”

“Mrs Haru!”

Both shouted at the same time, causing her to turn around.

“You need to go pick up your prosthetic!” Reimu pointed out

“Yeah, before Kourin decides to put it on display.” Marisa added.

Her mom blushed, putting her hand on her neck. “Yes. I suppose we should head there first.”

Reimu couldn’t help it. She laughed. Soon enough, Marisa was laughing along with her, and her mom joined them.

Alice flew through the skies of Makai alongside Shinki, trails of blue and red following them. The air got hotter and drier as they approached their destination, an underground sun beating down on Alice’s back.

She was just grateful that she had learned a sunscreen spell, otherwise she would be even more sunburned than the one time she had gone to Greece.

Soon enough, the mother and daughter reached their destination.

Byakuren Hijiri meditated serenely, legs crossed before her, eyes firmly shut. A barrier surrounded her, maybe the size of the mess hall in Pandemonium Fortress. Curious runes in red, blue and green intermittently floating through the otherwise clear barrier.

Despite having her eyes closed, Byakuren still turned her head towards the party who had just arrived.

“Well met, Shinki.” She said calmly,slowly opening her eyes. She turned her head towards the youngest lady in the room “I presume you must be young Alice?”

Alice curtsied to her politely. “That is correct. My name is Alice Margatroid. It is a pleasure to meet you, Lady Hijiri”

Byakuren laughed at that. It was a mirthful sound, neither boisterous and booming nor unkind and condescending. “There is no need to refer to me as such. The only ones to have ever referred to me with such a title are my disciples.”

There was something in her voice that Alice couldn’t quite place. That being said, she could probably hazard a guess that it had something to do with the fact that she could no longer see said disciples, by virtue of being sealed away in Makai.

Rather than point something quite that tactless out, however, Alice nodded. “Understood. Well, Byakuren, I was hoping you could help me with compiling a grimoire. I know that you’ve made something like that for yourself, and I was hoping to build off your knowledge.”

Byakuren leant forward a little, inspecting Alice.

“So, you want to compile a grimoire? And what, exactly, are you hoping to do with that power?”

She spoke an intensity that shocked Alice, making her step back out of instinct. But she steeled herself after a moment, unwilling to back down.

“I need firepower, for one. A way to protect myself and what’s precious to me.”

“And what is it that’s precious to you?” Byakuren enquired.
“Right now? It’s mostly mum, and the other residents of Makai. But…” Alice trailed off, a little embarrassed to continue. Byakuren just hummed, waiting warmly for her to continue.
“... Well, I don’t think I’ll be in Makai forever. I want to be able to create life one day, just like mum does” A coo could be heard from next to her, Shinki’s smile being apparent in her voice. “I want to do so by giving at least one of my dolls sentience. Learning how to create a grimoire will help me with that, and with the magical theory I’ll need to eventually give them intelligence.”

Byakuren tilted her head. “I presume you would be leaving Makai for Gensokyo, then. How would you deal with humans?”

Alice shrugged. “Humans will probably always be wary of me, given that I’m a youkai now. But unless one picks a fight with me, I would probably leave them be.”

“I see. And what if one wanted to be friends with you?”

“It’s unlikely-”

“Unlikely things are known to happen. What if a human wanted to be friends with you, Alice?”

“Well, I suppose we could be friends, then.” Alice answered. She had never had many friends, in time as a human or a youkai, but she wasn’t the type to turn down an olive branch.

Byakuren leant back with a nod. “This grimoire… I think you will soon find that the firepower it grants you matters much less than you seem to think. Even so, I wish to help you walk down this path that you are walking.”

Alice was mostly satisfied with that, but she still had to ask “How can you be so sure?”

Byakuren smiled at Alice. “In many senses, we are the same. After all, you used to be human too, didn’t you?”

Alice’s mind cast back. Back to when she was still human. To her father, always busy during the day and exhausted during the night. To her birth mother, whose face she struggled to remember. The companionship of Shanghai, of all her dolls on lonely days. The mansion in Leeds, with all of its secrets. The embassy in Romania, and her days as the ‘Doll Maker of Bucuresti…’. The fateful day that led her to Makai, the day Alice the human died and Alice the magician was born.

“Yes. Before I fell down here, I lived up above, in the Outside World.”

Byakuren nodded along to that. “Yes, you’ve known what it’s like to be a human and to be a youkai. You can sympathise with both. But even so, there are humans and youkai that could defeat you and I both. No, I think you will soon find that what matters most is not power, but understanding. And that is what will push you towards your goal, and towards enlightenment”
The monk finally climbed to her feet.

“However, we can discuss that further later. For now, let us discuss magical theory.”

---

Haru flew through the sky at a leisurely pace, enjoying the wind fluttering through her hair. Next to her, Marisa flew on her broomstick, Reimu riding along with her, hands wrapped around her waist.

Apparently, she was too cool to be seen riding on her mother’s back by her best friend. Who knew?

The two girls were having a chat, just loud enough for Haru to hear what they were saying over the wind in her ears.

“Hey, how’d you dodge my bullets near the end there? You were moving like you didn’t have no bones or something” Marisa inquired.

“Dodge? Your bullets were swerving out of the way on their own!”

“Nuh-uh! I was definitely shooting straight!”

“Nuh-uh your nuh-uh! Not my fault your bullets knew I was too pretty to get hit!”

“Too pretty? You? Nah, they just didn’t want to make you even uglier!”

Haru held back a giggle at their antics. For all that they fought powerful youkai and gods, they were still kids. Of course, pointing that out would only provoke cries of ‘I’m not just a kid!’, so she held her silence.

Still, Haru felt a little guilty. She had deceived Reimu a little about her flight. The ability to fly was one of the basics of combat in Gensokyo, and had been since the barrier went up, at least, if not much longer.

Basic flight was simply a matter of expelling magic from the soles of one’s feet. Had she tried to teach Reimu to fly, she likely would have been quite adept by now. But Haru was not teaching her to fly. She was teaching her to float, to tap into that innate ability their bloodline carried.

Well, the Miyadeguchi had once carried that ability too. But that was only a bit of historical trivia, these days.

Either way, the ability of the Hakurei to float entailed the power of flight. But more than that, it was the ability to float through existence itself, a power that verged on invincibility when used right. The catch being that it required a certain peace of mind, a ‘zen’ as the Buddhists would put it.

Haru hadn’t mastered that ability until she was 23 years old. Her predecessors had been 26 and 25 when they had mastered it.

Haru wanted Reimu to master it before she even hit 15. And so, rather than teach her the simpler flight first, she had only taught Reimu to float. She had hoped that Reimu, by virtue of not knowing the distinction between flight and floating, would not stress herself over using the secret family technique. That would make achieving that ‘zen’ state much more straightforward.

Of course, she had been far from the first Hakurei (or Miyadeguchi) to have that idea. From what she’d read with Keine- and the past few months, with little Akyuu- there had been a fair few trials, with mixed results.

For some, the inability to grasp floatation had only frustrated them further, slowing their ability to enter combat without any aids or familiars(mostly Genji, though there had been a smattering of personal shikigami used throughout the years.) For a few, they had been able to grasp the ability to float instinctually. Those lucky few had then gone on to be some of the most prestigious and legendary members of their clans.

Haru had bet on Reimu being in the latter group. She had bet that her daughter’s easy-going nature would allow her to grasp the power to stand against Gensokyo’s elite. She had bet right; Reimu had awoken her innate ability, able to fly through her friend’s attacks without fear of being hit.

Of course, it was far from a seamless process, even for her little prodigy. She had seen Reimu push her power too far and plummet. But that was fine. Better for her to make mistakes now, while she still had her mother watching over her.

Just as she had finished her navel gazing, Kourindou came into sight.

Haru landed a short distance from the Curio Shop. Reimu jumped off Marisa's broom, the witch herself touching down a few moments later. The two looked at each other, nodding, and then racing towards the door.

Haru allowed herself to laugh this time. Maybe she should take a cue from the kids, and not worry so much. Reimu was doing well, and enjoying herself. That was what really mattered. She just hoped that would continue, long into the future.

Alice sat cross-legged, a book in her hands. Not her Grimoire however, but a note-book. Before her, Byakuren continued her lecture, speaking about creating a magical core for her tools.

“... The crux of the matter is that all objects used for casting magic will begin to form a magical core of their own. However, it works best if there is some sort of sentimental attachment. One of your dolls, for example, would be more straightforward to enchant, compared to a stranger’s dolls.”

Alice nodded her hands furiously scribbling down everything Byakuren said.

“But my Grimoire is still fairly new. I’m trying to bind enchantments to it first, before I really start to use it. How do I do that? Is it even possible?” Alice asked her senior.

Byakuren hummed, taking Alice’s question into account.

“How is your light magic, Alice?”

Alice tilted her head, not entirely sure how that was relevant, but trusting Byakuren enough to believe that it would be.

“It’s one of my strengths. I pride myself in being able to control wavelengths, in particular.” Granted, that was because she liked to light her dolls up in different colours. But Byakuren didn’t need to know that.

“Well, in the case of my sutra scroll, I created it by manipulating the light as it struck me, as well as the magic in my own body. By doing so, I was able to harmonise the magic of the self and the magic of the world. Your mother was actually quite helpful in that process, she ensured that I remained unbothered during it, and could complete it without interruption. That is the benefit of working with others, be they human, youkai, or god.” Byakuren said.

Alice idly noted that fairies weren’t included in that list. Probably because most fairies fought essentially on instinct. That, and they lacked combat power; she could probably beat the average fairy with only one doll.

“Well, besides my mum, Yumeko, and your own person, I don’t really know many dedicated magicians. While everyone knows how to do magic here in Makai, most don’t really make a point of mastering it. Some might go out of their way to master flight thanks to its pure utility, but unless I followed the rumours and went to the Land of Ice and Fire or the Ruins of Vina, most discussions about magical theory could be had from home.”

Byakuren smiled at that. “Ah, but Makai isn’t the only realm where magic is practised.”

Alice tilted her head in response. “I suppose I could head to Gensokyo. There’s plenty of portals open right now. But I’d rather exhaust all of my options here before moving on to new pastures. And for now” She held her book in front of her “that will mean mastering my grimoire.”

Byakuren clapped her hands in agreement. “Well, the good news on that front is that front is that the knowledge I’ve given you is almost enough, combined with your own previous efforts. The last topic we need to touch upon is resonance, which…”

Alice got back to her notes. Despite the challenge of understanding everything, she could feel her goal, almost within her reach.

It was looking like it was going to be a fun day.

---

Shinki pushed open the door. The crisp smell of freshly printed paper, and the commingled scents of various perfumes and colognes greeted her as she stepped into the entrance.

A well dressed young man was quick to stand up to meet her. He wore a black three-piece suit, freshly dry-cleaned, with a blue polka dot tie and a square yellow lanyard with his name printed on it.

He opened his mouth, about to rattle off a greeting, before stopping to really take her in, clearly reconsidering what he was going to say.

“Good morning, Lady Shinki. What can I help you with?” He eventually settled on.

Shinki gave him a friendly smile. “Good morning Mr Akaguro.” She began, her eyes darting to his lanyard for a second. “I would like to speak to your boss, please.”

Akaguro stammered over his words for a few moments. “Um… I’m afraid you don’t have an appointment…?” He eventually managed to get out.

Shinki didn’t dignify that with a response, instead just giving a flat look. The man began to sweat as though he had gotten trapped in a sauna in the middle of Hokkai, his eyes darting around furiously.

Eventually, Shinki felt a little pity for the man, placing a hand on his shoulder.

“Takeshi. Inform Kurobara that she will be meeting with me.Tell them that it’s a matter of urgency.” She spoke softly, but her tone made it clear that she would brook no argument. Takeshi Akaguro nodded furiously, scuttling his way through a fancy set of double doors. Shinki could hear the thump-thump-thump as he rushed up the stairs, most of the office staring at her or their colleague in silence.

A few minutes later, a woman emerged, a sharp blue business suit contrasting with her bright red hair. A pair of bat-like wings emerged from her back, twitching in irritation. Unlike Takeshi, who stood meekly behind her, she did not shrink at all from Shinki’s gaze. Shinki regarded that with an equal mix of respect and annoyance; the woman should know what Shinki was here for, after all.

“Miss Shinki. I see you’ve decided to come and talk to us. Let’s go talk about this in my office.” The CEO said curtly, holding the door open for the goddess. Shinki raised an eyebrow, but followed the woman up the stairs and into a large, plush suite.

“I trust you’re aware of why I’m here.” Shinki began, deciding to forego formalities.

“I presume you are talking about the recent Gensokyo Wanderer promotion.” A statement, rather than a question.

“That is the case. I need you to stop tearing holes in the veil between Makai and Gensokyo.”

The woman across from her just scoffed. “The fact that the shrine maiden beat you like a drum is not particularly our concern. The fault there lays in your own weakness, in losing to a child.”

Shinki didn’t take the bait. Instead she put it in terms that the businesswoman was more likely to understand.

“The tears you have opened are two way. Certainly, anyone here who wants to take a tour is able to. But, as we’ve seen, anyone from Gensokyo who wants to come here is likewise able to. And some of them won’t just be here to tell us to knock it off. We’ve just recently finished repairs on Pandaemonium City, but if another strong youkai appears, it will all have been for nothing. Or, in a worst case scenario, they could just as easily attack here, in Makai City.”

She had thought the risk of the city in which Kurobara worked, and where she presumably lived would be enough to make her think twice. But instead, she was met with a stern, undeterred face.

“Well,” the businesswoman began. “Seeing as how our profit margins have increased by 198% since we’ve opened up these tours…” She droned on, as if she hadn't just been told that the place she was sitting was at risk of being torn down.

Shinki sighed internally. It was going to be a very long day.

---

Marisa’s legs pumped furiously, Reimu’s panting voice telling her that the junior miko was still hot on her heels. She could’ve gotten an advantage by flying, but for all of the weird stuff Reimu could do while flying, it was clear that she was still a beginner. No, she wanted to show Reimu that she could beat her fair and square.

She leapt for the door, launching herself that last little bit of distance. Right as she was about to touch it, the door suddenly swung open.

She slowed herself, a backwards push of magic blunting her velocity. But she was still going too fast to prevent herself from crashing into the person standing at the doorway.

A pair of puffy white shoes and equally puffy red plaid trousers filled her vision. As she looked up, she could see a red blouse, matching the trousers, over a pink shirt with a yellow ribbon. Staring down dispassionately at her were the red eyes of-

Marisa scrambled to her feet, her mind racing as to why Yuuka Kazami was here, of all places.

The youkai, for her part, maintained a placid smile. She’d always seemed to have that expression on her face, whether she was politely introducing herself or promising to visit a painful death on her opponent. It made her almost impossible to read.

Despite the danger posed by her, Marisa’s heart beat not just with fear and anxiety, but with excitement and anticipation. After all, if things did go badly and she needed to fight, there was a chance she might see it again.
That beautiful laser, so concentrated, yet so wide. That powerful laser, which had blasted through the walls of Mugenkan as though they were paper. There was no chance of her performing it now, without her mini-hakkero, but if she had a chance to see it, then once she got her mini-hakkero back, the first thing she was going to figure out would be how to fire off that beautiful, lovely, masterful sparkling beam.

The flower youkai continued to stare at her. Reimu had caught up by now, and, having seen Yuuka, fell into a combat-ready stance. Eventually, Yuuka was the one to break the silence.

“What a small little world we live in. What brings you to these parts?” She asked casually.

Reimu and Marisa were both a little taken aback. But Marisa was the first to pull herself together.

“Hey, I should be asking you that! Weren’t you supposed to be living in a lake of blood?”

Yuuka gave a chiding wag of the fingers. “Now, now, you’re supposed to answer questions before making enquiries of your own. But I am here to make some enquiries, some purchases. You know what it's like.” She said, vaguely.

Marisa absolutely did not know what it was like, and was about to say so when Kourin walked by.

“Your parasol, miss Kazami.” He spoke respectfully, handing her a red parasol with white spots. Yuuka smiled at him and then at Reimu and Marisa.

“How lovely. Now then, I will be making my exit.” She made to walk off, but Marisa stopped her.

“Hey, you paid for that?” Normally, Marisa wouldn’t bother herself with someone taking stuff without paying. She was far from innocent on that front. In this situation though, Yuuka was stealing from Kourin, for one.

And for two, she wanted to get into a fight with Yuuka. Or at least see that lovely laser of hers.

Yuuka kept that grin on her face. “I’ve paid with my presence, of course. What more could a man want than that? Right, Mr Shopkeeper?” She turned to Kourin.

Kourin opened his mouth to say something, but Yuuka put a finger to his mouth, silencing him.

“Oh come on, Rinnosuke. You might be a bit weedy, but you can definitely do better than weed woman over here.” Reimu scoffed. Yuuka actually looked a little offended at that, surprisingly.

“Hey, how about this. Why don’t we have a laser beam contest.If you win, we stop bugging you. If we win, you pay Kourin for that parasol o’ yours.”

Yuuka seemed to think about that for a moment. She crouched down, got to eye level with Marisa, and laughed in her face, before straightening and starting to fly away. Before she could get far though, she was intercepted.

“As humorous as this has all been.” Mrs Haru said, “I really can’t just allow you to commit theft right in front of me.”

It wasn’t Yuuka to respond, but surprisingly enough, Kourin.

“There is no need to concern yourselves. She’s already paid. She did so shortly before you all arrived.”

Mrs Haru blinked in surprise. Yuuka breezed past the shocked woman, her laughter echoing in the wind.

Marisa was just frustrated. She hadn’t gotten to see the laser and she’d been subjected to the flower youkai’s weird practical joke!

Mrs Haru, however, was quicker to get back on focus. “Rinnosuke. Is the arm alright?”

Kourin gave her a nod, leaning below the counter and offering it to Mrs Haru. With a few sparks of energy, the metal arm connected to the metal stump, and Mrs Haru gripped and ungripped a few times to check that it was fine.

She turned to Marisa.

“Marisa. I feel I should make this clear. Never taunt a youkai when a civilian is nearby, unless it is in service of neutralising them immediately with no casualties. It was lucky that Yuuka was only playing a prank of some sort. Often, a capricious youkai like her would take it out on the nearest, softest target available. Do I make myself clear?"

Marisa nodded furiously. Haru held her in place with a fierce glare. Then she nodded, satisfied with what she’d seen in Marisa’s eyes.

Haru and Reimu said their goodbyes and left. Marisa deflated; she'd gotten a fierce telling off and no laser to show for it.

Now that she thought about it though… Yuuka lived in the ‘Garden of the Sun’, Eternity had said. maybe she should go pay the place a visit.

Yuuka Kazami enjoyed a nice cup of tea, relaxing under her new parasol. It was a slightly warm day; the fairy in white wouldn’t be coming around for a few weeks yet, but the worst of winter had passed. Some of her more hardy flowers had even started budding and blooming already. Normally, she would be spending some time in Mugenkan, waiting for spring to arrive in earnest, but…

---

Yuuka awoke to the smell of blood. It wasn’t something she was particularly unused to, but the power of the stench would usually only be found if she had freshly killed someone. She had not done so in a century; between the gap woman, the oni do-gooder and the cavalcade of shrine maidens(and friends), even a woman like her had to tread lightly. Though her patience was occasionally tested by the rare fools who had tried to cut down her flowers, she usually had to satisfy herself with a bit of light maiming. Though, youkai who overstepped were under no such protections.

But she had not killed either a human or a youkai today. So what was that smell?

Yuuka opened the door, before being smacked in the face with a tide of blood. She blinked in disgruntlement, forcing her door closed despite the sheer amount of pressure pushing against her.

With a sigh, she fetched her old umbrella, gave it a last thanks, and then opened the door while using the umbrella to shield herself.

Even with the reinforcement she was using on it, she could feel the canopy straining. But she held firm, letting the initial rush past her. The blood eventually settled at around waist level. Well, it would have been waist level had she still been standing, instead she was floating just above the water.

She sighed. Having a mansion under a lake of blood had been wonderful aesthetically. But she was really feeling the downside of it now.

She flew over the kitchen, the mess hall, the auditorium… all of her mansion had been flooded in blood. She put a hand to her head. She could solve this either DIY or go find someone to clear out all of the blood. She’d heard there was some tenkaijin, Chiaki, or something, that could be hired to get rid of large blood spills by drinking it, but getting mail between worlds was expensive and timely at the best of times.

---

Yuuka grimaced despite the absolutely delightful taste of her tea. That had been a real mess.

Still, the flooding problem would have been less detrimental if she had still had her gatekeeper and guard there to help her. But Kurumi had departed shortly after Yuuka’s fight with those two human brats. Something about needing to train and get stronger in order to prove herself.

She had not been particularly close to vampire, but it had still been a shame to lose her. She had acted quite well as a gatekeeper, preventing most of the chaff from being able to so much as enter her mansion. She was also one of the few people who was not intimidated by her jokes, which meant she didn’t need any reassurances as to Yuuka’s intent.

As for Elly…

---

Yuuka strolled through Mugenkan in her pajamas, sipping on a glass of warm milk, when she heard voices, two of them, conversing with each other. One of them she recognised as that of Eloise Ankou, Elly as she liked to be called, her guard and custodian of Mugenkan when she wasn’t around. The other was an equally youthful sounding voice, though with a certain melodic lilt to it. Yuuka, curious, went to investigate.

The reaper was stood just outside the mansion, talking to a blonde girl dressed in an orange-brown dress, brown boots and a short white jacket with a red ribbon around her neck. Her most striking features were the pair of chicken wings emerging from her back and the red crest on her head, which had a baby chick nestled in it.

“There’s been word from the higher-ups. They want you back in action in the west.”

Elly turned her head at the information, apparently confused. “I thought they’d kicked me out for good. Why do they want me to come back?”

Chicken girl shrugged, the action sending her wings fluttering. “I’m not really privy to that. Above my pay grade.”

Elly sighed at that. “And if I were to say that I didn’t want to go back?”

Chicken girl gave a rueful smile. “Then I would go back and tell the Yamaxanadu. But that wouldn’t be the end of it.They would send someone stronger than me.”

Yuuka chose to reveal herself then.

“Well, you let me worry about that, Elly. Good help is hard to find these days.”

Both the heads of the chicken and the reaper turned to her in surprise.

“I don’t believe we’ve met before. I’m Kutaka Niwatari, an aide to the Yamaxanadu.” Chicken Girl extended her hand to Yuuka.

“Yuuka Kazami. Beauty of the Twilight, Flower of Japan.” Yuuka replied humbly, shaking Kutaka’s hand.

“Well, Ms Kazami, I would advise you against trying to fight my colleagues-” Kutaka began

“If their caliber of strength is comparable to yours? I think I’ll manage.” Yuuka cut her off. Kutaka narrowed her eyes a little, but was quick to return to a more neutral face. Professional, at least, Yuuka noted.

“Well, you would find that the Ministry would be willing to take whatever steps necessary to ensure Elly’s return. For the retrieval of one of our own, it’s not unthinkable that even the yama might be willing to step in.”

That could be interesting, Yuuka thought. That Shinki woman had been a real bore, in the end, but a fight with the Yamaxanadu would absolutely be interesting. Of course, it was also a fight she was absolutely guaranteed to lose, and she didn’t want to get her favourite dress ripped…

“Please don’t!” Elly shouted, looking at Yuuka’s expression. “There’s no need to fight the Judge for my sake, lady Yuuka.”

Yuuka was torn between being upset that she was having her chance to mock the chicken interrupted and being grateful for the off-ramp to avoid a fight(and, from what she’d heard, subsequent multiple-hour lecture) with the Judge.

She settled with a sigh. “Well, if you truly do wish to return, it would be rather unladylike for me to stop you.”

Elly smiled. Then she placed her scythe down and gave Yuuka a deep bow.
“Thank you for taking me under your wing, Yuuka!”

Yuuka hadn’t actually needed to do much. She just let Elly live in her mansion as long as the reaper took care of it when she was sleeping or out, at the Garden of the Sun or otherwise.

“You are welcome. I appreciate your help Elly, and best of luck with the soul-collecting.”

Elly rose her head one last time, giving her a grin, before hopping into the air. Kutaka gave Yuuka a nod of acknowledgement before flapping her wings, taking flight and leading her colleague away. The pair flew out of Mugenkan and into the great blue sky.

---

With both of her assistants gone, and the mansion itself flooded, Yuuka saw no reason to stay in Mugenkan for the time being. She had left some succulents there to drain the blood over time, and truthfully, it was still an issue that would be sorted out in days and weeks, rather than years.

Even still, she just wanted a change of pace. Perhaps she’d try growing flowers in all seasons, rather than just spring and summer this year? Maybe some Winterberries and snowdrops.
Ooh, or maybe some tundra roses and snow gentians…

Yuuka hummed to herself in excitement as she thought of all of the types of flower she could cultivate which would survive Gensokyo’s cold. Of course, she’d have to be careful to ensure they didn’t become invasive species, but to a woman with her control of plants, that would be a relatively trivial and straightforward matter.

Now, there was only one small matter she had to resolve.

“Hey! Weirdo flower lady!”

That little witch had been coming by every day, flying just at the edge of her garden and throwing taunts at her. It wasn’t the end of the world, but it was still quite an annoyance.

Yuuka faintly remembered something about the girl talking about a laser beam contest. Well, Yuuka could certainly show her an impressive laser.

Raising her parasol, Yuuka began to concentrate her energy at the very tip of it. She condensed more and more energy, causing the tip of the umbrella to glow. Then, just as the rate of condensation began to slow, Yuuka fired off her beam, a bright flash and explosion of sound reverberating through the area.

The witch managed to dodge at first, but Yuuka swept the beam around, managing to clip the witch just before the beam dissipated. Even though she had just been grazed, the witch went into a tailspin, falling from the sky. Yuuka extended her senses into the flowers of the garden. She kept her senses out for a few moments, waiting for her. Soon enough, she sensed that the witch had landed a short distance from the garden. Eternity Larva was nearby, doing… something with her energy.

That fairy could be a real oddball, even for the standards of her species. But whatever she was up to wasn’t affecting her flowers, and the new chair she had gotten was particularly comfortable, so she didn’t really care enough to go and investigate.

Yuuka lowered her parasol, sitting down again to continue her tea. As long as that witch wasn’t bleeding on her flowers, then she wasn’t too concerned about her.

---

Eternity Larva sat, legs crossed, breathing deeply in and out. She meditated, taking in the one season which her foe could not control.. She pulled in the energy of the changing season, letting it swirl through her body. Doyou, the anathema of her enemy. It was something she felt compelled to do during these times of year ,knowing subconsciously to prepare herself for Matara’s eventual return.

Eternity stood up, dusting herself off. Most of the energy she had gathered would dissipate itself shortly. Even still, it was something she had quite liked to do as the seasons changed. She knew that her plight was unlikely to be fruitful. But she continued on the off-chance it would be.

Eternity heard a blast, a flash lighting up the area.

Someone dropped from the sky, a witch having lost control of her broom. She managed to slow her fall with a burst of magic, toppling from the stick gracelessly.

“Hi Marisa!” Eternity said, bounding over to the little witch and helping her to her feet.

Marisa still seemed a bit dizzy at first, but soon she seemed to wake up, jumping to her feet.

“Eternity! Heya!” she said, surprisingly chipper for just having been blasted out of the sky. She waved excitedly, her arm covered in soot.

“You okay? You really got blasted there!” Eternity asked. She was a fairy, but even she’d be pretty tired if one of Yuuka’s lasers got her. Marisa, however, seemed unbothered.

“Oh, me? I’m fine. I’m more than fine. I’m great!” Marisa responded happily.

Well, Marisa’s enthusiasm was making Eternity feel excited, too!

“Hey, wanna play again then? Well, a bit further from the Garden, of course.” She asked, knowing that Yuuka wouldn’t be happy about a fight flattening any of her plants.

“You’re on!” Marisa responded, grabbing her broomstick and hopping back on.

Eternity smirked, flapping her wings and taking to the air to fight against her friend.

---

Marisa waved goodbye to Eternity. She’d won their fight again, of course. But more than that, she’d had a chance to see Yuuka’s laser again! For all the flower youkai’s attacks, she sure knew how to pack some impressive firepower.

Marisa was confident, now. Once she got her mini-hakkero back from her master, she would be able to perform that attack. All it would need would be a cool name.

Alice grit her teeth, feeling her skin begin to blister and burn in the blazing brightness of Hokkai’s high-noon heat haze. Normally, she would have applied a spell to act as sunscreen, which would let her walk through the desert without so much as a slight tan. But today, all of her magic was being poured into one endeavour; the improvement and enchantment of her grimoire.

Her magic reached out, redirecting the light into the book in front of her. It was far from a perfect effort; her sunburns spoke to that. But it was still a succeeding one, her grimoire beginning to glow with a faint light of its own.

The ground under her, too, glowed with power. It was Byakuren’s the elder magician(and she could have sworn Byakuren threw a quick look at her as she thought that) empowering the spot underneath her. Alice put this energy into her spellbook just as she did with the light, causing the light to further amplify.

It was kind of starting to hurt her eyes…

Alice powered through it anyway, the importance of her goal overriding her desire for comfort. This was something she had been working on since she had fallen down to Makai, and she was finally so close to fulfilling it!

Her breathing sped up. She could feel her magic starting to go haywire…!

The loud sound of clapping reverberated through her ears. The magic underneath her went from swelling and empowering to calm. Stabilizing. Alice felt her magic calm down a little, just enough to bring it(and her emotions) a touch down. Then a touch more. And a touch more.

Until, finally she could feel her control begin to l re-exert itself.

Right, she had let herself get too agitated there. Almost snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. She just needed to approach it with the same poise that she had for the past four hours. The same poise which Ms Hart had been so sure to instill in her. She felt her face twist into a grimace at the memory.

No, she had just promised herself not to lose control. Not because of hopes for the future, and not because of the past, either. Instead she just took a few moments to breathe. The soft sound of her breathes, the gentle hum of the spell below her, and the thrum of magic, from her grimoire and the seal around Byakuren both.

She caught the light, pulling it into the book floating in front of her. As she felt the earth beneath her return to a wellspring, she did the same for the magic there, imbuing it into the book, and twisting it so that it mixed with the energy of the light. Finally, she took the magic from her own body, mixing it so that the grimoire would be binded to her will, and to her will alone.

She repeated the process again. And again. Each time, the reservoir in the book became a little stronger, the thrum of power a little more. Everything else seemed to fall away, until a gentle voice broke her from her reverie.

“Alice.”

It was a gentle voice, not dissimilar to the tone Shinki would use when waking her from a nap. Alice seemed to wake up to the world around her, feeling the stinging pain of the sunburns all over her body, her feet feeling like they were about to fall off, and utter exhaustion making her posture droop. But she didn’t startle, gently lowering her grimoire to the ground, placing it down softly.

The magic in the book was obvious, besides having the feeling of magic thrum through her senses, Alice could see the glow of the book. The golden letters embossed, reading “Grimoire of Alice” were now not just radiant, but actively shining with a yellow light.

“Is it-” Alice began, tiredly.

“It is done.”Byakuren confirmed.

Alice gave a loud cheer, jumping into the air in celebration. She pumped her fist and whooped, before promptly falling onto her bottom.

“I’m bone tired” Alice noted to herself.

“You’ve done well, Alice. If you come a little closer, I can make you somewhere to rest for a short time.”

Alice obliged, walking until she was almost face-to-face with the barrier that encapsulated Byakuren.As she walked, she picked up her grimoire, seeing it glow as she pushed her magic into it.

The monk spun her magic into the ground, creating a small impromptu half-pod to give Alice some shade. As Alice sat down on it, she noted that it was rather comfortable, especially for a rock.

---

A few hours later, she awoke. The sun had long since retreated beneath the horizon. Nights in Hokkai were short, but mild. A clear contrast between the long and brutal. Soon the days would become even more brutal, as the volcanic activity that defined Hokkai for most of the year would continue.

Byakuren looked up from a meditating position, giving her a small smile.

“When I said a short rest, I thought you were going to sit down for a few minutes and regain your breath.” Byakuren said

Alice coloured at that, feeling the sunburns aggravate a little as blood rushed through her skin.

“Well, you made such comfortable rocks. Sometimes, that is sufficient for a short siesta.” Alice argued, applying an emollient spell to soothe her skin.

Byakuren just laughed at that, which made Alice feel a little more embarrassed. Fortunately however, because she had recovered much of her magical energy, she was able to speed up her physical healing. While she had little interest in specialising in physical enhancement magic, as her teacher had, the puppeteer could not deny the value in speeding up her healing. Granted, a broken bone would still likely require medical intervention, but smaller injuries could be shrugged off quite quickly.

A few short minutes passed, Alice allowing her body to heal as much as she could in the time. Soon enough, she was just feeling like she had run a marathon, rather than like she had swam the Atlantic while being microwaved.

Embarrassment had given way to curiosity by then, however. For most of the grimoire enchanting process, Byakuren had been using her magic as a groundswell so that Alice could combine earth and light magic to enchant her grimoire. But at one one, she had turned that groundswell into something else. It had probably saved the grimoire, preventing Alice from losing control of her spellbook. But Alice really wanted to know what, exactly, it was.

“What was that spell you used to calm me down?”

“It was a pacifying spell. Calms the nerves, eases one’s agitation. I had hoped to use it as a tool for peace, to cool down the tensions between humans and youkai.” Byakuren had a faraway look on her face at that. “But ultimately, it was not enough. The spell proved easy to resist for those that had truly set their minds on violence, and I was unable to stop the fighting, in the end.”

Alice looked at the forlorn woman for a moment. “You have my condolences.” While she still thought the lady was a bit on the barmy side, she figured she should at least show some sympathy for the woman who had helped her.

Byakuren’s eyes seemed to snap back to the present as she waved Alice off.

“If you encounter humans, try to get along with them. That will be enough for me.”

Alice nodded. She didn’t mention that she wasn’t intend on picking unnecessary fights anyway. Still, she should probably get back before her mum started worrying.
“I will. I must get back to mum now. Thank you for your help, and goodbye.”

With a farewell back from Byakuren, Alice turned on her heel and flew away.

---

Byakuren watched as the younger magician flew away.

If she was guessing right, and she certainly hoped she was, that young girl could be a useful figure in easing human-youkai relationships. All magician youkai were, by their nature, able to blend in with humans. But unlike her, Alice would not be using any deception in pursuit of her goals. It could also not be ignored that she was adorable. Byakuren was confident in her looks herself(a well-placed application of magic could clear out pores and blackheads like nothing) but there was little that would evoke feelings of sympathy and protectiveness than a little girl.

All of this relied on Alice going further afield for her magic studies. But Byakuren wasn’t particularly worried about that. She had just watched the girl bake and burn in the sun for the sake of creating a grimoire. A grimoire which the girl only saw as a means to an end; a tool to help her achieve her ultimate goal. Byakuren could be sure that she would go wherever it took to research a way to make her dolls sentient.

Not only that, but Byakuren had heard of an incursion into Makai. Including two very powerful humans. If the humans and youkai alike from above were so strong, Alice was likely to come into contact with them. To try and get their knowledge and mastery of magic. With that grimoire, she was likely to try and get revenge for her mother’s defeats. Byakuren knew; as a young magician, she had wanted to use her power to strike back against those who slighted her and hers.

Alice’s search for magic was certain to bring her to the world of humanity. To that paradise for youkai she had heard of from Shinki once or twice.

Gensokyo.

If Alice could shift the status quo of that land called Gensokyo, even if just a little, to facilitate co-operation between humans and youkai, then Byakuren would be more than proud to have helped her in the process.

A small part of the monk felt apprehensive. There was a chance things could go wrong for Alice, as they had for her. Maybe she shouldn’t have helped craft that grimoire? Maybe it would have been better for Alice to never craft that tool, remain in Makai and not risk a fate like hers? She dismissed those thoughts as pointless, however.

Not least because being sealed in Makai would simply put Alice back in contact with her mother. But also because, by all indications, while youkai were still not liked, Shinki had mentioned a certain level of tolerance towards them by the humans of the country. So long as they did not cause too much of a stir, or enter the human’s strongholds, the humans were usually content to leave them alone.

Third and fourth-hand accounts were far from ideal, but they were what she had.

She wondered how the others were doing. Shou should be fine. She had been busy when Byakuren was sealed; she should have been able to carry on without her. Perhaps she was even somewhere in this Gensokyo? Shinki hadn’t mentioned her, but it was unlikely that Shinki and those who reported to her had seen all, or even more than a mere fraction of the youkai that the land of illusions had to offer. Nazrin, would be there too, supporting her.The treasure hunter was far more formidable than one would expect from a mouse, though just as clever as her species would suggest.

The rest though… Ichirin, who was sweet, if a little silly, who Byakuren had hoped to teach pass on her skills. Unzan, stoic and silent. Minamitsu, Captain Murasa, who always brought an earnest desire to charge forth. Byakuren had lost them in the chaos of that last melee. They had only seen her at the end, Ichirin and Murasa’s cries of sorrow and rage as she was sealed away ringing in her ears even now.

A part of her hoped against all hopes that she would get to see them again. But she had little faith that it would happen. But, even if they never saw each other again, she hoped her disciples were happy, and that they were promoting peace between humanity and youkai. She could live with that.

---

Alice applied her magic to the grimoire. She saw it begin to glow, a yellow light radiating from it. It was only by a little, but Alice could feel that it had gotten more powerful since she had first created it. So just having it and holding onto it made it stronger, just as Byakuren had said. That was good, it would only get more powerful with time. Eventually it would hit the peak of its power, but she could probably expect growth for at least a few months, if not a few years.

Feeling experimental, she used her magic to generate a series of strings. She directed them, not towards her dolls, but to a previous failed experiment. The Trump King, an attempt to create a powerful, if more disposable, tool for combat.

Usually, the Trump King was too inefficient, burning up too much energy quickly to be of any use to her. But now, while she felt it draining her magic, it wasn’t anywhere near the hemorrhaging that it usually did to her magic stores.

It was combat viable now, and Alice just couldn’t wait to give it a whirl.

It was a dark evening, made even moreso by how deep in the basement the lady of the house had found herself in as she made her way down the stairs.

Flandre always had been a little reclusive. If there wasn’t a good fight to be had, something interesting or novel to destroy with her power, then she was usually content to stay in her room, being waited on by Sakuya and some of the other maids and butlers they’d had over the centuries. Even when Remilia had found things she thought would interest her sister, she was more likely to bring them to her than let her wonder around.

Flandre could be a little… enthusiastic when it came to destroying things. The scattered remains of Bloodstone Keep were a testament to that. Stoica, contrary to his name, had not taken it calmly. He was absolutely furious with Flandre, coming over to the Mansion and demanding compensation and punishment. The cleanup had been a nightmare.

Soon enough, Remilia found herself in front of the door to her sister’s room. She knocked on the door twice, as a gesture of politeness. Then she opened the door anyway; it was her house, after all.

Flandre sat in darkness, the gloom only illuminated by a single candle, held by Sakuya, and the luminescence of the crystals on the younger Scarlet’s wings illuminated the wing. Remilia was unbothered, of course; no vampire should shirk from darkness.

Remilia sat down at the table. A moment passed, before a cup of tea materialised in front of her. In front of Flandre was a goblet of blood.

Flandre perked up at that, lifting the goblet and drinking through the whole thing in a matter of seconds. She slammed the goblet down, another moment, seeing it instantly refilled to the brim. Remilia just shook her head at the younger vampire’s lack of refinement.

“Well, this place has gotten pretty boooooring.” Her sister whined, the wide motions of her arms sending the crystals along her wings flapping.

Remilia, well used to her sister’s moods, just gave a grin as she sipped on her tea.

“It’s true that both the quantity and quality of vampire hunters has been on a precipitous decline recently. Though it was unfortunate that you slept through the encounter with the Capcun. That was a mildly interesting encounter.” It truly had been. The Capcun had been more formidable than most foes she had fought recently; she actually needed to put in a modicum of effort! Still no match for her, of course, but it was nice to see an opponent that didn’t keel over as soon as she gave it a light tap. She even got to impale the monster with her Gungir as a finisher. The ogre may have been there to try and kidnap her, but it ultimately made for a slight break in what had otherwise been a dull day.

Flandre stuck her tongue out at her sister’s cheer. “You didn’t even try and wake me up. Glory-hog. Didn’t want to be upstaged by your little sister?” she taunted.

Remilia just chuckled at that, letting Flandre’s mockery flow off her like water off a duck’s back.(Not a vampire’s though. That would be a rather ill-advised decision.)

“I had already let you fight against that balaur, sister.You got a chance to prove yourself the better of a dragon, as any descendant of Dracula should.” She countered, enjoying the tea, milk and spritz of blood as they ran along her taste buds.

Flandre had a nostalgic look about her as she remembered fighting the many-headed dragon. Rather than just destroy the main body with her power, Flandre had relished destroying each head one-by-one. A swing of her Laeveatainn here and a clench of her fist there, and it was soon enough a headless dragon.

Taking a gulp of blood, Flandre seemed to luxuriate in her memories of the fight. Yet, she soon straightened up, placing her cup down and looking Remilia in the eyes.

“Remilia. You’ve been feeling it too, haven’t you?” she asked.

Remilia simply blew her tea calmly, unphased on the surface at her sister’s question.

“Indeed, I have been feeling it.” She answered after a few moments. The fading of magic in the outside world had been a continuous process. Back when she had been a young vampire, magic flowed through the world freely.

But then came the telescope. The steamboat. The electrical engine. Things which lit up the night, driving away the darkness, and banishing humanity’s fear of youkai. Magic no longer flowed through the winds like air- what was now known to be a mixture of nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen, carbon and argon.

“Then you have to know that having the four of us here, using up magical energy can’t be efficient at all. Wouldn’t it be better if there were less?” Flandre asked, her eyes boring into Remilia’s.

The young descendant of Tepes had an immediate reply to that.

“I will not, under any circumstances, betray any member of this household. What sort of master would I be if I turned on my servants as soon as it became convenient?” Remilia refused her sister’s request before she could even verbalise it. It just wasn’t an idea worth even considering, let alone pursuing.

Flandre raised an eye. “I wouldn’t call what Patchouli does ‘serving.’ How much do you even need a librarian?”

Remilia sniffed. “Of course I need a librarian. It is crucial to have a font of Knowledge available within the house. Besides, as you noted, there is a little magic problem we’ve been facing recently. Who better to sort it out than a magician?” She gave a knowing smile to her sister.

Flandre leaned back, throwing an arm and a wing over her chair as she did so. “Alright. How long has it been since you assigned her that little bit of homework?”

Remilia was tempted to make an argument about how it couldn’t be homework if the person who assigned it lived in the same house as her. Doubly so seeing as how it was an assignment she undertook herself. But rather than give her sister the satisfaction of a childish argument, Remilia decided to cut straight to the point.

“It’s been about 4 years now. I don’t think she’s about to charge in here with a solution, but we do have a lead. There seems to be a land which acts as a sanctuary to people like us. Far off in the nation of Japan.”

Flandre snorted, spraying Remilia’s face with blood. It was a good thing she was wearing a pink dress today; it wouldn’t stand out as much compared to her white ones. After a split second, her face had been wiped clean in the blink of an eye.

“Thank you, Sakuya” She turned to her faithful maid, who acknowledged her gratitude with a slight bow.

“Of course you looked at Japan.” Flandre said, chuckling. “You’ve always been a real nerd when it comes to that country.”

Remilia did not colour at that, though it was a nearer thing than she would ever admit to anyone- especially to her sister.

“I am not a ‘nerd’ Flandre. I simply find the country to be rather interesting.”

Flandre looked completely unconvinced. “ Sure, sure. That’s why you gave Sakuya a Japanese name, and not a Romanian one. Or an English one. Or even a Belgian one!”

“I had considered naming her Samantha Scarlet, but Sakuya Izayoi just had a certain je ne sans quoi to it.” Remilia countered.

“There’s a certain irony, I think, in a vampire falling in love with a country known as the Land of the Rising Sun.” Flandre teased.

“I am quite fond of the name.” Sakuya interjected. “It is quite elegant. Besides, Japan may be known as the land of the rising sun, but they have a respectable fear for the night. The number of supernatural creatures- youkai- there are quite remarkable, I must say.” the maid mused.

Flandre rolled her eyes, but didn’t refute Sakuya’s statement. She always had a little bit of a soft spot for the maid, Remilia noted internally. She tended to be more willing to give her the benefit of the doubt. For all that Flandre was probably the strongest person living in the house(though Remilia could still beat her in a fight by relying on things besides raw strength) the younger Scarlet was almost unfailingly courteous towards the serving staff, those who brought her food. As part of that class, Sakuya had gotten some good will from Flandre.

“Either way, I’m just telling you that I think I’ll be going to sleep for a bit.”
Flandre and Remilia stared at each other for a moment. Remilia noted that Flandre had grown a little taller sometime in the last half-century. Remilia was still the taller Scarlet, but not by as much these days.

Even though she could be destructive and violent, Remilia would never want to be parted with her sister. Flandre was loyal, intelligent and (sometimes) funny, and Remilia would miss her dearly.

They stepped forward and embraced each other. It was a short, fleeting thing. But it got the message across.

“Sister. I’ll see you on the other side.” Remilia gave her farewell.

“See you when I see you.” Flandre countered blithely.

With that, Flandre stepped into her coffin, which fell shut with a resounding thud.

That was the last time she saw Flandre for 25 years.

And then there were four.

---

Meiling sat in the study. She sat in a plush chair, sinking into the sofa. She was in a deep sleep, actually something of a novelty of a state for her. The gatekeeper was a known sleeper, certainly, but she tended to maintain a certain degree of awareness even when here eyes were closed. It was why she usually slept standing up.

Remilia gently walked up to the gatekeeper, gently shaking her to wake her up. She didn’t wake up. Remilia shook her a little harder. Still no joy. With a sigh, Remilia turned to Sakuya and gave her a nod.

A moment passed. Then Sakuya appeared in front of Meiling, holding a flask underneath the dragonesses’ nose. Meiling sniffed sleepily, before her eyes snapped open and she leapt to her feet. Sakuya simply sidestepped, causing Meiling to rush past her position and crash into the fireplace.

Remilia gave a slight giggle at her gatekeeper’s misfortune. Meiling quickly stood up, dusting the coal off her hair as she did so. She put her cap back on her head and gave Remillia a quick salute.

“Lady Remillia! Good to see you! You too, Sakuya!” She rattled out, still a little out of it.

“Good afternoon, Meiling. How were your dreams?” She asked, half-teasing.

Meiling gave a sigh of exasperation. “I had that nightmare about a giant centipede chasing me again. I really shouldn’t have read that manga you gave me.”

“Don’t blame Lady Remilia for your shortcomings, Meiling.” Sakuya sniped. “Aren’t you too old to be getting nightmares from comic books anyways?” She asked.

Meiling pouted at her friends’ mockery. “I refuse to apologize for still having a heart, unlike some people.” She said, shooting a pointed gaze at Sakuya.

Sakuya responded as any Brit would, with a chiding tut at the mansion’s brawniest tenant.

Meiling seemed to get her bearings after that, taking another swipe at her hair to get rid of the last motes of ash in it.

“Lady Remilia. I think… it might be time to go follow your sister. Go to sleep for a while, lower the amount of power we’re burning through.”

Remilia felt her mood immediately plummet at that. Still, it wouldn’t do to start scowling at her friend. Instead she kept an even countenance, letting some intrigue bleed through.

“Might I ask why, exactly?”

Meiling nodded at her. “Recently, I’ve been struggling to stay awake. A lot more than I usually do, even. I know it must have been harder for you, as well. And I’m really, really worried about Patchouli. I can sense it, you know?” Meiling spoke, one hand gripping her other wrist.

She’s always in the library. That’s not unusual. But between the work she’s been doing and the weakening of magic… It’s been getting weaker. Her signature, her ki, it’s just been getting weaker and weaker as time’s gone on. I want to help you. I want to help Patchy. I want to help Patchy help all of us. If all that needs is a slightly longer nap than usual, well, I get to make use of my talent.” Meiling concluded with a joke, lightning the mood from the serious subject matter.

Even with that though, Remilia felt her heart warm a little. Meiling’s warmth was something she had always loved. In the periphery of her vision, Sakuya tilted her head in what Remilia had known her long enough to interpret as surprise. It seemed her maid didn’t expect that level of insight from Meiling.

Meiling looked straight at Remilia, expectant of a response.

“Meiling. Kneel down for a moment, would you?” Remilia requested.

As soon as her gatekeeper took a knee, Remilia wrapped her in a firm hug. After a moment of surprise, Meiling returned it.
“I would miss your company.” Remilia confessed.

“I’ll miss you too, Remi. But I know you, and Patchy will get us through this” Meiling admitted, before her eyes strayed to Sakuya. “Uh, and you too, Sakuya.” She added a little awkwardly.

Sakuya crossed her arms and shook her head. “Yes,yes, farewell to you too, Meiling. I’ll be expecting you back to your post promptly once this is all over.” She said firmly.

Meiling stood up with a smile. She walked back towards her room, Remilia and Sakuya trailing her. Then she began to wreathe herself in a green energy. It wrapped around her, somewhere between a chrysalis and a sleeping bag, leaving Meiling’s face open.

“Right. See you soon, Remilia, Sakuya!”

“I’ll see you soon, Meiling. I’ll have tons of manga recommendations by then.” Remilia spoke cheerily.

“Enjoy your sleep, Meiling.” Sakuya said simply

Meiling nodded, before closing her eyes and drifting off.

And then there were three.

---

Patchy truly was a magician to be proud of. Though she lacked the physicality of most youkai, her intelligence more than made up for it. Meiling and Flandre often called her an egghead(and to be fair, Remilia did it too) but she really did deserve the name Knowledge.

Case in point, she’d figured out a way to get the mansion to make the jump into Japan, and, from there, into Gensokyo. A hidden country was, by definition, not particularly easy to locate based on written accounts. In fact, there were almost no written accounts, save for a brief mention in a book so tucked away that even Patchy had seemed a little surprised to find it. It had just been an offhanded comment, a note of amusement in a Youma book, talking about a quaint new settlement created by ‘Three hags and a lizard’. Deriding Patchouli looked awful, her skin pale and clammy as she put the finishing touches on it.

Soon enough, the spell was finished, a black-purple gem left laying on the table.

“It’s finally done.” Patchy said tiredly. Remilia put her arm on the magician’s arm, about to offer her congratulations. The magician closed her eyes, collapsing onto Remilia’s shoulder. The magician forced herself to look her oldest friend in the eye, giving her a conclusive grin. “Remi. We all put our fate in your hands. I know you can do it.”

Patchouli’s head drooped. Remilia caught her mob cap as it fell. Her mind flashed back, to the old tailor who had made the caps for her, for her sister, and for the girl who may as well have been her kinsman.

That old lady had died over four centuries ago. Now, it was Remilia and her friends’ lives on the line, and she didn’t intend to let any of her friends down. Patchy had been so kind as to pave the way for her. Now she just needed to walk that path to the land of illusions, and her friends could recover.

Gently, Remilia lifted Patchouli up in a fireman’s carry. The librarian was a good deal taller than her; most people were, and she wasn’t nearly as sore about it these days as she used to be in the past. It just meant that she had to fly a little to prevent Patchy’s legs from dragging along the floor as she walked.

Just as she started to flap her wings, Sakuya interjected.

“My lady, please allow me to carry Patchouli in your stead.”

Remilia grinned at her. “Patchy might need to get a bit more exercise, but I’m a vampire. I can handle the weight.”

Sakuya shook her head. “Her weight isn’t the concern here. Flying around would mean expending more energy than is needed. You need to save all of the energy that you can in order to use that spell.”The maid argued.

Remilia sighed and acknowledged her point at that. While she didn’t think it would make much of a difference in the end, every little bit of magic she had left in her would help. Patchy had theorised that increasing the amount of fear which night creatures provoked could potentially increase the amount of energy which the residents of the Mansion had. But even if Remilia went and terrorised the local town, it wouldn’t encourage enough fear to make a difference. More likely that the Mansion would just get bombed like how they eventually got Carmilla.

Sakuya knelt down, picking up Patchy and slinging her over her shoulder. The two walked the librarian back to her room, placing her into her bed and tucking her in.

Remilia put her mob cap back on her head, lifting her from her pillow to secure it around her forehead. Everyone else had worn their hats to sleep, so Remilia didn’t want Patchy to feel left out.

Remilia gave a nod of her head before leaving the room. Sakuya, as ever, trailed behind her.

And then there were two.

---

Out of all of the people within the mansion, Remilia worried about Sakuya both most and least.

She was, undoubtedly, an extremely competent maid. Remilia could only ever remember seeing her so much as trip twice- both within the first three years of her service. For the remainder of the century and change she had been Remilia’s maid, she was more or less just as perfect and elegant as she proclaimed to be, at least as a maid.

As a fighter, Sakuya was capable as well. Not as strong as her or her sister, but she had an incredible level of dexterity with her knives, able to nail a fly from half a room away. That made sense, considering her past occupation. Sakuya’s control over time was a powerful ability which she had great mastery of.

Outside of being a maid and a fighter, however, Sakuya was an airhead. Remilia was still fairly certain she didn’t know what air actually is, and that she needed it to breathe! One time, Patchouli had mentioned a potential way to sort her books called the “Dewey Decimal Classification” system. Remilia had asked Sakuya to keep an eye on Patchy and give her a hand, if need be.

Sakuya, helpful as ever, had gone out the following morning and collected a bucket of dew from the local area. Honestly, both Remilia and Patchouli had been more impressed by that than anything else.

All of this was to say, while Remilia knew Sakuya to be a competent adult, she wasn’t entirely confident in her ability to take care of herself, and to not neglect her own health in favour of helping out her mistress.

Such was the case right now.

“Sakuya. I understand that you’re trying to help, but right now, you really need to get some rest.” Remilia made clear to her maid.
Sakuya shook her head, her nose looking to rival Rudolph’s and two bits of tissue stuffed up her nostrils.

“No, my lady. I want to help you out as best as I can. I can’t let something as small as a common cold get in the way of my duties.”

Remilia refrained from sighing at Sakuya’s stubbornness. What she was saying would have been more convincing if she wasn’t sweating like Patchouli on her treadmill. Or like Meiling after an all-nighter.

“Sakuya, I understand that you wanted to be the one to manage the teleportation. But right now you’re sick. More sick than I’ve ever seen you before, actually. I know that it’s been hard for you, as well, with magic getting weaker. But if you try in your state…” Remilia tried to reason

“But my lady, what of your state? You are a vampire, a creature of the night. But humans have created torches, lamps, beacons. They aren’t afraid of the night any more. My lady, isn’t that draining your power? How could I complain when my lady’s very existence is on the line?” Sakuya said, her voice becoming louder and more concerned as she protested.

Remilia allowed a moment to pass, for Sakuya to realise how worked up she was getting. Then, gently, she placed her hand on top of her maid’s.

“Sakuya. I know that you don’t want to feel like a burden. But no one will begrudge you for having moments of weakness. That’s just part of-” Remilia might have said ‘being human’ a century ago, but she knew that while Sakuya was intent on remaining human, she had no real love for humanity at large. She couldn’t, considering all the people she’d killed, both before and after she became Remilia’s employee. “-being sentient, I suppose. You’ve seen Meiling and Patchy be vulnerable. You’ve even seen me be vulnerable. Flandre- well, maybe you haven’t seen her be vulnerable, but you know she’s got a soft spot for you. None of us will think any less of you for it.”

Sakuya shook her head at that. “My lady, I must do all that I can in my capacity as a servant. At a time like this, especially, I can’t just leave you behind.”

The appeal to emotion had been as ineffective as Remilia had feared against the maid. No, not completely ineffective, it wasn’t like Sakuya didn’t care at all about what her colleagues and master thought of her personally. She had once gotten in an argument with Patchy and Meiling, and ended up wearing the same headdress three times in a row-unprecedented for her.

But ultimately, Sakuya had a single minded focus; was she being a perfect maid? If she wasn’t it didn’t matter whether she was being hampered by illness and injury. She would keep kicking herself until she was doing better.

“So be it then. As your mistress, I am ordering you to rest. Recuperate your energy until you are in such a state that you are useful to me again.”

Sakuya turned over what Remilia had said in her head for a few moments. She nodded in acquiescence, though still more reluctantly than Remilia would have liked.

“I suppose it would be improper of me to reject a direct order from you, my lady.” Sakuya intoned emotionlessly.

Remilia gave a small, wry smile. Honestly, to have to order someone to take a break was a little silly. Sakuya must have been going through tough times without the ability to just stop time and sleep as freely as she could have done even 10 years ago.

Sakuya closed her eyes, eventually drifting off to sleep.

Remilia waited a few minutes. Then a few more. She wanted to make sure that Sakuya had properly fallen asleep, not fallen into a slight drowse, ready to snap to attention and fight, or clean, or cook food, or whatever else might be needed of the Mansion’s maid.

No, Remilia could be fairly certain that she was asleep. Doubly so given that she was lightly snoring.

Remilia palmed the black gem tucked away within her dress.

Right now, there was only one person awake in the house. Her.

Soon enough, she would be changing that.

---

Remilia felt her heart race- which was quite a feat given her heartbeat was 2 beats per minute on a good day.But today was a special, day, and auspicious day. Today marked the day the fate of her and all of her friends would be decided.

Fate… She had always proclaimed herself someone with the ability to manipulate fate. On a certain level, that wasn’t even wrong; everyone could manipulate fate. She, especially could manipulate fate through the force of her charisma, and the sheer strength she had, both as part of her birthright and as a result of fending off all of those who sought her usurpation. Vampire hunters, the Centaur-Troll alliance, covens of witches, other vampires… All of them had tried to take her down. All of them had failed.

But if Remilia was fairly confident that she wasn’t born with the ability to manipulate fate. There had been times where she had been luckier than expected, or where her intuition led her to a far better outcome than anyone had thought it would. But that could just as easily be good luck as it was any actual magic ability.

She’d felt the sting of failure, too. Less than she had tasted the ambrosia of victory, but she had been through too many setbacks to be absolutely confident in any ability she might or might not have.

Honestly, she had mostly claimed destiny manipulation so as not to be overshadowed by her sister. Having one sister with the ability to destroy anything and another with just the bog standard vampire skillset would really have made her look more unimpressive. That was only compounded when Sakuya had become part of the mansion, bringing along the ability to stop time itself.

Of course, as a creature of the night, her nature could change as humanity’s understanding of her- as a vampire and as Remilia scarlet- did. It was something she understood innately, Patchy had the academic theory for that down. That meant there was a chance, no matter how slight, that all of her tall tales of being a manipulator of fate had actualised, giving her the ability to manipulate those threads of destiny.

Part of Remilia hoped that she would be able to change destiny, to tilt the scales of fate ever so slightly in her and her friends’ favours. But she knew not to trust something so fickle. Rather, she would trust in the competence of Patchouli Knowledge, and in her own magical ability to get her and friends to where they needed to go.

Still, there was a reason she had wanted Sakuya to be asleep before she began the process(and was it luck or fate that she had gotten what she wanted?) After all, Patchy had warned her what the consequences of failing this teleport would be.

A best case scenario would just lead to the mansion being torn asunder like one of Meiling’s karate blocks. The more likely scenario would be getting disintegrated, the molecules of their body getting separated during the teleportation and leaving them as little more than motes of dust on the wind. Patchy had theorised it could be painful, feeling your body get torn to shreds like that.

Remilia didn’t want her friends to suffer a fate like that. If what awaited them was a painful failure, then she would rather let them pass peacefully. No, more than that, she felt an obligation to those who had stuck with her through thick and thin. If they all got through this, then they could go back to being an impetus master and her put-upon servants. Maybe even get some more servants, liven the place up a little. But right now, she needed to act as the master of the house, with a duty to all of its inhabitants to secure their continued safety and security.

Remilia took a deep breath. She had gathered her resolve, now she needed to focus on making sure she did the spell right, and made the jump to the right place. She held the gem in her palms, cupping it as she used it as a conduit.

Remilia pooled all of her magic together. She imbued the gem with her will, directing it to where she wanted to go.

‘To Japan’ She thought

‘To Gensokyo’ she willed

‘To a place where magic still lives.’ she wished

The gem flashed purple, energy of the same colour emerging and washing over the whole mansion. While it was illuminated, however, Remilia could feel that it was not ‘grasping’ anything. A teleport at this moment might get a few bricks to Gensokyo, but not much else.

After a few moments, and a veritable fireworks display of purple lights, Remilia directed the magic to grasp the Scarlet Devil Mansion and all of the space around it. It felt a little like grasping smoke at first, but Remilia was up for the challenge.

It was a little like when she had to reconstitute her body from turning into a swarm of bats; rather than focusing on each little part, she focused on the completed product; her entire mansion, residents including, being held by the spell to teleport.

Eventually, she felt the spell begin to settle as she achieved her results.

Then, with one final push, she mentally commanded the gem to teleport.

The mansion began to levitate, uprooting from its foundations. A wormhole began to open underneath the mansion as the structure began to slowly lower itself down into it.

Remilia could say that she was leaving the land where she called home behind.

But her home was in the four dozing girls within the mansion. Frankly, as long as she had them, it wouldn’t matter if it was a shack or a citadel she was bringing them to Gensokyo in.

She smirked as she felt time and space warp, pulling her mansion from west to east.

And so far as the outside world was concerned, regarding the residents of the mysterious mansion in the woods?

Then, there were none.

Haru reclined on a chair, letting the comforting feeling of comfort wash over her body. Her strength wasn’t what it used to be, and a day of training Reimu that would only have gotten her more fired up when she was still whole had instead left her feeling like she’d just gotten into a fist fight with Kasen. Still, she supposed it made her more appreciative of the chance to sit back and relax afterwards.

She wasn’t completely idle, however. She was keeping an eye on her young daughter as she cooked herself a pot of tea for the first time. Reimu was stood on a small metal platform, an outside world invention and a gift from Yukari. Normally, Haru would have been reluctant to accept it, the slight scent of steel clashing with the lovely citrusy smell of the cedar wood that made up much of the shrine. But in this case, the utility to Reimu overrode Haru’s aesthetic and olfactory sensibilities.

A regular stool could have been used, true. But then Haru would have fretted, worried that Reimu was at risk of falling over or the stool giving out. Reimu could have flown, as well. But while her flight had gotten better by leaps and bounds, it was still not completely steady. Having experienced getting boiling tea dropped on her, it wasn’t something she wanted her daughter to go through. Granted, her daughter was going to be out fighting deadly youkai for most of her life, many of whom would wield flames, burning liquids and so on. But that was different. Flames from a youkai burned the skin, but dropping tea on oneself was a burn on the dignity. Besides, just because the role Reimu would take on was perilous didn’t mean she should completely disregard the small risks.

Still, Reimu was doing quite well for herself at the moment. She poured the hot water onto the tea leaves, careful not to let her hand shake and cause a spill. Soon enough the tea had been made, the lovely smell of macha tea wafting its way into Haru’s nose. Judging by the way Reimu was sniffing away at the cups, it was clear she also found the scent agreeable.

“My, it seems that a really big dog has entered the shrine.” Haru observing with a humorous lilt.

Reimu did not turn around, but Haru could clearly hear the pout in her voice.
“Hey, I’m not a dog! I’m a shrine maiden! A great shrine maiden!” Reimu declared petulantly. She grabbed a cup of green tea, stepping down and placing the cup in front of Haru. A moment later, she had taken another cup for herself and placed it down gently. Reimu took a seat, beginning to blow on her tea to cool it down. Haru preferred her tea to still be hot; it made the taste of the eaves stronger, but her daughter was of a different view.

Honestly, as long as Reimu was able to handle a kettle properly, Haru wasn’t too worried even if Reimu only had cold green tea for the rest of her life. As with most things Haru had taught her, it was about making sure Reimu could make those choices for herself.

Both mother and daughter took twin sips of their tea in companionable silence. Reimu gave a gasp of satisfaction, while Haru gave a little hum.

“Well done, Reimu.” Haru complimented. “You’ve brewed this tea quite well.”

Reimu just waved her off with her free hand, though she did jut her chin out in a way that made her pride obvious. Well, at least to Haru’s eyes.
“It’s no big deal. I just had to pour some hot water on some leaves and knowing how long to wait.”

“Old Shiomi would have disagreed with you.” Haru said playfully.

“Shiomi? That old hag, the herbalist’s mother?” Reimu questioned.

“Yes, her. She has rather strong opinions on tea-brewing, you know?” Haru asked humourosly. Her daughter made a face at that, wrinkling her nose at the thought.

“Well, she has strong opinions on eeeeeeverything!” Reimu fumed. “Maybe she should have a strong opinion on keeping her mouth closed!”

Haru just chuckled at that, taking another sip of her tea.

“Well, as long as you know not to say such things to her face. We shrine maidens aren’t necessarily needed to be friendly faces, but we do at least have to be somewhat friendly with the village at large. The old lady has influence, so we shouldn’t go making an enemy of her.”

“Influence? But she’s just a mean old lady, who would want to listen to her?” Reimu asked sharply.

“Well, her family for one. She raised the herbalist, yes, but her other children have become farmers, carpenters, fishermen and servants. They’ve made decent names for themselves in those places, at that. So what she says finds its way through the community through their children. Secondly, like you mentioned, she’s old. Down in the village, once you hit a certain age- 60 or 70- people start to consider you an elder, and the words of an elder are always taken with some weight.”

“So people listen to her because she’s old, even though she’s kind of a windbag?” Reimu asked in annoyance.

“In a world with youkai, disease and famine, surviving to old age can be seen as an achievement by itself. Though, of course, youkai don’t end up killing many people. Not with us around.” Haru smirked, flexing her arm.

Reimu mirrored her motions, with a big smile. “Yeah. I’m not scared of youkai any more! I’m a big girl!” she declared.

“That you are, Reimu. That you are. That being said, however, make sure that you don’t become careless when fighting youkai either. You never know what type of tricks they can end up pulling.” Haru advised. Of course, she spoke from experience. Some nights it kept her up. If she had been a little more alert, a little quicker to react, would she still be whole? Kasen had said that she had done admirably to fight and kill Taira no Masakado himself, as well as the legions of allies and followers he had gathered, but for Haru, who had the ability to float away from reality, losing an arm was a mark of shame.

Failing to protect her husband was an even greater one.

A pain shot through her prosthetic arm and into her shoulder, though Haru bore it with only a slight grimace to show her discomfort.

“Hey, mom? Are you okay? Are you trying to win a staring contest with that wall?” Reimu’s voice anchored Haru back to the present.

“Oh, it’s nothing dear. Just thinking about an old fight.”

Reimu didn’t say anything in response. Instead, she got up, massaging Haru’s stump with one hand and her prosthetic with another. Slowly but surely, she could feel the pain in that arm lowering, until it eventually subsided.

“Thank you Reimu, you’re a real dear.” Haru spoke in gratitude. It was really a marvel; Eirin had known how to alleviate “phantom pains” from her missing limb due to her medical knowledge, but Reimu had figured it out from intuition alone.

“Hey, mom, have you ever thought of getting a pet?” Reimu asked, seemingly out of nowhere.

“Well, I thought about getting a cat once, but they’re not exactly cheap to get around here. Why do you ask?”

“I just remembered… Dad used to love animals, didn’t he?” Reimu mentioned offhandedly. Haru perked up at that, jostling her cup and almost spilling her tea in the process. A smile lit up her face. Reimu had been so long when Natsu had been taken from them, Haru was worried that he would only be a figure of stories to her daughter. Someone who was spoken highly of, but in an almost mythical way, as distant to her as the likes of Hatsuko Hakurei, who had been the first shrine maiden of Gensokyo in its current form. That Reimu could actually remember her father, that he would go on living within her daughter’s heart as he had within Haru’s was a real light to her.

“Do you remember how he used to try and domesticate the deer?

“Yeah, most of them couldn’t support his weight, but one of them could! It was really strong! He wanted to give it to you for your birthday but then it flew off” Reimu laughed. Haru shook her head at that.

“Actually, have I ever told you that story of how we had a pet tanuki, for a short time?”

“Tanuki? Like the youkai?” Reimu asked.

Haru shook her head. “Surprisingly, no! I think all of us expected the thing to transform at one point or another, but it turned out to just be a regular wild animal. Even when I tickled it with a feather and it laughed, it still remained a tanuki.”

“Where is it now?” Reimu asked curiously.

“Passed away a few years before we had you.” Haru responded simply. Well, if nothing else confirmed that Michi the tanuki was just a regular animal, it would be her burial. Granted, she had still freaked out Ran- as much as a Shikigami of Ran’s disposition could be freaked out, anyway.

“Aww” Reimu pouted, disappointed at not getting a chance to meet the former pet.

“Don’t feel down, Reimu. An old friend of mine used to say that all dogs go to heaven. I’m sure she’s looking down on us from there.” Haru comforted.

“Yeah. Do you think dad’s up there, too?” Reimu asked, gazing into her mother’s eyes.

“I know so.” Haru said, ruffling Reimu’s hair.

Well, Haru knew that she would probably be finding out one way or another soon enough.

---

Rinnosuke pushed a branch out of his face as he ambled towards his destination. Muenzueka, the Mound of the Nameless, was a place largely forbidden to humans. The soft, sweet smell of the spider lily belied their poisonous nature, a poison which, while not fatal, still had a deleterious effect on humans, but only inconvenienced most youkai. Fortunately, Rinnosuke, buy virtue of being half-youkai, had little to worry about concerning the foul flowers. His traveling companion, however, did have to worry about the risk of falling prey to the poisons.

Marisa Floated next to him, clad in a white dress and hat. Her purple outfit had gotten torn in a fight, forcing the witch to wear something else while Rinnosuke tried to patch the arm back on. Honestly, her tendency to challenge any decently-strong looking opponent was quite troublesome. Half the time, she would march back into Kourindou with a smile on her face, tracking ash and soot onto his freshly swept floors. The other half of the time, she would enter with either a contemplative expression or a frown.

Still tracking ash and soot onto his freshly swept floors, Rinnosuke noted to himself. Somehow, her sense of timing was aligned so that whenever he swept the floor, that’s when she woulome back. Rinnosuke half thought she was purposefully doing it to mess with him.

Rinnosuke respected her strong desire to get her gift from him back. It had been no mean feat to figure out the principles for a palm sized elemental furnace.(Though he supposed it was a lot bigger than just a palm for a girl of Marisa’s stature- or lack thereof.) Honestly, if she had really wanted a new mini-hakkero, Rinnosuke probably would have made her one, albeit perhaps a little begrudgingly. But instead, she was dead set on defeating her mentor and taking her old mini-hakkero back.

Thinking back on it, Rinnosuke could vaguely remember hearing the name Mima some time in the past, perhaps a few decades or so. Some mad witch in the woods who had tried to take over the human village, only to end up being cut down by Hanako Hakurei. So she had come back as a vengeful spirit.
“Those flower sure are pretty” Marisa remarked, swooping low on her broom and making to pluck one. Rinnosuke reached out, grabbing her wrist in order to prevent her from carrying out that ill-advised idea.

“Be careful!” He chastised. “The flowers here are poison to humans. They aren’t usually fatal, but you certainly don’t want to deal with the aftermath. Frankly, neither do I” Rinnosuke warned her.

“Really? What do they do?” Marisa asked, one eyebrow raised.

“They irritate the eyes and cause uncontrollable crying. So much so that you’re at risk of dehydration, in fact. There’s been more than one occasion of a villager being left bedridden because of how much water they’ve lost.”

Marisa gave a thoughtful look at that. “Well, if it’s just crying, then I can deal with it… probably. Just need to have a bunch of water ready to drink.”

Rinnosuke sighed at that. “The normal response to hearing that there’s poison in a flower is to avoid touching that flower, rather than think about how to mitigate the side effects.” He tried to reason with her.

“I’m not normal, Kourin, I’m a witch. Besides, you’re a weirdo too, so you shouldn’t throw glass from rock houses” she said, sticking her tongue out.

“It’s ‘stone from glass houses’ actually” Rinnosuke corrected her. “Besides which, my hobbies might be seen as odd to some, but they’re not nearly as foolhardy as going around poking poisonous flowers.”

“Your face is foolhardy.” Marisa countered petulantly, crossing her arms.

“A wonderful argument.” Rinnosuke commented levelly.

“Yeah, well it’s true, so there. Besides, I need to do it for the sake of my magic. You never know what could be useful for a new spell or potion!” Marisa insisted. She didn’t even seem to care about the risk of poisoning herself.

Rinnosuke shook his head. When Marisa got this reckless about magic, he could understand why Hiroshi was so adamant about her not practicing the art. Granted, she had been much more cautious when she had thought there was a chance of him eventually coming around to it, more willing to try and seek the tutelage of magic practitioners like Keine and Kotone Ouchou- or Kotohime as she liked to call herself. Even if the latter was something of an eccentric, she was an eccentric who understood the limits of magic, and who wouldn’t be so keen to let a pre-teen start pushing the parcel.

Once she had realised that her father’s issue was with any use of magic whatsoever, Marisa had been inconsolable. Then she had been furious, and not just with the passionate, burning anger that one would expect from a child, which would burn out in due course. There had been that rage, though it hadn’t proven to be fleeting. Rather, it was the more lasting, begrudging which Rinnosuke had seem some youkai hold for generations and generations. Rebuilding that relationship would be an uphill battle, at best.

“If you truly must try and experiment with these flowers, then at the least let me pluck them.” Rinnosuke offered. It was far from a permanent solution, but it was one which would solve the problem for the time being, which was enough for Rinnosuke.

Marisa, however, was still opposed to the idea. “Nah. I think I would rather figure it out myself. Trial and error is important, you know!”

Trial and error? For potentially poisonous plants? What was Mima putting into this girl’s head?

“Didn’t your teacher show you how to figure out if something was poisonous or not?” Rinnosuke questioned.

“She’d stop me from taking anything that would kill me, but if it just gave me a bad tummyache then she would just laugh at me instead.”

Well, that was the level of care one might expect from a vengeful spirit. It was arguably a bit more than one might expect; there would be plenty whose anger was strong enough to any human, even one they were nominally in charge of, to swallow a deadly poison. Most vengeful spirits would feel only schadenfreude to watch a human choke and die in front of them. That Mima didn’t spoke of her not being solely controlled by hate. That didn’t necessarily make her magnanimous- but it made her more dangerous.

Contrary to popular belief, a vengeful spirit losing its grudge didn’t automatically mean that it would fade away. Some did, no longer tethered by mortal concerns and going beyond the mortal coil. However, others lose their grudge but found a way to keep on persisting anyway, becoming ‘mere’ ghosts. Yet, ghosts were in most ways more troublesome than vengeful spirits, ever so slightly less susceptible to spiritual attacks due to their greater strength, and much harder to trick, due to lacking the more one-dimensional emotional status which plagued vengeful spirits. One could make a vengeful spirit distracted by giving it a chance to go after the object of its anger. Ghosts- and vengeful spirits which were nearing the boundary between vengeful spirit and ghost- would be more likely to see through such tricks

Ultimately, that was for Haru to deal with. If she hadn’t completely exorcised the vengeful spiriti yet, it spoke either to her difficulty getting rid of her without angering the yama, or to her not finding the the vengeful spirit enough of a malevolent presence to exorcise. Perhaps even the latter leading to the former.

“Do you at least use gloves to protect your hands?” Rinnosuke asked

“Well, uh… that’s a good idea, actually!” Marisa exclaimed

Rinnosuke sighed. “Look, I’ll teach you how to deal with potential poisons, and how to identify some of the more common ones. Just don’t go around picking up random stuff off the floor for now, okay?” he requested

Yes, he could teach her how to handle these things safely, at least in the field, and how to figure out if something was poisonous or not.

Just as he was making up his mind on that, he saw something in the undergrowth.

It was a black plank of wood, mounted on four small wheels. There was something painted in the middle of the black board. The English character for S, drawn with sharp edges, could be seen, its vibrant yellow contrasting with the

Rinnosuke used his ability to identify it. After a moment, he felt the information fill up his mind. This was a “Skateboard”, which could be ridden on as a form of conveyance. One could stand on the plank with one foot and use the other foot to propel themselves forward.

Though his ability made clear what the object in front of him was, it still raised the question of what its actual use was. Compared to a bicycle, another form of manual conveyance, this one seemed to be much less energy efficient, and require more balance. But of course, that would be exactly why it would be in use.

In the outside world, Rinnosuke was aware that battle would often be reliant on vehicles- four wheeled objects which were similar to carts, except much faster. By training on a skateboard, therefore, outside world warriors could improve their balance, meaning that when it came time to fight on a vehicle, their prior experience with these “skateboards” would make them less likely to lose their footing, and therefore more effective in combat overall.

Furthermore, the rather compact nature of these skateboards meant that they were easy to pick up and carry meant that it could easy be moved where appropriate. Its low profile meant that it was easy to put things on it. It was likely that it could be used to move objects within one’s home; simply put a box or file on the skateboard and then push it to the other side of the room to save the labour. Of course, he was tall enough that leaning all the way over whenever he wanted to move a box would be a hassle, but if it had been someone like Marisa or her father, then it may have been worth it to use it when re-arranging his office.

He simply had to have it. It could be used to decorate Kourindou, and there were enough people who saw themselves warriors- like that Meira girl- to mean that he might be able to make a sale of this military tool someday. If he didn’t find anyone who was willing to use it for its intended combat training purposes, then he could potentially sell it to someone like Keine, who could use the help within her office.

With a nod, Rinnosuke made his mind up, picking the tool up and stuffing it into a large satchel he kept just in case he spotted any treasures out in Muenzuka.

Marisa shook her head at him. “You get on my case for wanting to try some little poisons, but then you start picking some random junk off the floor of the forest? ‘Don’t go picking up random stuff off the floot, was it?’ But you do that yourself!” she accused. Then she squinted and flew a little closer.

“What is that meant to be, anyway?” she asked.

“It is a skateboard. It is meant to be a tool for training warriors in the outside world and improving their balance in combat. I think it can probably also be used as a tool to move some small objects. Books and pots and the like, I would think.” Rinnosuke said

“Oh, you can use it to train? Can I borrow it for a while, then?” Marisa enquired

“Depends. How long do you intend to borrow it for. Until you die?” Rinnosuke asked lightly.

He did not expect the slightly awkward silence that would follow, Marisa adopting a surprised expression that surprised him in turn.

“... Well, maybe I can give it back on my deathbed, instead.” Marisa seemed to regain her confidence soon enough, affixing him with a cheeky grin. Rinnosuke simply met that grin with a deadpan.

“No. I am not waiting that long.” Rinnosuke stated firmly. Marisa would, optimistically, be around for about 60 or 70 more years. Even for him, with a much longer lifespan than humans, the better part of a century was still a considerable amount of time. Not to mention, whatever would wash in through Muenzuka would have changed in that period of time, just as the outside world would change in that period of time.

It stood a stark contrast to Gensokyo, where things were largely the same since he had been Marisa’s age. The people were different of course- Haru, Kotone and Chiaki were all very different people, despite all holding the same office. Yet, if Haru had been sent to Chiaki’s time or Kotone to Haru’s, Rinnosuke had no doubt that they would acclimatise much more quickly than an outsider thrown a few decades into the past.

“Fine, fine. How about a few weeks?” Marisa offered instead.

“Acceptable. But you’ll be under supervision; I don’t want you to go breaking my merchandise.” Rinnosuke set the terms of the deal. Marisa flew closer, offering her hand, and they shook on it.

“What are we looking for, anyway, Kourin?” Marisa asked.

“We’re looking for a certain type of tree.” Rinnosuke responded simply. As the pair began to approach the edge of Muenzuka and the beginning of the Road of Liminality, the sounds of the forest began to abate, and the sound of water began to fill their ears. People- ghosts, youkai and the occasional human alike- could be heard distantly, having a chat with each other.

The object of their search came into view soon enough, standing out even in the beauty of Muenzuka.

The Mikohana tree bloomed beautifully, the red and white flowers sending their petals scattering in the wind.

Rinnosuke took out a knife and, very carefully and gingerly, began to carve part of the bark out. As he did so, the tree began to let off a soft glow, the parts where Rinnosuke had cut emanating a soft, pink light.

Looking down in order to prevent his eyes from being damaged, Rinnosuke continued making his incision, the small circle he had cut in the tree’s surface coming closer and closer to being completed. In the end, he had taken a cross section perhaps as large as his fist. Once he was done, he stepped back, giving the tree a bow of respect. In response, the tree flashed one last time, before sprouting leaves all over the place where he had made the incision. It would probably grow back before next year, though he hopefully wouldn’t need any more of the bark for a long, long time.

“Woah.” Marisa gasped in surprise. “What was up with that?” she questioned, curious about the light show she had just witnessed. Certainly, Rinnosuke had also been surprised the first time he had seen a Mikohana be cut for its bark.

“This is a Mikohana tree- a tree brimming with sacred power. Its bark is often used when creating weapons- chiefly gohei- for the Hakurei. It has been for generations.” Rinnosuke explained

“Oh, so is it for Reimu or her mom?” Marisa asked, one hand up to her chin, stroking a non-existent beard.

“It is for Reimu.” Rinnosuke confirmed. “A gohei becomes more potent when it is crafted specifically for its wielder. Granted, the loss in power is not actually too great; by virtue of being the same family each gohei has some willingness to accept any other Hakurei as an acceptable wielder.”

“So why come out here to cut into that tree? Reimu already has her mom’s stick, and I know you wouldn’t leave the house unless it was absolutely necessary. Ooh, are you gonna try eating it? Will you need some water to wash it down?” Marisa began to pepper him with questions.

Rinnosuke adjusted his glasses. It seemed that for all that Mima had never taught Marisa proper handling of poisons, the master had definitely taught the student how to poke fun at people. Though the line of questioning about eating tree bark was one he was not going to dignify with a response.

“Well, there is still the slight increase in power when the stick is properly attuned. More than that, however, it’s a ceremonial tool- Reimu will soon be undergoing a graduation of sorts, from an apprentice shrine maiden to a fully-fledged one. That, traditionally, comes with her being issued the standard Hakurei robes and a gohei of her own.”

Marisa hummed in thought. “So Reimu’s gonna be a big girl now.” the witch nodded to herself and smiled, no doubt plotting a way to needle her friend. Though, after seemingly putting that plot together in her head, she tilted her head in curiosity.

“Hey, Kourin, does Reimu have her granny’s stick-thingy?” she asked.

Rinnosuke chewed on his words for a minute, trying to make sure he put it in such a way that Marisa would understand. “Well, Haru kept the gohei of her mother- that is, Reimu’s grandmother. When she eventually passed on, Haru buried her mother and later returned her and buried the gohei near the tree. That allowed the tree to reabsorb the wood used and helped it grow even bigger and stronger.” He summarised.

From what he had heard, there were occasionally plans to bury the late shrine maidens under the Mikohana itself. But, all one had to do was point towards the Saigyou Ayakashi to demonstrate why people should be wary of burying people under magical trees. Of course, this meant that the shrine maidens would need to be separated from their main tools at the wake. That macabre duty would fall to him; normally the husband or an older child, niece or nephew would take on that responsibility, but Natsu was dead- and had the events that lead to his death not transpired, Haru would probably still have decades of life to look forward to. Reimu was a child; losing her mother that early would probably be hard enough without making her handle the corpse.

“Oh, so even though you hurt the tree in the short term, you try and make up for it.” Marisa surmised. Rinnosuke nodded his head at that, finding nothing to disagree with. Bundling the wood underneath his arm, Rinnosuke rose, dusting himself off as he did so.

“Well, that mostly concludes our business here. We should start heading back.” the shopkeeper announced.

“Hey, as long as you give me a spin on that thing!” Marisa chipped in as they began to make their trip back.

Rinnosuke just shook his head at her. She was utterly shameless when it came to what she wanted.

In that way, she was just like her father.

Rinnosuke held his right eye closed and his hands steady as he took the carving knife to the wood. A Gohei was, fortunately, composed of a simple cylinder, not too terribly hard a shape to make. Even still, a mistake here would mean returning to the Mikohana, burying his mistake, and taking a new cross section of the tree’s bark.

Far from ideal.

He was making good progress as it was though, the shape turning out as he desired. Just a few more minutes and it would be ready to go.

A loud shout broke Rinnosuke’s quiet concentration, almost making him slice his finger.

“I’m back! Miss me, Kourin?”

Of course, it was Marisa. She strolled in with a big grin on her face and the skateboard tucked underneath her armpit. There was a clump of grass stuck on the top of her hat brim, indicating that she had fallen over while riding it.

“Goodness Marisa, knock before you enter. I almost cut myself.”

Marisa blinked curiously, taking in the sight of Rinnosuke woodcarving, a flash of recognition going through her eyes when she looked at the Mikohana bark.

“Ooh, you’re carving out that magic wood from that Mikohana thingy.” She observed.

Rinnosuke wanted to clarify that it was an artisanal wood, hallowed by Hakurei tradition, but he was well aware that it was a losing battle. Unless it was in pursuit of her magic, Marisa was much less detail-oriented than Rinnosuke was.

“Yes, I’m crafting a gohei for Reimu. Why do you ask?”

“Well, the gohei is like a stick, right? Why not just get one of the branches?”

It was a good question. A stick would be a much more straightforward starting point than the surface of the tree itself.

“Well asked. But the branches were quite high. I’m not very good at flight, so I didn’t want to risk the chance of slipping out of a tree and injuring myself.”

Marisa chuckled at the image. Rinnosuke had not actually said that as a joke, but he let her enjoy it as one regardless.

“Aw, Kourin, if you’re scared of heights, you could have let me do it. I could fly up there and pluck one of those branches no problem!” She boasted.
Rinnosuke wasn’t so sure. “The branches are, by all indications, quite sturdy. I’m not sure if you could break them off with the strength of your arms alone. There was no chance of me giving you a knife either, who knows what sort of chaos you would inflict with it?”

Marisa tilted her head. “But I’ve got magic. I can do way more with that than some dinky knife. I’d need like, a bunch of knives to match one good spell.”

Rinnosuke shook his head. “You seem to have some level of respect for magic as an art. On the other hand, with most other things, you are much more careless. That’s why I’d be more concerned if you had a knife than a wand. Or a mini-hakkero, as it were.”

At the mention of the mini-hakkero, Marisa looked down, the brim of her hat hiding her expression from view. She clearly still felt guilty at losing it. Rinnosuke felt a little awkward at causing the situation, seeing Marisa acting bashfully felt as though something had gone wrong in the fundamental forces of the universe.

“So, how was the skateboard?” Rinnosuke asked, in hopes of taking Marisa’s attention off her lost gift.

It seemed to have some effect, the witch perking up and looking him in the eye.

“It was alright. I’m still trying to figure out how to work the thing.” Marisa admitted.

“How so?” Rinnosuke asked. He had an inkling, of course, but it would probably be good for Marisa to explain herself. Keine would say that teaching and explaining a subject would increase one’s understanding of it further. Rinnosuke himself knew that it was quite enjoyable to speak on one’s hobbies at length. This probably wasn’t at that level for Marisa yet, but she’d been taking the thing out every day, so it might get to that level.

“It’s hard to keep your balance on it. I keep leaning backwards too far and falling on my face. Oh, and the ground around here’s kinda uneven. Makes it even harder to keep my balance.”

Rinnosuke stroked his chin. He had no beard, but found the motion made him feel quite philosophical regardless.

“If the issue is with the ground, why not just stick to the dirt paths? I’m sure it would be easier to keep you balanced there than on more hilly terrain.”

Marisa put her free hand on her waist.

“I want the challenge! I wanna get used to keeping my balance on uneven terrain. There’s a cantrip I’ve been trying out, it lets me stick my arms and legs to stuff. I can do it okay when standing still, but keeping it going while moving is a lot harder. So skating around where it’s tough to keep my balance is a good opportunity to practice that”

“So you’re taking the opportunity to practice your magic wherever you can, I see. I can assume I can look forward to you walking across my walls for training some time in the future, then.”

Marisa’s eyes flashed mischievously. “Well, now that you’ve given me the idea…”

Rinnosuke rolled his eyes. He seriously doubted the idea had not at least crossed her mind once or twice. Her mind for the arcane arts and her mind for mischief were both formidable, and the chance to do both at the same time would call for Marisa almost as strongly as a good meal after a long day.

“As you say. Just make sure to wipe her shoes if you do so; mud on the walls sends a poor message to customers.”

“Sure. I’ll do that for the sake of all three of your customers” Marisa sniped. Rinnosuke didn’t take the bait, even though he was tempted to.

“Good. If I find dirty shoe prints in odd places, you’re the one who’s going to have to clean them up.” Rinnosuke warned, pointing a finger in warning.

“Yeah, yeah.” Marisa waved off his concern.

The conversation abated for a little after that. Satisfied that Marisa was neither guilt-tripping herself or about to cause an explosion, Rinnosuke got back to his carving. He could hear Marisa moving around, likely going to put her skateboard away. He paid no mind to it, until he heard the sounds getting louder again, footsteps approaching his location until he could see a pointy hat from his peripheral vision.

Stopping once more, he turned around to look at Marisa.

“Is something the matter?” he asked.

Marisa was silent for a time. She just stared at the lump of wood that was now really starting to look like a proper gohei.

“This is gonna be Reimu’s weapon, right?” she asked in a quiet voice.

“Yes, it will be.” Rinnosuke confirmed

“It’s gonna be hers until she eventually bites it, right?” Marisa enquired

“Indeed.”

“And you’re the person in charge of making it?”
“Unless I’ve been the victim of a particularly cruel prank, yes.”

Marisa grinned at his remark. Then she said something that surprised him, just a little.

“That’s… pretty cool, Kourin.”

He blinked at the unexpected compliment. “Ah. Well, I’m glad you think so.” he said, not quite sure whether she was being sarcastic or not.

“No, really! I know it doesn’t seem like much, but I know just how important a magician’s tools are to them. Well, Reimu and her mom aren’t magicians, but the same thing still applies. They must trust you a lot.” Marisa spoke, a slight sentimental look in her eyes.

“Yes, well.” Rinnosuke felt a little bashful, the knife in his hands preventing him from fiddling with his yukata as he normally did when embarrassed. “I suppose they do.”

Marisa gave a hum of agreement. “So, I wanna see how you do it! Besides, maybe one day I’ll want to make alterations to my broom or something. So watching you here will help me get better at that, as well”

Well, as long as she didn’t interrupt his work, it was fine. “Very well then. I’m just putting the finishing touches on it now.”

---

The grimoire floated before her, the golden light bathing her as though in the sun’s rays. Several strings of the same golden light extended from Alice’s fingertips as they danced, manipulating the Trump King.

The Trump King was a giant card, about Alice’s heigh and then half again, and just as wide. Technically speaking, it was a Jack, rather than a King, in homage to the person it depicted. Dressed in regal red robes and with a head of shining golden hair, a keen observer might notice that he bore some resemblance to Alice, sharing a similar facial shape, save for a much more pronounced chin. Of course, that was inevitable given that he was based on the appearance of her father. He had been based on a drawing Alice had made of her lost parent when she realized that she was unlikely to ever see him again. For all of his flaws, Alice found that she did miss having Jacques Margatroid in her life, though she had come to love Shinki as a far more involved parental figure.

The Trump King’s movements were still a little slow. Lumbering. The big red feet she had given it were not the fastest mode of transportation, and the crown she had put on its head added a good deal of weight to it. It was golden in colour, but not, of course, actual gold- even Shinki would balk a little at an expense like that. Instead, she had gotten a crown of copper, before painting it with a yellow sheen, giving it the regal look without the need to raid a country’s coffers.

With a slight grunt, the Trump King began to float, its feet levitating off the ground. She could technically lift it up with magic-enhanced muscle power, but just pouring enough magic for it to fly on its own power was a more straightforward process, as well as being more efficient overall.

She gave it an experimental back-and-forth. It reacted to her gestures accordingly. Left, right, up, down, Alice saw no problems with its flight. So she called out to the two who had come to observe.

“Look, it’s working! What do you two think?”

The two in question were known as Mai and Yuki. Yuki was a cheerful girl, clad in a trim fedora and collared dress, both of such a dark red that it was easy to mistake for black. Her dress had pink, puffy sleeves which provided for some colour contrast, as did the equally pink ribbon at the base of her hat and around the waist of her dress, both tied up in large bows. She wore a pair of semi-formal slip-on shoes with pink socks which went to her ankles. Her somewhat messy golden hair went to her shoulders, and her eyes always seemed to be creased as though she was about to laugh or make a quip.

Mai, in contrast, had a much simpler outfit. She wore a pink dress with short sleeves, and a pink bow which kept her blue hair in a ponytail. Black strings were wrapped around the neck, waist and arms of her dress. A pair of blue buttons, the same shade as her hair, shone with a cold gleam. Yet, they were not as cold as Mai’s eyes, which betrayed no emotion save for slight detachment.

Yuki, as always, was the first to talk. “It looks good, but are you sure you’ve got enough juice to keep it going?”

Alice smiled confidently. “I most assuredly do. All thanks to my new grimoire of course!” She raised a finger and patted the glowing book in front of her.

Yuki whistled, impressed. “No kidding! I can sense that thing’s pretty strong itself! Who knew our little Alice would be able to make something like that!” she said cheerfully.

Alice inclined her head a little. “Well, I had some help crafting it, but I am quite proud of what I’ve achieved.”

“Well, we’re proud of you too! Right, Mai?” Yuki turned to her companion, who just gave a slight shrug.

“It’s not bad” Mai said, laconic as ever.

“Yeah, exactly! You knocked our socks off!” Yuki blustered, as though Mai had just given high praise rather than a half-hearted compliment. Then, she dropped low, into a combat stance, a confident and challenging smirk crossing her face.

“Only one way to really figure out how good that thing really is though- a fight!”

Alice took off from the ground, a look of pure focus on her face. Trump King levitated in front of her, its arms splayed out wide (well, as wide as the stubby things could get.)

“If it’s a fight you want, you’re on!” Yuki grinned. “Come on, Mai!”

Mai rolled her eyes, but took to the skies to accompany her friend.

A few moments passed. Then, on an unheard signal, Mai, Yuki and the King all filled the skies with danmaku.

---

One by one, her senses returned to her. She rolled, using her arms to push herself up and off the ground. It was a laborious process, her muscles burning more than any time since the final battle against the Belvedere family. That fight had been the closest she had come to being killed, and even in the immediate aftermath, there had been a phantom of a doubt in her mind that she would see the next moonrise.

But that fight had been one she’d walked away from in the end, on her own power.These days the souvenir from that fight she had left was a very small patch of discolouration on her shoulder. She was Remilia Scarlet, and she was not going to be taken down by some mere muscle pain.

She staggered to her feet, grabbing onto a nearby wall to steady her. After a few minutes, she fought through her vertigo and kept her balance. She would still need some time to recover, but first, she had to make sure all of her friends were alright. To do otherwise would be a dereliction of her duties as the mistress of the house.

The nearest room to the ground floor was Meiling’s. Remilia gingerly pushed the door open, finding Meiling still cocooned up in her bed. On the skin underneath her eyes, her skin had patches where it transitioned into scales. A gentle, rainbow coloured light of qi illuminated the drool at the corner of Meiling’s mouth. Most importantly to Remilia, she could see that Meiling was still breathing. Well, that and she could hear her snoring. Her gatekeeper was still in one piece.

A few doors down from Meiling was the library, which contained Patchouli’s room. Honestly, even that had taken some argument; so long as she had her books, Patchy was perfectly fine sleeping at a desk with a chair. If she hadn’t been born a supernatural being, then she would be on the fast lane to scoliosis street.

Patchouli lay peacefully in her bed as well, dressed as ever in her pajamas.

Sakuya didn’t have nightclothes(or rather, day clothes, seeing as how most of the residents of the mansion were more active in the night) per se. Rather, what she wore to bed was a maid outfit which she had deemed unusable when she was anticipating being active during her duties. The flaw was that the shade of blue was slightly too bright for her liking. Remilia didn’t much care for that level of triviality, but Sakuya very much did care, so she had not made a comment on it. Still, it was rare for Remilia to see her maid even at that level of ‘informality’. Usually she slept during stopped time in order to maximise her productivity. Only when she had reached a certain level of exhaustion would she actually ask for some time to sleep.

Looking at her now, one would think her just a normal human being, if perhaps a slightly odd one who liked to sleep in a maid’s dress. Sakuya slept like a log, no movement or snoring. Just the soft sounds of breathing filling up the quiet room.

Finally, she walked down to the basement. By now, she had recovered enough energy to truly walk, without staggering or relying on the wall to balance. That was good, it meant that the side-effects of the teleportation were only temporary. Of course,

She got to Flandre’s bed, a large, king-sized piece of furniture with a large coffin placed on top of it. With a casual flick of the wrist, she took the lid of the coffin off, to reveal nothing. Remilia felt a jolt of panic stab through her gut, before she got a hold of herself. Knowing Flandre, more likely than not-

She felt the tip of a burning sword press into the small of her back.

“Who dares to intrude upon my lair?” a youthful voice sounded from behind her. It was that of a young girl imitating a grown man, trying(and failing) to effect an intimidating growl. In other words, it was Flandre pulling one of her tricks.

Rather than jump at the threat, therefore, Remilia gave a sigh of exasperation instead.

“It’s good to see you again after so long, Flandre.”

Remilia heard Laevatainn being dismissed, the heat and pressure at her back disappearing. She turned on her heel to find her sister, giving her a smug grin as she leant her staff over one shoulder.

“Yeah, I woke up perhaps thirty minutes ago. Felt some movement, and then a sudden plummet to the ground. Guess you’ve finally figured a way to get to this Gen-sow-kyuu, then.” Flandre said, intentionally mispronouncing the word and putting on a more child-like affectation.

“Yes, we managed to make the transfer safely. Are you sure you should be standing up so quickly?”

Flandre shrugged, though Remilia could see a slight tremor rock her shoulders as she did so.

“I’ll be fine. I’m a Scarlet, we’re made of tougher stuff than most.” Flandre blustered. Remilia gave her a flat look. Honestly, for all that Flandre could often be lazy, if her strength was called into question, Flandre would not leave that question unanswered. In many ways, that was a good thing for a noblewoman; Remilia wouldn’t let some upstart get away with sullying her reputation. But sometimes, Flandre felt the need to prove herself even to her elder sister.
“Flandre. Even I had a hard time finding my balance after this. There’s not much to do right now, either. Once I’ve finished with this, I’m going to bed.” she said, hoping that the admission of weakness would let Flandre feel that she, too, could take it easy for a little while.

Flandre gave her a firm look in response, before nodding. “Sure. If you’re feeling sleepy, I guess you can go rest. I’ll make sure no one tries anything while you do.”

Remilia was a little bit worried about that. ‘Flandre Scarlet’ and ‘defensive fighting’ weren’t exactly two terms that were used together on a common basis. There were even odds that she would wake up to find a substantial part of the mansion blown away alongside whatever enemy Flandre was facing. Fortunately, that wouldn’t be a concern for the time being.

“My, you would do all of that for our sake? My, that is gracious of you. There’s no need for that, however. The magic of the teleportation spell still lingers. It will act as a barrier, preventing anyone from getting in or out for the next few hours.”

“And you would be willing to bet on that?” Flandre asked, one eyebrow raised.

“Yes.” Remilia replied immediately. She was willing to put a great deal of faith on what her magic expert, with some assistance from her maid, had come up with.

Flandre gave a casual shrug at that, letting the point fall.

“Well, if you’ve got it under control, I’ll just stay here and relax.”

“Yes, there is nothing to worry about. We’ll get things up and running soon.” Remilia responded. Content that Flandre was satisfied for the time being, she turned on her heel and made to leave, so that she could get some proper shuteye herself. Just as she had turned her back on her sister, however, Remilia was interrupted.

“I do actually have something important I need to ask you, Remilia.” Flandre said, stopping her from leaving.

Remilia gave Flandre her full attention. “What is it, sister?”

“You stored up some blood packs before we made the trip, right?”

“Of course. Sakuya re-stocked them just a day before I teleported here.

Flandre nodded energetically, her blonde hair swinging around as she did. “Good, so we should be good for a few months… what about after that?” she enquired.

Internally, Remilia had been thinking the same thing. They needed to make sure that they were in a good position to have a steady supply of blood going into the future. Be it through the negotiating table or at the end of Gungir, she would see to it that the people of Gensokyo would agree to it. Of course, she didn’t show any doubt, any uncertainty on her countenance. Admittedly, she was a bit of a hypocrite for this, but she didn’t want to seem weak in front of Flandre, just as Flandre didn’t want to be seen as weak by her.

Instead, she gave a smirk, cool, confident and collected.

“Well, if push comes to shove, we can simply assert ourselves a little.” She responded.

Flandre’s feral grin let her know that she could count on her younger sister to help her, if necessary. Of course, it likely wouldn’t need to come to that.

Gensokyo would know the charisma, the power, the sheer force of will that comprised Remilia Scarlet!

For now though, Gensokyo would have to settle for the sleepiness that comprised Remilia Scarlet.She could feel her eyes starting to droop. With a farewell to her sister, Remilia went up stairs, to her room, and then rolled into her coffin. Sleep was quick to claim her.

---

“Mai! Let’s keep up the heat!” Yuki encouraged her team mate. The Trump King fell out of the sky, smoking, and partially covered in Ice Crystals. Alice clicked her teeth in annoyance. For all the combat power of the Trump King, its lack of maneuverability had made it easy prey for the magical maidens.

Alice went on the offensive herself, launching wave after wave of danmaku. Yuki leapt and jumped off the air to avoid it, laughing all along. Mai dodged in silence, the only sound coming from her being the flapping of her wings.

Neither knew that the danmaku weren’t the main objective of her attack. Alice reached out her right hand and pulled, manipulating the ambient magic in the air. A wave of energy suddenly materialised, washing towards her fellow magicians.

Yuki gasped, fleeing to the side and just about being clipped by the wave. Mai had no such luck, the wave crashing into her. With a quiet gasp, she was knocked away, losing control of her flight. Before she could go too far, however, Yuki swooped towards her and caught her, slinging her companion over one shoulder.

“Hey, give me a minute, would you?” Yuki asked, Alice nodding in acquiescence to a pause in their fighting. A minute or so later, Mai had been placed down a few meters away from the fallen Trump King. Yuki flew back up, a determined expression on her face.

“Well, you may have got Mai, but I’m gonna take you down, now!” Yuki declared, sending a spell Alice’s way.

Alice backpedaled, carefully weaving her way through Yuki’s attack. A series of large, fast moving orbs, trailed by smaller, slower orbs kept her dodging, squeezing through the gaps in Yuki’s shots.

There was a moment of reprieve. One which Alice made the most of. She drew from her grimoire, sending red orbs flying in all directions. Some of them flew into Yuki, the magician enduring it with only a slight grimace. Most of them went stray however, flying into the ether.

Or so it seemed. As Yuki readied her counteract, the bullets suddenly turned, homing in on her. With a cry of suprise, she was pelted relentlessly, falling into a nosedive. Before she could get too far, however, a set of playing cards appeared beneath her in an interlocked pattern, catching her and arresting her momentum.

“Yeah, you’re pretty good with these little guys!” Yuki grinned, giving an appreciative nod towards Alice’s Card Cavalry.

“Well, it’s something of an interest of mine. “ Alice demurred. Honestly, she would prefer to use dolls, but she still needed some practice on manipulating several of her dolls, with their more complex anatomies. The playing cards however, were just squares. Much easier to pull along with her magic.

“I’ll say. That Trump King thing was kind of tough! Not as tough as Mai and I, though.” Yuki cheered.

Alice sighed, looking down at her trump card. The Trump King had gotten its crown knocked off and been taken down by the combined power of the two magicians. It had fallen to Alice herself to win the fight.

“Where did Mai go, anyway?” Alice asked, looking for the girl in white.

“I’m here.” A monotone voice called from behind her. Alice startled a little, before turning back towards Mai.

“Oh! When did you get there?” Alice asked, a little unnerved not to have sensed that Mai had snuck behind her.

“Only a little while ago. I wanted to see what you could do with that book.” Mai said.

“Mai can be pretty sneaky! She can fly pretty much silently, you know?” Yuki explained.

“That sounds like a useful skill.” Alice observed. Getting the initiative on one’s enemies and launching a surprise attack was probably the best way to end a fight quickly. More importantly, since she manipulated multiple cards, and was intending on being able to do the same with dolls, having one or two that were harder to sense opened up more opportunities and avenues of attack.

Mai gave a grunt. An annoyed one, as was par for the course with her.

“It’s a quirk of having wings, rather than relying on magical flight. Means my magical signature isn’t as ‘loud’ so to speak, either. Not actually completely silent though. Only managed to sneak up on you because you weren’t paying enough attention. Foolish”

“Don’t be mean, Mai.” Yuki chastised. Even still, she was quick to turn her attention back to Alice. “Even still, you gotta stay on the ball, Alice. That’s the downside of being a puppet user, you know?”

Alice tilted her head in consideration. “I suppose so. Even so, I intend to keep to my path.” She said simply.

Mai said nothing, simply shrugging her shoulders in response. A non-verbal ‘suit yourself’. Yuki, as always, showed a little more concern for Alice’s wellbeing.

“Hey, you just gotta keep at it! Heck, you beat Mai and I, so it’s not like we can call you weak or anything. Just important that you don’t let the small stuff trip you over, yeah?” Yuki said, putting a hand on Alice’s shoulder.

“Of course. I’ll keep at my training.”

“Alright. We’ll be off then. Bye Alice!” Yuki declared, waving as she took off.

“Of course. Take care, you two.” Alice said as she watched their backs depart from her.

Soon enough, it was just Alice, her flying playing cards, and the wreckage of the Trump King remaining. It was a bit banged up, but nothing Alice couldn’t fix with a bit of time. Yuki had given her some useful feedback.Still though, once she got good enough with her grimoire and her puppets, she would be more than strong enough to make her own way by herself. She would train up a little more, then she would set out to the surface.

Those humans and youkai had done quite a number to the place. It was about time someone did a number to them back. It would make for a perfect test of her skills. A demonstration of the power of the Grimoire of Alice, which would let her leave all of her rivals in the dust behind her.

Marisa pushed off the ground with one foot, the other remaining firmly on the ‘skateboard’. It afforded her some speed, the wheels of the device spinning faster and faster with each kick. She could feel the wind rushing through her hair.

This was almost as fun as flying!

Just as she had that thought, a large root appeared in her path. It would probably be smartest to stop the board, take it to the other side of the root and then keep going. Marisa smirked at the thought. Kourin might have done that, but not her. Instead, she moved her back foot towards the end of the skateboard. She pushed down it, sending the entire board flying into the air, and clearing the root.

Marisa gave a hoot of success while in the air. Unfortunately, she forgot about the need to stick the landing, ending up landing face-first in the dirt. With a groan, she got back up. She wasn’t hurt by it, but it was a little embarrassing. More than that though, it was fun!

Giggling to herself, she got up and kept going. A pile of autumn leaves, more brown than orange this late in the autumn, were powered through with a cheer. A bump in the path was cleared with a jump, this time one which Marisa made sure to land properly. For at least an hour, Marisa kept rolling along on her board, becoming more and more adventurous as time went on. At first with simple jumps, then with more impressive ones, spinning the board underneath her as she went.

Marisa felt pride and joy swell as she got better and better with the skateboard. She loved feeling the world spin around her as she leapt and rolled around the forest. Perhaps it was only a small thing, but Marisa enjoyed it nonetheless. She could be fairly certain she was the best skateboarder in Gensokyo, at least! That had to count for something, right? She had to show Reimu her tricks later! Maybe Kourin too. He was an old man, but he might want to see this ‘military training device’.

Marisa snorted a little to herself. From what the few outsiders in the village had apparently said, soldiers in the outside world were a bit like samurai. But the only samurai Marisa knew of was Meira. She couldn’t see the serious and focused woman getting on one of these devices. If the soldiers outside were anything like her, they would declare it an “affront on their honour.”

Though Marisa did have to wonder, if they were really forced to train on skateboards, what happened to those who failed to pass their training? Did they have to become ronin? Commit seppuku for dishonoring their houses? She kind of got how interested Rinnosuke was in the outside world; so many mysteries to figure out. Not as cool as magical mysteries, but still something!

Well, either way, if Marisa was a soldier in the outside world, she would definitely be a master on the skateboard. She jumped over three roots, kicking her board and making it flip over, before landing safely on the other side.Eventually, Marisa decided to try something a little risky. She pushed on the ground hard with her back foot, speeding up her board. But her goal this time wasn’t to perform any trick with her skateboard.

It was to go flying off a cliff with the thing.

As she approached the end, Marisa grit her teeth and gathered her courage. As she reached the edge of the cliff, she jumped, the board gaining more and more height as she supplemented the jump with magic. With a mental tug, her height stabilised, the board laying flat, as though she were still on the ground.

Skateboarding had been fun. Flying was fun. So flying while skateboarding was really something special. Seeing the Forest of Magic rolling by underneath her made Marisa really appreciate how beautiful it could be.

In the distance, youkai mountain loomed. She wanted to climb that mountain someday, show that a human magician could get up and challenge even the strongest of youkai. She heard that a punch of tengu ruled the roost there, lead by a ‘prince Sutoku’. Kourin had made extra sure to use air quotes when saying it. Apparently, some people thought he was just using the name for influence.

Less intimidating was Youkai Mountain’s opposite: the human village. The place she had been born. Idly, Marisa wondered how little Kosuzu was doing. The ankle biter liked to gnaw on books, so Marisa was sure she’d grow up to be a smart lady. Akyuu was just a bit older than her, but Akyuu was Akyuu. She had her whole Child of Miare thing to deal with.

She could see her house from up here! It was in a small clearing, though starting to get a little overgrown with plants.

Curiosity pushed her to fly down. As expected, it was looking a little dusty, seeing as how its sole occupant wasn’t living there. Marisa knew she had to go back to her own house eventually. But right now, it just made her feel more lonely. Laying in her house alone, going to sleep alone, waking up alone, eating alone. Ever since Mima had parted ways with her, that feeling had only gotten stronger and stronger. Marisa had considered trying to stay at Reimu’s house at first. Mrs Haru would probably have let her, too.

But she wasn’t sure she could take that, either. Seeing Haru and Reimu together made her feel happy, sure. Happy that her best friend was doing well. But she couldn’t deny that it made her feel a little jealous, too. After all, Marisa had never known her mom, and her relationship with her old man was…

Marisa felt her fingernails begin to bite into her palm, so she eased up a bit.. No, she wouldn’t let her attitude be ruined by a guy who wasn’t even there. She wanted to keep her mind on what she had, what she could reach for in the future.All that mattered in regards to that was the fact that there was no way Marisa was going to live in that house again.

Either way though, she had been lucky she remembered Kourin had set up his base of operations out in the forest too. He was… maybe not a brother to her, but at least a cousin. Yeah, he was like a friendly cousin to her. Kind of an old fogey in his own way, and he seemed to really like the sound of his own voice. But Marisa appreciated that he was putting up with her, even if she could tell his patience was tried a little by her.

He had no expectations. That meant he treated her as a kid at times. But it also meant that he didn’t expect her to just be little Kirisame Junior. Marisa felt her hand brush over something. She inspected it. It was a drawing of a little girl in a witch hat next to a vengeful spirit in an even more impressive witch hat. Marisa sighed. Mima had some expectations of her own. For all that Marisa had admired her teacher- for all that she still did, for that matter, she had always known their paths would diverge. She was a human magician. She intended to always be a human magician. Mima was a youkai. A vengeful spirit, at that.

Marisa did not want to be a being of grudges and resentment in a century or so. She wanted to still be alive for that long, but not at the cost of her humanity. She wanted to find her own way, if she could.

Giving her old building one last once-over, Marisa walked out, making sure to secure the place behind her. Once she figured out some magical wards, she could probably reinforce her house, make it so that any intruders got a laser beam to the face or at least make it easier to spot intruders. For now though, she would have to rely on a good old lock and key.

Ultimately though, part of Marisa wanted the challenge. If someone did manage to sneak into her house and steal something… Well, she wasn’t exactly one to talk when it came to thieves. To an extent, she had to respect the trickery. It was why, despite being unhappy that Mima had taken her mini-hakkero, Marisa didn’t hold a grudge against the vengeful spirit. No, someone stealing what was hers just meant that she would have to steal the thing back.

She wondered if the nice doggie still came by sometimes. It had been a long time since she had last seen it. It was pretty old looking, but Marisa was pretty sure she sensed a little ambient magic from it, so she wasn’t sure. Mima didn’t pay the thing much mind, but the old mountain dog could be surprisingly affectionate if you gave it treats. It was a really fluffy doggie too…

Marisa rolled out, her board’s wheels making traversing the path faster. Still not as fast as flying, but she didn’t have to risk getting slapped around by all the branches this low to the ground. She kept rolling along the path which lead to her house. She let her enjoyment ease the tension which had been growing in her gut, the fear of fighting Mima, the anger that came whenever she thought of her father.

Eventually, she made it to an intersection with the main road. Dirt began to give way to cobbled stone, arranged neatly in rows. Lines of Jizo statues lay on both sides of the road. They were carved out of stone, their solemn expressions gazing into distance. Though, many of them did not have gazes to begin with. They had been eroded by time, and the violent nature of gensokyo had taken its toll on them, leaving many cracked and missing chunks. Most of them had been overgrown with nature, a green moss over the surface of them. From the moss, flowers bloomed from some, while mushrooms germinated across others, two different forms of life taking shape on the old statues.

In the middle of this grey lineup was one figure that was taller than the others. Hands clasped together in meditation like all of the other Jizo, this one stood out for its height and the large straw hat atop it. A pair of black braids floated behind the figure, sent waving into the air by a slight breeze.

Marisa blinked. Wait, was that just a girl dressed as a Jizo statue? She had grey robes, the same colour as the stone, along with the straw hat and bib that all of her ‘fellow’ Jizo wore, but she had flesh coloured skin, a pale-cream colour, with some slight pink dusting her cheeks. As she got closer, she could see the girl moving about a bit too, fidgeting as Marisa continued to stare at her.

“Hey, what are ya doing?” Marisa asked, kicking her board into the air and catching it, before tucking it under her armpit. The Jizo didn’t say anything, just tilting her head away a bit. “Hey, I know you’re listening to me. What are you doing?” Marisa repeated.

The fake-Jizo woman remained silent. Annoyed, Marisa began to poke and prod at her. She began to move and react to it, eventually catching Marisa’s hand in a firm grip.

“Urgh, stop that.” the Jizo woman said. “I’m awake al-uh?” Her eyes snapped open, and she let go of Marisa’s hand as she began to inspect herself all over. She raised a hand to face, pinching it and pulling it around

“Uh, you okay there lady?” Marisa asked, an eyebrow raised in confusion as to why the strange woman was feeling her face like she had never had one before.

“I’m awake! I can move! This is amazing!” The woman said, completely ignoring Marisa.

“Hey! Seriously, what’s up with you!” Marisa shouted, trying to get the woman’s attention.

“Ah. Well, hello child.” The fake-Jizo woman said, turning to Marisa at last. “It’s a pleasure to meet you. My name is, uh… Narumi. Yes, please call me Narumi.”

“Hi Narumi. You’re kind of a weirdo. Why are you dressed up as a Jizo statue?” Marisa asked.

“Well, I was a Jizo statue up until recently. I guess I still am, but now I can move around, as well. I absorbed some of the magic from this forest. I guess eventually, that turned me into this form.”

Marisa nodded sagely. “Oh. So yer a baby youkai then” she commented.

Narumi shook her head in annoyance. “I am not a baby!” she protested.

“Hey, you said it yourself, you were just born. So, baby.” Marisa countered, and very intelligently if she were to say so.

“No way! I’ve been somewhat conscious for years and years now. I just couldn’t really move. Well, maybe I could waddle a smidgen.” Narumi countered.

“Oh. That sounds really bad actually. Are you okay?” Marisa asked.

Narumi shrugged, though Marisa could see her try and fail to hide a grimace as she did so. “I’m a statue. Was a statue anyway. Just kind of standing around comes naturally to me. Though I will say. It’s nice to have legs.”

Marisa couldn’t imagine being stuck in one place all the time. She would have gone crazy!

“Hey, if I were in your shoes, I’d be running all over the place. Having to’ just stand in one place all the time sounds like one of the punishments they would give you over at the temple school.” Or by her geezer, but Marisa had figured out that when she mentioned her old man, people would just not stop talking about him.

The Jizo sighed, a quiet sound that was almost swallowed up by the natural ambience of the forest. Her head tilted, the large straw hat obstructing her face.

“Honestly, I’ll admit that at the end there, I was starting to get a little jealous. I mean, everyone who walks this path is here by choice. I had my duty, and I was happy to do it but…” The Jizo trailed off, uncertain of what to say next.

Marisa understood her, even without her going into detail and finishing her sentence. Being put into a little box and told what to do. Marisa knew that she hated that feeling.

“What did you want to do?” Marisa asked, pulling Narumi out of her thoughts.

“I’m not sure I understand you.” Narumi said, adjusting her straw hat.

“When you saw all of those people going by. What did you want to do? Did you want to join them?” Marisa said.

Narumi didn’t seem very fond of the idea. “No, no. I’ve seen this path for too long. Besides, talking to all those people sounds like a pain. No offense.” She added, waving in Marisa’s way. The little witch just laughed at the taller girl’s embarrassment

“Ah, so you’re one of them bookish types, then.” Marisa said, stroking her chin. A little bit like Kourin, but Kourin was a real grown up. Narumi was taller than her, but she still felt kind of like a kid. Not a baby, but a kid nonetheless- and Marisa would know considering she was a kid herself.

“Books? I know plenty of Buddhist texts, but I’ve only ever had the chance to read one book before. Maybe I might like them?” Narumi said, uncertainty creeping into her voice.

Yeah, Narumi really didn’t know much. Though, there was one thing Marisa could be sure that a recently awoken youkai definitely would know about though.

“What sort of magic can you use?” Marisa asked eagerly.

Narumi lit up at that question, carried along by Marisa’s enthusiasm. “Oh, my magic? You want to know what type I use?” she asked.

“Yeah. Tell me, tell me!” Marisa questioned excitedly.

“I’m not entirely sure!” Narumi said proudly, almost causing Marisa to fall on her face. “But I can feel the magic power welling up within me!”

Marisa straightened up. “Well, if you’ve only got a vague sense for now, then there’s only really one thing for it. Time for some experimentation!” She declared.

“Sounds fun! What do you have in mind?” Narumi asked eagerly.

“There’s only way to figure out your magic fast. A fight” Marisa said, matching her new companion’s enthusiasm.

“Bring it! Wait, what?” Narumi seemed to take a few moments to process what Marisa had just said. Her response was Marisa’s laughter, and the sound of wheels scraping across the floor. The young witch had gotten on her skateboard, rapidly rolling towards the Jizo.

The fight was on.

Marisa jumped into the air, firing a small cluster of stars at Narumi. Narumi squawked, bracing herself to take some damage. But while a few glanced off her, the majority of the stars parted away from her, harmlessly pinging off rocks and trees.

“Hey, I’m not here to bully anyone. If you’re just gonna cower away, then I won’t bother fighting you.” Marisa said, her voice seeming a little flatter and less enthusiastic than previously.

Narumi pouted a little. “Well, what were you expecting! You just kind of sprung that on me.” The Jizo complained.

Marisa was about to make a comment, about how Reimu would have gone with the flow, and how her magic teacher used to jump out at her at random times and start a fight. But then she allowed herself to mull over it for a moment. Narumi was a Jizo, and Jizo were meant to be buddhist, right? That mean she wasn’t supposed to be fighting. Well, crazy Kunio liked to fight people, but he got kicked out of the temple. Marisa got the impression that most monks weren’t nearly that belligerent.

Marisa was about to open her mouth to say something. Maybe to say sorry, or maybe to ask Narumi if she was even allowed to fight. However, she would never quite know what she was going to say next. Because as soon as she looked up towards Narumi, she found herself faced with not only the Jizo woman herself, but a group of flying bricks, cloaked in a grey light, which swayed and flickered as though alive.

Narumi’s expression was set into a line, looking more confident and certain than she had just a few moments before.

“I never said I didn’t want to fight. I just needed a moment. Because right now, I think I could fight anyone! Here I come!” Narumi shouted, rushing forward with her bricks in her wake. With a wave of her arms, all of them flew forward, straight at Marisa.

Surprised, Marisa just about ducked under the first volley. ‘Does she have some sort of telekinesis?’ Marisa wondered, using the speed of her skateboard to speed past the flying bricks and stones Narumi kept launching at her. Reaching underneath her hat, she produced her wand, brandishing it in Narumi’s direction.

“You’re gonna have to do better than that!” Marisa called out, a series of beams from her wand blasting through Narumi’s levitating rocks. One last laser was sent hurtling towards Narumi herself, but the ex-Jizo dropped to the ground to avoid the attack.A moment after hitting the ground, that same grey light flashed and covered the area where the Jizo had landed.

With the awful sound of rocks grinding and displacing each other, a chunk of the path suddenly turned into a platform, raising Narumi up into the air with it. The Jizo girl took a few moments to sit up, waving her arm at Marisa and sending wave after wave of energy bullets. Marisa just kept moving forward, using her speed and the momentum to her board to sway side-to-side just quickly enough to wave through the bullets. A few pockmarks blackened Marisa’s dress, but not enough damage had been done to the young magician to leave any lasting harm.

Once she had gotten close enough, Marisa jumped, pushed down on her skateboard, rising into the air. In that same moment, Marise extended her wand behind her, firing off a laser with enough force to push her higher and faster into the air. With all of the momentum she had built up, she collided with Narumi on her platform. The Jizo girl’s strength, considerably more than Marisa’s by virtue of being a youkai, was enough to slow Marisa, but not nearly enough to stop all of her speed at once. Marisa felt the magic keeping her on the board falter and then vanish, turning her charge into a tumble and sending her skateboard flying off somewhere.

Both human and youkai came crashing down from the platform, Narumi landing hard on the dirt path below and Marisa landing on Narumi’s stomach. It was surprisingly less stony than Marisa had expected. Instead it was just as fleshy as a human’s would be.

Narumi grunted, a little stunned. When the Jizo had got her bearings, she pushed Marisa off her with a grunt, before staggering to her feet.

“Urgh, I didn’t expect you to just ram me like that.” Narumi said, adjusting her straw hat, which had almost fallen off from the landing.

“You can never let anyone know your next move in a magic fight!” Marisa declared with a laugh. “Besides, you can’t let yourself get too stuck in one routine.” she continued.

“Never let them know your next move, huh?” Narumi repeated quietly.”Alright then. You can only blame yourself for this one!” The sound of a clap reverberated through the area as Narumi brought her hands together, her eyes closed. The same position she had been sleeping in, and the same position all of the Jizo statues of the road were in. Magic flashed from her body, that grey light forcing Marisa to cover her eyes.

Marisa had assumed that Narumi’s power was some sort of telekinesis, used by touch. But she was forced to think again when the sounds of stone grinding against stone began to reverberate through her ears again. Turning to the source of the sound, she was surprised to see the remainder of the Jizo statues at the roadside rise up and begin to move. Their straw hats billowed in the wind, in contrast to the grey stone composing their bodies. They did not walk, but rather dragged themselves across the floor, creating sparks and causing that awful noise.

Gritting her teeth and flinching due to the sound, Marisa was unable to avoid the barrage of projectiles the Jizo statues fired at her. They grey, pebble-like energy bullets pelted her, sending her tumbling off. She rolled for a short distance, ending up with her back slumped against the floor and her hat falling off her head, landing besides her cheek. Marisa panted, winded from the attack impacting on her ribs. She took a moment to get back up, a quick glance at her hat showing that none of the vials within it had cracked. Good, she didn’t need to worry about anything leaking onto her head. Kourin wanted to show her a way to test poisons without getting poisoned herself, but Marisa was already fairly certain everything she had on her today was at least a little toxic.

With a flick of the wrist, Marisa placed her hat back on her head. She muttered a cantrip and used her magic to affix it to her head a little more firmly, before getting to her feet with a mild grunt of effort.

Narumi had managed to get to the spot Marisa had landed by then, the grinding sounds of the rock subsiding as she stepped out onto the dirt, her entourage of other statues following her.

Marisa’s eyes scanned the area, widening a little as she saw a familiar black shape in the undergrowth. With a grin, she summoned wave after wave of tiny stars, acting as a smokescreen so that Marisa could retrieve her board. With the Jizo blinded, Marisa mounted her skateboard once more, a weak spell keeping her feet connected to the board below her. It couldn’t be as strong as the one she had used on her hat since she was constantly taking one foot off to push forward. Still, it helped her keep her balance, so it was worth it.

Narumi burst out of the cloud of stars, her Jizo guardians blasting through it with their superior firepower. Marisa kept retreating, harried by attacks from youkai and statues alike, a few stray bullets crashing into her. She pushed towards a tree, full pelt, and rush up it. It took Narumi a moment to adjust to the change, a moment in which Marisa took to the air on her board, gaining the height advantage over Narumi.

With that height advantage, Marisa was free to launch an offensive against Narumi. Two stars were flicked at Narumi, who pulled one of her manipulated Jizo into the path, blocking it. Narumi jumped into the air with a might leap, pulling four Jizo towards her in formation.

Perfectly willing to meet her challenge, Marisa raised her wand into the air, four coloured orbs materialising around her.

Marisa’s attack and Narumi’s met, a contest of lasers and bullets. While some bullets managed to get through Marisa’s attack and leave their mark, it was nothing compared to Marisa’s lasers carving a path straight through Narumi’s attack, scything through bullets and blasting Narumi backwards.

The Jizo faltered. Then she began to fall, rapidly losing height. Before Marisa could swoop in to save her, however, she righted herself, using her own power to set herself more gently onto the ground.

Whereupon she immediately collapsed to the floor, panting.

“You’re relentless!” Was Narumi’s first comment after sitting, giving Marisa a look of respect.

“I mean, yeah, you gotta be willing to go for broke if you wanna win a fight here,” Marisa said blithely. “Do you feel like you get your magic better now?” She asked.

“I think so. Just as life was granted onto me, I can grant a bit of life to other things. I can’t make them into fully formed youkai like I am, but I can at least make them able to move around a bit on their own.”

Marisa’s mind went back to the books on Western magic and magical creatures she had read even before she had met Mima. Where she had learned what a witch was, what a centaur was, what a vampire was. One creature in that bestiary stuck out to her in particular at the moment.

“Oh, so you can create golems.”

“Golems?” Narumi repeated, tilting her head.

“Yeah, they’re these walking rock or mud creatures over in the West. Like your little buddies back there.” Marisa said

“Golem… I like how it rolls off the tongue.” Narumi said almost too quietly for Marisa to hear. For a few moments, there was silence, only broken by the whistling of the wind and the sound of Narumi panting.

Marisa used the silence to think for a moment. Narumi’s life magic, her ability to create golems, the fact that she had previously been a statue herself given life, maybe Marisa could use that. She wanted to figure out a way to live longer and improve at her craft, and this was a prime opportunity to do so. Even if it didn’t work, she might figure out something to help her beat Mima.

“Hey. You were pretty good back there.How about we keep this up, help each other learn as fellow magicians?” Marisa asked.

Narumi thought about that for a few seconds, before nodding with an upturned mouth. “That sounds lovely. I think there’s still a lot I can figure out with this power.”

Marisa extended her hand to Narumi. The Jizo just stared at her palm for a moment. Right, she had almost forgotten hand shakes probably wouldn’t have been common in Gensokyo. It had only really caught on in recent years due to outsiders, a few years before Marisa had been born.

“When two people shake hands with each other, that means they’re making a promise to do what they say. It’s pretty popular in the West, but it’s starting to get more common here too. So shake my hand.” Marisa explained.

Narumi understood what Marisa was saying with a quiet “oh”. She extended her own arm, clasping her hand with Marisa’s. Then they shook on it.
And so, Marisa made a new friend, and the human magician and the Jizo magician agreed to collaborate.

Remilia’s eyes fluttered open. Her body was feeling much lighter than it had the day before, energy and magic flowing through her body freely. In fact, she felt almost a little hyperactive, like Meiling after she had chugged down a few of her energy drinks. She lifted the top of her casket off, before straightening herself up and leaping from the casket with a powerful flap of the wings.

Almost as soon as she landed, she sensed someone appear in front of her. Naturally, it was Sakuya. She had gotten dressed in one of her regular dresses, a spotless white apron draped across her front. She regarded Remilia with what most would regard as a neutral expression, though Remilia knew her well enough that she could tell that right eyebrow was slightly higher than her left, indicating some annoyance. Or perhaps, she just knew what annoyed Sakuya well enough that her mind interpreted her expression as such. Either way, she could tell that Sakuya would want an explanation, and soon.

“Good morning Sakuya. I’m sure you’ll want to sit down and have a chat.” Remilia greeted her maid warmly.

“Good morning, mistress Remilia. There are indeed some matters I’d like to discuss with you.” Sakuya said, a slight tremor in her voice, like a ripple in a perfectly still lake.

Remilia sat on the edge of her bed, patting the space next to her. Obediently, Sakuya took a seat next to her, turning her head to look at her mistress.

“I see you completed the teleportation process.” Sakuya began.

“Yes. I teleported all of us here whilst you were sleeping.”

“Why?” Sakuya asked, exasperation and curiosity tingling her voice.

“Well, as you know, if I were to make a mistake during the process, all of us would vanish at best, and be ripped to shreds at the worst. I did not want you to suffer that if this endeavor was a failure in the end.

“Even if it had failed, I would rather have been torn to shreds with you than have died without knowing what had happened. I swore that I would serve you always, and you’ve made a liar out of me.” Sakuya’s voice got louder as she spoke(but not by too much, Sakuya was never a shouter), and she pointed a finger at Remilia’s face. Her eyes were hard, stern.

Remilia didn’t flinch. She had made her choice knowing how her maid would react, so it would be hypocritical for her to suddenly start stammering out apologies. “I regret causing you upset, but I stand by my decision. As the mistress of the house, I must be willing to take steps to protect all of you, just as all of you are willing to protect me” she stated.

Sakuya actually stood up at that, looming over her with her greater height.”Then why not let me handle the teleportation? My magic lets me manipulate space just as it does time.” She argued.

“Perhaps. But remember that the spell takes a great deal of magic to use. Even I was knocked unconscious between the strain of using the crystal and the nausea of the spell itself. Even though you have impressive magical reserves, more impressive than most magical beings in fact, they still aren’t quite at the level of mine yet.” Remilia said ‘yet’ because Sakuya had easily been the fastest grower out of all the inhabitants of the mansion. When she had first joined, she would not have been able to beat even Patchouli in the middle of an asthma attack. Now, she was in the middle of the pack ; stronger than Meiling and Patchy, but not quite as strong as Remilia or her sister.

“Then you should have at least let me be there to help. I could have assisted in making sure we landed in the right place.” Sakuya insisted. Well, maybe she could have, now that Remilia was thinking about it. That being said, working together was not without its risks.
“Maybe so, but both of us working together would have risked causing the crystal to have gotten too overwhelmed with magic, causing the spell to go haywire. Too many cooks spoil the broth, as they say.”

Remilia realised the folly of using a food-related idiom against her cook mere seconds before Sakuya’s comeback.

“Perhaps that would have been the case if all of us had been pulling the thing in different directions. But you’ll find that having a sous-chef means that the chef de cuisine has fewer matters to concern herself with. In simple terms; I must sincerely ask you to let me in on these things, Remilia. Let me help you. That is the purpose of having a maid, after all. ”

Remilia chose to stay quiet at that. True, she could have tried for a comeback, a snappy one-liner about how a chef de cuisine doesn’t work on just one meal, but oversees an entire commercial kitchen. Perhaps she could have pointed out that Sakuya was already But what Sakuya wanted right now was not to have a long and clever banter session. She wanted to feel like she was being listened to.

“I understand where you’re coming from, Sakuya.” she said diplomatically.Sakuya inclined her head a little.

“Please keep my words in mind, mistress.” Remilia nodded in acquiescence and for now, that was that. Time to move on to other things, then.

“Have you seen the others yet, Sakuya?” she queried her maid.

Naturally, Sakuya nodded. “Yes, I have. Meiling is still fast asleep, somehow. One would think that a sustained hibernation would be enough for her, but that woman truly has a talent for indolence. Patchouli has woken up, but remains in bed. Her asthma is under control, but she wants to spend some more time in bed before getting up.”

Remilia listened with an attentive ear. Sakuya’s barbed words towards Meiling were to be expected, given Meiling’s easygoing nature compared to Sakuya’s perfectionism. But there was a slight hint of concern as well, which told Remilia that Sakuya had tried, and failed, to rouse the sleeping dragon.

Which made the decision on who to visit first much easier. For all that she had known Patchouli for only a slightly shorter time than she had Flandre, Remilia had some passing familiarity with the concept of triage.

“So be it then. Let us go visit Meiling, then.” Remilia said. She rose from the bed, hearing Sakuya rise behind her.

A matter of minutes later, she was before Meiling’s doorway. She pushed it open, revealing the green-painted room with several Chinese scrolls hanging on the walls. Most of them depicted dragons, though there were no shortage of other subject matters there either. Flowers, tigers, pandas, birds were only some of the few things Remilia could see at a glance. Written in beautiful calligraphy, there were a smattering of proverbs too: “A smile will gain you 10 more years of life”, “failure is the mother of success”, “one joy scatters a thousand griefs”, “With true friends, even water drunk together is sweet enough”, and so on. A little sappy, but also encouraging in a way which was quite fitting to Meiling.

Of course, the woman herself was as she had been left; deep asleep, drooling rainbow coloured saliva while snoring. She had apparently also rolled around a few times since last time Remilia had seen her; she was half-tangled in her own bed sheets.That in addition to the cocoon she had created made for two extra layers around the gatekeeper. It was almost enough to make Remilia a little jealous of how warm it must have been in there.

As she approached, Remilia could hear Meiling mutter “Door…Remi” in her sleep. She paused for a moment. Was Meiling sensing her Qi, even in her sleep? Well, that didn’t matter. For now, she just needed to get the slugabed up.

“Meiling. Wake up!” Remilia projected her voice, infusing it with the majesty and authority befitting of a countess. Meiling slept through it, her only ‘reply’ being to turn over in her sleep again. Well, Remilia hadn’t really expected that to work by itself. It had been worth a try, however.

“I’ll presume you’ve tried the smelling salts?” she asked Sakuya.

“Of course. Whenever she falls into such a deep sleep, the smelling salts are my first resort.” her maid confirmed, pulling a flask of the compound from seemingly nowhere. “I would normally try more drastic measures if and when that was unsuccessful, but in her state, I am less confident on what the results would be.”

Right, normally Meiling could take being stabbed by one of Sakuya’s knives without anything but a grumble and a slight, superficial wound, but when she was in this hibernation, Sakuya didn’t want to risk causing serious injury. Not without having a bloody good doctor around, at least.

Of course, Remilia knew a way to get Meiling awake without the risk of causing any serious harm. It was a trick she had first perfected on Flandre, some three-hundred-and-eighty-five years ago.

Remilia poked Meiling’s cheek, squishing it against her face. When that didn’t work, she did it a second time. Then a third, a fourth, and so on. Until, eventually, around the thirteenth poke, Meiling gave a groan and raised a hand to protect her face. At twenty-second, she was actively moving her face away from Remilia’s cold finger, and by the thirty-first poke, the gatekeeper’s eyes opened as she tried to slap her mistresses’ outstretched hand away.

“Hey, quit that!.” Meiling said, her annoyance fighting against her sleepiness.

“Ah, Meiling. Good of you to rejoin us in the land of the living.” Remilia said to her friend, a touch of humour in her voice.

Meiling looked a bit more aware at hearing Remilia’s voice. Then there was shock as she looked up and past Remilia to Sakuya.

“Remi! Sakuya! Good to see you two again!” Meiling said, still immobilised within her two layers of cocoons.

“Of course, you’re quite the sight for sore eyes yourself. We managed to complete the teleportation spell here just fine. We’ve made it to Gensokyo!”

“Really! That’s great! Once I get my hands free I’m hugging you both!” Meiling said, her expression so radiant that Remilia was almost afraid it would cause her to start burning. As she was, she couldn’t do that hug, and instead did a slight roll of celebration.

Sakuya was unamused.

“So be it. Once you’ve gotten yourself out of your chrysalis and into a decent state, I expect you to resume your post at the gate.”

“Aw, come on Sakuya! This is clearly grounds for a victory party! Right, Lady Remilia?”

“Well, normally that would be the case. However, currently, we are unable to leave this house, and we can’t get yourself or Sakuya to refill the larder. There’s unlikely to be any risk of us starving, but it would still be better not to burn through it too quickly.” Remilia answered.

“What? Why can’t we get out of here?” Meiling asked, having managed to bounce her way out of her duvets and now emitting a rainbow coloured light from within her cocoon.

“Well, the spell we used was one to distort spacetime and teleport here, of course. Now, while Sakuya has her own abilities to warp spacetime, they aren’t good at teleporting things around, like a whole mansion for example.” Remilia put a hand on Sakuya’s arm, giving a squeeze to remind her that it wasn’t any sort of indictment of the maid’s abilities.

“Instead, what we did was essentially pull ourselves into a little dimensional pocket, then sent that pocket flying across the planet to Japan, and eventually into Gensokyo.But that magic takes some time to settle down. Right now, if we tried to walk out of the front door, we’d just end up being teleported somewhere else.”

“Oh” said Meiling simply. “That’s actually kind of cool. I mean, I didn’t fully understand what you just said, but it sounded cool at least.”

“There’s a lot of things you don’t understand, Meiling.” Sakuya said, her voice more humorous than scathing. “But I must agree. Pulling us into an entirely new dimension was certainly an inspired choice. Not one I would have come up with off the cuff.”

“I’ll be sure to pass your compliments on to Patchy.” Remilia remarked. “Now, Meiling, are you about-”

Before she could finish her sentence, the sound of a snap could be heard through the room. Meiling began to tear out of the cocoon she had built around herself, the material fading into motes of light once it was no longer attached to her. Perhaps the most magical thing of all was that, save for her hair being a bit messier than normal, one would not have been able to tell that Meiling had been asleep for over a year.

“All better now, lady Remilia! I’m ready to roll!” Meiling said cheerfully. She patted her bed head down, catching all of her upright strands but one. Remilia elected not to make a comment on it, however. It wasn’t too unfitting for Meiling to have a bit of idiot hair. Especially given that the martial artist was the only one who would even know it as such.

Remilia flew upwards, her wings flapping gently as she brought herself face to face with her gatekeeper. “Meiling. Now that you’re awake, do you want to sort out that unfinished business?” she asked, a steely look in her eye and an even steelier tone in her voice.

Meiling looked a little unnerved at first, but she was quick to marshall her courage, even in the face of a more powerful foe. “Of course, lady Remilia. I intend to see that through to a conclusion. I’m sure you do too.”

With a solemn, shared nod, they sealed their deal. Remilia landed, tilting her head back towards Sakuya. Her maid had an exasperated look in her eyes, though her face was the mask of cheerful tranquility it usually was. Remilia could almost see her thoughts, something to the effect of ‘my mistress has the face of a child and Meiling has the mind of one. Truly a terrible duo.’. Well, the only way to rectify that would be to bring Sakuya in on the fun, too.

“Hey, Sakuya. Come and join us for a little bit, as well.”

Sakuya shook her head. “There’s no need to. Instead, I can prepare the-”

Remilia cut her off. “Now, now, there will be none of that. You’re always hard at work, but today is a day to relax and enjoy yourself. We can’t have a victory party, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have a good time, does it?”

Sakuya still seemed hesitant, however. “I need not time to relax. I just need to fulfill my duties.”

Remilia had to stop herself from frowning, an errant muscle trying to pull down at her lip. Sakuya wasn’t usually this opposed to taking it easy. Especially with Meiling around. For all that the maid gave the gatekeeper flak, Sakuya and Meiling were still friends. The two were on even ground with each other than Remilia(or Flandre) was with either of them. While Sakuya had a senior position to Meiling, that was different to being a mistress of the house. Patchy wasn’t a mistress of the house either, but she was more introverted, and from what she’d seen, when Patchy and Sakuya were together, it was often long silences with the occasional bit of conversation sprinkled in. Meiling, however, could get them talking.

Sakuya’s reticence was likely down to her perceived failure, then. Well, if she was feeling off her game, then. Best to at least give her something, a small win could start to get her spirits up.

“Sakuya.” Remilia began. “I want you to head to the pantry and get a sweet roll for yourself, Patchy and Flandre, a rice ball for Meiling, and both for me . Once you’ve done that, come back here. We’ll start the game with you.” she commanded. It was a far cry from the buffets they would usually eat together, but for now, a snack for all of them should get their spirits up, and help Sakuya feel useful. Granted, she was useful, but this was to help reinforce it to the woman herself.

Sakuya nodded, disappearing in the blink of an eye. Remilia waited a few moments. Satisfied that Sakuya had chosen to fulfill her tasks in regular time, she went up to the library, and into the little alcove which Patchouli called her room. The witch was still resting, turned away from the door and Remilia.

“Hey. Patchy. You wanna get up?” She asked, shaking her friend a little to try and wake her up.

Remilia watched as Patchouli blinked her eyes. She gave a grunt and just rolled over to the other side. Well, sleeping in was not illegal. Even still… She extended a leathery wing, flapping it at Patchy to try and get a reaction from her. However, Patchy just ignored it, pulling herself under her duvet to avoid harassment. Remilia grinned. She could catch up with her friend later; she wasn’t a particular concern.

---

Within the basement, Sakuya, Meiling and Remilia sat around a table.

Meiling had a severe pout on her face. On the desk in front of her were a pile of cards, the topmost one a black card with “+4 written” on it. Meiling’s hands were still full of cards, whereas Remilia’s hands were, noticeably, completely empty. Sakuya had one or two cards left, though Remilia was fairly certain she had been cheating by stopping time to peek at Meiling’s cards.

Not Remilia’s though. If the maid were to beat her master at cards, she would do it fair and square.

Flandre was sat in the corner, her eyes running over a book. It was an old murder mystery novel, one which Flandre had probably read over 100 times already, but seemed to be as engrossed in each and every time.

Despite her younger sister not talking to anyone, Remilia didn’t mind going downstairs to make sure that people were at least in the vicinity of Flandre. As an elder sister, she wouldn’t want her younger sister completely socially isolated.

Remilia’s ear twitched. She heard the sound of a door opening. Probably the basement door, all things considered.

“Oh, I suppose she’s finally decided to join us.”

Sakuya gave a hum of acknowledgment.

“I suppose I can put Meiling out of her misery, and let her stew in her defeat for a little while then.”

“Hey, you don’t know that! I could totally turn this around!” Meiling protested, though she was doing it more for the sake of protesting than anything.

Sakuya just smirked at her, before disappearing, letting her cards flutter to the ground. They consisted of two black cards, free to be played on any suit. Her last card was emblazoned with the symbols “+4”. It was the last such card in the deck, even. Meiling frowned, putting her hand of cards down, and grumbling underneath her breath.

A moment later, Patchouli and Sakuya walked in together.

“I had wondered what you would be doing with this spare time.” Patchouli began, “but I certainly have to admit I didn’t expect you to get back into that card game.” she finished.

Remilia grinned. “Well, what can I say? I enjoy games of chance. Especially when I always win at them.” It was true, too, Remilia always won these types of games whether she had to rely on cards or dice. Sakuya was opposed to gambling the household budget on principle, but it was less of a concern when Remilia always won.

Well, except for that leprechaun, that one time.

Patchy gave her a small grin. “Well, I suppose that befits you, oh ‘ruler of fate.’ It plays into your image” She said with levity. More seriously, she continued. “But that’s not what I came down here to talk about. The dimensional phenomenon seems to be receding. Soon enough, it will fade away and we can go out into the world. Of course, I intend to stay in my library whenever possible.” Patchouli remarked. “Even so, all of our efforts will soon bear fruit. I’ll be looking forward to seeing the state of magical knowledge in Gensokyo.”

“I see.” Remilia said, letting the words sink in. After everything, it was a joy to finally be on the precipice of seeing this Land of Illusions.“Then the time of our debut is almost among us.” Remilia said, half to herself. “Everyone! Get ready and look your best. We should make a strong first impression on the locals, shouldn’t we?” She grinned.

Sakuya, Meiling and Patchouli were a chorus of agreement. Even Flandre gave a slight hoot, though not a very enthusiastic one.

"I think I'm just gonna stay here. Tell me if this Gensokyo place has anything worth destroying." Flandre requested, not even looking up from her mystery novel.

"We'll see. Though I may end up inadvertently crushing some of them myself, you know?" Remilia teased

"If you can crush them by accident, then they're not worth my time." Flandre riposted

Remilia gave a little giggle at that, hand raised to cover her mouth. It wasn't a particularly funny reply, but Remilia felt cheerful bubbles in her heart anyway.

"Well, then I'll keep an eye out for meteorites and the like, alright?"Remilia asked. Flandre grunted in agreement.

Her banter with her sister over, Remilia turned her mind to what was waiting for them outside. A great forest? A field of snow? A land of youkai hunters?

The possibilities excited her. But she could be certain of one thing: whatever was out there, it would soon learn the name Scarlet.

Before anyone could leave, however, a rift in reality opened in front of them. Two red ribbons were tied at either side of the rift, as it opened to reveal a red and black void filled with eyes. A woman emerged from this gap. She wore a white mob cap atop her head of golden hair and eyes of the same colour. A red ribbon was tied around the brim of her hat, and another around her neck. Her hair was adorned with bow ties, matching those on her rift. She wore a purple dress over white socks and pink slippers.

She sat down atop her gap, one dainty, gloved hand holding a white parasol above her and another unfurling a fan to cover her mouth.

“Well met, ladies of the Scarlet Devil Mansion.” The stranger began, before closing her fan shut with an audible clack. It revealed a mouth set in a disarmingly friendly and easygoing smile.

“I am pleased to make your acquaintances. Ah, but where are my manners? My name is Yakumo Yukari. I’m a... local of this area"

Remilia’s response to a sudden, unexpected appearance was almost instant.

“Sakuya!” She called out. Her maid flickered, Flandre’s staff and Patchouli’s best grimoire suddenly appearing in their hands. The maid herself brandished two fistfuls of knives, at the ready to be used against the intruder. Said intruder just watched with a slight quirk of the eyebrow

“My, that doesn’t seem particularly hospitable. I had heard that for all of your flaws, you were an excellent host, Remilia Scarlet. Was that just an exaggeration?”

Remilia shot a dangerous grin. “Well, I certainly am known to be a wonderful hostess. If you surrender now, I would be more than willing to take you on as a guest in my house.” she purred.

Yukari didn’t even bat an eye at that. “Perhaps. Though I do so hate the sight of blood. I imagine that might put me at odds with you and your sister.” the intruder snarked.

Irritated at the witty repartee ongoing between Remilia and Yukari, Flandre growled and shot forward, one palm outstretched. With a victorious cheer, Flandre closed her palm and clenched her fist, activating her power. Instead of turning Yukari into a fine scarlet mist, a small wormhole appeared in front of the blonde woman, and the table where they had been playing cards suddenly burst into splinters.

Remilia suppressed a grimace. That thing had been made out of good mahogany! It was going to be a real pain finding more of that, especially now that they had been disconnected from their old supply routes.

More importantly though, this Yukari woman could avoid Flandre’s destruction technique. Seemingly by using her portals to redirect Flandre’s attack. Remilia hadn’t even thought of such a thing as being possible; Flandre’s destruction mostly ignored durability, and wasn’t a wave or particle that could be reflected.

“She must have figured out a way with replace her own ‘eye’ with that of the table.” Flandre concluded, echoing Remilia’s thoughts. "Now I can't sense her 'eye' at all. I don't know how, but she must have moved it somehow."

Remilia had guessed the woman had some level of familiarity with the residents of the mansion, but being aware of Flandre and her power indicated a slightly deeper level of knowledge. Yet, Remilia knew that she had never met this Yukari woman in her life. She had to be a spy of some sorts, or to have had a spy watching over them. The question was: why?

That question would have to be answered once the mysterious woman had been brought to heel, however. She turned her head slightly towards Sakuya. The maid stood still, her eyes wide and with a little sweat dripping down her forehead. But she seemed to shake herself from her shock quickly, disappearing in the blink of an eye.

Another blink of an eye later, Sakuya landed, several knives appearing out of thin air and clattering to the ground.

“She can move during my stopped time.” The head maid declared, getting up through grit teeth. Meiling was quick to head to Sakuya’s side and help her to her feet.

Remilia exhaled through her nose. Both of the usual trump cards they could rely on had been mitigated by Yukari. It wouldn’t be an instantaneous victory like they had gotten used to, then. Still, in many ways this was probably better. A real fight to celebrate the arrival of the Mansion to their new stomping grounds was as good a commemoration as anything else.

Remilia shot forward, Gungir materialising in her hand as she did so. Yukari parried using her parasol, before using a portal to make Remilia’s weapon thrust towards her own face. Instead of stabbing into Remilia, however, the weapon curved to stab at Yukari again. Yukari continued to roll and doge, but Gungir kept harrying her. Flandre took advantage of the taller blonde being out of position, jabbing out with Laevataeinn. But even while distracted, Yukari was too good, a well placed(and surprisingly powerful) energy bullet from a portal knocking Flandre’s aim off and keeping the lady unburned. A second portal absorbed her Gungir, making it dissipate.

An annoyance. But Remilia could just summon another one, so it wasn’t too big a deal.

Meiling and Sakuya attacked together at that point, Meiling pushing herself to match Sakuya’s speed. Yukari kept up with them, batting Meiling’s punches and kicks aside with her own hand-to-hand techniques and knocking Sakuya’s knives away with her parasol. Flandre and Remilia joined in, harassing with bullets whenever Meiling or Sakuya were forced back, which gave the two enough time to get back into the fight. Meiling, surprisingly, was the first to catch the gap youkai out.

She willingly caught a powerful jab to the stomach from Yukari’s parasol,grabbing it and enduring the pain with gritted teeth. Yukari blinked, taken unawares for just a fraction of a fraction of a second. In that fraction of a fraction however, Sakuya’s eyes glowed red, as she gripped her knife tightly.A blink of an eye later Sakuya held a broken knife, shards of metal falling to the floor.Yukari still appeared mostly unharmed, but her dress was scuffed, a small rip apparent near her torso. Remilia could smell the scent of blood. Not Sakuya’s or Meiling’s but what must have been Yukari’s. It was surprisingly human-like, the metallic smell common to living creatures being just as strong as the ozone-like scent of magical blood to Remilia’s nose.

Yukari looked genuinely impressed, an appreciative look crossing her face for a moment.Then she yanked back her parasol while striking Meiling in the neck with her fan. As Meiling fell, Yukari sidestepped a stab by Sakuya before putting a hand on Meiling’s back, shooting her forward with a pulse of magical energy. Meiling went flying, smashing right into Sakuya before the maid could react. Both gatekeeper and maid went down, Meiling in particular smashing into a wall, before slumping down, motionless.

Remilia felt her blood run hot. With grim determination, she took flight, magic circles opening in all directions around Yukari. With a wave of the arm, they all opened fire, an avoidable net of scarlet bullets. As with before, the taller Youkai summoned wormholes all around herself, returning all of Remilia’s attacks back to her. That was fine though, it meant she couldn’t see for a moment.

In the split second Yukari had lowered her gaps, Remilia had thrown Gungir with all of her might. The lance struck true, crimson splattering on the floor as Yukari’s wound deepened. It was far from a crippling blow, let alone a fatal one, but getting her enemy to bleed was always a good feeling.

“Now!” Remilia called.A stream of bats streaked past her, materialising into four Flandres, all poised to crush Yukari’s eye. Yukari clicked her fingers, and the four Flandres all suddenly jerked towards each other in midair. Shortly before they made impact however, Flandre dismissed two of them, causing them to vanish into motes of red light. She used the last one as a platform, planting her feet on its stomach and diving towards Yukari.

Yukari was forced down, her parasol and Flandre’s sword clashing. Crucially, she was forced down to the ground, the combined force of Gravity and Flandre’s strength being enough to actually drive her a little into it.

A magical matrix appeared at Yukari’s feet. The intruder’s eyes widened for a moment, as she backpedaled and tried to open a portal. The portal only barely opened before fizzling out and disappearing into nothing. A series of grey chains launched from the matrix, some wrapping around her and others stabbing into her, leaving a series of small gashes across her body.

“Suppression spell is active.” Patchouli said, gritting her teeth as her grimoire floated in front of her. In her hand, she held a shard of metal with some blood on it. “She’s quite strong though, as you would imagine.”

“Well done, Patchy.” Remilia complimented. Flandre looked at her with a raised eyebrow. “Yes, you too, Flandre.” She added indulgently. Her sister didn’t visibly preen at the praise, but Remilia could still tell she was happy.

“Now then.” Remilia said, pointing Gungir at Yukari’s throat. “What business do you have with us?”

“A magical seal? Impressive spellwork, to create one so quickly” Yukari complimented, as though she wasn’t at spearpoint with her magic sealed.

“Quite.” Patchouli accepted the accolade with grace. “Now, answer the question.” She said sharply.

“The question. Yes, the question. Which you asked me.” Yukari said. “Um, which question was that again?” She queried.

Remilia was starting to get a bad feeling. This lady wouldn’t be acting dumb unless she had some objective in mind. Perhaps she had some ace in the hole, some hidden ally that would turn things around for her? Before she pulled out that Ace, Remilia knew she had to do something to cripple Yukari, make her less of a threat.

Remilia pulled Gungir back, before taking a step forward and shoving it right into Yukari’s heart. A survivable injury for a youkai, but an undoubtedly debilitating one. But she was stopped just before she could do so, Yukari blocking the lance with her bare hands. Remilia grit her teeth and tried to push Gungir past Yukari’s guard, but the intruder was surprisingly tough, holding her at bay. Eventually however, Remilia began to get the better of the struggle, beginning to piece Yukari’s left hand. It was shockingly resistant, feeling more like stabbing through a particularly tough pillow than flesh.

Yukari winced at the pain. But even then, she was quick to put on a smile that wouldn’t melt butter. “Stabbing a subdued enemy? I suppose chivalry truly is dead.” She noted

“The chevaliers were never friends of mine. Though I suppose I didn’t mind having them over for lunch on occasion.” Remilia shot back.

“How ruthless.” Yukari mock-gasped, putting her uninjured hand to her mouth. “Well, I suppose I can’t fault you for acting to prevent me from using some dirty trick.” She conceded, putting her hand on her cheek.

At that, the matrix which had been binding her suddenly turned on Patchouli, wrapping her in its grey chains and causing her to topple to the ground. The grimoire that had been floating in front of her also fell, landing with a soft thud.

As if that wasn’t enough bad news, an unfamiliar voice emerged from behind Remilia.

“Mistress, all of the remaining members of the mansion have been subdued. The younger sister had surprisingly strong mental defences, but I was able to overcome them for the present moment. Should I employ something similar against the head of this household?”

It was a woman’s voice. Mature as well, if it had been from a human, Remilia would guess somewhere in the thirties. Most striking of all was how even it was, how monotone. It went beyond even the level of professionalism that someone like Sakuya exhibited.

Remilia could see the owner of the voice come into her view. She was a kitsune, her nine yellow, fluffy tails being the most notable physical feature she had. Her hair was equally blonde, with yellow eyes to match. She was tall, about the same height as Yukari. She wore a white dress with a blue tabard draped over it.Atop the fox ears on her head was a mob cap covered in amulets.

A look back confirmed that Flandre had been put under an illusion by the fox youkai. Remilia resisted the urge to curse. Vampires often had some degree of mental manipulation and subsequent resistance to mind control, but Flandre had always been built more for sheer destructive power. Even Remilia was unable to fully resist the illusions of one of the famed nine-tailed foxes.

‘She must have snuck in under a veil, sometime during the fighting.’[i] Remilia thought to herself. [i]‘Illusionists sure are pesky.’

“Well done, Ran. There will be no need to transfix this one, I just want to have a chat with her.” Yukari said to her minion. With a pulse of energy, Gungir disappeared, the hole that it had made in Yukari’s hand lingering for a few seconds before it started to heal.

“What have you done to them?” Remilia questioned, her voice undaunted despite the disadvantageous situation she had found herself in.

“In essence, I have put them to sleep. They will not be interfering with this bout of combat any further. Their memories of the last five minutes or so may be lost, but no other side effects are expected.” Ran responded.Yukari nodded in agreement, before straightening to her full height and looking at Remilia.

“I suppose I should introduce myself properly if I’m going to be doing official business, however… give me a moment.” Yukari took a step back, before purple light covered her form. When the light faded, she was wearing a much more elegant outfit, a white dress with a purple tabard. All seemingly fresh off the iron, with no crumples to be found. She smiled at Remilia, just as serene as ever, though a hint of mischief could be seen in her eyes.

“Good evening. I am Yukari Yakumo, Sage of Gensokyo. It’s very nice to meet you., Remilia Scarlet. I have something which I hope you'll be interested in.”

Shinki sighed and rubbed a hand across her face. To be so disrespected, to have her own people completely ignoring her decrees was outright shameful for one in her position. Perhaps she could strong-arm some of her citizens, beat them up in order to enforce her will. But down that path lay tyranny and unrest. Not to mention the fact that those visiting the world above already knew how dangerous it was; the vengeful spirit and the flower youkai had done massive collateral damage, the human magician had given her a good fight and the shrine maiden had beaten her outright.

No, it seemed that the only recourse available to her right now would be to go up, suck up her ego and apologise to the shrine maiden. She had promised to try and do something about the Makaians who were going to the world above. Hopefully, they could try to sort out a deal for travelling between the two locations.

For the immediate moment however, Shinki wanted to look for her child. She had been visiting her fellow magicians a great deal recently. Byakuren, Yuki and Mai alike. She had seemingly gotten into one of her moods, when she would pursue her goal with single minded determination. Were it not for her lack of need to eat and minimal need for sleep, Shinki would have been worried. Even with that lack of need, Shinki did still worry on occasion. She hoped her youngest child would not do anything foolish. Alice was more than strong enough to handle most residents of Makai even before she had gotten her grimoire. But there were still those who could defeat her within this realm.

The first place Shinki checked was Alice’s usual haunt. A small, quiet little library, tucked away in an alcove in Makai City. She pushed the door open gently, Yumeko following her as she often did, a silent shadow.The place smelled softly of coffee and bread, most likely from the nearby stores. Behind the counter stood a tall woman with red hair and bat wings, talking quietly to a short woman with similar features. A mother and daughter.Daikuma and Koakuma. The pair turned to look at Shinki, the elder giving a deferential bow upon seeing her, and the smaller following after a moment.

“There’s no need for that.” Shinki said, a hand raised to signal peace. The pair of them straightened up, Koakuma standing up much faster than her mother. The younger bookkeeper was quick to send a smile Shinki’s way.

“Heya Lady Shinki! Heya Yumeko! You looking for little Alice?” Koakuma asked cheerfully. It was a tone that would have been much too loud for a library had there been anyone more than the three of them within it. Even so, Kuma gave her daughter a sideways glance at the volume of her voice.

“Yes, I am. I can see she’s not here, however.” Shinki noted. Not wanting to be impolite, she added “How are you two doing?”

“All is well here, Lady Shinki. Actually, we were closing up a little early today.” Daikuma answered her question before her daughter could.

“Oh, if you’re going out looking for her, can I go with you? There’s kinda some things I want to talk to you about, Lady Shinki.” Koakuma added, to the apparent surprise of her mother.

“Don’t feel the need to-” Daikuma began, a look of concern that her daughter had overstepped written on her face.

“It’s no concern.” Shinki said, to allay Kuma’s fears and avert a panicked monologue.

“Thank you so much! I’ll see you in a bit, mom!” Koakuma called out.

Kuma just sighed at her child’s antics. “Just make remember that you’re in charge of washing the plates tonight. Take care, Koa.” She said, waving placidly to her child as she exited the room alongside Shinki.

The pair walked out of the library together, Koakuma humming a little tune to herself as she did. Both of them took flight, soon speeding out of view of the library, and out of Makai City itself. Their destination was Hokkai, where Byakuren resided. Once they were firmly out of the city, however, Koakuma became much more reserved, seeming to need some time to refocus herself.

“Hey, Lady Shinki… Y’know the portal to the outside world?” Koakuma asked a leading question.

“Yes, I’m aware of it.” Shinki said, not liking where Koakuma was going.

“I want to go out there!” Koakuma declared boldly, confirming what Shinki had been fearing.

“I see.” Shinki said calmly. “Might I ask why?”

“I wanna read some cool books! Gain a bunch of knowledge,deal with new challenges, you know?” Koakuma said, the wings on her head fluttering about in excitement.

“Oh, you’ve exhausted all of the books up here in Makai, have you?” Shinki asked.

“Well, not all of them. There’s some new stuff getting published all the time. But the world above… that’s a whole new world of books! I wanna see what they’re like.” Koakuma replied. It would add up; she had seen Koakuma reading book after book for a good century or two now. If she consumed them even half as eagerly as Alice did, then she would be running a little low on them.

Shinki suppressed a sigh. “Well, right now, I would have to advise you against it. I told the Shrine Maiden that I would do something about all of the Makaians entering into her lands. I worry about what will happen when she encounters those that still went up above.” Shinki didn’t think the girl would kill in cold blood, but with the power she had, if her temper were to flare… Well, against Shinki it had lead to a torn wing. Against a regular Makaian, it would likely end even worse.

Koakuma was undaunted, however. “Ah, so the problem is the angry white and red girl? I just have to avoid her then!” Was the conclusion she drew from Shinki’s warning. Shinki was about to speak again when Koakuma continued. “Besides, I don't intend on just going there as a tourist like everyone else has. I think I want to stay for a while. Really get into what they’ve got going on up there.”

Shinki was a little surprised. “Isn’t this rather abrupt? You’ve been with your mother up until now, haven’t you?”

Koakuma gave a shake of her head. “No, I moved away for university for a bit. But more than that, I’ve always wanted to go out. Further than even Makai. I guess I just thought this was my chance.”

Shinki gave the girl- the young woman rather- a look over. She seemed to be a little more afraid than she was letting on, but her eyes were resolute regardless.

“I suppose I must wish you good luck then. But even if you do go ahead, make sure to stop for a moment and plan it. And make sure you tell your mother. Even if she doesn’t agree with you, it would eat at her not to know.”

“I’m not looking forward to that conversation… But I guess you’re right, Lady Shinki.”

Yumeko suddenly interjected in their conversation. “I think we’re getting close to Hokkai now.”

Shinki nodded and gave Yumeko her thanks.

As Shinki came into view of Byakuren, she saw the monk was watching over Alice. Alice was showing off a spell, sending an array of blue knives flying rapidly at all angles. She could make minor adjustments to them as they moved, to improve accuracy and demonstrate fine control.

“My, that’s a fairly impressive spell you have there, my child.” Shinki called out as she landed.

Alice turned to her, a grin on her face. “Yeah! With stuff like this, there won’t be anyone who can stand against me!” She boasted.

“Hey, Lady Shinki could still stand against you. I reckon Miss Byakuren would be able to, as well.” Yumeko said, the first to interject.

“Well, I might struggle.” Byakuren said modestly. “Even so, don’t let yourself get wrapped up in the idea that the grimoire makes you invincible.” She warned.

Shinki nodded in agreement with her friend. “You never know what sort of nasty tricks your opponent is going to pull out of their hat. There’s no one trump card that you can use for everything.”

Alice nodded. “Yeah, yeah.” Her words were agreeing with Shinki, but her tone made it clear that she was just trying to get her mother to stop pestering her. Shinki and Byakuren shared a brief look, Byakuren just shaking her head a little.

“Well, I’ve just come to check that Alice was doing okay. Byakuren, I’ll make some time to talk to you later. Right now, I think I’ll head to the surface and speak to that shrine maiden.” The longer Shinki put it off, the more likely it was that the shrine maiden(or one of the others) would come back on their own volitions.

“Hey, mum, can I go up with you?” Alice asked eagerly.

“Oh, me too, me too!” Koakuma added, just as energetically.

“The pair of you can come with me so long as you behave.” Shinki answered.

Both young women cheered in concert. They would be going to see Gensokyo.

---

Reimu felt ready; the snows of winter would recede in a month or two, and the blooms of spring would be here. Once that happened, she would finally, finally be a real shrine maiden.

Reimu walked down the path near the shrine, whistling a tune to herself as she did. Her mom was having a boring talk with some tall blonde lady, letting Reimu out to go do what she wanted. Reimu had chosen to take a nice stroll; despite the winter season having begun, today was actually a fairly sunny, bright, calm and peaceful day. Honestly, while days like this were nice, they could get a bit too boring as well. No lessons from mom to learn, no Marisa to pester her, no youkai to fight. Reimu couldn’t imagine living like this every single day, as all of the people in the human village did. Well, as long as days like this didn’t happen too often, then Reimu could live with it.

Just as Reimu was wishing for something to happen, see saw a portal from the corner of her eye. That portal was roughly where the portal to Makai had been. Someone pulled themselves from that portal, pink hair bundled under a white sun hat. She was followed by a second person. Then a third. Before Reimu knew it, a group of about 20 had formed, all standing around near the point of entry.

Hadn’t that lady promised that there wouldn’t be any more people coming in from Makai? Reimu wanted to be annoyed, but that was tempered by interest and curiosity. What were these people planning on doing?

She took a few steps forward, stepping into hearing range. She could hear them talk about “holidays”, “seeing the sights” and “Hakurei Shrine.” That last one made Reimu perk up. What were they going to do at the shrine? She wasn’t all too worried; her mom could pop them if it came down to it. But she called out to them regardless.

“Hey! What are you guys saying about the Hakurei Shrine!” Reimu yelled. The group turned around, staring at Reimu.They stared long enough for Reimu to begin feeling a little uncomfortable, causing her to fold her arms and stare back at them. Then, they all broke out in conversation.

“Hey, is that the girl that beat Shinki?” One asked her friend.

“She was! She’s pretty strong, you know.” a tall man said.

“Wow, isn’t she related to the Hakurei Shrine? Do you think she’ll let us take pictures?” One asked.

“Why be shy about it! Hey, Miss Shrine Maiden! Can we take some pictures with you?”

“Hey, hey, calm down! Give me some space!”

Reimu stepped back a little. She had been expecting hostility and fear, these people were definitely way too eager to talk to her.

After a moment though, she stablised herself. Before, she’d been annoyed by all of these guys pouring out, and worried that they were going to destroy the village or something. That they were some dumb tourists definitely made them much less of a threat.

Maybe she would beat them up anyway, just for being obnoxious? That definitely didn’t sit nearly as well with her as punching out some invaders though…

The portal from which the group had emerged suddenly grew once more. It widened, large enough for the group of figures to step through.

Shinki appeared, her long white hair now tied back into a tail. Behind her were her maid and two other girls. One was hidden behind the maid, Reimu only able to tell that she had red hair. The other was a blonde girl, clutching a big book in her hands. Wait, Reimu vaguely remembered her. Her name started with an A. Anzu? Angela? Something like that.

Reimu’s attempts to remember the short girl’s name were interrupted by Shinki starting to talk.

“Young Reimu, it’s good to see you well.” The tall woman said kindly, as though Reimu hadn’t ripped off part of her wing last time they had seen each other. “Unfortunately, I can’t quite keep my people from deciding to come up here. There’s this tourist agency, you see, and there’s not much I can do to stop them.”

“Not much you can do? But aren’t you their goddess?” Reimu asked, not sure how Shinki couldn’t get her own followers under control.

“Those devils only worship one thing, and that is money. The free market is more sacred to them than anything else. Shinki replied. Reimu wasn’t quite sure what a “free market” was, but she nodded along anyway. She’d get her mom to explain it to her later. No chance she would show her lack of knowledge in front of this lady.

“You really can’t do anything? Reimu asked, to confirm.

“No, unfortunately. I truly am sorry” Shinki replied.

Reimu sighed. All of that trouble, all of that fighting, for this? Honestly, she kind of felt bad about slicing Shinki up back there.

“Well, I guess-”

“Reimu. Face me!” Alana suddenly said, brandishing her colourful book at the shrine maiden. Reimu blinked for a moment, trying to figure out what exactly Alyssa’s problem with her was. Well, she supposed it didn’t matter. After all, as a Hakurei, her job was simple: find troublesome youkai and exterminate them. This was just her getting a head start on those grounds.

Besides, she wasn't going to run from a challenge. Not From Marisa or from this girl.

“If you want a fight, then you’ll get one!” Reimu called in response to the challenge

“Hold a moment!” Shinki called out, her volume causing Reimu and Alice alike to jolt in surprise.

“What is it m- Lady Shinki?” Alice asked.

“Yeah, what’s the big idea?” Reimu added, a little more aggressively.

Shinki was undaunted by Reimu’s aggressiveness however, and continued on as though she hadn’t been interrupted.

“Fighting here would be a poor idea. If the two of you must face each other, then figure out a proper place, time and rules” She stated, leaving no room for argument. Alice, naturally, bowed to her judgement, though Reimu was not so quick to agree, instead scratching her chin while looking at the sky in thought.

“I guess mom wouldn’t be super happy if I got into a fight and damaged the path to the shrine.” She said thoughtfully. Well, more than it has been already” The young miko added, looking down along the path.

Alice’s eyes followed Reimu’s, and she could see section of the path which had become cracked and fractured. A few stray bullets, maybe a youkai that had been just a little annoyedThat’s all that would be needed to make that kind of damage. A full-on fight between the two of them would be sure to turn the path back into dirt at best, or a crater at worst.

“I guess we’ll have to fight somewhere else then.” Alice said, running a hand through her hair. She couldn’t have the fight in Makai City or Pandaemonium because it would cause too much collateral damage. Perhaps they could fight in Hokkai? It was a little imposing for a newcomer to get to though, and Alice wasn’t entirely sure Reimu would be willing to go that far, at least not without a good reason. As she continued to wrack her brain, Yumeko chimed in with a solution.

“Hey, Alice, why don’t you try Wonderland?” The maid asked.

“Wonderland…” Alice scratched her chin. Yes, that could work. That could work indeed.

Wonderland was the place where Alice had initially landed within Makai. It was a place of concentrated arcane energy, where she had first met Shinki and become a magician. She hadn’t been back there in a long time; for all that she was fine keeping her own company, staying in barren land with only some bizarre magical pinwheels(?) was a little too much for her. Shinki still checked the area on occasion to make sure no one was lost there, and the fairies might go in either out of curiosity or if there was someone else there, but other than that, Wonderland made even Hokkai seem crowded.

It hadn’t always been like that. It had once apparently been a thriving kingdom, until what was known as the Heartrend. The end of the King and Queen of Hearts, and the magical explosion that destroyed the lands that used to be their kingdom. Interesting to some historians, perhaps, but most people stayed far, far away.

Yes, fighting there would make sense. After all, even if their fight ended up being as destructive as her mother’s fight with Reimu or the other people from Gensokyo, there wasn’t much left in Wonderland to be destroyed.

“Yes, we will fight in Wonderland. Whomever loses must do what the winner says for a week. Are we agreed?” Alice asked, one hand extended to Reimu.

Reimu just stared at her palm for a moment, confused. Then she seemed to realise what Alice was aiming for, clasping her hand and giving it a firm shake.

“Agreed. Hope you’re good at cleaning, because you’re going to scrubbing floors all week long.” Reimy said confidently.

“I was just thinking I could use someone to arrange the great library myself. It’s a good thing I found such a willing volunteer.” Alice shot back.

Both of them met each other’s glares with fierce smiles. Alice felt the weight of her Grimoire in her hands.

With it, she knew her victory was assured.

---

Wave after wave of playing-card soldiers rushed towards Reimu, trying to overwhelm her with numbers. But Reimu simply blocked their bullets with a lazily constructed barrier, before sending it flying forward, destroying the card soldiers as it went.

She stood on Genji, the old turtle’s flight more reliable than her own floating abilities- for now at least. She flew through the skies of Makai on his, easily taking out her opponents.

Soon enough, a larger and more powerful soldier emerged to block her way. The Trump King.

Reimu ducked underneath the first salvo, deflecting the second salvo with an angled barrier. She returned fire with a stream of her own bullets, aiming towards the crown. Her shots managed to tilt the crown, sparks flying from her shots made contact. Spots of copper hidden underneath the shiny golden sheen were revealed.
“Hah! Knew you couldn’t afford real gold! Cheapskate.” Reimu taunted. Of course, there was no way Reimu would be able to afford gold in her wildest dreams, but that didn’t matter when her goal was just to rile the puppeteer up.

Too far away to respond, Reimu didn’t hear what Alice had to say. It was clear that she was angry however, sending a more concentrated wave of bullets flying Reimu’s way. A wave of stars fired at all angles, before homing in on Reimu It was too dense for her to just block with a barrier, forcing Reimu to find the narrow gaps she could in order to fly through. She did still manage to get through mostly unscathed though, save for part of her sleeve getting burned.

With a battle cry, Reimu returned fire, her counter attack knocking the crown off the giant playing card. The thing seemed to slow down at that, its shots becoming slower and more spread out. From there, it was easy for Reimu to knock it down, one last volley sending the giant card tumbling out of the sky.

A few more waves of playing cards came after Reimu, but they went down in just a few shots each. Some fairies leapt out at Reimu as well, laughing joyfully. They had followed Alice when she had first run off to this place, though knowing fairies it was just a matter of curiosity. Either way, Reimu took them down, a little more gently than she had for the card soldiers. Soon enough, she had reached the core of neverland.

It was a barren, bizarre place. A few roads stretched out, a checkered red and white. Reimu appreciated the colour scheme, at least. But below that was not the ground, but the sky. Above them was the ground, uneven and filled with craters. A yellow brick road extended along it, far out into the horizon.

But Reimu’s attention was squarely on the blonde girl she could see in the distance.

Alice floated confidently in the air, back turned to Reimu with her Grimoire held in one hand . Alice turned around, giving Reimu a confident smile as she did.

“So, you've got here, Reimu!” Alice declared boldly.

Reimu didn’t say anything in response to that, just tilting her head at Alice’s statement. She had been the one to invite her in the past place

“It’s been a while since we last saw each other.” Alice went on, pacing back and forth through the air.

“Yeah, it has been a while, Angie.” Reimu replied.

“My name is Alice!” The girl shot back, her lapse in temper undoing the cool and mysterious image she was trying to portray.

“I’ve brought you all the way here just so that I could defeat you!” Alice said, pulling herself back together a little.

“Well, I guess I appreciate the effort.” Reimu said, wondering when this girl was going to stop talking and start fighting

“In order to do that… I have learned all types of magic.” Alice said, her book floating in front of her as she began to stare at it.

“But you’re busy staring at the book.” Reimu pointed out. How was she even going to see where she was going? Reimu didn’t mind an easy win, but a victory arising out of her opponent knocking herself out on cliff would just be embarrassing.

“They’re a bunch of super strong spells! I need to use my grimoire to cast them!” Alice defended herself.

“Super strong?” Reimu questioned. She was really curious now; while Alice had been a cut above the fairies and other minions she’d fought, the girl hadn’t really been anything special compared to opponents like Mima, Yuuka or Shinki. But if she had some Super Strong spells lying in wait, then it was possible that could change.

“That’s right.” Alice said, a note of finality entering her voice. She held her book forward, causing it to glow more brightly. It was enough to make Reimu shield her eyes with her arm, (and to wonder how Alice was handling having that amount of light in her face.)

“I’ll give you a demonstration right here and now!” Alice declared. As she did so, Reimu felt the thrum of powerful magic in the air. Several waves of fireballs came flying at her, red like roses.
Reimu was able to easily avoid the widespread fireballs that made up the initial volley. When they started to home in on her, dodging became more difficult, though in the end she just had to make sure to keep moving; they would home in a few seconds after being fired, but wouldn’t continue homing after that.

A wall of fire caught Reimu off guard, forcing her to summon a barrier to jump off, gaining the speed she needed not to get swallowed up by it. All subsequent waves were avoided by Reimu, the miko being far more careful now that she knew the tricks that Alice could get up to.

Alice growled, flipping through pages of her book. Eventually, she found what she had seemingly been looking for, her book turning blue as she cackled. She cackled less, however, when she caught a sealing amulet to the face. Written on it was a simple phrase: ‘shut up’. Reimu thought it was pretty funny. Alice less so, she peeled the amulet off her face with a scowl.

Alice sent arrays of ice crystals flying towards Reimu, though the gaps between the lines were more than wide enough for her to fit into. It was made harder to dodge when Alice raised one hand to the sky, sending several giant, large snowflakes into the air. Reimu had to watch out for those as well, forcing her to fly lower in order to give herself more time to predict and avoid Alice’s attacks. Her mom had always told her to avoid being at a height disadvantage whenever possible, since there was a mysterious force named ‘gravity’ which was always pushing people towards the ground. Though Reimu wondered in this situation: if she fell off Genji, would she fall down or up?

Reimu pulled herself out of her thoughts in time to avoid Alice’s hail. She tapped into her divine power, sending three large, glowing orbs to melt through the hail, continuing on to slam into Alice herself. The blonde girl’s grimoire changed colour, turning to a bright purple.

Alice tapped her book and fired a barrage of lasers. They kind of reminded Reimu of Marisa’s own lasers, though these ones had a certain scent to them. They had a slightly clean, metallic smell. Like the smell of a thunderstorm waiting in the air. It was curious to Reimu, but not enough to distract her from the very bright and painful looking attacks which Alice kept sending her way. The small lasers tried to shepherd her into the large ones, but Alice wasn’t great at leading her attacks, so Reimu didn’t find dodging them to be all too bad. Alice picked up the pace though, sending out her large and small lasers in an alternating pattern. Dodging the large ones pushed her towards the small ones now, but she managed to get through it- though she could feel her hair frizzling a little.

Reimu reached into her sleeves, producing a set of needles. She had only been given them recently, now that her mom was confident that Reimu would hit her opponents with them and not herself. Reimu threw them through a gap in Alice’s lasers, the needles striking Alice in the arm and causing her to give a cry of anger and pain.

She’d missed. She had been hoping to nail the book and Alice’s hand, but this was an acceptable result too.

Alice’s book glowed green. Two large, greenish-yellow blobs of magic began to float towards Reimu. A fan of bullets came out subsequently. Reimu flew above the fan of bullets and swerved past the magic blobs. She couldn’t help but notice that they smelt like… mints? Either way, they were too slow to be too much of a concern to her, she just had to get close enough to Alice to get into their blind spot.

The fan-shaped volley of bullets Alice sent her way were more of a formality by then, Reimu was more than used to weaving through them. As she got closer and closer to Alice however, a sound behind her alerted her to danger. Reimu rose, avoiding the volley of bullets flying from behind her. Looking back, she saw two orbs of pure magic floating and releasing volleys of magic at her.

Reimu knelt down, bracing herself on Genji’s back. Alice’s attacks went just over her head. With a moment of concentration, she summoned a yin-yang orb in front of her, and with a mental push, sent it flying at Alice. It caught her right in the midsection, winding her for a moment and causing her current attack to falter and fizzle out.

Alice grit her teeth, readying one last attack. The scent of electricity was strong, Reimu felt her hair puff up as she saw Alice’s hair do the same. Then, after a moment of charging, Alice launched a storm of electrified daggers. There were too many, moving too fast. Reimu wouldn’t be able to avoid it. Despite this, Reimu was still confident. Alice was looking so worn down, she just needed one last push to get there.

Reimu crouched, and leapt off Genji. She flew through the air, Alice’s daggers all going wide and missing her. Gohei raised high, Reimu spiked Alice’s head straight down. She could see the magician’s eyes twitch, the colours on the grimoire flickering, before the book slammed shut, its glow dimmed. Alice held her head, for a few moments, regaining her bearings. She made to float back and reposition, but faltered, her flight becoming shaky.

“How? How could I lose when I have this much power?” Alice said. It was a little hard to tell whether Alice was talking to herself or to Reimu. Reimu decided to answer either way, however.

“You were strong, yeah. You might even outdo your old lady in terms of sheer output. But you were too straightforward. That’s why I beat you today.” Reimu said. Alice didn’t respond to that, her face still downcast as she stared at her book. Reimu just huffed a little at that. “Either way, it looks like I’m the winner. Guess you’re going to have to be my maid for a while, huh?”

Alice grumbled under her breath. But she nodded in agreement with Reimu’s words.

Shinki flew up next to them. “Yes, I suppose you will be out of Makai for a little while, won’t you Alice? Come on, let’s go pack. It’s only a week, but we had best make sure that you’re ready, hm?” She put an arm around her child’s arms. Alice seemed a little embarrassed at that, but still mostly looked a little out of it

Reimu just grinned at their antics. Well, as long as Alice went along with her side of the bargain and Reimu didn’t have to do her chores for a week, this fight would have been worth having.