Am I real or just an illusion? ~The Night Terror Incident

Collab between Aki, Dankiri, and I continued...with Shadie, as well!

---

"Kasen," Sanae smiled, taking out her gohei. "Nice to see you tonight.”

“Yes. I’d rather see you on our side, however.” Kasen smirked. “But I guess that it won’t be any different from taming Reimu.” She gestured Sanae to come forth with her hand. “Shall we start?”

The young vampire looked at Remilia as she stepped out of the gap, her crimson eyes shining with fury. She lowered her head and grasped her Laevateinn firmly, before looking at her sister once more, with decision. "Remilia." A cold greeting was all the Scarlet Devil deserved, in her opinion.

The blonde witch also stepped outside the gap, looking curiously around the mansion. "Now, this is a nice house you have here... ♪" she looked at the scene in front of her and scratched her head. "Actually... now it might not be the best moment for praising the mansion..." she looked at Kasen. "Hey Ms.Hermit. Mind if I lend you a hand?"

"W-why are you so angry, Flan?" asked Remilia tentatively, her lack of desire to have to fight her troublesomely powerful sister was obvious.

Flandre let out a small smile. "'Angry'? Why would I be angry, big sis?" she twirled her weapon. "I mean, I just want to play with you a little, like sisters do~." she giggled. "Although to be fair... Your mist has made things worse for just about everyone... So yeah, I guess I may be somewhat pissed at you, 'big sis'. "

"Since when have care about 'everyone', hypocrite." shot back Remilia acidly, "Fine then, let’s PLAY. Let me show you once more how real vampires do battle."

With those words Remilia split into a cloud of bats and flew at Flandre with skill forged by experience. Each bat's fangs glitteringly sharp, like tiny razors, a crowd of which threatened to tear flesh to the bone.

The young scarlet sister flew high up to avoid the cloud of bats. "This time you won't be able to escape by locking me up, big sister! Taboo [Laevateinn]! " as soon as she declared the spellcard, her weapon turned into a long fire whip, which she promptly swung against the cloud of bats.

Poof half of the bats go down in flames, screeching. Remilia's torso materialised to Flandre's left, it flung a small crimson spear at Flandre's hands with deadly accuracy. The torso then dissipated into bats once more, scarlet sparks flew out like electricity, regenerating more vampiric bats as they spread throughout the airspace.

The young vampire dodged the spear as best as she could, but she couldn't stop it from grazing her arm a little, letting out a small stream of blood. Flandre let out a small chuckle. "Oh come on now, sis. Do you really fear your little sister that much? Do you really fear me so much that you can't bear to fight me face to face...?" the vampire sighed and took out another spellcard. "Taboo [Maze of Love]" the spellcard vanished from her hands as circles of danmaku spawned around her, leaving little gaps. The speed at which the danmaku was fired created a quite literal maze of danmaku, directed at the bats.

Remilia's consiousness couldn't possibly control every bat the evade the maze, and as expected the were gunned down, screeching as each turned to dust. The remainder wheeled around the maze converging into Remilia's shape, blood flowing freely from the wounds as they sparked with vampiric regeneration.

"Heh, I would usually say that only an idiot would fall to a taunt like that. But I'll be that idiot right now ."

Remilia left hand glowed with the power of the fates.

'To think a mock battle would turn to this'

The fate that she will never win a decisive battle against Flandre.

'Manipulate it. Change it. I have the power to defy any odds, the power to rival my sister. I'm sure of it! I didn't protect her for centuries to be MOCKED!! I.Am.Nosferatu! '

A blazing crimson lance erupted from Remilia's right, it's blazing power burning her own hat to cinders. The force of the Scarlet Devil of legend blasted the maze with unparalleled force, wiping the bullets away with a flick of a wrist. Chains spurted out from Remilia's back tearing holes through her outfit, and the struck at every angle towards the blonde vampire.

Flan took a few hits from the chains, before quickly turning into a small bat and flying away. Soon after, she regained her normal form. "You're using your ability~? My, how cute~..." her face darkened. "Fine. I'm sick of you anyway. I've always been." she took out another spellcard. "This time, big sis, I'll be getting payback for locking me for more than 400 years... Demon Sword [Dáinsleif]! " her laevateinn coated itself in a blood red aura, slowly making the shape of a long, sharp sword. The vampire grasped her weapon with both hands, and charged straight towards Remilia.

Sanae turned her head, seeing the brawl between the sisters growing more intense. She shuddered, the sheer amount of power emerging from each of them being almost otherworldly. What then caught her eye was that gap youkai observing the two nearby, a cheerful smile on her face.

"Ah, now that I recall...she was the one who told me about why I even joined in Miss Scarlet's plan," she thought, frowning. "I should explain myself to her, too."

Turning back to Kasen, the shrine maiden spoke. "Before we battle, I'll need to clear something up. Would that be alright?"

Kasen crossed her arms, eyeing Ellen for a second and then looking back at Sanae. "Sure. You shouldn't expect this level of courtesy from other opponents, though."

The shrine maiden nodded. "The fact all this is happening feels so sudden...I'll be quick."

She made her way over to Yukari, a feeling of uneasiness suddenly consuming her. Behind that mischievous look on her face was someone with a huge reservoir of power. Sanae felt that this youkai could cause a catastrophe with a snap of a finger, and judging by her demeanor, it could be just because of boredom. Just who was this woman?

Stopping in her tracks, Sanae hesitated before beginning to speak. "Miss Yakumo."

Yukari was just casually drinking something from a sakazuki, calmly enjoying the fight as Reimu, next to her seemed to be lost in thought, an unusual look on her face, something resembling worry, perhaps?

The youkai turned her head at Sanae, taking another sip of her drink, a smile ever present on her lips. "I see you're not being punished by the other two yet. Hermits, always so understanding." She chuckled.

The green-haired girl gulped, turning back to seeing Kasen look at her sternly and that younger girl looking at her with curiosity. She was dreading their incoming battle.

Turning back to Yukari, she sighed. "I heard you behind me earlier...about how I'm only in this for the money. I was just so distracted by Reimu's aggressiveness I didn't have the chance to give you a proper response until now. I apologize."

"Those weren't my words." Her eyes met Sanae's. "You're not in this for the money alone. I did say I know you have your own plans." Another calm sip, her eyes closing for a moment as she pondered. "But money should never be a factor." Her eyes moved to Reimu. "Not even Reimu would have agreed." She sighed, looking at the sake on her saucer. "Regardless of it being a factor or not, it still doesn't erase the consequences these actions brought." Her eyes narrowed ever so slightly despite her demeanor being un-threatning. "I expected nothing but complete disregard from the vampire, but you have to understand how shocking that comes when the subject in question is a shrine maiden."

Sanae winced at Yukari's harsh words, hanging her head down. She was completely right. Would Kanako and Suwako really be okay with what she has done? Even though the outcome of the situation was meant to be a good one, the length of time until then would only have served to endanger more lives.

"I-I..." she stammered, clutching her gohei. "...I-I'm foolish..."

Yukari gave a hearty, yet elegant laugh. “Those that aren’t foolish should cast the first rock.” She smiled. “Foolishness is a trait inherent to existing, whether you’re a human, a youkai, a god. However, the works of society and what is expected of someone vary, as such, one will easily anticipate a fairy to be foolish and society will casually turn its eye to the side when the expectation is met, ignoring what to them is only natural. Conversely, one will not be as tolerating towards someone who represents the gods, the deities they believe to be just and caring. A certain level of thoughtlessness will always be expected from everyone, but roles are unfair, and what is tolerated for a role will cease to be so in another.” Absent mindedly, Yukari started moving the saucer, stirring the liquid inside. “Reimu's baring her teeth at you rather than at Remilia is an easy illustration of that fact.”

Sanae looked at Reimu, seeing the other girl still looking deep in thought. "That's true...in a way, I suppose I disappointed Reimu by joining in on a plan that she wouldn't expect me to join."

“Even though you are fairly new in Gensokyo, I reckon it is easy to understand that Reimu isn’t as good with words as she is with her belligerent actions. I will not try to justify her personality with a sob story about her past but I will say this much: even Reimu, in all her straightforward, aggressive attitude knows that there would be a time when Incidents stopped being fun and games, bothersome at best events that could be solved in a couple of days.” Her eyes fell on the red-white shrine maiden. “She will never say it, but she was expecting that, once that inevitable day arrived when things would get dangerous, she would have a fellow shrine maiden to help.” She chuckled lightly. “She has no right to feel betrayed, as thoughts only become truths when you say them out loud, but that is exactly the feeling that made her that angry before.” Her eyes closed again. “‘Why are you siding with then?’, ‘Why are you doing that despite being a shrine maiden?’, ‘Why are you dismissing your duties when you had the choice to decline becoming a shrine maiden? When, unlike me, you weren’t born one that had to fulfill everyone’s expectations?’. That’s what was going inside her head.”

Sanae began to smile a bit. "It's comforting to know that she even respects me enough to be so bothered. I want to fix that."

She closed her eyes. "I'm only a budding Arahitogami, and yet I sometimes don't feel worthy of that title. I'm easily swayed when someone's argument is greater than my own, and I'm rather dependent on both my goddesses. That illusion of Lady Kanako harshly scolding me about my shortcomings still displays inside my head."

She looked down at her gohei. "I try to become more independent, but I'm not very good at that. I find it more comforting to assist others rather than do things for myself. That's just...how I am. And yet...it still doesn't feel right, at times. Like now, with Reimu's anger and the disappointment of others."

Sanae sighed. "Frankly...it kind of sucks."

“There will always be someone who will be disappointed in you. The golden question is, if you’re disappointed in yourself.” Yukari smiled and looked at Sanae. “If it doesn’t feel right to you, then there is place for growth. Even ancient beings are bound to learn up until the day they perish. You’re young, there is still much for you to learn and experiment.” She looked at the sisters fighting. “Some mere humans with fleeting lifespans who grow so wise… and some ancient beings with centuries under their clasps and yet learn nothing.” A gap opened and she put her saucer inside. “How much one learns and draws from mistakes only depend on themselves. That is for you to decide, if your ideals and actions are set in stone or are malleable like clay.”

"Huh...there's certainly room to grow in my duties as a shrine maiden...and my character entirely," Sanae responded, nodding. "I'll just do my best to try discover where and what I can fix! Thank you, Miss Yakumo."

“Of course this” The gap youkai’s smile grew into a smirk. “doesn’t mean you’re off the hook. I’m looking forward to enjoy your battle.”

Reimu approached Yukari, apparently having her thoughts collected. “I’m off.”

“You’re not staying? It will get interesting.”

“I shouldn’t have been here in the first place.” There was an air of grim seriousness to her. “I won’t make the same mistake twice.” Her eyes narrowed and she turned away, flying off without saying another word.

Sanae watched as Reimu flew off, feeling a tad concerned for the other shrine maiden. "Hopefully she doesn't get herself into too much trouble," she stated, turning around to see Kasen looking at her with her arms crossed. "But no use dwelling on that for now. I have matters to attend to."

“Is the pep talk over? I was starting to get scared that Yukari was planning to turn into a hermit.” Kasen started, she seemed annoyed at something but it didn’t seem to be connected to Sanae.

"Sorry to keep you waiting," Sanae replied as she made her way over to Kasen and Ellen, bowing in apology. "Shall we begin?"

"Not without me, of course!"

Sanae turned to see Utsuho making her way toward them, her arm cannon fired up and ready to go. "We're a team, Sanae! I don't want to see you fight all alone."

"O-Okuu..." the shrine maiden whispered, smiling. "Alright. If it's okay with Kasen and her friend, of course."

The amnesiac witch shrugged. "I have no problems with it. At least this way it'd be slightly fair~."

Sooo. Today we're dealing with a very special post. The post is divided into two main parts.

The non-colored one is the conclussion of the fight between Remi and Flan (collab between me and Aki)... While the colored part is part of the fight between Kasen/Ellen and Sanae/Okuu (collab between yours truly, Dani and ZM).

The latter part is color coded, so...

Green --> Kasen vs Sanae
Red --> Ellen vs Okuu

Enjoy reading!

---

*BGM: U.N Owen was Her? [Arranged] (Touhou Koumakyou ~ Embodiment of Scarlet Devil)*

"You would never had lived until now unless I did that, you ingrate!"
Remilia swept her spear in a wide arc and opened with a flurry of bulletspeed thrusts, aimed at Flandre's eyes, ears, temples, nose, chin, throat and finally the solar plexus.

"Just shut up already!" the young vampire blocked almost every thrust with her sword, before swinging it at Remilia. "All you've done was acted like if I didn't exist! You just sealed me like if I was a monster! In fact, that's what I'm to you, right?!" the young vampire lowered her head, as her weapon lost its edge and turned back into its original form. "All I wanted... All I wanted was for you to act like if I was your sister... Just once..." the vampire raised her head and stared at the scarlet devil. "But I don't care anymore! I don't need you anymore! You're no longer a sister to me, Remilia!" she took a spellcard. "Just disappear already! Secret Barrage [And Then There Will Be None]!" she declared the spell, and disappeared in a blink.

"If I didn't love this monster, then maybe I would have left her in France when we left for Gensokyo, you delusional idiot! I could protect you through the bloody alamo if I had to, but it's just not possible to protect someone who is trying so hard to get herself killed!"
Remilia spun her spear to dispel the danmaku. One time. Two times. The spear fizzled to nothing, Flandre's demon sword had taken it's toll on the spear of the heavens.
'Kuh!'
The scarlet vampire spun side ways in a ridculous twirl to evade the barrage, glowing with demonic intensity.

The spellcard dispelled, and the young scarlet sister reappeared, head lowered and tears falling to the floor. She closed her fist angrily and one of the farthest crystals on her wings exploded into bits. She didn't move an inch, and her Laevateinn was nowhere in sight.

Remilia landed and dropped to her knees, sweat dripping from her chin.
"W-what now..?" she mutterred, one eye closed, wincing as her body struggled to regenerate. She looked up cautiously at her crying sister, a few steps before her.

Suddenly, the young vampire lunged at her sister and grabbed her by the neck, making pressure on it. "Y'know, big sis... Even if it doesn't look like it, I still love you. In fact..." she let out a small giggle. "In fact, I love you so much that I want to kill you ♪ " she summoned her Laevateinn, which quickly turned into a blood red sword.

"This makes me wonder why anyone would ask me why I lock her up in the first place!" Remilia grumbled as her insticts kicked in, and she shot back up into the air. She fished out a scarlet whistle, put it to her lips and blew.
---
A purple clad magician sighed and closed the grimoire on her lap. She picked up another tome, thick and ancient- A thick red wax seal with the Scarlet Devil's insignia branded upon it. She left the library.

The young vampire watched as the scarlet devil rose to the air, a sad look on her face. The moment Remilia blew the whistle, she turned around and started walking away.

Remilia hovered on the spot and watched her sister walk away in silence.


Kasen crossed her arms, looking at both her opponents. “Whenever you feel like striking.” While Kasen wasn’t exactly someone prone to jokes to begin with, her expression seemed to have darkened. She had never had to fight anyone with spell cards before and even if she was itching to fight, she wasn’t exactly looking forward to it. Her eyes spared a second to look at her bandaged arm. Lies had always been short legged.

Sanae stared back at Kasen, knowing full well that the young woman's spell card capabilities weren't very notable. 'Ah...I don't want this to be an unfair match regarding spell cards...' she thought, closing her eyes and waving her gohei. A set of red and blue bullets appeared in a criss-cross pattern. Opening them, Sanae sent the bullets at Kasen and Ellen. 'I'll have to keep things simple for now. But that girl there...what's she like? I haven't seen her before... Okuu and I will have to be weary.'

The hermit easily avoided Sanae’s barrage and frowned. That’s right, now that she remembered, she had once told the miko that her arm would rot without her Box of a Hundred Medicines. It wasn’t a lie, that one wasn’t. But she was now feeling the girl was going easy on her. She sighed, running her hand through her hair. ‘If only Reimu was half as nice as you…’

“You have no reason to hold back. You know, being that nice in a battle isn’t wise.” Her eyes met Sanae’s. “If you worried that I won’t be able to handle spell cards because of my arm, you’re mistaken.” People always assumed she was a human, that was the role she acted anyway, but reality was always different. “Don’t hold back.”


Ellen quickly put Sokrates in her shoulder and raised into the air, dodging the bullets directed at her. Up in the air, she looked at the shrine maiden and the hell raven with playful smile. 'I haven't battled since the whole Hypervessel thing... And we didn't even have spellcards back then. I wonder how much the danmaku battles have changed...' she let out a small giggle and created small magic circles in the air. 'Ah well, may as well make this as entertaining as possible!' with a quick movement of her hand, the magic circles fired barrages of heart-shaped bullets at the shrine maiden and the hell raven. The circles disappeared short after.



The shrine maiden smirked, taking out a spell card in a flash. "I expected you to say that, Kasen."

Watching as the heart shaped bullets approached her and Okuu before disappearing, Sanae then frowned. "Damn...keep an eye out, Okuu!" she warned, moving into the air.

Utsuho nodded. "Will do!" she answered, also moving into the air.

Just as Sanae shifted her gaze from Okuu, Kasen was already onto her, hand pulled back gaining momentum and then slinging at the miko’s stomach.

"!"

Sanae moved out of the way as fast as she could, beginning to declare her spell. "[Miracle "Miracle Fruit"]!"

A small group of bright red bullets proceeded to surround the shrine maiden. Pointing her gohei at Kasen, the bullets split up into many smaller ones and rushed toward the hermit.

The blonde magician scratched her hair. "Ah... Well, I guess I'll leave Ms.Hermit alone." she turned away to face the hell raven. "Guess you'll have to deal with the terrifying forest witch, Ms.Bird ♪" she took out a spellcard. "Love Sign [Cupid's Enticing Arrow]!" she declared the spellcard, and a few magic circles appeared in front of her, which began to shoot high-speed barrages of heart-pointed arrows towards Okuu.

Utsuho covered her face with her arms to try to withstand the blow, the arrows moving way too fast to be able to dodge. "Tch!"

Opening her eyes, the hell raven glared at the magician. "Alright, let's have some fun!" she declared, shooting a few rounds of her arm cannon at Ellen before she whipped out a spell card. "[Atomic Fire "Nuclear Fusion"]!"

She began to be surrounded by giant red suns that made their way to the magician, smaller blue bullets rushing out and giving her extra hazards to watch out for.

Kasen, twirled on herself, avoiding the shower of danmaku, one of the bullets hitting her shoulder, but it didn’t seem to affect her at all. “Tiger Sign [Houso of Both Gates]!”

A kind of gap opened in front and behind Sanae and, without losing any time, Kasen made a movement with her hand, orbs of light showering over the blue and white clad miko as a Tiger jumped furtively behind her, lunging at her back.

The shrine maiden turned and gasped, the tiger colliding with her and scratching against her right arm with its claws. "Oh no you don't!" she yelled, quickly waving her gohei in a star formation and blasting the tiger off of her.

Moving back up to Kasen, Sanae clutched her arm, her detached sleeve torn and getting stained with some blood. "Owie..." she hissed under her breath. "Just ignore the pain for now, Sanae...you have a fight to win!"

She then took out another spell card: one of her favorites. "[Esoterica "Forgotten Ritual"]!

Stars surrounded the green-haired girl before splitting apart into smaller bullets, quickly surrounding Kasen.

The young magician quickly created a magic barrier to shield herself from the shots, and while the barrier did block the initial rounds, it easily broke under the suns. This forced the witch to run away, not without taking some small damage. "H-hey, not fair! How am I supposed to fight against that?!" she took out another spellcard. "But fine, if you wanna use explosives...! Dispersive Magic [Splash Stars]!" she declared the spell, and fired a bunch of six-pointed yellow stars, which slowly exploded into several more stars, before finally exploding into a bunch of small hearts, which headed towards Okuu.

"So many hearts~ You must be in love with someone I bet! It's almost cute!" Utsuho laughed, flying upward to avoid the stars. "Reminds me of my mistress's sister!"

Utsuho declared her spell of Nuclear Fusion once more. "Can't stand the heat, blondie?" she taunted.

Kasen blasted through the danmaku, her bandaged hand touching the bullets in front of her and breaking them, letting her graze the other ones. “You have to do better than that! Thunder Sign [Slow-Speed Mukou]!” A small, familiar Raijuu popped up on her shoulder and jumped, shooting a myriad of extremely fast thunders in every direction, the thunder turning into danmaku at the end, approaching Sanae rapidly.

The shrine maiden let out a gust of wind from her gohei, causing the danmaku heading straight toward her to divert and move around her. "Well then! [Miracle "Night With Overly Bright Guest Stars"]!"

The air began to flash white completely, stars beginning to rain down violently from the flashes toward the hermit. Sanae smirked. This was an aerial attack that's certainly very difficult to avoid.

Ellen giggled. "Sadly, for you, I'm not in love. I'm just your average love witch ♪" she dodged the suns the best way she could. "And regarding the second question, I'd rather not get a suntan because of you. My skin is quite sensitive, y'know?" she fired a bunch of heart-pointed arrows before quickly taking out a spellcard "Alluring Mist [Love Token]!" With a quick movement of her hand, a bunch of pink mist formed around Ellen, concealing her completely. After a few seconds, the mist transformed into a big barrage of danmaku bullets which spread all over the place.

After the mist cleared completely, one could see that Ellen was no longer there.

Utsuho gasped, doing her best to graze against the bullets. Unfortunately the pattern was quite dense, the hell raven taking some hits. Shaking her head and brushing off the pain, she looked around curiously for the magician. "Hide-and-seek? I love that game, but I'm in no mood to seek!" she shouted.

Kasen smirked as Sanae diverted the danmaku, just as it was passing by her sides, the hermit snapped her fingers, the danmaku exploded, discharging electricity around the unsuspecting miko.

The star pattern was too dense to dodge, as she was focused on catching Sanae out of guard, she was too slow to react, bullets rained on her and she shielded her head with her arms. She couldn’t do anything about it, if she didn’t endure it she would lose her trump card.

Sanae's eyes widened when she felt the electricity course through her body, the girl letting out a started and loud scream as she was electrocuted. Her long hair waved frantically around her as she was zapped, her frog and snake hair ornaments getting flung out from where they were situated high into the air.

The electric attack ended as quickly as it began, but to the shrine maiden, it felt like it lasted a lot longer. Panting, the living goddess held her injured arm as her yellow eyes gazed quietly at Kasen as she was bombarded by her spell card.

'Fine, I guess if she doesn't want to play hide and seek...'

The final section of the collab between Dankiri, Shadie, and I.

---

Ellen discarded her replica and put her arms behind her back, a childish smile forming on her face. "Oh, it's over? Does that mean we win? ♪"

The shrine maiden couldn't help but laugh. Perhaps she was too nice, but she was glad that Kasen wasn't acting aggressive toward her anymore. "Alright, then let's look-"

She was cut off when she noticed Utsuho surrounded by the sun. "W-Wow..." she muttered in awe as Kasen moved up to stop her. 'Is that how powerful Okuu really is? Very impressive...'

Utsuho noticed the hermit stop in front of her, and she nodded slowly, ending the spell as the two moved back to the ground. "Haha, I got carried away, I guess...sorry!" she apologized.

Letting out a breath she didn’t know she was holding, Kasen relaxed. “I don’t think anyone won.” She landed and was suddenly reminded of the vampires that had been fighting all this time. Her head looked quickly behind her but she only saw Remilia and who she assumed to be the magician Flandre had previously mentioned. “Hey, where’s Flandre?” Her expression had darkness and her voiced sounded lower now.

The purple clad girl looked at her with semi-lidded eyes. “She left.” Her eyes looked towards the young vampire walking away. “Honestly…” She turned around. “this plan only caused more harm than good. I will remember this event next time your boredom beseeches you for a new means of entertainment, Remi.” Then she walked inside the mansion, casually ignoring the destroyed front door.

“So you solved nothing, huh.” Kasen was now eying Remilia. “Did your pride win over your love for your sister?” It was a rhetorical question asked in a venomous tone. “Or maybe there is none?" She furrowed her brows. "She loves you and yet you couldn’t set things right.” The hermit turned and ran after Flandre without giving Remilia a chance to reply.

“Flandre, hey!”

The young scarlet sister stopped in her tracks, head still hanging down, and one of the red crystals in her wings still broken. She said nothing for a few seconds before turning around to face Kasen. She tried to pull off a smile the best way she could. "Hmm? What is it? Are you done already?"

Kasen just looked at the vampire without a word, an expression of sadness and worry on her face. She kneeled down to get herself at Flandre’s level and she looked at her in the eyes.

Eyes are the windows for one’s soul, they said. And despite the little vampire’s attempt to hide it, there was no way to hide the amount of pain reflected in her scarlet orbs.

The hermit kept her silence, she gave Flandre a sincere, warm smile and slowly wrapped her arms around her, holding the girl close in a gentle embrace. “When it comes to me I think, from the bottom of my heart, that I’d be immensely proud to have a little sister like you, Flan.”

Flan turned her head away from Kasen, tears dripping down her face "That's great to hear and all that but..." she rubbed her eyes "I'm not anyone's little sister anymore, y'know..."

“That may be.” Her eyes narrowed. “But if your sister wanted to put pride above everything else, then she was never your sister to begin with.” The hermit slacked her hug to look at Flandre. “Words are words, they only hold meaning when both sides give them meaning. ‘Mother’, ‘sister’, ‘lover’. They are only true when they are infused with the feelings that justify the essence of their meanings. When words are merely a representation of their definition, one we can find in dictionaries, then it’s just a meaningless word.”

She adjusted Flandre’s cap and removed a few wild strands of hair from her downcast eyes. “I have no family. My friends are my only family, but I value them as much even if we aren’t related.” Kasen closed her eyes. “I understand it hurts, it would be strange if it didn’t. But it was Remilia’s decision to walk her path and your decision to walk yours.” She opened them again. “Your path, however, won’t be a lonely one. Not anymore.”

Once the hermit finished speaking, Flan turned her head once more to look at her. She suddenly hugged Kasen tightly, weeping. "Thanks..." she rubbed her head against Kasen's shoulders "Thank you so much, Kasen..."

Quietly, the hermit hugged her back, patting her head with her free hand. “You’re not locked up anymore, you have friends, people who care for you. We wouldn’t leave you behind.” She smiled.

It couldn’t be said that they were old friends, but even if the short time span they had spent adventuring together, Kasen had found that it had seemed as though they were. It was strange and the hermit couldn’t explain it, but maybe it was because in certain aspects they were similar.

The young vampire let go of Kasen and stepped away, rubbing her eyes to wipe off her tears. "I know... I know..." she shook her head a few times. "Anyway! We have to go back to searching for Marisa!" she looked around. "So, uh... Where's the gap lady? She promised to take us to Marisa once we were done, didn't she?..."

“She was back there.” She looked. “We need to get Ellen too.”

Flan looked in the direction Kasen was looking. "Alright then..." she sighed and went back to where Yukari and Ellen were.

Epic collab between Dankiri and I.

---

The frog and snake hair ornaments lay side by side, surrounded by a good amount of rubble. Climbing over the wreckage, Sanae smiled when she found them and quickly moved down to pick them up. She began arranging them back into her hair, relieved that she was able to locate them. As small as they were, they were gifts from her goddesses when she became a shrine maiden back in the outside world. She'd keep them safe as if her life would depend on it.

"Sanaaaaae!"

Finishing putting them in place, the green-haired girl turned to see Utsuho jumping over the rubble and heading toward her. "That was quite some fight, huh?! Are you hurt?!"

Looking down to see Sanae's right arm wrapped in what appeared to be cloth from the hermit's dress, the hell raven grew furious. "Ooh, she hurt you! She's lucky the fight's over, or I would've-"

"Okuu, calm down," Sanae said soothingly, sighing afterward. "Kasen and I let our fight get out of control. Don't worry, okay? Everything's fine now and she and I hold no ill will toward each other."

Huffing, Utsuho put her hands on her hips. "Alright. I'm still your bodyguard, after all. Just making sure you're alright."

The shrine maiden couldn't help but laugh a little bit, looking at Utsuho with soft yellow eyes. "You don't have to worry so much about me, silly. After all, Okuu, I'm more worried about you. Are you hurt?"

Waving her hand, the brown-haired girl smiled. "Of course! I can shrug off some lasers!"

Giggling, Sanae nodded. "Good to hear, good to hear."

"Oiiiii Sanae~!"

Both girls looked up at the sound of the voice to see Suwako looking down at them from the air. "I heard everything's okay, right? I'll leave you for the time being," she told her.

"Okay, Suwako-sama. Thanks for your help! I really needed it," Sanae shouted back.

"Anytime! Don't hesitate to call me again when you need my help!"

And with that, the frog goddess vanished back to the shrine.

Utsuho looked at Sanae apologetically. "Actually friend, I'm going to depart, as well. I want to get back to Chireiden to tell Satori-sama about what's going on. After that, you and I will meet up again."

Sanae nodded. "Alright, I understand. I'm curious about something else that's happened before we thought Kasen and her friend."

The hell raven cocked her head. "Who?"

"Reimu just left the mansion without even explaining herself. She seemed deeply troubled. I want to ask her what's the matter," the shrine maiden explained, reaching out to hold Utsuho's hands. "Stay safe, alright?"

"Oooh, the other shrine maiden. She has a temper, so be sure to watch out for her," Utsuho warned, then smiling and holding Sanae's hands back. "Don't worry! I'll be back before you know it."

The green-haired girl smiled back as she squeezed the brown-haired girl's hands. "Good. We're a team, and I hope that persists throughout this crisis."

Utsuho's smile widened.

"You bet~"

And with that, the hell raven began to hover off the ground into the air before zooming out of a huge hole in one of the mansion's walls, disappearing behind the large trees.

’Alright. Time to make a stop at the Hakurei Shrine again.’ Sanae thought to herself, moving up into the air and flying out of the mansion, as well. The Hakurei Shrine would be approached soon.

The red and white miko stood outside, the snow gently falling on her as she remained there, eyes closed in concentration, her gohei in her hand as she whispered something under her breath that seemed to be a mantra. Moving her gohei slightly in her hand, the winds had started to get stronger around her.

A ritual to ask the help of the Shinto gods, something that Sanae had read about before. Whatever it was behind the ritual, it was strange to see the Hakurei miko so focused in something, the serious expression on her face always present.

Sanae just watched and waited patiently for Reimu to finish her meditation. Best to not interrupt, after all.

Reimu stopped chanting and slowly opened her eyes, looking at Sanae with displeasure but saying nothing. Casually, she turned on herself, gently swiping the snow from here while she walked away, ready to ignore the green haired girl.

Sanae reached out and grabbed her shoulder. "Wait. Don't just ignore me like this."

One could feel Reimu’s own aura tensing up, yet she stopped on her tracks. Without so much as turning to face her, she spoke, her voice a low growl that didn’t seemed friendly at all. “What do you want, Sanae? Ditching your bodyguard duties as well now?”

"I came to your shrine because I'm worried about you," the other shrine maiden retorted, brushing off the jab. "You just left Miss Scarlet's mansion without telling Yakumo-san a word."

“Ah, I see. Thank you very much for your worries but, as you can see, they were unfounded.” Her voice was monotonous and clearly didn’t mean what she said in the slightest. “Now that you know, you can go back to whatever it is you’re doing. Have a nice day.”

And she started walking again.

The living goddess ran in front of Reimu and stretched out her arms, her intention being to not allow her to pass. "Listen to me! Why are you acting like this, anyway? As blunt and cold you may be, seeing harshness to this level is even unexpected of you. I want to help you, Reimu Hakurei."

Reimu Hakurei was always seen as the unemotional, cold type of person, she would never have much of a reaction unless it involved mocking or teasing someone. That was a common misconception, a misconception she had put all her best efforts to maintain under the guise of impartiality and apathy. Yukari and Marisa had been around her long enough to crack the façade, but she hopped the rest of the people would remain ignorant to that.

But this was an exceptional case, one she didn’t bother to try and maintain appearances, one that had made question her role and her way of dealing with the world around her.

“ Why am I acting like this?!” Her voice came booming like an angry storm. “People died because of Remilia’s little joke! THEY DIED, Sanae!” Her hands were clenched to the point her knuckles were white, the gohei creaking under her grasp. “They died and we didn’t prevent it! They died and you were defending her!” She gritted her teeth, the anger in her eyes giving the false impression that they were gleaming red, justifying the name youkai tended to throw her a lot 'the oni miko' . “How exactly do you want me to act, tell me?! Should I pour some tea and have a nice talk under the kotatsu, pretend that nothing happened?!”

Sanae did not wince from Reimu's temper. In fact, she was very well determined to talk to the fellow miko. She stepped closer.

"It would help you to calm down," she told her firmly. "I understand how upset you are. I understand how joining Remilia wasn't the best option due to the outcome it resulted in. I understand that I screwed up. But listen to me."

She stopped right in front of her, yellow eyes staring into brown.

"I'll do everything in my power to end this crisis. Stop the culprit, put an end to the deaths of the innocent. And I'd like nothing more than to help you."

All the while Sanae was speaking, Reimu was gritting her teeth. When the girl finished, she punched at one of the shrine’s sliding doors, effectively knocking it inside, broken. Blood dripped from her fisted hand but she maintained her focus on the miko in front of her.

“Can you say that now to Byakuren?” Her anger was still present, but inside her eyes it was now also present a mix of sadness. Her voice cracked slightly as she desperately tried to keep her countenance. “Can you tell her ‘I’m sorry that Shou died but I promise you that we’ll do our best now’? Can you tell Eirin ‘I’m sorry that you lost your friends, your home, but I promise it won’t happen again’? Can you tell that very same thing to the villagers that lost their loved ones?!”

Every single Incident to date had been easy to resolve, it didn’t matter if she had gotten bruised, at the end of the day scratches were scratches, everything would be solved and she could go back to eating crackers and sleeping all day. Not this time. This time, she had lost. It was a job she had never asked for, a job she never wanted, but it was her job and she had failed it. She had failed it just when the stakes were high, when the lives of people were hanging precariously by a thread.

"I-I..." Sanae stammered, beginning to step back. This was the first she's heard about Shou's death. Her eyes darkened, but she wouldn't dwell on it any further for now.

She then gritted her teeth, lunging toward Reimu and tackling her to the ground. She didn't want her to damage herself further, and figured she had to be restrained.

Featuring a collab bewteen me and ZM. Fun times with Seija and Okuu.

Everything remained quiet in the human village, there was no ripper running around claiming victims, there was no allies of justice running around causing havoc as they try to stop, a single figure walked down the stone steps from Myouren Temple, she wore gothic clothing and she even held a tiny black umbrella.

She wandered through the night, as she returned to the market place where she met most of her team. "They won't mind a late night investigation."

Overhead, Utsuho flew through the sky, humming a tune to herself. She looked down at the Human Village beneath her, on the lookout for anything strange or interesting.

Seija curiously looked up for a mere second as she saw something flash across the sky. "Oh, it might be the ripper! Lets bring it down!" She flicked her wrist as gravity around the mysterious object reversed and it would bring it crashing to the floor.

"! Wah!" Utsuho didn't have time to realize what was happening once she crashed into the ground face first. As she lay there, Seija walked up to her with a grin on her face.

"Oh, you're just a piece of shit raven then? Not my original target, but alright..." she smirked at the fallen raven, causally moving around her left finger in a circular motion.

Looking up, Utsuho rubbed her head. "Ow...who are you and what are you doing?" she asked, trying to stand. She then flashed her arm cannon. "If you were the one that brought me down from the sky..."

"Trying to save this village from the ripper, and put that thing down, you might blow my brains out!" Seija took a step to the side, attempting to get out of the range of the arm cannon as she casually walked up to Utsuho. "And the name is Yui Kawarau."

Utsuho nodded earnestly, not knowing 'Yui' was actually Seija Kijin.

"Ah, so you're trying to save the village, as well?" the hell raven asked, jumping up. "That's what I was helping others doing earlier! Well, there were a couple of huge fights at that mansion near the lake, but we were all fighting for a good cause...for the most part!"

Utsuho then crossed her arms. "It's been a long night, Yui. I'm glad to have encountered a fellow do-gooder, though!"

"The mansion near the lake? Damnit, I was hoping they didn't get involved...." 'Yui' muttered as she briefly examined Utsuho.

"And if I may ask one question; who are you?" she asked as she continued her walk towards Utsuho, a evil grin was splattered on her face.

Utsuho beamed, making a pose. "I'm Utsuho Reiuji, the most powerful hell raven in all of Gensokyo! I'm the master of the science of nuclear fusion!" she boasted. "Better watch out~ I could blow you into smithereens if I wanted to!"

"Really now?" Yui remained unconvinced by her words, but she genuinely did fear the arm cannon. "So, you are a Hell Raven?" She then reached into a small sack, pulling out a smelly old brown boot. "If you want to join my Allies of Justice, the task is simple, eat this here shoe."

Utsuho's eyes widened. "W-What?"

Yui grinned devilishly. "And don't worry, I made sure it's edible, if you can't do it, I'll bring you by force."

"E-Eh? E-Eat that stinky looking boot?" Utsuho sweatdropped. "Can't I at least roast it first?"

"Nope, you've got to eat it raw!" The amanojaku chuckled as she flicked her wrists for a second; Utsuho's jaw felt like it dropped suddenly as it opened up and Yui threw the boot into her gaping mouth.

"Urgh..." the brown-haired girl groaned as she began to chomp down on the shoe, chewing it curiously.

...

"Mmmn~!" She began to eat it, enjoying the taste of the leather. "Huh, this isn't half bad, actually!"

'Wow, she is so gullible...' Yui thought to herself as she looked at Utsuho enjoying her shoe. "Does it taste nice my Hell Raven friend?"

"It's actually pretty good~" she chirped, finishing eating the sole. "Got anymore?"

"Nope, that's the only one I have, sorry about that," Yui replied, rolling her eyes. She then paused for a second, looking at Utsuho. "So, where are you from?"

The hell raven burped up a bootlace, blushing. "Chireiden. It's near where I work in Hell," she explained.

"Oh Chireiden, I met Satori Komeiji there, just saying; she is awful with pets..." the other girl sighed, thinking back to Orin being left in the snow.

Suddenly, Utsuho grabbed her by the collar.

"Don't you dare talk about my mistress like that," she warned, suddenly growing serious. "You have no right to say something like that. Satori-sama is perfect!"

"I wasn't offending her!" Yui spluttered as she was grabbed up. "I was just pointing out her flaws! It's called criticism!"

"Good," Utsuho responded, dropping the girl with a thud. "She's the most important person to me in the whole world!"

"Of course she is..." Yui groaned after she landed with a thud. She sighed once more, glaring at Utsuho. "So you care greatly for her right?"

Utsuho nodded. "Of course. What's wrong? Is she in trouble?"

"Nah. She isn't in trouble, but why do you care for her so much?" Yui asked curiously as she looked towards the sky, staring towards the silver disc of the moon.

"She gave me a home when I had nowhere else to go," the hell raven explained, putting her hands on her hips. "I'm in debt to her."

"Are you proud?" Yui had to hold in a laugh as she saw the Hell raven did that weird pose. "I hope you don't fire your arm cannon, you'd raise shit in a second's notice."

"How dumb do you think I am?" Utsuho smiled. "I'm quite proud, regardless."

"I'd answer that, but I might my brains blown out..." the black-haired girl muttered as she walked to her, putting an arm on her shoulder. "I have a brilliant idea, Utsuho."

"Ooh, an idea?" the hell raven asked, cocking her head to the side. "Tell me! I want to hear!"

"I want you, Utsuho to join my little group," Yui smirked, pointing towards her face as she smiled brightly at her. "You'd do brilliantly here, that arm cannon of yours could destroy entire armies if you used it!"

"Ooh, you have a crew? Hmm...I wanted to see Satori-sama first..." Utsuho answered, looking worried.

Yui waved it off. "You can see her later! I assure you that she's fine."

"Well...if you insist. Let's go!" Utsuho decided. "Where to, boss?"

"I'm going to the Myouren Temple, I wouldn't want to bring you since your arm cannon might go off and you might kill Kyokou or something," Yui jeered.

"You obviously don't know how this thing works," the hell raven scolded, taking off her arm cannon. "It's removable and it only fires when I want it to!"

"Really, go on, prove it! Just please!" Yui pointed towards a house, it looked abandoned from the outside. "I want you to fire it, at this house."

Utsuho raised an eyebrow. "If you insist..." she said hesitantly, putting her arm cannon back on and firing a shot at the building. Once it hit, it immediately burst into flames.

OH SHIT!!" Seconds later, the pitch night sky was covered with the blazing fire. Yui began to freak out. "OH SHIT! OH SHIT OH SHIT! QUICKLY! PUT IT OUT!!"

"YOU TOLD ME TO FIRE AT IT! DON'T YOU HAVE ANY WATER TO PUT IT OUT!?" Utsuho screamed back.

"DO I LOOK LIKE A FUCKING WATER FAIRY OR SOMETHING?!" Yui screamed at the top of her lungs as she thought of a brilliant idea. "What, I can just use my flipping ability to flip some water from a bucket and put out the fire!"

"Ooh, let's see, then!" Utsuho grinned, happy the fire would be put out soon.

And then Yui flicked her wrists as a whole range of buckets reversed on their own and then the water flew towards the house, and the fire was soon put out, but surrounding the two were a bunch of angry and pissed off residences who saw the fire being started. "Oh shit..." she breathed.

"Dammit..." Utsuho muttered under her breath. "T-This isn't what it looks like! See, the fire's out!"

"Oh, you're a bright fucking idiot aren't you! YEAH, LETS USE THAT FUCKNIG ARM CANNON TO BLOW A HOLE THROUGH THAT FUCKING HOUSE! PEOPLE COULD OF DIED YOU IDIOT!" An gruff villager eyed Utsuho with anger in his eyes and he went to shove her. As he approached her, Utsuho flew up into the air. "This isn't good...this isn't good at all...Yui!" she called from above. "Let's get to the temple, and fast!"

"Shit..." Yui too glided up from the devouring crowd, they threw smell pebbles and some even throw pitchforks and torches. "TO THE TEMPLE!!"

Koishi frowned slightly, confused. “Why are you crying?”
‘Crying’, yet another foreign sounding word.

The young vampire turned around to face Koishi once more. "N-nothing... I was just... remembering someone..." she turned her head to look at the sky. "Just what is keeping those two from coming here...?" she said, trying to change the conversation's topic as soon as possible.

The satori looked at the vampire, a solemn look of understanding on her eyes. “You know, if you don’t face your traumas, you’ll never move forward.” She put her hand over Flan’s heart, eyes fixed on the vampire’s. “Ne, did you know? If you boil water in a closed metal recipient it will get hotter and hotter and the pressure will build up, the vapor inside will grow and grow but not the container, it will stay the same size, unable to handle the pressure and then” She made a movement, opening her hand. “boom.” Stepping back with her arms behind her back, never breaking her eye contact with Flan, she continued. “So will any heart.”

Flandre looked at Koishi, a confused look on her face. "Uh... Thanks..." she sighed and looked to a side. "It's just... It's hard to get over them when you've been locked down for several years and your sister hates you, y'know...?"

Now it was Koishi’s turn to feel confused. “How can your sister hate you? How can a sister hate her own sister?” To the little satori, the concept of hating her very sister was something too illogical to exist, simply unconceivable. “I love my sister.” She said with a smile. “Sometimes we fight, but that’s normal. There’s things we…” She closed her eyes, a bit of sadness seeping through the smile. “don’t see eye to eye.”

Flandre shrugged. "I don't really know. I always assumed that it was because I killed Dad and she hated me for that, so..." she sighed. "I can understand why you'd love your sister. I mean, I loved mine too... But... Well. It's way too late for now to try and improve my relationship with her..." she wiped her tears once more. "Oh, by the way, I've been wondering and uh... What's that thing you have attached to you?" she said, pointing at Koishi's third eye.

The girl looked at where Flandre was pointing, forgetting that her eye, despite being closed, still existed. “Ah, that’s my third eye.” She picked it up on her hands, gently and then smiled at the vampire. “All the satori have one.” Her eyes wandered to the eye once again. “Satori have the power to read minds, creepy, isn’t it?” Her smile faltered a bit. “I can no longer do that though.” She met the vampire’s red orbs. “So don’t worry about it!”

"Reading minds? That's uh... ... Well, creepy indeed..." 'Somehow, I feel like I'm not safe anymore...' she tilted her head. "You can't read minds anymore? What happened to you?"

“I… didn’t want to be creepy anymore.” The girl with greenish hair replied, a sense of regret filling her chest.

She didn’t want to be feared or earn scorn and disgust from all of those around them damning her to flee from their eyes, to hide under that old mansion under the surface, blind to the bright and beautiful world that lived above them, unaware of the creatures that knew no light other than the trembling one of a candle.

Yes, she didn’t want to be shunned,
so she…
“So I”
…grabbed a knife and…
“closed it.”

Unknowingly losing a part of herself. Her emotions were now a dark pit that only rarely shined, a sliver of a fading light that fleetingly passed by. But regret, regret had remained. Regret was the dark pit itself.

“And I stopped being able to read thoughts, and people stopped having me in their minds as well.”

Someone that existed without existing, that who she was. Only getting away for a few moments would erase it, the picture of a tiny, wavy haired, girl with a queer third eye, from their minds. That had been the price to pay for her cowardice.

“But that’s old story!” The little girl said, her cheerfulness back to the usual.

At the very least she could find solace on letting her regrets flow out of her mouth, from time to time, assured that those who listened would soon forget about it and about her.

“Why did you need Miss Myouren?”

Flandre scratched her head. "Well... I was searching for a friend of mine who needs urgent help... And I was hoping that woman would be able to help me find her."

Her index finger stopped on her chin. “You’ll need to be more specific, Purin-chan, there are a lot of people coming here.”

"A magician named Marisa. She dresses in black and white." Flandre said, arms crossed.

“Ah!” The girl looked like she was reminded of something. “Miss Above the Ground Human? I know her!” She smiled cheerfully. “She’s an interesting human, isn’t she?”

The one wearing black and white, the first person that made her regret her decision, the first person that had her realize how creating connections with people wasn’t as scary as she thought. Someone weird that made her realize that maybe, maybe she and her sister weren’t alone in their oddity.

“Her danmaku is so bright and pretty!” She excitedly extended her arms to the air, emulating fireworks.

Flan giggled. "Yeah, I guess Marisa is really interesting. And her danmaku is flashy indeed, buuut..." she took out a spellcard "Forbidden Barrage [Starbow Break]!" she spread out her wings and the crystals fired a barrage of lasers towards the air. "I think mine's flashier~"

“Woah!” Koishi’s eyes shone excitedly was the colorful danmaku bullets lighted the sky. “Pretty!” She stood there until they were gone and then turned at Flan, continuing her previous train of thought. “I haven’t seen her around here. I haven’t seen her in a long time. Why are you searching for her?”

Flandre scratched her head. "Well... Marisa has this glowing sigil on her neck... And she has to get rid of it or else she'll die. I'm searching for her so that I can help her remove the sigil, nothing more."

“Sigil… ah, like that person we found dead in the streets.” She tilted her head. “I hear she lives in the Forest of Magic, have you searched there? Or in any other place? I was walking around the village and she didn’t pop up when Miss Inverted destroyed that bar and when we almost unleashed ancient youkai on the Village, so I think she isn’t here.”

"Dead person...?" 'So that lady Koishi mentioned isn't the only one who got killed by the Ripper... I wonder how many more have died...'[/b] Flan rubbed her chin for a second before suddenly looking at Koishi. "... Wait. You did what? "

“We killed the youkai, so it was fine~! It was fun too!” Koishi commented. “We pretended we were Incident solvers!” Her smile grew bigger as she relived the event in her mind.

The young vampire looked at Koishi, astonished. "U-uh... Well, that's great and all, but..." she crossed her arms and tried to imitate Kasen's voice as well as she could. "Do you even realize what could've happened had you not managed to defeat the youkai, little girl?" she said, with a serious look. 'I hope she never finds out about this...'

“Yeah!” The girl replied cheerfully, “I’d made them my new pets!” Then she tilted her head, thinking. “Hm, if they were too powerful…” She raised her index finger, smiling. “I’d erase my presence and leave them there.”

"But, uh... If you did that, you would leave those youkai over there... What about the people in the village?"

“Then I’d call the Myouren people and they’d fix the problem! But,” The satori added, thinking. “the more ancient you are, the more you have hidden in your subconscious. They wouldn’t win.” She added cheerfully.

Flandre tilted her head. "Uh, why do you say that? What does the subconscious have to do with you winning or not?"

“Oh! Because,” Again, she approached Flandre. “I can’t read minds,” Her finger pointed at Flandre’s head, “but I know what’s buried under your consciousness. People think that reading minds is a great power to have because you know what people are thinking.” She smiled. “But people act on their subconscious, they are how they are because of all obstacles and traumas they lived and those are buried deep inside. Scarring some place else.” Her finger lowered to vampire’s heart. “That’s what I can read. Fears, hesitations, scars, ideologies…” She lowered her arm. “What goes on your mind this moment is a shallow representation of who you are. I know people’s true shapes, sometimes better than they do.” The girl turned on her heels, balancing herself. “You fought your sister, you decided you no longer could consider her your family, that hurt you terribly and despite that you want to sever your connections with her. I could tell it when you hesitated about your surname, all that you weren’t thinking in that moment resurfaced in my head.” She fixed her eyes on the vampire. “And I knew you couldn’t be a bad person.”

Flandre looked to a side, saddened. "That's... ... Yeah, you're right. That did happen. Not too long ago, for that matter..." she turned her head to look at Koishi. "You have a very interesting ability, Koishi."

“‘Interesting’… That’s one way to put it.” The satori said quietly, looking up to the sky while smiling, then back at the vampire. “One day, I’ll be able to cure people’s traumas, just like Freud!” She said playfully, raising one arm to the air, then lowering it, her demeanor back to a more serious one. “I hope you find Miss Above the Ground Human, I could see why you care for her too.”

And suddenly, two blurs, one black and red in a frilly dress and another, white and green with wings flew past them at an astonishing speed, only leaving dust in their wake.

The satori blinked twice before turning in the direction of the temple. "What was that?"

Don't mind me, pulling a Shadie. DM post.

---

It only took a second for Kasen to recover from the initial shock, she looked at the humans that had escaped the attack frozen in place as the urgency to find a safe place started to kick in and people started stumbling over each other, trying to get inside their houses in hopes that four walls would be enough to stop whatever had done that.

“Ellen!” Kasen started firmly. “Take the survivors to the Temple, evacuate everyone from nearby houses, even if you have to drag them by force.”

Ellen stood there for a while, completely frozen due to the shock. Just what the hell happened? There was that sigil on the floor, under those people, and then suddenly they all... The blonde magician heard Kasen call her name and shook her head, trying to get her mind back on track. She looked towards the hermit and nodded. She flew over to the survivors, grabbed two of them and dragged them over to safety, ignoring whatever complaints they might have about the ride.

A crying woman, one of the survivors, trembled on her place before the dead bodies and she started stumbling back, searching for a safe place to hide. As she was turning back, a hand fell over her shoulder, the woman looked to see the hermit, looking grimly at her.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

“W-where? I don’t want to die! T-they…” Her trembling blue eyes looked at her friends, laying down, cold.

“Cut it out.” Kasen’s voice dropped a tone to the point she could feel herself growl. “You may have fooled them, but you can’t fool me.” Her hand crushed the woman’s shoulder. “Who are you?”

The woman stopped struggling, her face devoid of expression as if apathy had always been her standard demeanor. Her eyes looked blankly at the pink haired girl in front of her. “I see.” Then a smirk grin replaced the white of the canvas in euphoria. She had been worrying so much, so much… But in truth, this is what she wanted. To quell that annoying feeling of boredom, facing someone worth of dancing a tune to.

Kasen eyes only squinted at the change, sharply monitoring her enemy.

“No point in hiding now, huh?” And her image bled out, as if she was wearing a skin painted with watercolors, being washed away by rain, only to leave the true painting inside. The black hair was gone, so was the sapphire in her eyes, both replaced by the yellow color of gold. “You’re an interesting… human.” She chuckled, eyes semi-closed as if enjoying every moment of the situation.

For a moment, Kasen could see a maid outfit on the girl, but the image soon shifted to a royal blue and black Victorian dress.

Quickly, Kasen grabbed a spell card.

The girl chuckled at the ridiculousness of the situation. “Are you worried about hurting me? You Gensokians are as stupid as you are weak.”

She made a movement with her hand, and suddenly all was quiet, as if they had, for a moment, blinked to a different place that just happened to look identical, with no sound or no one around.

*BGM???*

“I wonder, what are you hiding behind that skin?” Her eyes slightly scanned the girl in front of her. “No more playing around, you chose to fight me, that was where your life went amiss. “

There were only a few that could easily read through her, only a handful of people who’d find her suspicious. Any other person would brush away any doubt quickly and accept her omissions without bothering much with it. But for someone she had never seen in her life, the short-haired blonde was incredibly sharp.

And she didn’t like that.
At all.

There were a few silent seconds, the gaze between them never parting ways, one with a serious expression, the other smirking mockingly.

*BGM - Battle of Anne 2*

A crimson magic circle formed behind the blonde, spinning menacingly as it shone, and before it even manifested itself, Kasen jumped behind as a second one formed where she had been standing, prompting an impressed hum from her enemy.

With a swift movement the hermit removed a spell card from under her top, as she was about to call the card, the girl was already behind her, seemingly teleporting herself there.

“You’re too slow, the spell cards I’ve seen so far were way quicker.”

Clenching her teeth, the hermit spun on her heel attempting to hit the other with a round kick, but it was clear she was expecting it, with a haughty laugh, she danced her body out of harm’s way. “Physical, aren’t you? Have you considered that maybe the spell card system is against your nature?”

“Wrap Sign!”

“Boring.” And her mocking expression was gone. “I thought you were interesting, but if you’re just going to kill me with boredom, I’ll make this more interesting.”

The bandages on Kasen’s arm shoot forward and caught her opponent, wrapping her. But the other knew that such a ridiculous spell card would work on her. Not her, no. She wasn’t playing the hero and the villain game like everyone in that world seemed to do.

The pieces of white cloth started bulging and twisting, until they were torn apart by what looked to be a halberd, firmly grasped on the other’s hand, she threw the halberd spinning up and flashed forward towards Kasen, her hand finding the pink haired girl’s right shoulder. The blonde’s face stood mere inches from the hermit’s who’s only reaction was to widen her eyes from surprise at how quick the maid was.

“Who is behind that mask?” She asked, a sly smirk on her face as her hand glowed faintly.

And before Kasen knew it, her fake arm began twisting on itself, the bandages suddenly being engulfed by what seemed to be a pasty, thick mass of black sludge coming from inside them that spread, like an infection, from her arm to her shoulder.

“Ah!! Gh!” Kasen stepped back, eyes going even wider as realization and desperation hit her.

Her arm was a fake, a replacement for the one that had been taken from her, something that went against nature itself but Kasen hadn’t care about it. Back then she wanted to replace it, its absence made resurface memories she wanted buried, so she bended dark magic to her will, and crafted a new one in order to, once again, run from the past. However, even if through rituals and fangshu she had managed to hide its presence, there was an undeniable fact that couldn’t be masked – the dark magic embedded arm existed.

And because it existed, it could be manipulated.

The yellow eyed girl sat on the air, floating idly, watching the black mass crawl to Kasen’s neck with contently contemplating the other’s struggles.

The mass, as if alive, stretched to Kasen’s face as her left hand clasped at it, her teeth gritting in frantically as she tried to stop it, but the dark magic was stronger than anything she could use and burned as if ablaze irons were piercing her flesh.

“GHHH, YOU COWARD!!”

“Coward?” The other chuckled. “It was your own naiveté that has put you in this situation.”

It ate away all her fangshu spells and her mask started to crumble.

“GHAAAA!” She stumble back, her left trembling hand over the right side of her face.

And it was dispelled, the image that through mysticism and magic she had created of herself: as her teeth became fangs and she tried her best to keep her true self under check.

From her head protruded what seemed to be two horns, the left one hopelessly broken, and the other completely engulfed by the mass. She was losing it, her self-control, and all the fibers in her being struggled to overcome the only part of her that had truly been fake.

“Oh, so, you’re an oni.” The smirk widened. “You’ll make a nice pet. It’s so tiring to get rid of insects on your own.” She put a finger on her chin, thinking. “Should I have you kill that blonde girl with the cat first?”

“FUCK, YOU!” She trembled as she strengthened herself. It was clear, she wouldn’t yield to that murderer’s will. “I’ll… kill you… I swear, I’ll clobber you!” She continued through clenched teeth.

Boring. Every single thing in this world was utterly disappointing. The moment something with potential for entertainment appeared it dissipated into thin air, overtaken by the stubbornness of these pitiful insects, trying to save the remainder of their dignities in death.

Without so much as a movement, the same red sigil from before shone, once more, behind her and out of them came a myriad of crosses, made from pure energy, they zipped through the air and rained over Kasen.

The hermit, slugged and kicked them, but her movements were half-baked, sluggish, hampered by the heaviness of the living creature that the fake arm had become, the projectiles found their way to the girl’s flesh, piercing through into and through it.

Falling to her knees, the pink hair refused to let a yelp escape her mouth, she panted as blood slithered from her wounds.

Boring. Not worth of her time. More useful dead than breathing. Trash.

“Die.” From under Kasen black flames erupted, shooting up, oddly without contributing to lighten up the darkness of the night.

And the other screamed, screams that couldn’t be heard, she had made sure of it.
But then the yells subsided and she leisurely strolled to what she hoped was now nothing more than ashes, but when she reached the girl she was surprised.

Burnt cloth, burnt flesh, but still there, intact.

Strange. Very strange. Had any other creature been this resilient? No matter, she should, at least, no longer breathe.

A hand clasped painfully around the blonde’s leg and there was a chuckle, low, cold.

“Ah… how did you….” The girl’s eyes opened wide. She was supposed to be half-dead, finished….


*BGM - Battlefield of Hanahazama*


“Don’t make me laugh…” A toothy smirk was plastered on Kasen’s bloodied and burned face, the trail of blood trailing down the corners of her mouth doing nothing to diminish the creepiness of the grin. “Yer thinkin’ you could just defeat me like that? Ya have’ta be kiddin’ me.”

The smirk that had been a constant in the illusive maid faltered at the other’s resilience. Suddenly she wasn’t as sure of herself, suddenly she thought that maybe she wasn’t as strong as she thought. No, that couldn’t be right! Even her sister had said she was much stronger! How couldn’t she defeat a beaten down… hermit? Oni? Whatever that insect was! She was going to win!

“Eh, you’re an idiot for not choosing a quick death!” Spinning on herself, the blonde twirled the halberd, its metal brimming with dark magic, dripping as if the darkness enveloping it was a sticky mass of poisonous oil.

The battered body of her opponent had little time to dodge and so the blade of the weapon buried itself deeply into her shoulder, decorating the snow with blood splatter.

“S-see! You had no chance!” The yellow eyed said, a feeling of both relief and victory embedded in her voice.

Like trembling bamboo in a storm, Kasen’s right leg gave away, the knee connecting painfully with the ground and yet the left one stood bended, shakenly supporting most of her weight.

“Now grovel, ask me to spare you! Beg and I’ll finish you quickly!” The mock on her voice was almost hysterical. To think she had feared to be defeated by that. What was she thinking?

A murmur and a cough, and Kasen face tilted down almost in defeat.

Yes, she knew who was superior! It was about time she gave up her futile existence. “What? I didn’t hear you, you have to speak louder. But I guess that’s as loud as an insect can scream.”

A claw, a purple claw made of pure magic that she had missed, blinded by her conceitedness, as Icarus to the sun, replaced the other’s none-existing hand.

And as if it had been a storm, frighteningly building up in the shadows, struggling against chains and shackles, came her voice, booming like thunder itself.

“CLENCH YER TEETH, MOTHERFUCKER!!!!” The pulled back mass energy shoot up in a uppercut, hitting the other squarely on the chin, lifting her from the ground like a makeshift rocket, sending her flying up and crash down helplessly.

The claw grew in size and, with the strength of a hecatonchire, it slammed with its opened palm against the girl, capturing her between the claw and a stone wall. “Toldja I’d clobber the crap outta ya. Ya decided to fight against me, and that’s where yer life went amiss.” The claw constricted on her, her head a pea between the massive claws as they slowly started piercing her back.

And from blurred eyes the sunflower haired girl could see, the smirking figure of the ancient creature she had seen just in dreams, eyes unwavering, shining fearlessly, as if the first moments of their battle had been meaningless, absorbing the pain printed on her face with glee, a completely different existence from that she had fought, brimming with darkness.

“Ehehehehe…” The smirk grew bigger, bloodlust the only thing on the previously placid face. “See ya in hell, worm.”

Terrifying... She was scared. For the second time she could remember she feared for her life. It couldn’t, no, it couldn’t end…


*BGM - None*


And then a flash or red, she felt something hitting her back, so fast… Her body shut down, wobbling precariously as if her legs had become mud and her sight started to blur.

“Wha…” The oni managed before her legs gave in.

Only then she could feel it the pain surging through her chest as she finally slumped to the ground, realizing that whatever had hit her back was long enough to pierce out of her chest.

“S-sister…!” She could hear, faintly, echoing in the distance. Her body was numb, unable to move or react… The uncomfortable warmness of the thick puddle of blood forming under her barely registering in her head.

As her eyes focused on something to her right, Kasen finally realized. She realized that when compared to some, most things were trifle, unimportant. She had spent so much time running away from issues that now seemed so small, so insignificant. Now that she had in her life people she truly cared for. To think she had dedicated so much time to the past seemed so obviously foolish in that moment, how had she not noticed it before? But that was it, there was no time to apologize to those in the present, there was no more time to anything other than to feel relieved.

How strange it was that such an equally irrelevant detail was enough to comfort her at a time like this. It brought her relief, nonetheless and she felt like an idiot once again.

A gurgling sound escaped Kasen’s throat as she attempted to chuckle, her sight finally going black.

“…at…least…it’s you…” The rest of the sentence died in her mouth.

To her right there was a distinct silhouette, peering from the darkness of the night, the curved blade of a scythe the only thing shimmering under the moonlight.

A collab between Pikno (Me) Shadi, Dani and ZM. What could possibly go wrong?


It didn’t take more than 50 seconds for the two blurs to painfully get kicked out of the temple by a very angry sailor.

“I told ya to be fuckin’ quiet, ya asshats! I will fuckin’ clobber ya shitless! What part of ‘fuckin’ behave!’ don’tcha understand?!” The hissed quietly, obviously struggling not to shout or break the stone on the pavement with Seija and Okuu’s heads out of respect for Hijiri.

"I DIDN'T DO A FUCKING THING YOU FUCKING ASSHAT OF A SAILOR! MISS OKUU DECIDED TO BLOW UP A FUCKING HOUSE AT THE WITCHING HOUR! DON'T BLAME THIS ON ME!" Yui/Seija repeated Murasa's quiet tone as she violently hissed at Murasa.

Murasa looked at Okuu in disbelief. “You did WHAT?!”

Utsuho couldn't help but tremble in nervousness from the angry sailor. "I-I was told to strike the b-building, Miss Sailor," she stuttered, completely overtaken by fear for the first time since she destroyed Satori's rhododendrons.

"Look, listen here Murasa... neither of us was expecting that the villagers were going to apeshit on us..." She looked towards Murasa's feet as she spoke.

“What?! Ya didn’t expect the villagers to lose their shit over yer destroyin’ a fuckin’ house?! Are ya fuckin’ insane?! Ya clearly aren’t right in the head!” Murasa grasped Seija by the collar of her dress, pulling her up a bit, eyes brimming with anger. “Is this a fuckin’ game to you? Is this fun, for you?! If there was someone inside that house, I will personally end yer miserable lives!” Her voice was menacing and clearly truthful.

Seija gulped, again as she was lifted up. "...I screwed up. Are you happy? I screwed up and now I pay the consequences, go ahead, go and put that fucking anchor through my neck. Just end Yui right now..." She looked at Murasa emotionless.

"Hey, we don't need to be violent now!" Utsuho protested as she ran up to the two girls.

She titled her neck slowly towards Utsuho. "Look, I got you into this mess, how do you propose we get out of this?"


“Happy that ya screwed up?” The sailor chuckled in disbelief. “I don’t fuckin’ care if you screw up or if ya decide to bash yer empty head on a fuckin’ rock! This ISN’T about you! This is about not fuckin’ causin’ even more trouble than we already have!” She shoved Seija away from her and started walking away to the Village. “Ya can be pretty sure you will pay the consequences.”

"Well, so be it... Just walk away from the issue completely... But..." She turned on her heels, quickly jogging after Murasa. "I do need you..."

"Well, going back to the village isn't an option...we really need to see if someone's in that house," the hell raven said, looking over to Murasa. "Please, we didn't mean to potentially hurt anyone!"

“I walking to the fuckin’ issue, in case ya are too dumb to understand.” The sailor stopped and looked at both of them. “All you both need is to stay the fuck away from me! And from the Village!” She continued her way.

"And I say fuck that. I am going to fix my issue, and I don't care what you say, I am coming!" Seija powered ahead, looking at her directly in the eyes.

Murasa started laughing, it was a low, creepy and angry laugh. “Ohohoh… you must have a death wish…”

"I've always had a death wish, it's in my nature." The amanojaku replied.

“Okuu~ !” Koishi approached the hell raven, glomping her. While she seemed happy to see her, her eyes held a bit of disappointing. “Destroying houses is bad.”

Utsuho sighed, her skin pale. "I-I know, Koishi-sama...I know...if Satori-sama finds out..."

"I'm going to sort out this bullshit that I pulled, this village didn't deserve this, I think after this, I'll go and join Satori and drink tea with her all day..." Seija sighed.

"Out of the way! Keep the path clear for the injured!" A blonde magician came over from the path to the human village like a blur, knocking Murasa and Seija out of the way before landing. She carefully dropped the two humans she was carrying before wiping off the sweat from her forehead. "Aaah... I need more exercise..." Sokrates climbed from Ellen's back to her shoulder, while the magician looked at the small crowd that was at the temple's entrance. "Uh... Well, I didn't expect there to be this much people here." she waved at the blonde vampire. "Oh hi Pudding! Sorry to keep you waiting!" Flandre's eye twitched a little.

"Oi! FUCK FACE, WATCH WHERE YOU'RE FLYING!" Seija cried at the flying person who knocked her to the floor.

“Injured?” Murasa looked at Ellen, the glared at Seija and Okuu and then back at Ellen. “Did these fuckin’ retards hurt these people?” Her voice came in a low growl as she looked the state of terror the victims were in.

"We didn't do anything!! WE ONLY AIMED FOR THE FUCKING HOUSE! DON'T PIN US FOR ANYTHING ELSE!" Seija angrily snapped back at Murasa, glancing over at Ellen for a second.

“Shut yer fuckin’ ass! Ya screwed up big time, at least put a fuckin’ sock on your fuckin’ pipehole and THINK on what ya did for the fuckin’ first time in your sorry, idiotic life!” She snapped back, clearly reaching her boiling point, her hands clasping her anchor making her knuckles go white.

Ellen turned around to look at Murasa and Seija and scratched her hair in disbelief. "Uh... I'm pretty sure this is a Ripper attack we're dealing with. I mean, there is a chance that the goth girl could be the Ripper, in which case you'd be right." she crossed her arms. "Regardless, I think these humans need medical attention. So if you would be so willing to STOP SHOUTING AT EACH OTHER AND LEND ME A HAND IN CARRYING THEM TO THE TEMPLE! " she coughed. "Then maybe I might be able to get back to the village and bring more people before they die."

"..." Seija went silent after that, unable to think of a smart remark, then continued. "I have to say something, don't shoot me for this, but clearly us yelling at each other isn't going to solve whatever may be happening in the human village, earlier today, I said I was going to turn over a new leaf and try to help, but hours later, I didn't do it and I screwed up like a fucking moron, but we can resolve that later, human lives are at risk, so we help them first..." She had hidden her gaze away from Murasa for some strange reason as well.

“The Ripper… Of course, of fuckin’ course!” The ghost youkai carried one of the victims inside, not even listening to Seija anymore. “Kyouko, we need yer help!”

"And..." And so, Seija followed suit and she began to assist humans who were in danger, all the while, thoughts ran through Seija's hand.

“Okuu,” Koishi started, looking at the Village, her voice unreadable. “Please, help the victims inside the temple.” And then she began walking towards it.

"...Why is the Ripper here now of all things..." Seija muttered.

"?" Utsuho followed Koishi in confusion. "A lot of people need help, huh...what do you mean, miss?"

Koishi stopped, twirled on her heels, a smile on her face that only Okuu could see was fake, a blank, weird look to her demeanor. “Stay out of the Village, help the victims here.” And she twirled back and continued her way, disappearing into thin air.

The blonde witch sighed and looked towards Flan. "Hey, Flan. Care to stay here and tend to whoever needs it? I'm sure Kasen will bring some more people here soon." 'If I tell her Kasen stayed at the village she's going to go there too... And I don't have a particularly good feeling about this. At least, not good enough to let her go unguarded.' she waited for the vampire's confirmation -a small nod- before flying back to the Human Village.

Flandre waited in place until Ellen was out of sight before turning around and entering the Myouren Temple.

"Fuck Murasa..." Seija muttered to herself as she slowly walked up the steps to Myouren temple, she dragged her feet slowly up the stairs as she muttered many curse words to herself.