[Scarlet] Touhou Writing Competition II- Start!

The story was mediocre and a bit awkward to read. I noticed some grammar mistakes and it somewhat feels incomplete, like there's more to the story and this is only a small portion of it.

It was done well, but it's simple and there isn't much going on, it was also somewhat short too.

It started as a normal battle between the two immortals. I liked how Kaguya underestimated Mokou and then Mokou got frustrated and did that new strong attack, scaring Kaguya. I also liked the ending, that Mokou realised her mistakes and tries to repair them, even though it wasn't entirely her fault. The problem that I have with this entry is the word "phoenix". It was constantly used and Mokou isn't even a phoenix, which was annoying to read. The rest was pretty much, well made.

It was quite nice. It feels like Hecatia is arguing with herself, Red, Blue and Blonde being her different personalities. It started as an innocent story, with nothing serious happening, but it quickly became a serious matter, which was quite nice.The ending was quite nice too. There are some details that haven't been explained, like what were they trying to do with the camera? Introducing themselves to someone, perhaps? Overall, it was a nice story.

A quite charming entry. but, I never thought that Remi and Flan always fight with each other. Also, Sakuya and Meiling hasn't done any action to stop their fighting, which was an intense and somewhat serious fight, I believe blowing the SDM is a serious matter. They just enjoyed their drink while those two were fighting in the background, which I found it a stupid idea. Except that, the story is quite well done and the best part about this entry is that everything is greatly detailed, but not at the point of being boring and useless, Overall, it was good.

A pretty interesting entry, I kinda feel bad about what hapenned to Parsee. It doesn't really fit into the theme (except in the end) and I had to Google what a purikura is... The story and the first-person view was done neatly and it switched the first-person from Parsee to Satori without any problems and confusion. I'm also somewhat bothered by the punctuaion and the repetitives. It would be okay if it wasn't too repetitive and there were too many ellipsises. Also, I'm not a fan of swearing, but I guess that was necessary.

It was short, but not bad. For me, the clock ticking was a nice process to create a cool and lonely atmosphere surrounding Alice. It doesn't stick to the theme though, well the tea was literally there, but there were no signs of coffee and nothing symbolised it. Also, "I'm not willing to give my life away because of my dream, though. I know you'd agree with me." - From what I can gather from this, Alice wants to take Shinki's life? I see no other purpose for writing her a letter. Also, including music in a entry feels weird. This isn't RP or something like that, It also gave away who wrote the entry. I don't quite understand the ending either. Did Alice commit suicide or something to give life to the doll?

I don't have any problems with longer entries. The longer they are, the more details it has. The story felt nice and dynamic, but I noticed some grammar and punctuation problems that shouldn't be there... Except that, it was done quite well.

A cool entry. Reimu was just trying to enjoy her tea while others kept pestering her. The swearing was to be expected, coming from Reimu when she's frustrated.I'm not a fan of swearing and swearing makes this entry less... professional. Otherwise, it was a nice entry.

Kogasa and Tenshi plays a significant role in there, so I had to be strict. from my perspective, this doesn't take place in Gensokyo, but in our real world and nobody has their power here. The big problem is that the characters aren't how they're supossed to be, especially Yuuka. She can't be that nice and her way of speaking would never be like that. Tenshi and Kogasa in this story was cringe-worthy and I can't even talk about that, because of the stereotypical,unfitting and bad characters. Seriously, it feels like Yuuka is Yuugi or Marisa, not her usual self. Also, if the story was supossed to be taken in the Outside World (our world), Kogasa would just be a normal umbrella. The umbrella snapped, which pretty much means that she died and the girl who has the umbrella is not her :/ Eirin is a medic and Komachi still has that boat, so that's done right, I guess. if you would replace the character names with other name, this wouldn't even be a Touhou entry anymore, it feels too out of place and if you think I'm bashing this entry for the wrong reason, you're seriously wrong. It just that I don't really find anything interesting in this one, although the story was average. I feel like this could be an awesome entry if it would be done right and I feel like I should've taken this entry more seriously, but I couldn't...

Well, this is the Yuuka I'm talking about. The story is excellent, the first-person view was very well made. The person put a lot of effort into it. It's pretty much great, Kudos to the writer.

Alright, so Reimu visits Satori at Chireiden for some tea...pacing is kind of odd, but hey, it's pretty well-written. I like that in stories. ...Then all of a sudden Koishi appears. Well then. I do adore touching scenes like the one between the Komeiji sisters, but it seemed...out of the blue, y'know? Plus, what happened to Reimu in all this? She just disappeared. All in all, I think you ought to organize the structure for this piece in a way that would make sense, then you'd have a more promising story.

Weird, not wierd! Good thing you fixed this mistake halfway through, but you really should've proofread your piece more. Anyway, short but sweet piece between two college friends. But...it lacks substance. Plus, more detail about what Renko saw would've been appreciated. Not a bad piece, but it's missing a lot of potential.

gg Mokou. gg. Welp, I already know who wrote this piece based on the way Mokou was portrayed, and I can't say I agree with it. Glad she came to her senses at the end, but yet, it just feels as if everyone benefited aside from her. That's not really fair, but eh, what can you do. Pretty well-written piece regardless. 

Quite the solid piece. Hecatia's an interesting character, and I feel your interpretation of her personality and backstory are done quite well. I'd really like to see a continuation of this, as it was quite short and left me wanting more.

Damn, this was some good stuff. I really liked your take on Sakuya and Meiling's relationship, and they were both portrayed well. Very well-written piece regarding a typical day at the Scarlet Devil Mansion. Maybe you could've added more Remilia and Flandre into the mix, though. This story feels like it's missing something.

I really hoped this piece wouldn't be some yandere crap after reading the first few lines. Thank goodness it wasn't. That was quite the interesting by DNS-Keeper"> phone conversation to listen in on, eh Satori? Anyway, not much to say about this one. The phone conversation being the main focus makes sense, but Yukari, Satori, and maybe even Parsee should've all played more of a role.

This is...kind of rushed, from the looks of it. I like how Alice is writing to her mother (Shinki) and this gives some insight to how she created her dolls. There's a lot of potential this piece has, and it'd be cool if you could maybe expand more on Alice's projects. Plus, a reply from her mother (Shinki) would be pretty damn cool.

Hey, a Sanae entry~ You get points for that! Sadly, I can't say I fully enjoyed this piece. Your portrayal of Sanae was pretty good, so you've fortunately dodge my nitpicking regarding that. Though:



Tsk tsk.
Anyway, this story just seemed all over the place, and it seems that Sanae's original goal of trying to figure out what to do about Kanako and Suwako was just put off to the side in the middle of the piece in favor of the other characters. It was indeed resolved at the end (in a way that made me smile a bit), but eh. Still, not too bad.

Heh, poor Reimu. She just wanted to enjoy her favorite kind of tea, only to be unfortunately interrupted multiple times. And then she drank cold tea and completely wrecked Cirno. The cursing here, while I don't mind it, could propose to be a turn-off to some readers, so be careful with that from now on. Other than that, this was a well-written piece that portrayed everyone involved fairly well.

Not gonna lie, I quite liked this. Southern!Yuuka was an interesting twist, but since this is an AU Touhou fic, I'd say it fits the charm of this piece well. What happened to Kogasa made me sad, but that ending with Yuuka contemplating on adopting her (plus our favorite karakasa being A-OK) made that sadness go away. Awesome job!

Interesting piece regarding PC-98 Alice warming up to PC-98 Yuuka. It was well-written and flowed together nicely. Ending was pretty amusing (that letter XD). Not much else to say.

Suwako, Goddess of the Moriya Shrine.

Twas a sunny morning came in. Suwako came to see the flowing water and especially, the wily toads.

But behind the bushes she hasn't noticed A blue ice fairy awaiting for the kill.

The fairy fled to the pond and landed on the grass. She freezed every toad, every lily pad and the whole pond, turning itself into
an icy landscape.

Suwako gasped at how much nature that the fairy has destroyed. The fairy patted her shoulder and gave her an idea.

The fairy fled on the now icy pond and started to swiftly move her legs, keeping her balance, skating on it.

Suwako became surprised at what idea she came with, so she decided to join in the fun.

The shrine maiden of the Moriya Shrine, Sanae, was so happy to see her making a new friend. She then went back to her
regular job, Sweeping the grassy floor, smiling at what fun they're having themselves.

As Suwako and her fairy friend played, they started gathering a loving bond. The fairy would visit her every Tuesday
and play together. Although, It wasn't just any bond, but friendship.

“Imouto-sama. I’m afraid we can’t play with you today. The mistress is sick, and I have to take care of her. She wishes you a happy birthday.” Sakuya said, bowing, before walking out of the room. Flandre pouted. Today was her birthday, why couldn’t her big sister play with her? She looked behind her, a pitiful three presents laid against the wall. A book from Patchouli, a jar of blood from Sakuya, and a new dress from Remilia, her big sister. Flandre didn’t care about any of those though. She wanted a playmate, someone who could show her the world. But alas, Remilia would never allow Flandre to roam outside the Scarlet Devil Mansion. Even within her own home, she was restricted from leaving her room unless accompanied by Sakuya or Remilia.

Flandre sat down on her bed, looking down at the ground. It had now been hours since Sakuya came in. Flandre grabbed her teddy bear, and squeezed it between her arms, resting her chin on the bear’s head. She thought about the human who came to the Scarlet Devil Mansion a few weeks ago, who singlehandedly defeated all of the residents, herself included. Marisa was this human’s name. A western-styled magician who favored flashy spells. Her signature move, the Master Spark, a humongous laser brought down any enemies standing in her path. Flandre started to reminisce about the day Marisa came to the Scarlet Devil Mansion. The day of the Red Mist Incident.

“You...Who are you?” Flandre asked. In front of her was a girl who was riding on a broomstick, floating in the air. She had long, blonde hair, similar to Flandre. She wore a black and white witch attire.

“Me? I’m Kirisame Marisa ze~! I’m here to put a stop to this Red Mist! If you stand in my way, I’ll blow you to bits!” She responded energetically. Flandre had begun to chuckle a little, before breaking down into a hysterical laugh.

“Good!” Flandre laughed, her sharp fangs being exposed. “Let’s do this, Marisa! Play with me!” Flandre began to fire hundreds upon hundreds of bullets at Marisa.

“Sure, I’ll play with you!” Marisa shouted.

There’s no way a human could defeat me. Flandre thought to herself. Marisa dodged bullet after bullet, surprising Flandre. Flandre continued to laugh, clapping her hands.

“You dodged them! Congrats! Let’s see if you can dodge this!” Flandre shouted. Three clones of Flandre suddenly appeared around Marisa, surrounding her. Simultaneously, the three clones began to fire bullets at Marisa. Marisa turned around, and started running away. Flandre, along with her three clones, quickly chased after her.

“It’s no fun if you keep running, Marisa!” Flandre shouted, smiling devilishly. Marisa then turned around, holding what looked like to be a small furnace.

“Master Spark!” Marisa shouted, a blinding, gigantic laser emerging from the furnace. In an instant, all of Flandre’s clones disintegrated, and Flandre herself was blown back by the laser. After the battle, Flandre laid against a wall, bruised and battered. Marisa walked up to her, and extended her hand out. Flandre looked up, holding her wounds, seeing Marisa smiling.

“C’mon, get up.” Marisa said. Flandre grabbed Marisa’s hand, pulling herself up.

“You okay?” Marisa asked. Flandre didn’t respond, instead hugging Marisa.

“Wha-What is this?”

“That was the most fun I’ve had in 400 years.” Flandre said, her voice shaking. She seemed to be on the verge of tears.

“Marisa, promise me, promise me you’ll come by and play with me again!”

Marisa was surprised, but smiled and patted Flandre’s head.

“For sure, I’ll come back.”

Marisa hadn’t come over since. Flandre shoved her face onto her teddy bear, crying. Flandre’s muffled cries filled the room.

“Girl’s shouldn’t cry on their birthday.” A voice said. Flandre lifted her head, and turned around, seeing Marisa standing beside her bed.

“Marisa..? How?”

Flandre asked.

“Your chief maid informed me. Said you needed someone to play with.” Marisa walked up to Flandre, wiping the tears off of her cheeks.

“Now, c’mon, let’s go have some fun.” Marisa smiled. “You can help me borrow some books from Patchouli.”

Flandre’s solemn face quickly turned into a happy one. Marisa grabbed Flandre’s hand, and the two ran off to the Scarlet Devil’s Library.



The End

One.
A violin is resounding through the room. Absolute Melancholy sets throughout the room. Complete and total without a single person objecting. A veil of black sorrow.

Two.
A trumpet sounds throughout the room. A manic tone is taken to the song. The extremity of the contrast is impossible to overlook. It sounds like an impossible peril to have both playing at once. Delusions of white joy.

Three.
A keyboard ties everything together. Gone is the extreme emotions playing at once. Now it is possibly the most beautiful melody ever heard. It's like a forgotten dream the sounds from the keys. However...something is empty from the song still. inexplicable emptiness. Void a loss of all meaning.

A hidden fourth. A hidden truth.
A small girl walks from the backstage and starts singing. Her voice a light lyric soprano. Odd for such a young girl who has to be no older than fourteen. However no one can tell if she's singing words or not. But that is of no consequence. Her voice is the true key to the song. There is no wavering. Pure and just conviction. Her one emotion that she feels is love, and it comes through her voice. Purpose


~Melancholy~
~Mania~
~Emptiness~
-Love

And it ends. The song ends much to quickly. A longing for the song replaces it. But hearing it again would ruin it. This song will never be played again. Not in an enternity. The four girls make their way back stage. The one in white with a nervous gittiness her trumpet following her. The one in black calm relief her violin following her. The one in red with a strong confident step and her keyboard floats beside her. Finally, The greenhaired one with the purple dress just...floats along. Following the three with a caring smile on her face.

~The Final Song of Sisters~

The news came to the shrine that morning fast on a broomstick. Reimu Hakurei was sweeping the grounds in a sluggish, “not a morning person” kind of way, but perked up when she saw a familiar black-white magician. Marisa would only be in this much of a hurry to speak to her if something was going on. Reimu called out to her as she came barreling towards.

“Marisa! What is it this time?” Reimu half-expected Marisa to answer in her usual jolly tone, bringing up some festival or petty conflict that the two of them would go and solve together. These thoughts were dashed the moment Reimu heard talk.

“I don’t know!” Marisa yelled back to her, screeching to a halt a few feet away from Reimu. Her voice shook with uncertainty and a bit of fear, in a manner completely abnormal for the cheery magician. “I… It’s… just come and see for yourself! In the human village!” Wasting no more time stammering, Marisa promptly turned back to where she came, and was quickly a speck on the horizon.

“Wha-“ was all Reimu could manage to say before Marisa was gone, and she stood there dumb-founded for a few seconds. After a short moment, she took a deep breath and prepared herself for something big. Whatever it could be. One thing was for certain; this was the start of an incident.

---

Reimu flew to the Human Village as fast as she could, but expectedly Marisa got there long before Reimu did. Immediately apparent the the miko was the large crowd of people gathered around the local hospital. Reimu looked around for a clue to the cause when a familiar voice called up to her.

“Reimu! Come through the window over here!” The voice belonged to the local schoolteacher, Keine, and it was coming from the second floor window of the hospital. Obliging, Reimu flew in as the crowd noticed her appearance. The people looked tired; many seemed to be fighting off sleep. If Reimu was called in, then something must be terribly wrong.

“What the hell is going on?” Reimu asked Keine, feeling more than a little uncomfortable with the intensity that seemed to surround the situation. “You’re all acting like someone has died, or something.”

“That’s because someone HAS died, Reimu” Keine answered bluntly, walking over to a nearby bed. The sheet that was laid over the bed made a shape that could only reinforce Keine’s claim. “In fact, many people have died. And we have no idea what’s causing it. Take a look for yourself.”

Keine gave Reimu no time to protest as she pulled the sheet off the figure. Sure enough, what was hidden underneath was the body of a human. Reimu’s eyes worked their way up the body, from the feet. Everything looked fine and healthy until her gaze met the face of this unfortunate victim. There was blood leaking from the mouth, nose, eyes, and most notable the ears. The entire head was purplish-blue, as if they had been strangled, but the neck showed no signs of constriction. \

The scene was grotesque, but it wasn’t the worst Reimu had ever seen. Still, people were dead, or dying, and definitely not something to take lightly. Reimu took a moment of respect for the dead, and then started asking questions.

“How many are dead?” She asked, looking to Keine. Surely, something as gruesome as this would be limited to-

“Twenty” Keine said, interrupting Reimu’s cautious thoughts.

“T-Twenty? Twenty people are dead?” Reimu sputtered. She was definitely not expecting that kind of magnitude. No previous incident had taken this many lives. “Twenty in one night?”

“Actually, this has been going on for three nights.” Keine answered with a hint of guilt in her voice. “We didn’t think the first cases were anything more than a sudden illness. The first night, only one person had died. The local doctors concluded that it was caused by a “severe hemorrhagic fever”, so we didn’t think much of its significance.”

“Then what about the second night? Surely, 24 people didn’t die all last night.”

“The second night was much worse” Keine continued, glancing down at a clipboard. “There were 18 deaths that night, all in the same manner as the first. Upon finding this out, the elders of the village, as well as me, were obviously alarmed. This was definitely not something that would pass over naturally.”

“So why the hell didn’t you tell me about it, then?” Reimu yelled, furious. “With a death count that high, you should have called in a specialist!”

“We did call in a specialist. We still believed that the cause was medical, so we asked the best person we could think of. You know who I’m talking about.”

Of course, no other person than Eirin Yagokoro would fit the description of “the best”. Her ability to make medicine was unparalleled, and she is rumored to be able to create a drug to cure any disease. But…

“Well, what happened, then?” Reimu asked “Surely Eirin thought of something!”

“If she had, Reimu, you wouldn’t be here right now” Keine answered, and sighed. “I showed her one of the patients. Or rather, I let her in a room with one. She said she wanted to be alone to do the examination. I waited for about 10 minutes, when she opened the door and walked out. I asked her if she could do anything, and all she could say to me was “That is no sickness. I cannot help you”. Then she promptly left.”

Keine sighed again, bewildered, as Reimu continued to listen in disbelief. “All further attempts to contact them have been met with shut doors, and the earth rabbits seem to be fiercely guarding the perimeter.”

“For something to scare Eirin like that…” Reimu began, liking the situation less and less as time went on.

"Precisely. Current death toll aside, for something to upset the Lunar Sage that much, I fear only you could have hope of stopping it.” Keine concluded.

The two sat in silence for a few minutes, Keine waiting patiently for an answer while Reimu impatiently made an effort to figure out what she could do. Finally, Reimu spoke up.

“All right, I’ll start by doing the usual process. I’ll ask around for information, and then cook up a solution as I go. Hopefully, it ends up being something I can beat up…” Reimu laughed wearily, and Keine laughed to be polite. “I’ll talk to you again tomorrow morning. Oh, also, could I sleep here in the hospital? I don’t want to go back to the shrine until this is over.”

“Of course” Keine said, bowing as Reimu left. “I wish you good luck”

---

Reimu spent the rest of the afternoon questioning the villagers about anything they could tell her about the deaths. She went from house to house, knocking on doors and stopping strangers, searching for a single clue. By the time the sun began to set, Reimu was having little luck. No one seemed to know anything, and everyone looked tired. When asked why, they simply said they weren’t sleeping well, or had some bad nightmares. Nothing out of the ordinary for an occasion like this…

Reimu met Marisa back at the hospital, sitting on a bench outside the front door. Marisa had been asking the youkai and powerful entities outside of the human village for any clues. According to her, the Moriya Shrine couldn’t help, Eientei was still closed off, and the Myouren Temple simply said that they knew nothing, but were willing to “help comfort those grieving through calming sutra’s and Buddhist principles.” Reimu laughed upon hearing this, she could definitely hear Byakuren saying such a thing. But now the end of the day had come, and she had no conclusive connections or evidence linking her to a culprit or reason behind this tragedy. As Reimu thought to herself, Marisa was being Marisa and talking nonstop. Reimu tuned her out, digging deep into her brain for something , when something Marisa said caught her attention.

“….nd Alice was telling me how awful it was the Eientei was closed right now, because she had run out of those sweets that give you good dreams. I don’t know WHY she even wants those, and I’m pretty sure she doesn’t need to sleep. Sometimes that gi-“ Reimu suddenly interjected.

“Sweets that give you good dreams? I didn’t know about this.”

“That’s probably because only Alice ever buys them” Marisa laughed, but stopped suddenly when she remembered something. “Oh, now that I think about it, I saw that Lunar Rabbit giving away those sweets for free a week or so ago. She had a whole crate of them, giving one or two out to anyone who happened by. Say, you don’t think-“

“Marisa, I want you to go and find one of those sweets, and run some magical tests on it. Go back to your house in the forest, where you can be thorough. This isn’t much of a clue, but it’s all we have.”

Marisa was caught by surprise by how abrupt this epiphany was, but didn’t argue. “Alright, then, I’ll see you in the morning. I hope there are no more deaths tonight…”

“Me too Marisa, I’ll see you then.”

---

Reimu had a hunch that she dearly wished was wrong. She knew that Marisa would get nothing from the candy, she just knew that it would take her some time to figure that out. All night, hopefully.

People were dying overnight, with an injury that seemed to destroy the insides of the head. People in the village complained about nightmares, and Eientei had been giving out dream-modifying drugs beforehand. And finally, Eientei itself was locked tight when they would usually be trying to help with everything they had. Reimu wasn’t completely sure if Eientei was guilty of anything, but the deaths definitely happened when the people were sleeping. So, she would try and combat it in the only way she could think of: going to sleep herself.

She had a room on the first floor of the hospital, with a futon laid out on the floor. She had set her most powerful defensive traps and magic everywhere around the room, so that if anyone tried to get in, she would be alerted instantly. She had also told Keine to watch her room all night, as an added countermeasure, and for another reason. Now all that was left to do was go to sleep. The day’s events and sights weighed heavily on her mind, but she was also very tired because of this. Sleep came quick in seek of rest, but tonight she would fine none.

Almost as soon as Reimu fell asleep, she found herself floating in a familiar place. Stars dotted the darkness around her, and an odd red grid pattern was extending itself infinitely in all directions. She had only been here once before, but that was enough for her to be able to tell that something was distinctively different this visit. She sensed some kind of evil presence, but it was coming from every direction at once.

“Oh, good, you’ve come just in time”

A voice called out from everywhere, sounding both familiar and unfamiliar at the same time. It seemed to talk like it knew Reimu, but Reimu could find no form to tie the voice to.

“Who are you? Show yourself!” Reimu shouted into the nothing, darting her head around in vain to find the source.

“Oh, how rude of me.” The voice crackled in a distorted laughter. “I forget how limited the senses of humans are. I shall make this easier for you.” As she talked, the source of the voice slowly receded to a single point, where a body was beginning to take shape.

“Better?” The person was revealed to be Doremy Sweet. Her tail, hair, and skin were all similar to their last run-in, but an important detail was different. The white portions of her dress, and the white balls that floated around her, had all turned to black, so that her outfit seemed to mesh entirely with the darkness behind her. Reimu didn’t like this at all.

“Doremy, what the hell happened to you? No...” Reimu stopped herself, and asked the more important question. “Do you know what killed those humans?”

“Oh, that was me” Doremy stated matter-of-factly, a pleased grin on her face. “I had a lot of fun with that, it felt much better than just watching or eating dreams.”

“Wha-.” Reimu was taken aback at how simply Doremy could say that. “What? Why the hell would you kill them? Does it have something to do with your dress turning black?”

Doremy looked confused, and looked down at her dress. “Huh, I guess you’re right, that would make sense” She said, bemused that she hadn’t noticed it before. “Things really have been slipping my mind lately. My new hobby sure is distracting.”

“Have you gone insane? Can a Baku even GO insane?” Reimu demanded. She had not expected anything like this. But, of course, her job was to deal with the unexpected. She was going to have to try and fight. “Either way, if you’re the murderer, you have to be stopped. And even if you’re a Baku, I specialize in dreams as well! DREAM SIGN! EVIL SEALING CI- ”

As Reimu announced her spellcard, Doremy chuckled and extended a hand. Suddenly, Reimu couldn’t move an inch of her body. She could feel nothing holding her down, no pressure, she just couldn’t move at all. Her mouth was stuck open, and her arm was held out holding the card.

“You may have been able to defeat me before, Miko, but things are different this time.” Doremy said giddily, clapping her hands. “I’ve discovered a portion of myself I did not know I had!”

Doremy walked to Reimu’s frozen figure, and frowned. “The dream world is my world, and I can do anything I want in it now. Funny, that I didn’t do this before. Before the…. the the… nightmares!” Doremy’s voice cracked and jumped pitches as she remembered the event. “One night, one run-of-the-mill night, I was managing all the booooring dreams. They were happy ones, with love and friendship and similar disgusting things. Of course, at the time, I thought they were just delightful. After all, I am a creature of balance. Have I said that before? I exist to maintain the balance of good and bad dreams! Without the both of them, I wouldn’t exist! Anyways, suddenly that night, all the light dreams turned dark. In a flash, every dream I could see was oozing with delicious darkness. But, this interrupted the balance, so I had to do something about it. So I ate as many bad dreams as I could, and replaced them with good ones. But, no matter how quickly I replaced them, they would pop right back to darkness. What was I supposed to do about it?”

Doremy looked at the still-frozen Reimu, as if expecting an answer. After a long period of patient silence, she continued on as if she had been answered. “I didn’t know either. I got so frustrated that I just took a dream and squelched it altogether. And I kept doing so until there were no dreams left. It felt good, I felt FREE.”

She thought for a moment, then waved her hand towards Reimu. Reimu’s body shifted into a sitting position, her arms by her side and legs together. “Oh, sorry, you just looked so uncomfortable. And confused, but I’m alright with the latter. Where was I… ah, yes. So, the next night, the dreams returned. But by then, I was already free. Already “awake”. Ha! Get it? Anyways, I decided the nightmares weren’t really so bad, but it was the bright dreams that made me sick. So I took it upon myself to get rid of them, once and for all. I learned that, with my new power, I could go into a person’s dream and just kill them outright. So, I did that a little bit, but then I got bored and started doing it in the nightmares as well. The reactions were better in the nightmares anyways…”

Doremy stopped, and then started to look very sad. She reached out and clasped Reimu’s head between her hands, and continued. “Oh, but, like I said before. I am a creature of balance. With all the good dreams gone, I’ll cease to exist! In fact, I’m confident that if I kill one more person, I’ll vanish entirely.”

She threw her arms up in the air, exasperated. “But, there’s no way I could just stop doing this! So, I decided to make my last one special. And you know what, Reimu, YOU’RE special.”

Doremy walked slowly towards Reimu, who was helpless to do anything. Doremy’s uncovered powers were absolute, but seemingly at the cost of her life. But Doremy was too far gone, too consumed by the darkness, to care about that. Reimu could only hope a miracle would save her.

Doremy put a hand to Reimu’s head, and uttered two words.


“Sweet Dreams.”

---

There was only a single death that night. After that, the killings ceased. People’s dreams returned to normal, and daily life gained back its equilibrium. The people grieved for their loss, and sang praises of their savior. After all, she was the last one to be taken before the nightmare ended. She surely must have sacrificed herself to save the rest of the village.

The savior girl’s numerous friends prepared a great feast in her memory. It took place in the Town Hall, where youkai and human alike sang and drank together, just as the girl used to do. As it had always been, people brought all kinds of food. The Scarlet Devil Mansion prepared western meat, the Myouren temple brought a heaping serving of ethnic food, and the Oni acquired the alcohol.

And, of course, Eientei brought the sweets.

"It's no use! There's no end to them! They're fucking endless!"

"Please don't look here please don't look here please don't look here."

"I don't want to die! I don't want to diiieeee! Get away from me! No! No! Nooooohhghaghhkk--"

Through their thought network, the reverberating thoughts of the entire 196th Supply Corps echoed through each and every one of their heads. Periodically, some of them quickly cut off. Their gurgling screeches didn't need to be transmitted, as each of those in the field could plainly hear them with their long ears. They were interspersed with frequent sounds of gunfire and explosions, but sadly for the 196th, those sounds were too far off to be of any help to them. Their position had been compromised, they had long expended their munitions, and they were surrounded. At that moment, she estimated about 200 of the monsters had converged on their camp.

"Hey, hey, these rabbits don't taste half bad! Maru was right, it does taste like some kind of stringy human meat," she heard a raspy voice call out.

"Man, the smell, too. Makes it so easy to sniff 'em out! Hyahahaha! C'mon, I'm still hungry! Let's go find some more!"

The sound of monstrous feet shuffling across the rocky moon floor began, with savage grunts punctuating them every so often. Isolated in craters around the area, the rabbit soldiers quaked uncontrollably as their terrified faces were lined with tears. The thought network went unusually quiet, as each seemed resigned to their fate, the footsteps growing louder to each of their ears. Lt. Reisen seized the grip on her arc rifle. However, the pride and glory of Lunarian infantry tech, able to fire logic-defying plasma arc bullets, had long overheated itself into uselessness.

Then, a crackle on the channel.

"Lieutenant..."

"Nin, I'm sorry. Looks like all your hard work on that mochi's gonna go to waste, huh," the leader responded, raking her toes harder into the crater floor. She couldn't even laugh at her own joke, as she was trying her hardest to hide her crying on the comms.

"... Lieutenant, I can see a small opening on your immediate 7 o' clock," the soldier continued.

"...!" Suddenly, the leader rabbit's trembling stopped.

"I have about 7 seconds' worth of ammo still in this drum."

"N-No! You can't! I--"

Then, more responses.

"Lieutenant. I have one more hyperfrag here."
"I have enough juice for one last eye pulse!"
"I-I can follow up about two seconds of cover!"

"..."

"We're glad to have been of service, Lieutenant. Are we clear for engagement?"

---

The atmosphere in the command room was palpable. Each of the heads of the companies of the Lunar Self-Defense Forces took their respective seats mechanically, and immediately directed their attention to the end of the table. A white-haired woman stood there with a flat-screen terminal in her hand. She stood out from the rest of the plain navy blue uniforms, as her outfit was an odd mishmash of primary blue and red. One might even have called her a jester with those garish colors. However, the way everyone else seriously regarded her, it was obvious that she certainly wasn't treated as one.

The woman touched the terminal, and a large screen lit up behind her. A map of the Lunar Capital's layout took up the majority of the screen, with some blinking red and green lights sprinkled throughout. The green lights were gathered around the Capital's location, while the red ones were scattered about the general area in loose groups.

"As I'm sure you're all aware of, we've got a bit of a grave situation now that the Del Sol Gun-Array is compromised. For whatever reason, firing it just redirects the solarfire back towards us. We know that solarfire can't be reflected, but the beam seems to simply disappear in midair and fly back out in another random direction, usually vaporizing a good chunk of our forces. The tech department is still pulling their hair out as to why. Unfortunately, this also means that we can't risk using any more wave manipulation-based artillery," the head stated.

Then, she paused for a bit, averting her gaze before continuing. "We've lost a lot of good rabbits today, so we can't afford to make any more mistakes."

Everyone sat in silence; only the hum of the screen could be heard. One person in particular lowered their head, and even trembled slightly.

"However, we've managed to get some decisive info out of the ones we've extracted from recent intel ops. Though we've determined that most of the invaders' 'entrance portals' have been mostly scattered, it seems like they've been a lot keener on protecting this part of Tranquility. All of their accounts match on this, so we have a lot of reason to believe that this is where we should be focusing on," she continued, as a square highlighted a portion of the map, and zoomed in on the area. A video feed popped up on the screen.

"This is what we got on one of our drones," the woman said, as the feed showed a large grey entourage of monsters, somewhat blending into the moon's white surface. However, a single spot was colored differently on the landscape. The feed zoomed further in, showing that the discoloration was a huge rift in space, floating in midair. It looked like it was distorting the space around it, bending the light in odd spirals.

"That's enormous! It's at least five times as large as the portals we've seen so far!" one of the people at the table exclaimed.

"Yes, but that's not our focus right now," their head interrupted.

The video then panned over to an area near the rift. There, on the white surface, a pink parasol shifted into focus. The parasol twirled about, starkly contrasting the monsters they had seen before. Then, someone emerged from beneath the parasol, while the video froze. A fair blonde-haired woman appeared to look directly at the drone, dressed in purple garb. Everyone sharply inhaled.

Then, suddenly, a slam sounded through the room. Someone had stood up, shaking profusely. Not from sorrow, as she had been half a minute ago, but from anger. The purple-haired woman drew a sword from her side, and unsheathed it in one smooth movement.

"Yagokoro! I've had it! Enough of all this pussyfooting around! Let me in there, I'll teach this fucking earthworm how the Moon really fights!" she bellowed. The others stiffened in their seats, as if they were pinned down by her battle aura. However, their white-haired commander was unfazed. Staring down the sword's blade, she set down the terminal in her hands, and smiled. Every person besides the princess froze.

"I'm glad that our dear princess Yorihime is so zealous to charge in, but please let me finish my presentation before we rush to send royalty into uncertain territory," the commander said, tapping on the terminal's screen. Immediately, the screen behind her went dark, and a line of white letters appeared.

"CONFIDENTIAL - PROJECT CLOCKUP"

---

The Sea of Tranquility. On the serene landscape that was the Moon, the Sea was especially tranquil. So much so, that it was rumored amongst the Lunarians that if one spent enough time near it, they would be overwhelmed by all-encompassing calmness and achieve enlightenment. However, today, it was home to a different landscape. Discarded corpses littered the lunar mare, ravaged and torn apart by the unrelenting youkai invaders. That was the result of the Genso-Lunar War thus far.

"You know, Ran, maybe it should be called a massacre instead of a war. I thought Lunarians were supposed to be advanced."

"Yukari-sama's power is obviously too great for them to oppose."

"Hm. Maybe we should have asked Chen to come along. It'd be a lovely picnic overlooking a full Earth. How do you like it here so far, Ran?"

"I have been digging out moon dust from my tails for the past day and a half, Yukari-sama."

Sighing to herself, a nine-tailed fox youkai stood underneath the parasol. Ran's hand held a fine-toothed comb, which she was running through her blonde fur. Beside the kitsune, her master sat elegantly, giggling to herself. Yukari spread out her fan as she surveyed a few portals arranged in front of her. Each portal showed the same gruesome scene as the one in front of her, with the earthborn youkai overwhelming any opposition they encountered. Any anti-battalion weaponry they had was swiftly dealt with, thanks to Yukari and Ran's rear-end support. Their latest failed venture was a gigantic cannon, which appeared to use the Sun's energy.

"Still, I wonder what that flying thing was. Maybe it was someone's shikigami?"

"I didn't sense any spiritual link from it, Yukari-sama. It was most likely one of the Lunarians' machines. I advise that we stay on the lookout for another one of those large-scale attacks."

"Ah, I don't think we have much to worry about... ---!!"

Suddenly, Yukari swept out her hand, and her shikigami disappeared in the blink of an eye. Almost immediately after, a loud ringing noise resounded throughout the area, and Yukari fell to the ground, her parasol following suit. A brilliant jet of red sprayed out from her side, uninhibited. "Urk!!" she cried out, before disappearing into a gap, and reappearing on her feet. Yukari's face darkened as her eyes darted to and fro, searching for her attacker.

"Show yourself!"

Her search wasn't for too long, as the air in front of her distorted to reveal a human figure, clad from the neck down in a jet-black suit. The skintight suit hugged a figure that was noticeably feminine. Above the neck, a head of shoulder-length white hair and murderous red eyes glared back at the gap youkai, who was presently trying to keep her innards from spilling. The attacker then widened her stance, and Yukari could see a knife emerge from her hand.

Ring.

Yukari's eyes widened as her opponent disappeared, and she immediately kicked back in an explosive launch. Another trail of blood sprayed out from her shoulderblade; the angle appeared as if it was aimed for her neck, but barely missed. The assassin reappeared again, but this time, instead of hostility, her eyes showed confusion.

Yukari was grinning.

Ring.

She immediately grabbed her parasol from the ground, as the attacker disappeared again. In one smooth move, Yukari then struck the end of the parasol into the ground. A murky purple ooze exploded from the end like a volcanic eruption, engulfing the immediate area in a wide circle. A horrific growl rumbled through the dome it created. Then, her assailant reappeared before her, knife thrust out towards her head.

Shock crept into the attacker's eyes as they met Yukari's gaze. A sickening squish was heard, as Yukari embedded her arm into her attacker's torso with an inhumanly strong thrust. With her psychotic grin widening by the second, she felt the unmistakable rhythmic thump of a beating heart.

"Heh heh heh... Oh, well, now that's more like it."

"... I-Impossible. H-How did you dodge two attacks in a row?" a cold voice struggled out. Apparently, her attacker could speak.

Yukari snickered through equally labored breathing. "Hah, hah. My stomach's been sliced in half and you call that dodging? Have to admit, though, I'd never thought to manipulate the 'Boundary of the Eternity and the Instant'. Stopping time outright... Hah, hah. I just barely detected it, you know? Give me a break, you idiots, I'm not prescient... Hah, haa..."

The youkai then planted her foot against her attacker's stomach, and kicked her backwards. The organ she held in her hands tore away from its vessels violently; its previous owner flung into an ooze-laden wall within the dome.

"You Lunarians are so obsessed with eternity... Why not live a little, dying's a part of living too."

Her attacker feebly looked back up at the youkai, and raised her hand, still gripping the knife.

"Ah... are you trying to stop time again? That won't work, you know... hah, ahh... This 'Boundary World' won't let you-- time is meaningless in here. In fact, heh, you might end up doing something worse."

Then, as if on command, enormous eyeballs began to appear around both of them, opening up from countless openings as far as the eye could see. The next thing Yukari knew, a rift had opened by itself underneath her attacker, and engulfed her in an instant. Yukari let herself fall onto the slimy floor as well, though she wasn't similarly swallowed. The blood from her stomach and the heart in her hand began to suffuse slowly through the purple ooze.

"Uuuugh... That was tiring."

She began to close her eyes; resting inside of her domain would easily let her wounds heal.

"Yukari-sama! Where are you?!"

... Of course, a certain shikigami had to interrupt her right before she went to sleep. Before the attacker had struck, she had forcefully changed her familiar into spirit form to save her. However, now that Yukari was in recovery mode and unable to supply enough energy for the spirit form, Ran had turned back into her corporeal form back on the moon.

"Shut up, Ran, can't you see I'm resting right now... The great Yukari-sama just defeated a strong enemy, you know..."

Even though she had essentially left her familiar stranded on the moon, it wasn't like she hadn't left a whole host of dimensional rifts back to Gensokyo for her Happy Invasion Party Friends to return home. Or, well, what was left of them, anyway. She hadn't even expected any more than a tenth of them to survive, as she knew the entire strength of the youkai army lay in their numbers.

"There is a Lunarian swordswoman wreaking havoc on the youkai battalions! She is destroying entire thousands with a single strike! Should we order a retreat!?"

Oh, they finally decided to send in the interesting people when I go to bed. So much for those overwhelming numbers, too, Yukari thought. What a waste, she'd just have to come back and play another time. The rifts probably wouldn't stay open beyond the full moon anyway.

"Do what you have to do, I'm too tired now. Good night," she mumbled, as she abruptly cut off her communication link with her familiar. Around her, the countless eyeballs disappeared one by one into the purple slop, eventually leaving her truly alone with her thoughts.

...

"Hmm... I wonder where that portal went."

---

Somewhere, in the depths of 16th century Romania, stood a regal mansion. Though the residence was magnificent, there didn't seem to be any sign that anyone lived in it, or anywhere near the area. The gardens of the manor had long been reclaimed by nature. Its walls could easily be seen to be in danger of collapse at any time, even with the faint illumination of the full moon. Yet in spite of all this, the pitter-patter of steps could be heard down the stone courtyard. And alongside those steps, two little girls could be heard excitedly talking to each other.

"Is it really true, Remi? If this is one of your tricks again..."

"Come on, Flan! I'm telling you, there's a fresh dead human here! Let's make her our friend!"