Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Misplaced Sukima - Missing Truth

At the house of the Yakumo, which location is unknown, Yukari calls Ran, in quite the demanding tone. "Ran Yakumo, I am CALLING you!" shouted Yukari. From the other side of the house, an annoyed Ran shouted back "I'm coming, I'm coming." Kneeling by Yukari's door, Ran opens the door saying "excuse me for taking so long. Chen was having some trouble with her math." Yukari waves her hand left and right saying "never mind that, and cut the formalities. It's creepy. Ran, I need you to keep an eye on the Hakurei Shrine for me." Ran looks surprised and asks "the Hakurei Shrine? Is there something wrong?" Yukari smiles saying "after that excess of dark energy discharge, I've been getting a very bad feeling. I want you to go there and tell me if anything out of the ordinary is happening. Anything at all, got it?" Ran, looking quite serious now, nods and closes the door, but just before she finishes closing it, Yukari adds "and make certain to look after yourself while out there. You know what I'm talking about, I hope?" Ran says "of course. I'll be careful, lady Yukari." and then Ran closes the door then heads to Chen. "Chen, I have to go out for a while, try to finish your math work and take care of lady Yukari while I'm gone." Chen stands up and salutes Ran saying "leave it it me, Ran-sama!" Ran shrieks and grabs hold of Chen, hugging her tightly, making her laugh. "Chen you're so CUTE!" Ran's nose was bleeding as the hugs Chen, then from behind her, a gap opens up, followed by a quick punch from Yukari. Letting go of Chen, Ran rubs her head then says "argh! Alright already, I'm going! See you later, Chen." As Ran leaves, Chen goes outside waving at Ran shouting back "see you later Ran-sama. Come back soon! Have a safe trip!"

At the Hakurei Shrine, Ran finds cover behind the leafless trees, and is able to conceal her presence. She looks around the back of the shrine, but no one was there. She suddenly hears voices from inside the shrine and immediately hides. When she peeks again, she sees Ail and Reimu. She hears Reimu saying "alright, let's begin the training. First, give me everything you got!" Ail starts to shoot at Reimu, but she dodges all his shots as if it were mere child's play, then shoots back. Ail dodges quite skilfully and starts to shoot at Reimu with his focused shots. Reimu dodges the shots, but forgot the explosion on impact and is sent flying toward Ail, however, she used this chance to shoot at him from point blank, but as if expecting this, Ail moves away. "Very good. You have done pretty well so far. Let's see if you can keep it up." Reimu pulls out a spell card and shouts "Divine Spirit, Fantasy Seal!" Various orbs of light home in on Ail. He couldn't dodge them and was soon lying on the ground, coughing up smoke. Reimu helps him up. All Ail could say was "Ow, ow, ow. That really hurt." Reimu scoffs and says "you are lucky I wasn't using my full power there. Right, we need to work on your defenses, they're pathetic." Ail rubs his head and chuckles. During the course of the day, Ran continued to watch them train, however she soon realizes she wasn't alone. Rumia, Mystia, Sanae, Suwako, Kanako, Keine, Mokou, Alice, and even Marisa, were all hiding, watching them train. Pretty soon, all of them got together to watch the fight. Ran was in complete disbelief, then Reimu shouts "HEY, what are you all doing there!?" Ail calmly says "they probably want to see us train." Reimu smiles that bloody smile only she can smile and says "well, you shouldn't be hiding. Why don't you come closer?" All, but Ran and Marisa, quietly get closer, Rumia saying "is that so~?!" Suddenly they all became targets for Reimu, and Ail who was ordered to attack, or be punished. Happy, Reimu dusts her hands saying " well, that's it for today. It turned out to be a REALLY good training session, wouldn't you agree?" Ail hesitantly says " err... yeah. Um, is it ok to just leave them all there?" Marisa and Ran, who were still hiding looked at each other, then Marisa says "geez, I can't believe them. Even Keine fell for that, ze." Ran laughs saying "we got lucky she didn't see us..." Suddenly they realize that Reimu was right behind them, her eyes glowing bloody red, smiling and chuckling she says "and who says I didn't, heh heh he~!"

Arriving back home, her clothes in tatters, her face full of bruises, and one of her tails was missing a chunk of hair, Ran limps inside and drops on the floor. Chen runs to her worried "Ran-sama, Ran-sama! What happened!?" Chen was about to cry when Ran pats her on the head and says "it's okay Chen. I'll be ok." A small gap forms in front of Chen and form there Yukari's voice came, saying "Ra~n, I want a repo~rt." Ran limps to Yukari's room, kneels in front of the door, then opens it. Inside, Yukari was already signaling her to get closer with a smile. Ran struggles getting up and limps to her master, then kneels next to her. "Ran, didn't I tell you to take care of yourself?" asked Yukari then Ran answers "circumstances arose, and the shrine maiden found me." Yukari pats Ran on the head and says "at least it was her, and not that thing. So, tell me. What's going on at the shrine right now?" Ran perks up and says "Reimu is training Ail, although I don't understand exactly why. I did hear them talk about spell cards and talking about Ail's barrier powers. Although Reimu's reason for training him seems to be just a favor, Ail's reason for the training is..." Yukari stares into Ran's eyes then says "yes, go on..." Ran looks down and says "I felt urgency in him. I think he might be forcing himself for a very powerful reason. His eyes... I saw despair." Yukari smiles a little then says "Ran, I want you to rest for the next five days. After that, I want you to head to the Hakurei Shrine and help Ail train. Teach him how to use those gaps as if it were me using them, understand? He needs to have mastered the power of barriers by spring." Ran looks a bit puzzled then asks "but why not let Reimu?" Yukari giggles and says "she'll get tired of the training and leave him on his own. I know he has Kyo there as well, but his friend can only help so much." Ran nods then struggles to get up again. Just before she limps out of the room, Yukari tells her "take Chen with you every two days, when you go train Ail. She's got one of the keys." Ran looked at Yukari quite confused, but she knew Yukari meant something by it.

Two days later, Yukari wakes up from her hibernation one more time, this time she heads outside to look for Ran. "M-Miss Yukari!? What's the matter, why are you awake!?" Yukari yawns and signals Ran to stop, then takes out three letters and gives them to Ran. "I wasn't sure if I should do this, but I think it would be appropriate." says Yukari as Ran just stares at her. She places her hand on Ran's and says "One is for Kyo, another for Ail, and one for Reimu." Ran noticed that one of the letters were from the two girls from the outside that wanted to enter Gensokyo. "Lady Yukari! Since when-?" Yukari glares at Ran then says "I got them a little while ago. Got them before Reimu did... it wasn't easy; specially that last one... the one for Ail. Tell them you didn't know about these... although I would suggest you step away from Reimu. As far away from her as you can. Oh and tell Ail he won't have to become my apprentice after all. There won't be need of it." Yukari pats Ran on the head, then Chen who had just entered the room and asked "Lady Yukari? Are you ok? You're not sick, right?" Yukari yawns again and says "I just had to talk to Ran for a bit. Now be a good girl and take care of Ran while I sleep, ok?" Chen nods, her eyes sparkle, then Ran's nose bleeds as she hugs Chen, calling her cute. Yukari floats back to her room, then goes back to sleep. Just as she fell asleep she mumbles "Ail, don't be an idiot now... use it to your heart's content."

Snow started to fall and the winter fairies came out to play in the snow. The five days of rest had passed and Ran was leaving to go to the Hakurei Shrine. "Che~n, take care of the place while I'm gone, and make sure Lady Yukari isn't disturbed." From the kitchen Chen shouts "Oka~y. Have a safe trip." Just as Ran left, she screams loudly. When Chen comes outside, she finds Ran suspended in mid-air, her body looked as though it was being squeezed hard. Chen panics "RAN-SAMA!!! What's the matter!" Ran's face was turning blue. She was being suffocated. Chen desperately looked everywhere to see how she could help, but she saw on Ran's eyes, how she was slowly losing consciousness. Chen starts to cry calling out for Ran. Just then, a gap opens, followed by a string of danmaku that was aimed toward the sun light. The shadow of the danmaku impacted the shadow of Ran, or more accurately, the shadow that was killing her. Ran drops down on the snow-covered ground, coughing violently and gasping for air. Chen immediately checks on her then notices a large snake-shaped shadow wriggle away. Yukari comes out from another gap looking angry to the direction of the shadow. "Ran, speak to me, are you ok!?" shouted Yukari, sounding very angry. Ran, gasping for air wheezes out a "yes". Yukari calms down then says "change of plans. RAN, take Chen and STAY at the Hakurei shrine. Tell Reimu EVERYTHING that happened here just now. Every single detail, got that? Chen?" Chen nods then Yukari continues "this cold is making me fall asleep already. Ran, Chen, fly above the trees, do NOT let your shadows touch the ground, not even for a second. Is that understood!?" Ran recovers and gets up, staggering a little. She looks at Yukari and says "Understood. Chen, let's go." "But what about lady Yukari?" asked Chen sounding terribly worried. Yukari smiles and rubs Chen's head and says "just take care of each other, and I'll get you when it's spring, alright?" I'll send your things ahead of you with a note for Reimu. Go, NOW! Remember, don't let your shadows touch the ground, not once!" Ran grabs Chen and lifts off, then hears her master's thoughts saying "be careful, both of you!"

Characters and scenario belong to ZUN -Team Shanghai Alice-
Ail and Kyo were created by Willie G.R.

JUN 29 2009
written by
Willie G.R.

Misplaced Sukima P-7

One week after the "missing Dog-Ail" incident, Reimu assembles Ail, Kyo and Mima inside the shrine, and banging her hand on the table she gets their attention and says "ladies, gentlemen, as you know, the days are getting colder, and the daytime shorter, which means winter is upon us. It has come to my attention that our supply of food for the winter, is pretty low, and if we don't do something about it soon, we'll starve this winter." Kyo's face fills with worry, while Ail's and Mima's stayed looking unconcerned and indifferent. "You two look WAY too calm. Are you hiding something?" shouted Kyo. Ail then gets on the table and with that squeaky voice he says "I vote we go youkai hunting and use their meat as food!" Kyo was in complete shock, then Reimu says "no, no, I tried that once. Youkai meat tastes horrible. Not even Kyo would be able to eat one bite off of one." Again Kyo is shocked and yells "listen you two, I don't know of you're being funny of what, but I think this is VERY serious!" "Calm down" says Ail in a very indifferent tone "we'll just get some extra work at the village and buy some more food. However..." As Ail looks at Reimu she continues for him "however, we should ration what we eat for the moment, just to make sure." Mima holds her head with her hands behind and looking as though she didn't care she says "well, good luck with all that!" Kyo, Reimu and Ail look at her, all with little glints in their eyes. Mima backs away and says "hey, hey, I'm a ghost, I don't need to eat, so I don't have to work or anything like that, got it!?" Suddenly Mima finds herself with Reimu and Kyo, helping them fulfill requests from the villagers. "And why does Ail have to stay behind?" asked Mima, sounding high and mighty, then Reimu simply replies "because there's very little he can do to help in his current state. Besides, he said he had other plans to help."

Back at the shrine, Ail had dug several straight lines on the dirt at the back of the shrine, and was planting many seeds. From the front of the shrine he heard "we're he~re! Ail?" Ail flies to the front and greets the Aki sisters. "Thank you very much for coming in such short notice." Quite a few green stars came from Ail's chest, all falling on Shizuha's and Minoriko's arms, both giggling as he looks at this event and wags his tail, still in mid-air, then he signals them to follow him to the back, and while they walk there, Shizuha whispers at Minoriko "he looks so cute, doesn't he?" Minoriko giggles. Ail heard everything, but just sighs, and when they reach the tiny garden he had made, Minoriko immediately understood. Ail then says "once you bless this, I'll use my energy manipulation to make them grow faster." Minoriko looks worried and says "well, this is no big deal for me, but it's going to be dangerous for you." Ail shakes his head a bit saying "I have to help here somehow. What's a few days in bed, huh?" Minoriko nods then blesses the small garden, then Ail places his hands on the ground and makes many kinds of vegetables grow. He lets out a loud *phew* as he gets a large box and starts placing the vegetables there, then he says "I LOVE Gensokyo!" The Aki sisters giggle and help him a little, then he repeats the seeding process, so that they may grow more and more vegetables.

By noon, Reimu, Kyo and Mima were too tired to fly, so they were walking to the shrine. "Man" said Kyo "who could have though Orin was such a slave-driver." Reimu says "Yeah. Too bad the yama closed off her restaurant... and in only 5 hours too." Mima, placing both hands behind her head says "at least we still got payed. Eirin, however... was a pain." All three shudder then Reimu says "please, don't remind me. I just can't understand how that Udonge can take it? In any case, we collected enough money to go buy enough food for the winter tomorrow." As they climbed the stairs, they could hear the Aki sisters saying "aww, so cute. Look at him twitch his ears like that." "Yeah. I wonder if he'll be alright, though." All three look at each other and hurry up the stairs and head to the back of the shrine where the Aki sisters were patting Ail who was on the ground, his eyes spinning and his ears twitching. Beside them were four large boxes, all filled with all kinds of vegetables and one more box filled with some fruits. "Oh, you're back." said Minoriko, getting up and dusting her dress. Shizuha, holding Ail, gets up and says "he overdid himself" hands Ail to Mima, then says "he used a lot of energy to grow all of these. You should be fine for the winter now." Minoriko adds "and all blessed by yours truly here, so a little thanks is in order!" Without hesitation, Reimu, Mima and Kyo give her a bit of the money they made, then patting Ail one last time on the head, Minoriko and Shizuha fly back to their home. Once all the boxes of vegetable and fruits were inside the storage house, Kyo goes to the shrine. Ail was sleeping wrapped up in white sheets, Mima was looking outside the window, as if waiting for something, and Reimu was serving tea. "He's one crazy little guy, that Ail" says Reimu as she sips on her tea. Mima goes to get her cup and Kyo, grabbing his cup says "back home he was always so quiet, and he used to do a lot of favors for me, my friends, my family and his family as well, of course. Heheh, seeing him angry was rare, but a funny treat." Mima grabs the sleeping Ail, who lets out a low "rowl?" but continues to sleep. She looks at him for a bit and says "I wonder if he'll turn back to human? He's been a dog for a while now." Reimu looks at Mima, as if realizing something, then says "you're right! I'm starting to worry. What if it's permanent?" Kyo gets a bit upset and says "now, come on! Eirin said it could take weeks, and it's only been what... one week? Let's not lose our faith here!" Mima and Reimu giggle and say "you're right!"

At night, Sakuya drops down to the Hakurei Shrine, covered in wounds and some sort of slime. She gets halfway into the shrine right before collapsing. By the time she wakes up, they had her in a futon. Kyo was besides himself with worry, Mima was drinking heavily with Suika, Ail was still asleep, rolled around the white sheets, and Reimu was placing a fresh wet towel on her head. Spotting Reimu, Sakuya says "we need your help." Reimu, looking annoyed asks "what did you do this time?" Sakuya sits up and says "Patchouli's experiment went bad. It's running lose inside the mansion. It has absorbed both Koakuma and Patchouli in it's body and it grew. It's hunting down the young mistresses." Reimu REALLY looked annoyed now and said "and if it's not stopped, it'll eat the vampires then go outside and try to eat everyone else, right?" Kyo bravely shouts "I'll go and destroy that thing single-handed!" Reimu throws a yin-yang ball at Kyo saying "you have no chance against something that did all THIS to Sakuya, so you stay here. I'll look for Marisa and-" Reimu felt a tug on her skirt. It was Ail saying "take me with you." Reimu shakes her head and says "I don't think so. In your current state you'll only get in the way. Better sit this one out, ok?" "But I can help." insisted Ail, then Reimu looks into his eyes... "I'll be back soon. Kyo, make sure these two don't destroy the shrine, take care of Sakuya, and keep Ail in that room. I'll see you all later." Then Reimu left to look for Marisa. Ail was locked up in a small room, with nowhere to go, however, he feels some air coming from under a board. With a little effort, he manages to lift the board. It made a loud creaking sound, however nobody outside seems to notice, so he squeezes himself under the board and crawls under the shrine then exits through the right side of the shrine by digging under the foundation. He looks at the moon... it was looking a little red. He decides to head directly to the mansion, while keeping a low profile, and with that small body, that was going to be easy. And so he flies a close to the trees as he could, to avoid detection by Reimu or Marisa.

Arriving at the mansion, Ail notices the gate was locked, but no gatekeeper in sight. Without hesitation, he goes through the bars of the gates, his body being so small. He reached the front door and realized... it was too big for him to open. From inside he heard screaming and explosions, there was no time to lose, however Marisa and Reimu arrive just then, were already flying over the gate. Ail hid quickly enough to avoid being seen, Marisa and Reimu opening the door and leaving it open. "Sakuya mentioned the creature absorbed Patchouli and Koakuma, so be on your guard." said Reimu. Marisa smirks and says "heh, don't you worry about me, ze. I'll just blast that monster with my Master Spark and be back home before we know it, da~ze!" They walked inside the mansion, Reimu saying "yeah, you're probably right." Ail was following behind them when they heard blasts coming from the top floors and Remilia shouting "Meiling, Flan! Look out!!" Reimu and Marisa rush upstairs, followed by Ail, but Ail stops for a moment, noticing a book that was about to fall through the handrail gaps. He picked it up and instinctively looked inside, finding a creature that looked like a gelatinous blob. Under the picture of the creature were many instructions, and so he kept on reading. On the second floor, Reimu and Marisa find Remilia and Flandre, both looking terrified. The vampires cling to the humans shouting "we can't stop it. I has Meiling now!" shouted Remilia while clinging on to Reimu, Flandre was holding on to Marisa quite tightly and shouting "the monster wants to eat us!" Reimu starts to shout "calm down, calm down!" and just then, a large crystal colored blob enters the corridor, inside it, encased in large crystals were Koakuma, Patchouli and Meiling, who had a terrified look in her face, frozen inside that crystal. It also had another, smaller crystal, that was beating just like a heart. Both Reimu and Marisa gulp and start shooting their danmaku at the creature, but the monster opens up it's mouth and absorbs the shots, then launches four tentacles from random locations of it's body. All panic and jump out of the way just in time. As they ran back from where they came, Reimu shouts "what the HELL was Patchouli doing!?" Remilia, almost crying in fear says "I don't know. I just want it gone, now!" Reimu says in a low tone of voice "so much for charisma..." From behind them, multi-colored crystals, blue lasers and bubble-like danmaku come flying toward the girls. They barely avoided the shots which exploded just in front of them. Reimu turns around surprised, saying "those were... Meiling's Colorful Rain, and Patchouli's Princess Undine?" Flandre, now crying, shouts "it uses their power without using spell cards! Make it go awa~y!" Reimu makes her stand; she pulls out a spell card and shouts "Spirit Sign, Fantasy Seal -FADER-"! Marisa shudders when she hears the declaration. Countless charms, red danmaku and yin-yang balls fly toward the creature, harming it on impact. The monster gurgles and roars in pain. "It's working" shouted Marisa, and then joins in pulling out her Hakkero and shouts "Love Sign, Master Spark!!!" The blast reaches the monster, making it roar louder. Both Flandre and Remilia join in as well. "Scarlet Sign, Scarlet Shoot!" shouted Remilia, followed by Flandre "Taboo, Laevatein!" The monster roared louder and louder. Marisa shouts "It's working, just a little more!" Her Master spark was just about to reach the monster's heart, when it suddenly launches four more tentacles, capturing them all. It pulls into it's mouth both Marisa and Reimu, encasing them inside crystals, inside it's body, growing in size, then Remilia frees one of her arms and cuts Flandre lose. "Onee-chan" shouted Flandre, as Remilia is swallowed by the monster, joining the rest inside it.

Back at the shrine, Kyo was already drunk, when he goes to check on Sakuya. "Miss Sakuya?" asks Kyo as he enters the room, but no answers. He gets closer to the futon slowly realizing Sakuya was gone. In an instant, screeching on the floor as the ran as fast as he could to Mima and Suika, he shouts "SAKUYA IS GONE!!!" Mima, from dead drunk, changed to sacred and worried shouting "WHAT!? Reimu'll KILL US! Get Ail, we have to find her!" Kyo opens the door to the small room, and found only brooms. He turns pale shouting "HE'S GONE TOO!!!" Suika spring sup and says "in cases like these..." she pauses and looks at Mima, then at Kyo then continues "...hiding is the BEST choice!" All three at the same time lift their right hands in the air saying "RIGHT!!", then they run away from the shrine, Suika saying "don't forget the sake!"

Back at the mansion, Flandre arrives at the first floor, avoiding a Master Spark from the monster. She was breathing fast as she ran, stumbling against all in her path, and constantly falling to the floor. Many fairy maids tried to stop the monster, but they all became food for it. Reaching the stairs that lead to the Mansion's exit, she continues to run as fast as she could to the door. The monster launched another tentacle, wrapping it around Flandre's leg. She shrieks as she falls and claws the floor, trying to pull herself free, but the monster slowly pulled her back. Something cuts the crystal-colored tentacle allowing Flandre to escape, then something grabs her, and almost instantly pulls her to the first floor. It was Sakuya saying "are you alright, young mistress?" Flan, still trembling, nods, wiping the tears from her eyes. Sakuya looks to the monster's direction and says "my lady, you must hide outside while I take care of this monster." Flandre looks at Sakuya, about to cry again saying "but... no, you can't-" Sakuya scolds her saying "wipe those tears and listen up! You are the young mistress! Remilia is gone, which makes you the mistress of this house, so straighten up and be brave! Don't worry, I will come and get you when this thing is dead!" Flandre stops shaking, gulps and holds her tears back, then as she heads out the door she shouts "then I order you to not let that thing get you!" and then she shuts the door behind her. Sakuya smiles saying "don't worry, that thing will never be able to stomach me!" She turns to face the monster, looking at it menacingly, shouting "COME ON!" She pulls out a spell card and shouts "Strange Art, Misdirection!" Time stops around her as many daggers materialize where she was, then she appears on another side, more daggers heading the monster's way. She landed so many daggers into the creature, she managed to scratch the crystal heart inside the monster. The monster thrashes around, roaring in pain. Sakuya smiles, feeling great satisfaction from that. She was about to use another spell card when the monster suddenly shoots her with Marisa's Master Spark, blasting her against the door of the mansion, breaking it in the process, and knocking Sakuya out.

On the edge of the island, Flandre heard the monster roaring, then the a loud bang. "Sakuya!" she shouts, heading immediately back. She runs as fast as she could back to the mansion and saw upon arriving there, Sakuya knocked down on the ground, next to Meiling's flower garden. In front of the gate was Ail. "Little-big brother!" shouts Flandre. She runs to him and kneels in front of him asking "what are you doing here?" Ail looks at her, holding the book he was reading before and says "I am going to help you destroy that thing." Flandre shivers a little then Ail continues "listen, we can do it, but you have to be brave and work together with me, alright?" Flandre nods then Ail says "alright, you see that empty crystal inside the monster?" Flandre looks at it as it struggles to get out of the mansion and spots the empty crystal that was beating just like a heart. She says "I see it... it's like a heart!" then Ail says "That's the monster's weak point. I am going to distract the monster and you must grab that crystal's eye and break it, understand?" Flandre hugs Ail tightly and says "I already tried, and nothing happened. We need more help!" Ail, in a strict tone, his voice sounding a bit less squeaky says "Flan, be brave. Trust me on this You CAN do this. I will help you. Do it for Sakuya, for Marisa... for all your friends." Sobbing, Flandre lets go of Ail wiping her tears and nodding. Ail walks as fast as he could to the monster's direction saying "I'll distract it and you brake it! It'll be fun!" Just like that, Flandre's face becomes a bit twisted as she smiles and says "yeah... I can break this... and it'll be fun, like before... only... only..." As Ail faces the monster he thinks "from a destructive little monster, to a regular little girl... maybe my meddling messed her up more than it helped. One thing remains certain though. Her innocence is as pure as it comes." The monster finally frees itself from the front door and spots Ail, extending another tentacle and grabbing him. Flandre shouts but Ail shouts back saying "NOW FLAN! DO IT NOW!" Instinctively she grabs the eye of the monster's heart and clenches her fist just as the monster swallows Ail. The crystal inside cracks in various places, but it doesn't break. The monster thrashes around violently, breaking open the gate as it thrashed toward Flandre. Flandre drops to her knees and still smiling says "It... it didn't work." She closes her eyes and awaits to be eaten. Just then, Ail's small body starts to emanate orange energy that expanded more and more. The monster stops in it's tracks, as if completely frozen, and then, Ail's body explodes, the explosion concentrates on the monster's heart, shattering it into dust. The monster's body slowly melts into nothing, and is absorbed by the ground.

One by one, all of those who were absorbed by the monster get up from the ground. "O-Onee-chan, Marisa... EVERYONE! You're all ok!" shouts Flandre as she flaps her wings and lunges at Remilia, hugging her tight. Remilia pats Flandre on the head saying "yes, we're all fine!" Marisa shouts at Patchouli "what the HELL were you thinking, bringing that thing here!?" Patchouli, looking as though nothing had happened, dusts her clothes and says "it was a simple miscalculation from my part, but it's been take care of." She spots her book and says "I'm impressed, Flan. You understood this?" Flandre lets Remilia go and looks at the book looking confused and says "I didn't read that. Little-big brother did!" Reimu sits on the ground, rubbing her head, then asks "little-big who?" Koakuma gasps saying "oh no. Reimu, lady Patchouli... come quick!" Remilia and Meiling had gone to the mansion's gate and found Sakuya lying on the ground. Meiling grabs Sakuya saying "it's us, don't worry." Sakuya lets go of a knife she had on her hand, then drops her head to look at Remilia who tells her "you performed admirably, Sakuya" Sakuya softly replies "thank you my lady." They hear Koakuma sobbing, then head to where she was. Reimu was pale, her eyes unblinking, widely open, Marisa was quiet, pulling her hat down to cover her face. Patchouli looked on, saying nothing while Koakuma stood sobbing by her side, looking down on the ground. Flandre was sobbing, clinging on Marisa, then Remilia and Meiling arrive, seeing the small body of Ail on the ground. The pale body lies on the ground, unmoving, and lifeless. Reimu says "I... I told him to stay..." She then touches the body; it was cold and stiff, and then, it turned into light and flies to the sky, vanishing from sight. Reimu's eyes were getting glassy as she said "I-I told him to stay..." She then looks at the others. Even Sakuya, who just got up, looked saddened. Just then Reimu was about to lose it as she sits hard the ground, holding her forehead, then from one of the trees they heard "hey! Somebody help! I'm stuck!" Everyone gasp at the same time and say "Ail!?" and about two trees behind them, there he was, back to his human form, hanging upside down from a tree branch by his boot. He looks at them and says "come on guys, I'm really stuck!" Meiling flies up and grabs his boot, pulling him from the branch, and just as he thanked her, she lets him go, dropping hard on the ground. "Ow, geez, what was THAT for!?" Suddenly, all the girls came rushing to him, shooting danmaku and swinging whatever weapon they could find shouting "you idiot" "we really thought you were dead" "don't do that again!" and once they all reached him, they all drop and group-hug him. Full of bruises and cuts from the countless danmaku shot his way, he was really confused as they all were now hugging him like that, saying "you're alive" "I can't believe it" "don't do that again"

In the dining room of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, everyone is having tea and cookies, including Meiling and Sakuya, while the fairy maids fixed and cleaned the mansion. "So after reading about the monster's weakness, I knew only Flan had enough power to crack that thing, however I wasn't expecting it to crack so fast." said Ail, as he took another cookie from the plate. Sakuya, who was feeling much better said "maybe my knives helped. I was able to scratch that thing a few times, but sure as hell I wasn't expecting such a beat-down." Meiling, looking a bit confused turns to Ail and asks "but how did you do that? I lost consciousness as soon as the thing swallowed me." All the others agreed, then Ail said "in the book Patchouli left behind, there were instructions on how to maintain some level of consciousness while inside those crystals... still, I used more power than that dog body could handle. I really did die for a moment, at least. I saw all of you... and even my body, as I drifted up to the sky. Something pushed me back in, though. A girl that said 'it's not your time' and that's why I couldn't recall what had happened immediately." Reimu looks at Ail with relief in her face and says "I'm glad you're alive, though. I would have killed you twice, if you had really died." she then takes some tea and some cookies as well. Ail keeps quiet for a moment then said "I think we're forgetting to celebrate the real hero here. It took a lot of guts to take on that monster, right Flan?" Flandre had fallen asleep on the table, still holding a cookie in her hand. Meiling grabs Flandre just as Remilia says "Meiling, take her to her room. There is something we need to talk about now, Reimu." Once Meiling left the room Remilia says "Reimu, Marisa... and you too, Ail, listen up. Something funny is going on around Gensokyo. I have a very bad feeling lately." Reimu nods saying "I have felt it too, but like I told Iku, who told me something similar before, there is nothing we can do about it now. All we can do is wait and see." Marisa lays back on the chair and says "aw, if anything happens, Reimu will take care of it, right, zei?" Reimu glares at Marisa and says "what if I don't WANT to take care of it?" Ail quietly chuckles, then Reimu turns her attention to him saying "careful, mutt. I might add another week of fleas for you!" then shows him a vial with that same indigo colored liquid that had turned him to a dog before. Ail jumps high to the ceiling and clings tight to it shouting "don't even kid around with that!" Then Reimu laughs, opens the vial and drinks it. All in the room look worried, and when she finishes drinking, she says "relax, it's only juice." All but Patchouli laugh as Reimu places the empty vial back in her pockets. Marisa gets up and says "it's time we headed home, ze. Patchouli, try and keep your experiments to a minimum, once in a while." Reimu, Marisa and Ail fly through the broken door and gate, where Meiling was stationed for the rest of the night, while they repaired the gate and doors.

Back at the shrine, Reimu invites a sleepy Marisa to sleep over. Ail fell asleep the second his head hit the pillow, then Reimu, after preparing Marisa's futon, also fell fast asleep as soon as she got into her own futon. Next to the stairs that lead to the shrine, Mima, Suika and Kyo were sleeping next to countless bottles of sake. At morning, Kyo and Mima reach the shrine, greeted by Reimu, who was sweeping the floor at that moment. "Well, had a good camping trip? I do hope you enjoyed yourselves." Kyo and Mima look at each other, then Mima says "you don't look that handsome in the mornings" then Kyo replies "look who's talking. You sure you don't need some makeup or something?" Mima pouts, looking at Kyo with the corner of her eyes and in a dangerous tone she says "watch i~~t!" Reimu giggles and says "you two could make a very nice couple. You certainly were made for each other." "You certainly are in a good mood today. Something happen?" asked Kyo. Reimu smiles and says "I got one less load today. Ail turned back to human last night." Kyo and Mima open their eyes wide and rush to the shrine to find Ail, in his human form, staring at Marisa's nose bubble. He looks at both, wave and says "hi. Had a nice camping trip?" Mima and Kyo look at each other, then Kyo rushes to give his pal a hug saying "you're back, dude!" then Mima says "I see... Reimu DOES have good taste, doesn't she?" Ail smiles and stares blankly at Mima, a question mark forming above his head, then Mima turns around and says "never mind." Just then, Marisa's nose bubble pops, and Marisa wakes up babbling about magical equations and pi, then drops back down to sleep some more. After a bit, Ail goes to the front of the shrine and was about to fly to town, when suddenly, like thorns, constricting his heart, he feels something in the atmosphere as he holds on to his chest. When he looks at Reimu, she was also holding her chest with both her hands, and gasping for air she asks "did you feel that too!?" From inside the shrine Marisa comes rushing to the front shouting "Reimu, Reimu! Did you fell that? Ail, you too?" All three look to the cave that leads to the underground hell. Reimu says "something bad... something really bad is happening down there. We better go and check it out." Ail nods then calls Kyo, but he didn't come. "Hey Kyo, what's the-? Mima was holding her sides, writhing in pain, but she couldn't scream, although it seems as if she was trying to. Kyo was holding her and says "she said she would be fine after a while... Ail, go. We'll head to town and check on the humans there after she gets better... now go!" Ail goes back to the front and says "Mima looks like she's in pain... a lot of pain." Reimu points to the forest, then Ail hears the cries of many youkai. "What is going on now?" shouted Ail as he, Marisa and Reimu lifted to the air and flew toward the underground cave. Reimu says "we, that are human, can feels this. It hurts us. Just imagine what this is doing to the youkai, who are already very sensitive to spiritual and atmospheric activities. Iku must be going nuts by now."

At the deepest levels of the underground, Okuu flies around, just checking everything, as she usually does, then realizes her crow buddies were all flying away from there. "Hey wait, you guys" shouted Okuu as she followed the hell crows. "What's going on? Why are you guys acting like that?" One of the crows got close and sounding very frightened he said "this is bad, very bad *caw*. Gotta get away!" and just as it said that, Okuu shouts, holding her chest, turning back to a crow and falling down to the lava. The other crows grab her in time and fly her back up to Satori's mansion. One of the crows spots a large purple crystal that was slowly being revealed as the lava lowers. The crystal was surrounded by a very dark glow and emanating powerful energy from within. The crow panics and flies away along with the rest of the crows, back to the mansion. Back at the cave's entrance, looking quite grim were Marisa, Reimu and Ail, who had just entered at full speed to the cave. They noticed Kisume's bucket was empty, but realized she was inside a hollow rock, hugging herself. They passed Yamame, who had wrapped herself in her own web. All the creatures of the cave were on the ground, writhing around in pain. They passed through Parsee's bridge, spotting Parsee herself, holding the handrail, trying not to fall down. As they passed the Former Streets of Hell, Yuugi, looking as well as ever flies besides them. "HEY! What's up everybody? Hey, what's with the long faces?" Reimu struggles to speak and says "Yuugi...? Don't you feel that?" Yuugi looks a little puzzled and says "well there IS something going on... but it's not affecting me at all." Marisa chuckles and says "then you must be a tough girl, ze! Want to come with use down to the hell fires?" Yuugi thinks about it then says "sure, why not!?" Reimu looks at Ail, who looked as though he was going to be sick and asks "Ail, what's the matter... *gasp*" Reimu remembered Ail was half youkai then shouts "just hang in there. If you think you can't take it, head back outside!" Ail nods then says "I-I can take it!"

Back at the shrine, Kyo was still holding Mima when Suika arrived, looking very serious. Suika, are you ok?" Suika says "Kyo, we need you at the village, now!" Kyo looks shocked then says "But what about Mima!?" Suika, looking even more serious says "I can feel it too, but I can take it, unlike her. She'll be fine after Reimu fixes this. Just leave her on some pillows and come. I need your help with the villagers." Something about Suika didn't seem right to Kyo, but without hesitation, he places Mima on a futon saying "we'll be back soon! Let's go Suika!" Suika grabs Kyo by the arms and flies with him to the village. On the way there, they spot Rumia and Mystia sitting against a tree, fainted. Wriggle had many bugs surround her and keep her suspended from a branch. "This is terrible. What's going on?" Suika, looking almost angry now, says "a massive energy is coming from somewhere in Gensokyo. It's so strong, even humans can feel it. It gives them pain. That's why I need you. They were building new house and the whole thing collapsed on them, leaving five of them trapped. We have to get them out!" Kyo looks at Suika and asks "Suika, what is wrong? Why are you so mad?" Suka and Kyo land in the village entrance then Suika says "this dark energy... it's affecting me differently, that's why I need your help, to get those villagers out of there, and so I can get away fast... or I might do something I'll regret!" She takes a really big gulp from her gourd, making her look a little less threatening, then she says "let's go!" All the villagers were all looking very sick, and the few that felt strength in them were trying to lift the large roof to free the five that were stuck inside. Kyo takes a deep breath and shouts "out of the way, the cavalry has arrived!!" Suika takes one side, and Kyo the other, then he says "on three... THREE!!!" They lift the roof and four people come running out, then Kyo spots the fifth one on the ground, then shouts "HEY!!! GET HIM OUTTA THERE!!!" Keine comes running out of nowhere and pulls the villager out just in time. As soon as they let go of the roof, Suika covers her eyes and blindly runs to the village's other exit, breaking part of the wall as she misses the gateway. "Suika!" shouts Keine, but Kyo stops her and tells her "let her go! She needs to get away, fast! Are you alright" Keine sits down, holds her chest and says "better than many. Thanks to you and Suika, the villagers are safe. Thank you so much." Kyo nods then says "now it's time I head back to the shrine." Keine looks at Kyo then says "you sure look well. A-Aren't you affected by this?" Kyo smiles and says "I'm used to pain by now." then runs back to the shrine.

Back at the underground, Marisa, Reimu, Ail and Yuugi had found Satori, Orin, Okuu and Koishi, all on the ground, holding their chests tightly. One of the many crows that were perched all around the house, comes to Reimu, cawing like mad and flying in circles. "Crap, I wish I could understand what it's saying" said Reimu, sounding very frustrated. Satori struggles to reach Reimu and pulls her skirt a bit then says "H-he's...saying... there's a dark...c-crystal... releasing this... this energy... hurry...!" Before Reimu said anything, Ail was already heading to the Hellfires, followed by Yuugi. Reimu and Marisa follow him quickly as well, and when they reach him Marisa asks "do you know where you're going?" Ail nods and says "the energy is strong this way. Come on!" Heading to the back of the mansion, they all go straight into the hole leading to the Hellfires. Once down there, Ail spots the crystal almost immediately and pointing at it, he says "there it is!" They find a small place to land and think of a plan, however Ail flies toward the crystal and tries to kick it, but it was so hot, his boots were burning long before they impacted it. He regroups with the others, jumping on one foot and says "we need to push that thing back into the lava." Reimu shouts "how do you know that!?" Ail shouts back "I just do. I don't know why but I JUST DO!" Marisa pushes them both apart saying "calm down, ze. If we kill each other now, then nobody's going to save anyone here, zei!?" Reimu looks at Ail saying "sorry... it's-" Ail nods saying "I know... I'm sorry too." Back at the shrine, Kyo finds Mima just where he left her. She was unconscious, however Kyo felt something behind him. Suika, looking menacingly at him, stomps hard on the ground, her eyes were red, and she looked angry. She started to swing her chain around and whips it on the ground, making a hole where the chain had hit. Kyo knew, one hit from her, and he was dead. Back at the hellfires, Yuugi had grabbed a large stone saying "I'll get that under there for you!" and launched the rock straight at it, but when it impacted the crystal, it only made it crack, making it release even more evil energy.

Back at the shrine, Suika was throwing punches at Kyo, using a lot of her power. Some of her punches and kicks were followed by explosions. "Shit, I have to get out of here, or she's going to kill me" Kyo thought, as he grabs a branch from one of the trees and sling-shots himself to the air, Suika following quickly. While in the air, she pulls out a spell card, however Kyo could not see it, or hear the declaration. Suddenly there was danmaku all around him. He summons his shield energy and is able to reflect a lot of the blasts back to Suika, but there were too many and he was caught off guard, many of the shots landing on his back. He falls to the ground but recovers quickly and as he jumps out of the way, Suika follows with a punch straight at him. When the smoke clears, under Suika's fist was a hole large enough for a car to fall in. Kyo opens his eyes wide and says "she really IS out to get me!" He then runs inside the Bamboo Forest, buying much needed time by hiding behind the bamboo shoots. Suika sniffs around, but is unable to pick up Kyo's scent. "This is bad... if she catches my scent, I'm a goner. I better move on." thinks Kyo, then starts to run. Suika hears his foot steps and launches a powerful blast to where Kyo was just hiding, then begins the chase. Kyo arrives at Entei and realizes Suika was right behind him, however he could not see her. Behind him, a cloud of mist was heading his way. When the mist got close enough, it started releasing crystals at Kyo. "Shit, it's her!" shouts Kyo as he dodges as many of the crystals as he could, reflecting others back, but then Suika turns back to normal and lands a punch so powerful, it broke Kyo's shield, sending him to the Entei Mansion. Kyo calls for help, but when he looks inside, Reisen, Tewi and Kaguya were all unconscious. Suika jumps high and swings her fist, preparing one final attack, and just as she was ready to land, a barrage of lasers and arrows mercilessly beat on Suika, knocking her out cold. Kyo looks to the clinic, and there was Eirin, looking pale and almost sick, holding her bow on her left hand. She walks toward Kyo asking "A-are you... are you alright?" Kyo struggles a little, but manages to get up saying "yes, thank you so much." but right then, Eririn falls down, Kyo grabs her just in time and gently places her next to the others in the mansion. Suika had weakened Kyo a lot. He was now holding his chest, gritting his teeth in pain. He tried with all his might to resist it, but it was too much, and drops to the ground next to Eirin.

At the hellfire, Ail was holding on to one of the larger rocks, so he wouldn't fall into the lava. Now, even Yuugi was feeling the effects of the evil energy emanating from the crystal. "Ail... Reimu" shouted Yuugi, as both of them looked worse and worse by the second. Marisa and Yuugi were the only ones who could still stand straight. Suddenly Reimu says "Marisa... use your Master Spark... ai-aim it... aim it... ugh" Reimu couldn't continue and had to hold her chest tightly. Yuugi grabs a hold of her and then Ail, who was about to collapse. On Yuugi's arms, Ail lifts his head and says "aim your... shot at... a thirty degree... angle...under the... crystal... urgh!" Marisa was now looking a bit sick, but then she realized what they were saying. She takes out her Hakkero and points it at the lava, then shoots it without waiting for another second. The lava splits up as the shot penetrates revealing the rest of the colossal dark crystal. Under it was a small mount where it had gotten stuck. Marisa blasts it just in time, as the crystal was now emanating incredible amounts of evil energy. Even Yuugi felt sharp pain in her chest, however it suddenly stops as the crystal falls back down to the lava, going back to the depths of the former Hell. When the lava settles, the evil energy stops flowing immediately. Ail and Reimu recover almost instantly, as well as outside, everyone, even Kyo, recovers, springing up to their feet. Eirin and Reisen get up at the same time saying "they did it! They stopped it!" Suika gets up and immediately heads toward Kyo apologizing. "Kyo, I'm sorry, I couldn't help myself. I don't know what came over me! Please forgive me!" Kyo thinks about it and says "I'll forgive you on one condition." Suika excitedly asks "anything, just name it!" Kyo smirks and says "fight me again after spring comes." Suika opens her eyes widely and says "are you that suicidal?" Kyo continues smirking and says "I want to see how strong I can really become, and you're going to help me." Suika smiles, then jumps at Kyo, hugging him so hard his back cracks. Back at the hellfires, Ail and Reimu congratulate Marisa and thank Yuugi for her help, then they notice a black blob slithering it's way back to the top. "AFTER IT!" shouts Reimu, but by the time they all reached the mansion's courtyard, the black blob had disappeared. Reimu bangs her forehead and says "this... could be trouble." "You're just exaggerating again" said Marisa, however Reimu would not respond and Ail felt very uneasy. Yuugi just laughs and says "come on, we stopped that thing! Let's celebrate!" From out of nowhere she pulls out a full large cup of Sake and drinks in in one gulp.

Back outside the cave, Ail and Orin come out running at incredible speeds, Orin panting and saying "im-impossible. You're still... as fast as... me!" Ail, catching his breath says "you're... lucky I... haven't been training!" From behind came Reimu and Marisa, flying. Reimu, sounding annoyed asks "so you finish your little race? Whoopie... let's go home. We didn't get to eat any breakfast this morning, and I'm STARVING!" Ail and Marisa's stomachs start to grumble loudly, and then they laugh. Ail says goodbye to Orin, who flies back inside the cave, and follow Marisa and Reimu back to the shrine. Back at the shrine, Kyo, Suika, Alice and Mima had prepared a meal for their return, celebrating their victory, however when they were done eating, Reimu looks outside at the afternoon sky, looking a little glum. She grabs a cup of tea and kneels by the porch, then Ail comes along saying "I feel it's presence too. Whatever it is... it's out there." Reimu, sounding a little sarcastic says "really? And I suppose you can also tell me where it is right now?" Ail points to the direction of the Bamboo Forest and then the Forest of Magic and says "it's been moving between those two points for some time now." Reimu sips on her tea and says "very good. However you missed Entei and the village." Ail smiles and says "I'm not that good yet." Reimu turns serious and says "it's already been inside and out of Entei, and it's gone through the entire village. It's searching for something." "It's searching for a way out of Gensokyo" said a voice from above the shrine.

There were two women. One was short and had blue eyes, green hair, and was wearing a dark blue, black and white dress with golden decorations, and a blue and white hat with a gold emblem in front. She also had a thick sword-like tag in her hand. Beside her was a taller woman with short red hair tied on both side in twin-tails, red eyes, and wore a white dress with a blue vest overtop. She also had a belt with a large coin tied in front, and was carrying a scythe with an odd whisp-like bending at the end. Ail pointed at the red-haired girl saying "that's her. That's the girl that pushed me back to my body!" Reimu looks at Ail and says "that's Komachi. She carries dead spirits to their destinations accross the Sanzu River... so you could say she's death." Ail looks in awe and says "and who is-?" both girls come down, the green haired girl introducing herself. "I am SikiEiki Yamaxanadu. I have come to speak to you two, and the witch as well." While Mima, Suika, Alice and Kyo were left behind inside the shrine, Ail, Reimu and Marisa were at the front, speaking to SikiEiki and Komachi. The four of them were trying hard to listen to the conversation.

"Reimu, Marisa and Ail, you three, and another companion, saw the large crystal in the lava, am I correct?" They all nod slowly then she continues "I believe you also noticed something coming out from that crystal, right?" Again, all three nod. Siki lets out a growl, Komachi asks her to calm down. "How can I calm down? Listen to me, all three of you. That thing that escaped almost wiped out the entire planet of all the humans, a long time ago. It's only goal, it's only purpose is to eradicate humanity, and for this, it was sealed inside that crystal, and was sunk deep into the lava pits of the former hell, however, when we moved hell to it's current location, we left that prisoner there, thinking that crystal would never be discovered." Reimu rubs her forehead with her index finger and thumb, then lowers her hands to her eyes and says "and when that bird-brain made the lava overflow, it made the crystal rise. Please, you can tell me I'm wrong right now." Siki shook her head and said "I'm afraid you are correct. Once it got out of the lava, the creature inside broke free. That's why we all felt that powerful energy." Marisa looking confused said "but if it's that powerful, why can't we sense it anymore, ze?" SikiEiki looks at the three of them and says "your intervention didn't stop it from escaping, but you did manage to send it back down in time to keep it's full power sealed inside." Ail then says "then we should find it soon, before it gets it's powers back!" Siki was surprised at Ail and said "correct... You are far too wise for a young one." "How do we find it?" asked Reimu. "Ail, Marisa and I can barely sense it anymore. It's gone into hiding." Komachi looks at them worried as Siki says "I know. I will contact the other yamas and see what they suggest, but before I go, you, boy. Can I have a word with you?"

Ail and SikiEiki walk close to the shrine's hot springs, and Siki grabs Ail and pulls him down and whispers to him "you were brought to Gensokyo for a reason, and you were also given a third chance in life, now listen up! You have to train harder. You HAVE to master those powers of yours and YOU MUST GET YOURSELF SOME SPELL CARDS! I hope things do not escalate so much but..." Siki releases Ail's shirt, but he continues to listen closely "...but if things DO escalate, you NEED to be ready. You HAVE to protect the shrine maiden at ALL COSTS, understand!?" Ail looks at Reimu for a second then back at Siki who continues saying "you NEED spell cards, and you need to start controlling those barriers and gaps you keep using without knowledge. I do not know how badly this could turn out, but if you don't train, then I guarantee you, it won't end well!" After she was done, she immediately looks for Komachi, who was drinking some sake and sitting by the donation box. Siki hits Komachi hard on the head with that thick sword and lectures her for some time. Before they both left, Komachi, looking worried, waves at Reimu and Marisa, then at Ail, but when she looks at him, she lowers her sights and flies away. Ail walks to the donation box and sits where Komachi was. Reimu walks to him, Marisa close by, and the other four were already outside at the front of the shrine as well. Reimu asks "what did she say to you?" Ail looks up and says "I need to train and learn how to use my powers and abilities. I also need your help, Reimu, to make my own spell cards." Reimu and Marisa look at each other very surprised. "Think it's that serious, Reimu?" asks Marisa. Reimu thinks for a bit and says "when the yama is this worried, then it IS that serious, I'm afraid. Don't worry too much about it, Ail. You'll have your own spell cards, and I'll try to help you a bit with your abilities. Yukari can't help now, since she always hibernates during winter." Ail looked at Reimu a bit scared, then Reimu says "don't worry. Knowing you, you'll probably master those powers quickly I am sure." Alice, Suika, Mima and Kyo kept looking at the others, wondering what was going on. The last leaves were starting to fall off the trees, signaling winter was soon to come, and Reimu, Marisa and Ail could only hope it would be a peaceful one.

To be continued...
Characters and scenario belong to ZUN -Team Shanghai Alice-
Ail and Kyo were created by Willie G.R

JUN 29 2009
written by
Willie G.R.

Monday, June 29, 2009

Misplaced Sukima P-6

Flying in the sky, headed to the Bamboo forest were Reimu, followed closely by a dogy-fied Ail, who got a little smaller now, looking like a very young child with a pair of dog ears and a tail. "Thanks for getting me out of there, Reimu" said Ail in a squeaky voice. Reimu, trying not to laugh said "sure... no problem". *FLASHBACK* Aya and Momiji wouldn't let go of Ail, smothering him, rubbing their faces against his face and ears saying "aww~ soft fur!" "so cu~te!" Reimu comes by and says "hey, don't you two have a job to do?" Suddenly they both let go of Ail, dropping him to the ground and saying "oh yeah... let's go Momiji! Let's terminate that contract!" said Aya followed by Momiji who said "right behind you, miss Aya!" *FLASHBACK OVER*

At Entei, in the Hourai Clinic, Eirin had Reisen tied up by her arms and legs, pulled behind her back and hung by the ceiling. Eirin had a thick black leather whip on her hand when she turns around just as Reimu and Ail enter her clinic. "Ah yes, I see" said Eirin as she examined Ail. "That's the drug Udonge was suppose to bring me back. I am so sorry for this. Don't worry, she'll get her punishment really soon." Ail who had just shrunk to the size of a miniature dog, jumps on Eirin's table and looks at her with his puppy eyes and in his new squeaky voice, says "please miss Eirin, it was just an accident. Forgive miss Reisen." Eirin smiles as she looks into his eyes and before she could say anything, he pulls the sad puppy eyes. Reimu looked on, feeling almost disgusted, then Eirin says "alright... I supposed I'll forgive her just this once." Eirin turns to Reimu with a smile, revealing blood coming from her nose. As Eirin goes to release Reisen, Reimu approaches Ail and menacingly says "you better not try that shit on me, or you'll get hurt." Ail starts shaking, then lowers his ears and puts his tail between his legs. Just then, Kaguya enters the clinic "Eirin, I want breakfast! Where's the Udonge? I want her to cook something for me!" Ail's eyes twinkle and gets down from Eirin's desk. Kaguya continued to call for Eirin when suddenly *chomp* she started screaming "ow, ow, ow O~~~W~~~! My LEG!!!" Ail had bitten Kaguya's leg and wouldn't let go, even when she shook her leg, trying to get him off. Reimu scolds Ail "bad boy! Let go of her leg!" then Eirin comes in with a scalpel in her hand, behind her was Reisen looking very relieved. Eirin glares at Ail and smiling says "my, I've never dissected a live dog before. I wonder how's that like?" Ail yelps and let's go of Kaguya, then runs to Reimu, jumping on her arms. Reimu notices the twinkle in Eirin's eyes, and offers Ail to her, Ail crying twin waterfalls. After everything settled down again, Eirin says "the effect of this drug isn't permanent, however I don't have an antidote either." Ail looks at her calmly and says well, as long as I can fly, I don't mind. Any idea when this will wear off?" Eirin shakes her head and shrugs saying "not a clue. Might be hours, days, weeks." Reimu was quietly looking at Ail for some time now and thinks "hmm... this looks so familiar" then an image of Sakuya pops in her head. Eirin then sayd "I'll try to find an antidote in the mean time, however..." her eyes twinkle again as she grabs her scalpel again and says in a most ominous tone "...I could use a test subject..." Ail pulls the sad puppy eyes again, making Eirin drop her scalpel, her nose slightly bleeding. "That's dangerously cute" though Eirin.

As Ail and Reimu walk out of the clinic, Kaguya angrily shouts "that mangy mongrel will pay for this, you hear me! I'll be having a hot dog meal one of these days, so you be ready!" Ail would bark back, but Reimu gave him "the eye", so he immediately quieted down then followed her up to the sky. While flying back to the shrine Ail asks "hey Reimu? don't you find it odd that somehow my pants have a hole for my tail... and that my clothes shrunk with me?" Reimu smiles and says "Ail, it is best not to question these things. Sometimes the answer can be more confusing than the question." Ail turns his attention to the Forest of Magic, as a large explosion makes many birds fly away from the forest. Reimu bangs her head with her hand and says "we better go check it out." When they arrive at the source of the explosion they see a silver haired man with golden eyes, wearing glasses and black and blue clothes struggling to get up. He was next to a house with a sign on it that said "Kourindou". Immediately after landing Reimu asks "hey Rinnosuke, are you ok?" After getting up and pretending to be fine, even though his clothes were in tatters and he was singed all over, he says "I'm fine. Argh! Those two idiots came here yelling about terminating a contract, but it seems to me they never heard that the pen is mightier than the sword." Reimu laughs hard then says "so Aya and Momiji were here? Took them longer than I thought." Rinnosuke looks at her angrily but sighs and spots Ail asking "who is this little fellow?" Reimu stops laughing and says "oh right, this is Ail. Ail, meet Rinnosuke Morichika. He runs this little shop of antiques you see here." Ail looks back at Rinnosuke saying "how do you do? Pleasure to meet you, sir." Rinnosuke shakes Ail's hand then opens his eyes a little wider then says "wait, Ail? The human from the outside with the youkai blood? The one that beat Remilia AND Flandre Scarlet? I though he'd be a lot taller... and more human than this." Ail shrugs saying "don't let appearances fool you, sir." Reimu places her hand on Ail's head and pressed down hard to the ground and says "a little accident fell on his head. He should be fine anyway." "I see" says Rinnosuke as he accommodates his glasses then says "please, won't you come in? I insist" Reimu looks indifferent as she nods slightly saying "sure".

Once inside, Ail immediately recognized a television, a video game console and some MP3 players, then asks "how did you get all this stuff?" Rinnosuke, with a face that suggested victory, said "impressive, huh? I collect things from the outside world that somehow end up in Gensokyo." Bursting his bubble, Reimu adds with a big smile "oh yes, and our Rinnosuke, here, can determine the name and purpose of each and every item, however he doesn't know how they are used." Ail grabs an MP3 player and turns it on, then says "if you could plug this to a computer with an USB cable, we can add music and listen to it using headphones." "I got those things here" said Rinnosuke, just as the MP3 lost it's power. Ail explains how to recharge it, then explains how exactly to use the computer, how to put in the songs, and somehow, Reimu found herself dazed at all the nonsense the two of them started saying about; internet, modems, files, hacking, and so on. After two hours, Ail had Rinnosuke set with all the machines and such all powered up and running perfectly. As Reimu and Ail left, Rinnosuke happily waving at them, Ail comments "amazing how a tiny quartz crystal like that can power up all that stuff." Reimu just looks at him and says "you don't know what you have just done." Ail lets out a low "rowl?" as they headed back to the shrine.

Back at the shrine, Reimu lands, Ail just behind her. Kyo was sweeping the front of the shrine while Suika was shaking the empty donation box. "Oh, you're back!" said Kyo, looking around. "Hey, wasn't Ail with you?" Reimu looks at Kyo and smiles saying "oh, he's right behind me. Look." She moves to reveal Ail, looking up at Kyo. Kyo and Suika both opened their eyes as widely as they could and rush to him. After a few second, Kyo says "A... Ail?" Ail nods revealing his tail. Kyo and Suika look at each other, then back at Ail. "Pffft.. WAHAHAHAHA!" Both Kyo and Suika were laughing uncontrollably, holding their sides and rolling on the floor. Ail looked at them indifferently, however he inhales a bit of air and lets out a small puff before Kyo gets up, tears in his eyes and laughing hard, holding Ail in one hand and pointing at him saying "dude, what happened? HAHAHA, you look just like a dog!" Suika stops laughing and looks at Ail for a while, and suddenly an image of Sakuya with dog ears and a tail pop into her mind. She looks at Reimu who was trying hard to contain her laughter then shakes her head at Suika, so Suika kept quiet. Ail jumps from Kyo's hand then says "I think I'll go to the village." but Reimu grabs him saying "oh, no. Let's avoid trouble, alright? You are too small, and someone could step on you. Also, we need to know if this transformation has affected your powers somehow." Ail looks at himself and says "oh, I think it's alright, look!" Ail shoots his danmaku to the air. It looked normal but then the shots fell back down, exploding on impact. The shots had hit Suika and Kyo, knocking them both down, then Ail looks at Reimu and smiles, then Reimu grabs him and says "well, you can defend yourself quite well, I see, but seems your power is a little bit unstable. Until we know the full extent of the damage, you will stay here." Reimu places Ail on the ground then goes inside the shrine, Ail follows her after a bit, leaving both Suika and Kyo knocked down on the ground.

At late noon, Marisa arrives at the shrine. "Yo, Reimu, how's everything, ze!?" said Marisa as she sits on the shrine's porch. From inside the shrine, Reimu responds "heh, just as always. I'll send some tea your way." "Thanks" replies Marisa, then quietly says to herself "she seems to be in a good mood today. I wonder what happened?" Her tea is placed on a plate to her left, along with three rice cookies. "Oh, thank you Rei-" Marisa turns around to thank Reimu,however who she finds is the tiny dog Ail. For a second she just stares, then points at Ail, shaking, asking "I-I-is that you. Ail?" Ail nods saying "small accident." Marisa grabs him and starts hugging him so hard saying "So~ cu~te, ooh, and so soft and cuddly!" Ail, out of breath, calls for help, but just then Marisa lets go then starts drinking her tea asking "and what kind of accident? Is it permanent?" Kyo comes from the lake behind the shrine saying "some shady new drug Eirin made fell on his head. Now he a cute wittle puppy, HAHAHA!" Ail sighs then Kyo grabs a stick and says "here boy, go get the stick, go, go get it!" Ail, looking slightly annoyed responds "I'm not chasing any sticks for your amusement..." but Kyo throws the stick, and Ail instinctively runs barking after the stick. Waggling his tail, he returns with the stick in his mouth thinking "what am I doin~g!?" Little pink hearts start flying from Marisa's head and pop just as they reached the top of her hat. She then grabs Ail and starts hugging him tightly again. Kyo was laughing so hard, he started to cry. Just then Remilia and Sakuya arrive at the shrine flying. As soon as they land Remilia looks at Ail and says "so it IS true. He's been turned into a dog! So cute too." From the shrine stairs, Yuka, Keine, Mystia, Cirno, and Wriggle also come to visit the new puppy, and then then Kanako, Sanae, Suwako, the Aki sisters, Hina and Nitori arrive. Pretty soon, the shrine was full of guests, all coming to see Ail. He was feeling embarrassed to no ends, as they all kept hugging him and holding him and pinching his cheeks and calling him cute and adorable. At night, the youkai from the underground came too. Then Yukari, Ran and Chen, Yukari providing sake for all. Meiling, Flandre, Patchouli, and Koakuma arrived, Flandre holding Ail almost too hard saying "big brother is so soft and cuddly. Can I keep him!?" Soon after, Entei was there too. It was now one big party. After Ail was released from Flandre's clutches he shouts "HE~~Y!" They all quiet down and look at him. "How did you all find out about this?" Reimu, looking a bit concerned handed him a newspaper called The Bunbunmaru Newspaper, and on the front page, a Picture of Ail as a human, and another of Ail as a dog, then the headline says "Gensokyo's wonder boy goes to the dogs". Something about that irritated Ail, but he just sighs and says "the fastest reporter, huh?" Reimu nods saying "uh-huh". Everyone there, including Remilia, would look at Ail, then at Sakuya, but nobody would say a word, so the party just kept going.

The next morning a familiar whimsical voice was heard calling "hello~! Is anybody here?" Carrying a broom, Ail went to greet the visitors. It was Yuyuko and Youmu. Youmu stares at Ail saying "so they WERE telling the truth after all. I guess I owe you a double-breakfast." Yuyuko smiles and says "better make it a double-lunch, Youmu." Youmu sighs and drops her hands down, but she then perks up asking "is Kyo here? I've got some new moves I'd like to try on him!" Ail nods saying "I'll go get him for you." From inside the shrine there was silence, then suddenly Kyo's voice could be heard saying "get the stick, go get it, boy!" then a wooden stick would fly out of the shrine, Ail behind it barking then crashing against a tree, Kyo laughing as hard as he could. "Whoa, poor kid." said Youmu, who then realized Yuyuko was not beside her. Instead, Yuyuko was looking quite angry, pulling Kyo's ears gently saying "don't pick on him, please." Once they calmed Yuyuko down, Youmu challenged Kyo who gladly accepted, and while they prepared themselves to the match, Yuyuko grabs Ail and places him on her lap. Reimu comes to the shrine porch, placing tea for herself, Yuyuko and Ail, to drink as they watched the match. Kyo surrounds his arms with the familiar blade-like and shield-like white energies,and Youmu unsheathes both her swords. They lunge at each other, clashing fiercely. While they fought, Yuyuko says to Reimu in a disappointed tone "Reimu, you should have watched out for him a little more." Reimu, annoyed replies "I'm not the boy's babysitter or anything, got it?" Looking serious Yuyuko says "you know something's coming. We will need all the help we can get. We have to watch out of each other." Reimu looks at Yuyuko, who was looking back at Reimu looking very serious. Reimu says "it's okay, I took him to Eirin. It's a temporary thing. Besides, why do you care so much for him? He's a human from the outside, not even..." Yuyuko lowers her sight and notices Ail had fallen asleep on her lap, and had placed the tea cup on the floor so it wouldn't spill on her. Yuyuko again looks at Reimu and says "I'm sorry... his spirit seems so familiar to me. It feels as if he were... family." Reimu looks very concerned and says "Yuyuko... you're a ghost. You can't let yourself be controlled by emotion. Attachments are also dangerous for you... It's not healthy for a ghost." Again, Yuyuko lowers her sight and says "I'm sorry" and then smiles again, rubbing Ail's ears, which start twitching as she does. Both Reimu and Yuyuko say "that's so cute!" Yuyuko stays quiet for a bit, then in her usual whimsical tone says "oh... I'm hungry." Reimu sighs saying "fine." then pockets a charm she was hiding behind her and thinks "that was close."

Kyo and Youmu's fight went on for 3 minutes, and then, "you have improved quite a lot, I see." said Youmu. Kyo smiles and says "not bad yourself." They clash once more, then back away, seizing each other, then Youmu says "I know you can't see our Spell Cards, so I'll tell you when I'll be using them" but Kyo just smiles back and says "no need. I like surprises." Youmu grins back at him and says "alright, then. Don't cry if you get hurt!" Ail wakes up just in time to see the fight go on. Reimu had brought some rice balls out and was arguing with Yuyuko, who was already eating the 5th one, so Ail gets off Yuyuko's lap and sits on the porch, hanging his legs from the edge, watching the fight. Youmu takes out a spell card and shouts "Human Sign, Present Life Slash!" Youmu's sword glows blue as she slashes forward, missing Kyo by a hair. Kyo retaliates by shooting his shield energy at her, which she blocks with her sword, then takes out another spell card, shouting "Ghost Sword, Fasting of the Young Gaki!" Youmu flies up and slashes the air at such great speeds, Ail couldn't see her, yet is seemed Kyo was able to follow her; then suddenly is followed by petal-like blue danmaku that come out in many circles. Kyo used his Shield energy to block and reflect some, however he was grazed by a lot more. Kyo then jumps high in the air, and just as Youmu was about to unleash the second wave, Kyo comes down hard, his blade-like energy coming down hard with him. Youmu blocks just in time, however her spell was interrupted. Both were still quite fresh, then Youmu says "amazing to be able to keep up with me, but how long can you keep this up?" Kyo smirks, then says "longer than you can, I bet." Youmu pulls another spell card then shouts "Obsessor, Slash of Eternity!" Youmu lunges at Kyo at incredible speeds. Kyo felt as though he was floating in mid-air, and was unable to dodge, however, using his shield energy, her protects himself a bit as Youmu kept attacking repeatedly, in a pattern that looked like a dance. Once the attack was done, Kyo drops to the ground full of bruises and some cuts, but he was smiling as he got up saying "not bad at all. Now it's my turn." Kyo started shooting his shield energy around, forcing Youmu to block constantly, and while she blocks his shots, Kyo runs to her and slashes at her with his blade energy, forcing her to defend against his blade, but getting her damaged by the danmaku balls. Both fighters were winded. Almost out of breath, Youmu says "that... was impressive, but now I finish this!" Kyo smirks, breathing hard saying "I was... about to... say that!" Youmu flies up and takes out another spell card, shouting "Heaven's Sword, Five Signs of the Deva!!!" Five set of petal-like danmaku materialize in the air after Youmu slashes at unbelievable speeds, then spread out randomly, leaving very little room for Kyo to dodge. He had to use his shield as he jumps up to reach Youmu, however he was hit various times by the danmaku, but he went on, reaching Youmu, causing an energy discharge as they clashed their blades. Both fell to the ground face-first, laughing and coughing, then Ail says "if you two were fighting for real, you'd both be dead, you know."

After their wounds were treated, Youmu and Kyo eat one rice ball each, since Yuyuko had eaten 10 already, and that was all that was left. "I'll go buy more rice then" said Ail. Reimu looks at him smiling with a sparkle in her eyes and shouts "you're my hero!" then Youmu asks "won't you need help carrying it back here?" Ail shakes his head saying "I'll be fine" and then walks outside, then flies to the village. Kyo stares at Youmu's ghost half and says "hey Youmu, what's the deal with that ball that keeps following you around like that? In fact, I think it was also shooting at me." Youmu looks at him widening her eyes then gets a bit annoyed and says "that happens to be my other half... didn't you know that already?" Kyo's face fills with great confusion, then Reimu comes from behind him, knocks his head with her fist, saying "idiot!" As Ail flew to the village he realized the days were getting cold. Winter was soon to come. He then remembers his old home, cozy in his bedroom, waiting for the next day to come as he played video games, or went outside, and just hang around with Kyo and some of his friends, quietly listening to their conversations. When he comes back to, he realizes he had passed over the village and quickly turns around with a "rowf!" In the village, the people treated him normally, although behind his back, some were saying he looked better now. After buying the rice, he realized... it was heavy and couldn't fly with it. "This body has lost a lot of strength... ahh, but it's only a temporary thing." As he walked back to the shrine, the rice bag on his back, he hears a familiar tune sung by Mystia. "Hello, Mystia" said Ail, and soon after Mystia comes down and asks "need help?" Since the bag was too heavy for Mystia to carry, she helped by pulling some of the weight of the bag while Ail continues to carry it on his back. "Thanks a lot for you help, Mysita. I'd probably be winded by now if you hadn't helped." Mystia replies "no problem... So you ARE going to come back to normal, right?" Ail keeps quiet for a moment as he takes the first step of the stairs to the shrine then says "well, from what Eirin said, yes, it's just a matter of time. I never though that my physical strength would diminish this much, though." Mystia giggles as they continue up the stairs. After finally reaching the top, Ail was so tired he could barely more his legs, and Mystia just dropped face-up, catching her breath. A whimsical voice is heard close by saying "my, that looks heavy. Don't strain yourself too hard, or you'll get too tough for me to chew on." It was Yuyuko, floating slowly toward Ail and Mystia, drool dripping down to the ground. Mystia shrieks, gets up in a second and flies away fast screaming "get her away!! Someone help me~!" Yuyuko continues to float after Mystia passing by Ail who gets up and tries to pull her back with all his might, but his tiny body was no match for Yuyuko's hunger drive so he flies back to the shrine shouting "Yuyuko wants to eat Mystia! Someone help!" Youmu says "yeah, she does this often." then Reimu adds "do you think she really have a stomach in there?" and then Youmu says "who knows. All I know is she's always hungry!" A little angry, Ail says "I can't believe this... fine I'll save her myself!" and leaves. Just then Kyo gets up from the ground looking very drowsy and asks "did I miss something?" then Reimu goes out and sees the bag of Rice then says "Oh Kyo, get the rice back to the storage." Then from inside the Shrine Kyo protests "why do I have to do that?"

It was late afternoon, and Ail SOMEHOW got a large piece of meat and was luring Yuyuko back to the Hakurei Shrine with it. Mystia waves at Ail saying "thank you very much!" and Ail waves back, slowing down a bit, almost allowing Yuyuko to take a bite off the meat. Leading Yuyuko back Ail notices the sack of rice was still next to the shrine stairs and as he lands, Yuyuko lands behind him, then handing the meat to Yuyuko, he inhales a lot of air and when he exhales, it sounded as though he was whining. Grabbing the heavy sack of rice, he now walks to the shrine's storehouse. After depositing the rice in the rice box, Ail hears a faint muffled voice, his dog ears twitching and arranging in order to listen more clearly. He sniffs around and then spots a small trap door that leads down, inside the shrine's store house. With little difficulty Ail opens the trap door, the voice sounding a lot clearer now. It was saying something about a master plan after escaping the clutches of the red and white one, then laughter. Ail went down and found a small corridor with various doors, one had light coming from inside. From this door the voice came, now saying "nah... I'll probably just pull her hair while she sleeps... ah, but the poor dear needs to eat, so I'll give her some money I guess." Ail slowly opens the door, hearing a ripping sound as he did, and inside the room was a woman. She had long green hair and green eyes and wore a long blue robe and blue cape with white trims on it. Her long sleeves were also white, she had a ghostly white tail, and she also wore a pointy blue hat with yellow star and sun designs with a white ribbon tied around it. Ail also noticed beside her bed was a long staff adorned with a white crescent on top. "What's this?" asked the woman. She looks at Ail who was frozen by the doorway, for some reason. She looks at the little dog-man then says "how did you open that door, little dog-man." Ail jumps in place then says "I'm so sorry... didn't mean to bother you. I was just wondering who was in here?" The woman's ghostly tail makes a popping sound, and now she had legs, then she says "I am the great and powerful Mima, sure you have heard of me!" Ail lowers his ears and says "sorry, I haven't. Err... I am Ail, miss Mima. A pleasure to meet you." Mima looked almost disappointed saying "oh... I see" as she thinks "he's not really a dog... ooh, Reimu sure picked an odd one." Ail bows his tiny head and says "I'm sorry to have bothered you, miss. I'll just go now." Mima rushes to him saying "wait, wait, let's both go outside together. I could use the fresh air." Something told Ail she was trouble, but there was very little he could do to stop her now and so both go outside. As soon as the door closed behind them, the paper charms that held the door closed materialized, replacing the ones Ail had just broken.

Back outside the shrine Mima stretches, revealing large pair of bat-like wings, then concealing them again. Ail looks up at her then says "are you a demon?" Mima smiles at him saying "I'm an evil spirit." Ail calmly says "oh, I see. And why exactly were you living down there?" then Reimu answers "because she is dangerous to have out here!" Looking at Reimu and then Mima's surprised face, Ail knew for certain he had just made a terrible mistake. Suddenly Mima and Ail were both bombarded by yin-yang balls from the sky. "Ail, I am very disappointed in you, releasing this crazy spirit like that!" said Reimu, sounding quite annoyed, then turns to Mima and says "and you, go BACK to your room, young old lady!" Mima comes out from under the yin-yang balls saying "aww, give me a break, I just got out." Reimu thinks about it and Mima says "HA! got y- Wait... my- CRAP, I left my staff in the room!!!" Reimu smiles a most evil smile of satisfaction and says "then you can stay up here, then." Mima drops down her hands and slumps as she floats to the shrine saying "I want some sake *sob*" Reimu looks at the pile of yin-yang balls where Ail was and saying "come on, Ail. Get out of there already" she sticks her hand in and pulls out Ail who was crying twin waterfalls, his body limp and the atmosphere around him was very gloomy. Yuyuko gets close and says "Oh, I think you were a little too hard on him" and then grabs him and takes him with her into the shrine saying "don't worry, accidents happen." Reimu sighs then says to herself "will I ever have peace and quiet again?" From behind the trees in the shrine a voice says "is that so~?" so Reimu throws one of the yin-yang balls toward the direction of the voice, then turns it into a yellow cat. "Ow ow ow~!" said the voice as the cat attacked.

At night, Mima and Kyo were a little drunk. Mima kept calling Kyo a hunk. At first Kyo felt uncomfortable and blushed, but after drinking a bit, he didn't mind at all. From nowhere Marisa came to joined them both. Yuyuko and Youmu were saying goodbye, and Ail was still feeling down, cornering himself around one of the farthest corners of the shrine, and Reimu gave up and joined the others in drinking. It was very early morning when Ail woke up, feeling much better now. Kyo, Mima, Marisa, and Reimu were all asleep on the ground, the bottles of sake spread all around. When Ail goes outside, it was still dark, the sun was just starting to rise from the horizon. He decides to fly around, no destination in mind. Passing by the Lake, Ail gets close to the water and sees a reflection of himself. Landing at the island he continues to stare at himself by the lake. Behind him a shadow looms ominously. After the sun was up, Marisa was the first to wake up. She notices some paper falling off Reimu's sleeves and picks it up. It was Renko and Maribel's letter. Marisa reads the whole thing without realizing Kyo was right behind her, reading it as well. By the time Marisa realizes Kyo's behind her, she shrieks and throws the letter up, Kyo catching it, then finishes reading. He drops the letter to the ground and without saying a word, he heads outside to the lake behind the shrine. Reimu and Mima wake up at the same time, Marisa panics repeating "I'm sorry, I'm sorry." "You're awfully loud this morning" said Reimu rubbing her face, then continues "sorry for what?" Marisa shows Reimu the letter saying "I'm sorry, Kyo read it while I was looking at it, I'm sorry!" Reimu's face turns pale. Mima looked at both of them wondering what was going on. "Marisa, where did he go?" asked Reimu, then Marisa points at the lake saying "back there." Reimu looks at the letter for a moment then says "better leave him alone for now... I knew I should have given them this letter before. Crap, this is gonna be a long day... And where's Ail?" Reimu looks at Mima who shrugs and then Marisa who looked very concerned and says "the only one I saw awake was Kyo. Haven't seen Ail at all."

It was near noon and Reimu was starting to get a bad feeling about Ail, who hadn't returned yet. Marisa was apologizing so much, it was driving Reimu mad, however she felt this was all her own fault, so she hasn't snapped at Marisa yet. Mima was now getting used to using danmaku and trying to come up with spell cards of her own outside the shrine and Kyo was still by the lake. "That's it, I'm gonna go talk to him" said Reimu. Marisa stood up and was about to say something when Reimu says "Marisa, go look for Ail. It's not like him to just vanish like that." Immediately Marisa jumps on her broom and quickly flies away, then Reimu hesitantly walks to the back of the shrine. She found Kyo meditating by the lake, Genjii next to him who softly says "she's here... I'll go back inside now" then submerges underwater. Reimu looks on and says "Kyo, I'm-" but Kyo, while still in meditation, stops her and asks "since when did you have that?" Reimu sighs and says "I found it about a week after you guys came to Gensokyo." Kyo opens his eyes, however stayed sitting on the ground, looks at Reimu and says "you do realize I am angry enough to try and rip that damned barrier in two, and just walk back home, right?" Reimu looked down, unable to respond, then Kyo answers "but it's like Genjii said... even if you did show me that letter before... what could I have done? I wonder..." Reimu looks back at Kyo who was now looking at the sky then continued saying "...I wonder if they are still looking for us? Our families, my friends, all of them worried for us, and we... unable to do a thing. I'm guessing that Yukari wouldn't even help us send them letter, huh?" Reimu tries to say something, however she gives up and says "knowing her, she'll probably just burn them, or use them to make paper airplanes." Kyo gets up and approaches Reimu and says "I must thank you for not showing us this letter before. I bet even Ail would get worried too if he saw this. Remind me to thank him later. Guess if it had been me alone in here, I'd have either snapped, or be six feet underground by now." Reimu's face turns pale, and at the worst possible moment Marisa arrives empty-handed saying "he wasn't at the Moriya shrine, ze!" Reimu gulps as soon as Kyo realizes what they were talking about. Back at the shrine, Reimu says "...you're right, Kyo. If we split up, we'll have a better chance of finding him, but you can't fly, so that limits you a bit." Kyo laughs and says "seems you don't know me very well." Reimu hands him and Marisa a charm and says "if one of us should find Ail, simply lift this above your head and shout 'I FOUND HIM' and this will signal the others to regroup in that area, got it!?" Marisa and Kyo nod then he, Marisa and Reimu all head in different directions and begin their search.

Reimu headed straight to Entei, where she was greeted by Tewi, who promptly tried to trick Reimu into a trap, however Tewi found herself tied upside down by her ankle from the highest bamboo shoot. Reisen then comes out of the mansion. "I'm looking for Ail. He's been missing since this morning, and hasn't come back yet." said Reimu. Reisen looked a little concerned and said "I'm sorry, we've been here all day, and we haven't seen him." From inside, Kaguya heard the whole thing and shouted "really? Maybe you should have kept that mongrel on a tight leash. He's probably rolling around some garbage for all we know." Reimu looks at Kaguya with intent to kill, however she just sighs and leaves, thanking Reisen for her time. "Maybe I should help too" though Reisen, but Eirin calls her "Udonge, I need some help here, come quickly." Reisen sighs and heads toward the clinic. Still hanging by her ankle, Tewi shouts "can someone get me down already?" Marisa goes to the Forest of Magic and lands at Kourindou where Rinnosuke comes out to greet her, this time he was wearing a large brown bag around his waist. "Marisa, what a pleasant surprise." says Rinnosuke, then Marisa worriedly asks "have you seen Ail around here?" Rinnosuke adjusts his glasses saying "no, sorry. Did something happen?" Marisa is about to explain, however she notices flickers coming from inside Rinnosuke's shop and she asks "hey Kourin, what's with the light-works? Some kind of experiment?" Rinnosuke's eyes twinkle and says "I'm so glad you asked. Come inside." Once inside, he showed Marisa all the things Ail left up and running in the shop. He then points her at a computer and tells her "you see that little round thing there? That's a mouse and you use it to move things inside the computer... go on, I'll turn on a training course, to help you master this faster." As he said that, Rinnosuke clicks on some small cream-colored box in the computer that turned on some sort of maze inside the screen and said "all you have to do is guide the arrow inside the blue maze, to the red goal. Can you do that?" Marisa smirks saying "looks too easy!" Quickly Marisa went through levels 1 and 2, then slowly and steadily, she was about to finish level 3, when completely out of nowhere, a monstrous face appears in front of her, screaming a bloody scream. Rinnosuke laughs hard, when this happens, but promptly stops when he realizes Marisa isn't moving. She froze in place, her mouth opened, her eyes shrunk, her body turned white and as cold as ice. "Uh-oh" said Rinnosuke, then grabs her and runs as fast as he could to the Hourai Clinic shouting "hold on, Marisa, I'll save you~!"

It was getting dark and Reimu was getting worried as she kept flying around, calling for Ail. Marisa was in the Hourai clinic, still looking as pale as a ghost and saying "the face is telling me things..." and Rinnosuke shouts "don't listen to the face, just come back here to us!" and Eirin would inject her with some green liquid, returning some color back to Marisa's face. Kyo had just arrived at the lake and looks at the Scarlet Mansion's island. He felt something there, so he decides to use a tree branch as a slingshot to reach the island. Upon reaching the island, he immediately hears a two familiar voices. "Cirno" said the squeaky voice "it's really me, Ail. I was turned into a dog very recently... you went to the shrine to laugh at me, remember?" A childish voice replied "silence. Do you think I'm some sort of idiot? Ail is human, and you are a dog. There's a big different. I am a genius after all." The squeaky voice sighs. Kyo, without thinking about it once, pulled out the charm and shouts "I FOUND HIM", and a flash of purple light came from the charm to the skies, and the words "Regroup here" were written on the clouds. When Kyo investigates the voices, he found Ail frozen up to his neck, and Cirno acting like a guard next to him. "Cirno? What have you done to Ail!?" shouted Kyo. Cirno stands and angrily replies "this is not Ail, it's an impostor! I captured him!" Kyo got mad, but tried to keep his cool saying "Cirno... that is Ail. He just has the body and ears of a dog... and a fluffy wittle tail too." he finished saying mockingly, which annoyed Ail a bit. Cirno stares at Kyo then thinks "so this is Ail after all? Wait... this Kyo MUST be a fake. Yes, they are trying to confuse me." She back away and says "You are trying to trick me, but I am too smart for you! You are a FAKE Kyo! I must freeze you!" She pulls out a spell card. Kyo couldn't see it, or hear it's declaration, however Ail shouts "Kyo, this spell card is called Icicle Fall! Just stand in front of her!" Without hesitation, Kyo stands in front of her as she shoots small icicles sideways, then smiles at her, and punches her right on the head, knocking her out, leaving a large bump on her head. Just then, Reimu arrives to the scene. "You found him!?" she shouts. Kyo signals her to come down. When she lands, she sees Ail frozen to his neck inside a large block of ice, and Cirno knocked out to the other side. "AIL!" she shouts in relief "you idiot, what happened to you!?" Kyo smiles saying "we were that worried, buddy. You really gave us one hell of a scare!" Shivering, Ail says "I am sorry to have worried you so much. Now, I've used up all my energy keeping myself warm... so could you PLEASE get me out of here!?" Kyo and Reimu laugh a little ashamed, blast the ice off, wrap little dog-Ail around a white cloth, then head home, Reimu flying while holding Ail, and Kyo using his tree branch slingshot maneuver to reach the other side."

Back at the shrine at night, Reimu finishes explaining about the letter. Still shivering Ail says "I k-k-knew about the letter. B-B-But Yu-Yukari said sh-she'd only h-h-help if I learned to *achoo-sniffle* use my barrier p-p-powers" Reimu looks at Ail looking sad, then Ail responds more calmly, shivering less "I didn't know the contents of the letter, just knew there had to be something going on outside, but all we can do now is survive, so we can let our families know, in a future, that we are well, and amongst wonderful friends." Reimu smiles then looks back at Mima, Suika and Kyo, who were drunk and celebrating Ail's safe return. Mima says "I think I'm getting the hang of thiz danmaku business, look!" She points her finger at Reimu and one yellow shard-like danmaku pops from her finger and straight to the ground. Mima, Suika and Kyo look as the tiny shard on the ground vanish, then Suika says "you need to drink more!" Kyo shouts "YEAH! Let's drink to that!" then Mima gets really close to him and says "you're a SMART hunk!" Reimu turns back around and asks "I wonder whatever happened to Marisa. She was supposed to be looking for you as well." Ail sneezes again and says "she'll turn around *achoo sniffle* eventually." Reimu looks at Ail and says "we need to get you medicine..."

At the Hourai clinic, Eirin looked frustrated, Reisen was falling asleep on her feet, Rinnosuke was still telling Marisa to ignore the face, and Marisa, although her color and warmth had returned, she was still shocked in bed saying "the face, the face, it's looking at me!" From outside, Reimu shouts "Eirin, do you have something for colds!?" She opens the door. She was holding Ail, wrapped in a white sheet and looks at the scene, then calmly walks to Marisa saying "so THIS is what happened to her!" Ail sneezes again then says "told you she'd turn up somewhere." Rinnosuke panics saying "it was just a prank, I didn't know she'd freak out like this!" Reimu looks at Marisa, then says "Oh, I got just the thing" then throws a yin-yang ball straight at Marisa's face, who recovers miraculously shouting "HEY, WHAT WAS THAT FOR!!?" All in the room, but Reimu and Ail, were incredibly surprised at Marisa's sudden recovery. Marisa looks back at them and says "whoa... I was having this strange dream about a monstrous face and... hey wait, where am I?" she then looks at Reimu and Ail and says "oh, when did you find Ail... why is his face green?" After many apologies by Rinnosuke, prompt payment to Eirin, cold medicine retrieval and, again, prompt payment to Eirin, everyone heads to their homes, Marisa giving Rinnosuke a ride on her broom. Just as Eirin and Reisen close the mansion door behind them Reisen asks "hey, have you seen Tewi... or princess Kaguya for that matter?" Eirin responds "they are probably asleep by now... come on Udonge, time to sleep." "Okay Master" replies Reisen. Just outside the gates of Entei, hanging from tall bamboo shoots were Tewi to the left side, and Kaguya to the right side calling for help. "Why did you set two of these!?" asked Kaguya. Tewi, looking tired replies "they were supposed to be for Reisen and Reimu!" Kaguya sighs and says "I order you to get me down, NOW!" then Tewi answers "I can't reach you... we'll have to wait until someone else comes." Both fell quiet, letting their hands hang, then suddenly an arrow cuts both ropes, the girls falling down hard on their faces. Eirin was looking outside the window with her bow at hand saying to herself "today... was busy."

To be continued...
Characters, scenario and spell cards all belong to ZUN
Ail and Kyo were created by Willie G.R.

JUN 27 2009
written by
Willie G.R.

Misplaced Sukima P-5

In the library, at the Scarlet Devil Mansion, danmaku was flying all around. Powerful shots impacted everywhere, leaving black spots all around, except on the books. Patchouli and Ail stop for a moment and Ail asks "hey, aren't you worried about all these books?" Patchouli calmly says "very nice of you to worry, but you see, all my books are magically protected, so there's no need to worry. Shall we continue?" Ail nods with a smirk on his face. Patchouli pulls out a Spell Card from inside the book she was holding, this time Ail was able to see it clearly. "Sun Sign, Royal Flare!" shouted Patchouli. Suddenly, red danmaku materialized between her and Ail. It moved in a circular motion, making Ail have to dodge with great care, as the shots intertwined a lot. "No bad" said Ail. "I guess I'll have to focus a little more" and so Ail begins to shoot those orange danmaku balls that explode on impact straight at Patchouli, then suddenly one of her danmaku lands right on his face, however, he was just fine. "What the hell? I barely even felt that!" said Ail looking surprised, then Patchouli says "that's because I missed your hit box." When Ail looks at his stomach, there was this reddish ball there. He looks back at Patchouli looking both surprised and scared, then she says "yours is almost as small as Reimu's. This will be tough." Again, Ail looks shocked and a little scared, but the battle continued until the first spell card had been cleared. There was a glint in Patchouli's eyes as she takes out the second Spell Card and says "My improvement is evident, however, your improvements is also quite evident." Ail smiles and bows thanking Patchouli then she continues saying "however I am not done yet...Five Elements Sign, Philosopher's Stone" Five books materialize, each shooting danmaku of a different element. Water, Fire, Wind, Nature, and Metal. Each book would shoot the danmaku in it's own pattern. Ail was grazed a lot of times, but he kept shooting his danmaku at her, clearing her spell card just as the very last wave of danmaku had him surrounded. "Phew" exclaimed Ail, "that was too close for comfort." Showing no emotion at all, like always, Patchouli takes out her last Spell Card of the match saying "This... I trained very hard to perfect this... let's test this against the real thing. "Metal and Fire Sign, Dragon's Last Breath!" On her left hand, she held an enormous metal blade and on her right, a fire blade of the same size. She brings them both together forming a spiritual dragon made of metal and flames. The dragon's body disappears, leaving only the neck and head. Ail gasped as he backed away, looking quite frightened. The dragon's head shot metals spikes at him, while from the neck, small fire blades and crystals would come out spinning, generating more crystals that would home in on Ail.

Sakuya kept watching and noticed Meiling hiding beside Koakuma, both behind one of the bookshelves watching the fight. Sakuya was impressed that Meiling looked like her old self again. She smiles and thinks "I never though I'd see Meiling again. It also seems lady Patchouli is coming back to us. The kid is really doing it... now all that's left is Flandre." Sakuya leaves the room in an instant then heads to Flandre's room, opening all the locks, smiles, then hides herself in the darkest corner she could find. Back at the village, Kyo was a little drunk. He had taken off both his shirts and was flexing his muscles every time he accomplished even the tiniest request. Somehow, Mystia, who was putting bandages on Rumia, couldn't take her eyes off Kyo for a second, blushing occasionally, and she wasn't the only one, as Mokou, who was hiding behind a house, was staring at Kyo, unblinking, her cheeks turning pink. Reimu was hiding inside Keine's school, looking pale and scared of going out saying "he's going overboard again." Keine smiles and says "don't worry, I exchanged Suika's gourd for one full of water." Reimu looks at Keine a little worried saying "but what if they find out?" Keine giggles and says "we run and pretend we don't know them" and then she winks. Reimu smiles, but just then Suika entered the school, looking angry and sniffing around. She finds her gourd and places the fake one right on Keine's desk who tried to smile, however Suika's eyes were red and filled with fire, making Keine gulp and lower her head a little. Just after Suika left, Reimu says "to the shrine?" "Right behind you" immediately said Keine, following Reimu out a window and to the shrine.

Back at the mansion's library, Ail was having much difficulty dodging all those shots. His face was cut and singed, his shirt was a bit tattered, but he kept on fighting. Suddenly, Patchouli starts coughing and collapses letting out a "mukyu~~!", however the dragon's head continued to attack, now more violently. "Crap, she lost control... no matter. Now it's my turn then." Aiming at the dragon's head, Ail shoots his focused shots, weakening it. Koakuma panics and flies rapidly to her collapsed mistress and gets her away to safety alongside her and Meiling, who offers them popcorn. Ail dodged the dragon's head shots as best he could, and managed to weaken it considerably. One last focused shot and the dragon's head vanished into thin air, but not before nailing Ail on the arm with one of it's metal spikes just before it disappears. "Dammit! That hurt!" shouted Ail as he pulled out the metal spike. He heads to where Koakuma, Meiling and Patchouli are. A little dazed, Patchouli manages to sit saying "I guess I still need to learn to control that one. At least you beat it." she said looking at Ail who extends his hand and helps Patchouli up. "That was just awesome!" exclaimed Ail. That last spell card... how could you summon something so fierce and manage to keep control that long?" Meiling grabs Patchouli from behind saying with a smile "because she is Patchouli Knowledge." After restoring the library, Patchouli, sitting by her desk says "and so you beat me, without having to use any Spell Cards. I am impressed, and I am glad to know... you really are that strong." Ail and Meiling both look rather confused at each other, then back at Patchouli who explains. "When you came by last time, I saw you as a mere human with admirable powers, however your power was nowhere near my own, and yet I couldn't take down your barriers. This battle has proven those barriers were no fluke, that you really are that strong, and for that I am grateful." Ail smiles at Patchouli saying "I understand now. But you know, locking yourself up like that? Remilia was truly worried." Patchouli's eyes reveal her sudden realization that she hasn't seen Remilia for almost a month. She, then, uses magic to restore Ail's clothes and heal his wounds a little. Ail smiles widely saying "maybe I should learn that spell." He then bows his head to Patchouli and says "you better go to Remilia, and let her know you are ok." As he turns around to leave, Meiling trails behind saying "you're still under my watch, mister!" Outside the mansion, a bandaged little black ball flying aimlessly says the familiar "is that so~!?"

At the basement corridor, a little blond vampire peeks outside her room. "Oh no... it's that same feeling again... and the door's open... what should I do?" said Flandre, who immediately shuts the door when she hears some voices. She then heads under her bed, holding a tattered teddy bear that was losing it's stuffing, as tightly as she could. "I just don't understand, why exactly did you attack Flan like that last time?" asked Meiling, and Ail responds "I was being controlled. It was a sneaky spirit that was hiding inside me. It tried to kill Flandre when I got too weak to control it." "Oo~hh, I see. Well, you're still in hot water, so you best behave when we get there. Arriving at Flandre's door, Meiling opens it, and to her surprise, all the locks were already opened. "Oh my, the locks are all open..." said Meiling as she entered the room calling Flandre softly "little sister...? Flan, are you here?" Flandre peeks from under he bed and when she sees Meiling, she jumps from under the bed and straight on to Meiling, making a loud cracking sound as she landed hard on Meiling. Ail heard the sound and covered his eyes, thinking Meiling had just been split in half by the force of the impact, however she was fine, hugging Flandre back. "Flan" said Meiling "you have a visitor. I want you to meet him. You can come in now!" When Ail slowly reveals himself, Flandre remembers everything that had happened during his last visit. She starts to hyperventilate and holding tightly to Meiling. Ail looked down a little saddened as Meiling comforted Flandre. "Don't worry, this time I am here. He won't harm you."

Slowly, Flandre lets go of Meiling as she puts her down. Ail kneels and offers his hand to Flandre. She looked at his eyes, scared at first, then very suspicious. She slowly approached Ail and grabbed his hand, shutting her eyes tightly and looking away, however Ail kept his hand open until Flandre looked back at him. He then slowly closed his hand and started shaking softly saying "hello Flandre. My name is Ail... the real Ail, that is." Flan looks back at him and asks "you... you don't want to break me?" Ail lightly shakes his head, then Flandre smiles a little, and that's when Sakuya reveals herself right behind Ail. "Err... S-sakuya... heh heh. W-What a surprise." said Meiling very nervously. "Meiling, those replacements you left at the gate just freeze a really nasty intruder... I might consider them to be a permanent replacement" said Sakuya, making Meiling gulp loudly. Outside, Cirno and Daiyousei had just frozen Aya, and Momiji was pulling the large iced crow tengu away, Cirno saying "and don't mess with the strongest again, you hear?" Daiyousei's eyes sparkled as Cirno posed valiantly. To their right, Rumia looked on and said "is that so~?" and gets frozen immediately. Back inside, Sakuya places a knife on Ail's neck saying "you sneaked in again, and came back to the scene of the crime..." she then looks at Flandre and says "would you like to get rid of him, young-mistress?" Flandre nervously thinks then says, "no wait..." Sakuya smiles and takes the knife off Ail's neck, Ail sighing in relief, then she says "alright. Besides, he's been restoring the mansion to the way it should be. And you, Meiling, were just making sure he behaved, so I'll overlook this negligence this time." Meiling sighs in great relief.

Flandre was no longer afraid of Ail, sitting on his lap quietly as Sakuya and Meiling were talking. "I am so glad to see you back to you old self, Meiling. I really did miss scolding you" said Sakuya. Meiling places her left hand behind her head, laughing as she said "aww, I'm sorry... where did I go again?" Sakuya smiles and says "the mistress will be happy to know everything is back to normal." Ail interrupted "not yet." and when Sakuya and Meiling look at him, then at Flandre, they realize what he meant, then Flandre realizes everyone is looking at her and asks "what?". Ail gets her up to her feet, then he gets up and asks her "Flandre? Are you afraid of using your powers?" Flandre turns her sight away from Ail's and down to the ground then slightly nods. Ail kneels to look at her straight in the eyes and says "look, what happened last time... you shouldn't be afraid of your powers. You just need to control them, and you should be just fine." Flandre wouldn't raise her eyes and just stood still. Meiling was about to grab Flandre, to cheer her up, however a blue portal formed very suddenly just beside Ail. All looked a bit surprised. Ail peeks his head in then pulls it back out. "It heads to the village." he says, then Flandre's face sparkles, and her eyes twinkle. "Well can't you close it?" asked Sakuya, but Ail looked quite puzzled and says "ME!? How could I do that? I don't even know how that opened up in the first place!" Sakuya looks at him suspiciously and says "so you don't know?" Ail looks to the ground then says "look, I don't know HOW I am even doing this... honestly." While Sakuya and Ail argue, Flan quietly sneaks inside the portal. Meiling notices a bit too late, jumping right in after her shrieking "Flandre!". By the time Ail and Sakuya realize this, the portal started to close, however Ail was quick enough to get in just in time. Sakuya panics when she hears her mistress' footsteps heading her way. By the time Remilia arrives, Sakuya was pretending to be cleaning the room. "Sakuya, where is Flan?" asked Remilia. Sakuya, without turning around so Remilia wouldn't see her nervous face, she says "I'm sorry my lady, I haven't seen her today." Remilia looks around and before she leaves she says "well, keep a look-out. There's no telling when that Ail might show." Yes, m'lady" replies Sakuya. Just as Remilia walks by Patchouli's library, the doors open. "Lady Remilia" says Patchouli, "will you come here for a moment? I need to talk to you." Remilia, looking like a lost child for a moment, nods then heads into the library.

At the village, everyone was in complete shock at the sudden appearance of Flandre, Meiling, then Ail. Flandre gets up and looks around, then notices so many people and youkai in one same place. She panics and begins to shiver, however Meiling gets up just in time, as Flandre immediately crashes on to her and holds in tight. Ail gets up last, then spots Kyo. "W-we're here~" says Ail as Marisa shouts "Flandre? Meiling? What are you two doing here!?" When Flandre hears Marisa's voice, almost instantly, she launches towards Marisa and knocks her down with a big, bone-crushing hug. Ail covered his ears thinking "the pain!!!" Marisa's body shakes violently as she pats Flandre on the head saying "he-hello there... F-F-Flan..." Flandre giggles, calming down then asks "why are there so many people here? Are they playing?" Kyo gets in front of the awestruck crowd and says "Ail, what are they doing here?" Ail is holding his forehead saying "I am not sure myself, dude." Meiling looks around and foolishly says "oh, it's a festival!" Flandre perks up and asks "a festival? What's that?" Suika comes in and says "WHA~~T!? You don't know what a festival is!? My name is Suika, and I'll be your festival teacher... come with me." "Oh no" shouts Meiling. "You're not getting her out of my sight... does anybody have an umbrella I can borrow?" Ail was about to accompany them, but Kyo holds him saying "is everything ok?" Ail nods and says "this was no accident, I am sure." then Kyo responds "Keine and Reimu need to talk to you, so before you leave, you should find them." Ail nods again then follows after Flandre, Suika and Meiling.

Even though Meiling found an umbrella, she and Ail were surprised to see how resistant to the early noon sun Flandre was. Suika took Flandre to the kiosks saying "...and this is where people sell foods and other items others might want, like charms, toys, some have games, and others have little shows for children, like Alice here, who's going to be doing a puppet show. Flandre's face twinkles as the excitement climbs on her. "Meiling, look, look... a doll. She looks so cute!" said Flandre as she ran towards Alice and Shanghai, pulling Meiling along with her. Ail takes this chance and asks "Suika? It's autumn... why are we having a festival?" Suika takes a good gulp of sake from her gourd and answers very simply "but why not?" Ail felt he had just been defeated, so he kept quiet. Flandre and Meiling were asking Alice about her dolls and puppets, when one of Alice's dolls falls and rips open. Witnessing this made Flandre feel really horrible, remembering how she used her powers to break her toys and other things amongst the many. She almost started to cry. Alice notices and says "don't worry, I can fix it!" then she picks up the doll and in just seconds, she mends it, making it look just like new, then shows to Flandre. It was a really cute doll that looked just like Shanghai, only she had short blond hair and wore little glass slippers. Flandre smiles then asks with concern "can people be fixed like that too?" Alice sighs and says "no, little one. I'm afraid that people and youkai cannot be fixed so easily." Flandre drops her head a little, Meiling worried asks "little sister? What's wrong?" "N-Nothing!" replied Flandre, then spots a sweets kiosk and runs to it, Meiling trailing along, thanking Alice for her time. Ail follows them and behind him a stumbling Suika. "Excuse me, how much is that sweet potato?" asked Meiling as Ail catches up. The woman from inside says "it's 150 yen." Meiling takes out the money and pays the woman, then Ail says "Ran? is that you?" Ran smiles saying "why, it's mister Ail. It's been a while, how are you? Who are these?" Ail smiling says "I'm doing well. This is Meiling Hong,the gatekeeper, and Flandre Scarlet, from the Scarlet Devil Mansion." "Nice to meet you" said Ran bowing her head, holding her hands together, and covering them whit her sleeves. From behind her comes Chen saying "Hi~ Ail, how are you?" Ail smiles "I am well. A kiosk?" Ran then says "it's good for making a little extra, plus it helps Chen meet new people." "I see" said Ail just as Flandre eats the last bite of her sweet potato, flapping her wings contently saying "yumm~~~!" Ail continues "have you seen Reimu and Keine? Nobody seems to know where they are." Ran laughs and says "they ran away from Suika and Kyo a little earlier. Said they were heading to the shrine." "The shrine, I see..." said Ail "Thanks Ran, I better go there now. Glad to see you and Chen. Take care" He then turns to Meiling and Flandre and says "come with me. I could use the company."

On their way to the shrine, they somehow managed to lose Suika, who turned to Kyo, and to another drinking challenge, and while walking to the shrine Flandre, looking a little sad, and staring at the ground said "my powers are so scary... I though I was playing, and I though..." Meiling tries to say something, but neither she or Ail could think of anything to say, then Flandre continued "why didn't they tell me I was hurting them so much. I was having so much fun breaking things... but I never knew how much it hurt, that when they broke... they left forever..." Ail stopped, turned to Flandre and held her shoulders and said "you can't be afraid of your powers, or they will control you, you understand? You were locked up for 495 years in that room, nobody ever told you anything because you refused to listen. It is not your fault, however." Flandre looks up at Ail as he continues "you were just having fun, like any child would. But now, Flandre Scarlet, now you have to learn to control those powers. I know they seem scary, but if you control them, then, and only then will you be able to find peace again." Flandre turned her sight away from Ail's then he says "how about a demonstration of what I mean?". Ail turns around, Meiling to his left, stances and ready to fight, and in front of them, two large fox youkai, one glowing yellow, and the other glowing red. "Look brother. One for each, and a snack to boot!" said the yellow fox youkai. The red one only snarls. Just before their battle starts Ail says "now watch, Flandre, as we use our powers to defend ourselves and those we care about!" Meiling rushes to the red youkai, kicking it hard, sending it flying toward a tree, and Ail focuses his shots, that, although a little slow, did great damage to the yellow youkai. Both get back up and lunge toward Flandre together, however Ail and Meiling get in their way, Meiling sending the yellow youkai back hard, Ail blasting the red youkai to the air, then Meiling rushes toward the red youkai and punches and kicks it until it backed away, and Ail started shooting smaller, but faster shots as the yellow youkai, then flies towards it, tackling it hard. Both youkai yelp and run away with their tails between their legs. Flandre's eyes widely open saying "wow... that as SO~ COOL! But why didn't you break them if they were trying to eat us?" Meiling smiles and says "because we control ourselves in order to avoid unnecessary killing." then Ail gets closer to Flandre and says "the only reason I would ever "break" anyone would be if they were going to hurt someone I cared for, and I found no other way to protect that someone." Flandre looked a little confused, then Ail and Meiling both pat her on the head, then Meiling says "I think you'll understand soon." As they continue their way to the shrine, Flandre holds Meiling's and Ail's hands.

Once at the shrine, they hear Reimu saying "aww~, what a lovely family! Sorry that I missed the wedding" Meiling and Ail look at each other, realizing what Reimu meant, then their faces turn bright red, however Flandre looked at them very confused. Reimu was sweeping leaves around her donation box and grinning at them, but then Flandre jumps to Reimu yelling "it's my red and white sis!!!". Meiling and Flandre went to look around the shrine while Ail and Reimu talked. "So, you opened another portal... and to the village, for that matter." said Reimu, then Ail says "why do you guys insist it was me? If I had-" Reimu stops him then says "I know you and Yukari had this chat already. That day, when you came back from the Moriya shrine." Ail looks at Reimu very surprised then Reimu tells him "I'm not an idiot, Ail. I know you and Yukari were talking to each other through your minds. You should be able to control that ability as well, if you train enough, of course." Ail sits next to the donation box looking grim, then Reimu sits besides him and asks "what did you two talk about?" Ail, still looking very grim said "she did all the talking. I just listened. She said: "By now you must know that you have powers very similar to mine. You are able to open gaps between barriers, but unlike me, you lack much needed experience. I could teach you, you know. Well, whatever, I'll leave that choice to you. You are lucky, you know? If my friend, Yuyuko, didn't like you so much, I would have killed you right here and now, but if I did that, she wouldn't speak to me again. Well, whatever. Take your time with that; you have more than enough time to make your choice. Oh yes, before I forget, your friend Kyo wants to go back home. If you don't do it, I might consider sending him back... but maybe I'll have a bit of fun and send him to a mountain top before sending him home..." Reimu smiles and says "that's Yukari for you. You know, she usually doesn't lie when it comes to teasing others." Ail lifts his head up and says "Maybe I should return back home with Kyo, you know? I've been causing a lot of trouble around here. Not just for the Scarlet Devil Mansion, but..." Reimu looked very surprised at his answer, but didn't say anything. The sun was almost set, and was being replaced by a beautiful full moon then Reimu says "Oh yes, you better go inside. Keine wants to talk to you now that the full moon's out. Ail looks at Reimu rather confused, then nods.

When Ail enters the shrine he noticed Keine was looking outside a window, looking straight at the rising moon. He noticed her dress and the highlights on her hair were now green, and her hat was gone, replaced by two large horns, the left one adorned with a red bow, and on top of that, she also had a greenish tail. She turns around and looks at Ail who was blushing a little, then said "surprised?" Ail gulps saying "a little... You look cute, though." Realizing what he just said, Ail's face turns bright red, and Keine giggles, blushing a little, then get serious again. "Ail, I am going to offer you... a choice." Ail gets serious now asking "a choice?" For a second, he though she was going to try and kill him, but she would have tried that long ago. Keine continues "while the full moon is out, I have control over Gensokyo's history... I could rewrite yours and Kyo's history to make it as if you never set foot inside here." Ail thinks for a moment. His face fills with doubt and fear. He didn't want to leave, but maybe, if he forgot about Gensokyo... maybe that would be the best choice. No incident with Flandre, no powers, no magic... no depressed Kyo. He then asks her "what if you only rewrote Kyo's history?" Keine shakes her head saying "You'll probably die when Remilia first attacks you. Maybe even before that. But think about it. Gensokyo will not have existed for either you or Kyo." Ail ponders for a second and says "memories from the heart seldom vanish to thin air." Keine looked very surprised saying "you are most wise... perhaps this is a bad idea also. You are right. There is a possibility you, particularly you, Ail, could remember everything." Ail says "the offer is very tempting but..." he smiles as he continues "if we did that, Flandre would never get out of that room, none of us would have ever met, and it's probable that those two girls that knocked us in could be in mayor trouble, or dead, if they were the ones that entered." Keine looks at Ail very surprised as he continued "...and fate has a funny way of working. What if someone else... someone without control attacked Flandre, then what? What if Remilia goes berserk toward someone else? I am very thankful for the offer, but the risks are too high. Only one choice left." Keine smiles at him as he continues "I'll have to learn to use my powers and abilities, so I can get Kyo and myself back home." Ail's smile vanishes when he finished. Keine walks toward him and says "I think Kyo won't mind if you stayed behind... he knows it in his heart, that this is your home now. Gensokyo itself has accepted you. You can now see spell cards and hear the declaration of use, and I am certain that some old things seem like new to you, correct?" Ail nods and smiles, then Keine smiles back.

Outside the shrine, Flandre and Meiling were ready to go back home. "I'll go with you. Someone needs to explain Remilia and Sakuya about your late return." Meiling and Flandre laugh, but suddenly a faint voice is heard. "Che~~n! CHE~~~N!!! Where are you!?" It was Ran, she was crying and calling out for Chen, then she spots Ail and rushes to him, grabs him by his arms and shakes him very violently asking "have you seen Chen? The oni started shooting danmaku in the air and she got scared, I can't FIND HER!!!!" After he stopped seeing double, Ail asks "maybe you should ask Reimu." Ran yells "she's handling that crazy oni and some frog girl at the village, you have to help me~!" Suddenly, from the direction of the Forest of Magic "Ran-sama~! Where are you~!?" and without wasting a single second, Ran rushes at great speeds to where Chen's voice came from. Ail looks at Meiling, who nods at him, then he says "Flandre, will you help us find Chen?" Flandre nods saying "let's go find her, big brother!" Ail was a bit surprised, and looks at Meiling who just shrugs.

When they arrive just outside the forest of magic, Meiling asks Ail "are you sure you can see in there? I know humans can't see very well in the dark, so..." Ail, looking a little surprised says "actually I can see quite well. I can see quite far too..." As they head inside the forest, a gigantic orange fox youkai with two tails gets in their way very suddenly, swiping it's claws at Meiling, sending her flying against a large tree, knocking her out, then before Ail is even able to move, it flashes light directly into Ail's eyes, blinding him, then swipes it's claws at him, sending him right next to Meiling. Still blind and barely able to get up Ail yells "Flandre, run! Get help!" Flandre looks at them both, calling for them "big brother, big sister!" The massive youkai looks at her saying "I'll come deal with you soon, dear. Right after I am done with you friends." then heads to where Meiling and Ail were. Ail, still blinded, tried to walk to where Flandre was, but the youkai simply sends him back with another swipe of it's massive claw. The beast opens it's mouth, ready to eat Meiling and Ail in one bite, however it stops. Flandre was holding something in her hand and said "I have the eye of your tail in my hands... leave them alone and I'll let you go!" The youkai tries to turn around, but Flandre clenches her hand, and the monster's left tail blows up, making the monster howl in pain, getting the attention of everyone a the village. Suika and Reimu are the first to fly toward the source of the howl, followed by Kyo, Keine and Mokou. Suwako only complains saying "aww, over already?" then heads back home. Back at the forest's entrance, Ail is shouting "Flan!? Flandre, are you alright!?" Flandre responds "I should be the one asking that! Can you see yet?" The youkai turns to Flandre as Ail responds "just a little." Flandre giggles and smiles as the massive youkai gets closer to her. She yells "Ail, is big sister ok?" Ail shouts back "she's just unconscious... where's that fox demon?" "You little MONSTER!" screams the youkai as it continued to walk toward Flandre. "You blew up my tail! I am going to kill you for that... argh!" Suddenly the beast drops to the ground yelping and holding it's head as best it could then Flandre asks "I have the eye of your head now. Are you going to leave us alone?" The youkai slightly recovers and tries to bite Flandre, but she clenches her hand again shouting "kyuun~" this time, making the monster's head blow. It's body falls to the ground and slowly turns to ashes.

Flandre heads to where Ail and Meiling were then kneels beside them telling Ail she was fine. Just a bit after, Meiling wakes up asking "what happened?" Flandre giggles and says "I protected my big brother and sister, just like when they protected me!" Meiling sits up mumbling "uh?? wha-?" then Flandre hugs her again. Just then, Remilia slowly flies down from a near-by tree saying "well, I was wondering when will you two be headed home, but it seems you were having too much fun here, huh? Perhaps tomorrow?" Just as Remilia lands, Ail gets up and kneels before her saying "I'm sorry, I asked them to help me here, that's why they..." Remilia interrupts him saying "look, it's fine. The important thing is you brought Patchy and Meiling back to me... and seems as though..." she looks at Flandre and smiles "... you have taught my young sister something very important today." Flandre smiles widely then jumps at Remilia, and hugging her shouting "onee-sama!" By then, Suika, Reimu and Kyo arrived, Suika shouting "WHOA! You guys killed this sick beast? Good one!" and gives them a thumbs-up. Just as Marisa, Keine and Mokou arrive, Reimu asks "what happened here? Ail, Meiling, are you two alright?" Flandre excitedly tells them what happened and how she beat that monster using her powers. She then goes to Meiling and Ail, hugging them again, then says "because someone needs to protect these two, right?" Reimu, again, mockingly says "aww~, you guys sure make one cute little family!" Flandre giggles while the still blinded Ail and a dazed Meiling slightly blush. Kyo laughs so hard, everyone else joined in. "Onee-sama... sis, can't we stay a little longer? I want to see the puppet show at the village!" asked Flandre, and Remilia quietly nods. Just as everyone was leaving, Ail realizes "hey wait! What about Ran and Chen?" then from inside the forest come Ran carrying a sleeping Chen then a little angry, she says "I found Chen, thank you! She was inside this MESSY house. Such a mess of books and junk all over!" Marisa, looking VERY grim asks "you... found her at my house?" Ran looks at Marisa then says "oh, so that's your house? I knew I recognized the mess! Oh yes, I happen to have found one of my missing math books. Why was that in YOUR house?" Marisa, without wasting another second, got on her broom and flew as fast as she could toward her house still looking incredibly grim.

Back at the village, they all enjoyed the rest of the festival. Kyo and Suika almost succeeded in forcing Ail some sake, however Ail managed to escape just in time. Chen and Flandre fell fast asleep right after Alice's puppet show, so Meiling, Remilia, Flandre, Ran and Chen left the village a little earlier. Going back to the shrine later that night were Ail, Suika, Kyo and Reimu. Ail asks "hey Reimu, why didn't you hold the festival at the shrine?" Suika answers "because Reimu said she didn't want to clean up after, and Kyo said 'me either' so we had it at the village." Ail ponders for a second then bluntly said "that's too bad. It would have been good money for the shrine, but... whatever." Reimu stops walking, her eyes open widely, then looks at Ail, then yells "crap... I forgot about that! Why did you remind me!?" then she grabs Kyo and shakes him saying "why didn't you say something!!!" and then she drops her arms down, slouches and walks toward the shrine in that pitiful pose. Suika and Kyo, who were behind Ail, look at each other and nod. Kyo grabs Ail and pulls him backwards, then Suika pours a little sake down his throat. Ail jumps up, holding his throat and running in circles screaming "water, water!!! Give me WATER! My throat!!!" He then drops the lantern and flies to the back of the shrine, then drinks as much water as he could from the lake at the back. The next morning Ail wakes up, stumbling as he goes outside the shrine. Suika and Kyo were having a staring contest, but stop as soon as they spot Ail. "Good morning Ail" said Suika. "Morning buddy... want some breakfast?" asked Kyo. Ail places both hands over his mouth, turns pale, then green, then runs to the trees and bushes and then throws up. Suika and Kyo, stare Ail's way and Suika says "wow, he really IS weak against sake, isn't he?" Kyo nods saying only "uh-huh, uh-huh".

For four days, everything went back to the way they were, when Ail and Kyo first came to Gensokyo, except that now Ail flies to town and is asked to do heavier errands. He's even visited the Moriya shrine various times, and every time he did, Sanae got in a really good mood... same for him. Youmu visited the shrine and she and Kyo had another sparring match... of course, Reimu got really mad when they almost leveled the shrine, and another constant visitor was Yuka, binging more plants for Ail to revive, and Alice and Marisa would also visit often, however this is quite normal. Suika is still wearing Reimu's clothing, which has Reimu worried, for some reason. Also, Sakuya went and visited the shrine in order to consult something with Reimu, Kyo losing it again at the sight of her. Even though she didn't know, or didn't WANT to know, she had him under her spell, and for some reason it seems he doesn't want to be free of it. On the early morning on the fifth day, Aya visits the shrine, looking terribly grim. "Aya? What are you doing here so early?" asked Reimu, while sitting on the shrine's porch, drinking some tea. Aya gets startled "a, err... Reimu, how are you? Err... have... have you seen Ail around?" Reimu looks at her directly in the eyes then says "calm down... you're acting as though you were about to do something really bad, but you don't want to, but you have to." Aya's face turns white, slowly followed by her skin, then someone pokes her from behind, making her jump and shriek loudly. "Whoa... talk about being stressed. Are you alright?" It was Ail. Aya rapidly gets up and bows saying "good morning, good morning. Let's cut to the chase... how about a small race?" Aya was shaking a bit and didn't notice Reimu and Ail grinning evil-like at each other. Reimu nods and Ail says "why, sure. That sounds like a lot of fun! From here to where?" Aya perks up and says "alright then! We start from here, head to the Moriya shrine, down to the village and then back here again!" Ail ponders then nods saying "sounds great. Let's begin, then!"

They both get set to start their race, then Reimu, very calmly says "ready set go..." Aya and Ail look at Reimu with disbelief, then at each other, then lunge into the air at great speeds. They were evenly matched, flying at amazing speeds. Already they were right above the waterfall that leads to the Moriya Shrine. Aya stops here looking very sad. Ail stops and gets closer to her. "Hey, what's the matter? We're in the middle of a race!" says Ail, then suddenly from behind, Momiji impales him with her sword. Aya, almost crying says "I'm sorry, but we were ordered to kill you... I'm so sorry." and then she places the palm of her hand on his chest, then shoots her danmaku directly at him, blasting him from the skies. His blood showers down to the waterfall and the trees while Aya and Momiji cry, hugging each other, after what they had done. Suddenly they realize that the blood had turned into cotton, and Ail's body had turned into fabric. Aya and Momiji were now shaking in fear. "Miss Aya, what have we done?" said Momiji trembling alongside Aya who responds "what the hell was he?" From under some trees Ail comes out looking very casual with an apple he had just bought from the Aki sisters and taking a bite. He shouts from the ground "hey, what exactly are you two doing?" When Aya and Momiji see he's alive and well, they celebrate for a bit, then suddenly attack Ail with so many shots, he was bound to get hit, however the trees absorbed most of the shots and again, still looking casually at them, he shouts "what exactly are you two trying to do?" This time both Aya and Momiji lunge directly at him, Momiji pointing her sword straight at Ail's face. He throws the apple up in the air, gets out of the way just in time to avoid Momiji's sword, then spins out of Aya's way, making her crash against a tree. He grabs the apple from the air, takes on last bite and throws it at Aya, knocking her down. He then gets close to Aya and again he asks "what are you two trying to do?" From behind, Momiji quietly tries to slash him, however he ducks just in time, kicks the sword away, then backs away fast, just as Aya started shooting danmaku at him.

Aya's danmaku misses miserably, then, almost crying she says "we got direct orders from our leader to terminate you. It's nothing personal, but we cannot disobey orders!" and so she lunges at Ail alongside Momiji. Just as they strike, they realize they were attacking air, then from behind them, Ail says "well, slowpokes like yourselves could never hope to catch me... let alone 'terminate' me." Without turning around, Aya stands up straight, the atmosphere around her turned thick then in a very serious and angry tone of voice she says "what... did you just call me?" Ail calmly looks at Aya saying "oh my. Did I strike a raw nerve?" Aya turns around, her face was red, her eyes were on fire, and she was clenching that fan of hers so tight, it was bound to break. "You punk!" shouted Aya. "You want to see fast, do you? Momiji, stand down... he's mine!" Momiji looks at Aya and quietly says "but miss Aya, don't you realize he's just mocking-" then Aya yells louder "I SAID STAND DOWN!" and Momiji ducks and covers herself, lowering her ears, her tail between her legs. Aya lunges at Ail, her speed considerably higher, however Ail would dodge just in time. Aya was getting furious, then on her next pass, she stops and realizes Ail had her fan. He was looking at it curiously saying "wow... looks like a leaf, but it's quite solid. Oh..." he looks at Aya "you want this?" and then tosses the fan back to her. Aya stomps hard on the ground with her left foot and pulls out a spell card just as she catches her fan. "Illusionary Dominance!!!" she shouted at the top of her lungs "AYAYAYAYAYA!, then suddenly starts flying high and at such speeds, she looked like a beam of light. Momiji was now trembling behind a tree while watching the fight. Ail looks up then sees a lot of little green shards heading his way slowly. At first he though nothing of it, however more and more shards appear, making is really hard for him to dodge. "Crap" he says softly as four or five shards land on him, one of them landing on his hit box. Various red tabs with the letter "P" on them flew up, then slowly back down. Aya smirks and comes down, then gets close to him with an evil grin in her face and says "now die, you snail!" Just as Aya prepared another wave of danmaku, Reimu pops from out of nowhere and holds Aya by her shoulder, with a glint in her eyes and says "hold it, you idiot!"

Ail was still sitting on the ground while Reimu explained. "I went to the tengu headquarters to ask why did they want you to terminate Ail... funny thing, they all looked at me as if I were crazy, and so I explained the situation." Aya and Momiji both looked very surprised and Aya asks "wait, you knew!?" "We both did" replied Reimu. Ail gets up saying "if it was meant to be a secret, then you're not very good at keeping those 'secret'... we suspected something the second you came to the shrine." Reimu continued "so while you two were having your little race, I took the liberty to coming here directly and talk to your leader. You completely misunderstood the orders." and then she hands Aya a piece of paper. Aya reads it out loud. "You idiots, we told you to terminate a CONTRACT with the half youkai that lives in the FOREST, not the SHRINE! We will discuss this matter after you are done with this errand." Aya and Momiji looked very ashamed of themselves, looking at each other in disbelief. Momiji shouts "miss Aya~! you weren't listening again!" Aya lowers her head and drops to the ground saying "don't say it like that!" Aya and Momiji apologized to Ail almost a hundred times, Ail, of course accepted their apologies. Above them, Reisen, looking tired, for some reason, was flying toward the village from the Moriya shrine, carrying a large brown backpack. "Why did I come here in the first place?" she asked herself "I don't even remember how I got here. I better hurry or master will be angry again." Almost falling down, she quickly recovers saying "ah... this is so heavy, I better fly lower, just in case." Without realizing, a vial full of indigo-colored liquid falls from one of the backpack's pockets and straight down on Ail's head. He rubs his head with both his hands and runns around in a circle. When he stops he notices Aya was chuckling and he says "that's not funny... that hurt!" sounding a bit annoyed. Reimu spots half of the vial saying "uh-oh" then Ail says "argh, my hair is wet with something... eh... I'm feeling... strange." Suddenly his body starts to shrink to that of the size of a child, his ears vanish an are replaced by ears just like Momiji's, although brown like his own hair, and then a short brown hairy tail pops just below his back, and his eyes widened and turned beady. He had turned into half a dog. He looks at Reimu, who was completely shocked, then at Aya and Momiji, who looked equally shocked. "What are you all looking at?" Ail realizes his voice sounded squeaky then asks "what just happen to me?". Momiji and Aya's nose start bleeding as they both shout "SO CU~~~TE!" then run at Ail and start petting him and hugging him. Reimu looked a little shocked still, then looks at the half of vial in her hand. From behind some trees, a little black ball flies aimlessly and says "is that so~?" then crashes against a tree.

To be continued...
Characters, scenario and spell cards all belong to ZUN -Team Shanghai Alice-
Ail, Kyo and "Metal and Fire Sign Dragon's Last Breath!" spell card were crated by Willie G.R. (Any similarities are strictly coincidental.)

JUN 25 2009
written by
Willie G.R.

-NOTE-
This chapter really took me some time to finish :S!!!