Another Misplaced Sukima P-4

At Gensokyo, Yorihime ventured into the Bamboo Forest of the Lost and was reunited with Reisen, Kaguya and Eirin, however Eirin kept insisting that due to her knowledge of their whereabouts, she had to stay on in Gensokyo, so Yorihime, feeling quite bitter, left the premises saying that it was an illusion due to battle exhaustion. After returning to the shrine, Yukari warned Reimu about the dangers of their plans to enter Makai, but Reimu already knew, so Yukari hastily leaves, taking Sakuya, who had just been accepted to join the Makai infiltration party, to unknown whereabouts. At Makai, Shinki told Ail and Maribel the story of what had happened last time Reimu was there, getting depressed in the process. Ail and Maribel did their best to cheer her up, which somehow ended in Maribel gaining the ability to fly after some light that came from Shinki's hands passed on to her.

After crashing a few more times inside the palace, Mai, Yuki, Luize, Yumeko and Shinki decide to take Maribel outside before she either hurts herself, or destroys the palace. Ail quietly follows them out while Yumeko kept turning about and glares at him. He ignores her and just continues looking elsewhere while following them. Immediately outside, Maribel lifts off with a "WEEEE~" and starts to fly around. "It's been a while since we fooled around like that... I think I'm joining her" said Yuki immediately following Maribel, and flying around for fun. Mai rubs her forehead saying in an undertone "such a child", then Luize follows as well, all three giggling and laughing while they fly around, twirling around each other, almost crashing a few times. Yumeko kept glaring at Ail, and now Ail was starting to get a bit irritated by this, however he just looks away and tries to ignore her. Shinki was too distracted by the three flying girls to notice anything else.

Just after the three girls finally stop and come down, Mai approaches Ail. "So, I hear you are quite powerful" said Mai to Ail. Ail raises his sight to meet hers as she says "would you like a little friendly mach?" At first Ail kept quiet and just looked back, but then he smiles, forgetting all about Yumeko and says "well, as long as it's just a friendly match, I don't mind." Suddenly Yuki shouts "AWESOME! Can I join!?" Mai slaps her forehead just as Maribel says "Ooh, I wanna join too!" Ail looks at her surprised and says "but Maribel... you don't have that much power... you might get hurt." Maribel simply smiles, then Mai says "Let's make this interesting. Me and Maribel against you and Yuki. What do you say?" Before Ail says anything, Yuki wraps her arm around his neck and says "of course we accept. Get ready to lose, sis!" Ail thinks "Great... now Maribel's gonna get hurt and Reimu is gonna blame ME!" The three girls fly above the large lake and get into position. Ail stretches a bit and just before he lifts off, Yumeko grabs him by the neck of his cloak and says "you watch it, mister! You harm a single one of those girls and I'll have your neck!" Ail glares back and forcefully pushes Yumeko's hand off from his cloak. "Listen you--!!!" shouts Ail, but he just stops, sighs and flies away quite irritated. When he arrives, Maribel immediately notices his face and asks "mister Ail!? What's the matter?" Ail takes a deep breath and says "nothing... it's nothing really" and then smiles as he usually does.

All four float above the lake, ready to start their little game. It was Ail and Yuki vs. Mai and Maribel. Mai faces Ail while Yuki faces Maribel. Shinki was alongside Luize, sitting by the palace entrance and watching their little game, while Yumeko would serve them some tea and cookies. Mai shouts "ok, the first team to be knocked out or admit defeat loses! Any questions?" Ail says "short, simple and easy to understand" then Yuki and Ail say at the same time "let's get it on!" and the game starts. Ail and Mai fly around as if they were synchronized, Mai shooting chunks of ice, while Ail shot small white energy balls at her. They stop and separate then start shooting at each other once more, each shot crashing against one another, then they continue to fly around and shooting. Maribel and Yuki looked as though they were just dancing around in the air, then Maribel shoots various pink energies shaped like hearts at Yuki, who dodges them, smiles and says "not bad. I don't know why Ail was so worried about you. You're like a little power bomb... WHOA!" Yuki ducks just as some hearts fly right above her head, then Maribel giggles and says "sorry~" then continues to shoot. Yuki shoots a few small fireballs toward Maribel, but she just starts to dance in the air, dodging the shots, then giggles and flies away, Yuki shouting "hey, no running!" then Maribel shouts back "I'm not running!" Yuki scratches her head and says "oh... that's right" then chases her, shooting more small fireballs her way. Ail and Mai continue to fly around almost synchronized, firing at each other, each shot crashing against the other, then Mai stops and smiles "heh heh, not bad for a human like you. I guess I don't need to hold back with you." Ail smiles and says "glad to know." Mai shines for a bit and her small angel wings turn to large white demon wings. Ail was quite impressed saying "whoa, not bad. I most certainly was NOT expecting that to happen." Mai smirks and says "heh- Let's play some more." Both Ail and Mai are now flying so fast that Luize is having trouble keeping up with them, while Yuki and Maribel keep dancing around, shooting randomly at each other.

Mai suddenly stops following Ail, and he stops as well after realizing she was just floating at the moment. There was now plenty of room between them. Mai smiles at him, then smirks, and suddenly she shoots a small laser beam, moving it to wherever he went, however she couldn't move it fast enough, so she suddenly started shooting some thick blue beams that follow him wherever he was. While dodging her laser, Ail dodges the blue beams, but they just come back after him. "Whoa. Those are seekers!" shouted Ail as he speeds up, the blue beams behind him. Mai smiles and continues to try and nail him with her laser, but he goes straight to her, leading the two seeking blue beams straight at her. She dodges just in time shouting "WHOA! Hey, that's cheating!" The blue beams stopped following Ail and just vanish. Ail smiles at Mai saying "not bad at all. Let's see if you can keep that up." then starts shooting at her with his own homing lasers and focused blasts. Yuki started shooting larger fireballs at Maribel, who simply twirls in the air, avoiding the massive shots and shooting many pink hearts all around. Because of her twirling around the hearts spin as they fly toward Yuki at great speeds. Yuki has some trouble dodging the hearts, yelping, squeaking, shrieking and shouting as she dodged. "Whoa! I'm gonna have to us my best to beat you after all!" said Yuki, ducking just as a heart flies just above her head. She concentrates, which startle Maribel who asks "Yuki? A-are you alright? Are you hurt?" Suddenly Yuki smiles and starts shooting large fireballs in arcs, followed by fiery arrows. Maribel shrieks and starts flying away, dodging as best she could. One of the fires touches the bottom of her dress, singing it a little, then Maribel turns around and start shooting again, blasting the fires out of the skies then shouting "hey, you almost burn my dress... EEP!" She flies away once more once she sees the large barrage of fireball arcs headed her way.

Maribel and Mia regroup, followed shortly by Yuki and Ail. Yuki raises her left arm in the air shouting "YEAH! We're winning!" Mai and Maribel huddle, Ail and Yuki wondering what was going on. "We better do something, or we're going to lose, and I don't want to lose to Yuki!" whispers Mai. Maribel giggles and says "how about we surprise them. Switch opponents?" Mai smirks and says "I like the way you think. Alright, let's catch them off-guard!" Yuki looks at them then says "he~y, if you're gonna bore us to submission, just say so already!" Mai and Maribel break up and position themselves to face their opponents; Maribel facing Yuki and Mai facing Ail. Suddenly they both lunge toward their opponents, readying their magic. Yuki and Ail stance in a defensive manner, waiting for their opponent's moves, but very suddenly, Mai and Maribel switch opponent while in mid-air and shoot at them, catching them off-guard, Maribel landing a few hearts on Ail, and Mai nailing Yuki on her chest. Three hearts pass right above Ail's head, then suddenly an indigo colored gap opens just behind Yuki as Mai's shots land on her chest once more, sending her into the gap which closes just as Ail tries to grab her arm. "YUKI!" shouts Ail. Maribel gasps while Mai shouts "Shit! Yuki! What happened!? Yuki!" Down below, Yumeko grits her teeth, Luize covers her mouth with her hand saying "oh my... what just happen?" and Shinki's eyes fill with tears. She immediately gets up and flies toward Ail, her face in shock, her lips trembling. Yumeko follows after a bit. Ail had opened another gap and was looking inside, hoping to find Yuki, but the gap was red in color, and inside was nothing but darkness as far as he could see.

As soon as Ail closes the gap, he realizes Shinki was right in front of him. He immediately noticed the concern and fear on her face. Before he could say anything, she grabs him by his neck and shouts "what happened to my Yuki!? What did you do to her!!?" Ail gasps for air and somehow manages to say "please... it was... an accident...!" Shinki suddenly grows 6 large violet demon wings with red markings on them, as well as releasing countless dark energy balls. She lets go of Ail and flies higher, then starts to summon immense amounts of power to her. Yumeko grabs Maribel and Mai, then pulls them back down. Ail was sensing the power that Shinki was about to unleash and rushes to her shouting "NO~! Lady Shinki, don't! Calm down!" She suddenly begins shooting at Ail countless fire spikes, lasers, and black energy balls, all using intense amounts of energy. Just as Ail reaches her, his "Light Sign, Holy Dance" spell card activates on it's own, surrounding Ail and Shinki in a white energy ball that stops Shinki's own shots inside of it. Yumeko panics and shouts "LADY SHINKI!!!" Luize starts to sweat and says "This is not good! They are both using too much power." Yumeko was pacing desperately looking for someway to stop them, then she stops. Luize, Maribel, Mai and Yumeko look inside the ball of light and saw Shinki and Ail hugging each other tenderly, holding on tightly. They all blush, Yumeko gulping loudly and quietly saying "lady... Shinki?" Inside the ball of light, Ail and Shinki were so scared, they where trembling violently. They both hold each other, trembling in fear and Shinki shouting "what's going on!?" and Ail at the same time shouts "what's happening here!?" Yumeko was getting angry and shouts "that PERVERT!" Maribel gasps and then flies up, getting close to the white sphere, then she shoots one of her own hearts, and the white sphere disappears almost immediately. Ail and Shinki both fall unconscious, so Yumeko and Luize fly up fast to catch them, Yumeko heading straight toward her mistress, Luize catching Ail by the back of his cloak.

Once back down, Shinki and Ail regain consciousness almost at the same time. Yumeko lifts her mistress and hugs her tight shouting "Lady Shinki! Oh I'm so glad your alright! Did he do anything to you!?" Yumeko lets go of Shinki who just moans a little then asks "what...?" Yumeko then continues shouting "did he touch anything!? What did that pervert do!? Ooh, if that depraved monster did anything to you, I'm going to KILL HIM!" Shinki was rubbing her head and asks "Yumeko... what are you talking about?" Ail sits up and groans a bit, rubbing his own head and saying "what's all the noise about?" Yumeko grabs him by his shoulders and shakes him violently, shouting "you PERVERT! What did you to do my lady Shinki!? Give back her innocence, you perverted monster!" As soon as she stops shaking him, Ail growls pushing her away and shouts "Who the HELL are you calling a PERVERT!?" Ail suddenly realizes everyone, even Maribel was looking at him with accusing eyes. Shinki was still sitting in a daze, rubbing her head and trying to compose herself. Mai then says "not only did you kill Yuki, but you then force yourself on our lady! We will never forgive you!" Ail gets up and backs away turning pale for a moment, then his face start turning red with rage then says "what's the MATTER with you!? Maribel, you too?" Maribel looks down and says "I'm sorry... but we saw you holding Shinki real close to you and..." then Yumeko interrupts Maribel shouting "you are just a pervert that came to destroy us all. You wanted to have your way with our lady before you finished her off. Yeah, it all makes sense! That's how perverts like you think!" Ail grits his teeth and says "I am not a PERVERT!" He soon realizes that all but Shinki and Maribel were glaring at him. His face turns red then he shouts "for YOUR information, Yuki is ALIVE AND WELL and in... gah, never mind. You can all just go to HELL for all I care!" and he then flies away with such force, he pushes Luize and Yumeko back a bit, and all that could be seen was a beam of light getting away.

Early noon at Gensokyo, The Forest of Magic, inside Marisa's house. Marisa was sitting on a desk with some books, a pen and some ink and just thinking. She was only wearing a white sleeveless shirt and her drawers while she studied, when she suddenly heard an explosion coming from the Bamboo Forest. She looks out the window and sees Yorihime and Mokou fighting above the bamboo. She smiles and says "ah, something fun, ze!" She rushes to the attic and dresses in her usual black and white witch get-up then heads to the front door. Just outside her house, and indigo gap opens up and from inside come Yuki, landing almost perfectly, if it wasn't for a small twig that makes her trip. "Ow~" shouts Yuki. She looks around thinking "wow... so green. Wait... this isn't my home. I wonder where I am?" She gets up and continues to look around, spotting Marisa's house. She heads to the door thinking "might as well ask someone where I am." Just as she was about to knock on the door, Marisa opens it and both look at each other in the eyes. Marisa and Yuki both looks at each other surprised, then at the same time, Marisa raises her left hand, while Yuki raises her right at the same time, then they lower their hands at the same time and stick their tongues out. Marisa thinks "A mirror?" as Yuki thinks at the same time "a spell?" Marisa and Yuki both lift up their skirts for a second, then pull them back down at the same time, then they start posing and look at each other from behind, then turn around again, tucking in their stomachs, and turning side-ways. Yuki asks "wow... am I really that flat chested?" then at the same Marisa asks "do I really look this old!?" At the same time they point at each other, Yuki with her right hand, Marisa with her left and both say "HEY!" then Marisa asks "who are you calling flat-chested!?" and at the same time Yuki asks "who are you calling old!?" Both drop their fingers saying "huh?" then finally Marisa pokes hard on Yuki's forehead. Yuki flinches and says "HEY! That was rude!" then Marisa gets shocked saying "whoa, she's real!"

Back at Makai at late noon Ail had stopped far away from the palace and sat under the same dry tree where he and Maribel slept on their first night in there. He was sitting there, just grumbling and mumbling to himself, then he turns and launches a punch to the tree, making his fist bleed. When he pulls his fist out of the hole he had just made on the tree and noticing the blood, he looks at his knuckles and says "great!" As he starts pulling off the few splinters he mumbles "calling me a pervert... and Yuki... and she's not dead... dammit, I'm not a pervert!" Soon after he started to fall asleep. Quietly from behind, just as he closes his eyes, Yumeko lands and quietly approaches him thinking "I'll make you pay for disgracing my lady with your blood." She pulls out a dagger with a golden hilt and positions it to stab Ail as he slept. She lunges the blade straight at the back of his neck, but she is suddenly stopped. Ail had grabbed her arm just in time and using his blood he slips the dagger off from Yumeko's hand. He lets her go and she backs away. Glaring menacingly at her Ail says "this is what you wanted, right!? Let's fight here and now, no holding back! The winner goes home, the loser dies." Yumeko smiles and says "brave of you, but very foolish. I promise to make you pay for all the damage you have caused, you depraved monster." Ail lunges toward Yumeko with the dagger in his hand and shouting "you insolent BITCH! Stop calling me a PERVERT!" He almost caught Yumeko off guard, but she managed to teleport herself away just in time. Ail pulls the dagger from the ground and says "if you're scared, then GO HOME and LEAVE-ME-ALONE!" Yumeko appears a few feet behind Ail and says "I see you weren't kidding after all." She pulls out four dagger in each hand and says "fine. When I go home, I'll tell Maribel you fell in battle, cowering at the feet of your enemy." Ail smirks and says "you talk too much!" and lunges directly at her, holding on to the dagger he stole from her and clashing it against the daggers on her hand so hard, sparks few off from the blades.

Back at Marisa's house in Gensokyo, after knocking on Marisa's door for about an hour, Yuki is finally let inside. "So your name is Yuki? Sounds familiar... have we ever met?" asks Marisa. Yuki looks at her in shock and says "well of COURSE we met, miss Marisa. At Makai, remember? There was another girl with me. She was wearing white!" Marisa snaps her fingers, points at Yuki and says "of course, Makai, ze! So how are things in there?" Yuki thinks for a bit and says "well, after you provoked lady Shinki, it's been a bit of a mess, but it's actually ok in there." Marisa sweats and says "Oh... heh, glad to hear that. Um... so how is it you ended here in Gensokyo again?" Yuki sighs loudly and says "I told you, I don't know. One minute I was with Ail having a blast, then all of a sudden I'm in the wrong end of an ice barrage and then I end up here." Marisa widens her eyes and asks "you were with Ail? Brown, messy hair, brownish-gold eyes, violet shirt, black pants, brown boots and brown cloak?" Yuki nods saying "yes, yes, that's him. Oh, but his cloak was sky blue, not brown." Marisa scratches her head and says "huh... another wardrobe change. Well, you must tell Reimu what you know..." Yuki twitches and says "Re-...Reimu?" Marisa smiles and says "sure. Aww, don't worry, ze. She's not that mean once you get to know her. Oh... but before we go see Reimu, there's someone else you just HAVE to visit." Marisa puts on her hat and grabs her broom saying "come on! Let's go." Yuki follows Marisa outside and just as Marisa closes the door, they both fly up, Yuki saying "my nose itches. Will you scratch it?" then Marisa replies "no way, ze!"

Back at Makai, it was already dark. Yumeko and Ail continued their battle. Both were cut and bruised all over, their clothes stained with blood. Ail had one dagger in each hand, using them to defend against Yumeko's barrage of flying daggers. Ail lunges at Yumeko, but she dodges just in time with a twirl, however she gets another cut on her left arm. Yumeko immediately shoots a dagger to Ail, stabbing him on his left thigh. Ail pulls it off and smiles at her as they size each other. Yumeko pulls out two more daggers and holds them downward. They both lunge toward each other, clashing their daggers, sending out sparks as they did, Ail looking fiercely at Yumeko, whom continues to glare at him. They back away, making their daggers send out spark as they did, then Yumeko starts shooting two blue lasers at Ail, accompanied by a rain of blue knives and white energy balls. As Ail dodged, she surrounded him with daggers, all launching at him from all sides. All around, even on his head, Ail was covered with knives, his blood spilling all over the ground as he fell. Breathing heavily, Yumeko gets close to his body and says "I guess *pant* that I'm *pant* the winner!" She inspects his body closely, but then Ail suddenly wakes up, blasting her with one of his focused shots on her face. "ARGH!" Yumeko holds her face and shouts "You bastard! I can't see!" Ail takes all the daggers off from his body, then promptly pulls the two on his head off. Somehow, he summons his "Blast Sign, Expansion that Soothes" spell without using a spell card, then quietly gets closer to her. Yumeko desperately tries to get up shouting "where are you, you COWARD! Gah... when I get my hands on you... ARGH!!" Ail got close enough to blast some of the energy balls around him, absorbing Yumeko's energy as the orange energy balls impacted her, exploding on contact. Ail wounds vanish as the energy balls continue to explode on Yumeko's back, up until the very last one explodes. Yumeko was trembling on the ground, trying to get up, but she could barely keep her eyes open. Ail kicks her side, turning her around so she faces him. She was barely breathing, her face burnt and cut, blood trickling from the corner of her mouth. "Go ahead..." she narrowly opens her eyes and weakly says "kill... kill me already." Ail kneels beside her and grabs one of her daggers. The sounds of impalement echoes all around, accompanied by strong gusts of wind that carry the horrible sound straight to Pandemonium, right back to Shinki.

Late noon in Gensokyo. Before landing, Marisa looks back to the Bamboo forest and says "ah, it seems things have settled down over there, ze. Oh well." Yuki just smiles as she stares at Marisa. They both land next to a large white house. Marisa covers her mouth as she chuckles and says "she's gonna get the surprise of her LIFE." Yuki scratches the side of her head, wondering what was Marisa talking about, but just shrugs and follows Marisa to the door. She knocks loud and shouts "Oy~! We came to play, daze!" From inside an annoyed girl's voice says "What do you want, Marisa. I'm busy!" Marisa shouts back "just come out already! There's someone you just HAVE to meet, zei~!" The girl from inside opens the door while saying "look, if this is another one of your games I'm gonna..." As soon as she opened the door, she looks at the two girls and gets a shock. She points at both and says "err... did you duplicate yourself?" "Alice!?" asks Yuki, sounding very surprised. Alice looks at her and says "well of course I'm Alice! For a double, you're not very smart, are you?" Marisa chuckles and says "that's not a double. Don't you recognize her?" Alice looks steadily at Yuki, then all of a sudden she shrieks, her hair standing on ends, then she rushes back to the door and slams it hard behind her. Marisa start to laugh hard, while Yuki says "Alice! It's me. It's Yuki! Don't you remember me!?" From inside Alice shouts "this is a dream, JUST A DREAM! You are not real!" Marisa was now laughing to the point of tears and rolling on the ground, holding her sides. Yuki sounding a bit disappointed says "aww come on. It's really me. I came from Makai through some sort of weird portal." Alice shouts "I'm not listening. This is all a lie!" Once Marisa calms down, she grabs Yuki by her shoulder and points back with her thumb saying "come on, I know another way inside." and both Marisa and Yuki enter through a window and look at Alice, who was barring the door with her body, looking out the window and shaking in her boots. Yuki looks at her with wonder, then says "wow, Alice, you sure have grown, huh?" Alice jumps in place, twitching as she turns her now blue face toward Yuki, then she starts to tremble more violently while Marisa giggles and says "hah hah, just stop that and serve us some tea or something, will ya?"

Flying above the dark night skies of Makai is Ail, carrying a semi-conscious Yumeko on his back and talking to her non-stop on the way. "...and honestly, I could have had my way with you just now, but why didn't I? Oh, that's right! I'm NOT a pervert! I'm not perfect, but I'm not a 'depraved monster' as you so kindly called me either. That really hurt, you know?" Yumeko twitches a bit and moans then Ail says "about what happened between me and Shinki. It's hard to explain. I wasn't 'forcing my way' on her. We just panicked and just held on to each other. Nothing else. This is hard to explain, but while we were being surrounded by our energies like that, our minds sort of... drifted away. We saw that Yuki had landed in Gensokyo, and that she's with Marisa and Alice. Hey, that reminds me; what's with lady Shinki and Alice? When she saw her, she started to call out to her, asking if she was doing ok amongst other things. Sort of like a mother." Yumeko lifts her index and lets it drop, softly tapping on Ail's shoulder, then he says "right... sorry, forgot you're barely conscious back there. You know, you're lucky I was able to summon my 'Energy that Soothes' again, or you might REALLY be in trouble. Oh look... we're here." Ail lands softly right in front of the gates of Pandemonium where Shinki was waiting for them. Wrapping Yumeko's arm around his neck, Ail helps her to walk to the gates. Shinki gasps when she gets a good look at both of them. Their clothes torn, bloodstains all over them, cut marks, open wounds. Ail's left eye had a small cut that started bleeding just as he was flying, and Yumeko had a gash on her arm that not even Ail's healing spell could close. "It's alright" said Ail as he looked at Shinki's worried expression. "I was able to heal the more lethal wounds." Just then, Luize and Mai come from inside and gently take Yumeko from Ail. He stood just outside the gates and looked on, then Shinki turns around and asks "aren't you coming?" Ail shakes his head then Shinki says "but I already explained everything. Are you sure about this?" Luize and Mai stop and listen to the conversation, but they wouldn't turn around. Shinki tried to insist, but Ail wouldn't even smile as he said in a very serious tone "a 'pervert' like me should stay away, don't you think?" Shinki gets closer to him saying "don't say foolish things like that. Come on, it's alright, really!" Ail just looks at Shinki and wouldn't say a word. He turns around and just before he leaves Shinki tells him "then please, after you calm down, remember that you are welcome here." Ail turns his head and forces a half smile, then gestures a farewell with his hand and says "please take good care of Maribel while I'm gone" then flies away toward the lake. Shinki nods as he leaves, then sighs and slowly turns around then heads back inside. The large doors close behind her as she said "alright, let's take care of Yumeko. First let's get her to her room and bandage those wounds properly." Luize and Mai let out some tears, which Shinki notice, getting in front of them and smiling. "It's ok. I'm sure he'll forgive you after he calms down a bit. Let's just give him some time." Luize and Mai smile and continue to carry Yumeko to her room alongside their lady Shinki. Yumeko was trying to smile as well, but wasn't able to show her mistress, making her drop a blood-stained tear to the crystal floor.

Night time. Sakuya and Yukari pop out from inside one of her gaps into a large dark grassy field. Sakuya looks around and from a distance she notices many lights, some moving in pairs, other lighting steadily inside and outside tall buildings made of stone and glass. She sees a large monstrous metallic worm running through a stone path, making a loud squeaking sound as it stopped, and many humans getting on and off the creature. After a while of looking around, Sakuya shakes her head and realizes she was looking at a train. "W-what is this? Yukari, why did you bring me here? Oh, this will inconvenience my lady!" Yukari shushes her and with purpose in her voice she says "I need your help. We need to find Kyo and bring him back to Gensokyo with us." Sakuya looks at Yukari quite surprised and asks "Kyo!? What for? Yukari, are you planing something again?" Yukari covers her mouth with her fan and says "fu fu fu, not necessarily. We need him to go look for Ail, and since you'll be part of the search party, you are the perfect candidate to help me find him." Sakuya looks around nervously so Yukari grabs her shoulders and says "don't worry. I won't leave you here, I promise. We'll have to split up, though." Sakuya nods and just before Yukari leaves she asks "where can I find you?" Yukari looks at Sakuya casually and says "don't worry. I'll find YOU" then gets inside one of her gaps, disappearing in a second. Sakuya looks around and notices a dimly lit building in the distance. At first she though nothing of it, but something told her to head that way, and so she does.

After arriving at the building, she jumps the fence with ease and heads inside, however she quickly realizes the group of 7 thugs headed her way. They quickly surround her, laughing and cackling. "Hey beautiful, are you lost?" said one of the thugs. "We can show you the way back, but, uh... it's gonna cost you." Sakuya wouldn't even glare at them and just stood quietly. "What is it beautiful? Cat got your tongue?" One of the bigger looking thugs gets close to her and places his hand on her shoulder saying "don't worry baby, we'll make sure you have a really good-- urk!" Sakuya has elbowed his stomach, then grabbed his hand and sent him flying straight to a wall, making a large opening into the building. The other thugs get surprised, but quickly they growl while the leader says "you just made the worse mistake of your life, sweetheart. You're gonna have to pay now." The remaining 6 thugs launch at her with chains, knifes and bats with nails on them. Sakuya flips, kicks, punches, shoots knives, kicks again, then just stands right where she was. The thugs float in mid-air for a second, then suddenly they all fall down, bruised, cut and with knives stabbed on various parts of their bodies. Sakuya continues to walk into the building and casually says "thanks, but I'm in a hurry now." and enters the building.

Inside the building,s he saw many rusted machines, old boxes and broken wooden platforms. Everything was very quiet. Sakuya just stands for a minute, just looking around, then she flies up to one of the higher platforms to get a better look, but before reaching, she hears a very familiar voice shouting "HAAA~~! Time to end this!" She gets on to the platform and looks down, spotting Kyo, wearing his traditional clothes, only the button shirt had strange palm designs on it and his muscle shirt was black. He was fighting with another man in a white suit in hand-to-hand combat. The man looked tired, barely able to defend himself from kyo, then he punches the man so hard, he sends him flying straight at a pile of boxes, knocking him out in the process. Sakuya smirks and was about to head down when suddenly she uses one of her knives to block an unfriendly short sword from another woman. Kyo immediately looks up and shouts "Luna, what's going on!?" Just like that, right in front of him lands Sakuya holding on to her knife in her right hand and her Luna Dial on her left hand,and just then, Luna lands next to Sakuya, swinging her short sword at her.

Sakuya gets a better look at her opponent. She was a silver haired woman with red highlights on her hair, tied up in a ponytail by a small green ribbon and had two black thin pins on each side of her head. On her right cheek she has a birth-mark of small star. She was wearing a simple dark-blue dress and white pants underneath, a brown belt that held two sheathes for her short swords, was also wearing a black glove on her left hand, and a white one on her right hand, and was wearing simple brown slip-on shoes. She glares at Sakuya with her silver eyes, and Sakuya immediately notice her intent to kill. Sakuya and Luna fight for their lives, both matching each other in strength and agility. Sakuya was about to use her Luna Dial, but Kyo gets in the way of the two shouting "stop this right now! Both of you!" Luna almost hits Kyo with her blade, but he turns around in a split second, grabs the blade, and sends her flying back. Kyo passes his hand through his spiky black hair and says "you still can't beat me, sweetheart!" Sakuya looks on in shock as Kyo goes to the girl and helps her up. In a dark tone she says "hmph! You just caught me off-guard."

Kyo turns to Sakuya saying "miss Sakuya, what are you doing here?" Sakuya keeps glaring at Luna and after a little while, as she puts away her knife and watch she says "Kyo... I came here looking for you. We need your help back at Gensokyo." Kyo looks at her suspiciously at first then asks "what happened with Ail?" Sakuya casually says "we need to go get him and another from a place called Makai, and Yukari believes we need your help." Sakuya kept glaring at Luna, who kept glaring back. Kyo sighs and says "forgive me. Sakuya, this is Luna Rivers, my-" Luna glares at Kyo, who sweats and turns pale and says "my very special friend." Sakuya narrows her eyes and says "miss Luna, a pleasure, I'm sure" and Luna says "the pleasure is all mine, miss Sakuya." Kyo scratches his head and says "err... look, before we leave I want to go get some things back home and tell my folks I'll be gone. I don't want things to happen like last time." Kyo grabs the unconscious well dressed man by his neck and says "but first I have to turn this guy in. Luna, why don't you go ahead with Sakuya and get some things ready. I'll be there shortly." Luna quietly nods with a suspicious look on her face. Kyo thinks for a minute, but then suddenly runs outside, carrying the man and heading to a police station.

Luna signals Sakuya to follow, then both women start running to Kyo's house. As they ran Luna says "so, Sakuya. You still serve that vampire?" Sakuya does not answer, nor does she look at Luna, making her grin then continues "I see. It's funny, but I never though I'd have the chance to see you again. Don't worry, I won't try anything... yet. For now, we help that Ail fellow, then you and I can get down to business afterward." Sakuya grins and says "this won't be like before..., Katalina." Luna stops and grabs Sakuya by her shirt and says "don't you DARE call me by that name again!" Sakuya smiles then says "my mistake... miss Rivers." Luna lets Sakuya go then they start walking toward some apartment buildings. Kyo had just collected the bounty on the man and was headed to his apartment. At the same time, at Makai, Ail was standing next to Sara, apparently ready to battle her as well, and at the Hakurei Shrine, Yorihime lies on her back, thinking about Eirin, and the moon, while Reimu uses her gohei to beat on Mima, Tenshi and Suika, forcing them to clean up her shrine of all the empty bottles of sake. At the mountains behind the shrine, Nitori and Renko had fallen asleep next to the still unfinished power amplifying machine, and at the Scarlet Devil Mansion, Remilia eagerly awaits the return of her maid, standing on the second floor balcony thinking "this is not like her. Maybe something happened."

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

JUL 30 2009
written by
Willie G.R.

Another Misplaced Sukima P-3

And so, at Gensokyo there is a plan to get Ail and Maribel back from Makai is in motion. After enlisting the aid of Iku Nagae, Reimu returns to the shrine, followed quietly by Tenshi Hinanai. Meanwhile at Makai, Ail and Maribel are being treated as guest, however Yumeko is treating them, particularly Ail, with hostility. It's only a matter of time before a fight breaks out.

Ail wakes up to a beautiful morning at Makai. There was only one window in his room, and he had to fly up to see through it. The sky was beautiful, fluffy white clouds all over, a beautiful light shining down to the dead land, however there was no sun. "Two days in here and I still can't get used to the sunless sky. Ah well... it's still beautiful." Ail said to himself while he continued to look outside. He comes down and heads to the door, and immediately upon opening it, he is greeted by Maribel. "Good morning, mister Ail. Had a good sleep?" Ail gets a little startled. He wasn't expecting her to be up so early, but he smiles at her and says "yes, thanks for asking. How about you?" She sighs and says "it was the most wonderful sleep I've ever had... Did you know with these cat ears, I can hear things from very far away?" Ail smiles and nods saying "is that so? You seem to like those ears huh?" then he thinks "dang, that Mima. Why did she want me to turn to a cat? I've already been half-dog... why half cat too?" and while he thinks this, Maribel says "are you kidding? I hope I can keep them! It's the most magical thing that has happened to me *giggle*. Plus, they make me look REALLY cute, don't you think?" She wiggle those ears and Ails turns around to hide his face which was bright red again, but after he does, her realizes Yumeko was right behind him, her nose dripping some blood. She uses a handkerchief and cleans herself up and says "breakfast is served. My lady Shinki will be waiting for you." She casually walks toward Maribel, Ail looking at her suspiciously, as if waiting for a sudden attack. Yumeko turns to Maribel and politely says "please, follow me." then she turns to Ail with a murderous look in her face and says "you can follow if you want." Ail bows his head saying "thank you." and as they went to dinning room Ail thinks "I better find a way out of here soon or there's going to be trouble."

At Gensokyo, at the mountains way behind the Hakurei Shrine, Nitori works diligently on her machine. Reimu was just watching Nitori work, while Renko would help her as much as she could, and Keine and Mima would bring food and drinks. Sounding quite casual, Reimu asks "how long will it take you to finish that machine?" Nitori, naturally, gets a bit annoyed and says "well, miss maiden, even with some HELP, it might take me at least two days to finish this, IF all goes at planned." Reimu lazily looks back at Nitori and says "nothing ever goes according to plan, so I guess It'll take a couple of days, huh?" Nitori turns back around and resumes working on her machine, without answering Reimu. Reimu yawns, then starts flying back to the shrine saying "fine, I'll leave you alone then. Geez, what a pain." Upon arriving at the shrine, Reimu immediately notices something was missing, so after landing she rushes inside the shrine, but it was empty. "Crap, where is she!?" Reimu looks all around the shrine, then gasps and says "wait... she DIDN'T! I must stop her!" and just as Reimu rushes to the gate, Tenshi gets in her way saying "Reimu! You have to fight me!" Reimu glares at her and says "not now, not NOW! Yorihime's gone and-" "Excuses will not save you! You MUST fight with me!" interrupted Tenshi. Reimu slaps her forehead hard and asks "and WHY must I fight with you!?" Tenshi smiles and says "I caused an incident. I closed off all the exits at the village!" Reimu lazily looks at Tenshi saying "and...?" Tenshi sweats a little and then adds "a-a-and, err...and I... planted a peach, right under your shrine!" Reimu keeps looking quite uninterested and says "it won't grow without water or sunlight." Tenshi opens her eyes wide and says "FINE, you smart-ass!!! Take THIS!" She snaps her fingers, and a large keystone falls on the shrine, breaking a large chunk off the roof and the floor. Tenshi grins as Reimu looks at her shrine and shouts "what the he~ll! What the hell was that for, you annoying celestial!? Ooh, you're gonna GET IT!" Immediately, Reimu takes her gohei and starts pummeling Tenshi to the ground, then she kicks her hard, sending her spinning in the air, then she sends various homing charms at her, then teleports and shoots various needles and just before Tenshi falls to the ground, Reimu grabs a spell card and shouts "DIVINE ARTS! OMNIDIRECTIONAL DEMON BINDING CIRCLE!" An expansive barrier forms around Reimu, who was just under Tenshi, hitting her hard with the spell.

At the Human village, Yorihime kept sneaking around and asking people about Eirin and the Moon Princess Kaguya. Everyone just looked at her funny and she was just about to give up, but then... "excuse me, young child." says Yorihime, as a child walks by with a book on history on his hands. The boy turns around and just stares at her as she asks "pardon me for bothering you, but I am looking for a woman named Eirin. She wears red and blue clothes with symbols of constellations on them, and her hat has a red cross on it." The child looks at her funny, and just before Yorihime gives up, the child says "can't say that I know her, but I do know there are some strange aliens living in the Bamboo Forest of the Lost. One of them wears clothes like that. Maybe it's her." Yorihime smiles and says "yes, it HAS to be her. Thank you so much. Err.. where's the-" the child points behind her and smiles. Yorihime rubs the child's head saying "thank you very much!" and heads to exit the village, but suddenly she notices something strange and decides to hide behind one of the houses. It was Reisen. Yorihime could not believe her eyes... her old pet, Reisen, was right there. She wanted to get closer, but she though that Reisen might just run away if she did. She noticed Reisen carrying a lot of medicine with her. Yorihime thinks "no doubt about it. Reisen and Eirin are together. Those are Eirin's medicines alright. What luck, to find little Reisen here, and now she's going to lead me straight to Eirin, I'm sure. Most certainly, Princess Kaguya is with them as well. Ooh, this is gonna be great!" Yorihime waited for Reisen to finish what she was doing and started to follow her back to Entei. Reisen was no fool and knew someone was following her, so she uses her powers and try and confuse her pursuer, however Yorihime remained unaffected. Reisen thinks "what's this? Whoever is following me is either immune to my powers... or quite determined. I better make my stand now, before it's too late." Reisen turns around quickly and shouts "who's there!? Show yourself! What is it that you want from me!?" but nobody answered. Reisen kept looking around, pointing her finger all around. From behind her, Yorihime says "it's been a while, hasn't it, Reisen?" Reisen turns around and points her finger at Yorihime, not realizing who she was. Yorihime just kept smiling at her, and slowly, her memories about Yorihime and Toyohime came back. Reisen opens her eyes as wide as she could, then drops her guard, the backpack and quickly backs away, whimpering. Yorihime looks at her a bit surprised and says "Reisen? Are you alright? You look as though you've just seen a ghost or something." Reisen kept backing away until she reached a wall of bamboo and couldn't back away anymore. She started to tremble so violently, she dropped to the ground saying "I'm sorry... I'm so sorry."

At the Hakurei Shrine, Reimu was besides herself with anger and yelling "and you BETTER make it look like NEW, you HEAR!" Tenshi, full of bruises, bumps and yet still smiling, was fixing the damaged she caused to the shrine all by herself. Mima arrives at the shrine with empty plates and cups and says "whoa..! Hey Reimu, what happened to the shrine?" Reimu glares at Mima and smiles that blood-thirsty smile and says "nothing some mighty and annoying celestial can fix!" Mima's face turns blue as she shakes and says "alright, alright. I'm sorry!" and then she rushes inside the shrine whimpering "I was JUST asking what happened. It's not like I did anything..." and then, as if nothing had happened, Mima says "hey Reimu. Where's the Lunarian?" Reimu snaps out of it, panics and shouts "CRAP!!! I forgot all about that!" Reimu hurriedly hands Mima a thick black whip, three charms and says "I'll go look for Yorihime. You stay here and make sure SHE finishes fixing the roof and floors and make sure she POLISHES the floor when she's done." Mima looks at Reimu a bit confused, but nods. Reimu then flies to the village in a hurry. Mima looks at Tenshi, who had just finished fixing and painting the roof. She smiles at the celestial, and then starts whipping her saying "work faster! Fix that floor, paint those wall, WORK, WORK, WORK!!!" Tenshi smiles as she hurriedly worked and said "ow! Yes, sir! Just don't stop working that whip!" Mima stops whipping Tenshi and looks at her in total disbelief and asks "huh? You actually WANT me to beat you up?" Tenshi nods with a painful, yet happy expression in her face. Mima sits down then says "fine... but first you finish fixing and polishing that floor and then-" *Bang bang bang bang! Swish swish. Mop mop mop* "DONE!" shouted Tenshi. The floors looked as if nothing had ever happened to them. Mima looked at Tenshi quite impressed but kept quiet. Tenshi keeps staring at her and says "I said I was done... hit me!" Mima was quite surprised as Tenshi said "It's ok, I'm a celestial. It won't hurt one bit!" Mima springs up and says "are you saying you WANT me to beat you up with this!?" Tenshi nods and Mima panics and tries to run away, however the charms Reimu gave her were now stuck to her hand and wouldn't allow her to leave the shrine. Tenshi smirks and says "listen, you spineless hag, if you satisfy me, I'll be glad to take those off you..." Mima gets really pissed off and shouts "WHAT DID YOU CALL ME~!!?" From outside, Keine comes with one more empty plate and two cups and heard the crack of a whip and someone inside saying "more, more master! Give me more!" Keine's face turns red and she rushes to the shrine shouting "what the HELL is going on-- *gulp* EH!?" Inside was Tenshi, crouching and holding on to her head as Mima kept beating her with the whip. When they realize Keine was there, Mima, looking shocked, and Tenshi, looking as if though in pain, but happy about it, both look back at Keine, who slowly backs away and says "err... never mind... I'll just... Yeah..." Keine walks back from where she came, her face as white as a sheet, then inside the shrine, Tenshi takes one of the charms off Mima's hand and says "two more to go, you decrepit spirit!*grin*" Mima blows fire from her mouth shouting "WHAT DID YO CALL ME!?" and so the whipping continues.

At the Bamboo Forest, Reisen was holding her ears, repeating "I'm sorry" to Yorihime, who looked quite puzzled. She gets closer to Reisen and softly says "it's alright. I understand if you don't want to go back, b--" just a Yorihime was about to touch Reisen, an arrow flies right in front of her face. She immediately flips backward and unsheathes her sword, but upon seeing who it was, she lowers her blade and lets it drop to the ground saying "i... is that you? Eirin?" Holding her bow and aiming at Yorihime, who shivers a little and says "it- it's me... Yorihime..." Eirin keeps aiming at her for a moment, then lowers her bow and says "Yorihime... how long have you been here?" Eirin smiles as Yorihime gets closer. She smiles back at Eirin and gives her a hug just as soon as they were in range of each other. Reisen gets up and picks up her backpack as quietly as she could, but stayed away from them and only looked. "I'm sorry" said Eirin, "but we can't let you go in any further." Yorihime gets back and smiles saying "I understand." Eirin looks at Reisen and says "Udonge, come say hello!" "Udonge?" asks Yorihime, "a flower?" Reisen gets closer, but wouldn't smile and kept looking down and wouldn't talk. Yorihime pats her on the head and says "you changed her name?" Eirin says "well, she needed a new name for her new life. So how are you planning to return to the moon?" Yorihime boastfully says "well, when the next full moon comes I'll... err..." Eirin smiles and says "you don't have any means to return, do you?" Yorihime looks a bit ashamed and says "err... that is..." Eirin pats her on the shoulder and says "just wait until those two kids return. They'll send you home right away." Yorihime looks at Eirin in the eyes and was about to say something, but Eirin says "I can't let you find out where we live. You must understand." and just then, a loud explosion and many curses get their attention. Kaguya and Mokou were having another one of their fights right above them. Eirin covers half of her face with her right hand and says to herself "of all the possible moments..." Yorihime looks at the two immortals go at each other, cursing each other, firing heavy energies at each other. "What's the meaning of this?" asked Yorihime. Eirin tells her "look, it's nothing. Just go back to the shrine and-" but Yorihime wasn't listening and rushed to face Mokou along side Kaguya.

At the Scarlet Devil Mansion, Remilia summons Sakuya. Patchouli was beside Remilia, listening to their conversation. "Sakuya" said Remilia, "I want you to join the search party that will go inside Makai to look for Ail and Maribel." Sakuya bows, saying "as you wish, my lady... but why the sudden interest?" Remilia smiles a most wicked smile and says "I want you to scout around Makai, and bring me as much information as you can." Sakuya looks at Remilia a bit confused and Remilia continues "I want to make Makai my own. I am sure I'll impress Reimu with this, and it would also serve to show the world the power I possess!" Remilia clenches her fist while grinning as she said that. Sakuya smiles as she start to bleed through her nose, saying "you are just wonderful, my lady!" Remilia winds down and sits on her chair saying "yes, I know." Sakuya bows and says "then I shall leave at once, my lady." After Sakuya leaves, Patchouli says "my lady, are you sure about this? We don't know how powerful the beings there are." Remilia grins, bearing her fangs, saying "he~, Patchy? Do you doubt my powers?" Patchouli calmly says "of course not. It's just that I haven't really found that much information about that place. I'm worried." Remilia continues to smirk, while some shadow looms behind her, moving quietly from left to right and back. Remilia says "don't worry, Patchy. With the information we get from Sakuya, we'll be able to accomplish my goal with ease. Just wait an- KYAAH~!" Flandre quietly sneaks behind her sister and grabs her hip and starts to tickle her, startling Remilia to the point of shivering. "Onee-chan? What's the matter?" Flandre looks at her sister quite puzzled as Remilia shivers on the ground. She gets up, coughs and tries to hide her shame saying "nothing... I was just acting. Fooled you, didn't I?" Flandre giggles and says "sis, you're the best. I love you~!" Remilia looks away to hide her face and her nosebleed and very quietly says "I love you too sis..." Patchouli had buried her face in her book and was trying hard not to laugh, but she let out a bit of a chuckle. Remilia immediately gets besides Patchouli, who knew she was in trouble now and says "Flan~, it seems Patchy loves you so~ much, she wants to play with you~." Patchouli was now shaking and tried to debate that particular fact with Remilia, however Flandre had already jumped to the chair in front of her and with an angelic smile, she says "read me a story~" Remilia smiles as she leaves the room. Patchouli's face got red as she looked at Flandre's smile and feeling defeated, she asks "*sigh* what story shall I read for you, young mistress?"

Sakuya arrives at the Hakurei shrine at late noon and finds Yukari there, looking for Reimu. Immediately after landing Yukari says "if you're looking for Reimu, you'll have to get in line. Seems there's been some trouble at the alien's residence." When Sakuya looks at the direction of the Bamboo Forest, she sees large explosions. She sighs and says "how long do you think we'll have to wait?" Yukari smiles and says "Mima says they've been at it for hours." Sakuya looks around and Yukari smiles again and says "I wouldn't if I were you..." Sakuya looks inside the shrine and sees Mima and Tenshi drinking heavily and holding each other by the shoulder and singing, then Mima stops for a second and says "if only the hunk were here..." When Sakuya looks further inside, there was Suika pouring more sake in Mima's cup and says "stop complaining so much and just drink!" Tenshi then adds "hey, hey! You just pour the sake and drink with us... and then err..." Suika looks at her with a childish smile and says "we drink?" Tenshi nods saying "yeah, yeah... drink." Sakuya looks at them in shock and disbelief, then Yukari gets next to her and says with a smile "I warned you."

At the Bamboo forest, Eirin was worried, and was trying to figure a way to stop the battle. Reimu looks at Eirin and says "I already tried stopping them... it's no use. We have to wait for them to stop on their own." Eirin looks around and says "there's got to be a way. They'll destroy the forest if they-" "it's almost over" causally said Reimu, interrupting Eirin. Above the bamboo were Mokou, Kaguya and Yorihime. "Why-*pant* why are you helping her" asks Mokou who's completely out of breath. Yorihime, who was quite messed up, yet remains as fresh as when the battle began says "you are attacking princess Kaguya. You MUST be punished!" Kaguya smirks. She was a little dirty and singed, but since Yorihime was doing all of the fighting, she was just there as a backup. Mokou slowly comes back down to the ground and kneels on the floor, gasping for air. Kaguya and Yorihime both land as well, then Kaguya says "what's the matter, Mokou? Tired already? Let's say I'm the winner today and you can go home and rest, or you could get a beating and still declare myself the winner." Mokou glares at Kaguya and pulls out a spell card, shouting "Possessed by Phoenix!" Mokou's body vanishes and is replaced by a fiery Phoenix that heads straight to Kaguya, but Yorihime knocks her out of the way as the Phoenix reached her, then it started to release countless bullets all around, so many, in fact, that Yorihime had to summon Ishikoridome no Mikoto shouting "...and show us the miracles of the Mirror of Yata!" Many of the shots bounced back as if nothing, while Yorihime deflected those that were directly heading toward her with her sword. The spell card times out and Mokou reappears, falling immediately on the ground. Yorihime sheathes her sword and turns to face Eirin shouting "Eirin, why didn't you help the princess!?" Eirin smiles a very soothing and peaceful smile and says "I was trying to finish the fight quickly, but you got in the way." Yorihime shivers and quickly bows down saying "sorry, sorry, I didn't mean..." Reisen goes to Yorihime and asks "did she punish you too?" Yorihime was about to cry when she nods and shivers. Reisen hugs her bawling "they're horrible, aren't they~!" Yorihime hugs back crying "I still have nightma~res! Waaah~!" Reisen and Yorihime were crying so much that Reisen forgot to continue covering Entei with her powers, and suddenly, just like that, behind Eirin, Entei appears. Yorihime opens her eyes wide and says "so~, you were hiding this from me?" Reisen panics and suddenly notices Eirin had that evil smile, only this time it felt more ominous as she says "Udonge~~. PUNISHME~NT..."

Inside the mansion of Entei, Yorihime was treated to some tea along with Reimu. After many explosions, bangs, claps, smacks and some bloody screams, Eirin comes out of Reisen's room looking quite satisfied. She joins Reimu and Yorihime, shortly joined by Kaguya, who quickly shouts "I want tea..." and form the kitchen comes Tewi with the tea, smiling deviously and gives it to Kaguya. As soon as Kaguya takes a sip she spits it out and shouts "what is IN THIS thing!?" Tewi pulls out a bottle of hot sauce and says "some LIFE. As for me, I prefer my OWN brand of tea" and she pulls out, from under her skirt, a big glass of ale and quickly drinks it. She starts to run, Kaguya angrily shouting and chasing Tewi, trying to catch her. Yorihime looks at the scene in disbelief, but stays quiet. "This is troublesome" said Eirin, looking very upset. Reimu casually says "this was bound to happen sooner or later." Eirin stares daggers at Reimu, who simply continues to act casually. Eirin then says "I'm sorry, Yorihime, but I cannot allow you to return to the moon now. You know about the princess and our location and that would be dangerous for Udonge and Kaguya if you-" Yorihime was looking down, looking as though she was about to cry and says "Toyohime and I really miss you, and we would love it if you returned home." Eirin looks at Yorihime, who continues to talk as she looked into her teacup, but drinks none. "I won't force you to return. You must have your reasons to stay here, and honestly I don't want to know them." Eirin opens her eyes saying "but I can't let you return. You saw where we live and-" "I had a rough battle. I got hit in the head and woke up inside an abandoned mansion in a confusing bamboo forest next to Reimu, who found me unconscious on the floor." Eirin was left awestruck. Yorihime got up saying "miss Reimu? Let's go back to the shrine, please." Reimu quietly gets up and follows Yorihime out the door. Yorihime looks back one more time and says "I am so glad I was able to see you all. Please, come visit the shrine before I leave." and so, Reimu and Yorihime walk away. Eirin looks at Yorihime's teacup. "She never even touched her tea." though Eirin, who sat alone in that table, just thinking to herself. After some time, she heads to Reisen's room, kneels directly beside Reisen, and starts passing her fingers through Reisen's hair. Because of the punishment she just received, she couldn't move, however she managed to weakly say "master... no... crying..." Eirin was a bit shocked at first, but then smiles at the unconscious Reisen, then leaves.

It was getting dark by the time Reimu and Yorihime arrive at the shrine. Immediately upon landing, Yukari heads toward Reimu saying "Reimu, I have some news for you." Reimu looks at Yukari looking quite annoyed while Yorihime, who looked a bit angry, simply storms her way inside the shrine. Once inside, she screams and the sound of many bottles crashing together and breaking were accompanied by Yorihime's "what in blazes is going on here!?" and Mima and Suika answering "join the party~!" Reimu lightly shakes her head while Yukari says "well I will be able to open the gate to Makai with the help of that contraption, however you'll have to enter and come out the same way." Reimu looks at Yukari quite casually, saying "Yeah, I know. We'll have to time the operation on both sides in order to be able to get in and out safely." Yukari smiles, covers her mouth with her fan and says "oh, then there was no reason for me to tell you after all." Reimu turns to Sakuya and asks "and why are you here?" Sakuya politely bows and says "my lady requested that I joined the infiltration party." Reimu looks at her suspiciously and asks "why the sudden interest?" Sakuya smiles and says "my lady wants to play another of her games." Reimu sighs and says "even if I say no, you'll just force yourself in, so I won't stop you." Sakuya politely bows again saying "thank you." and just like that Yukari says "well, I have somewhere to be right now, so I'll be leaving." and in a matter of seconds, she opens a gap and pushes Sakuya inside, and follows immediately after. Reimu looked at the events quite annoyed and puzzled, but decides to ignore this and goes inside the shrine. Once inside she shouts "what IS all this!?" Mima says "come on Reimu, join the party!" Angrily, Reimu shouts at the top of her lungs "CLEAN UP THIS MESS!!!" then Yorihime causally says "what a strange land this is."

At morning, in the dinning room at Pandemonium, Ail, Maribel, Luize, Shinki, and two other girls were quietly eating breakfast. One of them is a blond with yellow eyes and was wearing a long black and white dress with short sleeves and a large white ribbon on the back, and also a black hat with a white ribbon on it. At first, Ail and Maribel though they were looking at Marisa, however this girl was a bit more plump, had more chest, her hat wasn't pointy, and her dress covered down to her shoes. The other girl has light-blue eyes and hair adorned with a white bow, and wears a long white dress and has small white angel wings. "So, miss Mai, miss Yuki, you are witches that control fire and ice?" asked Maribel with a smile. The blond witch boastfully says "yup! I'm a master of fire magic!" Maribel looks at her confused and says "oh wow... since your name is Yuki, I though you were the ice magician." Yuki smiles and says "Ironic, isn't it!" Mai rubs her forehead and says "could you please keep it down?" and as if not even listening, Yuki points to her left and says with a smile "she's the one that's cold as ice." Maribel wiggles her cat ears and Yuki shouts "Oh my goodness, that's so CUTE!!! Do it again!" and Maribel did just as Yumeko enters the room, getting a nosebleed almost immediately. She wipes herself clean and sits down to eat just beside Shinki. Ail was right in front of Shinki and both had finished their breakfast when Ail asks "my lady Shinki, isn't it about time you told me what happened here. Why did Reimu do all this? Why destroy Makai like that?" Yumeko springs up angrily shouting "how DARE you speak to my lady like that!? Apologize this instant!" Shinki lightly pats Yumeko on her forearm, signaling her to sit. She looks directly at Ail and says "listen carefully. If anyone is at fault of all this, it's me." Yumeko springs up again, grabs Shinki and starts hugging her tightly saying "my lady should not say things like that!" Ail gets worried and says "hey, wait! You're suffocating her!" Yumeko snaps out of it and pulls Shinki away from her. Shinki's eyes were spinning, her face was a bit red, and was mumbling incoherently. Luize takes a sip of her tea and says "my, it's been a while since we had such a rowdy morning." then Maribel asks "hey, why won't miss Sara join us?" Luize smiles and says "that stubborn girl refuses to leave her post. She says 'what if the gate opens up and I'm gone? THEN who's guarding the gate, huh?' and so, she never comes here." As Luize explains all this, Yuki stretches herself as far as she can to grab some bread, but Yumeko catches on to her, smacks her hand and says "please ASK someone to pass the bread for you, POLITELY!" then Yuki grins and says "Ail, could you pass me the bread, politely!?" Yumeko face palms herself hard as she sighs.

Right after Shinki recovered from the hug, and Yumeko cleaned the table, Shinki begins to explain about the incident with Reimu. "It was some time ago. Reimu, a mean youkai, a rude human goddess and a thief by the name of Marisa came here because a travel agency was doing some tourist expeditions to the human world. It was just tourism and they came in here blasting everyone and everything, demanding us to stop going into the human world... we weren't even doing anything wrong. It was just sightseeing!!!" Ail panics a bit and says "calm down, please. Look, if you won't want to-" but Shinki raises her hand, signaling Ail to stop. She sighs and says "sorry about that. Anyway, after blasting their way to me, they started demanding that we stopped visiting the human world. I told them it was the traveling agency at first, but they made me so mad. They were very rude, specially that thieving witch, and that human goddess!" Ail says "please, excuse me... human goddess?" Shinki looked at Ail a bit confused and says "yes. She had long green hair and wore blue clothes, and had a silly pointy hat as well... I can't believe human gods can be that rude." Ail looks away and thinks "Mima... what a LIAR!" then turns to Shinki and says "umm, that human goddess...? She's an evil spirit... not a goddess." Shinki gets up from her chair and sprouted 6 white wings, which shot various aimless white energy balls at Ail. Ail gets behind the chair and says "Ahh, I'm sorry! Didn't mean to offend you!" Suddenly, Shinki calms down and says "oh my... sorry about that." Yumeko was holding her nose high on to the air, trying to hold back the blood with a white cloth while Luize, Mai and Yuki all huddled in a corner, shivering in fear, while Maribel just stared with curiosity, still sitting on her chair.

Shinki calms down once more, and they all sit down again to continue to listen to Shinki's story. "now where was I? Oh... yeah..." Shinki lowers her eyes, getting really sad. Ail looks at her and though "you don't have to force yourself." but Shinki stares back and nods. She takes a deep breath and says "well, the thing is that after all they had done to my children and their rudeness... I started to fight with them. I couldn't stop them with normal means, so I gradually got angry and augmented my powers. They were just toying with me. I could see them laughing as I tried my best, which made me so mad! In the end, I had used so much power when I tried to stop them... I destroyed Makai in the process." Shinki closes her eyes and some tears fall to the ground. Still crying she continued "they beat me, insulted me, they hurt my children, but in the end I destroyed Makai on my own *sob*" Yumeko places her hand on Shinki's shoulder, trying to comfort her. Ail sat there quietly, resting his head on the back of his hands then says "well I am inclined to believe all that, but I can't really believe Makai was destroyed." Shinki looks at Ail confused and Ail continues saying "the land is hurt, but it's recovering... haven't you noticed?" Maribel adds "yeah, around that signpost, there were some trees coming back to life. And Sara told me birds will come back soon." Shinki keeps staring at them then Ail continues "not to mention that your children don't resent anything at all. They continue to live... and by the looks of things, as rowdy as ever" he looks at Yuki, Mai and Luize when he says this. Maribel then says "to me it sounds that all that happened was just a big accident. These things happen, you know." She wiggles her ears and smiles at Shinki. Shinki smiles back as Ail says "and thanks to that, Reimu did this..." and shows Shinki a spell card saying "...with these, Reimu managed to make us all regulate our powers so something like this never happens again. I don't know why these things happen, but they do, and for a reason, so please..." Maribel gets in front of Ail and holds Shinki's hands and says "please lady Shinki, don't be sad. If you get sad, how do you expect to rebuild Makai." Shinki looks into Maribel's eyes and beings to smile. After a while she started to cry again, however she was laughing as she did, and Maribel laughed with her, still holding her hands. Ail smiles as well, while Yumeko glares at him, so he turns his face away. Suddenly, a ball of white light comes from Shinki to Maribel, filling her up with some sort of spell, then suddenly Maribel was flying and as she did she shouts "Oh my... look, look!!!" She starts to fly around, spinning in the air, twirling and laughing and then softly lands and says "YAY!!! I can fly, I can fly~!" Shinki smiles and laughs as Ail looks at her surprised, then he too smiles and laughs as Maribel flies up once more, twirling and spinning around... until she crashed against a lamp and says "I'm ok!"

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

JUL 23 2009
written by
Willie G.R.

Another Misplaced Sukima P-2

After realizing they were in Makai and meeting Sara, Ail tries to open a gap back to Gensokyo, but he is unable to. He had used so much energy too, and had been unable to rest, and after saving Maribel one last time, he collapses out of exhaustion. Now they are at the gates of Pandemonium, Shinki's palace, Ail still asleep and Maribel anxiously waiting for Luize to return and take them inside, so she could see the palace inside with her own eyes. At Gensokyo, everyone except for Renko and a few others were overly confident Ail would find a way back from Makai at any moment. Surprisingly, yet unknown to the others, it is Patchouli Knowledge who's worried about Ail the most.

At the Scarlet Devil Mansion's library, Patchouli looks into mountains of books, looking for information on Makai, and ways to get inside. She hadn't slept at all, and neither had Koakuma, but both continued to look into the books. "Don't worry lady Patchouli... I am sure we'll find something. You'll see." said Koakuma trying to sound optimistic. Patchouli just sighs and continues reading. Suddenly, she remembers when Ail went to look for Koakuma inside that shadow world, and other events that followed. Ail spends a lot of time in the SDM, and so... has become like part of the family there. "You remember...?" suddenly says Patchouli "...when he came by on night with Marisa?" Koakuma looks at her mistress a little confused then flaps her wings on her head saying "oh yes, that night Marisa used him to steal some books, right?" "Yeah... I remember it like it was yesterday..." *FLASHBACK*

Marisa and Ail appear from the Misty Lake during darkness of the night. Marisa was holding Ail close to her, placing her arms around his waist, under his shirt. "Oh, my mister... Ail?" What is she doing here?" asks Meiling. Ail nervously waves at her while Marisa says "oy~! Just came to visit, ze?" Meiling stares at them and places her right hand index finger on her bottom lip and asks "and... uhh... why are you-?" "We're just really close friends, zei~!" abruptly said Marisa as they walked inside. She squeezes Ail and whispers "act a little more natural!" Ail then smiles normally and waves at Meiling saying "we won't be long..." and go inside the mansion. Almost immediately, a small gap opens next to Meiling and whispered on Ail's tone of voice "ple~ase help me~!" The gap closes off quickly as Meiling looks around confused and thinking "I'm starting to hear things..." Still tightly close, Marisa and Ail head directly to the underground basement and to Patchouli's library. Upon entering they are greeted by Koakuma... "err... good evening. Lady Patchouli will be most pleased by your visit... err... any particular reason why you two are so... close?" Ail waves at her, wiggling his fingers in a certain pattern, then Marisa squeezes him again and says "we're just such good friends, right?" Ail nervously says "r-right. Of course we are!" "Right this way, then." says Koakuma with a smile then says "ah, excuse me, I have to go talk to miss Sakuya. Please, tell lady Patchouli I won't be long." Soon they reach Patchouli, reading some books at her desk saying "my, you two suddenly became a couple?" Ail relaxes and says "we're just such good friends, we're just having a fun day, right!?" he says while holding his right hand pinkie up, pointing it at Patchouli and looking at Marisa, who looks back at him suspiciously, but then smiles and laughs.

Patchouli raises her eyebrows, but buries her face back into her book, saying "and why have you come here in such a splendid night? To my understanding, there are no romantic spots here." Marisa smirks and says "enough with this! I have Ail at point-blank of my Hakkero, and if you don't get me what I want, I'm going to blast him to smithereens right here!" Ail's face turns white, then blue, then purple and starts shaking as Marisa activates the Hakkero, it's warm glowing light singing his skin. Patchouli calmly raises her head and says "I'll make a deal. You let him go right now, and I will let you take all the books you want. I won't even call Sakuya... deal?" Marisa smirks and says "deal... you can have him anyway. I'm done for today, daze!" and so Marisa lets Ail go and heads to get the books. Ail trembles as he softly sits on the ground saying "th-thanks miss Patchouli." Patchouli almost smiles, saying "no problem... please you may call me Patchy if you like." Ail nods, still trembling. After a few minutes, Marisa comes by with an enormous bag full of books and smiling as she says "say, thanks for the nice haul there, Patchouli. Ail, you're not so useless after all, ze!" but then she realizes Koakuma and Sakuya are flying above her. Marisa gets mad and says "Hey~! I though we had a deal!" Patchouli calmly says "yes, we do. I'm not bothering you, and it wasn't me who called Sakuya... so I haven't broken the deal, right?" Marisa sighs and says "FINE, who's first?!"

A battle broke out above Ail and Patchouli. Sakuya and Koakuma did their best, but Marisa blasted them with her Final Spark, opening a large hole on the wall large enough for her to escape. Just as she was heading out she says "well, you did you best, but it just wasn't enough. And just so you don't think if chasing me, here..." Marisa turns around and fires her Hakkero, shouting "FINAL SPARK" without even looking where she was aiming at. The beam of light headed straight for Koakuma, but she realized too late. "Oh, CRAP, I though she was down there!" Just before the large beam hits Koakuma, Ail jumps and rushes a quick barrier, protecting Koakuma in the process, however the barrier was too thin and broke after a while, only singing him a little, thankfully. "Err..." Marisa hides her Hakkero and after seeing Koakuma was fine, she rushes out of the hole she had made, however she didn't measure the the width of the hole, breaking the large sack of books, all dropping down. "CRAP" shouted Marisa as she swoops down and manages to catch three books then leaves shouting angrily. Koakuma hugs Ail, thanking him for saving her, Patchouli smiles at him and Sakuya gracefully bows, then smiles as she pats him on the head... *FLASHBACK OVER*

As if still lost in thought, Patchouli continued to read, then Koakuma says "don't worry lady Patchouli. If someone can survive in there is him." Patchouli looks at Koakuma and says "you're right. He's almost like Reimu, in a way." Both giggle and continue reading, still hoping to find some means to help their friends.

Back at Makai, at the palace of Pandemonium, Ail was still asleep, sitting right where Luize had left him, and sitting next to him was Maribel, who was anxiously waiting to get inside. Ail starts so mumble in his sleep and moves a little, falling off the pillar he was sitting against and landing his head on Maribel's lap. She shrieks and blushes, but quickly calms down, however she couldn't stop blushing. She started to pat his head when suddenly Luize comes from inside and shouts "HEY~! Good news, Shinki will see you right away!" Maribel sprinted up and doing so, sent Ail flying down the stairs. She covers her mouth saying "oops!" and Luize saying "oh dear, that's not gonna end well for him." Just as Ail's unconscious body was about to start bouncing on the stairs, he starts to sleep-fly. Luize immediately flies after him, but just as she reached him, he activated one of his barriers, preventing her from catching him. Maribel quietly, but desperately thinks, looking around, then suddenly she gasps and shouts "FREE CANDY AND APPLES!!!" and just like that, the still unconscious Ail smiles and turns around. Luize looks at him puzzled, but just followed him. He gently lands on the floor, right next to Maribel, who sighs as Luize lands shortly after saying "wow... a male that likes sweets this much? Is he your boyfriend?" Maribel panics, shaking her head violently and shouting "n-n-no! He's just a f-f-friend!" Luize looks at her and smiles, then says "ahh, then you won't mind if I give him a little nibble? He should taste quite sweet!" Maribel repressive says "miss Luize, no! He wouldn't like that!" Luize looks at Maribel a bit disappointed and carries Ail on her shoulder saying "aww~! But it's just a nibble!" then Maribel replies "no! That's not a nice thing to do." and so they finally entered the palace, discussing the reasons why NOT to nibble on Ail.

Back at Gensokyo, at the Moriya Shrine, Sanae paces back and forth with her broom at hand, sweeping random leaves without picking them or piling them, or doing any actual sweeping at all. Suwako sat on the ground like a frog, just staring at her, then finally breaks the silence "hey, Sanae... what are you doing?" Sanae mumbles something, then Suwako says "I know you're worried about Ail, but pacing back and forth is not gonna help him." Sanae stops for a second and stares blankly at Suwako, mumbling some more, and Suwako answering "nah~! He's a good kid. A bit weird, though." Sanae continues pacing back and forth and mumbles some more. Just then, Kanako walks behind Suwako and just listens quietly. "I'm sure it's just your imagination. He's strong, he'll survive and be back before you know it." Sanae stares back at Suwako and sighs, then Suwako answers "yeah, you're right. But worrying too much will get you sick." Suwako jumps like a frog towards Sanae, takes the broom, pats Sanae's left shoulder and says "look, you go and rest, and let us handle the cooking and cleaning today, ok?" Sanae continues to stare blankly at Suwako, sighing and nodding, then slowly walks inside the shrine as Suwako replies to her "of course we can handle things here. You just go and rest." As Suwako started sweeping the leaves, Kanako approaches her and asks "you could understand all that?" Suwako smiles and says "no. I was just guessing." Kanako narrows her eyes, looking at Suwako in disbelief, then punches her on the head. "You old hag! What was that for!" shouted Suwako. "OLD HAG!? Alright, you ancient toad! You're gonna get it!" and thus a battle breaks out, danmaku flying everywhere, the leaves accompanying the shots, and Suwako shouting "at least I am younger than you!" and Kanako shouting back "don't delude yourself, you ancient fossil!"

Back at Pandemonium, an awestruck Maribel looked around the palace they continued on, ooo-ing and aaa-ing at anything, her eyes shinning with excitement, then suddenly she looks back and notices Luize licking Ail's hand as if it were a lollipop and contently saying "mmm~ so sweet, yummy!" She realizes she's being watched, so she immediately stops and tries to hide Ail's hand behind her, and then Maribel asks her "hey, miss Luize? how is it that there's daytime here, and yet there is no sun?" Nervously, Luize answers "umm, err, ah, the sun? Well think about it. This is a land for demons. The sun would purify us to extinction, so our lady Shinki blocks it so only it's light can come through." Maribel let out an "ooh~!" and turns around again, ooo-ing and aaa-ing at the palace's floors and ornaments. Luize takes the chance and grabs Ail's hand once more and starts licking it again. she stops for a moment, her lips trembling as she thought "this is too tasty... ohh... just a nibble... a small one!" and so she opens her mouth slightly, ready to take a bite and then, from beside her she hears Ail saying "now that wouldn't be a nice thing to do, would it?" Luize shrieks and throws him off her shoulders down to the floor hard. Maribel turns around to see what the fuzz was all about and shouts "oh, mister Ail, you're awake *giggle*" Ail slowly gets off the ground saying "that HURT!" Luize bows apologizing and Ail replying "it's fine, it's fine." and then he looks at his drool-covered hand and asks "err... why is my hand covered in drool?" Luize giggles nervously as Maribel jumps on Ail and hugs him saying "you're awa~ke!"

Early evening at the Hakurei Shrine. Reimu was besides herself, as Marisa and Suika invited almost everyone to Yorihime's welcoming party. Yukari has just woken up and gotten out of the broom closet, and immediately started serving drinks all around. Remilia arrived shortly after, along with Patchouli, Sakuya, and Meiling. Patchouli quietly gets closer to Reimu looking disappointed and sad, then lowers her head saying "I couldn't find anything. I'm sorry." Reimu smiles and pats her on the shoulder and says "it's ok. The important thing is you tried." When Patchouli lifts her sights, she looked as though she was about to cry. Surprised, Reimu asks "wait... Patchouli, are you... crying!?" Patchouli turns her head away and hides her eyes. Just then Marisa grabs her by the shoulder shouting "hey, this is party, daze! No frowning!" and then pulls her into the rowdy crowd. Yorihime was politely and respectfully greeting everyone, having a few small drinks and just enjoying the company. Reimu sighs and says to herself "great... now she's getting into it too. Oh crap, might as well join in." and so she goes outside and joins the crowd, Suika immediately pouring her something to drink in a small cup. At the school, Akyuu had fallen asleep, while Renko and Keine kept looking through books and scrolls. The effort seemed futile until... "this--this is it!" exclaimed Renko, then shouted loudly "LOOK!!! I found it! A way into Makai!" Keine rushes to her then reads the scroll and says "yes... you're right. You found it! We better get this to Reimu right away!" Just then, they both realize Akyuu was still asleep. They couldn't just leave her there, so Keine carries her on her back while Renko carried her scrolls and books back to her mansion.

In Makai, at Pandemonium, Luize presents herself to Ail after apologizing countless times for trying to eat him. "It's alright. The important thing is you didn't eat me." said Ail. Luize turns around, walking backwards, then smiles and giggles saying "you sure you are human?" Ail sweats a little and awkwardly nods, then Luize turns around again and Maribel saying "you know, mister Ail, that you started to fly in your sleep?" Ail looks at her a little surprised then Luize adds "yeah, that's right. You even shielded yourself." Luize grins and asks "what were you dreaming?" Maribel puts all her attention on Ail as he thinks for a bit and says "well... I remember dreaming that I was flying above some delicious ice cream mountains. I was heading to one particular mountain that had... yumm~, chocolate ice cream, drizzled with chocolate syrup, colorful yummy sprinkles, and cherry on top, and on that cherry, with spoons in her hands was Sa~~omeone waving.... yeah... someone with spoons just waving... he he he." When he stopped talking he realized Maribel was drooling while looking away and mumbling "yu~mmy~ ice cream~!" and Luize was also drooling and gazing away saying dreamily "sweet tasting huma~n..." Ail sighs with relief, thinking that nobody had noticed what he was about to say earlier, but then Maribel snaps out of it and says "so what was that about Sanae?" "Sanae? I didn't say anything about Sanae." nervously answered Ail. Maribel looks at him with a half-smile and says "you like her, don't you?" Ail blushes so much, his face looked as though it was about to burst. He looks down and nervously says "well... yeah. She a great friend." Maribel keeps looking at him with accusing eyes, grinning at him, but keeps quiet. At the Moriya Shrine, Sanae sneezes, unwillingly generating a powerful gale that sends all the leaves around the shrine, flying away. Kanako and Suwako were on the floor quite messed up. Suwako raises her head with difficulty and says "nice work Sanae... auuu~" then drops her head back down, her eyes spinning, while Kanako was lying on the floor as well, her feet against Suwako's, her eyes spinning as well and mumbles "drinks, with cake~." Sanae looks at the scene, frowns, puffs her cheeks and heads back inside the shrine.

Upon reaching a room that looked as though was made entirely of glass, Luize stops and signals Ail and Maribel to stop. They could hear footsteps getting closer, but saw nobody in the looming darkness ahead. Luize was bowing down and signals them to do the same, however Ail and Maribel were too curious about the footsteps. It suddenly got dark outside, making it harder to see further ahead and then they hear a woman's voice saying "welcome, visitors, to Pandemonium, the Palace of Makai, my world." From the darkness, smiling a most angelic smile, comes a short woman with light-blue eyes, long white hair with a small portion tied into pony tail at the top-left side of her head by a red ornament, and was wearing a long red robe which is pink around the neck. After coming to full view, Ail widens his eyes and immediately kneels respectfully, Maribel bowing politely with a smile on her face. The woman continues "well it's been some time since we've had visitors from the outside, specially since the gate to this place is sealed. You must have some power in you, young half-human." Ail gets surprised and looks directly at the woman, who was now looking at him directly into his eyes saying "*giggle* you think I wouldn't notice? Umm... could you all please get up? It's a little embarrassing talking to you like this." Ail slowly gets up, Maribel was just smiling while looking at the woman, and Luize, after getting up, gets besides the woman and says "allow my to present to you, our mother and goddess, Lady Shinki!" Ail keeps staring at Shinki as he says "so... you're the one who created this whole place?" Shinki nods her head and says "that is correct. I am the goddess that created this world and it's inhabitants. Strange that a mere half-human such as yourself could figure that out already." Ail smiles and says "let's just say a little red and white bird told me some vague details about Makai." At the Hakurei shrine, Reimu sneezes, momentarily stopping the party, then Marisa grabs her shoulder and says "you need more drinks!" then pours her more sake, which she drinks and says "gah... this is such a pain." and all around her just cheer after she drinks her cup.

Back at Makai, Ail was still looking directly into Shinki's eyes and asks "lady Shinki, can you help us get back home?" Shinki lowers her head and slowly shakes it saying "I'm sorry. It's amazing enough you entered here just like that. I don't know how you managed that, but getting out...?" Shinki starts to ponder as Maribel says "wow, Reimu never mentioned how nice you really are, my lady" and smiles, but then suddenly Ail gets right in front of Maribel, startling her, then a large dagger comes flying from the darkness, straight to her. Ail grabs it and uses it to block three more. Shinki, sounding quite surprised, says "Yumeko!? No, wait!" From the darkness comes a woman wearing a long red maid outfit, yellow wavy hair, and yellow eyes, looking at the visitors menacingly. "Lady Shinki!" shouts Yumeko. "These must be assassins sent by that evil shrine maiden to finish you off." Shinki sweats and scratches the left side of her face saying "umm... I don't think..." but Yumeko shouts "Luize, how COULD you bring these monsters here!" Luize looks awkwardly around and tries to explain, but Yumeko shouts "don't worry, Lady Shinki, I'll protect you!" Ail readies himself and says "what is it with you maids and sharp toys..? Fine, I'll be your opponent!" Yumeko grins and says "I'll take you BOTH on!" then Ail, in a menacing tone of voice says "you will leave her alone. I'm the one with the powers here, remember?" Yumeko tosses various large daggers at Maribel, who ducks and covers herself, but the daggers all stopped before reaching her. She slowly gets up and says "wow... how did I do that?" then Ail replies "Reimu taught me how to make some charms... so you'll be safe. Now, miss Yumeko. Are you sure you want to go against your lady's wishes and fight me?" As Maribel inspected herself, she noticed she had a charm on her poofy hat. Yumeko was looking at her lady and says "Lady Shinki, these monsters and in league with that shrine maiden. I am sure they-" "-if they were assassins, they would have tried to kill me already." said Shinki abruptly. Ail was still on guard when he realizes he's inside another rectangular box and says "whoa... just like when I fought Reimu... except I'm the good guy this time... ALRIGHT...!" He looks at the score board, then sees the bombs, there were 4, and then his lives... "huh..? hey WAIT A MINUTE!? Why is it that I have only 2 lives left!?" Luize giggles and says "umm... sorry, that was me... I took a small nibble from your elbow." Ail looks at his right elbow and notices the bite marks. He looks at Luize in disbelief, and so does Shinki and Maribel. She drops to the ground apologizing and saying "I'm sorry, I'm sorry! He was just so sweet and tasty~!" All, even Yumeko, start to sweat. Shinki then says "well, Yumeko?" Yumeko drops her guard, Ail lowering his as well. She then says "fine, but DON'T you dare think I won't be watching! One false step and you'll both be dead in a heartbeat, got it!?"

Shinki sighs and says "Yumeko, why do you question my own judgment so much? Don't you trust me?" Shinki looks at Yumeko, looking saddened. Yumeko's nose starts bleeding in jet-sprays, then she grabs her lady and gives her a big hug saying "I'm so sorry my lady! I'm just thinking about your safety is all!" Shinki's face turns red and says "uuh... that's fine... but you're... suffocating me." Yumeko lets Shinki go with an oops and an apology, then Ail says "this is all very sweet and stuff, but about us? We really want to go back home." Shinki smiles and lightly laughs and says "you are forgetting something, mister half-human?" Ail gasps, places his hand on his chest, bowing, and says "my apologies, my lady. I am Ail, short For Anilan Inmodo Leuch." Shinki smiles and says "you don't mind me calling you Ail, then?" Ail replies "it would be an honor... and this is-" Maribel was politely bowing, lifting her skirt a little and saying "I am Maribel Han, and it's a pleasure to meet you, lady Shinki." Shinki, Yumeko and Luize were huddling. Luize says "are these guys for real?" Yumeko adding "their so damned polite, it's almost sick!" then Luize says "I know. Much more polite than the last visitors. All four were so rude." Shinki then says "I know, and they are so cute too. Maybe we should help them." then Yumeko says "but my lady, what if it's all a ruse? Remember, they knocked out so many of your children before even arriving here." then Luize says "but I really think they were just defending themselves... I mean, they spent some time with Sara, and didn't do anything to her." Shinki thinks for a bit and says "let's keep a close eye on them for a few days... if they behave, we help them, alright?" All nod and disperse. They noticed Ail and Maribel were staring at them looking rather confused. Shinki awkwardly says "err.. sorry about that, heh heh heh. I am sorry, but it looks like we can't help you get out for the time being, but if you wish, you can stay here in the palace for a while." Maribel's eyes start to shine and sparkle while saying "rea~~lly~!?" Both Yumeko and Luize hold their bleeding noses, saying "that was so cute!" Ail looks at Shinki a little suspiciously and says "my lady, we don't want to be any trouble..."

Back at the Hakurei Shrine, the party had winded down and the sun was almost up. All the girls there were asleep. Tewi had fallen asleep beside Suika at the top of the large red gate in front of the shrine, while Mima was sleeping next to the hot springs beside Yukari, placing her left leg on Yukari's belly. Yorihime and Reimu were the only ones sleeping in a futon, while the rest were sleeping anywhere all around the shrine. Just as the sun was risin, Renko and Keine, both looking so tired and sleepy that they were about to fall down, reach the top of the stairs, Renko holding the scroll with the instructions on how to get to Makai. They look around and think "what a mess..." then Renko says "geez! We work our butts off for our friends and they are having a party. Should we even bother showing them this?" Keine, looking incredibly sleepy says "yeah... if we don't Reimu'll just get mad at us." Renko looks back at Keine and says "I'd be more worried about Sanae getting angry..." Keine looks at Renko puzzled and confused. Renko gets a bit annoyed and says "never mind." They head inside the shrine and reach Reimu, and when Renko was about to call her, she closes her eyes and falls straight asleep, dropping down tot he floor, next to Reimu, followed by Keine, who kneels down to get the scroll and wake up Reimu, but also falls down and immediately falls asleep just beside Renko. Reimu wakes up and looks around saying "what a pain... they all stayed here... and nobody cleaned... gah, I better start clea-" Reimu notices Renko and Keine sleeping right next to her, Renko holding on the a scroll. Reimu grabs the scroll and reads a bit then shouts "I can't believe it! This is it! A way to get Ail and Maribel back!" Just then, Patchouli wakes up, and Sanae pops from behind a tree shouting "you found a way!!?" Remilia immediately wakes up and shouts "look! Reimu found a way into Makai! Everyone, look! She did it!" Soon, everyone except Renko and Keine wake up as rowdy as they were in the evening. Reimu was trying to tell them it was Renko and Keine who had found the scroll, but they were too rowdy to listen, so she just sighs. Yorihime wakes up and asks Reimu "is every day like this over here?" Reimu casually says "more or less."

Back at Makai, Yumeko and Shinki were accompanying Ail and Maribel and take them to separate empty guest rooms. "You'll be staying here, mister Anilan." said Yumeko in a most unpleasant tone. Ail felt a bit awkward and says "look, I really don't want to be any trouble." Yumeko ignores Ail and takes Maribel to the room next to his while Shinki says "give her some time. Last time we had visitors..." Ail looks at Shinki and asks "what happened? Reimu's name is like a time-bomb here, the lands are dead, the sky always looks so sad..." Shinki lowers her sight and then lowers her head and says "after you have had some rest, I'll tell you. For now, I want you two to rest and feel at home here." Shinki placed her hand on Ail's shoulder while she said this, then suddenly Ail's green gem starts to shine, startling both Shinki and himself. Yumeko comes rushing in to assist her lady immediately. Shinki gets away from Ail, who was shouting "what's going on!?" Shinki shouts back "Ail!? Mister Ail, are you alright!?" Yumeko had her daggers ready, when suddenly Ail stops shining. Shinki and Yumeko look at him quite surprised, Yumeko still pointing her daggers at Ail. Ail's cloak had turned sky blue, and the crystal around his neck was constantly changing from blue, to violet, to green and again repeating the cycle. Ail looks at himself and then looks surprised at Shinki asking "lady Shinki? Did you do this?" His cloak turned sky blue in color, the gem around his neck kept cycling it's colors. Shinki and Yumeko keep staring at him, then from behind Maribel says "wow, that was awesome~! But why doesn't the magical stuff ever happen to me!" Yumeko and Shinki stare at each other, then Yumeko stares at Maribel while Shinki stares at Ail and both say at the same time "you humans are unbelievable!" then suddenly Maribel hiccups again, and her cat ears pop out. Yumeko couldn't stop staring. Maribel touches her head and smiles saying "YA~Y, this is GREAT! My cute cat ears are back." She spins in place and winks at them,then asks "do I look cute, anya~?" Ail's face turns bright red, Shinki's cheeks turn pink and Yumeko fires off twin nosebleed jets, all giving Maribel the thumbs up.

Back at Gensokyo, after Reimu was able to explain who got the scrolls and calming everyone down, they all sit in a circle and discuss the matter. "Well, the process looks simple enough, however I am concerned." says Reimu. Patchouli ponders and says "this amount of power... it's impossible, even for a youkai like Yukari or Yuka to maintain this level of power for so long." then Remilia adds "not to mention that the one that opens the gate has to stay here in order to open the gate again." Nitori looks at the scroll and says "look, it only asks for this much power, but doesn't specify a source. What if I can build a machine that can generate that much power, so it channels it to the one that does open the gate, filtering it and making it safe as well." Reimu thinks for a bit and says "that's a wonderful idea... but say... how do you plan to get that much power?" Nitori ponders for a bit once more and says "we would need lightning in order to power up the machine. After that, the machine I'm planning to build should be able to work non-stop for days." Reimu thinks for a bit and says "lightning, huh?"

Reimu goes and visits the heavens and finds Iku. Immediately Iku says "I know why you're here. My powers are not toys, you know that, right?" Reimu smiles and says "so you won't do it?" Iku says "give me one good reason." Reimu smirks with a glint in her eyes and says "you owe those two... remember what they did for you...?" Iku bites her bottom lip and says "that was a low blow." then Reimu says "so I can count on your cooperation?" Iku perks up and smiling, she says "just tell me what to do, then." Reimu sighs with a smile and says "alright. I'll come get you when it's ready." and then she leaves saying "don't worry, she didn't see me." and then flies away. Iku looks at the horizon and thinks "those two did a lot more than just help me... if it wasn't for them..." then she starts remembering an image of Tenshi holding the Sword of Hisou and looking down on her, lifting her sword and ready to strike. Iku smiles and says "for those two, I guess I can make exceptions." From above her, Tenshi quietly flies away, then follows Reimu back down.

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

JUL 20 2009
written by
Willie G.R.

Another Misplaced Sukima P-1

At the Garden of the Sun, after Ail and Reimu's battle, a strange gap opened up and sucked in both Ail and Maribel in an instant, and then after that, another gap, one of Ail's, opens up and drops Yorihime. Another great battle went on and for about an hour or so, then it was over. Yorihime, her eyes spinning, lies on a bed of sunflowers, while Reimu, who looked really messed up and tired asks Genjii to carry Yorihime. In the end, Genjii had to carry both back to the shrine, since Reimu was too exhausted to even fly.

Arriving at the shrine, Genjii is greeted by Renko. "Genjii, you're back! Hey wait... where's Reimu?" Genjii lands with Yorihime and Reimu unconscious on his back. Renko looks around, counts the passengers, looks behind her, then back at Genjii, then with great fear in her eyes she asks him "where's Mary?" Genjii looks at her seriously and says "she and Ail were sucked into one of those barrier gaps." As if not even listening, Renko rushes to the hot spring beside the shrine, grabs a bucket of water and fills it up, then rushes back to Genjii and drops the water on Reimu and Yorihime. Both girls wake up spluttering, Yorihime shouting "we're under attack!!" and at the same time, Reimu shouts "Aye~! Hot, hot,it's HOT!" Both girls realize they were next to each other and start growling and glaring at each other, ready to start another fight, but Renko gets in their way, facing Reimu and looking a little angry and asks "where is Mary!?" Reimu drops her guard and starts to think, then suddenly remembers what happened and freaks out "oh crap! She and Ail went inside a gap, and I have not clue where they are now!" Yorihime gets a bit annoyed and with a loud "ahem!" she gets Reimu and Renko's attention. Reimu looks at Yorihime and says "look, this is not time to be fighting. I have to find my friends!" Yorihime quietly smiles and inhales then shouts at the top of her lungs "WHERE THE HELL AM I!?" The force of that shout was so strong, it sent Reimu and Renko flying a few feet back, Renko falling on top of Reimu. Reimu immediately gets up, pushing Renko away, and presses her forehead against Yorihime's, both staring at each other. Reimu says "YOU are in Gensokyo, on Earth!" Yorihime widens her eyes then backs away, then Reimu adds "so I'm going to have to ask you behave." Renko gets up and almost crying she shouts "Reimu~, what about Mary~!" Both Reimu and Yorihime look at Renko worried, stop fighting and now both are trying to comfort her.

Ail wakes up next to Maribel. At first he was a little dazed, but slowly recovers and quickly realizes he's lost. The floor was dry and dead, only burned rubble and dead plants surrounded him. The floors were full of burn marks, the skies looked a little darkened, no birds flying about, only the sound of the wind eerily greeted him. Ail realizes Maribel was next to him and quickly kneels beside her. "Maribel... Maribel, can you hear me? Wake up!" Maribel happily groans and stretches as she wakes up. Ail lets out a sigh of relief and gets up. Maribel asks "mister Ail? Where's miss Reimu?" Still looking around, trying to find out where they are, he answers "I just woke up. I'm trying to figure out where are we?" Maribel gets up and looks around and says "wow... what a mess. Wherever we are, it's not very pretty." They both decided to walk around and see if someone would help them. Roughly 30 minutes pass and they spot a tall youkai with large black horns, an angry expression on his face, his eyes black. His body was bulky and very muscular and wore only a pair of red pants and thick black army-like boots. Ail thought he was trouble, but he needed to know where they were, so he approached the creature. "Excuse me sir, sorry to bother you, but could you tell us where we are? My friend and I are a little lost." The creature looks at him and smirks, then says "give me the girl, and I'll tell you." Ail backs away, covering Maribel and says "then we'll be on our way, sorry to bo-" but the creature gets on the way, Ail saying "what an unpleasant youkai you are." The creature frowns and says "I'm a DEMON, you moron! Don't compare me to one of those youkai... now give me the girl!" Ail smiles widely and says "if you value your health, I would suggest you GET away, while you can." The demon frowns and launches a punch straight at Ail, however Ail had grabbed Maribel and jumped out of the way, placing her safely behind him again. Ail smirks and waves his index finger at the demon saying "tsk, tsk, tsk. Always the hard way, huh?" He points his finger at the creature and various lasers and focused blasts cover the demon, knocking him down in an instant. Still smiling Ail says "well sir, thanks for your time." then walks all over him, pulling Maribel by her hand, who apologizes after stepping on the creature.

Back at the Hakurei Shrine, Yorihime, Renko and Reimu had calmed down and were sitting by the table with some tea for each, however Yorihime wouldn't touch hers and just looked around suspiciously. Reimu calmly says "ok, you were minding your own business at the moon capital, then suddenly were sucked in by a blue colored portal. That's Ail's gap, no doubt. However, both Ail and Maribel are missing, I cannot sense them in Gensokyo, so that indigo gap must have taken them elsewhere... but I haven't the slightest clue as to where." Reimu grabs her teacup by the top, placing her hand on it's opening while placing it on the table as she analyzed the situation. Renko was shaking a bit as she looked at her tea, then takes a sudden big gulp and then shouts "he better take GOOD care of her, or I'll kill him!" Reimu calmly says "wherever they are, as long as she's with Ail, she's safe. Actually, I'm more worried about him..." Renko springs up shouting "what!, Why? Is he a pervert!?" Reimu looks at Renko for a few seconds and then starts laughing loudly. Renko sweats and looks at Reimu in disbelief then asks "did I just make a JOKE!?" Reimu calms down and says "You've been here for a while, you should know he's not like that by now. No, I mean that after our battle, he was pretty weak." Renko sits down as Reimu talked saying "oh, right..." Yorihime then adds "wait a minute... Ail? That boy with the brown hair and dark clothes?" Reimu and Renko nod at her. Yorihime stares at them for a while... From outside the shrine, Suika was helping Mima up the stairs when they see a large explosion that blows up the roof of the shrine, then drops back down. They hurry up the stairs and see the Lunarian, swinging her sword wildly at Reimu and Renko and chasing them, elaborating about Yukari's new plan to invade the moon. Mima and Suika look at each other then say "to the Moriyas" Suika nodding as she said so. Reimu got tired of running, turns around and fires various charms at Yorihime, making her arms and legs feel heavy. "argh! Let me GO! I'm gonna..." but before she's able to summon any god, Reimu jumps on her stomach and looks at her straight in the eys and says "LOOK!!! Calm down! First of all, I can't have you swinging dangerous toys around like that. Second, Ail is NOT like that! He'd NEVER help Yukari do something like that! I mean, the meanest thing he could think of doing it build a giant snowman.!" Yorihime looks back at Reimu looking a bit confused then suddenly... "gk...! Pfftt!! WAHAHAHAA!! WHAT!? A snowman!?" Reimu starts to laugh as well saying "yeah. Can you imagine!? HAHAHAHA!" Renko stares at the girls as they laugh and says "you know, you two look mighty friendly like that." Both girls stop laughing and star daggers at Renko, who backs away, forcing a smile.

Ail and Maribel kept walking around aimlessly, not knowing where they were yet. Ail was looking really tired and Maribel looked lost in though. "Man!" exclaims Ail. "What IS it with these creatures? Are they all perverts, assassins AND annoying!?" Behind them was a trail of ghouls, fairies, demons, and even ghosts, all knocked out, their eyes spinning. Maribel grabs Ail's shoulder and says "calm down mister Ail. I'm sure we'll find someone who's willing to help. Besides, it's gonna get dark soon. We should just rest for now." Ail looks up at the sky but saw no sun or moon then asks "how do you know-?" and just like that, the sky turns dark and full of stars. Ail stares at Maribel who giggles and smiles as she says "wow, and that was just a wild guess from my part!" Ail just kept staring at Maribel awestruck. They found a comfortable spot under a dead tree in order to spend the night. Ail had placed one of his barriers around them, but couldn't sleep. He just hugged his knees, closed his eyes, but couldn't fall asleep, even though he was very tired. First the battle with Reimu, then the gaps, then the many creatures of that land attacking... he was exhausted, but all he could do was look around, unable to fall asleep. Maribel had fallen asleep the moment Ail placed the barrier, but started shivering, so Ail cover her up with his cloak. The hours pass and finally, the light of day reaches them, however there was no sun in the sky. Maribel yawns and stretches looking quite content after her sleep. Ail looked horrible. His eyes were baggy, red and glassy, his hair was more of a mess than usual, and he felt he really needed a bath to boot. After stretching, Maribel said "I could really go for a bath right now." Ail calmly says "I haven't been able to hear or smell water at all." Maribel just smiles and says "well, best thing to do now is keep walking, right?" Ail smiles back and nods as Maribel hands him his cloak back, thanking him.

Night at the Garden of the Sun. Yukari was inspecting the area where Ail disappeared along with Ran, who was looking around the surroundings. Yukari gets closer to the place where Reimu told her Ail had disappeared, and where Yorihime had appeared. She touches the air, then a small red blot shocks her hand, making her shriek and back away. "Lady Yukari!? Are you alright?" asked the concerned Ran. Yukari looks at the area and says "Ho ho~! There's so much energy residue here... it's still quite active." Ran then says "but can you use it to get Ail back? O-or send that woman back?" Yukari opens her fan and says "Ran, we have company." Yuka was standing there in her pink pajamas, just staring at them. Yukari narrows her eyes and says "I'm sorry, but I can't play right now. You'll have to wait until next time. Yuka slowly gets closer to Yukari and whispers something in her ears. Ran was able to hear, but said nothing and just looked down. Yuka heads back to her home, yawning as she did, then Yukari opens a gap and says "Ran, let's go." Ran nods and enters the gap with her master. At the Hakurei shrine, Yorihime kept staring unblinking at Yukari. "I inspected the area as you requested." said Yukari, pausing for a moment. Reimu and Renko at the same time ask "...and!?" Yukari opens her fan again and says "I'm sorry, but we'll have to wait for the next full moon to go back home. That gap that forced you to come here was a freak accident." Yorihime lets out a loud "hmph" and kept staring at Yukari, who flaps her fan and laughs saying "my, what attitude... maybe I SHOULD try and conquer the Moon Capital, just for fun." Yorihime gets up shouting "just TRY it you old hag!" Yukari stares very dangerously at Yorihime, but Reimu glares at both, so they wind down, Yorihime quietly mouthing curses. "Yukari! What about Ail and Maribel?" asked Reimu. Yukari closes her fan and says "I can't get them. That energy disturbance messed with Ail's powers, opening a gap to a place even I can't reach that easily." Yukari looks at Ran who nods at her. Renko despairs and bangs hard on the table and shouts "where is SHE!!?" Yukari looks at Reimu and says... From outside the shrine, Mystia, Rumia and Agava are startled by Reimu's scream "WHAT~~!!?"

Ail and Maribel kept walking around when Maribel's stomach started to growl. She blushes and says "err... sorry about that." but just like that, Ail opens one of his pockets and pulls out an apple, then gives it to Maribel and says "Mima gave me that, but you can have it." He smiles at her who hesitantly picks the apple. Ail urges her "go ahead, it's alright." Maribel finally accepts the apple and just before taking a bite, she asks "hey, mister Ail? Why haven't you tried opening a gap back to that flower field?" Ail opens his eyes widely in shock then face-palms himself saying "Oh~ my goodness, why didn't I think of that before!!?" Maribel starts to giggle, then laughs hard, making Ail laugh lightly then he says "well, let's try it." He opens a red gap to his left. He looks at it rather puzzled and says "wait, red? Let me..." He looks inside and suddenly jumps back as fast as he could, avoiding some black tentacles and closing the gap. "Err... let's try over there." He opens a violet gap to their right. Ail confidently says "wow, looks like one of Yukari's. Maybe this one." When he looks inside, he sees himself spinning around the air and saying "spin, Anilan, spin!" The real Ail pulls his head out and closes the gap, holding his stomach and saying "I think I'm gonna be sick.." Maribel giggles again as she takes another bite from her apple and says "try one more." Ail nods, looking a little worried then opens another gap, this one blue. He peeks inside and sees a green-haired woman baking pies and smiling. Suddenly the pies start flying out of the gap, just as Ail ducks and closes it. The pies hit the ground and melted the floor. "Wow... that looks dangerous" casually said Maribel. Ail pants and says "that was just plain dangerous!" Maribel had finished her apple and hiccups. Ail looks at her asking "are you alri-" Ail's eyes pop from his head, making Maribel look a bit worried and asking "mister Ail? What's the matter?" Maribel had grown a pair of blond cat ears on her head, however Ail didn't know whether to tell her the truth, or keep quiet. "Mister Ail?" asks Maribel in a sweet tone, then Ail sighs and says "you... err.. grew cat ears." Maribel touches her head and gasps. She keeps touching her new cat ears and looked as though she was about to scream, and suddenly "WOW!!! I got cat ears! Do they look good!?" She looks at Ail, wiggling the cat ears, making Ail blush bright red and says "err... they look cute..." Maribel jumps up and down saying "Yay! Wait until Renko sees me!" While Maribel celebrated, Ail hid his face from her, looking both suspicious and angry and thinks "that's why Mima wanted me to eat that apple!"

Onward they continued, not knowing where they were going and unable to reach any familiar places. Ail was tired, sleepy and hungry, but he wouldn't say anything and just continued walking. Finally, they stumble across a large sign with what looked like an empty seat beside it. "Look, mister Ail! A sign! Maybe it says where we are!" Ail nods and softly says "good. Maybe if we knew where we are, I can open a gap back home with ease." Ail read that sign out loud. "Welcome to Makai... Keep Out? Well, sounds like a friendly place." Maribel giggles, but shortly after both gasp and shout at the same time "MAKAI!?" Ail slaps his forehead and says "of course! No wonder the creatures here are so aggressive. But wait... I though Reimu said this placed was sealed off and destroyed..." "It IS sealed off, but not destroyed. It's undergoing remodeling, is all!" said a woman's voice. When they look up they see a tall pink haired and pink eyed woman wearing a read dress with a white scarf and short white sleeves flying above them. Her hair was tied up in a ponytail to the right. She continued talking "I've never seen you around here before... who are you and where did you come from?" Ail gets in front of Maribel and says "I am Ail, and this is Maribel. We come from Gensokyo and just wish to go back, if it's not too much trouble." The woman calmly stares at both as she landed in front of them and asks "You two are... human?" Ail responds "half-human... oh and she's under a spell, apparently." after saying this he thinks "from a little evil spirit that's gonna get it when we get home." The woman keeps staring at them and says "well, my name is Sara, I am the Gate Keeper here, and I'm afraid I can't let you pass." Ail shouts "but why not!?" at the same time Maribel asks "huh? Why's that?" Sara smiles and says "because the entrance is sealed... nobody can go through at the moment." Ail then desperately says "look... we just want to get out of here and go back to Gensokyo... nothing else." Sara looks at him and smiles saying "well, if this gate wasn't sealed off, you'd end up directly in Gensokyo, but I'm afraid it IS sealed, so you can't go through."

Back at the Hakurei Shrine, Remilia, Sakuya and Patchouli had joined Yukari and Reimu in the attempts to open a gap to Makai, but they all failed. It was early morning and Sakuya was carrying her sleeping mistress and says "we'll check the library and see if there's any other way to get to that place." Reimu nods and thanks them. Sakuya nods back and flies off with her mistress in hand, followed by Patchouli who quietly nods at Reimu and Renko as she left. Reimu looks at Renko, who looked like she was about to cry and says "don't worry... As long as Ail is there, she will be fine. There is only one being there that could cause real harm, and she's actually quite peaceful." Renko looks at Reimu and says "I hope you're right." Suddenly they both realize that Yorihime had fallen asleep with her back against a wall, and on her lap was Yukari, sleeping with a smile on her face. Renko and Reimu look at each other looking quite worried, then quietly get close to try and separate them, however Yorihime wakes up with a yawn, so they quickly head back to the table, pretending not to notice anything. When Yorihime opens her eyes, she gets the shock of her life, seeing Yukari contently sleeping on her lap like that. Quietly, she tries to push Yukari away, but Yukari only groans a little an re accommodates herself, placing her face on Yorihime's belly. Yorihime's face turns red. She looks at Reimu who shrugs, and Renko who just stared back, then very suddenly she shouts "GET HER OFF ME THIS INSTA~NT!!!" She got up and angrily tossed Yukari away and started stomping angrily on the ground and shouting "of all the PEOPLE! Gah, what if she attacked me? What if she suddenly sent me to another dimension..." Yorihime kept on elaborating about plans to take over the moon after she was dead, so Renko and Reimu head to the spring, ignoring the mess inside. Both were stopped, however, by Sanae, who was floating next to the small gate to the spring, holding Mima by her cape, Mima looking messy and singed. She smiles at Reimu and says "oy... I think this girl's mad at something."

Back at Makai, Ail was trying to open gaps back to Gensokyo, since he was so close to the exit, however Sara continued to say "it's not gonna work. There is only ONE way to get out of here, and it's sealed." but Maribel says in a sweet tone of voice "but even so, we still managed to get in here through a gap... so maybe another gap might work, right?" Sara ponders and says "good point." Just then, Ail had opened a pink colored gap and stuck his head inside. A lot of kissing noises where heard, along with a woman's giggle and some moaning. When Ail pulls his head out, his face looked purple as he says "don't... it's not pretty." He slowly walks back to where Sara and Maribel were, Maribel asking "mister Ail? What's the matter?" Ail tries to smile, but he was to tired, and even keeping his eyes open was a task. He says "it's alright, I'm just tired..." Just then, a massive spear-like orange energy headed directly to where Maribel was, and Ail quickly gets in the way and reflects it back. He was breathing heavily as the spear lands far away, causing a massive explosion. Sara walks next to Maribel saying "whoa... that looked dangerous. Are you ok?" Ail slowly turns around and flips his thumb up, and after doing so, he collapses. Both Sara and Maribel rush to him, calling out his name. sara inspects him and says "ah... I think he's just sleeping..." She turn him around and he was snoring. Maribel crouches and looks at him saying "wow, he really was exhausted... *hiccup*" Sara looks at her saying "no kidding... hey, where did you ears go?" Maribel pats her head then frowns and says "aww~~! They're gone. And I wanted to show Renko too." Sara stares back at her, smiles and says "heh heh, you sure are strange humans... and so polite too... not like LAST time humans came to visit!" Maribel smiles and says "oh, you mean miss Reimu, miss Marisa, miss Mima, and miss Yuka? Err... miss Sara? Are you alright?" Sara started to cry and says "they beat me up so badly...*sob*" Maribel smiles at her and opens her arms, then Sara jumps and hugs Maribel and started to bawl "waa~h! They were so rude and mean to me!" Maribel pats her back saying "there, there. It's ok."

Back at the hot spring at the Hakurei Shrine, Reimu, Renko, Sanae, Mima, Marisa and Yorihime all sit around enjoying an early morning dip. "So that kid got himself into Makai, along with Mary, ze?" Renko says "yeah... I just hope he's taking good care of her." Reimu giggles and says "I told you to relax. He's not like Yukari... who would probably fall asleep while walking around..." Back at Makai, Sara was poking Ail on the cheek as he slept, while Maribel whimsically looked around saying "wow, at least the trees here are alive. So pretty too." Sara looks back at her nodding and saying *uh-huh*. Back at the spring, Sanae shouts "but Reimu, is there any possible way to bring them back!? He's not gonna stay in there forever... right?" Reimu only shrugs and raises her hand, dropping it back and looking casually back at Sanae, then Yorihime calmly says "I'm sorry... it was rude of me to behave as I have..." All look at Yorihime quite surprised as she continues "*sigh* it's just not that easy to accept these facts. Sometimes they are just... unbearable." Reimu smiles and extends her hand to Yorihime saying "then let me welcome you to Gensokyo... without the blasts." Yorihime giggles and accepts the hand-shake, then Marisa gets closer and says "there's only one way to welcome such a guest to Gensokyo..." Reimu shouts "Marisa, don't you DARE!!!" but Marisa just screams "WELCOMING PARTY~!" Reimu shouts "no, NO! Marisa, no, you never help me clean up!" Sanae then says "I don't want to party, I want to help Ail and Maribel get back!" Renko nods at this statement, then Mima says "you two, relax. Ail is like having a backup Reimu at hand. He and Maribel be back before we know it." Marisa smiles widely and says "I'll go get Suika to spread the word!" Just like that, she jumps out of the spring and runs to the small gate, gets dressed in a second, and still dripping water, she sits on her broom and flies away, just as Reimu was about to grab her. Reimu looks at Marisa fly away and says "not another party~!"

Back at Makai, Sara was reading some book while Maribel knelt beside Ail, playing with his hair, and just smiling. Suddenly she says "I haven't seen many birds here." Sara, while still reading her book, says "don't worry. Once they migrate back here, you'll get birds-a-plenty." Maribel giggles and continues to play with Ail's hair. A few minutes after, a woman comes flying down saying "well what do we have here? Two humans and a gate guard?" Maribel looks up and sees a blond woman with yellow eyes wearing a white hat with a purple bow, and a white short sleeved dress with a purple neckerchief around her shoulders, tied around her chest. Maribel quickly stands up as the woman continues asking "and where did these humans come from? Did the gate open?" Sara calmly replies "they came through one of the male's... err.. Ail's gates. Seems he can open up gates of his own." "So the boy's name is Ail, huh? Who's the girl?" Maribel bows politely and says "I am Maribel Han." The woman waves her hand thinking "so polite" and saying "hi Maribel Han. I am Luize, a demon here in Makai." Maribel feels a bit uneasy, but Luize says "don't worry, I won't eat you." and smiles. She walks to Sara and says "say, you didn't happen to see a flame spear fly by, did you?" "Sara turns away from her book and says "Oh, that was you then? I was headed straight this way, but that boy over there used some sort of shield to deflect it..." Luize sweats and says "err... no, that wasn't me exactly. So he deflected it? Interesting... another human with strange powers. Lady Shinki will want to hear about this." Maribel looks at them a little confused and Luize says "don't worry. Lady Shinki's not that bad. But you two entering here is a matter that should interest her, specially that boy. To be able to deflect a spell of that magnitude like that? Last time powerful humans came, THIS happened." then she points back from where Ail and Maribel had com from. Maribel says "wow... miss Reimu did all that? She never told me she did such mean things!" Luize thinks "is this girl for real?" then says "look, that's not exactly what happened... ah well, I'll let lady Shinki explain. I'll take you there, so come on."

Back at Gensokyo, Sanae, Marisa, Mima, Reimu and Yorihime were happily drinking tea side by side, at the shrine's porch, all just agreeing with each other. Renko was mad, but she knew there was nothing she could do here. She stomps hard as she gets out of the shrine, and passes by the lazy girls drinking tea. She looks back at them and angrily says "I'm going to Keine's! Maybe SHE can help me get Mary back! You just keep enjoying you peaceful day!" and then she storms away, heading to the human village. At the school, Keine, Akyuu and Renko were reading books and books on barriers, Makai and the such, when Akyuu suddenly says "oh my goodness..." The others look at her, Renko shouting "what, WHAT!? did you find something!?" Akyuu then says "oh, sorry, I just thought I'd ask Ail and Maribel about their experience in Makai when they get back!" Renko looks a little annoyed and Keine just sighs as she places the palm of her head on the palm of her hand. Akyuu just hides her face under the book she was looking at and continues to quietly read.

Back at Makai, Luize was carrying a still sleeping Ail and Maribel while she flew them to Shinki's palace. Maribel looks around, enjoying the views then asks "miss Luize? Are you ok carrying both of us like this?" Luize answers "sure, it's no problem for me. I may not look it, but I'm quite strong." Maribel smiles at her then continues to enjoy the view. They fly over a large lake and shortly after the lake, they saw the beautiful palace. It had a few parts missing, but it still looked beautiful. Luize says "welcome to Pandemonium, miss Maribel, mister, err.. still sleeping Ail. This is where lady Shinki lives." Maribel smiles as she they get closer to the palace and says "wow, it's so pretty!" Luize says "it's was a whole lot prettier before... but... well, lady Shinki will explain more." And so they reached the palace's entrance. Luize places Ail against one of the gate's side, then asks Maribel to wait a bit, then heads inside. Maribel sits next to Ail, anxious to see the palace inside, imagining how it might look, and asking herself who was Shinki, and if she was kind, or ruthless. Back at Gensokyo, Renko, Keine, and Akyuu continue to read the books, hoping to find a way in and out of Makai in order to get their friends back.

To be Continued...
Characters and scenario belong to ZUN
Ail was created by Willie G.R.

JUL 17 2009
written by
Willie G.R.