Thursday, July 2, 2009

Misplaced Sukima P-8

It had snowed a lot the night before, and now, two days after SikiEiki's visit, Ail walks out of the shrine, ready to begin his next lesson in spell cards, however he notices three frozen girls, left right where Reimu had left them the afternoon before. Sanae, Keine and Rumia. "Reimu" calls Ail. "Hey Reimu, you better come out here." shouted Ail, looking both worried and somewhat disappointed. When Reimu and Kyo come out, they see the three frozen girls. Reimu laughs a little, then says "they'll have to wait until Marisa comes by. I don't think my spells are hot enough to thaw them out." Kyo looks at her indifferently and says "then how about blasting them out, as usual." Ail slaps his forehead, and before anything else, Reimu was already shooting danmaku at them and blasting the ice away. Inside the shrine, the three shivering girls drink the warm tea offered by Reimu and Ail. Kyo and Mima were outside on the front of the shrine, training with their danmaku and abilities. Shivering, Sanae says "th-th-thanks A-Ail" as he hands her a towel. Rumia looks at them eying each other then says "i-i-i-is that-t-t s-so?" Keine finishes her tea then says "that was one nasty trick, Reimu. You too Ail!" Ail forces a smile to hide his shame, but ends up looking at the ground, then Reimu says "well, he either joined me, or you. He's a smart boy, and chose correctly in my opinion." Keine looked a bit annoyed, but she knew further complaining would get her neck-deep in trouble. Sanae gets up saying "I feel much better, so I best be off home. I'll see you later." Just as she was about to fly away, Reimu grabs her shoulder then looks at Ail and says "Ail, why don't you accompany her?" Ail looks at Reimu puzzled at first, then he saw purpose in Reimu's eyes and said "yeah, you're right. Come on, miss Sanae. Oh, let's fly above the trees, ok?" Sanae looked a bit confused and was blushing a bit. She nods and says "sure." Reimu gets closer to Ail and says "if anything happens, send the signal." Ail nods and lifts to the air, accompanied by Sanae. After they left, Reimu calls Keine and Rumia inside and says "you two, listen up, you need to go back to the village with Rumia. Rumia, you need to keep the area around you as dark as a shadow." Keine looks confused and asked "Reimu, what's going on?" Reimu looks seriously at Keine and says "I am not exactly sure. Just keep an eye on any strange shadows, and if you're going to fly, do so above the trees. For now that is all I can tell you. When and IF I know more, I'll let you know." When Keine looked at Rumia, she saw her smile vanish, replaced by worry and purpose."

Mid-way to the Youkai Mountain, Ail realizes they have a long path with no trees to cover for them. "Hey, Ail?" asked Sanae "why are you accompanying me? I can get home on my own." Ail smiles and says "I just want to make sure you're safe, is all." Sanae smiles back, then after he looks back down, she blushes a bit. Suddenly Ail notices a shadow, wriggling rapidly toward their own shadows. Ail grabs Sanae by her waist. She shrieks, her face turns completely red, and then asks "what are you doing!?" Ail shouts "Sanae, cover your eyes!" Suddenly Ail speeds up, matching Aya's speeds. The impact of the speed forces Sanae to place her face on Ail's chest. Ail moves fast enough to lose the shadow, then he relaxes and slows down, still holding Sanae, who recovers and bangs him on the arm shouting "what's the big idea!? Let me go right now!" Ail lets her go, panicking a little and saying "sorry,sorry... look I can explain, but we have to get to the Moriya Shrine as fast as we can. Let's go!" When they started moving again, Sanae shrieks and shouts "Ail, I can't move!" Ail looks down and sees the snake-like shadow wrapped around Sanae's shadow leg. He takes out a charm and from there a violet beam shoots to the sky writing on the clouds the words "HELP" Ail desperately tries to pull Sanae free, then she started screaming "OW! What's happening... my leg feels... like it's breaking. HELP ME!" "Sanae!" shouts Ail back. He tires harder to pull her free, but he couldn't. "Sanae! Sanae!" shouted Ail as he tried shooting danmaku directly at the shadows, however nothing happened. Ail despairs as Sanae starts to scream louder. While still holding on to Sanae, Ail closes his eye and in his mind he heard himself shouting "somebody help!" then another voice, a woman's voice said "there is no time. Help can't come in time. Use your powers, Ail. Use them to your heart's content." Suddenly a spell card appears on Ail's hand. He instinctively lifts it above his head and shouts "Earth Sign, Forestall Heartbeat!" Countless green and white crystals come from Ail in the pattern of a heart and at the rhythm of a heartbeat, falling slowly and accompanied by randomly expelled blue danmaku balls that fell faster. They exploded in mid-air, making the snake-like shadow let go of Sanae, who gasps with relief. Ail, still holding her, wraps her arm around his neck and flies toward the Moriya shrine. From inside the shrine, Kanako spots Ail and Sanae and causally says "hey, Suwako, you were right. She's with... Ail... Sanae?" Suwako comes from her room asking "what did you say?" Kanako jumps to her feet and shouts "SANAE!?" Suwako panics asking "what, what's going on!?" Suwako gasps when Ail softly lands with an unconscious Sanae. Without warning, A large wooden pillar with charms tied around it flies straight at Ail. Ail dodges out of the way, looking angry, then blocks Kanako from reaching Sanae. "What did you do to my Sanae!?" yells Kanako at the top of her lungs. Suwako rushes from inside the shrine and kneels next to Sanae, calling out to her. Kanako looked like she was aiming for blood, then Ail shouts back at her "we were attacked!" Kanako drops her guard then with a blank expression she says "I'm... I'm sorry. I thought..." Ail signals Kanako to get closer then says "it's her left leg. It may be broken." Both Kanako and Suwako look at her leg then let out a loud sigh of relief saying at the same time "it's not broken."

After they all calmed down, they carried Sanae to her room where she wakes up. While in her room, Suwako grabs Ail by his neck, looking furious, quietly asking "what happened?" Ail looked back at her looking equally angry and said "remember that evil energy from the other day? Well before we could stop it, something escaped from that very source, and it's now running around as a snake-like shadow. At first Reimu though we could catch it, or something, but..." Suwako lets go of Ail then backs away, then heads to Sanae. Ail was about to leave the room, but before he did he asks "is Sanae going to be alright?" Sanae says "oh, I'm alright, really" then Kanako says "it's a bad bruise. She'll be limping for some time." Suwako adds "whatever did this to her is going to pay!" Ail thinks to himself "I'll make sure of that!" then he turns around and says "for the moment the only information I have about that thing is that it's evil and it's trying to get out to the outside world. I can safely assume it's going to do anything it can to accomplish that goal... even kill." Suwako and Kanako look at each other, then back at Ail then Kanako says "head directly to the Hakurei shrine, do NOT hunt it down." Ail looks back smiling, but his eyes revealed fury. He then closes the door and heads outside. Kanako knew his true intentions. She says "Suwako, go to the tengu, look for that reporter and tell her to get Reimu. He's going after that thing, whatever it is." Without saying a word, Suwako nods and heads out.

Back at the Hakurei shrine, Reimu was lying on the porch of the shrine, hanging her right foot on her left knee. Kyo and Mima were still training when Marisa arrives. Reimu gets up thinking it's Ail, but when she sees it's Marisa, sounding very disappointed she says "oh, it's just you." Marisa backs away a little and says "whoa, so cold. Is that how you greet your guests, ze?" Reimu growls and says "he's late! Oh well, it's not MY training." Marisa looks a bit confused at first, then says "oh, you mean Ail? He was flying above the Forest of Magic a while ago." Reimu looks at Marisa, then says "no sense of responsibility, that kid. He's neglecting his training." Marisa turns her face away and says as quietly as she could "reminds me of someone I know." Reimu looks at Marisa annoyed and asks "what was that!?" Just then Aya comes flying to the shrine, bearing her wings. She crashes but gets up quickly, talking so fast Reimu couldn't follow her. "Reimu,Reimu it'shorribleSanae'shurttheMoriyagodismadand...!" As casual as ever, Reimu pulls a glass of water from her pockets, Marisa looks shocked and amazed asking "how the hell did you do that", then Reimu splashes the water on Aya, shutting her up and calming her down. Calmly, Reimu asks "now, what was that you were saying?" Aya takes a deep breath and says "that was COLD!" Reimu was getting angry so Aya backs away a little and says "oh yeah. The Moriya goddess came to me and told me, Sanae was badly injured by some shadow, and Ail and Kanako almost killed each other, and now Ail is hunting that thing down!" Reimu gasps and looks up at the sky, and there she saw the "help" signal, disappearing from the sky slowly. Sounding desperate, Reimu asks Marisa "Marisa, when exactly did you see Ail?" Marisa, looking a bit scared says "about fifteen, maybe twenty minutes ago." Reimu hurriedly says to Aya "you, fly above the trees and head home. Tell the tengu and the kappa to be careful... in fact, use your paper for something good and warn EVERYONE about that shadow. I'll give you more details later!" Aya salutes Reimu then flies away so fast, she looked like a beam of light. Sounding more desperate Reimu shouts "KYO~! You and Marisa come with me. We HAVE to stop Ail!" Kyo said "heh, what's the matter? You sound-" "No time to explain, just go!" said Reimu before he could continue, then flies ahead. Marisa calls Kyo to sit on her broom and they both follow Reimu. Mima looks at them leave then says "ooh, the shrine's all mine now!" When she enters the shrine, she looks around, then spots Reimu's clothes. Her eyes glint as she stares at the clothes.

Ail was close to the village shouting "come on out already! Stop sneaking around... come and FIGHT ME!" Keine, from the village's entrance calls Ail "stop this! Come here, it's dangerous out there. Didn't Reimu tell you!?" Ail looks at Keine who gasps when she sees the fury in his eyes. He says to her "I know it's dangerous... I'll make SURE to make it dangerous for that thing! Stay back or you might get caught in the battle!" "This can't be Ail, can it?" though Keine, as she decided whether or not to go and force him back to the village, but just then, right in front of Ail, a shadow in she shape of a large snake appears. Keine gasps and begs Ail to get into the village, but Ail stood his ground. He was smiling, however his smile seemed twisted and bloodthirsty. "At last, I found you!" said Ail, as he stances, readying himself for battle. The shadow stands on the tip of it's tail, then tries to take a human-like shape, however it could not maintain it for too long, so it turned back to a snake-like figure, then launches itself as fast as it could directly at Ail. Suddenly a large blue square on the floor gets in between Ail and the shadow, shocking the shadow, making it slither away. Ail was about to chase after it, then Reimu shouts "what the HELL are you trying to do, you idiot!?" Ail tries to go after the shadow, but Reimu tosses various charms right in front of him. Ail glares at Reimu and says "either help me, or get OUT of my way. I am going to DESTROY that thing!" Floating slowly, Reimu gets right in front of Ail, holding more charms on her left hand, and her gohei on her right. They both stare at each other. Just then, Kyo and Marisa arrive, however Marisa doesn't land, and just hovers above them. "What are you doing? Land already" said Kyo, but Marisa looked at him seriously and said "you don't want to be doing that now. Those two are going to have a duel now." Kyo despairs and says "no way! We gotta stop them, now!" Marisa lowers her head and says "it's too late." Kyo looks at Reimu and saw her determination, then looked at Ail and saw his anger. "Whoa, what happened to Ail? He's furious!" said Kyo, then Marisa simply replies "just watch now." Ail shouts at Reimu "get out of the WAY! I'm going to stop that thing!" then Reimu shouts back "you IDIOT, that thing is too powerful for you! You're only going to get hurt!" Ail did not reply and just looked back at Reimu, then Reimu says "you are WAY over your head, if you think you can beat me!"

Ail started shooting his danmaku at Reimu, who simply blocked them with her charms, then she shoots back her focused shots, homing on Ail, but he shoots his own focused shots, blasting Reimu's homing charms in mid-air. Reimu charges up another barrage of homing charms. Ail shoots his focused shots again, but this time they only slowed down Reimu's attacks. He dodges them just as they were about to touch him, then Reimu lunges at him and kicks him hard to the air, then shoots more of her charms at him, however, Ail spins in mid-air and shoots countless danmaku, breaking Reimu's charms, then sends more her way. She back flips to avoid Ails shots, then pulls out a spell card saying "I'm not holding back anymore! Divine Spirit, Fantasy SEAL!" About ten, maybe more colorful balls of light spread out and home in on Ail. He knew this spell. He also knew there was no chance of escape, and then he suddenly summons a blue barrier that protects him from Reimu's attacks. The barrier breaks just as the last ball of light impacts it. "Reimu gasps and says "how did you-" but before she could continue, Ail pulls out his own spell card, then she says, sounding incredibly surprised "how the HELL did you get a spell card?" Ail smiles and shouts "Earth Sign, Forestall Heartbeat!" Again, in the rhythm of a heartbeat, many green and white crystals appear around Ail, shaping a heart, then head to Reimu slowly, then are followed by large blue danmaku balls that home in on Reimu. Reimu grits her teeth and gets out of the way, doing her best to avoid the blue danmaku balls that were following her. Ail took this chance to chase after the shadow, but four charms appear right in front of him, then a blue battier materialized in front of him. He almost crashed against it, but stopped, missing by a mere cat's hair. He turns around and sees the Reimu had escaped his spell card. She pulls out another spell card and shouts "Dreamland, Duplex Great Barrier!" two square barriers form around her, but they weren't for defense. Ail noticed this and started shooting Danmaku at her, however before his shots could reach her, she shot a barrage of red charms followed closely by a barrage of white charms, and again, and again. Ail noticed they disappear for a moment, then appear inside the other barrier, and then straight at him. He had so little room to escape. He started to think "dammit! I need something... something to defend myself..." suddenly another spell card appears around his chest, right where his heart was. He looks at it and quickly shouts "Brightness, Blinding Heart!" Ail's chest started to shine white, and large white rings expand in random positions. Some where horizontal, others vertical, and others were sideways, creating an almost perfect defense, protecting Ail from Reimu's charms. It didn't stop there as the rings kept expanding, pushing Reimu back and to the air. The rings almost got Marisa and Kyo, but Marisa was quick enough to get out of range. Reimu rubs her head as Ail's spell finishes then she shouts at Kyo "HEY, I thought you said Ail was funny when he got angry... I'm not laughing!" Kyo shouts back "it was funny when he was playing video games!" Reimu gets up and pulls out another spell card and says "alright Ail, if you're not listening to reason, then I'll beat some sense into you!" Ail just stares back at Reimu. Reimu lifts her arm with the spell card on it and shouts "FANTASY~ HEAVE~N!" Seven white yin-yang balls surround Reimu, then without giving Ail the chance, she rushes to him, beating him up, kicking him hard to the air. All 7 yin-yang balls were now shining, then suddenly start spinning around Reimu violently, shooting innumerable amounts of charms at such speeds, Ail could not even summon his barrier in time. So many of those charms hitting him at the same time. After a bit, Ail explodes, spinning up to the air, screaming as he went on spinning and spinning in the air, and he was unable to recover at all.

After the spell was done, Reimu sighs and says "let's go." Kyo, sounding surprised says " but shouldn't we go looking for him?" Reimu rests her gohei on her right shoulder and says "I know where he fell. Don't worry." then she smiles as she looks at Kyo and Marisa, who were now close to the ground. Back at the shrine they heard Mima laughing hard and saying "you really challenged Reimu? HAHAHAHAHA! Talk about living dangerously. Ahh, but don't worry, I know just how that feels." Kyo looks at Reimu in disbelief and says "so you sent him flying back the hard way, huh?" With a very satisfied look in her face, she says "that's what happens when you mess with me." Kyo's face turns ghostly pale and shivers a bit when Reimu said those words. Floating just above the hot springs at the right side of the shrine was Mima, wearing Reimu's shrine clothes, and just above her, hanging from a tree, was Ail, singed and really messed up. He lifts his sights, smiles and weakly waves at them saying "hey..." Reimu floats to Ail and asks "so, you calm down yet?" Ail lets out a quick "yeah" then Reimu tries to free him from the branch, but he was too heavy for her, so she lets him go. He gets out of the hot springs saying "wow, that was refreshing" then laughs. Mima smiling at Reimu says "so what happened?" Reimu stares at Mima for a bit then says "he just needed a good beating, is all... and what are you doing wearing those?" Mima poses in such a manner that Kyo gets a nosebleed, then she says "don't these look good on me?" Kyo gives her a thumbs up, and Ail just says "yeah, but I think blue suits you better." Reimu slaps her forehead and says "at least she's wearing a sarashi" Mima smiles and giggles. Back inside the shrine, Ail explains everything that happened, how that shadow got Sanae, how his dispair to help her unleashed his first spell card, Kanako's and Suwako's reaction. "And then all I wanted to do was hunt that thing down and turn it to dust." finished Ail. Reimu bangs her hands on the table and shouts "that was the STUPIDEST thing you could have ever done! That thing's powers are beyond you own! Even my trap merely scared it away!" Reimu winds down then says "I don't think even I can stop it that easily." Ail lowers his head then says "I did notice that when the shadow of MY danmaku hit it's own shadow, it made it let go of Sanae, so I though that... if I aimed at it's shadow, I could destroy it..." Reimu sighs and says "I don't blame you for getting angry, but risking your life for revenge? I though you were smarter than that!" Ail knocks his head with his right fist softly and smiling, he says "I can be hard-headed sometimes" then Reimu replies quite calmly "no joke." She then gets up and says loudly "listen you; ALL of you! Until we know what we are dealing with, none of us is to hunt that thing, or go out alone, got it!?" Reimu sits down looking quite mad and grumbles "whatever it is, it's not using spell cards, and it's aiming for no less than killing. That pisses me off." Kyo, Mima and Marisa look at each other quite worried, however Ail and Reimu look at each other, looking rather seriously at each other, then Reimu nods, then Ail heads outside and sits by the shrine's porch.

Four days later, the snow was covering most of the shrine, the sun was barely shining, the days were colder and colder, although this didn't seem to bother Ail at all. Somehow, Reimu convinced Mima of getting off the shrine clothing, but Mima didn't care much. She was just having fun. Marisa would try to stay in her house, but she got bored too easily and constantly visited the shrine, even knowing of the dangers of traveling alone, although, there has been no report on any more attacks so far. "Come on Reimu. I need to keep training. I almost have that barrier mastered." shouted Ail outside, at the back of the shrine. From inside Reimu shouted back saying "yeah, you're doing great... keep it up." Ail sighs loudly then starts to summon his barrier and keeping it active for as long as he could. Reimu sat on the porch to watch him train, and almost fell asleep, but she noticed Ail stopped training. Ail started looking at his left, turning all his attention to the darkened skies, then starts to fly in that direction, Reimu shouting "what is it?" then Ail comes back down, holding Ran, who was holding a frightened Chen that kept calling for Ran. Inside the shrine, a big bag with a note that said "please take care of my shikigami" attached to it, and full of clothes, appeared from one of Yukari's gaps. "Please, save Ran-sama!" shouted Chen. Ran was unconscious, her face was turning blue. Reimu rushed to see, then Mima comes from the shrine's roof as well. "What happened to her, Chen?" asks Reimu, but Chen was too distraught, calling for Ran. Ail, without saying a single word, flies away toward the Bamboo Forest. Reimu tried to stop him, but he was going too fast. "Mima, help me get her inside." said Reimu. Reimu grabs Ran's shoulders while Mima grabs her legs, then they place her in a futon. Ran starts to cough a little then Reimu asks her "Ran? Can you hear me? What happened to you?" Sobbing, Chen says "she *hic* was being squeezed by this *sob* large snake shadow." Reimu's eye fill with fear, then the touches around Ran's torso and says "I-I think there's something broken in here!" Chen started to cry, but from the doorway, Eirin's voice said "then let's fix her up right away", Ail by her side. After an hour or so, Ail was pacing outside the shrine, when Kyo arrives from town with Suika. "Hey Ail, what's the matter, bud?" asked Kyo as soon as he see's Ail's worried face. Ail says "It's Ran. She was badly injured. Eirin's inside treating her right now. Suika, in a serious tone of voice asks "was it that thing again?" Ail nods, then Suika rapidly takes a big gulp from her gourd, then says "dammit! It's breaking the law. It has to be stopped, now, before it kills!" She punches hard on the floor, then sits down hard. Kyo tried to cheer her up, but he couldn't find the words for it.

After pacing for some time, the doors to the shrine open up and Ail rushes to see. "How is she!?" Eirin lifts her hand and says "she's resting now. It was tricky. The only way I could treat her, was if there was a shadow of her on the wall." Ail ponders for a second then says "so... that thing is damaging their shadows... is that it?" Eirin frowns and says "this is dangerous. Somehow it's breaking the laws of restrain, danmaku and spell cards. This is very dangerous." Suika punches the ground again, Kyo still trying to cheer her up. Inside, Chen was still crying and rubbing her face against Ran's, and Reimu heads out, grabs Ail's shoulder and says "we're taking Eirin home now. Come." Eirin smiles then all three lift off, then head to the bamboo forest. Just as they say goodbye to Eirin, Reimu says to Ail "come. We have to find SikiEiki. This is getting way out of hand." They arrive close to a river, then Reimu says "careful not to fall in. This is the Sanzu River. You fall in, then a fate worst than death will befall on you." Ail, a bit shaken, nods. They find Komachi, hiding behind a rock, sleeping. Ail stares at her massive nose bubble and says "wow... there must not be much to do here, huh?" Reimu grins then shouts "Oh my, what a LAZY shinigami, just sleeping there all day!" Komachi springs up then grabs Reimu by her shoulders, shakes her then yells at her "what do you think you are doing!?" then from behind them, Shiki uses her sword to bang Komachi on the head, then says "you know, Komachi, this behavior cannot continue. What if I were to fire you and get someone else to do your job? Why, maybe a fairy could do your job better than you do, or maybe I could add an automated motor to the boat, let IT carry the spirits. This behavior of yours is..." She continued on, scolding Komachi. Ail gets close to Reimu and whispers "what have you done to her... poor girl." Reimu whispers back "don't worry about that." Reimu gets close to Shiki then says "Siki, what's going on with the yamas? Are they going to do something about that thing?" Siki looks at Ail and Reimu then stutters a little then clears her throat and says "Reimu... I'm sorry, but all I have is bad news for you. The other yamas and I had decided to come and seal this soul, and take it back with us, however we got word from a higher source that this soul is to stay here. It is needed here for a powerful reason, so I am sorry to say, but..." Ail steps up and says "how can that be the decision? That's not even fair. That thing is out there, and it's hurting loved ones. It's just a matter of time before it kills someone. Come on, ignore those stupid orders and-" Siki points her sword at Ail and says "you will keep your mouth shut, or I'll make sure you repent! Those orders are imperative. We yamas cannot disobey them." Ail sighs and drops his hand. Siki lowers her sword and says "seems you have been training hard. Look, don't worry. With souls like Reimu's and your own, that shadow will be dealt with. Trust me when I say, it won't kill a single soul." Siki turns around and lets out a smile, which she covers with her sword and says "go back home now. Don't worry, just keep training, take care of each other, and it'll all become clear soon." Ail sighs then sits down on the ground. Reimu pats him on the shoulder, then signals him to head back. Just as they leave, Komachi looks at them both looking worried, then turns around and notices the countless spirits waiting to be ferried across. Siki says to her "you better quicken your pace. I'll be waiting for EACH and ever one of these souls to reach me before nightfall." Komachi whines and starts calling one spirit at a time.

The next day, Ran was up, feeling like a new shikigami. "Ahhh~ I feel like a new shikigami." said Ran, then Reimu, sounding a bit annoyed, yawns and says "hey, didn't they say that just now in the narration?" Ran flaps her hand in the air saying "hey, that's a dangerous comment." "Ran-sama, you're all better" shouted Chen as she jumps on Ran, giving her a hug. Ran pats her head saying "yes, Chen, I am much better now." Mima and the others had woken up and were looking at Ran, waiting for explanations. Ran sits down, Chen falling quickly asleep on her lap, then tells her tale. "This... snake's shadow... it came from nowhere, and so quickly too. I wrapped itself around my shadow, and I couldn't breathe. I though I was going to be split in half, the way it was squeezing me, but Lady Yukari came to rescue me just in time. She shot her danmaku at the direction of the sun, hitting the shadow with the shadow of her own danmaku and freeing me." Reimu and Ail both say "so THAT'S how we hurt it, then." then Ran continues "that's not all. It spoke to me in my mind. It told me it wanted to get out of the barrier. That it knew killing a shrine maiden, or one powerful youkai would be enough to get out. Reimu, it's looking for you." Looking quite serious, she says "well, it can look for me all it wants, when we meet I'll be ready, and I'll make it answer for all it's done." Ran lowers her head then says "there's also, err..." Ran takes the three letters out of her pockets and hands them to Reimu, then backs away with Chen on her lap. Reimu looked furious and asked "where did you get these?" Ran, hesitantly answers "umm... Lady-Yukari had them." "H-HEY, that one's for me!" shouted Kyo, then Reimu quickly gives him the letter. Kyo opens the letter and reads it, then says "argh... they used my full name... I TOLD them to call me Kyo!" Reimu and Ail looked curiously at Kyo then he says "alright, fine, it says: 'Dear Kaizo Yumeda These two girls came here one day and told us you were alive in some place called Gensokyo and told us they could deliver this letter. We hope you are alright. Ail's parents are dead worried for him, so I hope you are taking good care of him as well. We love you and hope you come home soon. Love Mom and Dad.'" Ail looked a little embarrassed, then Reimu says "you have one too" then hands him the letter which he immediately opens and reads out loud. "Let's see, it says 'son, we hope you are well and we miss you bunches. These girls say you are doing just fine, but we can't help but worry. Hope we get a response from you soon. Take care of yourself and Kyo too. Together you can overcome any obstacle and come back home to us. Loves Mom.'" Ail laughs a little and says "heh, if she saw me now, eh?" Ail looks behind the letter and sees, written in gold, a small message saying "Just do it! No regrets!." Ail didn't mention that to anyone, but wondered what the message meant.

Reimu opens her letter and decides to read it out loud. "Look, it's from those girls, Renko and Maribel. It says 'Dear miss Hakurei Reimu, we hope that everything is well. We contacted the families of those boys. At first, the Yumeda family didn't believe us, but by some miracle, they suddenly did believe us and had us deliver a message. Then there was the Inmodo family. The father and sister almost call the police on us, but their mother, she's an angel. She believed us from the start. She didn't want to worry Ail, so she said she wouldn't send any messages for the moment. But miss Reimu, what about that new portal? For us to go in? Your friends, Maribel and Renko.'" Reimu looks at Ran then says "since when did Yukari had these?" Ran shakes her head softly saying "I'm not sure. She just asked me to deliver them to you." Reimu thinks for a moment, then pulls a piece of paper, ink and a feather from under her right sleeve then writes them about the current dangers in Gensokyo, and that once this matter was settled, she would do her best to get them into Gensokyo. This time, after signing, she asks Kyo and Ail to sign as well, then says "and with this, they'll have proof that you are well." Ail and Kyo both smile and Kyo gives Reimu the thumbs up.

Ran gets up, gently leaving Chen next to the kotatsu and approaches Ail and says "and you, Ail, I was instructed to train you to and teach you how to manipulate barriers. Just like my master." Ail looks at Ran suspiciously at first, then opens his eyes wide and smiles. Ran smiles back then says "alright then, shall we begin?" Ail gets a bit worried, but before he asks, Ran tells him "don't worry, I heal fast. My injuries are completely gone, now come on, let's start your training." For three straight hours they trained. Ran was very tough on Ail, shooting her best shots at him from the second they started. Ail was out of breath by the time they were done. "Alright, that's it for today" said Ran, just as Ail falls on his back to the ground, breathing heavily. Ran looks at him and says "you are pretty amazing, being able to last this long. But don't think it's gonna be this easy everyday. Tomorrow we start getting serious." Ail takes a very deep breath and says "I can't-I can't wait, heheh..." Ran grins then says "well, you better rest up... and get out of the snow, or you'll catch a cold!" Ran helps Ail get up then they all have a good lunch, and rest up. For five weeks they kept training, Ran intensifying the training each day, and they even got Reimu to join in once or twice, however... she would beat them both, then drink some tea afterward. Ail had already mastered summoning powerful barriers at will, and was slowly, but steadily learning how to open gaps, cutting through distance barriers. "Ail, you have to be careful with this particular power." said Ran as they both meditated inside the shrine. "when opening a gap between two locations, you have to make sure you don't open them in dangerous places, like say, a lava pit, or under the water. The results could be disastrous, so I want you to keep opening them in close locations, like the village, or the lake. Once you have mastered these close locations, then you can start opening gaps on farther locations... on to different domains even." Ail asks "like different dimensions and such?" Ran then says "just concentrate on close locations for now."

The next day, Ran tells Ail "for today, your training will be... to rest." Ail looked at her funny then she continued "everyone needs a break once in a while. However, don't think of this as just rest, alright?" Ail didn't get it, but he nods,then Ran gets under the kotatsu and starts helping Chen with her math. There had been no reports of any more attacks, so everything was slowly going back to normal, although both Ail and Reimu could feel it's presence, the shadow, getting stronger each day. That day, Ail decided to go and visit the lake. After landing at the Scarlet Mansion's island, Ail starts passing his hand on the frozen shore, then Meiling comes by. She was going to try and scare him, however, without even turning, Ail says "oh, Meiling. Day off?" Meiling had a vacant expression then asks "how did you...?" Ail says "I could feel your presence." Meiling then smiles and says "Ooh~! Yeah, Sakuya said I could take a little break for today. Can I join you?" Ail smiles then says "sure". They talked and talked for about thirty minutes, talking about their trainings and their masters and friends, then Ail tells Meiling something rather peculiar from the outside world "...and there was this game called Youhou, where you played as either a crazy blond shrine maiden, who was the main character, or her genius scholar friend that would fly using a small rocket, and they would battle all these crazy characters, all with amazing abilities. They lived in a place called Ginpokyo, where all sorts of beings lived together in harmony." Meiling looks on with anticipation, then Ail says "and all that came from the mind of a genius programmer. Funny he worked independently on those games too. Normally when something got too good, bigger companies would try to take it somehow." Meiling, still looking impressed said "the outside world sounds so complicated. I think I like Gensokyo, just as it is." Ail looks toward the frozen lake then says "you know..., so do I. You could say... I love Gensokyo just as it is." Just then they heard Cirno calling them "He~y! I'm going to freeze you!" then two icicles just miss them as they land, then they both fly to get closer to Cirno who was next to another woman. She had lavender eyes and curly pink hair. She wore a blue and white dress with a golden brooch that resembled the alchemic symbol for silver, a white cap and a cape that was almost invisible.

Ail gets a little closer, since the woman looked friendly, but Meiling held him back whispering "be careful." Ail stays where he is and says "Hey Cirno, who is your friend?" Cirno boastful, says "this is my very best friend in the whole world, Letty Whiterock." Ail bows a little and says "a pleasure to meet you, I am Ail." but Letty would only stay there and smile. She wouldn't respond. Meiling then hears Sakuya calling her then says "Ail, Sakuya's calling me... why don't you come with me? Flan would love to see you." Without turning his sights off from Letty, Ail slowly backs away and says "sure, umm... miss Whiterock, a pleasure..." but just as Ail turns around, Letty tries to sucker-blast him with an ice danmaku shot. Ail reflects it back then says "oy, miss, that's not very nice" "young man, I cannot let you leave this place. Even if you are Cirno's friend" said Letty. Cirno tries to complain, but Letty gently pushes her back, whispering something at her, then Cirno pouts and sits on a tree branch. "Meiling, you better go to Sakuya, before you get in trouble." Meiling nods and says "are you going to be ok?" Ail winks and smiles at her saying "I'll be at the mansion in no time." Meiling hesitantly leaves, and now it was just Ail and Letty, flying above the frozen Lake. "Young man, I hope you are prepared to accept your destiny." said Letty, as she extends her arms, ready to shoot danmaku at Ail. Ail simply looks at her calmly then says "nah, I'm not ready yet. I still want to see spring in Gensokyo!" Letty smiles and says "that cocky attitude. I better do something about that, human." Suddenly, green crystal and medium sized blue ball danmaku flew EVERYWHERE all around her. It looked like a snowstorm of danmaku, however Ail dodges and grazes the shots as if they were nothing, then he shoots a few focused shots at her, knocking her back a bit. "Oof, young human, you really are pushing it. I'm going to have to get serious." Letty pulls out a spell card and shouts "Cold Sign, Lingering Cold, Lunatic!" Letty starts shooting aqua colored danmaku in straight lines, the first danmaku ball was larger than the ones behind. The smaller ones spread out, looking like large birds, then around her, Letty started shooting mid sized blue balls, paired in trios, spreading at random. Ail had some trouble dodging, but managed to beat her spell card without a scratch. Letty backs away once more, then smiles and says "young man, you sure are annoying. Let's see how you handle this? Mystic Sign, Table Turning!" Suddenly, ghostly lasers fly around Letty, unleashing a barrage of blue petal-shaped danmaku all scattered, flying everywhere at random. Ail was overwhelmed. He immediately pulls out his own spell card and shouts "Brightness, Blinding Heart!" White rings spread quickly from Ail's heart, cutting through Letty's own danmaku, reaching her almost immediately, sending her flying back and down to the frozen lake. The ice breaks upon impact, then Letty goes down fast.

Quickly, Ail rushes down and grabs Letty's hands, pulls her out of the icy water, and back to the island, where Cirno was waiting for them. "Young... young man" said Letty, "even though I am your enemy, you save me from the ice waters?" Ail says "it's not my style to leave others in distress, particularly if they are Cirno's friends." Letty smiles and says "well, the icy waters won't kill me, but I could still drown. Thank you. Cirno picked a great friend for sure." Ail smiles back, then Letty says "I'm sorry I did that, I just needed to get to know you better, that's all." Ail gives her the thumbs up, then pats Cirno on the head and says "I better go and visit the mansion. Take care you two" At the Scarlet Devil Mansion, Ail is greeted by Koakuma, who takes him to Patchouli's library. In there he saw Sakuya, Remilia and Patchouli, looking over some plans. "Ail" says Remilia "so glad you came. We need you to tell us what's the deal with that shadow thing." Just then, Flandre comes from behind and jumps at Ail shouting "big brother!" then hugs him tightly as she lands on him so hard, his bones crack. His eyes spinning, he pats Flandre on the head saying "how are you little Flan" then faints. After a miraculous full recovery, he explains to them how the shadow attacks and how it can be repelled with danmaku shadows. He also explains to them how that thing aims to kill, and can attack without the need of spell cards. "...and so, I suggest you station more fairies with Meiling... just in case." Remilia nods, then Flandre adds "don't worry, big brother. I'll be with big sister Meiling the whole time! She will be safe always!" Ail pats her on the head and says "also remember to keep the others inside safe as well, ok?" Flandre smiles and nods, then runs back outside. Ail opens a gap to the village and says "take care, and if anything happens, let us know." They all nod and just before he leaves Patchouli tells him "Next time, let's have a little duel again." Ail nods and enters the gap to the village.

At the village, everybody was in their houses, just a few kids playing in the snow, Keine looking after them from her school. Ail waves at her, then she waves back at him, and just then, he hears a loud, bloody scream. "Mystia!?" says Ail, as he runs outside the village to the path to the shrine, finding Mystia half-way there, Keine following closely behind him. Mystia was twitching on the floor, her eyes empty. Ail shouts, hoping to get a reaction from her, but it was as if she couldn't even hear him. He lifts her up, then Keine shouts "WAIT, her wing!" When Ail softly places her back on the ground, turning her sideways, he sees her wing had been impaled, broken at the joint. "Keine" says Ail "go to the shrine and tell Reimu to meet me at Eirin's Clinic." He opens a gap. Keine hesitates, then Ail forces a smile and says "it goes straight to the shrine's entrance." Keine then enters and immediately appears at the back of the shrine, right next to the entrance, looking a bit surprised, and then calls Reimu. Ail opens another gap saying "well Mystia, this one goes pretty far... to the Hourai clinic... I hope." and so he enters, holding Mystia as gently as he could, and immediately pops in front of the Hourai clinic. Kaguya spots him going through the gap then shouts "YOU! What do YOU-!" "Shut it, princess! Where's Eirin!?" shouted Ail, looking almost angry. Eirin comes out of the clinic then sighs saying "get her in here, quick." Inside, Eirin looks at the wound and says "it's another shadow wound... I'm gonna need light to treat this" then Ail, without wasting a second, grabs a spell card and shouts "Brightness, Blinding Heart" and around his heart a bright light shines, giving Eirin a perfect view of Mystia's shadow, however no rings came out. Reimu comes in then sees Ail, concentrating on keeping the rings inside, and shining the light. Eirin eyes Reimu, who reaches for the bandages and hands them to Eirin, then holds two small wooden planks on Mystisa's wing as Eirin wraps the bandages around, then injects the wing, then says "it's alright Ail, you can stop now." Ail expels his breath as the light vanishes, then he gasps for more air. Reimu calmly asks "what happened?" After catching his breath Ail says "I don't know. After I got to town, Keine and I heard her scream, then found her unconscious on the snow." Reimu and Ail get closer to Mystia, who, with a blank stare, looks at Ail and mouths the words "thank you", then closes her eyes. Reimu then says "this was a shadow wound, I see... but she wasn't squeezed, was she?" Ail says "it's probably taking other shapes now." then Eirin adds "and dealing considerable damage. Why is it doing this?" Reimu shakes her head and says "I don't know." After Ail pays, Reimu says "it'll be safer if we walk, or we might hurt her again." but Ail responds "no worries. I can open a gap to the shrine now." and then a blue colored gap with many eyes inside opens up, then Reimu peeks inside and says "wow... you're really getting good. Right in front of the entrance, too." They wave at Eirin who shouts "take care, alright?", then they enter the gap, appearing at the shrine's entrance, where Ran already had a futon ready for Mystia near the kotatsu. Ail gently places her in the futon and under the kotatsu.

Sitting on the porch, Ail is lost in thought. Ran, Chen and Reimu join him. "What's the matter? You should be happy. You saved Mystia, and expanded the reach of your gaps. You even learned to control the power of your spell card." said Ran, then Reimu adds "look, even if you had been there, there was probably nothing you could have done. Maybe it would be YOU with the hole, eh?" Ail looks at them and smiles, then Chen says "are you thinking something else, mister Ail?" Ail looks up at the clouded sky and spotting a snowflake, and following with his sight as it fell, he says "I wonder... what would have happened if instead of me and Kyo, those two girls had entered the gap that day?" Ran and Reimu look at each other, then Ail continues "what would have happened, if Remilia never attacked me, if Flandre had never experienced her own power...? What would have happen to Mystia, and Sanae, if I weren't here?" Reimu pats him on his right shoulder and says "who knows. It's better not to ask these questions. The answer could be quite dangerous, you know that, right?" Ail smiles and laughs, then Ran places her hand on Ail's left shoulder and says "besides, you were there, and you saved them both. That's what is important." Chen then jumps on Ail's lap and says "Yukari once told me that even without that portal, that you would still come here, because there is no such thing as coin... coinci-dence. That there is a reason why you two came here instead." Reimu, Ran and Ail open their eyes widely, then Ran says "that's my Chen. A really bright and wonderful girl." Chen smiles at Ran, who has a nosebleed, then grabs Chen and hugs her tightly. Just then, Mima and Kyo and Suika come from the lake, Kyo saying "so you stop thinking those stupid things, and just live in the moment, alright?" Ail smiles, then says "you're right... you all right. I'll just be thankful I was here to make a difference!" They all laugh, then Ran realizes she doesn't have Chen anymore. Mima had grabbed Chen and started hugging her, calling her an adorable little cat girl. Ran gets shocked and and then gets up, chasing after Mima, who wouldn't let go of Chen, and shouting "give me back my Chen! Let her go. Chen! Che~~~n, I'll save you!" Chen only giggled, making Mima stop to give her a hug again, then starts running again. Kyo and Suika look at them casually then Kyo says "one month at it.." then Suika says "...and still going."

To be continued...
Characters and scenario belong to ZUN -Team Shanghai Alice-
Ail and Kyo were created by Willie G.R.
The "Earth Sign - Forestall Heartbeat" and "Brightness - Blinding Heart" spell cards were made by Willie G.R. (any similarities are strictly coincidental, since I'm an average Touhou player yet, and haven't seen all the spell cards there are) Assistance with creating these spell cards: Snapshot2010

JUL 2 2009
written by
Willie G.R.

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