Another Misplaced Sukima P-5

At Makai, Ail had a life or death match against Yumeko and won, but of course, he didn't kill her, however he was still so mad about the others calling him a pervert, he preferred to go and sleep elsewhere, instead of going back inside the palace. Yukari had taken Sakuya to the outside world to help her look for Kyo, and found him quite quickly, however she also met Luna, a companion of Kyo's apparently, who also seems to know Sakuya quite well. At Gensokyo, Yorihime was having an unpleasant time ever since meeting with Eirin, Kaguya and Reisen; Reimu is having cleaning issues thanks to an unwelcome celestial, causing havoc all around the shrine, and Nitori and Renko were building the power amplifying machine, however nobody else seemed to care, leaving them alone on the job.

Morning in Gensokyo. Sanae wakes up early along with Suwako. "Morning, Sanae. Wait, isn't it a bit early for you to be waking up?" Sanae replies "good morning, lady Suwako. Oh, don't mind me, I just have some things to do today." Suwako stares at Sanae, following her with her eyes, then she worriedly asks "are you sure everything is ok? You look a little pale." Sanae smiles as she picks the broom and heads outside, immediately starting to sweep the floor. Suwako continues to look at her with worry, but then Sanae turns around with a most angelic smile and says "I'm fine, really. Oh, I'll be making breakfast soon. Do you want anything in particular?" Suwako smiles back looking like a content child and says "whatever you make is just fine with me" and just watches Sanae with a smile on her face. At the scarlet Devil Mansion, Remilia walks into Patchouli's library. "Patchy~!? Are you there?" calls Remilia, receiving an immediate reply a bit farther ahead from where she was. "My lady? What's the matter?" Remilia walks farther in and finds Patchouli leaning over a small pile of books, just rummaging around them. She gets closer and asks "Patchy, has Sakuya returned yet?" Patchouli stands up straight and says "sorry my lady, there has been no word from her." Remilia bites her index finger nail and says "I'm starting to get worried. It's not like her to leave for so long without notice." Patchouli looks at Remilia through the corner of her purple eyes and says "Don't worry, Remi. I'm sure she's fine. Reimu probably tangled her in some incident or something." Remilia looks back at Patchouli and says "you're probably right. I'll be heading to the shrine then." Patchouli bows and says "then have a safe trip, my lady."

In the outside world, Luna, Kyo and Sakuya are walking from Kyo's apartment to the park where Kyo and Ail first entered Gensokyo from. "All these preparations just for a visit to Gensokyo?" asks Sakuya. While carrying three large traveling cases, Kyo absent-minded says "notified the folks, returned the keys, emptied the apartment, got clothes, shoes..." Sakuya sighs, Luna simply keeps herself quiet, walking by Kyo's right, as if trying to stay away from Sakuya. "This little side-trip must be an inconvenience to my lady. Yukari promised she'd find me, but I don't see her anywhere." Kyo then snaps back to reality and says "ah, that's right. She told me to go to the park where we went into Gensokyo the first time. She'd be waiting for us there." Sakuya widens her eyes, grabs Kyo by his shirt and asks "when did you see her!?" Kyo manages to hold on the the cases and replies "calm down. She came to me last night and told me what was going on with more detail, and I asked her to give me some time to get ready." Sakuya looks back at Kyo quite angrily asking "why so many preparations? You'll only be in there for a few days, then come back out after we've rescued Ail and Maribel." She lets go of Kyo as soon as she notices Luna glaring at her, then Kyo says "last time it took almost 10 months before I could return. Had to wear the same clothes almost every day, I'm not risking it this time. And this time, my folks know where I am as well, so they won't worry." They continue walking after Kyo explains, then Sakuya says "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to snap like that, but I've been away from the mansion for too long. The mistress is gonna be angry at me." Luna looks at Kyo as he says "then instead of just walking, why don't we run!?" and so they started running to the park, finding Yukari sitting on a bench, smiling at them and opening a gap directly to the Hakurei shrine saying "sorry to have kept you waiting, miss Sakuya. Your mistress eagerly awaits your return in the shrine, and mister Kyo, miss Luna, welcome to Gensokyo."

A little earlier at the Hakurei Shrine, Remilia arrives wearing a white dress and hat, instead of her usual light-red colored ones and carrying a pink parasol. "Reimu~! Reimu, where are you!?" Looking a bit sleepy, Reimu comes out of the shrine with a broom at hand and saying "so noisy this early! What is it!?" Remilia backs away a little and asks "Reimu, where's Sakuya? She came here last night to join your search team, right?" Reimu looks at Remilia almost uninterested and says "yeah, so?" Remilia gets a little closer and says "well where is she? She hasn't come back home. What did you do to her!?" Reimu ponders for a bit then smiles and casually says "ah, that's right. Yukari took her." Remilia looks at Reimu a bit shocked and shouts "and you just LET her take my Sakuya like that!? You gotta help me find her. What if that gap hag did something to Sakuya!?" Reimu completely ignores Remilia and starts sweeping leaves near the shrine's gate. Remilia opens her mouth in shock and quietly says "she doesn't even care!" and then walks toward her, but notices a shadow going straight at Reimu. It was Sanae, who immediately swishes her gohei, generating strong winds that blow all the leaves away to the back of the shrine, and of course, blows Reimu back, however she flips in mid air and lands perfectly, pulling out some charms and her own gohei then shouts "what's the big idea!? Are you looking for a fight!?" Remilia continues to look at the scene and thinks "and she reacts just like that!?" Sanae lands gently in front of Reimu and helps her up saying "you haven't told me how are the preparations to infiltrating proceeding. I want to know what's going on!" Reimu gets up and looks at Remilia and then Sanae saying "such a pain. If I knew this morning was going to be this loud, I'd have stayed in bed." "REIMU!!!" shout Sanae and Remilia at the same time. Reimu backs away and says "Remilia, Sakuya is probably fine! Yukari may be a loon, but she wouldn't cause harm to others for no reason. Just give it some time and Sakuya will be back to the mansion. Sanae, just relax already. Ail and Maribel are quite alright, I'm sure. He is much more dependable and able to take care of himself and Maribel." Sanae shakes her head and shouts "that's NOT the point! I know he can take care of himself and Maribel as well, but that doesn't mean I'm just going to sit around and do nothing, just waiting for them to come home! I want to HELP THEM!" Just then, Nitori and Renko both come to the front of the shrine. Both were looking mighty angry at Reimu. Nitori gets really close and says "Reimu, I need more help! The machine is going to take TOO long to build by just me and Renko!" then Renko adds "it would be nice to have some extra hands! I'm sure Mary is quite anxious to come back home!" At Pandemonium, Mai was rolling a string ball around, making Maribel chase is all around, making her twitch her cat ears, and blushing every time she did and saying "so damned cute!"

Reimu was slowly backing away to the donation box as Remilia, Sanae, Nitori and Renko kept getting closer at her, glaring at her. When she was cornered she shouts "ARGH! FINE!" "So you'll help me get my Sakuya back?" says Remilia at the same time Nitori was saying "so you'll help me with the machine?" at the same time Renko says "so you'll help get us get Mary back?" All three girls look at each other in shock and start arguing about which case was more important. Reimu was about to escape to her left, but Sanae cut her off, smiles widely and says "my, that donation box is as empty as it was before Ail came to Gensokyo, wouldn't you agree? A shame, really. To lose the only person that ever donated even a yen to your shrine." Suddenly Reimu realized the donation box had been empty for three straight days already. The realization hit her hard as she remembers about how was it that Ail came by every morning to donate some money and pray. Sanae smiles as though she had just beat Reimu at some event. Reimu shouts "what are you all DOING just standing here!? Come on, we HAVE to get those two out of there, NOW!" Nitori and Renko look at her and smile saying "you mean it!?" then Remilia angrily says "but what about SAKUYA~!!?". Just then, Yukari's gap opens behind them and in come Yukari, Sakuya, Kyo and Luna. Remilia gasps and smiles like a child in a candy store and lunges at Sakuya yelling with excitement "SAKUYA~~! You're ok!" Remilia was about to start crying, and when Sakuya looks at her like that, she gets a nosebleed, hugs her mistress back and says "well of course I'm ok. I would never inconvenience my lady like that." then she pulls her mistress away and says "I apologize, however, for my sudden departure like that." Remilia smiles and says "so what happened?" Yukari then says "I asked her to help me find Kyo, so he could help get Ail and Maribel back."

Inside the shrine, Reimu, Yorihime, Sanae, Renko, Nitori, Sakuya and Remilia were sitting beside each other, forming an arch around Kyo and Luna. Immediately after the tea was served Kyo presents Luna. "Luna, these are my friends I told you about a while ago. Reimu, Sanae, Sakuya, and Remilia. Err..." Reimu smiles and says "that's right, you never had the chance to meet Nitori, our techno-kappa, Renko, one of the girls that pushed you in here last time, and friend of Maribel, and Yorihime, who came to visit from the moon. Yorihime shouts "I was FORCED to come here!" but Reimu waves her hand and smiles nervously saying "hey, hey! Calm down, heheh." Kyo slightly bows his head, however Luna looked at them all as though she was looking at garbage. Kyo whispers at her "come on, Luna. Just say hello at least..." Luna raises her sight to Sakuya's and then looks around at the other girls and says a rough "hello." Kyo sweats a little as the other girls look at her rather displeased. Kyo immediately changes the subject saying "so what did Ail get himself into THIS time!?" Reimu looks at him and says "he landed himself and Renko's friend, Maribel, into Makai, the land of demons. In fact, we're just getting ready to head to Nitori's machine and work on it. All this just to get them back as SOON as we can. We are THAT worried, aren't we?" All but Yorihime stare daggers at Reimu who simply sighs and says "well then, let's get your lazy butts back to work, come on!" Sanae shouts "whatever... let's just get this thing ready and get Ail back!" Reimu teasingly says "oh? Just Ail huh? What about Maribel" Sanae stutters a bit saying "o-o-of course! Maribel too. Who do you think I am, you!?" Reimu knocks Sanae on the head and smiles saying "now, don't go saying things like that. Now let's go!" Sakuya and Remilia leave to the mansion, Yorihime goes to the hot springs, looking a bit depressed, and just before the others leave, Kyo asks Reimu "hey, where's Mima and Suika? I was really hoping to see them again." Reimu looks at Kyo and smiles saying "don't worry, they're probably just hanging around somewhere. Come on, I'll brief you on our plan along the way." At the gate to the shrine, tied to a rope, hanging from the top of the gate were Mima, Suika and Tenshi, whom looked like she was enjoying herself saying "wee~~! Let's swing a bit more, c'mon!" Mima was shouting "Reimu, I'm sorry~! I won't let it happen again... just get me OUT of here *sob*." Suika sighs and says "give it up. She won't let us go until she's completely satisfied. Besides, with that charm on the rope, it's as if we're not even here, remember?" Mima sighs with a tear on her left eye. On the top of the rope was a blue charm that suddenly set itself on fire, then burned the rope down, making the three of them drop hard on the ground.

Back at Makai, Ail was dodging energy balls heading his way. Some were in arcs, others in straight lines, and sometimes it was a large barrage of small and medium energy balls. "Sara, cut it OUT already!" shouted Ail. Sara stops for a moment and says "not until you give up! I WON'T let you leave Maribel here!" Ail's cloak was stained with blood all over, he still had all the cuts and bruises from his previous battle with Yumeko, but luckily the blood had dried up, sealing his wounds, even the one under his eye. "I'm telling you, I'm not leaving her in here! I just need to try and open gaps, see if I can find the right one! that's all" shouts Ail. Sara spins around, releasing countless energy balls of many size and shapes. Ail had a lot of trouble dodging them, but manages to do so. "Even so, I'm NOT giving you the chance to leave her here. She's your friend! Even if she DID side with the others!" She waves her arms in front of her chest releasing arcs of blue colored energy balls, then started moving around as she did. Ail dodges as best as he can then shouts back "I told you, I'm not mad about that anymore!" Sara stops for a moment and looks into Ail's eyes then says "I don't believe you. You still look quite mad to me." Ail grabs hold of his hair with both hands and pulls hard grunting "because I've been dodging your damned energy balls since DUSK!" Sara shoots another barrage and casually says "I'm not letting you!" Ail dodges again as Sara says "why aren't you shooting back!? This is a battle. You had one with Yumeko, so you should know the rules of battle. Attack!" Ail looks at Sara feeling annoyed, then prepares a concentrated focus blast, but just before releasing it, a laser beam hits him on the back, electrocuting him and sending him down hard. Luize flies just above and says "to think he acted like such a gentleman, now he's attacking Sara." She scratches the side of her head and says "and here I though I had met the first good human in ages. What a pity." Sara flies to Luize looking furious and shouts "HEY! We were having a battle! How dare you interfere!? And he was just about to start attacking too." Luize looks at Sara feeling a bit surprised and says "oh, so he wasn't attacking you at all?" Sara lets her arms hang as she slumps and looks at Luize disappointed saying "No! He was just dodging all this time. Great, and I had just gotten him to attack back. Thanks a lot Luize." Luize watches as Sara slowly descends next to Ail, who was on the ground, his eyes were spinning and he kept moaning and mumbling incoherently. Luize just sighs and descends as well.

At Pandemonium, Mai had made Maribel crash against some ornaments and statues, breaking them in the process. Maribel would apologize and try to clean up, but Mai kept tossing the ball of yarn, making Maribel follow it instinctively all around. "If I keep doing this, I'm going to nosebleed myself to death, but it's just so cute!" thinks Mai, as she tosses the ball of yarn once more, making Maribel chase around it. She kept saying "anya~, come back little ball" and chase after it, then saying "mew~... this is so much fun... why didn't I try doing this before?" Shinki comes out of Yumeko's room and watches the event for some time, her cheeks turning pink at the sight, until Maribel, once more bumps into another statue, making it fall and break. "Mai, you should stop that already and clean up." said Shinki as she gets close to Mai, then whacks her on the head. Mai rubs her head and says "oww! Can't Yumeko just restore them like she usually does?" Shinki's eyes get watery and gazes blankly at the mess of broken figures, then she lightly pats Mai's shoulders. Mai gasps and covers her mouth as she says "no! You don't mean...?" Shinki lets her tears flow as she says "she should be fine, but she doesn't want to wake up. It's like, she wants to die." Maribel suddenly gets up from the floor and drops the ball of yarn and says "mister Ail is coming this way. He couldn't open the gap, but for some reason he's feeling better, and he can help miss Yumeko." Shinki and Mai both stare at Maribel as she continues to speak. "Don't worry about miss Yumeko. She says she'll wait to hear what he has to say. Oh, she also asks that lady Shinki forgives her." Mai goes to Maribel and as though not believing what she just heard, she asks "why are you saying all that? A-are yo making fun of us?" Shinki waste no time and heads to Yumeko's room, and just then, along with Luize, Ail enters the palace and heads directly to Yumeko's room without turning his sight from the door, walking past Mai and Maribel. Luize smiles at them and winks saying "he'll be done in a second, and then he wants to have a word with you two." Mai and Maribel look at each other looking worried, then Luize adds "don't worry, it's not that bad" then Maribel looks at Luize and twitches her ears, making Mai bleed through her nose again and earning a hug from Luize and Mai, who say at the same time "that was just adorable!!!"

Back at Gensokyo at the mountains behind the Hakurei Shrine, Reimu explains to Kyo their plan to get Ail and Maribel back from Makai. "...and so, once we finish this machine, Iku will power it up, Yukari will open the gate, we go in, get Ail and Maribel, then come back. Simple, right?" said Reimu with a smile as they all headed to Nitori's machine. Kyo looks back at Reimu with disbelief and annoyance, but before he could ask, Luna asks instead in a cold and angry tone of voice "then why the hell did you bother US to come here in the first place!? You seem to have a good plan already. It's not like us being here will change ANYTHING at all!" Kyo sighs and Reimu turns around to face Luna, making her stop in place. Reimu smiles that murderous smile only she can accomplish so perfectly and says "hehehe~, I wasn't the one who went looking for you, miss." Reimu turns to Kyo and says "but I'm sure at least you understand, when Yukari does things like these, there's always a reason behind it, right?" Kyo nods and looks at Luna sternly and says "yes, I know. So if we're here, there's a reason for it. So just calm down." Luna grunts and crosses her arms, then turns her head away from Kyo. Reimu rushes to the front with Sanae, Renko and Nitori and says "be careful with that one. There's something off about her." The other girls nod and continue walking.

Back at the shrine, Mima was inspecting the luggage Kyo had brought. She opens one of the cases and immediately spots Luna's dark-green bikini. "What the hell is this?" asks Mima, as she grabs the bikini top and inspects it thoroughly. Suika grabs the bottom and says "I think this is some sort of outfit from the outside world... but why would she need to wear this. Looks as it only covers the more important parts." Tenshi lets out half a smile saying "you two know nothing. THIS is a special suit made for combat!" Suika looks at Tenshi with a childish face and says "really? But if it's for combat, how come it covers so little?" Tenshi waves her finger and says "tsk, tsk, tsk. Don't you see? With an outfit like that, Kyo's agility and movement increases, so nothing can even touch him, and it's great for long battles, since it reduces sweat to a minimum. It's genius!" Mima imagines Kyo wearing the dark-green bikini and flexing his muscles while fighting heavy-armored villains, then flexing some more after he'd won. Mima's nose starts to bleed, her face gets all flushed, then she faints with her eyes wide open and mumbling "what a hunk." then Suika scratches her head for a moment with her eyes narrowly opened and says "I think this is just underwear. Come on, let's see what ELSE is in here!"

At the Human Village, Marisa, Yuki and Alice enter Keine's school. "Please excuse me children, it seems we have guests" says Keine with a smile as she heads to the school's waiting room. "Look, I'm busy, what do you--?" Keine stops in mid-sentence and looks at Yuki, then Marisa and then Alice, who was looking dreadfully strained. Keine backs away a little and says "she spawned a clone!? Wait, you look much older. Is Marisa your younger sister or something?" Marisa gets up and opens her mouth, but Yuki gets up after her, covers her mouth and smiles at Keine as she says "why YES, I'm her older sister, come to visit from far away and see how's my little sister is behaving! Is she a good girl?" Marisa struggles to break free form Yuki's grasp, but she's unable too. Alice turns around and covers her mouth, trying her best to contain her laughter. Keine looked very surprised and said "my, I didn't know the Kirisames had another child before Marisa. Pleasure to meet you miss... err." Yuki smiles and says "it's Yuki." Keine bows her head and says "pleasure to meet you, Yuki Kirisame" Yuki smiles again and says "please, call me Yuki. Now, has my little sis' been a good little girl?" Keine looks at Yuki and smiles saying "sorry to say this, but Marisa has never been in one of my classes, you see." Yuki pats Marisa on the forehead and says "why, Marisa I am SHOCKED! You told me in your letters you were such a good girl, and you respected your teacher above all." Alice couldn't contain herself and let out a loud laugh that alerted Keine who says "umm... Alice, what's so funny?" Just then, Yuki lets go of Marisa, who immediately starts beating on Yuki with her broom and shouting "how dare you! Keine, she's NOT my sister, she's Yuki from Makai!" Keine raises her finger and points at Marisa and says "younger sisters should RESPECT their elder sisters. Now drop that broom and apologize!" Marisa pats her chest with her left hand and says "I don't HAVE an older sister!" Alice was laughing so hard, she got the attention of all the students inside the classroom. Yuki notices the crowd and shouts with a smile so wide, her lips almost reached her cheeks as she shouts "hey kids, this witch here has MAGICAL CANDY~!!! Come and get some!" The children inside start to riot and shout and yell and escape the classroom chasing after Marisa. She was able to get out of the school, but of course, the children went after her, taking her broom away long before she could fly away. Yuki ran along with them shouting "quickly, she's getting away. Get the magic candy~!!!" Alice was laughing so much, she didn't notice the enraged Keine right behind her. By the time she realized it, it was too late and she found herself tied up and facing a corner next to the chalk-board.

At the mountains behind the shrine, Nitori shrieks and panics when they arrived to the location of the machine and find there was no machine there. Nitori yells "MY MACHINE~! Where is it!? Where IS IT!?" Renko and Sanae panic as well and shout at the same time "WHAT!? It's GONE!?" Reimu calmly looks on then Kyo crosses his arms and Luna, looking pissed off stands beside him. Reimu says "hey, you three better calm down!" Nitori rushes to Reimu about to cry and says "but they stole my machine~! Miss Reimu, please get it back!" Renko then shouts "but it's too BIG for someone to just take it like that!" then Sanae adds "and who would go around stealing unfinished machines? There must be some sort of mistake, little one. Maybe it was somewhere else." Nitori angrily rushes to Sanae and grabs her shirt and says "don't question my genius! There are so many out there jealous of my talents. They probably stole it to claim THEY built it. *Sob* I should have put my name on it before!" Reimu looks at the ground suspiciously, then looks around and calmly heads to Kyo and signals him to get closer. She whispers something to him, then he calmly walks to the left and stands next to a tree. A few feet away, on another tree were the three mischievous fairies, Luna Child, Sunny Milk and Star Sapphire. Sunny shushes the others and whispers "hey, Luna! Don't stop using your powers. If they find us out now, we won't be able to freak out that kappa like we planed." Luna looked at Sunny feeling offended and whispers "I'm doing MY part of the job. You better be doing yours right!" Sunny places her hand on her chest, tucking her stomach and posing mightily and says "I happen to do my job better than anyone else." Star gasps and says "Sunny, she's getting to close. If she touches the machine, the prank is over. Do something!" Sunny thinks hurriedly then snaps her fingers and exclaims "ah-ha~!".

Nitori was getting close to where her machine was and was about to start crying, when all of a sudden, a large green snake appears out of nowhere, startling Nitori, making her jump back and screaming. "WAH!! A snake!? Sanae, did Kanako take my machine!?" Sanae shakes her gohei at the snake to keep it back. She turns for a moment at Nitori and shouts "why would Kanako want that!?" Nitori gets face-to-face with Sanae and says "because that old hag is JEALOUS of me, that's why!" Sanae turns her attention to Nitori and shouts "HEY! Lady Kanako is a goddess, not a thief!" Sanae and Nitori start a staring contest, sending sparks flying just with their eye contact. Reimu stomps on the ground and shouts "SHUT IT!" Both look at Reimu then point at each other, saying "but she started it!" at the same time. Reimu places her index finger on her lips and again signals the girls to be quiet. She looks at Kyo and nods. Kyo punches the tree he was under, however nothing happened. Luna jumps on another tree, unsheathes one of her blades and cuts the branch, revealing the three mischievous fairies. As soon as the three fairies fell, Nitori's machine materializes out of thin air, and the snake vanishes from sight. Luna was about to strike the fairies with her sword, but Kyo shouts "NO" and lunges to her, stopping Luna from killing the three fairies, who were so frightened they curled up into balls and were shaking with fear on the ground. Reimu holds her chest and sighs then says "You three... you'll receive your punishment later. Right now we have very important things to do, so leave while you still can." All three uncurl and look at Reimu, and without wasting a second, all three fly away as fast as they could. Reimu walks to Luna, who had just sheathed her sword and says to her "Luna, we have rules here. We do not kill needlessly, you understand?" Luna grunts and spits at Reimu's direction, missing Reimu, as expected. Kyo opens his eyes widely, nervously bows and says "Reimu, I'm sorry. Please, let me talk to her!" Reimu grits her teeth, but quickly calms down and says "fine. Make sure to tell her the rules of this place" then turns around and heads to Nitori's machine.

Kyo was furious, however Luna looked as though she had been wrongly accused and was quite angry. Kyo points at her and says "Luna, you have to calm down. This place isn't like the world outside. They won't send you to jail for a few months if you break the rules here. They will banish you from this place IF you are lucky!" Luna scoffs and says "it's not MY fault this place is full of wimps and wussies." Kyo grabs her by her shoulders and looks at her into her eyes saying "listen, you agreed you'd come in with me when the time came. We are here, there are rules here, and I will ask you to follow them. Please don't make me have to take sides. Just listen to the rules and follow them as best you can. They're quite simple." Luna tries to look away, but for some reason she could not keep her eyes away from Kyo for long. She grits her teeth and lightly growls and says "fine... what are the rules!?" Kyo smiles when he heard her say that, and somehow that made her smile as well, but as soon as she realized she was smiling as well, she turns her face away, blushing a bit and biting her bottom lip.

Reimu walks toward Nitori, who was hugging her machine, and Sanae, who was shouting "apologize to lady Kanako!" She notices Renko was sitting on a tree stump away from the commotion, so she approaches her. "Renko, is something wrong?" Renko lifts her sight. She was holding back tears. Reimu sighs and says "let it out." Renko asks "why don't you want to save them? Why is everyone against saving Mary, and that Ail too. Did they do something wrong?" Reimu pats her shoulder and says "I'm sorry. I know I haven't been too helpful with this, but you need to understand we all have confidence in our friends, and that's why, from my part, at least, it looks as if I don't care." Renko gets a bit confused, but Reimu continues talking before Renko could say anything. "You should have more confidence in them. I am very certain they are safe, not just because my intuition tells me so, but because I also have confidence that they can take good care of themselves. Don't you think your friend, whom you have known for so long, can take care of herself? Also, she is with Ail. I am sure that by now that dummy has befriended everyone in Makai, and in turn, I am sure Maribel has done so too." Renko lowers her sight again, but Reimu follows her, crouching in front of her and asks "do you have confidence in your friend or not!?" Very lightly, Renko says "yes..." Reimu gets up and says "I couldn't hear you~!" Renko gets up and shouts "YES! I have confidence in them! I'm just worried. What is wrong with that!?" Sanae places her hand on her chest and thinks "confidence... Yes... I should have more confidence in him. So that's what Lady Suwako meant after all." Reimu raises her voice and says "alright then, let's get started with this. Nitori, tell me what you need! Kyo, you and Luna go back to the shrine, get Suika to come here, and Mima too, if you see her. Sanae, you, Renko and me will help out Nitori as best as we can." All but Luna salute Reimu and say "RIGHT!" then everyone mobilizes.

Back at Makai, in Yumeko's room at Pandemonium, Ail grabs Yumeko's limp and cold hand and looks at her face. She wasn't responding at all. Ail, in a stern voice shouts "Yumeko! Wake up!" Yumeko reacts, however it looked as though she was dieing. Ail, still sounding very stern says "how could you LET yourself fall like this!? What, just because I beat you!? I am SO disappointed. OPEN YOUR EYES. LOOK AROUND YOU! Everyone is WORRIED ABOUT YOU!" Shinki pushes Ail away and says "how can you be so rough on her like that!? She still recovering!" Yumeko slightly opens her eyes and grabs Shinki's hand. Shinki gasps, but as soon as she realizes it was Yumeko, she kneels down and says "Yumeko, my child, please you have to get up now. Let me take care of you, like when you were little, remember? Please, don't leave me. Let me cure you." Yumeko reacts again and opens her eyes a little wider and asks "my lady... you... for...give me?" Shinki rubs Yumeko's hand on her own face and says "there's nothing to forgive, my child!" Yumeko cries and smiles then says "my... lady. You are m-most... kind." and then she collapses again. Ail pats Shinki on the shoulder, and immediately Shinki nods and both Yumeko and Shinki begin to glow white. For a minute, they both shine, and it looked as though it wasn't going to stop, but the light slowly fades away after a while. Both Shinki and Yumeko were now smiling. Shinki places Yumeko's hand on her chest and gets up, heading toward the door, Ail following close behind. On the corridor were Luize, Mai and Maribel, all waiting to hear what happened. Shinki smiles at them and says "she's going to be alright." Ail adds "she'll need some rest, though. Now... Maribel... I need to speak with you, and you too, Mai, if you want to listen to me, that is." Both Maribel and Mai nod and look at each other, looking a bit ashamed, Maribel lowering her ears as low as she could.

At the dinning table in the palace, all the girls quietly await for Ail to say whatever he has to say. Ail looks around and sees Mai's and Maribel's worried faces. He takes a deep breath and says "Mai... Maribel. I must say, you really hurt me. You turned on me so quickly. Mai, I can understand, but you, Maribel?" Maribel opens her mouth, ready to reply, but Ail raises his hand and says "but I would also like to apologize as well. To you too, lady Shinki. I acted rash, caused a lot of harm as well, said some things I shouldn't have. In short, I want you to forgive me for the trouble I caused." Luize adds "I already told you I forgive you ONLY if you forgive me for trying to eat y-- err... I mean... for calling you a pervert... heheheh" Ail sweats and crosses his arms, waiting for Mai's and Maribel's answer. Mai sighs and says "fine, if we're all forgiving each other, then I'm game too. I really am sorry, mister Ail, but you have to realize from my point of view-" "...it looked like a direct attack, I know. I still don't understand how that even happened." Mai giggles and says "then I guess it's alright then." Ail realizes Maribel is looking at him, holding her hands together as though she was praying, and looking directly at him, almost about to cry. Ail looks away and says "it's alright Maribel, I forgive you." Maribel jumps over the table and lands right on top of Ail, knocking him and his chair down to the ground and rubs her cheek on his and crying "waaah~!!! I'm so sorry mister Ail, I'll never doubt you like that again~!" Ail gets nervous and stutters a bit, but then he realizes nobody is looking at them awkwardly so he calms down, pats Maribel on the head and gently says "it's ok, it's ok... calm down." Shinki smiles and says "well mister Ail, it's been a long one, hasn't it?" Ail is finally able to get up with Maribel still crying on his shoulder and nods at Shinki saying "yeah... I could really use some rest." and then he smiles, causing Shinki, Mai and Luize to smile as well.

Noon at the human village, inside Keine's school, Alice, Marisa and Yuki had been tied up and placed on three different corners. Marisa's hat was in tatters along with most of her clothes thanks to the rampaging children looking for the candy she didn't have, and Yuki was full of bruises and bumps from Marisa's broom. "Honestly! you three gave me so much trouble!" said Keine, staring angrily at the three cornered girls. "So you say Yuki is from Makai and Ail and Maribel are just fine, right?" All three answer "yes" at the same time, but Keine shouts as loud as she could "QUIET!!! This is time-out, so NO TALKING!" All three sigh at the same time then Keine says "we better tell this to Reimu and the others. They'll be so happy to hear the news. Oh, and don't worry miss Yuki, once we open the gate, you can come along and go back home." When Keine looks at Yuki, she was quietly sobbing in the corner. Keine gets close to her and pats her on the shoulder, but it was like Yuki was in some other place. She kept sobbing and saying "Yumeko, don't go..." Keine sighs and says "fine, you can get up now." She unties the three girls, however Yuki kept sobbing and now crying on the corner and repeating Yumeko's name. She slowly gets up and turns around. Her eyes were red and puffy, and were full of tears. She smiles at them and says "miss Keine, you remind me so much of Yumeko." and then she starts laughing as she wipes her tears saying "it's gonna be alright after all." Alice looks at Keine quite confused, then Keine looks back looking equally confused. Marisa, however, was grumbling to herself, looking at her hat and heading outside the school with an angry expression on her face.

Kyo and Luna arrive at the shrine at noon and find all their suit cases open. "A burglar?" asks Kyo, but Luna, who looked very angry, pokes Kyo's arm and points at Mima, Suika and Tenshi, who were screaming every time they pushed the pump on Kyo's spray deodorant. Luna looks around and notices her things lying around and in a very dangerous tone asks "who... was playing... with my bikini!!?" The atmosphere around her turns heavy and dark and before Kyo could assist in any way, Luna was violently swinging her swords at the three girls, chasing them outside the shrine, and all around the lake at the back. Kyo pats his head and sounding exhausted he says to himself "oy~, this one's gonna go on for long. Just then, Yorihime comes form the spring. Her hands were wrinkled and she looked as though she had just woken up. She looks at the mess of clothes and items scattered all around and says "I'm not cleaning this."

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

AUG 4 2009
written by
Willie G.R.