Tuesday, November 24, 2009

One Random Sukima 15

Early morning in Gensokyo. Reimu sits on some rocks, next to the river at the Youkai Forest. She curls herself up and hugs her knees and reflects on the recent events. She thinks "we all cried so much... over the death of a shadow we had just met. Why did that hurt so much?" Reimu looks to the water and continues thinking while staring at the coursing river. "Ail would just let the tears fall without saying a single word... Thankfully he has Budou, Sanae... the goddesses. Rika cried so much, I couldn't help but cry along with her. Thanks to Aya and Momiji... we managed to calm down, though." While she continues to think, she looks to the skies. Meanwhile, Aya and Momiji search the rocky area where they battled S-Momiji for Momiji's shield and sword. As if being called to them, Momiji finds them quickly, shouting "I found them, miss Aya!" At the same time, Reimu continues thinking "my shadow and Ail's shadow loved each other very much, and now HE is after Sanae and Ail's life for revenge. Suwako's shadow turned out to be quite friendly... The only really evil shadow so far has been Momiji's." Back at the Youkai Forest, Reimu now lies on her back on the same rock and looks at the sky, staring at the yellow star left in the sky by S-Suwako after she died. Reimu thinks "that star... Even in broad daylight, I can see it shine. That reminds me... don't these shadows just turn to black dust after dying?" Reimu sits up and says to herself "ugh! You foolish shadow! Why did you have to go? Why does it hurt this much!?" She drops to her back again, spreading her arms and staring back at the star, then says "Maybe... maybe we've been dealing with these shadows too rashly. Perhaps there's another way of doing this." From her distant left, Satori says "if you figured out that much, then that girl's death was not in vain, don't you think?" Reimu sits up, looks at Satori and Orin with surprise, and says "Satori, Orin! What are you doing here?" Satori sits on Orin's shoulders as she says "Marisa asked us to inform you about that flower youkai's shadow." She looks at Orin and says "you can put me down now." Orin pouts and says "I don't wanna!" Satori strikes her head, then lands safely on the ground as Orin ducks and rubs the bump on her head. After that, she walks to Reimu and sits next to her on the rock and says "that girl, or shadow, as you call her, was no different than the goddess she was copying." Reimu asks "so she was an exact copy?" Satori chuckles and says "not like that. What I mean was, that she had a heart of her own." Reimu thinks for a moment, then remembers Ail telling them about what S-Suwako had told him when they were outside the shrine. Reimu asks "and S-Yuka only hid the real Yuka in a pot, and she took care of Okuu, right?" Satori nods, then says "these shadows of us are both similar and different to us. Some accept a little guidance, and the possibility of co-existing could become a reality." Reimu looks to the yellow star once more as Satori says "a different approach could be beneficial, but shadows like the one you and the tengu took on are beyond understanding. Those must be dealt with immediately." Reimu looks at Satori, then nods.

Some minutes pass by and Reimu and Satori continue to sit quietly on the rock, Orin curling herself around Satori's lap in her cat form. The ground underneath them rumbles, ending their quiet moment with a loud and thunderous roar not too far away from where they are. Orin turns to her youkai form almost immediately, clings on to Satori while trembling, her tails frizzed and puffed, and asking "wh-wha-what was that!?" Reimu gets to her feet and says "we've got another shadow close by! Come on!" Reimu takes to the skies, followed immediately by Satori, then Orin, who continues to tremble as she keeps close to Satori. Mid-way through, Reimu stops and says to Satori "there's some sort of energy disturbance up ahead. I think you better stay away from here." Satori says "remember, Reimu. They are not all as bad as we thought." Flying backwards, Reimu enters the energy disturbance, disappearing from sight as she does and looking back to Satori while nodding as she completely vanishes from the youkai's sight. Satori looks at Orin, then calmly says "come on, Orin. It's time we continued our search." Still trembling, Orin salutes her master and says "p-p-please, let's just g-g-get out of here!" Satori smirks, then flies toward the Human Village, quickly followed by Orin.

Inside the disturbance, the sky looks violet, the ground feels soft and unstable, and everything seems to be off-balance. Reimu looks around, then spots a small mountain with sharp rocks moving around. She lands on the rocks surrounding moving mountain for closer inspection, then realizes she is looking at a snake-like dragon, which keeps scratching it's left eye, and roaring and thrashing around in pain after doing so. Reimu exclaims "whoa~! A dragon!" The dragon stops moving as Reimu says to herself "I can't believe it. This is Meiling's shadow self, but she's so powerful, it's unbelievable." S-Meiling spots Reimu, and gets her face close in a quick and threatening manner as Reimu stands confidently in plain view. The dragon roars at her, showing it's long forked tongue, the many sharp teeth, then stares at her with her good eye. Reimu takes a deep breath, and in a soothing and friendly tone of voice, she says "it's alright, I'm not going to attack you." The dragon growls softly, then Reimu says "I promise I won't attack you." With her thunderous voice, in a demanding tone, the dragon says "prove it, human! Help me get this cursed dagger out of my eye!" The dragon shows Reimu the dagger surrounded in red flames on her left eye. Reimu stares at it for a moment, then thinks "this is a very painful death-curse. She's only hours away from dying. No doubt about it, this is Remilia's work." Reimu lightly shakes her head, feeling true compassion for the shadow, and says "tsk, tsk, you were trying to kill the gate guard I see." The dragon snorts as Reimu grabs a charm from her sleeve and gently places it on the dagger's hilt, canceling the curse and turning the red flames off. She grasps it tightly and says "this may hurt. Are you ready!?" S-Meiling replies "please pull it off already!" Reimu uses all her strength and pulls out the dagger from the dragon's left eye, making the dragon roar and writhe around in pain, so Reimu flies away as fast as she can to avoid being crushed by the dragon's body. The energy disturbance stops, everything returns to normal, and Reimu realizes she is not far at all from where she and Satori were. She looks around, but can't find the dragon, then lands while shrugging and saying "*sigh* I hope I didn't make a mistake." From behind her, S-Meiling says "human!" Reimu turns around and spots S-Meiling in human form, kneeling on the ground, bowing her head and saying "I am forever in your gratitude. If there is anything you wish from me, I will do all I can to make it so." Reimu sweats as she forces a confused smile and says "err, that's ok. Just behave and don't give me a reason to have to seal you! Umm, please, there's no reason for you to-" S-Meiling lifts her head and says "that curse was claiming my life. I felt that compassion in you the moment you noticed it." S-Meiling continues to stare at Reimu, and tilts her head slightly to the right, then Reimu smiles back, sighs and says "I see. You felt that. Look, just... stop trying to kill the gate guard, and don't attack the Human Village either." S-Meiling bows her body and says "I... will do as you ask, miss Human." Reimu gets closer, grabs her chin, lifting her head so they could see eye-to-eye, and says with a smile "my name is Reimu Hakurei." She gently places another charm on S-Meiling's left eye and says "this is the best I can do for that damaged eye of yours. You should have improved night vision,though." The charm glows white and the shadow feels great relief. When S-Meiling opens her eyes, she notices Reimu standing in front of her, the maiden's aura shining ever so brightly, surrounded with compassion and understanding. Reimu smiles at her and asks "what's your name?" S-Meiling blushes and says "I... don't have one." Reimu thinks for a moment, snaps her fingers, then says "mind if I give you one?" Still blushing and looking away seemingly angry, S-Meiling nods. Reimu says "you seem to be honorable, and quite powerful so how about if I call you, Kimi? Kimi Hong... since you ARE Meiling Hong's shadow." S-Meiling bows her head and says "again, you show me great compassion. From now on, my name shall remain Kimi Hong." Reimu stares back, feeling a little uneasy, watching as the shadow bows to her just for being kind.

At Makai, from the west, Shinki and Alice fly through a rain of fire, avoiding flame daggers and spears by inches. Shanghai and Hourai are stuffed in Alice's shirt, and Alice is doing her best to avoid being hit around her belly, where both dolls are stuck. Shanghai shouts "miss Alice, please, let us help! We can do it!" Hourai adds "miss Alice, we are strong too!" Alice replies "this fire is too intense. Just wait until I give you the signal!" Shinki flies closer to Alice as soon as the rain of fire lets up, then chuckles and says "I see someone has children of her own." Alice blushes, but even so, she smiles and looks to Shinki and says "yes... I do understand why you wanted to keep us safe." Shinki smiles, then Alice continues "alright. When we reach that monster, you two can show me your stuff." From inside Alice's shirt, Shanghai shouts "alright!" Hourai adds "We won't let you down!!" Just as S-Yuki's silhouette becomes visible in the distance, another heavy rain of fire daggers, spears and now large fireballs as well comes straight at Shinki and Alice. Shinki shouts "she's using all her power! Get ready!" Alice shouts back "let's go!!" From the east, Mai and Yuki fly side-by-side, swaying and flipping around the air as if they were swimming, in order to avoid being struck hard by the heavy fireball barrage headed their way. From behind them comes Marisa, flying at high speeds on her broom, flipping and twirling as she glares straight at S-Yuki's silhouette. She spots a seeking laser headed straight to her, so she pulls hard on the front tip of her broom, doing an aerial loop and dodging the laser successfully. Yuki shouts "WOO-HOO~!! Nice one!" Mai says "don't go getting cocky!" Marisa stares back at them with a very serious expression on her face, then flips her thumb up and rushes forth, reaching S-Yuki just before she sends the next fire barrage to the west. Just as the flames burst out from around the shadow's body, Marisa stands on her broom and manages to jump as hard as she can, managing to avoid the point-blank fireballs, then she joins her wrists, and with a confident smile on her face, Marisa unleashes 3 green stars that unsuccessfully explode with great force next to S-Yuki's face, then lands back on her broom at the other side of the shadow, and flies away, then turns around after looping in the air again to try to assault the shadow again. While Marisa battles the shadow head-on, from the south, avoiding the last of the small fireball assault, Yumeko, Luize and Sara arrive just in time to catch Marisa, who tires to tackle the shadow out of the air with her broom, but a barrier bounces her off her broom and back to Yumeko and Sara. Luize manages to catch the broom, just as is smacks her on the head, then forces and annoyed smile and as she hands Marisa her broom, she says "here you go. Try to hold on tighter next time." Marisa smiles and says "thanks for the advice, ze."

As Shinki and Alice position themselves on the west side, Yuki and Mai on the east side, Sara and Yumeko on the south side, and Marisa and Luize try a direct, but failed attack of stars and lasers as they position themselves on the north. S-Yuki stares calmly while caressing a red jewel on her jeweled necklace. She smiles and says "so you have me surrounded. How clever. But don't you know?" She grabs the red jewel and raises it above her head and shouts "you are fighting against an all-powerful god!" The jewel releases large rings of scorching hot fire all around her repeatedly. Even after dodging them, everyone gets a little burned. Yumeko blows on her forearms, feeling as though she's literally on fire, as S-Yuki cackles. Shinki closes her eyes and concentrates as Shanghai and Hourai jump from inside Alice's shirt and shaking their little heads, they say "we'll show her!" at the same time. Shinki continues to concentrate, which worries Alice, who asks "mom, what is it?" Shinki opens her eyes and screams out loud, her cry echoing all around. The ground below them splits up without damaging the small trees and rocks, the tear reaches the lake near Pandemonium and fills up the gap with waters that become furious rapids. S-Yuki smiles and says "you forget... I HAVE GODLY GIFTS TOO!!!" Before S-Yuki is able to try anything, Shinki lifts her arms and almost immediately she unleashes a light-blue orb 5 times her own size like it was nothing. S-Yuki smiles confidently and hovers in place, letting the large orb strike her hard. S-Yuki continues to smiles with great confidence, but her smile is quickly replaced by great surprise and fear, as her godly shield shatters to dust and the large orb burns her directly. S-Yuki looks around, hurt and awestruck. She decides to run away, but quickly realizes Shinki has placed a large dome all around them, and the only way out would be through the rapids. She turns to Sara and Yumeko and fires a barrage of giant fireballs, but both Yumeko and Sara lift their spell cards to the air, canceling out S-Yuki's fireballs, then, at the same time, Yumeko shouts "Dream Sign - Believe it's Unreal!" and Sara Shouts "Dance Sign - A Fight With Grace!" Yumeko's spell traps S-Yuki's mind in a dream state, then Yumeko fires 5 extra large green energy orbs that set themselves around her. A rain of tiny white orbs fall down on S-Yuki, however they have huge gaps between them, and the shadow nimbly dodges these with ease. Afterward the large orbs fire short swords in five directions, however all the swords arch around, creating the image flower petals around the orbs, which almost take S-Yuki by surprise. While all this happens, Yumeko leaves a fake body behind while she hides her real body inside one of the extra-large orbs, that orb flickers as it trails toward the shadow. Meanwhile, Sara dances gracefully, lifting her arms and legs, and even shaking her waist. Every move she makes expels white crystal-shaped danmaku that scatter, except when she kicks, which unleashes a heavy barrage of medium-sized white orbs that individually home in on the shadow, and after 10 more seconds, she spins around releasing various bouncing red lasers accompanied by bouncing danmaku knives that trail alongside the lasers, widening the range of damage from the attack. Being in a state of dream, S-Yuki has trouble avoiding the attacks, getting hit directly by almost every bullet and finally by Yumeko's orb. Shinki smiles and shouts "what's the matter? I though you were a god?" After noticing her red dress dirty and her white belt cut off, S-Yuki angrily expels a sudden burst of energy that cancels the two spell cards and pushes Yumeko and Sara down to the ground. S-Yuki glares at Shinki, then says "you worn-out old hag! I'll show you what I can do!"

S-Yuki moves both hands in a circle in front of her chest, generating a small fireball that expels a rain of fire as it forms. Shanghai and Hourai fly in front, and before Alice reaches to grab them, both dolls engulf themselves in blue fire and start absorbing as many of the small fireballs as they can, helping Alice and Shinki dodge the scattered fire with ease. S-Yuki amasses a colossal fireball 5 times her size, then says "absorb THIS you little rodents!" Before she unleashes her attack, from close behind Luize shouts "Traveling for the Sights" Luize raises her index finger above her head and unleashes a rain of blue petal danmaku in straight lines, trapping the shadow between one of the gaps, then unleashes red dagger danmaku that fall like rain in uneven lines. The blue petals occasionally have gaps between them, so S-Yuki uses this to her advantage and sways between the petals, using her fireball to absorb the red daggers. S-Yuki smiles and tries to release the fireball straight at Luize, but doesn't notice Marisa shouting from behind the fireball itself "Love Colored - Master Spaaaaark!" S-Yuki quickly turns around, still holding her fireball and placing it in front of herself as a shield, but the multi-colored beam pierces through the giant fireball, turning it to dust, then strikes S-Yuki hard on her face. Marisa smiles confidently, thinking she has won, but a small fireball comes rushing from behind her and as if homing on to her, it strikes her at the back of her head, sending her straight down. Shinki shouts "Luize, get her!" Luize cancels her own spell, then rushes to save Marisa from the fall. Yuki glares at S-Yuki and shouts "you disgusting blond psycho! You're gonna PAY for that!" S-Yuki cleans the burn marks form her face and says "whoa, the cute pink princess has some claws on her! Why don't you call your prince to battle me instead, before I stain that cute little pink dress of yours?" Yuki's face turns bright red, her eyes catch fire, she clenches her teeth and every time she opens her mouth, fire spews form it as she says "you sick **** ****** ******* **** ***** monster with large fangs and *** ****** *****!!!" Mai quietly exclaims "whoa!" Alice grabs Shanghai and Hourai and places each of their ears against her own ears while covering their other ears and making sure no sounds passes through, looking back at Shinki, who stares back at Yuki with her mouth wide open and her eyes almost popping from her head and her pupils completely gone. Trembling, Shinki turns to Alice and lightly shapes her head as she says "I didn't teach her that." Yuki pulls a spell card, still looking furious, then Shinki shouts "YUKI, NO! You and Mai! You and Mai!" Yuki lowers her spell card while still glaring angrily at the shadow, then nods and flies back to Mai, who asks "do you kiss your mother with that mouth?" Meanwhile, S-Yuki stares awestruck back at Shinki and says "I swear, kids today!" Shinki angrily replies "honestly, they pick up on the most disgusting things!" Alice sweats and with a nervous smile on her face, she says "mom, that's the enemy." Shinki smiles back at Alice and says "sweetie, sometimes small-talk can go a long way."

S-Yuki takes advantage of the distraction and unleashes a rain of fireballs at both sides, making Mai and Yuki dodge, and Shinki put up a barrier to protect herself and Alice. After the assault is over, Alice glares at S-Yuki and says "you are just getting on my LAST nerve! Mom, let's do it!" Alice pulls a spell card from her pocket, while Shinki pulls hers from under her shirt. Alice sweats with a nervous smile, rises her spell card above her head, then declares "War Command - Do-... Dolls'" Shinki stares at Alice, who stares back to Shinki, then asks "Alice, what's the matter?" Alice closes her eyes and immediately falls down to the rapids below. Shinki shouts Alice's name and chases after her, Shanghai and Hourai immediately following after. S-Yuki chuckles as she watches Shinki saving Alice from the raging waters at just the last moment, then turns to Yuki and Mai and with a smirk, she says "seems all your friends are gone. Are you going to fight me now?" Mai smiles wickedly, her wings turn demonic, then says "Oh, you bet your sweet head we will. Yuki!" Yuki smiles a most evil and wicked smile as she says "let's see who's the pink princess after this." Yuki and Mai both pull out a similar spell card, half light-blue and half red on the back, then both shout at the same time "Hot Winter Storm" Both Mai and Yuki unleash a barrage of fire and ice danmaku in all shapes and sizes at the same time, then both elements spin clockwise, twirling faster, creating a storm of fire and ice that come from the right. After the storm activates, Mai fires a thin blue laser at S-Yuki, while Yuki fires a homing fire beam that tracks the the shadow. The attack strikes the shadow hard, even breaking any attempts of her to raise a shield. S-Yuki opens her eye wide with terror evident in them. She watches as both Mai and Yuki concentrate hard while unleashing the next wave of the attack. She thinks "damn, another hit like that and I'm going down. But how can this be? I'm supposed to have the powers of a GOD... Unless." S-Yuki remembers the manner in which S-Shinki died. She looks at the arm she used to gather her old partner's blood, then thinks "but that's impossible. She was a shadow... how?" and looks up at the yellow star left behind by S-Shinki. She snaps out of her thoughts and realizes Mai and Yuki are ready to unleash their spell again, then she says "hey Mai, do you know why your dumplings keep disappearing?" She notices Mai's eyes and lips start to tremble, then with a smile, she says "Yuki sneaks around and takes them all, pigs out, then goes to the kitchen to finish off the rest." On Mai's forehead, a vein start pulsating. S-Yuki notices, smirks, then says "and do you know why that double date suddenly became a single date that you simply HAD to miss?" Mai's face turns red with rage, her entire body twitching, her concentration failing. S-Yuki continues "she added laxatives to your tea when you weren't watching! After that, she told both dates you had sonic diarrhea" Mai can't take it any more, grabs Yuki by the neck, shaking her violently and shouting "dammit, Yuki! You KNEW I was looking forward to that DATE!!!" Choking, Yuki replies "Mai... Mai~, the spell... ack!" Before she realizes it, their spell turns around just before striking S-Yuki, then strikes them instead of the shadow, Yuki screaming "Mai, you idio~t!" With her eyes spinning in places as they are struck hard by their own spell Mai replies "that's my line~!" Both fall on to the rapids and are quickly swept away.

S-Yuki looks around with a smile on her face, feeling relief and saying "well, that was a bit harder than I though. Now how do I get out of this dome?" From high in the air with a wide smile on her face, Shinki shouts "allow me to help you! Eating the Manju Before Your Very Eyes!" Shinki raises her hand and from her fingertip she fires 8 thick blue laser beams that trap S-Yuki in a grid, then fires red lasers and red petal-shaped danmaku in straight lines and arched toward S-Yuki, who manages to avoid being hit, just after the grid vanishes. Shinki spins and fires a barrage of scattered small white orbs along with blue lasers and two extra-large red orbs that after S-Yuki nimbly avoids, they explode and send medium homing red orbs that trail fire behind them, catching S-Yuki off guard and blasting her hard down toward the raging waters. Shinki smiles and claps, saying "yay! I get a prize!" She rummages through her pockets and pulls out a green-colored manju and gleefully says "ooh, green tea manju!" then munches down on it with a smile on her face, while Yumeko holds Alice under a tree, looking up toward Shinki along with Shanghai and Hourai. As she courses through the water, S-Yuki quickly realizes she can't fly away, and the water and rocks are cutting her like sharp blades. Up in front, Sara twirls in the air, and to her right, Luize prepares a laser on her finger-tip. As the shadow passes by them, Sara kicks the back of her head and shouts "enjoy the ride!" Luize blasts her abdomen with the laser, then smirks as the shadow coughs out black blood and her speed increases as she goes down the furious waters. S-Yuki feels as her energy diminishes, but she struggles to hold on, thinking "no... no I can't give up now. I need to escape... build a new world of my own!" Marisa catches up to the shadow, flying on her broom and smiling quite confidently. S-Yuki stares with horror as Marisa raises one hand, gathering blue energy on the palm of her hand, then sticks her tongue out as she unleashes a thick energy beam that strikes S-Yuki on the face and makes her go even faster in the rapids. One of the watery blades cuts off her left arm as she drifts into death, thinking "that girlie... I couldn't absorb all her powers after all. But I want to know, how did she do it?" While she thinks this, Mai unleashes many small icicles around the water that stab the shadow as she goes through, but as if not even feeling anything anymore, S-Yuki continues thinking "she didn't kill her original self, and yet... she managed to get a soul of her own. Maybe they gave her one. Whatever... this is it for me, so who cares." Yuki stands at the end of the rapids with a wooden baseball bat on her hands, ready to swing it with all her might. Mai says "hey, pinky. That's NOT appropriate!" Yuki stares angrily back at Mai, but smiles and says "you're right!" The bat gets engulfed in fire, then she says "now we're talking!" S-Yuki is just feet away from Yuki, who smiles wickedly and shouts "I won't need a prince for THIS, you freak!" A few seconds before being in range, S-Yuki smiles, lifts her remaining arm, then flips her middle finger at Yuki just as she swings the flaming bat and strikes the shadow right between the eyes, sending her high in to the air. While forcefully flying away, S-Yuki's body shatters and turns into black dust, disappearing from sight along the wind. Yuki turns around with a smile on her face and flips her thumb up to Marisa and Mai, who smile back and flip their thumbs back at her.

Early noon at the Hakurei Shrine. Ail sits next to the donation box, while Reimu and Rika sweep away some leaves. Sanae and Budou are inside the shrine, cooking something up with the promise that it would cheer all three up the moment they eat it. Reimu turns to Ail, then looks at Rika and says "come on, cheer up already!" Ail shakes his head, then says "oh.. did I fall asleep again? Er, sorry about that." and Rika simply sighs and continues sweeping leaves. Reimu sighs, then walks to Ail and asks "are you SURE you're ok? You kept too quiet yesterday, and now you simply sigh yawn all the time." Ail looks up at Reimu, then says "if you're worried about me bottling my emotions, relax. I let it all out last night... in fact, I didn't sleep at all because of that." Ail smiles back at Reimu, then looks a the yellow star in the sky and asks "still... why did that shadow's passing hurt so much?" Reimu sighs, pats him on the shoulder, then says "maybe she was special." She shakes her head lightly, then says "I'm heading inside." Rika sniffles and says "I-I'm done with the leaves, my lady! Is there anything else you need?" Reimu signals Rika to get closer, and the moment she does, Reimu wraps her arm around her neck and says "let's go help Sanae and Budou with lunch, alright?" High above, using the clouds to hide, Kanako stares straight at Ail, saying to herself "Anilan, this is for your own good. Both Sanae's and yours." She pulls a small vial of purple liquid form her pocket and positions her hand just beyond the cloud, but she's startled by Suwako's voice that comes from behind her, sounding disappointed and asking "Kanako, you aren't still trying to mess with him, are you?" Kanako turns around and nervously responds "Suwako! Err, um, no, no! Just... cloud-sitting!" Suwako crosses her arms across her chest, taps her foot on the could, then extends her right hand, saying "I've heard that one before. Now give me that vial!" Kanako nervously replies "vial? What vial? I don't have a vial." Suwako reaches for Kanako's left hand, then Kanako and Suwako have a small tug-of-war as Kanako says "no, you stupid toad, I'm doing this to save HIS life as well!" Suwako replies "I already told you, it's not him, it's that SHADOW!" Kanako replies "yes, I heard you. I'm just making sure!" They continue to struggle for a bit, then the vial falls off their hands and straight down to Ail and Reimu, who are looking up to the goddesses. Reimu shouts "hey you two!! What are you doing up there?" Ail notices the vial, and just before it hits the ground he says "oh sh~~" *BOOM!!* The little vial explodes into a thick purple cloud that surrounds both Ail and Reimu, making them cough uncontrollably. While they are still surrounded in that thick cloud, Suwako and Kanako stare down, then Suwako asks "are you happy now? You even got Reimu involved!" Kanako casually shrugs and continues to stare down. From behind them, Ail's mother, Ayalina, stares with a motherly smile on her face, but a deadly aura around her. Suwako is already going down to check on Ail and Reimu, but Kanako stays watching from the cloud, unaware of Ayalina, who clears her throat to get Kanako's attention. Kanako turns around, and the second she stares into Ayalina's eyes, her face turns blue and she starts to tremble.

Suwako comes down to the ground just as the purple smoke clears, revealing two inch-tall creatures with big black eyes, dog ears and a dog tail each, wearing the same clothes and accessories that shrunk with them. Ail and Reimu look at each other. Ail sighs and in a squeaky voice he says "oh great... I'm a dog again." Reimu looks at her hands, yelps, then shouts in a high-pitched squeaky voice "what the HELL!? I'm a DOG!?" Suwako stares at them as her face turns beet red and says "I'm really sorry about that." Kanako crashes on her face on the ground right next to Suwako. Her clothes are tattered and burned, and has a foot marked on her butt. Meanwhile, Ail and Reimu talk, Ail saying "I'm sure it was just an accident, Reimu, so there's no need to get mad." Suwako, who sweats and smile nervously, says "yeah, Reimu I am serious, it sort of fell from our hands." Reimu trembles while standing on all four limbs and growls as Kanako pulls her head from under the ground, rubbing her forehead and asking "what was that just now?" Reimu growls some more, then says "accident my FOOT!" then runs straight at Kanako, barking furiously, making Kanako jumps on her feet from the ground and run around as fast as she can, shouting "wait, wait, it was an accident! Reimu, stop!" Reimu finally manages to bite down hard on Kanako's ankle, making her jump on one foot, shouting "ouch, ouch! Reimu, stop that! Bad girl! BAD GIRL!" Reimu continues to growl and sink her teeth into the goddess's ankle, glaring back angrily at Kanako. From inside the shrine come Budou, Sanae and Rika, all three gasping the second they look at the doggified Reimu and Ail. From above the clouds, Ayalina stares down, then vanishes, leaving a few petals fluttering in the wind, just as Ail looks up, letting out a soft "rowl?" He turns to face Sanae, who is trying with all her might to pull Reimu off Kanako's ankle, and Rika smiling as hearts float just above her head, saying "my lady~! You looks so CUTE!" Suwako stands next to Ail, and Budou goes and joins them as they stare on, Reimu barking like crazy after Sanae pulls her free, making Sanae scream out "no wait, don't bite there!" Suwako says "yup. This is gonna be very nice." Budou grabs Ail and holds him in her hands against her chest as he says "oh, it's gonna get even better, just you wait." Budou nods along with Suwako, then says "well, lunch's ready, so let's go eat." Suwako and Budou, who holds Ail, walk casually inside, as Reimu bites down hard on Sanae's wrist, then lets go and bites Kanako's right calf.

Meanwhile, at the Scarlet Devil Mansion, Remilia, Sakuya, Meiling, Koakuma and Meiling all sit on a long table down at the library, Remilia sitting at the far center of it. She stares down at her servants as she remembers entering the library before, finding Patchouli and Koakuma encased inside blocks of ice and ordering Sakuya to help her thaw them out. Remilia takes a deep breath, then says "this is troublesome, but we could use this to our advantage. Now, Patchy, are you certain this shadow of mine ha all those weaknesses?" Patchouli calmly replies "yes. Unlike you, water and sunlight should completely destroy her, but she also possesses all your powers as well, not to mentions she feeds like a regular vampire." Remilia looks at Sakuya as she says "she she could turn others into vampires as well, right?" Sakuya stares back, looking back to her mistress with elegance as she always has. Remilia takes a deep breath and says "alright then. Patchy, you and me are going to hunt that shadow." Sakuya looks down to the table, then glares at her mistress and says "my lady, no offense lady Patchouli, but wouldn't you rather have me at your side?" Remilia's wings rise up as she punches the table as hard as she can, breaking it with ease, then stares back at Sakuya and in a dangerously angry undertone, she says "remember your place, Sakuya Izayoi. Never question me again!" Sakuya looks to the table again, trying to hide her face as she says "ple-please forgive me, my lady." Remilia calms down, lowering her wings again, then says "now, Patchy, ready as many water spells as you can, then you and I will hunt do-..." Remilia looks shocked and gasps loudly. Worried, Sakuya asks "what is it, my lady!?" Meiling gasps very suddenly, and at the same time as Remilia, they say "Flandre!!!" An explosion from the top floors rattles the library, almost knocking down various of the bookshelves. Remilia and Patchouli look at each other, then nod.

As the meeting down the library begins, Flandre enters through the front door, saying "phew, finally, I'm home. Stupid Agava, had to scare those humans for no reason, making me late again." Flandre feels a strange presence, but ignores the feeling as she climbs up the stairs, shouting "hello~! Onee-sama~! I'm home~!" The mansion is quiet and feels empty, as none of the fairy maids are around. Flandre's footsteps echo all over the empty halls and corridors. After searching all over the mansion, and finally Remilia's empty room, she rubs her chin, then asks herself "I wonder what's going on?" She snaps her fingers and says "that's right. Maybe they went to the red and white's shrine!" Behind Flandre, from the ceiling, dropping quietly behind her, S-Remilia bares her fangs and claws, ready to sink her teeth into Flandre's neck, but to the shadow's surprise, Flandre is already behind her, looking at her with an innocent face and asking "who are you?" S-Remilia hides her fangs and says "why, it's me, dear sister! Come and give you big sister a hug!" Flandre smirks and looks at the shadow with a victory face and says "you should REALLY learn a bit more about onee-sama, you fake." She opens her hand and quickly clenches it, saying "kyun~!" and as soon as she does, S-Remilia's torso explodes, splattering black blood all over the corridor and the walls. Flandre dusts her hands and walks away, saying "onee-sama doesn't break that easily either. You're pathetic." Flandre continues to casually walk back to the mansion's entrance when she meets Remilia and Patchouli on the way. She smiles and waves at them as they land next to her, then asks "one-sama, where were you? I got back home and find everything so quiet!" Remilia hides her desire to smile and says "Flandre. So glad to see you again. Tell me, where have you been?" Flandre giggles and says "just been doing some things." Before Remilia continues, Patchouli says "my lady, the shadow!" Remilia says "right. Flan, there's a shadow pretending to be me around here. Have you seen her?" Flandre stares back casually, then giggles and says "I broke her." Remilia grabs Flandre by her shoulders and asks "show me!" Flandre, Remilia and Patchouli calmly walk back to the corridor leading to Remilia's room, where Flandre had blown the shadow up, but when they reach the place, to Flandre's surprise the walls are clean and free of any of the black blood, and S-Remilia's limbs and head are gone. Flandre points to the wall and says "but this was just covered in that black thing." then points to the floor and says "and her head and all her limbs were right there!" Remilia and Patchouli look at each other, then Remilia looks back to Flandre and places her hand on her little sister's shoulder, but before she speaks, the symbol of a hand-watch glows on the back of her hand. She whispers "Sakuya!" then rushes away toward the library as fast as she can.

Down at the library, knives and danmaku fly all around, all aimed at a quick black blur that keeps jumping from bookshelf to bookshelf. Sakuya stands front and center, while Meiling stands to her right and Koakuma to her left. Tension is high, as it's impossible for either one to figure out the shadow's next move. Sakuya shouts "Meiling, Koakuma! Keep your guard up!" After saying that, all three separate, as they jump away from a falling bookshelf. Sakuya and Koakuma fall close to each other, and as soon as they get up rubbing their heads, Sakuya asks "where's Meiling!?" Meiling stands farther away with her guard up, trying to punch and kick the shadow as it keeps assaulting her, but it's too fast and Sakuya knows it's a matter of time before she attacks, so she grabs her Luna Dial and stops time, then runs toward Meiling, and having seen the shadow's position, she readies herself to attack. To S-Remilia, it looks like Sakuya teleports right in front of her prey, but she only smiles and says "I got you!" Sakuya throws various knives straight at the shadow's face, sure that she would hit it directly, but the shadow had already swerved to the right and kicks Sakuya from the back of her head, sending her straight against a bookshelf, and before anyone can react in time, the shadow is already dropping the enormous bookshelf on Sakuya, pinning her down under the heavy shelf and piles of books, leaving her neck exposed. Meiling and Koakuma run toward Sakuya, Meiling shouting "Sakuya, I'll save you!" but S-Remilia is already next to her and staring into the maid's eyes, placing Sakuya under a trance, then with a smile on her face, she looks at Meiling and Koakuma and says "stay back, or I'll rip her head off." Meiling and Koakuma back away a few steps, then S-Remilia turns to Sakuya, and with an evil smile on her face, bearing her fangs and caressing Sakuya's neck with her claws she whispers "you will now become my first servant." She opens her mouth wide, while Meiling whimpers Sakuya's name as she runs straight toward the Shadow, but she's too far away to get there in time, even with her speed. There is a loud bang and a quick pink blur that strikes S-Remilia before she can bite down on Sakuya, sending her flying to the top of another bookshelf, where she stands still, smiling at Remilia.

Remilia takes the bookshelf and books off Sakuya, and lightly smacks her cheek, whispering "Sakuya! Wake up!" Before Sakuya wakes up from her trance, S-Remilia laughs and says "how pathetic. And you DARE call yourself a vampire? Pathetic child!" Remilia takes a good look at her shadow, who's hat now lies destroyed next to her feet. She has long flowing black hair, large black wings that are red inside, she is taller than the real Remilia, has a well shaped body, and has an ample bosom. The shadow grins and says "impressed? THIS is how a TRUE vampire looks like; not like some ageless doll with dirty hair!" Remilia's face turns red with rage and shouts "I'll SHOW you some MANNERS!!!" Both Remilia and her shadow engage in a high-speed battle, going against each other so fast, only Flandre, who arrives along with Patchouli, is able to keep up. Flandre giggles and shouts "way to go onee-sama! Teach that fake who's boss!!!" Over and over again, the two blurs crash against each other, constantly sending sparks each and very time! Finally, Remilia stops and hovers in the air, then pulls a spell card from under her hat and shouts "Critical - Heart Break" Remilia summons a red aura that shapes into a spear and quickly tosses it toward Sakuya, striking S-Remilia, who yelp in pain and backs away against a wall. Sakuya finally wakes up, then looks at the shadow, who has a small wound on her forehead, then back at Remilia, who glares angrily at the shadow. S-Remilia laughs and says "is that all you got?" The wound on her forehead completely heals in just seconds, then she tucks in her stomach, expanding her chest, then points at her own breasts and says "see this? THIS is how a REAL princess of the night should look like!" A heavy barrage of red aura spears and knives fly straight to the shadow, who nimbly dodges each and every attack. Remilia's face turns bright red as her blood starts boiling with rage. She glares dangerously at the shadow, then summons one extra-large bat-shaped aura the follows S-Remilia as she dodges Sakuya's daggers. The shadow smirks, grabs Remilia's attack, then launches it to the wall behind her, creating a hole large enough for her to escape out onto the darkening noon. Remilia growls and says "I really hate that thing!" She flies down to Sakuya and asks "Sakuya, why did you attack without my permission?" Sakuya blushes and looks away from her mistress, then says "sh-she was mocking my lady!" Remilia smirks as she stares at Sakuya's chest, then says "well then, Patchouli and I will hit her hard enough for the both of us." Sakuya sighs, then says "this pace will be cleaned up by the time you get back" Remilia winks and says "I expect no less." Patchouli and Flandre look at each other, then Patchouli sighs and says "this is gonna be a long night." Flandre smiles and says "cheer up! You'll be done before you know it!" while patting Patchouli hard on her back, making her yelp out "mukyu!" as she falls on her fact to the floor.

Night at the Hakurei Shrine. Mima floats from the stairs toward the shrine, looking dreadfully exhausted. She hears some commotion from inside the shrine, added to the smell of food headed her way. She drools a little and says "I guess I can have a bite before bed." She enters through the doors and sees Rika holding the tiny dog-Reimu on her lap and feeding her with a spoon, Budou holding an equally tiny dog-Ail on her lap, Sanae and Kanako full of bandages, and Suwako sitting like a frog next to the table, holding a bowl of soup on one hand and a pair of chopsticks on the other. A bit of blood courses from Mima's nose, then the evil spirit suddenly shouts "SO~~ CUTE!!!" Rika squeezes Reimu against her chest and hisses at Mima while shouting "MINE! All mine!". Budou hugs Ail tightly as Phredia feeds him some soup with a spoon and says "miss Mima. Please wait until after they eat!" Mima's head pops right off her head, but she manages to catch it as it falls back down. Without saying another word, she sadly floats toward Suwako and sits down next to the goddess. Suwako stares at Mima for some time, then Mima gets annoyed and asks "what!? Never seen a head pop off?" Suwako smiles, chews on her food, then says "plenty... They just don't talk back." Mima's face turns blue as she gasps in surprise, then asks "I'm a freak?" Suwako quietly nods, making Mima's body run off rubbing the empty space above her shoulder while her head stays behind, crying on the floor.

To be continued...

Characters, scenario and spell cards belong to ZUN -Team Shanghai Alice-
Ail, Budou, Phredia, Kimi, and Shinki's, Sara's, Yumeko.s, Luize's and Mai & Yuki's unison spell cards were created by Willie G.R.
Rika was created by Snapshot2010
Major assistance by Snapshot2010 (Kimi's name by Snapshot2010)

NOV 24 2009
written by
Willie G.R.

Friday, November 20, 2009

One Random Sukima 14

While Marisa and Yuki handle S-Yuka in the Garden of the Sun, in Makai, Alice has just reached the Palace of Pandemonium. She feels a cold chill claiming her limbs, as a sense of fear and anxiety take over. She looks on and wonders if she made the right choice by following Shinki. In her mind, she sees Shanghai and Hourai looking straight at her and saying "we didn't break that dome so you could have doubts. We did it so you could help that nice lady! Go on, miss Alice. Stop hesitating; go and help miss Shinki!" Alice opens her eyes with determination in them. She raises her right arm to her waist, closes her eyes and clenches her fist and teeth, then opens her eyes again and runs inside. Meanwhile, down by the lake, Yumeko managed to find Luize, and now both of them are fighting off little black winged monsters that want to rip their flesh for consumption. With a short sword in each hand, Yumeko slices the little creatures with ease, while Luize fires blue orbs and lasers, blasting the little creatures into black dust. They are surrounded, pressing their backs against each other. It seems to them that for each creature they slay, 10 more take their place. Yumeko clenches her teeth and says "we must run away!" Luize replies "agreed!" Before they lift to the air, they hear Sara's voice above them shouting "Ballroom Elegance" Sara Twirls in place, holding her waist and lifting her free arm, as if dancing by herself. Her raise hand releases small white energy orbs that spread as they arc away from her. Her own body expels scattered energy orbs of various sizes, and after releasing enough, she stops dancing, points at the creatures around her friends, and fires three red lasers that bounce off the rocks and trees three times each, disintegrating many of the little black monsters and giving Yumeko and Luize the chance to finish of the last few around them. Sara flies down and asks "what is going on here!?" Yumeko replies "shadows have taken over, claiming to be our lady Shinki and Yuki" A green one-eyed, bat-winged creature with long thin legs flies around Sara's shoulder, then Sara points at it and says "no wonder! That fake Shinki said that me and this creature were married!" Yumeko and Luize look a bit surprised. The creature looks arrogantly at Sara, and in a smooth and deep voice, he says "hey, hey! This is no treat for me either. Thank goodness I am free from you, though!" Sara glares at the creature and shouts "WHAT!? You don't think I'm GOOD enough for you!?" The creature says "don't take it personal, honey. You're just not my type." Sara growls, but just crosses her arms and looks away. The little green creature says "well, it's been fun, but I gotta get back to my REAL wife and kids. Keep it real, sweetheart." then flies away with speed. Sara turns around and shouts "you BETTER RUN! GRRR! I'll get him and BLAST that stupid eye of his!" She looks at Yumeko and Luize, who keep staring back at her, then shouts "nobody calls me sweetheart, and gets AWAY with it!" Both Yumeko and Luize smile nervously, then turn to face each other and a large sweat-drop falls from the back of their heads, both unable to say anything to the enraged gate guardian.

In Pandemonium, Alice finally reaches Shinki by late noon. Shinki stands in the center of a large corridor, staring ahead into an unsettling darkness. Alice starts saying "mom, I finally-" but Shinki interrupts her with a most strict tone of voice "I though I told you all to let me handle this!" At first, Alice looks sad and lowers her head, but then she smiles and asks "what kind of daughter would I be if I just let you handle this by yourself?" Shinki lets out a soft laugh and a smirk, but continues to diligently stare toward the unsettling darkness, unblinking and unmoving. Alice stares along, then smirks and says "I'll take care of it." Without looking away, Alice unleashes a doll that quietly walks on her own toward the darkness ahead. After entering into it, S-Shinki's voice can be heard saying "oh wow, what a cute dolly!" A loud explosion, followed by the clearing of the unsettling darkness and S-Shinki's shriek signals Shinki to move in and attack, but S-Shinki sends a large orb of light-blue energy that makes Shinki stop and hold the orb with her hands. The orb pushes Shinki back, but she grunts and manages to push it away, falling on her knees after doing so. Alice runs to Shinki, shouting "mom! Mom, are you alright!?" Shinki lifts her head to face Alice, smiling as she usually does, and says "yes, I'm fine. I just tripped over there." Shinki points to a crooked spot on a red carpet, then Alice sweats and says "mom, you really need to be more careful." S-Shinki reveals herself on the other side of the corridor and glaring at Alice and Shinki with tears in her eyes, she says "how can you be so MEAN! This poor dolly! Why'd you kill it!?" She sobs as she gently places what's left of Alice's doll on the floor against the wall. Alice stares at her with pity, but is unable to reply. S-Shinki faces them again and says "that smart lady was right. You are MEAN impostors!" Alice stares into the shadow's eyes for a moment, but Shinki gets in front of her and says "Alice, behind me!" S-Shinki unleashes a wave of beams, and Shinki replies with an even larger wave of beams and orbs, dwarfing S-Shinki's attack, and blasting her constantly. After the barrage is over, S-Shinki continues to crouch on the floor, holding her head and trembling, saying "ow, ouch, ouch, no, that hurt. Ow ow~!" Alice and Shinki stare curiously at the shadow, who stops complaining once she realizes the barrage is over. She stands up on her feet and stares back at Alice and Shinki. Her lips start to tremble, her eyes get glassy, then she starts crying like a little child and runs away, shouting "waaah~ The mean impostors hurt me~ *sniffle*! Lady~ Nice lady, where are you~ *sob*!?" Surprised, Shinki and Alice look at each other, then give chase to the shadow. Shinki opens the palm of her hand in front of her, then Alice curiously asks "what was that about, mom?" Shinki smirks and says "you'll see." They hear S-Shinki yelp ahead of them, then they stop after seeing a large barrier placed by Shinki. S-Shinki had bumped hard against it and cornered herself, curling herself into a ball and rubbing her forehead. Shinki's right hand glows light-blue as she gets closer to S-Shinki and says "this was way too easy." Shinki is about to strike her black-haired shadow, when Alice shouts "wait, no! Mom, stop!" Shinki looks at Alice a little agitated and says "Alice, you know these are just shadows. If we let them live, they'll only be a constant threat!" Alice points at the cowering shadow and asks "does she look threatening?" Shinki looks into Alice's eyes and says "alright! But if she tries to hurt you, it's over for her." Alice smiles and nods, then turns to the shadow, bends her knees, and slowly gets closer, offering her hand, saying "it's ok. We won't hurt you anymore." S-Shinki lifts her head and sees Alice smiling back at her, while Shinki stares curiously around. Gently, Alice says "I promise we won't hurt you, but if you try to hurt us, we will defend ourselves." S-Shinki asks "you-you're not going to eat me?" Alice gently asks "of course not. Why would we do that?" Shinki says "Alice, there's something about this place... I think we should hurry." Alice gently says "come on, just give me your hand and I'll prove to you we won't hurt you, or eat you." S-Shinki stares back at Alice and slowly extends her hand to Alice's. Their fingertips touch, and the floor under them breaks apart, making all three fall down into a dark room, Shinki shouting "that's right, this is Yumeko's intruder tra~p!"

Early morning at the Hakurei Shrine. Ail and Ran sit on the ground in the front of the shrine while Chen, Budou and Phredia play hide-and-seek around the trees. Rika comes out of the shrine with her wooden sword in hand, and looks to Ail and Ran, and curiously says "well, good morning. Such devoted worshipers, coming so early to the shrine." Ail and Ran look back at her then Ail smiles and says "we've got really good news for Reimu." Smiling widely, Ran adds "so we're waiting here for her wake up." Rika looks back now even more curious as she asks "good news?" Nearly 2 hours later, Reimu sits by her table, enjoying some tea made by Rika with help from Ail and Ran. Reimu sighs contently and says "ahh, this tea is simply amazing." Rika bows and says "miss Ran and mister Ail helped." Reimu loos to her left and says "ah, the noisy bunch." Ail and Ran sit next to the entrance, both with bumps on their heads, but still smiling, and Budou poking Ail's and Chen poking Ran's bumps. Beside each, one yin-yang orb with steam coming from them, while Phredia stares at them curiously. Reimu takes one last gulp, smiles at Rika and says "it was very delicious. Thank you very much." Rika bows back and with a smile on her face, she excitedly says "it's my pleasure, my lady!!" Reimu faces Ail and Ran, then casually asks "so what's this good news you were going to tell me?" Ran and Ail look at each other, then Ran says "you go ahead." Ail smiles and says "Reimu, Kyo confirmed it. The Random Sukima is no more! It ate Yuyuko and it exploded!" Reimu gasps and says "really!? Finally! That's the best news I've heard so far... but..." Ail sweats, but Ran answers before anyone "yes, it seems we have Yuyuko's shadow running lose around as well. But at least that's the last one." Reimu nods and says "yeah, I guess..." Reimu's eyes glint as she stares toward the trees around the shrine behind Ail and Ran. Budou and Chen stare around curiously, wondering what is Reimu looking at. Ail and Ran look back to Reimu with a very serious expression, then nod. Reimu, with an equally serious expression, nods back, then smiles and says "hey kids, how about we go watch Rika practice her spells!?" Rika blushes and sweats a little, managing to smile as she says "aww, miss Reimu. I didn't know you were interested in my progress." Budou and Chen jump in place, Budou saying "yay, magic! I love seeing magic tricks!" Chen adds "ooh, I hope we see something flashy!" Reimu, Chen and Budou follow Rika to the back of the shrine, while Ail and Ran head to the lake, claiming to want to take a break. Meanwhile, at the front of the shrine, Kyo and Luna arrive, Kyo shouting "hello~! Anybody here~!?" Reimu shouts "over here. Come and enjoy the show!"

Chen and Budou sit on the ground close to Rika, who grabs her spell card and declares "Oath Keeper", then quickly enters the golden gate that floats where her card spins. She comes out with one sword on her belt, then looks at herself curiously, asking "wait, didn't I get the other one? Ugh!" She smiles as she turns to Chen and Budou, winks, and says "please give me a moment. There's another sword around here." Reimu, Kyo and Luna get closer to Rika and Reimu asks "something wrong?" Rika hands Reimu the wind sword and says "please, could you hold on to this while I check something in here?" She hands Reimu the sword, then sticks half her body inside. Kyo whispers "so you want us to flush her out?" Reimu whispers back "in two minutes. Ail and Ran should be in position by then. Oh, please hold this." Reimu hands the wind sword to Kyo as soon as he says "certainly", then turns around to address to Rika, but the second his hand touches the sword, a small wind blade cuts the back of his hand. "What the hell!?" shouts Kyo as he drops the sword on the ground. Reimu turns around and curiously asks "what's the matter?" Kyo says "that thing cut my hand. Look!" Kyo shows Reimu the cut. She stares at it, and then at the sword on the ground, then smirks and says "well, I see what's going on. You're too clumsy for your own good." Kyo's eyes hide under shadow, while the word "pissed" writes itself on fire right behind him as he threateningly says "you're dying for a fight, aren't you!?" Reimu smiles and says "come on, Kyo. How can a sheathed sword cut you like that?" Right then, Rika struggles against the golden gate, then pulls out another sheathed sword that goes flying straight at Kyo, who instinctively reaches to catch it, but as soon as his hands touch the sheath, this hand turns to stone. The sheathed sword bounces back to Reimu, who catches it and casually says "so clumsy!" Kyo shouts "what the hell is your problem. You SAW what that thing did to me!" Reimu turns around to hide her smirk and says "all I saw is a clumsy oaf dropping a sheathed sword!" Kyo growls and shouts "Luna, you saw, ri--" Luna is looking toward the trees and says "oh, sorry, did you say something?" Reimu lightly giggles as Rika looks around, then says "hey, what happened to the wind sword?" Reimu hands the earth sword to Rika and while giggling, she says "just hold on to this one" then turns to Kyo, pulls out a charm and places it on his hand, completely healing him and says "see" It's nothing." Kyo stares back at Reimu with both the desire to blast her with a spell card, and thank her for healing his hand, but he continues to stare back with his mouth open, his eyes cast in shadow, and his hair springing from his head. Rika looks at Budou and Chen, but before she asks anything, Reimu turns to them and winks with a smile. The girls giggle as Rika asks "girls, what's going on around here?" Chen giggles along with Budou and says "nothing. It's nothing."

Rika begins her demonstration with her blade, making the two girls exclaim with awe at her abilities with the blade. Meanwhile, Momiji walks to the entrance of the shrine, limping slowly and asking "where is miss Aya?" Reimu glances casually to her and signals with her hand to keep low. Momiji quickly understand and sits just behind the door's archway inside the shrine, falling back to sleep almost immediately. Reimu whispers to Luna "they're in place. Go!" Kyo and Luna rush into the bushes and trees, like two black blurs,and immediately, something else starts running away toward the lake. Kyo and Luna spot the child-like silhouette, and quickly give chase, making it run straight to the lake. For some time, the only sound is that of rustling bushes and snapping twigs. Kyo and Luna lose sight of the silhouette, but then hear a familiar child-like voice crying and screaming "no, no, please, let me go! Please!" They reach the source of the crying and find Ail holding tightly to Suwako, who keep kicking as hard as she can, crying and shouting "please, no more, please! Let me go! Let me go~!" When they looks closer, they notice this Suwako has grey hair, her clothes look old and dirty, and even her hat looks lifeless, tired, and worn out. When they look into her crying face, they notice she has no pupil in her exhausted eyes. Ran reaches them just as S-Suwako cries one last time "please, let me go! IT hurts! It HU~RTS!" Three loud snaps come from her, and then she falls limp and silent on Ail's hands. Kyo shouts "dude, what's the matter with you!? You use too much strength!" Ail calmly replies "I wasn't even using force." Kyo, Ran and Luna stare with surprise as Ail slowly places S-Suwako on the ground. Her ribs, left arm and leg are broken. Ail raises his face to Ran and says "tell Reimu to get me the stretcher." Ran replies "why? She's not even breathing." Ail looks to the shadow and says "she can't die." Luna says "but you just killed her." Ail replies "I can see traces of her life energy. It's trapped in the body." Ran quickly nods, then rushes away to look for Reimu. Kyo asks "are you ok, Ail?" Ail stares at S-Suwako, feeling great pity for her and says "even her hat is trying to die... but they can't." Kyo asks "can you make more sense?" Ail looks to Kyo with a serious expression and says "take my word for it. She is living hell!" Kyo and Luna look at each other, and shortly after, Reimu and Ran arrive from the skies with the same stretcher they had used for Momiji before. Upon casting her eyes on the shadow, Reimu gasps in horror, then asks "wha-...? What kind of being deserves this kind of punishment?" Ail looks back and says "let's get her back to the shrine... Is that ok?" Reimu quietly nods, then quietly helps Ail and Ran lift the shadow's frail body to the stretcher.

At the Scarlet Devil Mansion, Remilia and Sakuya exit the mansion and Remilia asks "so Flan's been working? What for?" Sakuya says "she won't tell us. She says it's a surprise. She keeps getting jobs all around, along with those two friends of hers." Remilia sniffles and lifts her chest proudly. Sakuya asks "is something wrong, my lady?" Remilia says "ah, it's just that they grow up so fast, don't they?" Sakuya chuckles and says "who could believe she was so mad before, we had to locker her in a room." Remilia smiles as they walk to the gate and says "we Scarlet vampires can adapt to anything! Flan just needed more time." As they pass through the gate, Meiling asks "ah, going out?" Sakuya opens an umbrella to cover Remilia and says "yes. Please, make sure nobody enters while we're away." Meiling salutes and says "no problem. It's been pretty quiet, though. I haven't even seen Marisa at all." Remilia shrugs and says "well, forget her. Just guard the mansion. We'll be back later." Meiling salutes and says "I will keep the mansion safe, my lady!" Sakuya and Remilia lift to the air almost at the same time, then head straight to the Hakurei Shrine. From the back of the mansion, two small black shadows jump the wall, and like quick little flashes, they enter through the hole on the roof, just as a small cloud covers the sun in that moment. Meiling looks around quickly and suspiciously, then says "whoa... for a moment, I though I felt... Nah. I must be imagining things." She looks to the lake and notices Cirno and Daiyousei playing with some frozen frogs. She scratches her head and says "sometimes I think fairies have too much of a good life *sigh*. But they are still pretty weak." From the left side of the lake, there is a furious roar that makes all the fairies in the area scatter away and hide behind trees. Meiling stands her ground and looking serious, she says to herself "heads up... Seems there's some company headed this way."

Inside a dark room in Pandemonium, Alice wakes on on Shinki's lap. The only light in the room is a small light-blue orb above Shinki's head, as S-Shinki continues to play with hers, turning it on and off, and giggling along with Shanghai and Hourai. Alice sits up, looks to Shinki, then, while rubbing her forehead, she asks "mom... ungh! What happened?" Shinki replies in a motherly tone "relax. We are safe here. My shadow turned out to be no threat at all, and it's all thanks to you." Alice asks "to me?" Shinki nods and says "yes. She was really worried since you wouldn't wake up, but Shanghai and Hourai have kept her company all this time." S-Shiki notices Alice has woken up and shouts "miss Alice is awake! Yahay~!" Shanghai and Hourai both fly straight to Alice and bow to her, saying "so glad to see you are well, miss Alice." Alice grabs both dolls and wraps her forearms around their necks, saying in a relieved tone of voice "so glad to see you two again." S-Shinki stares at Alice, looking a bit angry and as though about to cry. Alice smiles to her, pats her head and says "I didn't forget about you. I am glad to see you too... oh my" S-Shinki smiles and lunges herself to Alice, giving her a surprising hug, then says "look, look, I can write my name in the dark. Watch, watch!" She struggles a bit, but manages to write the word "Girliess" in a light-blue light. Alice asks "that's your name?" S-Shinki replies "I 'unno... That nice blond lady calls me that." Alice looks to Shinki, who shrugs while smiling sheepishly. Suddenly, Alice is struck by a realization, then, in a suspicious and scolding tone of voice she asks "mom... How come you don't know where the trap doors are?" Still smiling sheepishly and placing her right arm behind her head, while keeping her left on her thigh, she chuckles and says "heh heh, well, funny story about that. You see, I've fallen through that one so many times, you'd think I remember it. I keep telling Yumeko to mark their locations for me, but she says 'lady Shinki, if I did that, then an intruder would also know their location.' and so... We kinda have to wait until someone notices we're here to get out *giggle*." Alice sweats, but notices urgency in Shinki's eyes, then says "Shanghai, Hourai, why don't you play with this shadow for a bit?" S-Shinki, sounding a bit offended, says "hey, my name is Girlie. I just wrote it for you!" Alice giggles and says "that's right. Forgive me." S-Shinki smiles, then follows the dolls a little farther away, playing whit her light orb again. Shinki gets closer to Alice and says "she told me that other shadow was making her create mini-shadows. Alice, they're trying to turn my Makai into their own. They've already remodeled half the palace." Alice whispers "but she doesn't seem to be bad." Shinki says "not her. Yuki's shadow. She seems to be the one controlling this one." Alice looks back at S-Shinki and says "she's so innocent, mom. I don't think she's evil at all." Shinki smiles and says "you know? I think I'm inclined to believe you, dear Alice." They watch the shadow write the words "Motherly Doll in the air and saying "you two are a Motherly Doll, so I will call you that, alright?" Alice chuckles and nods while smiling, then Shanghai says "oh, that's such a nice name, isn't it miss Alice?" Hourai adds "I helped!"

Just outside Pandemonium, still wearing the pink dress is Yuki, and Mai, Sara, Yumeko, Luize and Marisa all stand in the front gates. Yuki is viciously eating two large balls of rice, saying "*munch munch munch* how did you know *munch munch* I was this hungry!?" Marisa, sounding bored replies "oy, we were dealing with Shadow Yuka all day yesterday. Of course you're gonna be hungry. So what is the plan, ze?" Luize whispers to Yumeko "what is that little monster doing here?" Yumeko whispers back "I don't know, but she shut Yuki up. Just be thankful about that." Sara says in a loud tone "alright, first things first. We need to find Shinki and Alice. Chances are they have already engaged in glorious battle against the shadows! We go in, join the battle, and BEAT those shadows out of Makai! Any objections?" Mai says "Marisa, Pinky, you two come with me." Sara says "HEY~ Let me separate the teams!" Yuki adds "who the HELL are you calling pinky!!?" Mai sighs, rubs her forehead, then says "Yuki and I have been working on our unison spells. Along with Marisa's raw power, we can use our team to advance, while you come from behind unnoticed." Yumeko thinks for a moment, then says "I see. Well, that sounds like a good plan to me." Luize smiles and says "count me in." Sara sobs and with waterfall-tears coming down her cheeks, she asks "why do you agree with her so quickly? It's so not fair!" Ignoring Sara, Yumeko says "you three make sure to keep each other safe, is that clear? And you, witch!" Marisa points at herself as Yumeko stares at her and says "don't you dare double-cross them, or I swear, I'm taking your head!" Yuki smiles and says "Marisa? Double-cross us? No way! We can count on her!" Marisa whispers "thanks, ze." Annoyed, Mai impatiently says "come on, we're wasting time. It's already noon, dammit!" Yuki and Marisa look at each other, then fly side-by-side, grab Mai by her arms, then drag her along as she shouts "hey, I can fly on my own! Let me go, dammit!!!" Yumeko sighs and Luize says "well, we better follow." Yumeko looks back at Luize and says "no, wait... We better take another path. Come on, follow me!" Still crying and sobbing, Sara quickly follows Yumeko around the left side of the palace. Luize stares curiously with her narrow eyes, but follows without questioning.

Back at the Hakurei Shrine. Late noon; the shrine is full of guests. Rika helps Reimu treat each and every guest with tea and treats. Remilia and Sakuya feel quite uncomfortable whenever Rika is close to them, but they manage to hide this feeling. Everyone is involved in casual conversation, until Remilia says "so that's one of the shadows? What a pathetic form of life. She's living hell's punishments without even being dead." Ail and Reimu hide their eyes under shadows, and in a strict tone of voice, Reimu says "keep your voice down, if you can BE so kind!" Remilia stares back, feeling ashamed after being scolded by Reimu. She looks away and tries to speak, but Suwako jumps back inside from the shrine's porch and asks "but Reimu, Ail... why keep her alive? It's obvious she is suffering, and if she wasn't, she'd probably be trying to kill me." From behind Kyo, Sanae rushes to Ail and places her hand on his shoulder, then turns to Suwako and asks "lady Moriya, how can you say such a thing?" Before either Sanae can continue, or Suwako can reply, S-Suwako starts gasping, her body starts healing itself, her hair turns light yellow, and even her hat starts looking a lot livelier. S-Suwako looks around with her grey eyes with no pupil, then starts crying and sobbing "no.. no, no, no NO! I was killed. I'm supposed to be dead!" Rika, Reimu and Ail rush to the shadow and try to calm her down. Reimu tells her "relax! Please, relax! I had to place some charms on you, so you can't move while you heal!" S-Suwako replies "I don't want to heal. I want to die already!" She continues to cry uncontrollably, but manages to say "please, have a heart~! *sob* Do you have any idea how hard it is to have all your bones broken each day, just to wake up again *sob* and again, have your body broken, just so it heals again, and again! Kill me now, please~! Ple-he-hease." She cries uncontrollably once more, making Rika grab her and pulls her from the futon and embrace the shadow, making her stop crying immediately, and gently saying "there, there, miss shadow. You are amongst friends." S-Suwako asks "f-friends? But we are trying to kill you... we are trying to take your lives. We can't be friends." Rika pulls the shadow away, so that she can see her angelical smile as she says "well, miss shadow, I think we can make an exception, right?" S-Suwako stares back at Rika's smile, then at Ail, Reimu, and the real Suwako, all staring back with smiles and concern. The shadow looks back at Rika again, closes her eyes, and leans her head against the maid's shoulders.

Back at Makai, on the outsides of Pandemonium, Yumeko lands on a very small ledge, and presses herself against the wall as hard as she can. At first, Luize and Sara think she's doing this to prevent from falling, but then they see four blocks, each at the end of each limb, and a fifth one just under her chest, sink into the wall itself, and then, a door opens up. Yumeko flies in front of the opening and bows while saying "my lady." For some time, nothing happens, but from inside, smiling as usual, comes Shinki, saying "oh, Yumeko, I knew you'd find us. Come on Alice, Girlie, Shanghai, Hourai. Time to get out." Yumeko asks "Girlie. Who's Girlie?" Alice, Shanghai and Hourai follow Shinki, and following them is S-Shinki." Yumeko shouts "it's the shadow!" S-Shinki hides behind Alice after yelping, then Shinki quickly gets in front and says "no, no, it's ok! Yumeko, it's alright, she's with us." Yumeko glares at the shadow, then asks "are you sure she's not trying to trick us?" Smiling, yet emanating a strange and dangerous aura, Shinki says in a sweet tone "Yumeko, my child. Listen to what I'm saying, alright?" Yumeko trembles, trying to back away from Shinki, but at the same time, holding her position. She says "ri-ri--alright my lady. P-please forgive me." Shinki kisses Yumeko's forehead then says "alright. Let's go back inside. Yuki's shadow has big plans, and if she succeeds, Reimu's gonna have all our necks." Sara asks "that bad?" Shinki replies "I'll explain on the way. Come on!" Shinki leads the way as they all fly as fast as they can toward the main entrance to the palace. Alice and S-Shinki flying just beside Shinki, the shadow clinging on to Alice. Sara suddenly asks "wait, why not just enter through the windows?" Yumeko smiles, Luize giggles, and Shinki answers "Yumeko placed some very dangerous traps around them. Sara, my child. You should visit home more often." Sara blushes and says to herself "maybe I should."

Late noon at the SDM's gates. Meiling keeps looking around, thinking "I know I heard a roar and some heavy footsteps... but I've seen nothing so far. Am I really imagining things?" Meiling closes her eyes and says "phew... it seems lady Remilia will be home late tonight." She opens her eyes and gasps after seeing herself, staring back at her, only with back-length hair and red lizard eyes. Meiling stands shocked, unable to say anything, when her shadow says "you! Scram! This is all mine now!" Meiling shakes her head, recovering herself from the shock, then defiantly says "no way, sister. This mansion belongs to my lady, and nobody else! Leave now, unless you want a beating!" S-Meiling smirks, revealing her jagged teeth as she says "now that's what I wanted to hear. Even a weakling like YOU should give me some sport." Meiling stands ready for a fight, then signals her shadow to make the first more. S-Meiling scoffs, and in an instant, she transforms into a snake-like dragon the size of the mansion itself; it's scales are dark green, turning almost black against the little light of day left. It's teeth are sharp and it's eyes blood red with lizard-like white pupils. Meiling looks back with awe and surprise, and with a thunderous and threatening voice, S-Meiling says "what's the matter? Come and beat me up, little whelp!" Meiling shakes her head again to recover herself from the shock, then says "y-you'll regret messing with me!" Meiling's arms and legs get surrounded in multi-colored flames, then she launches various combinations of punches and kicks, hitting the dragon as hard as she can. S-Meiling laughs hysterically and says "oh, that tickles. HAHAHAHA Stop, stop, you're gonna tickle me to death! HAHAHAHA!"

Moments earlier at the Hakurei Shrine, having calmed down and enjoying some tea specially prepared by Reimu, S-Suwako sits with her legs inside the futon, taking many small sips of tea. She notices everyone staring at her, so she smiles back, feeling a little nervous. Budou stares at her for a moment, then goes to Sanae and whispers "mama, are you sure she's a shadow?" Sanae Whispers back "I don't know." S-Suwako takes one last sip of the tea and says "I am a shadow. The shadow of a goddess." She faces Reimu and says "miss maiden, thank you for the tea. Now, I am sure you want to know about us shadows, am I right?" Reimu looks at at Aya, then says "well, aren't you just trying to take our places for this grand 'evolution' scheme?" S-Suwako scoffs and asks "who told you such rubbish?" Reimu looks to the sleeping Momiji next to Aya and says "that girl's shadow." S-Suwako smiles, then says "that young fool. She was biting off more than she could chew. No, miss Reimu. That's not the reason why we do things." Everyone stares quietly for a moment, then Reimu and Ail, at the same time say "ah~, I see." S-Suwako smiles at them and says "we are shadows. What we want... what we NEED... is a life of our own. We are compelled to kill our other selves in order to take their lives, so we can live in their stead." Suwako gets closer to her shadow and asks "then why haven't you tried to kill me?" S-Suwako replies "I am your shadow. True, I have some godly gifts like immortality, but unlike you, I lack your divine body." Suwako gasps and asks "you mean, your body is that of a-?" "...Human" finishes S-Suwako. All, even Remilia look to her with a feeling of terror, then S-Suwako continues "I have immortality, but my body is that of a 2000 year old human. It breaks to pieces; so much pain; just to be restored after a few hours so it can just break again." S-Suwako starts crying again as she says "I can't use magic, I can't fly... I can't even eat properly." Reimu sighs and says "that's what makes my tea so special. It heals you as you drink." S-Suwako smiles back at Reimu and says "yes. Thank you so much. It's the first time I've actually been able to hold something after consuming it." Very suddenly, everyone but Budou, Kyo and Luna look to the outside. Remilia stands up and says "Sakuya, let's go!" Ail adds "if you need help.." Remilia glares back and says "do NOT take me lightly!" Ail stares back with unblinking eyes, then Remilia, in a more calm tone says "we'll be fine. It's nothing I can't handle." Remilia flies toward the orange sky, followed by Sakuya, who bows and says "please excuse us" just before leaving. Afterward, S-Suwako starts to wheeze, then asks "can... someone take me outside?"

Back at the SDM, Meiling continues to attack the dragon, but her strength is waning with every strike, and her fists and legs are full of cuts from the sharp scales. The dragon stops laughing, then says "is that all? Allow me, then" She strikes Meiling using the sharp scales on her tail with such force, she cuts the skin around Meiling's abdomen and sends her flying back to the mansion, making her break a large hole on the wall and the side of the mansion's entrance with her body. She lies on a pile of rubble, then S-Meiling roars and says "you are NOTHING, you WEAK little whelp. Just leave, before I have to kill you." Meiling struggles to get up on her feet, and as soon as she manages to do so, she pulls a spell card from under her hat and says "Kindling Strike - Great Peng Downing Fist" After the declaration, Meiling runs as fast as she can to the dragon, then, using great amounts of power, she strikes with her elbow, then her shoulder, then then sends her fist upward, each strike emanating a rainbow shock-wave. S-Meiling glares quietly at Meiling, who falls to her knees after the attack. She grabs Meiling with her left claw, and as she says "you know... I felt that." She tightens her grip, causing Meiling to shout loudly in pain. The dragon smirks and loosens her grip, then says "but you did provide a good time, so I'll just bite your precious little head off. Don't worry... I got no basis to this, but you might not even feel a thing." The dragon grabs the limp gate guard and raises her just above her gaping mouth, but a dagger, covered in red flames strikes it's left eye making the shadow drop Meiling to the ground next to the broken gate wall, as it roars and writhes in pain, shouting "my eye! What did you do to my eye!!?" The dagger is stuck in there, and if she turns back to normal, it could damage her even more. She takes to the skies, swaying her body wildly and hoping to strike whoever did that to her. After she's gone, Remilia and Sakuya reveal themselves next to some trees. Remilia signals Sakuya to check on Meiling. Sakuya inspects her, and quickly says "she's ok. She's just exhausted!" Remilia walks closer and says "that dragon has some nerve. Attacking my mansion when I'm away." Sakuya asks "but I thought there were no more dragons in Gensokyo." Remilia ignores Sakuya, staring toward the clock tower. Sakuya looks to the tower, asking "what is it, my lady?" and there, they see Remilia, only with black hair and black eyes with red pupils. She bares her long blood-covered fangs, her entire mouth covered in blood, her dress stained as well, and yet, she smiles and hisses as she reveals the body of Flandre on her hands, her blue dress stained in black blood. Remilia shouts "Flandre!?" Sakuya immediately grabs Remilia from behind, embracing her as she says "my lady, that's not Flandre. Look closer." Remilia feels relief the moment she notices S-Flandre's body shattering right after S-Remilia tosses her toward Remilia, then turning into a black cloud and vanishing in the air before even touching the ground. S-Remilia says "welcome to my castle, little lady!" Remilia scoffs and says "you better get out of my mansion while you breathe!" S-Remilia laughs and says "big words for such a small and pathetic excuse for a vampire, who can't even drink blood properly!" Remilia prepares a few small spears in her hand, smiling wickedly and saying "why don't you come down here and say that to my face!?" S-Remilia laughs, then quickly enters the mansion through the broken roof. Remilia says "Sakuya, follow me to the library, and bring Meiling." Sakuya bows elegantly, and says "immediately, my lady!"

Night at Pandemonium. Shinki and the others continue to fly inside the palace, feeling as though they can't reach any destination. Yumeko asks "is it just me, or are we flying in circles?" S-Yuki cackles and says "I was wondering when one of you might notice!" A wall of blazing hot fire raises itself from the ground and ceiling, separating Alice, Shinki,and S-Shinki from Yumeko, Luize and Sara. From the other side of the flaming wall, Shinki hears the three fighting hard, and screaming "look out!" "It's an ambush!" "Yumeko, Sara, help!" Shinki tries with all her might to break an opening in the wall, but only manages to do so for a second, only managing to see Sara, Yumeko and Luize fight off a horde of black winged creatures. Shinki turns around, glaring furiously at S-Yuki and demands "you put this wall out before I get mad, young lady!" Shanghai asks "miss Alice, where are the other three?" S-Yuki laughs hard, then says "an old bag like you couldn't even TOUCH me. You friends are chasing an image of me right now. By the time they realize they have been tricked, they will be dead." S-Shinki flies straight to S-Yuki with tears in her eyes and says "nice lady! These impostors are really nice! We can be friends!" Shinki and Alice sweat after S-Shinki calls them impostors once again, and S-Yuki smirks and says "I see they brainwashed you. Well, no matter. Just help me finish them off and we can continue to build the new world." S-Shinki places her hands behind herself and looks down, blushing as she says "but... but I don't wanna. I wanna be friends." S-Yuki smiles in a twisted manner, bearing her teeth and opening her eyes wide. She starts to cackle, then from behind Marisa shouts "oy~, that was a nice trick, ze! Too bad Yuki is ALSO good with tricks!" A washtub engulfed in fire falls right on top of S-Yuki's head, burning a little bit of her hair as it slides down. S-Yuki continues to smile in a most wicked way, glaring at Yuki, who joins in, laughing and saying "that's what you get for trying to outsmart ME! HAHAHAA!" S-Yuki is surrounded, her hair caught on fire. S-Shinki desperately beats the fire off, managing to save her friend. S-Yuki's twisted smile changes to a more natural smile as she face S-Shinki, then says "wow... thank you so much." S-Shinki says "you're a nice lady. We can be all friendly right now, right?" S-Yuki continues to smile, staring straight into S-Shinki's eyes.

At the Hakurei Shrine, Ail accompanies S-Suwako at the front of the shrine, while everyone else stays inside, having a conversation on how to deal with the rest of the shadows. S-Suwako sits next to the donation box while Ail looks to the sky, then she says "thank you, mister Ail." Ail turns to face her, then asks "why are you thanking me?" S-Suwako says "thanks to you... to miss Reimu and miss Rika, and all your friends, I understand something." Ail smiles as he looks back to her, waiting for her to finish. She smiles back and says "I think I can have a life of my own, after all, now that my body seems to be stronger. Reimu's tea really did the trick." Ail smiles and says "think the other shadows could accept having lives of their own?" S-Suwako smiles and struggles to slowly get up on her own, using the donation box for support. Ail looks worriedly toward her, but she waves her hand, signaling him to calm down, then says "if we can give them the chance... perhaps they can accept that. But the urge to eradicate our other selves is stronger in some." Ail Looks to the sky once more, the moon looking as though is smiling back. He turns again to face S-Suwako, just as a black and red blade comes flying from the right bushes. By the time he notices the blade, it's too close for him to react in time, and Ail opens his eyes wide, and his pupils contract as the sound of impalement reaches his ears. At the same time, in Pandemonium, S-Yuki smiles at S-Shinki, then says "I'm sorry. I guess you are right. We should all become friends." S-Shinki smiles and giggles, then turns to face Alice and says "miss Alice, miss Alice! We can be friend. We can be-" A dagger made of fire opens through the inside of the shadow's abdomen. Alice shouts at the top of her lungs, Shinki looks on with horror, Marisa and Yuki shout angrily and Mai turns her face away. S-Yuki smiles as she gets closer to S-Shinki's face, who asks "but... I thought... you were... friend. *sob*" S-Shinki's eyes fill with tears as her body slowly shatters and turns into balls of yellow light. At the same time in the Hakurei Shrine, Ail's face shines bright yellow as S-Suwako pushes herself away from him with a smile on her face, and half of the black and red blade going right through her chest. She tries to breathe as Ail kneels beside her and quickly pulls the blade right off. Reimu comes from the shrine and shrieks at the sight of S-Suwako's body shattering and turning into orbs of yellow light. She smiles at Ail, who keeps staring horror-struck with his mouth open and unable to say anything. She places her left hand on his cheek and says "I guess... my body was to frail... and you still got a cut... on your chest." Ail shakes his head as tears falls from his eyes an on to S-Swuako's face. At Pandemonium, S-Shinki stares at Alice, then at Shinki. She smiles as her tears dry up and says "don't worry... it's not hurting anymore. Miss Alice, Miss Shinki..." At the same time in the shrine and in the palace, just before the two shadows disappear, both say "goodbye, my friends. Don't ever forget me." then both turn into large orbs of light and fly straight to the skies, where they become a small star in the distance.

At the Shrine, Ail raises his head and sees his shadow self glaring back at him. Even with the wound on his chest, Ail stands up straight, his hand glows red as he aims it to the shadow, and a beam flies straight at S-Ail, trapping him inside the beam itself and stabbing him continually with hundreds of red spikes. Reimu joins in, firing an innumerable amount of charms and amulets to the air, and all fly straight to the shadow, who screams loud enough to get everyone's attention in the shrine. Both Ail and Reimu continue their assault, seeming unaware that the others are there with them. S-Ail manages to shoot many black and red blades straight at Reimu and Ail, who simply continue their assault on the shadow, so before the blades reach their goal, Rika jumps on Reimu, forcing her to the ground, and Suwako tackles Ail as hard as she can, and manages to get him and herself out of the way of harm. By the time they all look to the bushes, S-Ail is gone once more. Reimu and Ail look toward a burned spot on the ground, right where S-Suwako disappeared, both keeping quiet as silent tears fall to the ground beneath them.

At Pandemonium, S-Yuki viciously licks the black blood on her arms, drops the flaming dagger, then says "and now, I can use those powers of her the way they were MEANT to be used." Shinki's face turns red when she shouts "you monster! You are going to pay DEARLY for that!" Alice has already summoned 50 dolls around her, all with sharp blades on their little hands, and all staring back at S-Yuki with their lifeless eyes, and Shanghai and Hourai glare on with glowing red eyes. Marisa points her Hakkero, which is throwing off small sparks as it trembles in her hand, while Yuki and Mai prepare a combined heavy attack of fire and ice. S-Yuki smiles and says "I can deal with you guys later. Right now, I have a WORLD to rebuild." She flies to the window and is assaulted by 8 short swords, but she expels a magical shock wave that sends them back to the ground, then flies outside, cackling and shouting "I am the new GOD of this world!" Shinki and Alice are about to chase after her, but the wall of fire dies down, and they can see Yumeko, Sara and Luize about ready to give up as the horde of shadow creatures continue to attack. Immediately, Marisa flies ahead and unleashes her Master Spark at the creatures. Yuki and Mai fly side by side, taking out those that Marisa misses. Alice and Shinki stare at each other, and with determination in their eyes, they nod, then start blasting those creatures that are close to their friends.

To be continued...

Characters, scenario and spell cards belong to ZUN - Team Shanghai Alice-
Ail, Kyo, Luna, Budou, Phredia and Sara's spell cards were created by Willie G.R.
Rika was created by Snapshot2010

NOV 20 2009
written by
Willie G.R.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

One Random Sukima 13

It's just past mid-day, and Reimu and Aya just arrive to the shrine, carrying Momiji on a wooden stretcher. Upon the sight, Rika quickly puts her wooden sword away in her Saboten Stock, and immediately rushes Aya and her lady Reimu as they land as gently as they can, as to not disturb Momiji. Rika bows and while taking many deep breaths of air, she says "welcome *pant* back *pant* lady *pant* Reimu." Reimu smiles and places her index finger on her lips, signaling Rika to quiet down. Rika looks at Momiji. Her torso is completely wrapped in bandages, along with her right elbow, the left ankle, both knees, and her forehead and right eye. Rika gasps and whispers "what happened to her?" As Reimu and Aya enter the shrine and gently set Momiji on the floor, Reimu whispers "don't worry. Eirin came just in time to help. She'll be fine by tomorrow." Rika salutes and says "I'll prepare her a comfortable spot." Reimu adds "in my room, next to the protective charms." Rika nods and rushes inside Reimu's room. Reimu turns to Aya, who smiles and she brushes Momiji's hair with her fingers and whispers "too bad we couldn't find her sword and shield." Reimu smiles back and casually says "she'll find them when she's better." Rika comes back from the room and quietly bows to Reimu, then Reimu says come on, let's get her inside." Aya whispers "Momiji, are you awake?" Momiji manages to narrowly open her left eye and smiles as she weakly wags her tail. Aya smiles back and says "we're gonna move you now." Momiji nods, then quickly falls back asleep. After setting Momiji comfortably inside Reimu's room, Rika closes the door then heads to the kitchen to prepare some tea, as Reimu and Aya sit on the shrine's porch. Aya stretches and says "ayayaya, so glad everything turns out just fine." Reimu smiles and says "glad to see you back to your old self!" They both smile to each other as Rika comes and hands them their cup of tea, then, as they drink, Reimu notices Aya looking around, and that's when Reimu realizes the back of her shrine looks like a battle zone. Patches of the ground entirely gone, dirt set into large mountains, cut marks all over. Reimu spits out her tea, drops her cup and runs toward the mess, shouting "Rika~! What the hell happened here? Who did all this?!" Blushing, Rika comes out of the shrine, and as if trying to hide herself entirely, she hesitantly says "tha-- it was me... I'm sorry lady Reimu." Reimu opens her eyes wide as she looks at Rika, then asks "eh!? You did this?" Rika adds "I was going to clean it up before you got here, but I learned those earth spells and..." Reimu sighs and says "it's ok, just... help me clean this up." Sitting on the roof of the shrine, Maribel, who has her magical cat ears and tail exposed, and Mystia, sway left and right as they sing, Mystia playing chorus for the song Maribel is singing. "I know something you don't know" "Chin chin" "and I won't tell" "chin chin" "but you should know" "chin chin". "It's really messy down the well" "chin chin" "sweet shrine of Reimu's~" "chiiiiin"! Reimu sweats and shouts "what in the world are you two doing, you perverts!?" Maribel and Mystia smile, then Maribel replies "miss Reimu, we're just singing. KYAAAH!" Before they can react, both find themselves falling down the roof to the ground accompanied by 3 yin-yang orbs. Reimu smiles dangerously as the two girls sit on the ground. She hands them a broom each, then says "now clean this place up, you dirty-mouthed perverts!" Lowering her ears, Maribel looks to Mystia and says "that's the last time we try to cheer her up!" Mystia nods at Maribel, then Reimu grabs them both by their ears and lifts them to their feet, making them sweep and clean the shrine on their own.

Meanwhile, at the entrance to the Garden of the Sun. Marisa looks on, trying to see above the tall sunflowers, but she is barely able to tell what's going on, if anything at all. Yuki yawns and says "this is boring. Come on, let's barge in, take the bird, and go home." Marisa covers Yuki's mouth after hearing some loud rustling coming from the sunflowers. After the rustling stops, Marisa whispers "there's something in those sunflowers. It could be our shadow, so keep quiet." Yuki nods, then Marisa lets go of her mouth, then whispers "keep hidden between the sunflowers, and if it looks like you've been spotted, fly away as fast as you can." Again, Yuki nods quietly, then follows Marisa inside the towering sunflowers, both followed by a violet yin-yang orb each. Meanwhile, at the Hakurei Shrine, Yukari plugs a strange black box that comes connected with two pads with 4 directional arrows on a cross on one side, two tabs on the top, and oddly placed buttons with letters on them at the other side. Reimu looks at it rather suspiciously and asks "this isn't some trap, right?" Yukari replies "fu fu fu, Reimu, I wouldn't do that to you, sweetie." Yukari plugs in one last cable to the violet yin-yang, then the screen turns on on it's own, showing a drawing with the word "R-PINK" as big as the screen, and small blinking letters the read "press start" Yukari says "go on, press that red button on your controller. You too, Aya. Come and play!" Aya curiously gets closer and stares at everything, saying "ayayayaya~ This all looks so amazing. What is this?" Yukari says "it's like those things you play at Kourindou's, only this one I modified to play on my orbs. Now go ahead, Reimu. Since you are player 1, you get to pick a character." On the screen there are only two characters, both dressed in black and holding guns on their hands, and one of them with a witch's hat key-chain hanging from her pocket. Reimu picks the more self-confident looking one, while saying "hmm, I think this one's better." Aya says "figures you'd pick that one. Ah well, let's just play." When the game starts, Reimu and Aya control their characters through split screens, both their characters looking over towering sunflowers. Reimu says "eh, let's just start this." Yukari says "oh, hold the A button to run." Reimu asks "All the time?"

At the Garden of the Sun, the eerie silence is disturbed only by the whooshing of the winds, which cause the sunflowers to rustle, making Yuki looks around, feeling a little scared. She realizes Marisa is no longer with her. She feels her heart beating faster and uncontrollably, her arms feeling cold and her legs seems to fail her. She shouts "Marisa?!" From a little farther away, Marisa responds "I'm over here, ze." Yuki holds her chest, feeling great relief as she says "phew. For a moment I thought-" Marisa screams at the top of her lungs "YUKI~!! She can kill the sunflowers! RUN~!" As if unable to control herself, Yuki starts running aimlessly around the sunflower field, hyperventilating and shouting "wh-what the hell is this~! I can't control myself!" At the Hakurei Shrine, Reimu's screaming "why is she just running!? Geez, do something else!" Yukari says "press the right shoulder button to aim your weapon, deary." Aya says "hah, mine's working JUST fine! Look at that, I managed to run away from the bad guy, haha!" Back at the Sunflower Field, Yuki stops running, then points her hand around, shaping a gun and constantly switching directions. Now there is only silence and towering sunflowers everywhere. Yuki feels disoriented and lost, and for some reason, she can't seem to be able to control any of her actions. Yuki shouts "Marisa!? Are you there?" There is no answer. Yuki start feeling very cold, and then, the sunflowers start dying all around her. Yuki shouts "who-who are you!? Show yourself. I'm not afraid of you!" From her left, just as the sunflowers die out, the figure of Shadow Yuka glares angrily toward Yuki, walking slowly toward the fire magician. At the Hakurei shrine, Aya shouts "shoot it. Shoot it already!" Reimu shouts back "I don't know how, dammit!!!" Yukari calmly says "while holding the shoulder button, press the A button to fire your bullets. Simple, isn't it?" Reimu glares at Yukari, but is too concerned about the game and starts making her character shoot. Back at the Sunflower Field, Yuki starts firing small balls of fire wildly toward S-Yuka, who uses her bare hands to deflect each and every shot. Yuki slowly walks back and shouts "I can't fly away! Why can't I fly away!?" S-Yuka reaches Yuki, who closes her eyes and hopes it all ends quickly, then S-Yuka, in a sweet and perky voice, says "why are you shooting at me? I just want to be your friend." Yuki opens her eyes and asks "huh? Y-you don't wanna kill me?" S-Yuka, now in a soothing, motherly voice, says "now why would I do that to someone so preciously cute as you, you sweet, sweet thing" S-Yuka pinches Yuki's cheeks and pulls on them while smiling and saying "what a cute wittle girl. Who's a cutie? Who~'s a cutie? You are! Oh yes you are!" The moment S-Yuka lets go of Yuki's cheeks, Yuki raises her arms above her head, her eyes fill with tears of fear, her face turns almost purple, then she starts running as fast as she can, away from S-Yuka, crying "I'm not cute, I'm not CUUUUTE!" At the Hakurei Shrine, Reimu says "hey, why is she moving on her own?" Yukari replies "that's a cut-scene. You have to wait until it's over"

At the Sunflower Field, Yuki finds herself right in front of Yuka's house, and as if unable to controls her movement, she opens the door, and as she does, she whines "but I don't WANNA go in there! Waaah! Why can't I control myself!?" Immediately inside, she spots Okuu inside a large bird-cage, wearing a pink ribbon and pink skirt, swinging herself contently on the cage's pink-rose-covered swing. She looks at Yuki and says "Unyu~? A visitor? How unusual!" From a large pot beside the cage, Yuka's voice, sounding very annoyed, says "let me guess, more pink paint and more sunflower seeds for you, right?" Okuu replies "no, it's a blond girl that looks really scared." Yuki looks around and her eyes get cast in shadow, and as she looks around, she gets more and more pale, until her entire skin is completely white. Trembling, Yuki says "the roof, the walls, the furniture, even the pajamas are pink! No~!" From the pot, sounding even more annoyed, Yuka shouts "hey, HEY stop making fun of my pajamas, you chicken!" Breathing heavily, Yuki says "I-I... I gotta get outta here~!" Yuki tries with all her might to turn around and leave, but instead she finds herself heading straight inside Yuka's room, where she finds papers written in pink. One reads "over the cute pink rainbow, you will find pink coins to buy MORE pink skirts for good little girls!" Yuki feels her stomach churn. Again she wants to leave, but she grabs another paper and reads "pink is the color of love. One day, love will be seen everywhere, and butterflies will spread their wings and paint the world with pink love." Yuki covers her mouth, her eyes cast in a dark shadow. For a moment, she thinks she has control of herself and tries to leave, but feels a pull toward a closet where she finds a pink colored diary. At the Hakurei Shrine, Reimu asks "what with those disgusting notes!? What kind of game is this?" Yukari smiles and says "a horror game" Aya shouts "HA! Found another healing item... ooh, and there were some extra bullets in there as well! Ohh, look at that, I found some bonus items too!" Reimu face-palms, but says "fine, let's read this diary!" Back at Yuka's house, Yuki opens the diary, and to her dismay, this is also written in pink. She reads "Dear diary. Today the cutest child and her pet cat came to visit. I grabbed them both and hugged them tightly, then took them home with me. I added a few more ribbons to the cat. She looked so ADORABLE rolling around on the ground as soon as I let her go. To the child... well, I couldn't contain myself. I had to hug her and kiss her, pat her head, play with her hair. Oh she looked so CUTE with that pig-tail! *sigh* But they ran away. Well, at least I still have my cute little birdie, who LOVES to play with me. I hope we can be together forever and EVER!" After reading the diary, Yuki's eyes look dark, an expression for murder evident on her look. She looks to the door and feels relief as she walks toward it, but S-Yuka enters just as she reaches for the exit. Okuu flaps her wings, swinging faster in the cage, and happily says "nice lady~! You're back!" S-Yuka looks at Yuki and says "oh my, so here's where you have been. If you wanted a makeover... you should have asked for it." S-Yuka closes the door behind her, then Yuki screams a bloody death-scream that echoes all over the silent field. At the Hakurei Shrine, Reimu's screen read "You are now PINK!" Reimu tosses the control and says "this game is stupid! What the hell? I am now pink!? And what about all those STUPID NOTES?!" Yukari calmly says "you are lucky Aya found a save point, or you'd have to start from the beginning." Reimu asks "oh, I can try again?" She smiles as she picks up the controller again, and just before picking the "Retry" option, she says "whoa. So glad this is just a game... geez, so much pink, it's disgusting."

Back at the Garden of the Sun, Marisa takes a nap on the house-sized petal of the blue flower Ail first revived for Yuka. She wakes up after hearing some faint crying. Groggy, she scans toward the source of the crying and asks "Yu.... Yuki?" Yuki cries as she runs to Marisa, shouting "MARISA~~! Help me~~~!" Yuki wears a frilly pink dress with a puffy skirt that stays puffed, revealing Yuki's bloomers. Her shoes are now light-pink sandals with white socks that have red and pink heart designs on them. Her lips are painted with rose lipstick, her cheeks painted pink, her hair combed and puffed, and her hat replaced by a light-pink bow that has a red heart on the border. Marisa's eyes expand, her pupil disappears, and she tries to hide under the large petal, but Yuki sees her and cries "Marisa, you have to help me~! Look what that monster did to me~!" At the Hakurei Shrine, Aya comments "wow, Reimu, your character looks disgusting." Reimu shouts "it's not my fault, she caught me off-guard!" Yukari chuckles quietly, and on the screen, small red letters at one of the edges read "REC". Back at the Field of the Sun, Yuki places her head on Marisa's apron, using it for both, cleaning off the makeup and to cry on, sobbing "and then I found these stupid notes in pink that made no sense at all! And then she came and did all these horrible THINGS to me~!" Marisa sighs, keeping her eyes narrow as she says "calm down, calm down." Yuki shouts "HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO CALM DOWN! I'm PINK! PINK!!!" Marisa sighs, then says "if it makes you feel any better, I've been finding many useless things myself, look. A red box, a pack of lies, papers with pink letters, and a map the the underground facility." Yuki, after cleaning off the makeup, screams and grabs the sandals and socks, rips them off while shouting "I am not...!" She grabs the bow on her head and tears it off "...going to...!" She grabs the skirt and breaks the wires that keep it puffy "...stand for this ANY LONGER!" She grabs the dress, but Marisa grabs her arms and shouts "hey, hey, don't go streaking now!" Yuki cries some more and says "but it's so pink!" Marisa says "for some reason, the shadow can't seem to get close to this flower. Let's stay here and think of a plan, alright?" Yuki sighs, keeping her eyes narrow as streams of tears run down her cheeks, then says "alright, alright!" Marisa says "I'll be over at this side, alright? You keep watch over there in case that shadow comes by." Yuki nods, then Marisa walks to the next petal. She stares at the useless items she gathered, then, from amongst all the useless things, she grabs the red box and peeks inside, only to be struck by a large pink powder puff that makes her face look pink in color. At the Hakurei Shrine, Reimu laughs hard, as this cost Aya 98% of her life bar.

At the Garden of the Sun, Yuki starts trembling as S-Yuka's figure slowly heads closer toward their location. She whimpers and tires to call Marisa, but her voice comes out so soft, Marisa can't hear her. S-Yuka is now even closer, glaring angrily toward the flower. Finally, Yuki manages to take a deep breath and shouts "Ma-Marisa, she's here~!" Marisa comes running to Yuki, and when S-Yuka sees them she shouts "oh my, my, my~! Another cute child! Please, come down here. I want to hug you, kiss you and dress you up like an adorable little DOLL!" Marisa shivers and says "uuu~, now I understand why you're all crying." Marisa stands on the petal, then shouts back "now listen you! You better scram before I have to hurt you!" S-Yuka shouts back "just get away from that icky flower, deary. I'll make you some nice iced tea with peaches on the side." At the Hakurei Shrine, Aya says "alright, this is it. The final battle! I'll distract this... thing, and you go get the secret weapon parts like I told you!" Reimu replies "heheheh, this is gonna be great!" From outside, a villager rushes to the shrine and shouts "Please, miss maiden! That evil spirit is back. You have to do something!" Reimu sighs and says "Rika, could you come here for a second?" Rika bows to Reimu, who continues to stare a the screen along with Aya as she says "tell Maribel to handle Mima, and give her this. Tell her NOT to read it until she's close to Mima. Understood?" Rika smiles, bows, then grabs a piece of paper Reimu hands over while still looking at the screen, then she says "right away, my lady." At the garden, Yuki and Marisa huddle together, whispering to each other. S-Yuka tries to listen to what they are talking about, but when she gets closer to that flower, she feels weaker, so she has no choice but to back away. After they are done, Marisa and Yuki shout "Blazing Black & White, BREAK!" Yuki flies away as Marisa jumps from the petal down to the ground, holding her Hakkero in her hands, and defiantly says "if you want to dress me up like a doll, first you'll have to defeat me in battle." S-Yuka narrows her eyes and smiles, revealing a forked lizard-like tongue, her eyes turn red, and an ominous wind spins around her as she opens her umbrella and in a hissing voice says "then, let's play little girl!" Marisa smiles and says "well, you look much better now." S-Yuka replies "oh, you think so? Thanks, I always though it scares others away, but-" A blue beam strikes S-Yuka on the face as she speaks. After the beam stops, it reveals S-Yuka's face is burned up. She coughs a black cloud from her mouth and says "I think that after your makeover, I'm teaching you some manners." Marisa smirks and replies "remember, you have to beat me first, ze."

Marisa raises her Hakkero and says "why didn't I think of this before? I'll just blast you right where you stand. No need for our secret weapon." S-Yuka's monstrous smile twists into a wicked smirk and a quiet snicker. Marisa points her Hakkero and shouts "Love Colored - Master SPAAAAAAARK!" In the blink of an eye, the large multi-colored beam reaches S-Yuka, who opens her umbrella in that instant and reflects the beam of light back to Marisa, who gets blown away back the the towering blue flower. Marisa struggles to get back up, then says "whoa... what was that all about?" S-Yuka continues to smile and says "give it up, sweet wittle princess, and come get your new makeover. I promise you will WUV it!" Marisa's face turns green as she says "oh, for the love of the fairies. It's like talking to one of Alice's puppets!" S-Yuka's face and voice return to normal, then she says "I'm tired of waiting. If you won't come down on your own, I guess I'll have to do... this!" S-Yuka sticks the closed umbrella on the ground then lifts both arms to the air. Immediately, all the sunflowers and plants around herself and Marisa start to die out; all but the large blue flower Marisa is safely on. After all the flowers are dead on the ground, they start sprouting legs and arms, then start to walk slowly toward Marisa, some even limping as they do. Marisa's face turns blue as she looks around at the countless undead sunflower walking to her. Some even climbing on the blue flower. Marisa shouts "w-w-w-wait a minute! You can't do that!" Marisa tires to fly away, but she feels forced to stay where she is. S-Yuka shouts "just come down from there already!" Marisa replies "nooo~ way, ze!" Meanwhile, just outside Ail's house, Budou and Phredia play tag, flying as fast as they can away from each other. They stop for a second, and are quickly swept by a light-colored blur. At Patchouli's library, Koakuma finds some books out of place and immediately starts organizing them. She shrieks when she gets swept away by the light-colored blur, then Patchouli asks "Koa, is that you?" At the Misty Lake, Cirno stands on a frozen spot on the lake and just as Daiyousei gets close to her, she says "now, if I can freeze this lake all the way back to the trees, then I'll prove I'm the strongest ever!" Just as Daiyousei nods, both get swept away by the light-colored blur. At the Human Village, Chen, Ran, Maribel and Mystia are casually greeting each other, then Maribel says "I was wondering, have you seen miss-" In the blink of an eye, Chen, Mystia and Maribel get swept away by the light-colored blur. Ran looks around, then desperately shouts "Chen? Where are you!? Chen? CHEEEEEE~N!" then runs after the blur.

Back at the Garden of the Sun, the undead flowers manage to wrap their dried-up leaves around Marisa's limbs. Marisa smirks and says "pheh, you think dried up leaves can hold me!?" Marisa tries to break free, but quickly realizes the can't break free as easily as she hoped. Desperately she asks "what the heck?" She tries once more to break free, then start to struggle desperately. The undead flowers jump off the blue flower with Marisa on their hands, then S-Yuka holds a pink dress that looks as though it belongs to a fairy-tale princess, then says "you'll look so adorable in these!" Marisa trembles as she tries to break free again, then desperately shouts "YUKIII~! Reimu~~! ANYONE~! HEEEEELP!!!" From the air, Yuki shouts "Fire Sign - Roasty Toasty Burgers" Yuki fires several red petal-shaped bullets in horizontal lines, in groups of 5 each, and along with them, medium-sized fireballs that arc along the red petals as they surround the undead flowers, burning them all to ashes, giving Marisa the chance to escape. S-Yuka looks as though she's about to cry when Yuki stands in front of her and says "alright, you evil, disgusting spawn from the Nether-regions! It's time to send you back to where you came!" S-Yuka glares angrily and says "that's no way for a young lady to speak." Yuki smirks and says "take THIS!" From her pockets, she pulls out Budou and Phredia. Budou starts trembling and almost cries when she asks "where are we?" S-Yuka glares at her and says "oh my goodness... what a cute little creature!" Yuki shouts "that's not all, lady!" From her pocket she pulls out Cirno and Daiyousei. S-Yuka's starts bleeding a little black blood from her nose, just as Cirno clenches her teeth and threateningly asks "who are you!?" Yuki pulls out Koakuma and Chen. Chen immediately goes to Budou and both hug and tremble, and Koakuma just trembles and blushes, as S-Yuka gets closer, her nose bleeding even more and her entire body shaking violently as she says "this... th-this is too much... So adorable!" Hearts start floating from her head as she continues to shake and bleed. Yuki says "not enough, eh? Take THIS!" She pulls out Mystia, who trembles at the sight of S-Yuka's mean glare and as if singing, she asks "wha-what am I doing here~!?" S-Yuka holds her chest and says "hng! No... stop... this is just too much!" Marisa walks next to Yuki and asks "how the heck did you get all of them inside your pockets?" Yuki shrugs and smiles as she says "I really don't know." Marisa looks to S-Yuka and says "should we blast her now?" Yuki says "actually, this note I found at the lake says danmaku doesn't affect her. But don't worry, I got one last item here." Yuki raises her voice and says "I am impressed. You survived all of this overwhelming cuteness, just like that." S-Yuka glares at Yuki, clenching her teeth and bleeding black blood through her nose and mouth. Yuki smirks back and says "but this is it. Prepare to die!" Yuki pulls out Maribel, who still has her magical cat ears and tail exposed. She lands on her butt on the floor and looks around, then looks at Yuki and asks "Yuki!? What just happened?" Yuki smirks, pulls out a red ball of yarn and tosses it at Maribel, who stares at it for a moment, then says "nyaa~! It's the ball!" She starts to purr as she uses her hands to make the ball roll some more. S-Yuka start trembling more violently. She grabs her chest and clenches it tight. She tries to speak, but all she can say is "hnng!" Chen joins Maribel, both playing with the red ball of yarn at the same time. S-Yuka falls on her knees, trembles a little more, then she looks at Koakuma and Budou, who cover themselves up with their wings while shaking and looking over their wings. S-Yuka can't take any more, and suddenly explodes, shouting "WONDERFUL DEATH~!"

S-Yuka's clothes lie on the ground, and just above them, a thick black cloud. Yuki takes a deep breath and says "FINALLY!" Marisa smiles and says "wow, well done... but how did you know that would work, ze?" Yuki says "I went to the bathroom at Yuka's house and found the instructions on how to finish her off in there." At the Hakurei Shrine, Aya smacks the laughing Reimu on her shoulder and says "you cheated! I was supposed to win!" Yukari chuckles and says "ladies, it's not over yet." At the Garden of the Sun, all but Chen, Budou and Phredia head back to their respective places, then Yuki says "you two wait here. I want to get my clothes back before I take you back, alright?" Chen and Budou nod, but when Yuki turns around to Marisa, she notices her pointing a trembling arm behind Yuki. Yuki smiles and says "what's the matter? Cat got your tongue?" Marisa continues to point, so Yuki shrugs, turns around and says "whatever, look let's go get my clothe back. These pink things are...-" Yuki looks toward the thick black cloud as it takes the shape of a large orb as big as a two story house. Budou and Chen run behind Marisa, who places her arms around them and guides them to the large blue flower. Yuki stands frozen right in front of the orb as it sprouts three sticks on each side, then a mound of flesh that turns into S-Yuka's body, still wearing her shirt and vest. She hisses after her new towering spider-like body is complete, and in a thundering voice, she says "you're not getting your clothes back! I burned them after you left crying like a baby!" Yuki gasps and shouts "YOU MONSTER!!!" At the Hakurei Shrine, Reimu and Aya look awestruck as they watch the monster materialize in their screen. Yukari giggles and says "you thought it would be that easy?" Back at the garden, Yuki glares angrily toward the monster that is S-Yuka, pulls out a spell card, and shouts "you are going to PAY FOR THAT!!!" Standing bravely between the monster and the two girls, Marisa and Yuki face the creature, Marisa smiling at Yuki and saying "let's hit her together." Yuki nods, then Marisa points her Hakkero to the shadow. At the same time as Marisa shouts "Perverse Love - Easy-Harvest Master Spark" Yuki shouts "Cooking Under the Moon" Yuki summons four large fireballs that hover to her left and right. The fireballs expel waves of smaller fireballs that spread randomly as Yuki fires extra-large red fire orbs that explode when close to the target, releasing 5 red crystal-shaped bullets. Marisa's beam penetrates the creatures defenses and allows Yuki's spell to make direct contact. Smoke rises as S-Yuka hisses and screams in pain, and then, after the spells are finished, silence. Marisa and Yuki high-five, shouting "we ROCK!" but a pair of thin and hairy spider legs grab them both. S-Yuka cackles, then says "I WAS going to give just only a makeover, make you miserable and gain more power from it, but... I guess eating you should be enough!" Budou shouts "NO~! Please, don't!" S-Yuka's eyes glow blood-red as she hisses and glares toward Budou and Chen, who are still on the blue flower. Budou twitches, then back-steps to Chen, then both girls start to sob, then progress to uncontrollable crying. S-Yuka shouts "no-no-no-no, wait, I'm s-sorry!" She tries to get closer, but she shrinks as she gets closer to the flower. She drops the two witches to the ground and says "please, calm those precious things down!" Marisa asks "but I though that gave you strength?" S-Yuka replies "but those two are just too cute. Please, calm them down and I won't eat you... or give you makeovers." Marisa and Yuki both stare suspiciously, but the cries of the two girls convince them to go to them. From the distance, loud thuds and rumblings shake the ground, each time getting closer and more violent. Even Marisa and Yuki look around and desperately ask at the same time as S-Yuka "what's going on!" From the distance, a voice shouts "CheeeeeEEEEEEEE~~N!!" The voice gets closer and closer, and as Yuki asks "what's THAT now?" Marisa shouts "TAKE COVEEEER!" then drops to the ground, Yuki quickly following. S-Yuka gets engulfed by flames, explosions and insane amounts of danmaku, and from the still living sunflowers, running at maddening speeds is Ran, who uses her claws that deliver the final blow to S-Yuka, cutting her human-like torso from the spider-like body, making her scream as her spider body turns into dust. Her massive spider body is gone. S-Yuka's torso lies on the ground, agonizing and bleeding that black blob from her the abdomen, and just beside her is Sanae, holding the washtub that struck Kanako before, staring angrily at the shadow. She lifts the large Washtub above her head, then squashes the shadow under it, finally ending S-Yuka's life.

At the Hakurei Shrine, Reimu shouts "WHAAAAT!? All that and it's THOSE TWO who finish it off? What a rip-off!" Aya adds "eh, it was good." Yukari chuckles, then says "well, glad to see you still had your fun. I'll be taking this and bring another game sometime." Reimu grabs Yukari's sleeve, and with a smirk on her face, she asks "those were Yuki and Marisa, right? I mean the REAL Yuki and Marisa, am I right?" Yukari stares back at Reimu for some time, then says "I can't fool you, not even once, can I?" Reimu's lips wiggle for a moment while Aya looks dumb-struck, asking "wait, what? Were we really playing?" Yukari nods and says "well of course you were. You helped those girls accomplish their mission quite well." Aya turns to Reimu, who can't control herself and start laughing loud and banging her fist on the floor, while placing her face on her forearm, and while laughing, she shouts "so that's Yuki? Yuki wearing pink!? ....Pffft HAHAHAHAHAHAAHA~" Aya stares at Reimu for a moment as she continues to laugh, trying to hold herself from laughing as well, but can't hold her laughter and joins Reimu for a good laugh. Yukari smiles, then turns to unplug the cables, then says to herself "glad to see her so happy at others misfortunes." Above the shrine, spinning and humming to herself, Hina flies by, and as if singing, she says "such colorful misfortune~!" At the Garden of the Sun, Sanae carries Budou, who giggles and says "thanks mama. The mean spider is gone now thanks to you!" then hugs her neck. Sanae smiles back and says "come on, I'll take you home now" revealing her bandaged left cheek. Budou gasps and ask "Mama, what's that on your cheek! You're hurt!" Sanae replies "it's nothing. Your papa and gramma healed it quickly." Budou asks "but why do you have the bandage?" Sanae smiles and replies "to make sure it's nice and healed properly." Sanae flies away with Budou in hand toward the Moriya Shrine. Yuki and Marisa sit on the ground, taking a well-earned rest, when Ran approaches Yuki and angrily shouts "you've got some nerve, bringing my Chen to such DANGEROUS place!" Chen peeks her head from behind Ran, watching as Yuki just sits on her pink butt, looking straight to the ground. Ran continues "just consider yourself lucky nothing happened to her, or I'd have to punish you as well, missy!" Ran walks away, saying "come on, Chen. We still have some things to do." Chen happily springs toward Ran, saying "right away, Ran-sama~!" Yuki, with narrow eyes and a tired-looking expression, asks "hey, Marisa... did you say something?" Marisa, looking equally tired, replies "something about the bird." Both witches stay on the ground, letting the late noon wind strike their face, when they both wake up and shout "OKUU!!" Both run to Yuka's house, and upon entering, Okuu Asks "Unyu~? You're back? What happened to the nice lady? I'm hungry~!" From the pot, Yuka, in a very annoyed tone of voice, says "I REALLY need to use the bathroom." While Yuki opens Okuu's cage, Marisa smashes the pot where Yuka is in with her broom. Immediately, Yuka runs to her bathroom and shouts "get out! This could get UGLY~!"

Outside Yuka's house, Okuu squeals with joy when Satori comes by to pick her up. Satori hugs Okuu tightly, crying and saying "Okuu! My Okuu, you're ok!" Okuu replies "there was this nice lady here before, but she's gone and she never gave me my lunch." Orin says "ahh, I'll hunt a nice birdie just for you." Okuu screams, and with tears in her eyes she asks "Orin, how can you be so mean!?" Satori calmly says "let's just go home." but before leaving, she heads to Marisa and Yuki, and says "thank you both so much for everything. Marisa, tell Reimu that me and Orin will continue our search for Okuu's shadow. Miss Yuki, I'm so sorry for what happened to you, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for all your hard work." Yuki and Marisa smile as Satori runs back to her pets, all smiling happily, reunited once more. Yuki sighs and says "I better go home... I miss Mai, Yumeko, Shinki..." Marisa places her hand on Yuki's shoulder, then says "hey, when you're done with all that, could you come back to my place? I need to ask you a favor." Yuki smiles, nods and says "sure thing." From the skies, Yuki hear Mai calling for her. She raises her sight, waves at her, then Mai lands right next to her and asks "pink? Wow, Yuki, you're turning into a lady!" Yuki spits fire from her mouth as she angrily replies "I'm ripping these off right now!!!" Marisa manages to stop her while Mai says "well, never mind that. Yuki, we need you back home. Your... shadow... well, that's what lady Shinki called it. Anyway, your shadow and lady Shinki's shadow are threatening to take over Makai and destroy it. We need your help to deal with them." Yuki looks back at Marisa, then Marisa asks "Blazing Black & White?" Yuki and Marisa high-five and at the same time shout "BLAZING BLACK & WHITE!" Mai sweats and places her hand on her forehead and says "look, let's just go back. I'm worried for lady Shinki. She went on her own to deal with those two." Yuki stares back seriously, and without saying another word she flies straight to the gate to Makai. Mai asks "did I say something?" Marisa replies "go with her. We've been here all day, so I'm gonna go pick a few things back home and meet you at Makai. Is that ok?" Mai smiles, placing her hands on her hips and says "right. Thank you for your assistance." She lifts off and shouts "Yuki, wait for me!" Marisa stares at the darkening skies and says to herself "oy, this day's gonna get longer than I thought, ze."

Back at the Human Village, Mima continues to scare the villagers by entering their houses looking half invisible, and whaling at the top of her lungs, making some villagers run outside the safety of their houses, then throwing her head at those, screaming either "I'm ahead of your plans" or "look out, I'm headed your way! WAHAHAHAHA~" Maribel and Mystia stand close to Mima's current location, then Maribel says "ok, miss Reimu said to open this paper close to miss Mima. Now, let's see here." She opens the yin-yang orb seal, then reads "Dear Maribel, thank you for your help. All you have to do now is ask Mima to stop bothering people. Remember, she can be tough, but you can do it. Oh, and also, you have 3 seconds before this paper seals your powers and self-destructs. Have a nice day" The piece of paper starts glowing blue and Maribel panics and lets it go just in time as it explodes. Maribel sighs and asks Mystia "but how do I stop her?" Mystia shrugs, then Maribel's cat-ears wiggle as she smiles and says "I got a plan! You still got that ball of yarn?" Mystia pulls her hat off, revealing the red ball of yarn on her head. Mima enters another house by going through it's door, whaling loudly and saying "give me your sou~ls." The female villager inside shouts "get away you FREAKY GHOST!!!" Mima feels offended and says "hey, I'm an evil spirit! Don't compare me to those ghosts!" The girl clenches her teeth and says "whatever, just GET THE HELL OUT!" Mima looks back seriously, then says "alright then... But before I do..." Mima increases her size as her face turns black, her eyes glow red, and her tongue slithers like a snake's tongue, then says "I'm still taking you soul~!" Mima stops when she hears a "nyan" from outside. She peeks through the door, asking "cute kitty?" In front of the house, purring contently while playing with the ball of yarn is Maribel, lying on her back and bouncing the ball on her hands, then turning around and chasing it after it falls down. Mima's nose starts bleeding, then she smiles and slowly floats toward her cute kitty, and just as she's away from the roof, a silver washtub falls on her head, knocking her out immediately. As soon as Mima falls to the ground, every single villager open their doors, cheering contently, calling Maribel and Mystia their heroes. Maribel smiles then looks at Mystia, who's sitting on the roof of the house where Mima was before, hanging her legs on the edge of it and smiling, then both flip their thumbs up toward each other.

To be continued...

Characters, spell cards and scenario belong to ZUN -Team Shanghai Alice-
Ail, Budou, Phredia & Yuki's spell cards were created by Willie G.R.
Rika was created by Snapshot2010
Some assistance by Snapshot 2010

NOV 17 2009
written by
Willie G.R.