東方プロジェクト二次小説・オリジナル小説サイト
Chapter 7:Imperishable Night

𝘚𝘰𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘰𝘳 𝘩𝘪𝘮𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧 𝘮𝘢𝘥𝘦 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘭𝘥 𝘣𝘢𝘮𝘣𝘰𝘰 𝘤𝘶𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳. 𝘛𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘴𝘮𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘧𝘢𝘳 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘱𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘭, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘸𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘶𝘭𝘭 𝘯𝘰𝘣𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦, 𝘴𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘯𝘰 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘰𝘮𝘱 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘢𝘯 𝘰𝘧𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘷𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘵.

𝘋𝘦𝘴𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘱𝘢𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘯, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘰𝘳 𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘢𝘮𝘣𝘰𝘰 𝘤𝘶𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳'𝘴 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘳 𝘩𝘰𝘮𝘦. 𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘢𝘪𝘥 𝘦𝘺𝘦𝘴 𝘶𝘱𝘰𝘯 𝘗𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘒𝘢𝘨𝘶𝘺𝘢 ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑐𝑘 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘣𝘺 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘣𝘦𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘺, 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘢 𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘮𝘢𝘥𝘦 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘣𝘺 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦.


—19—


It was after sunset by the time I returned to Renko's side. Above, the distorted moon shone through the gaps between tall stands of bamboo, illuminating the darkness with its pale light. I turned my face from the moon to my partner who was lying motionless on the futon. I couldn't see her eyes beneath the mask, but she must have been asleep, lying perfectly still without the faintest twitch. I let out a small, worried sigh, then put my breath to better use blowing out the lantern I had brought with me from the mansion. Beyond the task Eirin had set before me, the day had been uneventful, but who knew what night would bring. There was nothing more I could do now to assist in Eirin's scheme, so It would be best if I rested while I could.

In the quiet darkness I crawled to the futon beside Renko's and slipped under the covers. I closed my eyes and willed myself to sleep.

"Merry?" Renko called out.

"Renko? I thought you were asleep."

"I slept most of the day, so I'm bright-eyed and wide awake now. Well my eyes aren't so bright right now, I guess, but you get the point." Renko said, pointing at her eye mask.

"Well there's no point to being awake now, it's nighttime. If you have insomnia, I can go get Eirin to prescribe you something to help you sleep."

"I don't have insomnia, I'm just awake. I don't mind being up late though." She leaned in close then and whispered to me, just barely loud enough for me to hear. "What exactly is Dr.Yagokoro up to that she needs your help with?"

I turned, unsure what to say. I should have realized that even without sight, keeping Renko in the dark was a fool's errand. Without other responsibilities she would have had a lot of free time to think, and had surely been working with the limited information she had to put together the pieces. I sighed. That was Renko for you. Despite a lack of vision with which to take in information and despite the doctor's orders to rest her brain, trying to piece together a mystery was as much an automatic process as breathing to her. I sat up in bed.

"Renko, didn't the doctor tell you to let your brain rest?"

"I am. That's why I'm only making deductions based on the little information I have rather than getting out and exploring. Even that much is enough to make it clear you've been keeping secrets from me, though. So what are you hiding, Merry?"

I considered my words for a moment. Denying having anything to hide outright would just push Renko to look further afield and take greater risks. I had to give her enough information to sate her curiosity without triggering her thirst for mystery.

"I'm not mad or anything," Renko said consolingly. "I understand you just don't want me wandering off anywhere dangerous before my eyesight comes back. That’s why you haven’t told me anything, right?"

"Whether that’s it or not, if I tell you about it now you’ll definitely try to stick your nose into it, won’t you?"

"Well once my eyes are working again, probably. These last few days have made me realize just how much I depend on them, even for tasks you wouldn't think of as being visual." Renko sighed and laid back down on her futon, lacing her fingers behind her head as she stretched out. "I'm stuck here with only a fraction of the information you have, Merry, but I know that you and the doctor and maybe some of the others here are colluding on something. Something that has to do with the distortion in the sky that injured me, I suspect. If not, I can't imagine why I'm still being treated here rather than having been sent back home to recover."

There was nothing I could tell her to ease her mind without drawing her deeper in. Instead I reached out and laid a hand on her cheek. "It'll be okay, Renko. We're not in any danger here and I'm not being asked to do anything horrible. Once you've recovered I'll tell you all about it. Then you can dream up some crazy conspiracy about the whole affair to tell me, okay?"

"...Well, that’s assuming that you would ask enough questions for me to draw a conclusion on your own."

Renko brought one hand up to cup the one I had on her cheek, as if to confirm my presence beside her. If it had been me who had lost my sight, I'd want to feel her hands too. I imagined the feel of her fingers tracing my face again. Now wasn't the time to be lost in such selfish sensation, however. I swallowed a sigh and shook myself out of my introversion.

"It's late, and more rest can only help you heal. We should both sleep now, Renko."

"You want to sleep with me, Merry? How forward. It's a bit sudden, but I bet we can both fit in this futon."

"I didn't say I wanted to sleep with you, Renko, I said I wanted to sleep."

"Well I'm not sure how you expect me to fall asleep when I'm wide awake over here. Maybe Merry could help make me sleepy?"

"Oh, I'll knock you out alright!" I said, pinching my partner's nose shut.

"Ahh, let me go, this is too rough, Merry. You're abusing the disabled!"

"Good night, Renko." I said with a tone of finality. I released her and rolled away onto my side, closing my eyes and willing my heart to stop thrumming in my chest.

—

I'm pretty sure my sleep was dreamless. I must have slept soundly though, because I awoke feeling refreshed rather than sleep-deprived. I opened my eyes, expecting to see the gently swaying scenery of the bamboo forest lit by the warm spring sun outside.

Instead, there was only darkness in the room.

My first instinct was to panic, thinking that somehow I had lost my vision too. After a few minutes, however, my eyes adjusted enough to be able to discern that I wasn't blind, I was merely in a room with closed doors in the middle of the night. Confused, I sat up, wishing I had a clock nearby. I felt well rested enough that it couldn't still be the same night as I had fallen asleep on, but not so languid that I could have been sleeping for a full day.

As I was thinking this, I felt a small, dense weight settle on top of the quilt I was under. I thought at first that Renko might have turned over in her sleep and kicked a foot onto me, but as I stared into the darkness, I was able to discern that it was in fact…

"A rabbit?"

It was one of the inaba that always accompanied Tewi. As I peered at it, the bunny hopped around on my futon as if trying to get my attention.

"What is it?" I asked, slipping out of the bedding as quietly as possible so as not to disturb Renko. As I did so, the bunny hopped a step in front of me, leading me towards the door. Reaching it, I slid the door open —and gasped at what I saw there.

The moon was distorted, far more so than it had been. Stretched and unnatural it loomed enormously in the sky, big enough to overshadow anything else.

"Oh, are you awake now?"

Tewi was sitting on the edge of the porch, just outside the door waiting with her rabbits. I turned to her with a look of shock.

"What's going on?"

"Dunno. Something's happening though and the Master thinks it's about to get worse. It's supposed to be morning by now but the sun hasn't come up and there are some strangers in the forest. Master asked me to come get you."

"It's morning right now? Are you sure?" My eyes turned to the enormous, distorted moon again.

"Apparently time is messed up all over Gensokyo. Clocks aren't moving and the night stretches on in bursts and fits. Someone's doing something."

"Someone's messing with time? Who could..." Before I could even finish the thought, the image of the Scarlet Devil Mansion and its maid appeared in my mind. Surely the lady of that place would have taken notice of the twisted moon. Could she have dispatched her servant to undo Eirin's work? If Sakuya was trying to get the moon back to normal, maybe Reimu and Marisa were with her. That's what I imagined at the time, not having known about the events I related in the previous chapter yet.

At any rate, if Reimu wasn't involved yet, with time being disrupted like this, she was sure to get involved soon.

"Anyway, she asked me to bring you to her, so let's not keep the Master waiting."

"Right, of course," I said, looking nervously back toward our room.

I followed Tewi as she led me through the moonlit garden back toward the mansion. If Sakuya or any of the other Incident Resolvers were coming here, I can't imagine what Eirin might expect me to be able to do. It was quite possible that, living in isolation, Eirin had never heard of Marisa or Sakuya or possibly even Reimu, unless Tewi had told her. She had prepared defenses against pursuers from the moon, but how would she react to a flying shrine maiden or a maid who could stop time? Moreover what did she expect me to be able to do against them, I wondered. Was it possible that she might mistake them for Lunarians?

If that were the case, I would need to explain things to Eirin. Maybe if I was lucky, a conflict could even be avoided altogether. At the very least I might be able to prevent her from treating anyone who might be coming as if they were alien invaders intent on capturing her and the princess. I might not be useful for whatever purpose Eiren had intended, but maybe I could be helpful in another way. With my mind made up, I hurried toward the entrance to the mansion.


—20—


"Hey, don't run off, come this way." Tewi guided me around to the side of the mansion, and toward one of the doors opening onto the veranda. "You have to go in through this entrance right now, Reisen's got all of her traps up in the main entryway, you'd get lost there and never get out."

I nodded and followed her. I wondered if Reisen's ability to manipulate the phases of objects included not just stretching and compressing light and sound but also distorting space itself. Had the main hallway of the mansion actually been stretched out? In a way, her abilities seemed curiously similar to Sakuya's. Sakuya might not even be able to remember her life before she was given her current name, but could it be possible that she was a Lunarian?

I'm getting to be as bad as Renko when it comes to dreaming up fanciful conspiracies. I put such thoughts out of my mind as Tewi led the way through several interconnected Japanese-style rooms. I noted as we passed through them that each had their doors leading to the main corridor sealed on this side with powerful barriers. Probably to leave any attackers with only the trapped hallway as a means of progressing deeper into the mansion. Eventually we came to a small inner room with a door that faced the corridor and had not been sealed. Tewi pulled this aside to reveal Reisen, who was crouching behind it with her eyes turned to the corridor and glowing steadily. When she noticed Tewi there, she spoke but didn't look away.

"Oh, it’s you, Tewi. Why are you bringing that Earthling into the mansion?"

"Master's orders. Where is the master right now?"

"With the Princess, I think."

"Ah, you're here." Eirin had emerged from deeper down the corridor without a sound, stepping from around the corner of an intersecting hallway that divided the rest of the mansion into two wings.
As she neared, Reisen's eyes widened and she shrunk away. Eirin looked at me appraisingly.

"Tewi, thank you for bringing her here. Please return to the hallway with your inaba and await any intruders."

Tewi chuckled as she walked away. "Alright, but if anyone scary shows up, we'll run away."

"Tewi!" Reisen pleaded. "This is serious. Show some backbone."

"Unlike you and Master, we have no reason to fight whoever's coming. Besides, you wouldn't want us inaba to die and spread filth and impurity all over this lovely mansion, would you?"

Reisen groaned softly as Tewi grinned and bounded out of sight, disappearing into the invisible spatial convolutions of the hallway.

When Tewi had disappeared, Eirin turned to me. "Don't worry Maéreverie Hearn. You won't be asked to do anything dangerous. When the invaders from the moon arrive, all I need is to use your eyes to see through any wavelength manipulation they may attempt to conceal themselves. With Reisen busy maintaining this trap, I can't ask her to help me as well."

Unconsciously, I breathed a sigh of relief. It was clear though that Eirin was laboring under a false impression of who might be headed her way.

I cleared my throat and tried to sound authoritative. "Um... about the people who are coming to attack just now..." I began.

"Yes. With travel between the moon and Earth blocked there shouldn’t be any way for them to get here. All of these preparations are just an abundance of caution."

"It might not be the Lunarians who are coming. It might be an acquaintance of mine, in fact. Or several, maybe."

At my words Eirin's eyes flashed with a momentary expression of shock before her face once again smoothing into an impassive mask. "Who? The immortal? That half-youkai who was with you when you arrived?"

"Well, it's just a guess, but I think it might be a maid with the ability to manipulate time. Or possibly a shrine maiden who's a youkai exterminator. Or maybe a witch with a big laser. Or possibly all three of them."

"...a maid who manipulates time?"

I nodded. "Her name is Izayoi Sakuya. She's a maid at the Scarlet Devil Mansion on the lake to the north of here. If she thinks you're the one responsible for hiding the full moon, her mistress might have asked her to come look into it."

Eirin's face had turned terribly grim.

"She manipulates time, you said? Izayoi Sakuya, was it?"

"Yes... does any of that sound familiar to you, doctor?"

"No," Eirin said, tilting her head and resting her hand on her chin. "I'm sure it's just an odd coincidence. Whoever it might be doesn't matter though. My creation is nearly complete. As long as I have you here though, let's put you to wo—" She froze mid-sentence, suddenly looking up as if she had heard a sound no one else could. "Nevermind that. They’re here."

Saying this, Eirin led me into the hallway, sealing the last open doorway behind her. We moved through the corridor until we were looking at the entrance at the far end.

"Look there," she whispered, pointing through the front doors. "Can you see the intruders?"

I looked down the stretch of hallway leading to the entrance. To anyone else the distance between here and there would have seemed impossibly long, stretched out by the trap Reisen had set. My eyes could see past all of the illusions, though, toward the vestibule where four girls were moving together through the entryway, which must have seemed a much shorter distance to me than it did to them. I had expected to see Reimu, Marisa and Sakuya, but instead Reimu was absent and Alice and Remilia were prowling through the corridor along with the two humans, both unexpectedly far from their homes.

Could Remilia have become bored and decided to intervene on her own? Or did the distorted moon have some effect on her, I wondered. What about Alice for that matter? What was she doing here, and where was the shrine maiden, who I would have expected to show up for sure if the disturbance had been great enough to rouse either of those two from their nests?

"Do you know them?" Eirin asked. A mysterious smile played across her face as she did.

"Yes," I said, trying to sound resolute. "They're all acquaintances of mine."

"Are they all humans?"

"Two are. One's a Magician, and the one with the wings is a vampire. Probably."

"Hmm. More than just youkai. That should be fine. If they know you, then even more so."

I turned my head to stare questioningly at her.

"Please excuse me," she said, and placed a hand over my eyes.

—suddenly, as if a switch had been flipped, I lost consciousness, slipping into a deep, all-encompassing darkness.


—21—


Of course, if I had died then, I wouldn't be able to tell you this story now. While spirits and ghosts are not uncommon in Gensokyo, if I were to be killed by a youkai in the course of investigating an Incident, I would have much more pressing haunting of Renko for getting me into this mess to accomplish, leaving little opportunity for writing. So although I survived that night and was present, I was completely insensible to the battle that took place between Reisen, Eirin, and Marisa's band of rag-tag troublemakers. To simply end my narrative here though would make for a poor climax and leave my readers with little hope of solving the mysteries of Eientei.

Therefore, I hope you will indulge me in again offering a third-person account of events, fabricated from testimony gathered from multiple witnesses who were also present. These were the events of the first climax of the Eternal Night Incident as I came to understand them.

✱ ✱ ✱

The four of them proceeded down the seemingly endless hallway, kicking the occasional floating, danmaku-spraying youkai rabbit out of their path as they did so.

"This hallway is as long as the one in our mansion. Sakuya, there's no need for that now, stop doing weird things."

"Someone's doing something weird to the space in this corridor, but it isn't me, Milady."

A moment later, a pocket of space in front of them twisted, bulging like the world seen through a droplet of rain on a window. The impossible angles and reflections in the bulge began to resolve and all at once, standing in front of the four of them, a dozen meters down the hall was a girl dressed in a skirt and blazer with two springy rabbit ears rising from the top of her head.

"You're too late!" Reisen declared. "I've sealed all of the doors. You'll never take the princess away now!"

Marisa, at the head of the group, continued walking, seeming not to notice the rabbit girl, her arms crossed behind her head as she talked to Alice. "Seriously, this corridor is so long and dark, who would want that?"

Alice and the others stopped short as Marisa continued to walk. "Marisa, don't you think we should pay attention to her? That girl who just appeared in front of you?"

Marisa stopped and turned to Alice with a scoff. "What, the rabbit? Why bother?"

Sakuya stepped forward, brandishing a knife in her hand. "Because of her eyes. That redness is strange. As a fellow manipulator of space, my intuition tells me she's the one making this corridor so long." She turned to address Reisen directly. "So is this all your doing then? Are you the one responsible for the changes to the moon?"

"She looks shifty, Sakuya. Only a villain or a fool would stand before me with so defiant an expression." Remilia said from the back of the line, stepping around Sakuya to see.

Despite her triumphant declaration upon revealing herself, Reisen seemed confused. "Hold on, you're all Earthlings, aren't you? What are all of you doing awake at this time of night?"

"Seriously Alice, think about it. No matter how good you were at cleaning, just imagine trying to wash this hallway, it'd take you all day!"

"It would still take less time and effort than trying to clean your house, Marisa. Now can you please focus on the enemy ahead of us?"

Marisa's continued ignorance didn't help any with Reisen's confusion. "So are you all just a bunch of night-dwelling weirdos who wandered in?" she asked. "If you're just here to steal something, then just turn around and leave, we're busy here."

Marisa finally seemed to take notice of Reisen, and turned her head to address her. "What, you think anyone awake at this hour must be a burglar? In that case, hello, fellow thief."

Alice sighed and walked past Marisa, palming her out of the way. "She'll never get to the point, so I will. Is the distorted moon in the sky something you or one of your cohort's caused?"

"The moon? I guess you noticed our spell..."

"I knew it!" Sakuya cut in, brandishing her knife. "Anything that smells rotten must be dealt with at its source, as they say. I should warn you that I'm very good at cleaning."

"I'm surprised that a bunch of impure beings who live their lives by crawling around in the impurity of the Earth could even notice our work."

Remilia snickered, walking forward to stand beside Marisa and Alice. "Impure though we may be, I happen to be an impure creature who spends her time gazing at the heavens. I'd notice if anyone ruined my view of the moon."

Marisa whipped out her hakkero and struck a pose. "Yeah! You can return the moon quietly now, or return it after we rough ya up some! Take your pick!"

Alice glared at her. "That was going to be my line!"

Before anyone could respond, a new voice interrupted. It belonged to a tall, silver-haired woman dressed in red and blue. She emerged from somewhere further down the corridor, suddenly appearing out of twisted space in the same way, holding an asymmetrical bamboo longbow in one hand.

"There's no way we can return the moon just yet."

Sakuya adjusted her aim toward the newcomer. "Who're you?"

Remilia piped up before Eirin could respond. "She's the villain, Sakuya. You can tell that with one glance at that villainous face."

"What a cruel thing to say. Am I a villain for creating a seal around the Earth? Judge me if you will, but what I did I did for the sake of the princess, and for this girl as well," she said, laying a hand on Reisen's shoulder.

"If you're going to say something that villainous, there's no way we can leave until we've beaten you," Sakuya said with a fierce smile.

Eirin sighed and turned to recede into the darkness of the endless corridor, saying "Udonge, I'll leave this to you."

"I'll take care of it, Master. I won't let a single one of these sealed doors be opened."

Marisa scoffed. "Chatterin’ away like that and then just running away? It’s like she’s sayin’ ‘hey come beat me up next.’"

"That might be what she wants, Marisa. We don't know if she's the culprit behind this or not. She could just be trying to draw us away. If we go after the wrong target, it'll be morning before we know it."

"Let's focus on one thing at a time," Sakuya interrupted. "We have a path before us, let's follow it and deal with this rabbit first."

"How boring, Sakuya, must you always follow the well-trod path?" Remilia said, bemusedly.

"Just stick to the straight and narrow and overwhelm any opposition with pure force. That's the best way to avoid complaints," Sakuya replied.

Reisen stood defiantly in place, her eyes glowing. "The path you should have followed is already behind you. Too bad you can't turn back now."

"We won't be turning back, rabbit." Remilia's smile was all fangs as she coiled herself, ready to spring forward.

"Don't you realize you've already fallen into a moon rabbit's trap? Your sense of direction has already gone insane. Left, right, up down, you have no idea where I am. If you tried to fly at me you'd just float around aimlessly. All there is for any of you to do now is look into my eyes and lose yourself to lunacy entirely!"

✱ ✱ ✱

"Well, I dunno what kind of rabbit she is, but she's definitely a rabbit." Marisa said, unhelpfully, as she looked down at Reisen's prone form. Squatting, she poked one of the crumpled, singed ears extending from the girl's head. Reisen groaned faintly but didn't move from where she lay. "A vampire and a human who can manipulate time teaming up against one little bunny seems a little unfair though, don't you think?"

"It saves time and effort for you, though, so why are you complaining?" Sakuya replied, aloofly.

"Well, fair or not, the bigger question is whether or not the moon's fixed." She looked at Alice expectantly.

"No, she wasn't the one doing this," the magician replied. "My magic is still affected. It must have been that other one. " She turned toward the end of the hallway, impossibly distant, disappearing into darkness as it proceeded further into the mansion.

Reisen coughed then spoke weakly without rising. "You may have beaten me, but my master is incomparably stronger. Do you really think you stand a chance?"

The four of them looked at eachother.

"Easily," said Alice.

"Doubtlessly," said Sakuya.

"Overwhelmingly," grinned Remilia.

"Let’s keep moving, Milady. If we follow that woman from before, I’m sure we can have this wrapped up before dawn." Remilia nodded and the two of them floated ahead, into the darkness.

Reisen stared incredulously at the pair as they moved past her then twisted back around to address Marisa and Alice. "You're all fools then. My master is the greatest mind lunar society has ever produced."

"Hey, you stupid or somethin'? You don't need brains for danmaku. Danmaku's all about power." Marisa started along the corridor as well, heading into the gathering gloom.

Alice followed behind her with a sigh. "Comments like that are why people think you're dumb. Of course danmaku is about brains, Marisa, that's just common sense."

Before long the back of the silver-haired woman in red and blue came into view. Hearing the footsteps of the approaching intruders, she turned, smiling.

"Good, you're following me." Without another word, she turned and took flight, quickly fading into the deep shadows.

Marisa raised the Hakkero, extending her arm while calling "Hey, wait!"

"Who would wait when you're pointing that thing at them? Talk or shoot, not both." Alice griped.

"That 𝘸𝘢𝘴 me talkin'! Now I shoot." Motes of light began to gather and streak toward the seams in the Hakkero as she aimed the deadly laser…

"I'd refrain from using your power so crudely if I were you," called a voice from ahead.

Energy continued to gather as the trigram furnace hummed, but Marisa didn't release the spell, instead peering into the darkness ahead. A figure was emerging there —the woman they had been pursuing, but carrying something in her arms.

Marisa's eyes widened as she saw that the object hanging limply in the woman's arms was a girl's body.

"Wait, Marisa! Talk, don't shoot. That's— "

Marisa lowered the Hakkero, which ceased its rumbling as the gathered power dispersed. "I know. You don’t have to tell me twice, that’s Merry!"

There was no mistaking the familiar face of the girl Eirin was carrying. Familiar, but wholly unexpected. Limp and unresponsive, Maéreverie Hearn, one half of the pair of strange Outsiders that seemed to always find a way to get caught up in any incident was laid across both of the mastermind's arms.

"Who is that?" Remilia asked as she caught up. "It's Flan's favorite mortal, isn't it?"

Sakuya was right beside Remilia, following her gaze. "It would seem that hostage-taking is all we can expect from the greatest mind lunar society has ever produced."

"I don’t expect that this will hold you at bay forever, but I only need to keep things as they are until the night of the full moon has passed. You wouldn’t want someone you know to get hurt over something that doesn’t concern you anyway, would you?"

"Don't worry Sakuya. I'll forgive you for any collateral damage. You may proceed."

"Even if you say that, my lady, the young miss would rip me apart if I hurt her."

"Wasn't Keine supposed to be protectin' those two? What’s she doin’ here?"

"Pointing fingers won't help anyone," Sakuya replied coolly. "This is a hostage situation now, and we'll have to deal with that." She stepped forward and called out to Eirin who was keeping her distance, just barely visible in the dark shadows of the corridor. "What do you intend to do with that girl?"

"She will be well cared for. Once our work is complete she will be returned to you along with the full moon. Until then, I'll have to ask you to leave. This girl will stay with me to ensure your compliance," came the response.

"Marisa, what should we do?" Alice whispered.

"Whaddaya mean 'what should we do?' We talked, now we shoot." She grinned and began striding forward.

"Either way, taking a hostage makes her a clear villain." Remilia agreed. "So we just need to quickly clean her up and get the full moon back. Sakuya, I trust I can leave such chores to you?"

The silver knife gleamed, shining in the darkness. "As you wish, Milady."

✱ ✱ ✱

Thus, the four of them pursued Eirin, who had turned to fly down the endless corridor with me in her arms. It would not be inaccurate to say that the role I played in this incident could be summed up as ‘bait.’

This characterization would not have surprised any of the four women pursuing Eirin to hear. They had expected to be drawn into a trap the moment they began the pursuit. Knowing that Eirin was not only a hostage taker but also likely to be the culprit behind the moon's disappearance, however, they pursued her without hesitation, allowing her to lead them deeper and deeper into the illusory tunnel.

The hallway seemed endless. Flying now, they chased Eirin's receding figure through the continuously repeating passage. The air grew colder, and the darkness more all-encompassing as they went, but such hindrances hardly mattered. The faster they flew, the faster Eirin seemed to move as well, matching their pace and always staying tantalizingly out of reach, just barely visible. It seemed the corridor might proceed forever, until all at once it simply wasn't there any more. The darkness had grown deeper and deeper and the pressure of the walls had grown fainter and fainter until, suddenly, the hallway vanished altogether.

✱ ✱ ✱

What surrounded them now instead was —nothing. Absolute emptiness. A vast, dark, featureless void without any character or interruption, expanding endlessly in every direction. The only discernible object of any kind was the illusory moon before them. Enormous now, closer than ever, and too large to see all of at once.

"Oh, the corridor ended… where are we?"

"Marisa, look around!"

"I'm lookin'. Somehow we ended up outside."

"Outside indeed."

The four women turned to see Eirin's figure silhouetted against the sickly light of the distorted moon. "The eternal corridor has led you all quite a bit outside the world you know. How's the air in space, by the way?"

"By which you mean that there is air here at all…Marisa! Something’s wrong. This moon and the stars, they’re all…" Alice cried as she looked around.

"You’ve been calling ‘Marisa’ ‘Marisa’ for a while now, can’t you do something about this yourself?" Marisa grumbled, adjusting her hat while taking in the scene.

"Dammit, we fell for it, Sakuya. That’s not the moon!" Remilia grimaced and clicked her tongue.

"Certainly, it does seem a little large. That would be because we’re closer to it, I suppose."

The giant fake moon hung in the air, blocking the path between the moon and the Earth. Just before it the lunar sage hovered in place, facing off against four Earthlings who sought to reclaim the full moon’s light. One lunarian standing in defiant opposition, determined to conceal her princess from the world’s eyes.