The Elements Of Gensokyo - Act One: Borderful Infestation Parasite

[[Y]oukai [J]esus]

---Ranna

Yuuka Kazami, the Youkai of Flawahs, turns her head to the side and looks at Mokou and Ranna. Slowly, she stands up, and the sunflowers seem to tilt upwards, facing Yuuka. She seems to have a cheerful face, with a constant smile on it. She holds up her pink parasol, spinning it slightly.

"Mokou. And a human. My, my, what Yukari said really was true." Yuuka's still smiling,

"Y-Yeah! S... S-So, w-what are ya' doin' h-here?" Mokou stutters, her voice showing fear.

"Cat got your tongue, Immortal?" Yuuka's smile widens a little bit, and she stops spinning her parasol.

"K-Kinda..." Mokou's bluntly honest, obviously afraid of Yuuka. Her arms are shaking too.

"I bet you remembered what I did to Kaguya, didn't you?"

Mokou gasps, before turning away. "J-Just tell us, why are ya'ere?"

"I made myself at home here. No one bothers me, and I'm living peacefully in a house of a human."

"A-A human? Who w- I mean, I see..."

"Now if you excuse me, I have some tending to do." And with that, Yuuka walks off, deeper into the park, leaving the shaking Mokou and Ranna alone. A short conversation, but even that, was enough to make Mokou fearful. Terrified, even more so then when she encountered Chaos.

"Why are you shaking so much?" Ranna asks.

"It's Yuuka. YUUKA. She's as strong as Mima and that other vampire sister. She can rip me to shreds in an instant if I'm not completely defending."

"Bu-"

"And I'm Immortal."

Well, that explaination was enough. One of the strongest Youkai is in the outside. But... Why? Ranna also has seen a black orb floating across the skies.

---

Nanaya tilts her head facing to the ground, before walking in her face so red that it could just release steam now. She stepped into the bathroom, before Newan came in too. Nanaya closed her eyes, beginning to mumble to herself, concentrating really hard. Come on... There has to be... something... Like a phantasm! Like Fate/Stay Night... Like... Like...

The bathroom seemed to wobble. The door slammed shut, the room glowed blue. It's walls melted into pure energy, the celling expanded, the floor colapsed. The bathroom reformed into a big, expensive room. With a bigass tub and everything. Nanaya opens her eyes. Now there was completely no energy left from Katelin inside of her. This was the last time she could use power, and the bathroom would fade back to normal when Nanaya left it.

"Like what I did?" Nanaya smirks, tilting her head to the right happily.

"Y-Yeah! It looks awesome!" Came from a quite excited Newan.

Nanaya pushed a button on the wall, and cold water began flowing into the bathtub. In an instant, Nanaya threw the towel she was wearing on Newan's face, jumping into the tub. "Yeah. Cold water. Awesum." She then turned to Newan. "I-If you want... I-I can make it warm if you w-w-wanna come in..."

[Aya Squawkermaru]

I've resigned myself to be okay with this. "U-um, sure... t-thanks..." Normally I'd just turn the heat up, but this isn't really my bathroom anymore... Newan looked around the room. Still, this is really nice... Even if I'm not poor, I'm not exactly rich, either... Once the water warmed up a bit, he gingerly took his clothes off and walked over to the bath, before getting in and sitting far away from Nanaya, facing away. "Um... I know co-ed baths are normal in Japan, but I'm still not used to it... S-sorry..."

---

The mouse sat there, watching. It's tiny brain couldn't comprehend why Big Mouse Nazrin would want to see something so unrelated to food or cats, but it continued to watch anyway. After all, food was food.

[GuyYouMetOnline]

"We're all scouts," Aesera said, "all four of us. We're going to visit the shrine as, well, visitors, and get a good look around as we do. Alice, what you said you can do with your dolls is more than enough. As visitors, we won't be able to examine the entire shrine; I doubt Kanjou will allow us into his bedroom, for instance. We won't be able to explore the entire shrine ourselves, so that, Alice, is where you come in."

"You know," Kanako said, "I really should be used to how well you've adapted to all of this by now, but it still manages to surprise me."

Aesera simply continued. "I want you to do two things, Alice. First, I want you to use your dolls to scout out the areas of the shrine that we will not be able to enter without arousing suspicions. And second, I want you to leave a couple dolls hidden within the shrine. If you can see through them, then we can use that to keep an eye on Kanjou while we meet up with the others. Then once Mokou arrives, we'll use her as a fake attacker to convince Kanjou he's in danger. That way, he'll be more likely to believe us when we tell him that. And then when the real danger arrives, we eliminate it."

[[Y]oukai [J]esus]

Nanaya faces the wall as the water turns warm, and Newan steps in... All the way at the other side of the tub. Nanaya mumbled to herself after Newan said that it was... uncomfortable for co-ed baths to involve him. His name already did imply that he's from America or something, but whatever. Nanaya's name is also Katelin, anyway...

She slowly slid to the other side of the tub, hugging Newan from behind. With a flinch, Newan slowly turned his head back.

"W-What are you doing?"

"Silly boy. I want us to be to-ge-ther" Nanaya forced herself to not stutter, and hugged Newan closer, her face burning red. Her breasts press against Newan's back, causing his pillar to rise considerably. Newan, as the stable, fully controlled person he is, is able to not just go off and make love to Nanaya. Nanaya trails her finger along Newan's chest, before she licks his cheek.

"I wonder, when will you remember your past. and all the lives before the current one." Nanaya then backs away, her face still scorching red. It was at this moment, that she spots the mouse, who she splashes water on, sending it running out of the bathroom, never to return.

After a further, uneventful bath, where the two Ns' help each other wash up. Nothing more, they walk out of the bathroom, the room slowly turning back to normal.

(I'm too lazy to write a proper scene thing. Anyway, everything will turn serious once we reach Izumo.)

[Sonae]

Ranna watches dully as the conversation plays out before her. She didn't get why Mokou was so afraid of her. Though she acted as though she was quite strong, Ranna wasn't sure if she was scarier than what they first encountered in Gensokyo, but she had a feeling Chaos was much more fearsome. More fearsome than whatever Gensokyo could throw at them.
Mokou, after a few deep breaths, finally calmed down and headed towards the house. Ranna however didn't move. Her mind's gears were turning, and quickly at that. They was so many questions. Almost too many. ....Something....doesn't seem right... As Mokou called to her, she snapped out of her daze and followed her back into the house.

After returning to the house, Ranna promptly got dressed and stuck town pieces of bread into this strange machine. Ranna told Mokou it was a toaster, but she didn't quite get it. She waited and waited, but nothing happened. She wondered what was the point of a machine that just ate bread, but when Ranna came down and poked it it spit out the bread, solving the problem. As the two muched on their toast, Ranna decided to start a discussion.
"Mokou what do you think?" She says quietly
"What do i think about what?" Mokou asked looking a little confused.
"About Yuuka"
At the mention of Yuuka, Mokou twitches slightly. "W-what about 'er?"
Ranna looks at Mokou, her expression is serious. without speaking she gazes out the window.
"I don't buy it."
"Buy what?"
"Yuuka's story. It's too...strange..." She said, remembering how cruel humans could be. "There's no way she could live peacefully here without getting bothered by Humans."
"Huh...Why ya say that?"
"Because..." She pauses. "...Humans like to ruin other Human's lives."
"But she's not-"
Ranna shoots Mokou a glare. That meant, you know what I meant.
"Eehh...." Mokou voices.
Ranna thinks for a moment. "Hey...have any youkai, or humans, from Gensokyo moved out here before?"
"Uh..." Mokou scratches her head. "Not that I know of"
"Exactly. I'm pretty sure that people can't just come and go as they please" Shr said, "Well...except for Yukari..."
Mokou nods.
Ranna then realizes. Wait a second...didn't she... She looks at Mokou wide eyed.
Mokou just blinks at her, looking convused.
"Didn't she say Yukari at the start?"
Mokou looks like she just remembered sometghing and starts thinking. "Yeh, ur right..."
"Why would she mention Yukari?
"Uh...Maybe Yukarin gaped her here?"
Ranna shook her head. "No not that, but it's what she said."
Mokou stays silent but still looks confused
"She said Yukari told her something"
Mokou looked shocked for a momemt then serious. "So that means..."
"....Yukari is leaking information about us"
The two look at eachother and give a complicated look. With that last line the conversation ended and the two of them focused on finishing their toast, the building wrapped in silence

[GuyYouMetOnline]

"Okay," Aesera said, "we've got things to do. Kanako, contact Mokou and tell her the plan. And warn her that we may be looking at the involvement of people from Gensokyo. Get that warning out to everyone else after that. Do it while we move, though. Come on, people, let's get going."

As Aesera led the way out of the room, Kanako contacted Mokou. [Mokou, Aesera and I are leaving for the shrine right now with Alice and Alyssa. We're going to scout out the shrine before meeting up with you and the others. And be careful; we just discovered that there's a good likelyhood of people from Gensokyo being on the other side. Have you seen any evidence of this?]

--------------------------

OOC: Sonae, definitely be sure that Mokou tells Kanako that Yuka mentioned hearing something from Yukari. I'll be having some fun with Aesera's reaction to that one.

[Aya Squawkermaru]

As they exited the bathroom, Newan turned around to see that it had reverted back to his old bathroom. He let out a sigh of disappointment. "And it was so large and fancy..." He then turned back to Nanaya. "Well, I'm going to go get some things ready for the trip. I should be done in a few minutes." He went into his room, and began looking around. First, Money for the fare. Let's see, the website said one way was just under 20,000, there are three of us going both ways... oh boy, that's a lot. Too bad they don't have a JR pass. He let out a sad sigh as he opened up his wallet. ...I guess I'll have to use a debit card. At least I know I have enough there.

He sat down in his chair, and looked around the room again. An umbrella is a must, but I only have one, so we'll need to stop at the department store to get a new one. I'm not sure if I have enough bento boxes for all three of us, so I'll want to check that later and buy some at the store. Normally I'd bring a first-aid kit for this type of thing, but we have that healer girl. ...Doesn't change the fact that this whole ordeal is going to empty my wallet. He slumped back in the chair, before finally noticing the state of his room.

His bed was completely messed up with... damp... covers... he decided to ignore that for now. He had noticed a few things on his laptop, but he looked back at it to see that Nanaya had filled his computer with games and movies. On his bed was a note between the frog and the stuffed hedgehog; we walked over to open it, to find a note that said "Here's the money for the trip later," along with... 60k yen. His eyes widened at the site. "How did she...?"

---

Nazrin waited for Newan to enter his room, then stepped out into the hallway for some good, old-fashioned trolling. "Why, hello there, Nanaya. You two sure had some fun in there, didn't you? You turned him on as easily as you turned on the water~"

[[Y]oukai [J]esus]

Nanaya gave a quick shove to Nazrin, smiling all the time. "Listen. You can't troll me when I'm alone. You of all people would know that, little mouse." Nanaya proceeded to give Nazrin's forehead a little flick. "You've trolled me when I was with Newan... B-But that's d-different!" Her voice stuttered, remembering all those... She shook her head, and proceeded to flick Nazrin's forehead once more, getting a squeak from her.

"Go troll him instead of me, or something. I have things to do." And with that, Nanaya walked off into the guest bedroom, taking out Nazrin's bag and pulling clothes that she somehow sneaked in, a blue t-shirt with some... Still-frozen Ice crystals? They're in the shape of a 9 surrounded by a ball. She also pulled out a short, black skirt and kneesocks. No idea how she got that all into Nazrin's bag with all that cheese in there.

After wearing them, she proceeded to sit in the sofa in the living room, turning the TV on to find some anime to watch. This is Japan, anyway.


(Short post is short, and a surprise will come soon enough. Killing And Joking Over U)

[Sonae]

Mokou twitched suddenly, drawing Ranna's attention to her.
"...What's wrong?" Ranna asked.
"It's another Message from Kanako" Mokou says.
Ranna blinks and looks forward, out the window. "Tell me" she says lowly.
Mokou nods slightly and repeats the message. "The four of 'em are gonna scout the shrine before we all meet up" She says.
Ranna listens silently.
Mokou then gasps slightly, her eyes wide. "She says....to be careful. That there's a good chance that, people from Gensokyo are..."
Ranna's eyes widen. The two look at eachother seriously. Time seems to freeze for just a moment, then the two get up and move around quickly.
"Tell her we'll be heading there soon...." Ranna paused and thought about it. "...Tell her sunset. That's when we'll be there. Also tell them to send some sort of signal, so we know where to find them" She said as she quickly cleaned up the table and put things away.
Mokou looks at her for a moment, wanting to ask something, but she remains silent.
"I'm going to prepare a bit" Ranna says as she heads up the stairs. Mokou's voice stops her though.
"Should I tell them about Yuuka?" She asks.
The room goes silent again. Ranna thinks for a bit then answers. "Tell her...we haven't been attacked...but we'll be cautious"
Mokou looks at her, completely confused. Before she has a chance to protest Ranna heads up the stairs, disappearing from view. Mokou clenches her teeth. I can't just ignore her presence....she's dangerous...and if she's on the other side... Mokou frowns and looks down.
Kanako. We'll be there by sunset, and.....while we haven't been attacked...we've met someone really dangerous... An uneasy expression came over her face as she stared out the window. A bad feeling looming over her.

((Perfect oppurtunity to use it!))

-Achievement - Bird Of Eternity - Use

[Sampson]

(Finally, free time!)

Gale stared at the shadowy figure before him, unsure of how to react.

"Orin," he said loudly.  "Wake.  Up."

Orin grumbled to herself and rolled over in the bed.

"Ah...okay then.  Uh, who are you?  Are you...Meira?" he said to the figure.

[Aya Squawkermaru]

Nazrin stammered as Nanaya brushed her off like it was nothing. "But... but..." Her posture drooped as she sighed in disappointment. "You're no fun, Nana..." Then, her ears perked up as she remembered something. That's right... there's still Newan... all hope is not lost!

---

Newan heard a knock at the door, and absent-mindedly answered with a half-hearted "come in."

The door opened to reveal a troll. "Hello, Newan.How was your bath?"

"Oh, it was fine," Newan answered. He had no reason to believe that Nazrin knew that it hadn't been just his bath.

"Oh? Just fine? You have high standards, now, don't you?" Nazrin asked, her sly grin appearing.

Newan froze. "...What do you mean?"

"Well, if sharing a bath with Nanaya and having her press her breasts against you is just fine, you must have pretty high standards," Nazrin explained, faking innocence. "Soon, I'll bet your hinger won't even be satisfied by se-" she was cut off by Newan slamming the door on her.

---

Newan sighed as he sat back in his chair. So annoying... She seemed like a good enough person at first, but now that Nanaya's gotten... super physical, it's like she trolling me 24/7. Why do I even put up with her?

---

Nazrin walked down the stairs, then slumped in the couch near Nanaya, pouting. "Meanie..." She pictured Newan, scolding her. He's so mean... I was just trying to have a little fun...

Well, excuse me for being annoyed at her trolling. Stupid brain, making me feel guilty...

Nazrin jumped a bit. Wait, you heard that?!

Eh?! You're really Nazrin, not just my mind imitating you?

Y-yeah... It's just like when I was talking to Kanako and the cat. I wonder how long we've been able to do this?

I don't know, either...

[[Y]oukai [J]esus]

(Finally, free time!)

Gale stared at the shadowy figure before him, unsure of how to react.

"Orin," he said loudly.  "Wake.  Up."

Orin grumbled to herself and rolled over in the bed.

"Ah...okay then.  Uh, who are you?  Are you...Meira?" he said to the figure.

Meira isnt in front of you! Shes a black figure like 100 miles away with a killing intent.

[Aya Squawkermaru]

(Edited previous post so I can finally have Newan and Nazrin discover their telepathy. Up next on the discovery train, talking to Xera! If Nanaya is half of Katelin, and Newan is half of Xera, it stands to reason he can talk to her. Of course I'm not crazy.)

[GuyYouMetOnline]

"We may have a problem," Kanako said. "Mokou tells me that she's already run into someone. She said that they weren't attacked, but that it was someone dangerous."

"Okay," Aesera said, "ask her who it was. Also ask her if whoever it was seemed to know about our little group, and if so, ask if she has any clue how this person knows about us."

"All right." [Mokou, who was it that you met? And Aesera would also like me to ask if this person knew about our group, and if so, if you have any idea how she might have come to know about us.]

[Sonae]

Mokou looked at the staircase, still feeling uneasy.
Yuuka...It was Yuuka. I don't think Ranna wants us to gang up on her though. She looked back out the window before turrning and heading out the the backyard.
Thud.
Mokou had leapt onto the roof and she sat on the front side of the roof, facing the street. She looked around carefully. She sighed in relief seeing that Yuuka hadn't come back. She gazed out at the sky. The bad part is though... She thought about it for a moment. She wondered why Yuuka mentioned her. Was Yukari on Chaos's side? Or was Yukari the cause of all this? Or was Yuuka not involved? There were too many questions. Mokou let out a frustrated groan and sent another message to Kanako.
She mentioned Yukari.

[Sampson]

(Oh.  I read it as her being close and blocking the sun that way and I'll shut up now)

All of a sudden, Gale felt very silly.  The figure was a bit further away than what he had originally assumed.  That's what I get for doing things in the morning.

"Ugh..." groaned Orin, who had finally gotten up and was now behind her partner.  "What are you talking about?"

"Nothing.  Absolutely nothing."

"That's great."  Orin looked at the figure that was very far away.   Yeah, far away.  "I don't want to know."

"Neither do I," said Gale.  "Anyway, what do you have planned?  You're the one used to the absurd, after all."

Orin shrugged.  "You said something about a guy dying today?  I guess we can start there."

"We know incredibly little about the guy, though," said Gale.  "There are a lot of people in Japan."

"Well, the others might now," said Orin.  "Remember, the telepathy?"

Gale glared at her.  "Of course I remember.  Go ahead, do your thing."

"By all means, Mr. Poor-Social-Skills-Without-Any-Particular-Desire-To-Improve-Upon-Them."

"That was absurdly long, Wendy."

"Who?"

"It doesn't matter.  Just start with the telepathy."

Orin sighed, rolling her eyes, and concentrated on sending her thoughts out.  She remembered the mouse Nazrin, and directed her message to her.

Uh...hey.  Nazrin.  You awake?

[Aya Squawkermaru]

Nazrin and Newan's conversation was cut off by a message from Orin. Nazrin switched her attention to the cat. [Y-yeah. Why, what's up?] I hope talking to the cat doesn't become a routine... even if she is more civilized than the other one, she's still a cat.

(Oh man, short post is short. Also, I think the brackets thing is a good idea. Good job, GuyIMetOnline.)

[Sampson]

(Ooh, it is a good idea...)

Orin's ears perked when she received the reply from Nazrin.

[Have you heard anything about this dude--Tamashii Kanjou--that's gonna die today?]

She turned to Gale.  "Anything else you know about him?"

"No.  The email didn't say where he lived or anything like that."

[Aya Squawkermaru]

[All we know is that it's supposed to happen at 11:30 P.M. in Izumo City,] Nazrin responded. [I'm thinking our group will probably leave relatively soon so that we have time to get our bearings and such.]

[[Y]oukai [J]esus]

(I see many Orphea.Russ styled posts. Anyway...)
Ranna used Bird Of Eternity!
>gained Feathered Charm! (necklace)
>Mokou can now summon Kaguya(Gensokyo)

[Sampson]

[Okie-dokie.  We'll try to make it, too.]

"Yeah, so it looks like the dude's gonna kick the bucket in Izumo City at eleven-thirty.  So we should leave?  I have no idea where that is."

"It's a city in Japan.  I'm not entirely sure where it is.  Let me check..." said Gale, opening the laptop on his desk.

After a few minutes of typing and searching and loading, Gale closed the device.  "It's four hours away.  What fun."

"Yeah, yeah," muttered Orin.  She turned to face the menacing figure in the sun.

She visualized its form, and tried sending her thoughts to it.  So...can ya hear me, sun lady?

[Aya Squawkermaru]

(...It's already 7:30 P.M.? Wow, you guys slept a LONG time.

And yeah, one-purposed conversations like this tend to be kinda short.)

[Sampson]

(I could've sworn it said AM....brb, flagellating my reading comprehension or whatever)

[Aya Squawkermaru]

(Have fun with that. Oh well, it happens to the best of us. Especially when we're tired...)

[[Y]oukai [J]esus]

(Sun lady? You mean Meira? Alright. Also i r on an Iphone~)

Orin's constant attempts into a mind-telekinesis speak to the sun-woman failed conpletely, but the influx of energy has alerted the woman, making her vanish without a trace. However, the dark trace on the sun still remains for a moment, showing the shape of a man.

This shape too vanishes into nothingness. Orin tilts her head and yawns, not really thinking much about this.

[Sampson]

(Yup, Meira)

"Aw, she disappeared..." said Orin.

"Wha...?"  Gale looked out the window and saw that Meira had disappeared.  "Oh.  Creepy.  What were you doing?"

"Uh, trying to mind-talk with her.  Do you think I'll regret it later?"

"Yes.  Most likely."

"So, when are we leaving for the city?"

Gale looked at the clock on his wall.  "We might as well leave now.  Public transportation is always crowded around here, so if we actually want to do something, we should head out.  Just use the bathroom before you go."

"Coolio.  How exactly are we getting there?"

"A bus, I'd imagine."

"What?"

"You'll see."

Once they had everything in order, the pair left the apartment.  Gale made sure to grab his wallet, which contained his credit card and ID, before leaving.

[CrowCakes]

After the voice in his head faded away, Vante decided a bath would clear his now jumbled mind. This was probably another Chaos antic.

As quietly as he could, he went back in his room. Last night, he was able to convince Mystia to sleep the entire night, so that she could be awake and alert on their trip to Izumo. It worked too well. From the eyebags he saw a while ago, he could tell that her forced sleep overlapped with her normal sleeping time.

Opening the closet, Vante took out a black shirt, blue jeans, clean underwear, and a jacket to ward off the cold spring wind. The cold climate of Japan was bad enough, and it was worse that only summer and the first half of spring was warm. Instead of his black shoes, he also took a pair of sandals and socks.

Quietly stepping out of the room, he put the jacket, shoes, and socks on the couch in the living room. He took the rest with him to the bathroom.
Mystia couldn't dream. All she saw was black. Her sleep felt like only five minutes. It was no surprise that her body stuck stubbornly the bed when Vante slapped her awake.

"The bed's so soft and warm. I don't want to get up," her eyes were still closed, although she was awake.

The male stood over her, already fully dressed and ready to leave. "It's already been two hours. If you don't want to get up now, then we'll leave after lunch, which I don't think you'll need."

"...what time is it?"

Vante paused. It was probably best to scare her awake. "One o'clock in the afternoon."

Being the groggy person she was right now, Mystia couldn't see the obvious contradiction in her partner's words. Her eyes widened. "What?" she scrambled out of the bed, but only to land face-first on the floor.

"On second thought, you might need the lunch after all," Vante walked over to the awkwardly positioned girl and nudged her with his foot. This made her push herself off the bed and fully onto the floor.

The night sparrow looked drunkenly at the walls to find the clock. It was eleven in the morning. She'd been had.

Anger replaced her morning grogginess. "If I could rip your eyes out, I would, right now."

"Aw, too bad," Vante grabbed Mystia's new clothes and promptly dumped them on her. "Come on, take a bath or something. We're going to leave early, whether you like it or not."

At this point, Mystia was already on her feet, clothes in hand. "Wait, how long will it take to get to Izumo?"

Vante recalled the online map he checked earlier. "Four hours by train to Hiroshima, then another trip by bus to Izumo itself. I just don't know how long the bus ride will be." He left out the price of the trip. 36,000 yen for both of them was going to drain his emergency money box, which he had already emptied.

"What's a train? And what's a bus?"

"Uh, you'll see. Oh, and, could you tell all the Gensokyo people that we're going to leave already? I just want to see what they and their partners will reply."

So the night sparrow individually contacted each of the Gensokyo partners. Youmu, Kanako, the cat, Nazrin, Alice, Mokou, and... that's all of them. [Um, hi, this is Mystia. Just wanting you to know that me and Vante are leaving for Izumo already.]

(OOC: I feel my posts are getting worse and worse.)

[GuyYouMetOnline]

"Aesera," Kanako said as the group exited the hotel, "I think we have a problem. the individual that Mokou saw was none other than Yuka Kazami."

"Yuka," Aesera said. "You mentioned her in the overview. the crazy flower youkai, right?"

"Yes. She's here, in the outside world, and I got the impression from Mokou that yes, she does know about us."

"Any clues as to how she knows?"

Kanako hesitated. "Um, yes. Apparently, she... mentioned Yukari."

For a few seconds, everyone was silent. Then Aesera spoke. "Was she lying? Misleading us?"

"I don't think Mokou thinks she was," Kanako said.

Shit. "Okay, we have a situation. This could be a trick, but it's stupid to just assume that. We need to be ready for if it is and if it isn't. If it is a trick, no action needs to be taken, so we'll work on the assumption that it isn't. Kanako, contact the others. All of them. once you have, relay to them what I'm going to say."

"Okay." [Everyone, it's Kanako. Pay attention; this is important.] "Ready. Go ahead."

"We have a situation," Aesera said, Kanako repeating her words to the other youkai over the telepathic link. "Evidence has been discovered that points to the following: we have been compromised. Others from Gensokyo are here, in this world, and at least one of them knows about our group. Even worse, evidence points to this individual, one Yuka Kazami, having learned about our group from none other than Yukari.

"All of us have passed through Yukari's gap. She may have done something to some or all of us as we did. Use whatever means you have to examine yourselves and your partners for magical traces of any sort. If Yukari added something, find it and get rid of it. Assume that we're under observation at all times. This telepathic link she probably did not expect, so it should be safe to use, but still, be careful of what you say even over it.

"Find whoever of our group is nearest to you and join up with them. Do not remain on your own any longer than you must. Be alert at all times, and if you see anything suspicious, let the rest of us know immediately."

Aesera looked at Kanako. "That's all."

"It's been sent to the others," Kanako said.

"Good. Alice, you and Kanako need to examine us in whatever ways you can. If you'd need to do something that would attract attention, we'll go back into the hotel for it, but you need to examine us, and yourselves, as thoroughly as possible for any enchantments or anything. Use whatever spells, whatever extra-human senses, whatever anything you have, got it?'

"Yes," Kanako said.

"Good. If we need to go back into the hotel, let's head back in. If not, then do your thing right now."

[Aya Squawkermaru]

Nazrin blinked as she received the message. [...I'll relay the message, but I think you're being paranoid. I may not know much about Yukari, but I do know that she treasures Gensokyo more than anything else. We're working to save it, there's no way she'd work against us.] "Oy, Newan, get down here."

There were a few seconds as Newan opened the door, and walked down to the living room. "Yeah, what? Why couldn't you just tell me through the telepathy thing?"

"This is something you both need to hear.," Nazrin answered, as Newan sat on the couch. "According to Kanako, Yukari told a powerful Youkai about us, which apparently means that she's working against us. She said to check ourselves for magic or something, and assume that we're always being observed. This is ridiculous, since Yukari loves Gensokyo too much to work against those trying to save it. She's the one who maintains the border to keep it separated from the Outside World, after all."

Newan pondered this for a few moments. "...I agree. Unless she was somehow corrupted during the past day or so, there's no way she's working against us, it's just too unrealistic." Newan sighed, rubbing his temples. "...Still, I don't think we should rule it out as a possibility... gah, I wish there was someone we could ask... about... this..." he said, realization dawning on him as he turned to Nanaya. "Hey, Nanaya, what kind of relationship do you have with Katelin? If you could summon her like that, could you talk to her, too?"

Nazrin gave him a blank stare. "... Who the hell are you talking about?"

"It's not important right now," Newan answered, absent-mindedly.

[Sampson]

As the pair walked through the busy streets of Tokyo, Orin relayed Kanako's message to Gale.

"Well," said Gale once she was done, "we saw that girl in the sun, Meira, remember?"

"Her?  Oh, yeah, I remember.  She definitely knows we're here."  [So, Kanako, we've met one of those Chaos-aligned youkai you mentioned...we think.  She was all the way in the distance, sort of like a shadow in the sun.  Apparently her name's Meira.]

"But," continued Orin, "I can't imagine Yukari of all people to betray us to the Chaos.  In Gensokyo, she's a god in all but name.  She's that powerful.  Sure, she's lazy, but...she's not malicious."

"Hm.  Orin, do you know the group closest to us?"

"I dunno, let me check..."  ['Kay, all of you.  So, we need to know who's closest to us at the moment.  Gale and I are in Tokyo right now, and we're going to Izumo City to see what we can do about that guy that's supposed to die today.]

While Orin waited for a response, Gale asked, "Do you have any idea on how to these 'magical traces' Kanako mentioned?"

Orin shrugged.  "I dunno.  Can't say I've ever done something like that before.  Maybe if I searched you I'd feel something, since we're bonded and everything, but I don't think now is a good place to do that."

"Enlightening.  A bus is an even worse place to search, but--thankfully--we can afford to wait an hour or two before boarding one.  I can't see any better course of action than just waiting for someone to respond to you.  But let's at least make it to the bus station."

The pair continued their journey, waiting for a reply at any moment.