>Fly to the Cobalt Keep.
>While the journalist in you is understandably curious as to what, exactly, Honoka could mean, something in her tone warns you away from the subject. The cloaked youkai always seems to sound serious, but this time she sounded almost grim. And there were all those looks she and Kanako exchanged as well. You're certain there's a story there, but for the moment, you put your curiousity on the back burner. There may be something bigger there, but you're already involved something that is shaping up to be a big one. One thing at a time.
>The ruddy-faced Honoka sets a rather aggressive pace down the mountain, much faster than you were expecting a more mundane youkai to set. As you pass by Kappa territory, she looks back at you and gives you the ghost of a smirk. You get the impression that this woman is subtley challenging you to keep up with her. This rankles your Tengu pride a bit. You are neither arrogant nor an elitist, but you're still a tengu, and a non-tengu challenging your airspeed galls you. So you speed up a bit and go just a bit past her, just to show her you can. Not too much of course, you don't want to outstrip your guide entirely. This proves to not be much of a worry, as moments later Honoka flies past you, her fluttering cloak trailing what appear to be embers in her wake. That smirk is just a bit broader than it was before, definately a look that says 'is that all you got?' You give the youkai a short glare. She wants to play, does she? Fine. No run of the mill youkai is going to show you up.
>For the next half an hour, you and Honoka tear across the sky, changing positions far more often than you'd care to admit. If you didn't know any better, you'd swear she was a tengu beneath that cloak. You had the edge for a few minutes, Honoka failing to pass you as you flew nearer to the human village, but then the youkai wrapped herself in a fireball and found another gear. It took you a few minutes to retake the lead from her after that, and the two of you went back to trading places. Honoka exudes a spirit of competition, and you find that the indignity of having to work at racing a youkai gives way to a sense of enjoyment for the race itself.
>After a while, out beyond any part of Gensokyo you've ever visited, Honoka swings out and to her left just before a wide swath of forest, and slows her pace a bit, letting you take the lead again. The landscape out here is largely flat grassland, run through many ribbons of rivers. Honoka seems to be following one of these streams towards what appears to be a cliff, leading into a deep valley. Off in the distance, towards the right end of the valley, you can see flashes of multicolored light, the unmistakable sign of a danmaku battle. Honoka reaches the lip of the valley and dips down into it and turns to the right, heading towards the danmaku sights. Weirdly, you think you can almost hear the sounds of the energy bursts, which is odd. Danmaku isn't usually that loud.
>"I would not be concerned about that." Honoka says as you fly down the river valley. "At least some of that is the danmaku of one of the Keep's residents. She enjoys a spellcard duel even more than I. The sight of that around here is rather common."
>At the end of the valley, you spy a rather large lake, formed by an impressive waterfall cascading down over the grey rocks of the valley wall. Nestled against the southwest corner of the basin is a dark structure not like anything else in Gensokyo. It measures at least three stories in height, and is made of blue and black stone. A thick stone wall surrounds the towered structure, and blue and white banners hang from the walls of the Keep and the defending wall as well, a symbol of some kind on each banner. One grey tower rises above all the others, sticking out of the roof, a dull brass bell visible within. It is not an inviting place, the air around it chill and somehow stale, an anomaly in the pleasant chill of winter. Snow has been falling from over an hour now, and though the ground is lightly dusted, the top of the wall appears to be devoid of either snow or water. The outer wall seems to have only one gate, facing the lake and waterfall. There is a lone humanoid figure standing in front of this gate, flanked by what appears to be a large dog.
>The danmaku is coming from the airspace above the Keep. Two of the figures you recognize from Aya's articles. They are two of the Prismriver sisters, the blonde one in black, and the brunette in red. Lunasa and Lyrica, you believe are their names. The two of them are pooling their fire against a tall woman with long black hair wearing a purple bodysuit who is firing very large, and exceedingly loud, bursts of cannonball-like danmaku. Working with her, sending green and white bullets towards the two sisters, is an extremely beautiful woman with extraordinarily long blonde hair, clad in what you can generously describe as a 'jeweled bikini'. Her golden mane covers more than her outfit. You can sense even from here that she is a youkai of wind.
>"I might have known it would be Ranka up there with her." Honoka grumbles.
