~Hakurei Shrine~ > Patchouli's Scarlet Library
Dream's End
Iced Fairy:
Chiyuri looked at the two shallow graves covered with stones. It was disturbing burying your girlfriend and yourself, even if they were from a different universe, and now that things were starting to calm down, she found herself brooding over matters.
"You sure you're okay?" Yuri asked as she walked over. "You look almost as out of it as Yumemi did. And from what Marisa said she's mentally dealing with rewriting reality."
"I dunno," Chiyuri sighed. "I mean at the time I just was thinking of ways to find you two. But now that it's all over..." Chiyuri shook her head. "We were so similar, despite being from different worlds. How different was this Chiyuri before she died? How different was this Yumemi before she lost it?"
Yuri shook her head. "I dunno." She looked down at the two graves herself. "You're wondering if we could have turned out the same as that? If Yumemi could turn out that way."
"Yeah. I guess that's it." Chiyuri frowned. The idea that you could become a soulless robot and your girlfriend could become a complete madwoman was not comforting.
"Y'all are worrying 'bout this too much."
Chiyuri turned to see Yamame walking over, Momiji silently shadowing her. "Yeah, people who live through different stuff wind up different," the tsuchigumo continued. "That happens even to us youkai. You just gotta make sure you don't get yourself stuck in the same tunnels."
Chiyuri and Yuri looked at each other. "No offense," Yuri said, "but 'don't die or get captured and tortured by a crazy alternate version of you' isn't really helpful advice."
"We already know to avoid that," Chiyuri added. "But what should we do if something does happen? How will we handle life going wrong?"
Yamame's smile faded a little, but the youkai girl pressed on. "Well then maybe y'all should think of where they went wrong." She shrugged. "Looks like those Yumemi girls all tried to do everything themselves instead of asking for a friend to help out. Figure that can lead to bad places."
Chiyuri thought on that for a moment. "Yumemi does occasionally have that problem," Chiyuri admitted.
"I don't know how you kept her in check before I showed up to help," Yuri said.
"But how to get her to open up more?" Chiyuri mused.
Yamame shook her head. "Sorry, I ain't got no clue about that. What's social for a human ain't what's social for us youkai. Especially tsuchigumo."
Chiyuri and Yuri turned to look at Momiji, but the wolf tengu shook her head. "Don't ask a wolf for answers here. I'm a bad example." Momiji looked down at the two graves. "I was just here to get my vengeance."
Yuri winced. Apparently the vengeance of the tengu was not something to be laughed at. "Uh," Chiyuri glanced between the youkai and the grave. "You don't have a problem with us burying them, right?" She really hoped the woman didn't. If the wolf wanted to eat their doubles Chiyuri'd have a problem with it.
Momiji closed her eyes. "The goal is to punish not the man, but the sin within." Chiyuri frowned at the quote. Then Momiji growled and shook her head. "No. That's a damn lie. But the yama will handle it." The wolf woman turned away and started walking. "Give my apologies to your Yumemi and Marisa. I should head home. My quest is over."
Yamame shook her head as Momiji left. "That's gonna be a right big mess. Well hope it works out." The tsuchigumo sat down on a stump. "I'll stick around. Unless y'all want me heading back. I'm curious as to what y'all are going to be doing after this."
That brought Chiyuri back to the present. "Crap. Our ship is broken. And we broke the other Yumemi's ship too. We're stuck here right now."
"Well we might be able to fix it up?" Yuri asked hopefully. "I mean, it's mostly cosmetic damage. And uh, the holes in the hull."
Chiyuri looked at the damaged ship. "Maybe? I mean we don't know the materials. But it did have a lot of information on its drives. I bet we could hack in and get the needed schematics."
"Yumemi can do it for sure then," Yuri said confidently.
"Right." The two Chiyuris nodded to each other. Then Chiyuri sighed. "Now how do we make sure Yumemi isn't taking this worse than we are? I mean, normally she bounces back from things, but after all this... I'm worried."
Yuri shrugged. "Well, if she's got a hairbrained scheme ready when she comes back everything's fine. If not..."
"We'll force her to go on a vacation," Chiyuri finished with a nod.
------
Yumemi looked down at the device, Sacred Jeanne. Though the feeling of omnipotence had faded, she could still feel the pulse of her magic through it. It was a symbol of everything she'd been searching for.
And the small jeweled pendant terrified her.
"Yo."
Yumemi looked up as Marisa stepped into the clearing, the tiny magician giving her a friendly nod. "What is it?" she asked.
Marisa adjusted her witch hat. "Figured you'd need to talk to someone. Specifically you need to talk to a real magician. And since I'm the closest real magician around that means I gotta help you out."
Yumemi pocketed her device. "Yuri's a magician."
"Yuri knows magic," Marisa replied. "You are a magician. A human magician, but a magician all the same. She knows magic. You created magic." Marisa walked over and sat down. "And that terrifies you, because you're still sane."
"That's-" Yumemi hesitated, then sat down next to the black white witch.
It took her a while to collect her thoughts. To sort through the emotions and fears flowing through her now. Eventually though she found the core of her fear. "I was so selfish."
Marisa watched silently as Yumemi continued. "I... didn't care about anything other than myself. When I seized that power I didn't care who I took it from, what consequences there would be. All I cared about was that someone was going to hurt the people I loved."
Yumemi shivered and stared at the ground. "No, not even that. I was angry that I was powerless. That someone was going to steal away Chiyuri and Yuri. It was all about me. My wants, my desires."
She pulled out the device and showed it to Marisa. "This device is incredible you know. It contains trace records of every spell cast through it. That's why I was able to do so well in the fight. I just had to think up a spell and it helped me create one based on its database."
Yumemi squeezed her hand shut. "And it also has an easy enchantment to make your spells nonlethal. It would have cost me nothing. I didn't have to kill her. To kill my alternate self. But I chose to do it anyway."
Marisa nodded. "Magic is selfish. It's dangerous. It's painful. It's a reflection of your strongest desires, freed from morality and reason."
The magician pulled off her hat, and held it in front of Yumemi. Within the nearly bottomless darkness a million tiny points of light glittered, stars circling in illusionary space. "But magic is also wonder, hope, the childish desire to learn and see new things," Marisa said softly. "It is never something you fully control. Not true magic."
Yumemi opened her hand and looked down at the small gem again. "Is creating magic always like that?"
"Pretty much," Marisa shrugged. "At least if it's really creating magic. Us magicians mostly just use tried and true rituals. Even Patchy doesn't create whole new spells all that often, as casual as she is about ripping apart reality."
"I see." Yumemi slowly put on the necklace.
Marisa looked at her. "So you're sticking to it."
Yumemi nodded. "Yes." She stood. "It hurt. It scares me. But it's everything I wanted. I just have to give it the respect it deserves."
"That's the spirit." Marisa stood. "It's good to see another magician joining the ranks. And if you want help making some safe magic give me a call. We'll go raid Patchy's library for ideas. Maybe see if Alice can help too."
Yumemi felt reality twisting just before a strange tear in space time opened up. She grabbed her device as a blonde woman in a purple dress stepped out of the gap. "But before that, you're going to have to get rid of that battleship."
Yumemi considered activating her device, but the woman didn't seem aggressive right now. Marisa just smirked at the woman. "Took your time, Yukari. Isn't handling these kinda things your job?"
"She slipped past the barrier from the side. That's harder to catch," Yukari sighed before looking over at Yumemi again. "Anyway. Battleship. Out. Now."
"Impossible," Yumemi retorted. "It's too damaged for dimensional travel. Not to mention that I need to pick up my generators, and get some of the materials that were in my ship." Yumemi smiled. "Unless you want the fairies to play with them for a bit while I rebuild my old ship?"
"I could keep an eye on them," Marisa offered with a smile.
Yukari looked physically pained by the suggestion. "Right." The purple clad woman sighed and pulled a notepad from nothingness. "What do you need to get that thing fixed and out of here?"
"Why are you trying to kick me out?" Yumemi snapped. "I've been following the rules here all this time. For that matter what the hell give you the right to tell me to leave?"
The woman's golden eyes narrowed dangerously. "The power of boundaries is all the right I need." Yumemi was raising her device when the youkai woman took a deep breath and stepped back. "However, while I despise the magic you've acquired my main problem is with your spacecraft. I will not allow antimagic devices to exist within my magical realm, thank you very much."
Yumemi sighed. "Alright. That makes some sense. If you help me fix it, I'll go get a better ship before I come back."
"Please, take your time shopping for a new ship," Yukari said. "Now, start telling me what Ran's going to have to find."
Marisa stood up and dusted herself off. "Since you two aren't going to fight I might as well let you chat. I'll be stealing one of those generators though."
"Lock it up next to that power stone please, so I can confiscate them all at once," Yukari replied.
"Sure." Marisa hopped on her broom and flew off back to where the others were.
"If you're finished being a pain in the ass," Yumemi said, "I'll start telling you what I'll need for repairs."
Yukari put pen to paper. "I'm all ears."
Yumemi rattled off all the parts she'd need to repair the ship, along with the more important experimental materials she'd lost when her ship had crashed. Yukari dutifully wrote them all down. Or at least did a fairly good impression of writing them all down. When she finished the gap youkai tore out the page and pushed it through a gap. The sound of Reimu yelling briefly about someone interfering with her job passed through before the gap shut. "There, that's done," Yukari said. "You should have the items by tomorrow. If she has time, Ran will even help you install them."
"So eager to get rid of me." Yumemi glared at the youkai. "I take it you're the reason my counterpart had no success."
Yukari looked surprised. "Hm?" The youkai blinked a few times then folded her arms and leaned on a gap. "Ah. If you're talking about that woman's failed attempts to introduce technomagic, I'm afraid I'm actually completely innocent. In fact I didn't even find out about her little operation until she'd already given up. You can only puppetmaster so much."
"So you're saying that Gensoukyo doesn't want this?" Yumemi held up the jeweled necklace. "Because I'm certain Marisa would like one. For that matter I saw Yuri sorting through some of the spares for herself."
"Oh yes, Gensoukyo wants technological items." Yukari pulled a smartphone from one of her gaps . "Even I possess that particular vice. In fact I have little actual animosity for technology. It's mass production we despise."
Yukari continued. "Most youkai don't understand the real dangers of course. They mostly just hate how it gets in the way of their individual ideas. A benefit for our complete lack of society. The tengu and kappa are somewhat of an exception, but fortunately they stick to building tools and gears."
Yumemi shook her head. "So you're claiming that mass production of goods is inherently dangerous to your realm?"
"To our existence," Yukari replied curtly. "And as a magician you should understand why now." The gap youkai shrugged. "But if you don't please feel free to visit that other universe. If you manage to get through the bureaucracy see about upgrading your little wand to something more useful. That there is the cheap version."
"I'll take it under advisement," Yumemi said. Then she paused as a thought struck her. "We'll have the items to repair the ship by tomorrow?"
"Even if I have to get them myself," Yukari muttered.
Yumemi nodded in approval. "Good. Because I think we'll try your suggestion."
-----------------
"So we return the battleship, use the reward to buy something a little more reasonable, and begin our research again there."
As Yumemi finished explaining her plan she judged the Chiyuris' glares to be just short of 'planning to commit her.' Things were going well.
"So how are we going to convince this Time Space Administration Bureau not to lock us up forever?" Chiyuri asked. "Since they think you're a crazy terrorist mage or something and we're your vat grown minions."
Yumemi winced. "Uh, well, I figure you'll help with that. The fact that you're both not crazy murder robots means they'll listen to you probably. After that you just have to convince them of the truth."
"And the mafioso that this other Yumemi owes a whole lot of money to?" Yuri asked. "Somehow I don't think they'll care about our explanation."
"Well we run away from them," Yumemi stated. "Honestly I don't expect to spend a lot of time there." She pulled out her device. "Our goal is to figure out how they detect and train mages."
The Chiyuris looked confused. "How will training mages help?" Chiyuri asked.
"Yeah, I'm a mage," Yuri pointed out "If the academy back on your world wouldn't believe it when I showed them my powers, then why would they care about other people having powers?"
"Because! If I can find a way to give people the ability to create their own energy instead of relying on personal generators we'll have just the product I wanted to find!" Yumemi replied. "Best of all I can skip that whole manufacturing process and whatnot. So I don't have to worry about begging for venture capital to supplement our bank accounts.."
"Yeah, about bank accounts," Chiyuri pointed at the ship. "Do you really think the people we return this to will give us enough cash to buy an intergalactic spaceship?!"
"Well if they don't we can sell them hyperdimensional travel specs!" Yumemi said proudly. Her expression grew more grim. "It's either that or take this home, get it impounded for being an illegal battleship, and then waste away as middle school science teachers."
The Chiyuris looked at each other, then sighed as one. "Right," Chiyuri said. "I guess this is the best plan."
"We're with you Yumemi," Yuri said.
"And that's why you're the best girls in any dimension," Yumemi said as she hugged the two. Both of them returned the embrace tightly.
Marisa coughed after a bit. "Well when you do get back, bring me some souvenirs. Figure you owe me a bit. Uh and maybe a spare AI." The magician's eyes grew misty and she wiped them. "One that's a little less goal oriented maybe."
"Sure thing," Yumemi replied.
"And if y'all find any tsuchigumo around give me a holler too. Always curious about kin," Yamame said with smile.
Yuri shook her head, "I'll take a look, but they might be hard to find. After all you're good at staying under the radar.
"I figure you'll do your best," Yamame said.
"Alright." Yumemi turned back to the ship. "Now let's see what we can fix before that crazy gap woman brings in those supplies."
Iced Fairy:
Yuugi looked up at the approaching footsteps and raised her sake dish. "Yamame! Marisa! Don't usually see you two together. Come to drink?"
"Nah, I came to chat," Marisa said as she slid into a chair. "But since you oni don't ever seem to do something that doesn't involve drinking I'll have a drink too."
Yamame hopped into the other seat. "Well I'm here for drinkin'. And she's paying."
Yuugi grinned at the magician. "Lost a bet?"
"Taking a loss to save the world from being overrun by tsuchigumo hordes," Marisa replied with a sigh. "You think I'd get some sorta commendation for wrecking a battleship but no. Everyone just points out my magical studies could destroy the balance of power in Gensoukyo."
"Ho ho! Sounds like it'd be interesting." Yuugi was curious now. "Here I'll buy the first round, while you two tell me the story."
"Sounds good to me!" Yamame cheered. "Gimme a mushroom fever beer!"
Marisa nodded. "Two please." She looked over at Yuugi. "Gotta start with the weak stuff because this is going to be a long story."
"I'm all ears," Yuugi replied as she refilled her dish.
----
Momiji shouldn't have been here. But then she was doing a lot of things she wasn't supposed to right now. Like letting Sanae pet her.
Unfortunately in the end she had to face reality. She growled at herself then gently sat upright.
"What is it?" Sanae asked.
Momiji took a deep breath. "I've been asked to join the Black Wolves."
"Um... Weren't you already-?" Sanae stopped as a flash of recognition hit her. Apparently the woman had been studying tengu society. "You mean the special ops unit?"
Momiji's ears twitched at the odd term, but she eventually pushed it together. "I guess that's a good name for it, yes. They approved of my initiative in handling a threat to the tengu." She looked Sanae in the eye. "But joining requires an oath of absolute loyalty."
"Ah." Sanae looked down.
They sat in silence for a while then Sanae spoke up. "Don't sacrifice your future for me."
Momiji placed her head back in Sanae's lap. "No promises," she replied.
----
"Well that was a lot less painful then I was afraid of," Yumemi said as they were escorted from the detention area.
"We were in jail for three days," Yuri muttered.
Chiyuri seemed less annoyed than her counterpart. "Yeah but the food wasn't too bad."
"You're lucky it got solved that fast," Teana Lanster, the enforcer who had been investigating them said. "If your linker cores hadn't been completely different from the ones on file you might still be in jail. I'm sure I would have figured out some way of proving you were telling the truth eventually but..."
Yumemi smiled. "I'm sure it would have turned out okay in the end." She reached for her device, then remembered they'd taken that from her. It was amazing how quickly she'd gotten used to the thing. "Um, you'll be giving me back Jeanne right?"
"The device Sacred Jeanne was TSAB property before being lost, however we have it listed as salvage, so yes," Teana said. "I also have a note from the navy asking for information on that transport device you had. And a gag order preventing you from telling anyone else about it."
"That's a little paranoid," Yuri said.
"Hm," Chiyuri closed her eyes. "I suppose they might be a little confused with us popping out of nowhere."
Yumemi smiled. "Well if they're willing to pay us for the information..."
"That's something you'll have to argue with the admiral," Teana said. "For now let me just offer you the hospitality of the station."
"Our thanks," Yumemi said as she looked out the window towards the vast technomagic fleet sitting in space.
It wasn't exactly like her dreams, but it was close.
----
Komachi yawned as she looked over the rolling waves of the Sanzu. The yama might complain about her work ethic, but really you had to take a bit of time off and have a drink every now and then, right?
"Kyun~."
"Huh?" Komachi turned around at the strange sound. There staring her in the face was a smiling missile.
Komachi leaped away from the deadly weapon. "SHITSHITSHITSHITSHIT! Call it off! I'll get back to work! I swear!"
"Kyuuuuun." The missile bobbed up in down in confusion. As Komachi's heart rate slowed a little she noticed the warhead was actually transparent, and its guidance fins were wispy.
"You're kidding me," Komachi muttered. "This is a prank right? You aren't actually a ghost missile, right?"
"Kyu." The missile seemed insulted that she'd question its existence.
Komachi stared at the creature for a good minute before giving in. It looked like her break was over. She summoned her boat. "Fine fine. Let's go. You have the toll I guess?"
The missile bobbed up and down. "Kyun." It drifted forward and dropped six heavy gold coins into her hand.
"Well. I guess this'll be a short trip." Komachi hopped on the boat. "So Mimi-chan was it? Let's get going. Maybe I'll get to see the look on Eiki's face when you show up...."
"Kyuuuun~"