Hello? H-hello? Well, if you're reading this, chances are you may realize that this is a bad Five Nights at Freddy's reference at the beginning of my author's notice. Also, why are you still reading this, the A/N starts in the next paragraph!

Well then, guess who is back? Back again? Sorrow's back, tell a friend and fellow reader! Wait, why do I feel that I've made this intro before?

*cough* So yeah, stupid intros aside, welcome back to yet another chapter of Negative Mind! And this one is going to burn your eyebrows off if you don't watch out since my keyboard is still burning from how fast I've been typing (before I fell sick), so if your eyebrows are dear to you, you should probably cover them up. And everything else you may want to hang onto.

Let's not make this too long here, and just start into the champion fight, right? I think I had something to say here, but I've got a bit of a headache right now, so I just add it if there would be anything important to say.

So, have fun with this chapter!

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Touhou/Project Shrine Maiden, as it belongs to ZUN. However, Chôzen Gekido (and his respective personalities), Nanatsu no Taizai, Yume Gekido and Yajû Gekido-Shisô do belong to me, as for I have created them. This goes for all of the other OC's as well.

Chapter 9: Turning up the heat (again)

"Back again, I see?" cooed a gentle, soothing voice, so otherworldly that it may as well have sent chills through my body. Soft tendrils touched my bare skin and stroke it gently, caressing my arms and my chin in a manner that could wake something within me that I had deemed dead and gone, rotten and cursed.

"I am." I confirmed, though no confirmation was necessary, and no word needed to be spoken in between us. We stuck to them anyway, though we knew to express our actions not through words or actions, but by the lack thereof. Two beings that saw no point in earthly things, in existence and non-existence, in the movement of one through the flow of time and space.

"And without Medicine! Aren't we a brave one, my dear?" continued the voice, tendril sneaking up my chin and to my cheek, cupping it gently. Even though it should have a rough surface, this tendril was surprisingly soft and flexible, with a velvety smooth surface that might as well have been a feather. Cotton even.

But it was but a root. And I could only see it as a root. Could see all things only as what they were.

The root retreated and Rin Satsuki, leaning out of her flower as far as she could, beckoned me to step closer to her body, to the heart of the swamp that she had become. She was but a Kirin within a flower, her body fused to the stigma in a way that others would've called weird or unsightly, but for me, it was different. For me, exactly this made her beautiful. She had a strange effect on me and my body, allured me with what she was alone. What she stood for. And with her past.

A girl denied existence. It sounded familiar to me, the idea of being unwanted and abandoned, of being something unnatural that even that which had created you erased from the very existence you were unwillingly born into.

As such, she lured me close again. Embraced me as I was within her arms reach. Slender, pale arms circling around my neck, her forehead coming to rest against mine in a strange form of intimacy. Intimacy was a stranger to me, felt unnatural. And yet so familiar with Rin that I may as well have been embraced by her in the most intimate way for all my long life.

"I've missed you." she breathed against my face, her hot breath ticking my lips and my nose. Her breath smelled of the sweetest honey, so pleasant and oh-so-sweet. It woke what little motivation I had and kept it alive, made me forget all my worries and troubles. That her breath smelt sweet was without a doubt a side-effect of her being a flower.

"I..." I began, trailed off, hesitated, finding it hard to find my voice. To speak what was going through my head. It felt unnatural to speak, had long become something I rarely did. I didn't speak often nowadays. It had only been through Medicine that I had begun again. Voicing my feelings, of which I rarely ever had any, was a challenge I had never thought I'd have to face again.

"I... I have missed you, too, Satsuki."

She giggled in a deep tone and her hold on me shifted. Her fingers drew small circles on my neck as they ascended it, one hand eventually cupping my chin and raising my head a bit by it so that I was looking into her eyes. These deep pools of lavender that I found myself getting lost in again and again. That intrigued me.

One of the roots was back, gently stroked my cheek as a look of utter satisfaction found its way onto her face. She had me enticed, we both knew that much, and while she clearly enjoyed it, I couldn't find any reason to stop the trance she always managed to put me in with her presence alone. Needed to forget everything I felt and thought. She could make it all go away. My mind. My thoughts. My hardships and memories. My troubles.

All gone within a touch. Within one word. One breath.

"I know you've missed me, my dear. I can see it within your eyes. A longing that is not quite lust, but not without attraction to me." breathed the woman, lips coming closer, finding the skin on my neck, setting it ablaze with their soft touch, "Our bond is beyond that of the physical, and yet not in mind. It is our past that bonds us. That makes us alike. Kindred spirits that have danced through times in an attempt to find one another, their cries for one another going through time and space."

Every word was but a hiss, a breeze, cooling down what her lips set ablaze. My longing for these touches and words became unbearable. I needed more. Needed it to claim my every sense and my mind to not feel anything anymore. To no longer remember anything anymore. To make all the pain go away.

"But now you're here." she continued in the same sultry tone, "And I will make you feel right at home. You won't need to ever leave again. Everything you need is within an arm's reach right now. All you ever wanted and needed, right here, right now. Or do you want to leave again? Is that your wish?"

She had a point. Did I want to leave again? Did I want to face my own problems and hardships anew? Every day and every moment, every minute and every second, my life was living hell. Had become so since the death of my loved ones. I was alone within this world, had to face everything that came at me on my own.

How long could a mind stand it? The rejection of others? Being abandoned by those who should mean the world to you? To be truly alone?

My mind couldn't take it for long. Hadn't been able to stand it. Shattered and broke more than it had already been. And as I fell into the hole with no way to climb out of it again, I knew where my place in the world was. To be forgotten by everyone. To silently fade away without anyone ever noticing. Not by those I loved. Not by those important to me. There was no one to love anymore. No one important to me.

Until Satsuki. Until now.

She had taken the place within the hole in my chest where my heart should be. Had filled the void that I had thought to be everlasting. Could lead me away from the nihilism that I had begun to follow. Away from the stoic perception of light and dark, of good and bad, of the point where nothing mattered. Where nothing was more important than anything else. Where it all was what it was, and everyone was only who he was, and never meant a thing to me.

"I never ever want to leave again." I whispered into her shoulder. Let myself be seduced by the warmth of her body and the sweet kisses on my neck. I felt Satsuki smile against the crook of my neck. She had what she wanted. She had reached her goal. What she truly had longed for was in her possession now, within her very hands.

She had me. And I didn't mind at all.

With soothing tone, she whispered sweet promises into my ear. Promises that I'd never be alone again. That she'd be there for me throughout all times now. Catch me when my world would shatter, support me when I needed support. Be at my side in the good times.

Together forever.

Her roots slowly embraced me. Laid around my ankles, pulled me in. Embraced my thighs. My lower back. Encircled my arms and my chest. The warmth was glorious. All around my body.

The cold that I had felt for throughout most of my life was gone. Satsuki could indeed make it all go away. All the pain and all the misery. All the cold and all the sorrow. It was as if I was reborn there, within her very arms. A new man, a new being.

As long as she was there, everything would be alright. All the pain numb. As long as there was this warmth of her embrace, and the sweet smell of her flower, nothing but she meant a thing to me.

My mind was slowly slipping away. It felt like I was falling into a soft slumber. Like sitting cuddled into a blanket in front of a fireplace in the coldest winter. True satisfaction. Warmth all around you, and spreading throughout you.

I didn't need a thing but her.

"Sh... It's alright." she whispered into my ear, strengthening her hold on me, pulling into her with her arms and her roots, "You've found your place in the world now. Here, within my arms. There's nowhere you have to be but here now. Kindred spirits as we are, both only half of who we should be as we are denied by the world, we can now be whole. Within each other's arms, we're not alone, and not broken. Not abandoned and not non-existent, since as long as there is someone to acknowledge you, you cannot be non-existent, right?"

I nodded against her shoulder. Sunk deeper into the warmth that I had never felt like that before in my life, but had always longed to feel. The warmth of another being. The soothing and calming aura of theirs mingling with my own.

Rin Satsuki's hold was omnipresent now. All around me.

"Let us become one then, my dear. My love. Forever and always, never ever to be alone again..."

For the first time in a long while, I smiled.

Less than 48 hours until the godforsaken land...

"Champions of this year's fighting tournament, please prepare for the next round! The fight against the champions from last year will begin soon!"

Opening my eyes upon hearing Rinnosuke's announcement, I found myself within the Scarlet Devil Lounge, the room I had headed to right after waking up in the infirmary hours after having been knocked out by Utsuho during the finale. The details of my latest dream were still fresh in my mind, but there was no time to be losing yourself in the surreality of another scape.

Every stare in the room rested upon Nanatsu, Rumia and me. Expectant and waiting for what was to come, every occupant of the room, even Yume and Yajû, watched us. Even I waited for what was to come. Didn't know what to expect once I would leave the Scarlet Devil Lounge and head down to the battlefield for what had to be the last fight of the tournament. Yúgure had already left and would be there, preparing to terraform the battlefield.

It was the last fight, right? There couldn't be anything else to follow this. We had fought our way through all the rounds and even the finale. The only one we would have to beat now were the former champions. But who were the former champions?

This question had lingered within my mind ever since the fight had started. Had bothered me even when I thought we wouldn't make it into the finale. I was curious. Wondered who had managed to win last year and would be the final challenge for the champions of this year.

That we happened to be these champions was but a lot of luck. I'm not even going to praise us for our skill. If anything, we had lost our edge quite a bit. That we had won against Yukari's team was neither skill, nor luck, but a miscalculation on the sukima's part. Had she not failed to realize that 20 years were enough to change a Youkai, despite their long lifespan, she would have won. Would've come to realize that neither of our fighting styles had been the same it had been twenty years ago. She had prepared for who and how we were back then, not who and how we were today.

Beating Mima had to do with skill, but winning against her team had been but Mima's whim. Mima had grown stronger and, to be honest, had beaten me this time around – so, in a sense, it was good that this fight had not been about Gensokyo's fate like back then. So it had taken her all she had to defeat me, but in the end, she still had. If not for Yuuka – and probably Shinki – agreeing to give up should Mima be defeated and let us move on into the finale, the semi-finals would've been the end of the tournament for us.

Getting as far as into the finale was neither skill nor luck, but still nothing but a slight chance. If we would've been facing Flandre's team at any point during the tournament, it would've meant the end for us, of that I was more than assured. In the shape that I was, Flandre would've probably beaten me with just one or two of these explosions, given that they would've caught me off guard as they had when I had seen her fight against Utsuho's team.

And that led me to the finale, which we had won only through Nanatsu acting on instinct.

I balled my fist, stared as the bony fingers slowly curled up into a black mess that only slightly resembled a fist.

Utsuho had defeated me without as much as a problem. As if I hadn't even been a challenge to her back then.

So had I indeed lost my edge? Had I grown weaker during the last twenty years, getting too comfortable with the lazy life I had been living in the outside world, never fighting anyone, never fearing anything? Or had everyone in Gensokyo grown stronger during my absence?

Was it perhaps a bit of both?

"Isn't a bit unfair that everyone but us knows who we will fight now?" spoke Rumia up all of sudden in a clearly irritated tone, breaking the uncomfortable silence that had spread through the lounge after Rinnosuke's announcement, "I mean, everyone but us knows who the champions of last year are! Why make a big surprise of it? Why not let us know? Heck, everyone in this room but us knows, right?"

"We can't tell you." responded Remilia almost immediately, not quite as irritated but with a certain hint of seriousness to her voice, "Yakumo told everyone not to tell you three who the champions are should you make it this far."

"And why would that be the case?" inquired Nanatsu, raising an eyebrow at the devil. In response to this, Patchouli slowly closed her book and placed it on the table before her with a sigh. Koakuma, who had leaned over her shoulder to read the book as well, slowly rose to her full height again and turned to look at us again.

"To keep you from adjusting. She wants the final fight to be a real challenge for you. A fight under the circumstances from back then. Never knowing who you will face. Never knowing when you will fight. Never knowing how your enemy fights. You learned how to defeat each enemy individually back then, and it's supposed to be that way as well." explained Patchouli with the stoic tone of hers, tired eyes resting upon us.

"So it's not someone we know then? An entirely new challenge?" mused Rumia, raising her eyebrow as well now.

"Well, not exactly." replied Koakuma, looking somewhat uneasy. She searched for everyone's gaze, without a doubt to reassure herself that she could tell as much as that to us. Seeing Remi nod to confirm Koakuma could reveal as much, I knew that we'd finally learn something about who our enemy was going to be.

"You do know these people, but you've never fought them together, as far as I know. And I'm not sure if you ever fought them individually. I think you fought at least one or two of the three, but I don't..." began Koakuma, but was interrupted by Patchouli raising her hand, giving the the sign that she had said enough.

If only she had said enough. The way it was, it could be nearly anybody. I don't remember a lot of fights against three enemies at the same time, meaning that it could be anybody. Also, while having fought quite an amount of people in Gensokyo twenty years ago for various reasons, ranging from misunderstandings to preventing the destruction of Gensokyo, I hadn't exactly been bragging about my fights. The chance that Koakuma knew all of my fights was incredibly low.

But if I knew this person, I could as well adapt. Sure, I would have to rely on that what Yukari had relied on during the first fight. Would have to rely on what I knew about these people and about how their fighting styles were twenty years ago. But unlike Yukari, I would watch the changes and would start to adapt to them. To learn more about how these people changed in the twenty years of our absence.

"So I might as well be right then." spoke Nanatsu, turning everyone's attention to her, even though she had turned to me and Rumia, "I think it's Toyosatomimi no Miko, along with Seiga Kaku and Soga no Tojiko. Earlier, after I defeated Utsuho and everyone was cheering, Miko merely stared at me and had this challenging glint in her eyes."

"I wouldn't be so sure just because of a gaze alone." I mused, turning the attention back to me, who I had not said a thing since entering the lounge, despite the fact that I should've been cheering about having won in the finale, and then continued in a lower voice, "But guessing from these quick glances being exchanged here, we seem to have hit the nail on the head."

Indeed, quick glances were exchanged in between the other occupants of the room that were not related to me – not by blood that was – and had listened to Nanatsu's theory. A theory that wasn't too far-fetched actually. Sure, gazes alone could mislead, but didn't they say that the eyes were the window to the soul? Had I not seen emotions beyond what the expression could say countless times? A face was but a mask, one could learn to alter it and hide behind it.

But as it was with masks, they left the eyes exposed so the wearer could see. And as much as the wearer could see the world beyond the mask, the world could see the wearer behind the mask.

"That aside, it would fit in what we just learned." I continued and frowned into the room, looking at no one in particular, "We know Toyosatomimi and her followers. We've fought Toyosatomimi on that day when everyone got out of control and was manipulated to be interested in something. And Insanity has fought Seiga before on that graveyard. And if Koakuma knows of these fights, it's only because she had been part of the Anti-Mima group that was utilizing the Unfocused World."

"Which gets me thinking, how and why was she part of that? I can understand that a succubus has access to the Unfocused World, since it is basically one's mind being part to a spectrum of minds. But we had Meiling as a messenger between us and the Scarlet Devil Mansion. So why Koakuma? Why was she part of the Anti-Mima group to begin with?"

"Stop questioning everything, Insanity. Especially twenty years later. Besides, we've got to focus on something completely different."

"Yeah, right. Sorry."

Rumia slowly nodded, seemingly agreeing with what I had just said. Well, it was a plausible theory. But in the end, it was just that, a theory. We couldn't know for sure, even though I was more than inclined to agree with it. Miko was an enemy I could see making it into the finale, especially if she was with Seiga and Soga.

"Alright then. So Miko and her followers it is." mused Rumia and slowly leaned forward, rested her elbows on her legs and stared through the window down at the battlefield, which we would soon fight on, "Opens up more questions. We can fight them, and probably even defeat them. It will be hard, but it shouldn't be that much harder than fighting a raging Utsuho."

She turned her head and met my glance, allowing me to see how serious she was about this. This wasn't only Rumia's need for a fight anymore, not her bloodlust alone. She wanted to win this tournament by all means now – cheating (probably) excluded – and had no intention of losing against Miko. So Rumia did an unlikely thing: She approached a fight with a strategy. Analyzed the situation at hand.

"We may use our powers, that was stated within the rules." continued the Angel of Death, "Both Yukari and Mima have shown how much this rule can be bend and exploited. However, Shikigami are not to be summoned, being representatives of our powers, but not our powers themselves . So what about Seiga? Can she bring Yoshika into battle? Yoshika isn't a Shikigami, but an extension of Seiga's powers."

"That is actually a good question, and one that could change the flow of the battle." agreed Nanatsu, raising an eyebrow at Rumia, "We should be wary of that when we face them."

"And that is only one question that I have." added Rumia right after Nanatsu finished, accepting her words with a nod, "How can Miko use her ability during the fight? I don't see a way for her to use it offensively. And what will Yúgure turn the battlefield into this time? Could it be something that gives them an advantage, or us? Maybe neither of us? Will it have any advantages or disadvantages at all?"

"This time, we truly won't know." I interrupted with a sigh, knowing that we'd only get more questions the longer we thought about it. Only more questions, no answers. Theories, but no guarantee. Being too assured of something could get us into trouble if it wasn't that case in the end, after all.

The only thing I was certain about myself was one thing – We'd be fighting Miko and her followers. A worthy opponent for the finale.

"Champions of this year's fighting tournament!" I heard Rinnosuke call again, shortly interrupted by Sly and Aya both telling him to address us by our names instead of our title, "The fight will begin any moment now! Please step upon the battlefield now!"

Exchanging a last glance with my two partners and wives, I pushed myself off the couch we had sat on, followed by Nanatsu and Rumia. My mind was silent for once, neither of my two other personalities – or rather, fragments of my mind – speaking up for once and commenting on anything, which was kind of unnerving, as I had gotten used to the voices. But even they were thinking about how to approach this. Even they were preparing themselves for the fight.

It wasn't a fight about life or death, about the further existence or the following destruction of Gensokyo, or a fight between good and evil. And yet, this fight meant so much. We had come so far. Had proven once more that we fit right into this crazy bunch of people. Into the land of fantasy, where different personalities, powers and backgrounds fit together like one giant puzzle.

To lose now would not mean that we weren't part of this, but it would be a disappointment for us.

Quick murmurs of 'good luck' were uttered as we left the room. Even Patchouli had put her book aside to watch us leave, reassuringly giving us a nod that held more meaning than any word she could've spoke would have ever had.

Flandre and Koishi positioned themselves between the door and me. Neither of them said a thing, and I didn't ask. Instead, we looked at each other in silence as I came to a stop in front of them. I was looking down, and both of them, despite having grown in the twenty years of my absence, looked up.

A moment passed before both of them threw themselves at me at the same time in a hug. A hug so powerful and so full of meaning. They wished me good luck, but didn't know how to voice it. Putting a hand on each of their heads, I let them know that this was the best way for them to show it.

Breaking away, they let us leave the Scarlet Devil Lounge. And as soon as I was outside the room, I knew that there was no turning back this time. The champion fight was but seconds away.

From there to the battlefield, it wasn't even remotely interesting. Nothing to stop me. Nothing to distract my attention. The corridor in front of the Scarlet Devil Lounge was left behind in a matter of seconds. A jump over the railing sent me down a story, but I never hit the ground there, changed over into flight. It felt like everyone was only paying attention to me and my wives as we descended down to the battlefield, coming to a stop right in front of the stairs that led up onto the elevated platform.

Yúgure was already waiting up there with Aya Shameimaru.

~ Music cue: Mario Party 5 – We're the champs! ~

Loud music began to blare through the huge speakers mounted onto the walls in the corners of the room just below the ceiling. Once again, I made a mental note to ask Yukari if she had stolen them from somewhere with her gaps, or if the Kappa had somehow reverse-engineered these. And if the latter was the case, where Yukari had stolen them from to give them to reverse-engineer in the first place.

Knowing that this music was our cue, I set myself into motion. Began to ascend the stairs with Nanatsu and Rumia just behind me, accompanied by cheers and applause.

"Here they are, people! Our champions of this year's fighting tournament!" roared Aya the moment I set foot onto the second step, almost as if I had triggered her dialogue, "Once having fought their fair share of battles all across Gensokyo against the strongest of enemies, I think it is no surprise that they've made it this far! But even they are not invincible, as the last two fights have proved!"

I mentally cringed, well aware that Aya was right. And well aware to what this was leading.

"So the real question is – After having made it through the eye of the gap, through the darkest of hours and through the blistering heat of the underground's sun, can they stand throughout this fight? Can they win against the proud champions of last year, who had a lot less problems getting that far? Can they win as night falls and only the lights shine on them above?"

Hearing this, I rose my eyebrow, but cast a short glance at the window high above us, through which I could see that night had indeed fallen by now and that the stars were shining rather bright. Still, what a peculiar way to say we'd be fighting now, at night.

Almost too peculiar. As in, this meant something.

She had compared the fight against Yukari's team to 'fighting in the eye of the gap', obviously a play on 'in the eye of the storm' and Yukari's gap world. Had compared the fight against Mima's team to 'the darkest of hours', obviously a play on Mima's plan from back then to cause the 'complete darkness' – which I still didn't know what it meant – and had compared the fight against Utsuho's team to 'making I through the blistering heat of the underground's sun', which was more or less Utsuho's title.

But what did she mean with 'night falls and only the stars shine above'? Or was this not a reference, after all? Well, the 'Ten Desires'-Incident, which Reimu referred to that way in her Hakurei journals, had happened during one night, so this was speaking for Miko being the champion of last year.

"Chôzen Gekido! Nanatsu no Taizai! Rumia Shisô-Gekido! This year's champions stand tall and ready to fight with all they have!" shouted Aya, and the audience went crazy with cheers and catcalls, almost drowning out Aya rolling her eyes and silently adding something, "At least what we allow them to use..."

I ignored it and rose my arms instead, let people cheer for me – even though I was still thinking inside. Still starting to form a general strategy. Miko would be no easy enemy. While her ability was not exactly offensive, she did possess quite a bit of other magic, as far as I knew. No enemy to be underestimate. And seeing as Soga, being able to call upon lightning, and Seiga, being able to pass through walls (and with that, ground and defensive measures), were who would support her, this was promising to be yet quite another challenge.

A challenge we could overcome.

~ Music fades out ~

The lights suddenly dimmed. The cheering of the audience slowly died away along with the loud music. And following Nanatsu's and Rumia's gazes, I found no one else but Toyosatomimi no Miko, standing proudly atop a small what looked like a balcony above the judges, with Soga no Tojiko and Seiga Kaku by her side.

Miko had her sword strapped to her side. Wore the most smug grin I had ever seen from her. She had her arms crossed in front of her chest. Had a challenging glint in her eyes. Soga stood aside her, stared down on us. At us. Thought we were no challenge. On the other side of Miko, Seiga rose an eyebrow but smirked, made no attempt at hiding her amusement from us or anyone else in the arena.

They knew we had figured them out, but knew we had found no time to prepare, which they had, without a doubt. They had observed our every move all along. Had watched each battle and had learned how we fought. How we behaved. Our every reaction was no secret to them, and they would exploit that. Miko's smile promised that.

I narrowed my eyes and met Miko's gaze. We had a silent conversation – that was what I believed it to be – about the outcome of this fight, with Miko clearly daring me to defeat her. And I would. The moment this round would start, I would throw myself at her with Alastor, turning this into a sword fight that would force her attention to be on me. That way, Rumia and Nanatsu would be able to take on Seiga and Soga. I would let them choose who to fight respectively.

The moment Miko was within reach and the round would've started, I would land the first hit.

The only thing was – they made no attempt to come down from there.

Soga only floated there. Seiga merely stood there and smirked. Miko hadn't moved an inch. But people were clearly waiting for them. The champions of the last year. Not moving an inch and letting the seconds pass.

Way to make it dramatic.

The sound of someone landing only a few meters away made me turn my gaze away from Miko – the fight hadn't started yet, she wouldn't start anything weird, not from up there – and see who it was. Turns out it was no one else but Fujiwara no Mokou, hands in her pockets and a lazy expression on her face.

I cast a glance to Aya, who was merely staring at Mokou herself with a questioning frown, to Yúgure, who hadn't even turned to Mokou. Nanatsu and Rumia seemed equally surprised by the immortal's appearance. But nobody dared to ask. Nobody made a move to inquire the phoenix-girl what had brought her here, and now.

"Mokou?" I inquired, frowning at the fire-wielding immortal (after making sure that it really was her this time), "What's up? Did something happen?"

In return to that question, Mokou merely turned her attention to me. Her expression was still that of utter boredom, and her hands remained in the pockets of her suspenders. She didn't seem shocked or in panic or anything, so it couldn't be that serious. Shaking her head, she yawned.

"Just here to deliver a short message to you three. It's from Kaguya." muttered the immortal after a few seconds of silence. She stretched herself lazily and rolled her shoulders, then her neck. To say that I was a bit irritated about this sudden interruption wasn't wrong, but I still turned back to glare up to where Miko stood. And was madly smirking now.

"Go on." I snapped towards Mokou, not taking my eyes off Miko and her followers. I didn't mean to be angry or snap at Mokou like that, but the situation made me tense. That Miko didn't move or even attempt to make a move made me irritated. I lit my hands in the emerald colors of negative energy, meaning to show Miko I was ready to fight.

"Kaguya wants me to tell you that your suspicion is wrong. You got the wrong champions."

I cringed, emerald flames shortly flickering before returning to their true strength. Turning to frown at Mokou, I found that she had the most mocking of all smirks playing with her lips, making her look intimidating despite her shorter height. Flames came alive around her feet, her hair carried upwards by a soft breeze that didn't seem to be there, sparks and ash falling from her white hair.

And behind Mokou, Kaguya and Keine were ascending the stairs as the music started anew.

~ Music cue: Mario Party 5 – Burning Challenger ~

"There it is, the determination of the woman that has nearly single-handedly beat her way through two of last year's rounds! Her burning will, igniting the battlefield, turning it into a furnace that, thanks to her teammates, burns evermore! A raging conflagration that will go down in history! Cheer for her and her team, the true champions of this arena! Fujiwara no Mokou! Kaguya Houraisan! Keine Kamishirasawa!"

Caught off guard by this revelation through Aya, I could only watch in sheer terror as both Kaguya and Keine claimed their spots next to Mokou. As the ear-shattering calls of the audience surrounded us from all sides and became but a dull shrieking in my ears.

Not only had we been wrong about who the champions were, but we had not suspected Mokou. All along, Mokou had been there. Had met me outside the battlefield. I had seen her several times throughout the last few days.

She had been there, and I had never even considered that she was the champion of the prior tournament. Yukari had even told me that Mokou and her team had participated last year on the very first day!

"W-wait, what?!" exploded Rumia, doing a spit-take – and that despite not even drinking anything! - and stared in shock at who our opponents really were. Not Toyosatomimi no Miko. Not Soga no Tojiko. Not Seiga Kaku, and surely not Yoshika Miyako – well, at least we didn't have to worry about THAT anymore.

But a smug Mokou. An amused Kaguya. A calm Keine.

A challenge we could not just overcome like that. We were in a lot of trouble.

"That was very foolish of you." giggled the soft voice of Kaguya, the ex-princess using her sleeve to hide her lower face, "To go ahead and just suspect someone to be the champion, without even putting into consideration that it could be someone completely else."

"She's right. You should've considered that it might be us." agreed the Were-Hakutaku of the three, even her unable to contain the smug smile. The smug smile that spoke of her amusement at our expense. That we had been mislead by how things appeared to be, rather than what we had been told in advance.

I had to agree. We had been misled. Had judged a book by it's cover, rather than it's contents. Not only had Yukari mentioned at one point that Mokou had participated – not mentioning who her teammates were, but she had mentioned that Mokou had been a participant – but Eirin had mentioned it, too! Shit, she had told me outright that a lot of people had taken the brunt of Mokou's fire. A lot of people, not as in 'only a few throughout the first rounds before Mokou's team lost', but as in 'through all the rounds, including the finale'.

We had fallen for a trap that hadn't even been set for us on purpose. By our own minds, even. Set on a course of deception by what we had seen, but not what we had learned.

I balled my bony hand to a fist, felt it shake with anger. Anger at myself. Anger at being so stupid as to even realize we should not be so sure about what we believed minutes before, and yet doing exactly that.

And now, we had to pay the price. Were even more unprepared than we had before when we had thought that the champion would be Miko and her followers.

Mokou, Kaguya and Keine were of an entirely different caliber.

~ Music fades out ~

"With them here, we can finally start the champion fight for real!" announced Aya smugly, throwing her hands into the air to cheer on the crowd of people. Of Youkai and humans. Of demons and whatever other type of creature had searched for refuge in Gensokyo during the years of our absence. All of them were cheering. Smiling.

At our expense.

"This is gonna be excitin', I can already tell that much!" called Sly out in his usual enthusiasm. The flask with the acid-like liquid of bilious green color was closed for once, resting at the edge of the table, almost as if waiting to be knocked over, which would undoubtedly happen once Aya would have returned. With the way she reacted to each more spectacular event, this was really without a doubt.

I watched in irritation as Yukari dropped out of a gap mere inches away from the human barkeeper with the liking to rumors, holding a small folding chair. In an almost too comfortable fashion, she unfolded it, placed it where undeniably the best spot was – just a bit to the right of the judges, and with that Sly – and sat down on it, fanning herself with her folding fan.

"Well, it IS the fight between last year's champions and this year's champions. It would be a shame if it were to turn out anti-climatic." she agreed, voice loud and clear despite the cheering, thanks to her control over boundaries. Seeing her like that, I knew that, of all people present, she was enjoying the fact that we were unprepared the most.

She had lost in the first round against us, but ultimately, this was her victory. If there was one thing that I had learned over the countless centuries that I knew her, then it was that things always ended in Yukari's favor. Even when they did not seem like it, even if Yukari seemed to be at the unlikely limit of her powers, she did always get to have the last laugh.

Things always turned out the way Yukari wanted them, in one or the other way. Maybe not always like she had planned them, but the result was always exactly what she had wanted in the first place.

Despite having lost in the first round, this was her own small victory once more.

A snarl escaped my throat. It wasn't like I had planned to snarl or even show my displeasure at the turn of events, but it was as if a more primal side of me was slowly starting to gain strength. Something that fit more with my more recent stages of the transformation.

Yes, the transformation. The transformation that the Unfocused World had revealed to me in Alice's shape over twenty years ago. The transformation that I was still undergoing. While it had been slow over the past twenty years, with the only step taking place being the increased growth rate of my fingernails into what looked like talons unless I cut them once a week – which I had begun to do – and no other obvious step having been initiated, it was still undeniably there. Waiting to alter my body further. Into what, I couldn't tell. When the next step would be taking place, I couldn't either, nor what the next step would bring.

Twenty years ago, it had given me fangs – which I still possessed, though they weren't that obvious – and black bones, with my exposed bony hand gaining small barbs on it. In comparison to that, accelerated growth of nails was anything but obvious. But the next step could be.

And with the way that I felt something more primal waking within me, it couldn't be anything good.

"Alright, fine, so we fell for that." I growled under my breath, turning to face our opponents, "Doesn't matter. We're not going to back down just because it's Mokou, Kaguya and Keine."

"No one expected you to." shot Mokou back immediately, smirk growing a bit, hands still within her pockets, "It would've been surprisingly boring if you would. That aside, neither of you three is known to back down from any challenge."

"You took on Mima. Not exactly by choice, but you still did." added the other immortal, graciously swinging her hair over her shoulder, "Compared to that, this should be an easy fight for you, right? Neither of us is a powerful soul gaining the power of gods."

"No, but two of you are of the kind that is just as worse. Immortals." I sneered, not too happy about Kaguya's obvious mocking, "Draining your strength means to kill you. Over and over again."

"Like little annoying mosquitoes." chimed Rumia in, a glance into her direction revealing to me that she had summoned both Tyrfing – now leaned onto her shoulder – and Kaibutsu, "Big annoying mosquitoes that just won't stay dead."

In response, Mokou suddenly snorted, then threw her head back and laughed. Not even intimidated in the slightest, of all the things she could've done to show that to us, it was laugh?

"Weird." snorted Mokou in laughter, "Last time I checked, a certain male on this battlefield here is just as bad. Unable to die permanently, powers rivaling that of Gensokyo's strongest inhabitants, and to top it off..."

Without a warning, Mokou crossed the distance between me and her. Two big steps, and then she stood in front of me, hands still in her pockets, her body language still giving away that she wasn't even serious about the whole situation but instead still lazying around. She leaned closer, her face hovering directly in front of mine – meaning I had to look down, and she had to lean her head back due to our size difference – as the smuggest of all smirks spread across her lips.

"...and to top it off, he's even taller than any of us three are."

With a hard gaze, eyes narrowed and teeth bared, I stared down at the fire-wielding immortal. Felt the need to start the battle right there and then with a punch to her face. But I kept myself under control. Somewhat. Striking now would only lead to further problems. Mokou was smaller, faster and more agile. Her reflexes were better than any of mine.

Attacking without thought would only lead to her defeating me, using my own attacks against me. Either avoiding them all to tire me out, or using her speed to strike me whenever I left an opening.

That would not happen.

"The bigger they come, the harder they fall." commented Keine, not necessarily doing it in an attempt to mock or taunt me. Still at my expense. Still to boost their own morality.

"Alright then, I guess this means we can start the round, hm?" inquired Aya, who had until then merely cast amused glances in between us. Knowing that the only answer was 'Yes', Mokou pulled back and brought more distance between us, not even bothering to remove her hands from her pockets. But the only answer was 'Yes' – Yes, because both Insanity and me were getting desperate to punch the living lights out of Mokou until she gave up.

Gave up. That would be the only way to win this fight. Forcing Mokou and Kaguya to give up. With their immortality came a lot of endurance, probably more so than any of our former adversaries had. Even Yukari had a limit to what her body could go through before she would become exhausted. Mokou and Kaguya? Recovered.

Of all the possible candidates we could've faced in the champion challenge, this had to be one of the worst.

With our teams separated and having found their spot near the middle of the battlefield, Aya stepped back and made a dash through the air for the platform the judges were on, claiming her seat long before Yúgure had stepped in between my team and that of Mokou.

"Is everyone ready then? Today's battlefield will be a bit special." she began, exchanging glances with Mokou and her teammates, and then with me and my teammates. It must have been my imagination, but I was sure that her gaze remained on me longer than anyone else. Or maybe it really did and she was thinking about our conversation the day before.

"Special?" inquired Nanatsu, interrupting Yúgure before she could transform the battlefield for real, "Special in what way?"

The demon I knew as Mephistopheles, having already leaned down to touch the ground beneath her feet, rose and frowned at my first wife, one delicate eyebrow slowly rising.

"Special in that it will be relatively non-special. Nothing too fancy this time. No real advantages for any of you, and no disadvantages. The higher-ups told me they want a fair fight, and that it should happen without the battlefield limiting anything, or doing the opposite."

"I see." mused Nanatsu, "Go on then."

The demon nodded without hesitation and slowly shifted in her stance. Her delicate fingers wriggled a bit and she seemed to slowly sink into concentration, without a doubt to visualize what she was going to terraform the battlefield into this time.

But then again, I have no idea when it comes to terraforming.

Suddenly, almost as if a jolt went through her, Yúgure swung her hand down, leaned forward and brought only the tips of her fingers down on the concrete below. This was more than enough to cause the change, as the concrete began to shift, ring-shaped waves expanding from her fingers outwards, almost as if droplets of liquid had hit the surface of a still lake.

With the changes started, Yúgure pushed herself off the ground and jumped backwards, using a single movement of her wings to carry her all the way across the battlefield to the platform of the judges. The ripples caused by her hand spread further and further, the concrete shifting beneath my feet into something different. Something white.

By the time they had reached the edge of the platform, a white box had been generated beneath our two teams. The barrier created by Kanako came alive around the battlefield, just as the box beneath our feet slowly started to rise. Smaller poles extended upwards at the edges, suddenly connected by ropes. The battlefield further changed color, and, with a final flash of blinding light from above, had reached it's final shape.

With a grunt, I had raised my arm to shield my eyes from the light when it had suddenly appeared, but now, seeing as it wasn't going to die down, slowly glanced around my arm to see what caused it.

It took me less than five seconds to realize what I was standing in, and what was causing the light.

We were in a boxing ring. It wasn't taking up the entire space of the battlefield, merely a box in the middle, but it was still quite big. Not big enough for three smaller fights to take place in at the same time, though, inevitably forcing some of the fights to take place on the ground surrounding the boxing ring. The blinding light from above turned out to be a mesh of metal, spotlights hanging from it and illuminating the ring below. The light fixture hung on four chains from the ceiling of the arena, and that way, looked dangerously easy to swing around.

Yet a simple, but efficient design for a battlefield. For once, I would've been enjoying what the battlefield had turned into.

If not for Keine having suddenly changed a bit. It wasn't anything too noticeable – if not for the set of horns she had grown, and the shift from blue to green of the tint in her hair. And the fact that her pose had changed quite a bit into something that was less calm and collected.

This wasn't just Keine standing to Mokou's right anymore. A quick glance past the lights above to the window in the ceiling – now gone and replaced by an artificial night sky in a large orb – confirmed my suspicion. There was a full moon in the orb.

It was Ex-Keine.

'No real advantages', huh? Well, it was probably only fair for Keine to actually change to her more powerful self, seeing as who she was fighting with and against, but it made things so much more complicated. Ex-Keine was a lot more durable than the normal Keine.

"Ya know, I'm seeing a pattern here. I mean, we pretty much believe it's the full moon that makes her go green and strong, right? But what if the full moon actually makes her angry, and THAT makes her go green and strong?"

"We shouldn't have watched that one movie last year."

"I prefer the comic."

"Ready then, Chôzen?" inquired Mokou all of sudden, though she wasn't even looking at me. Instead, she exchanged a glance with Kaguya, who stood opposite to Rumia, and then sent a glance to Keine, who looked ready to pick up Nanatsu with her horns and ram her into the next wall.

That left me with Mokou.

"Right. Let's get this over with." I sighed. And at the same time as Mokou, set my hands ablaze.

~ Champion Challenge! Chôzen against Mokou is brought you by: Super Smash Bros 4 – Jogging Theme (Ver. 2 Recreation) ~

Emerald flames clashed with red flames as Mokou suddenly charged right at me, her entire body turning into one gigantic fireball that I only managed to block because I surrounded myself with a green flame of negative energy. The heat of Mokou's flames reached my face despite the warmth-negating properties of the negative energy, our faces only inches away from one another, the pure power radiated by our bodies pushing the other away as our bodies held against it.

She had invaded my personal space, and I wanted her gone as fast as possible. Too close for my comfort, I felt a slight rise in nervousness. While not strong enough to be considered panic, it was enough for me to feel the need to remove her from my personal space.

Mokou fought best up close. While definitely a threat at range with her fire, which she could throw with astounding accuracy at anything within her sight, Mokou's true strength lay within her close combat. She was fast, nimble and agile, all while still possessing quite a bit of physical strength, which, in return, was further enhanced by the fire that she commanded and could shroud any part of her body in. Her close combat rarely missed and hit mercilessly strong, while her ranged combat could at least be avoided.

So, getting her away from me was the highest priority. To do this, I shortly let the negative energy around me flare up, focusing all my power into it, pushing Mokou away from me. It worked just fine, as it forced her backwards, back onto the ground, but not nearly with as much power as I had wished it would have – she merely staggered a bit, but caught herself after only a few steps.

At least she no longer had her hands in her pockets, meaning she was at least taking this somewhat serious finally.

"Nice one, Chôzen, nice one!" exclaimed the fire-wielding immortal the moment she stood safely in position. I watched as she slowly rose to her full height and relaxed a bit, though she kept her arms in a position that would easily allow her to counter anything I would throw at her.

She cast a short glance into the direction of Kaguya. Neither of our teammates had moved yet, even the ever so impatient Rumia had remained in her spot to my right, waiting to see how the beginning of the fight would turn out. Kaguya must've understood the message, as she suddenly took into the air, pulling the Jeweled Branch of Hourai from within her long sleeves – No clue from where in there actually.

"Oh no, you're not getting away!"

With that cry, Rumia took into the air as well, following Kaguya to intercept whatever Mokou had shown her to do with her gaze alone. The fiery immortal herself remained unimpressed by Rumia's decision – If anything, she had probably wanted that. Cause even though Rumia had not acted, she had been fidgety.

Turning to Keine instead, she gestured the Were-Hakutaku to stand back. Surprisingly, Keine agreed with a short nod, taking a few steps back until she stood in one corner of the boxing ring. From there, she merely watched as Mokou once again turned back to me.

"How about we make this a little more interesting, Chôzen?" began Mokou all of sudden, though her eyes remained wary of Nanatsu, whose skepticism didn't escape me. She was ready to take action should this turn out to be a trick, I knew that. But I still gestured her to stand down for now, I wanted to hear what Mokou had to say.

"What do you suggest, Mokou?" I inquired, not trying to hide my curiosity. She could know that she had my attention, could know that I was willing to listen to whatever she had to offer. Sure, the fight would already be interesting enough with this setup, but Mokou apparently thought otherwise.

"Well, since we're already in a boxing ring..." Mokou trailed off to gesture around us, which she certainly didn't have to, as I knew what we were in, "Why not fight by the rules of boxing?"

"What purpose would that...?"

"Go on." I interrupted Nanatsu, now really interested into what Mokou was saying, something that the immortal was clearly enjoying, as the smirk on her lips told me, "What do you mean by those rules? What would that include?"

"Just the two of us, one-on-one. No spellcards. No use of our abilities. No kicks, no tackles, and no headbutts, just fists. No help from our partners. We stand in the middle of the boxing ring, fists raised, and beat the life out of each other." chuckled Mokou, no longer even focused Nanatsu, "We both know that the only way to win this fight the normal way is to aim for the death of each other. You won't stay down unless you're at the point where everyone else would die, and I won't stay down until I've been killed a few times. In a sense, the thousands of years fighting Kaguya have trained me well when it comes to endurance."

"I know." I responded, raising an eyebrow at the smaller female, "So how do you propose we solve this problem then? If we fight by the rules of boxing, killing you once will take hours, and a few times might take days. I don't think the audience is willing to watch that long."

"Well, we can still feel pain and be exhausted, right?" offered Mokou, the smug grin on her lips growing, "While we won't use our abilities, we may still use our element to make our punches stronger, or to defend us from the other one's punches. Also, the rules of boxing make it pretty clear who loses."

"Going down for the count three times a round." I mused, knowing I hit the nail on the head when Mokou's entire stance relaxed a bit, "Or staying down for ten seconds once."

"Correct. Whoever goes down three times or stays down longer than ten seconds will have to forfeit. That way, we can prevent this fight from getting too long. Keine will count once one of us goes down." sniggered Mokou quickly, eyes shifting to Nanatsu, "Of course only if your wife won't fight her just now. She can even count as well and make sure that Keine isn't counting in our favor. Once either of us is defeated, the winner and his or her partner can move on to take down the rest of the opponent's team."

I sent a glance into the direction of Nanatsu. And though it was meant more of a question whether or not she was okay with what Mokou suggested – I didn't mind, it would make our fight shorter – Nanatsu merely nodded and took a step back as well, making more space for me and Mokou.

I turned back to my opponent, only to find that she had already claimed her spot by the middle of the boxing ring. The lights shined down on us as I approached the fiery immortal, shadows dancing across the boxing ring as Kaguya and Rumia fought just below the light fixture, blocking single spotlights as they moved.

Keine and Nanatsu both climbed through the ropes and took their place outside the boxing ring. I felt Nanatsu watch me with worry, but did not actually turn around to see it. She knew this probably wasn't the best idea, and frankly, I knew, too. There was no way Mokou had suggested this on a whim.

And yet I began to advance towards the spot in front of her.

"In the red corner, from the bamboo forest of the lost, Gensokyo, with a height of 4'8'' and a weight of 107 lbs – she's pure muscle guys - and at an age that's older than your great-great-grandmother, we've got our title defender, the champion of the Gensokyo Magic Boxing Association herself – Little Mokou! She's got an impressive score of countless wins last year, all of them through KOs, and hasn't been defeated at all! And yes, I just made all that numbers up. How tall is she? How much does she weight? How many poor people did she knock out? I don't have a clue." (1)

I snorted, the Flame-Soul's words surprisingly accurate, and going with the theme of the moment. Mokou wasn't exactly tall and probably didn't weigh a lot either, meaning she sure as hell wasn't in the same weight class I was in. In professional boxing as it was in the outside world, we probably wouldn't ever face each other in an official fight.

"Standing in the blue corner, we've got the contender! Originating from the outside world, standing 6'3'' tall and with a weight of 199 lbs, Chôzen Gekido has joined us here today to make his attempt at taking the title from Little Mokou! And that despite his age of 77 066 years and his less impressive score of 2 wins through KO against Yukari Yakumo and Mima Hakurei respectively, and one loss at the hands of Utsuho Reiuji. So, Mr. Gekido, what do you want to tell your fans? Do you think you stand a chance against Little Mokou?"

"Ugh, shut up..."

"Chôzen!" I heard Nanatsu call all of sudden, and stopped my advance towards my opponent. Mokou frowned past me, so I turned my head and raised an eyebrow myself at my first wife. She gave a short gesture to come over, and it seemed to be important. Making sure that Mokou wouldn't suddenly change her mind and attack me in the usual way after all, I made my way back to the corner of the ring that Nanatsu stood just outside off.

"What's it?" I inquired and bowed down so that my head was leveled to hers, even though I kept my gaze on Mokou. The immortal seemed impatient, though interested in what was going on. She wouldn't be able to understand anything over that distance, but didn't make any attempt to come closer, either. Beyond her, I could see that many gazes of the people that made up audience behind the barrier were locked on us, probably figuring out what was going on since they couldn't hear a thing, though their gazes were drawn up to Rumia fighting Kaguya above us ever so often. I admit, that seemed to be the most interesting thing going on at the moment.

That would definitely change in a moment. Nobody would see a boxing match coming.

"Just communication before you do this. I'm not exactly okay with this arrangement, but it does seem to be the most efficient and fastest way to beat Mokou." muttered Nanatsu lowly, eyes on Mokou as well, "Or get beaten by her."

"Guess so." I grumbled, dissatisfied because I knew that Nanatsu was right with that last sentence. A boxing match with Mokou was a double-edged sword – It made it easier to beat her, or get beaten by her. And she clearly had something planned, which I didn't like. But fighting her by the normal Gensokyo-way of rules would make this fight harder and the outcome just as unpredictable.

Well, I guess that, if I indeed lose the fight, I at least got beaten fair and square. And legitimate.

"Alright then. Let me see what I can tell you about Mokou. If we analyze her and her fighting style now, we can pretty much predict what she will be limited to with the rules she just mentioned, and what she will be up to. Would at least give you the advantage of being at least somewhat able to predict her punches."

"Right." I admitted, before sending Nanatsu a glance, "So, any hints for this fight, coach?"

The frown that Nanatsu gave me was questioning and confused, but lasted no longer than the few seconds that it took her to realize what situation we were in. With the way it was at the moment, her standing outside the boxing ring, and me about to fight Mokou in what came close to the final round of a boxing tournament, we really seemed like a coach – a former champion – and the one he has chosen to be what could as well be his successor, teaching everything he knew.

"Guess so, baby." chuckled Nanatsu, adapting an accent that wasn't normal for her as she began to play along, "Now listen up, son, this ain't just another fight. Your whole career depends on this. You either walk out here a beaten man, or a champion. Now let's see what we know about this sucka, Chô baby."

I rose an eyebrow at her, but she ignored it. Instead, she took a step back and swung her fists, almost as if she was going to fight Mokou herself. She was getting a bit too much into this, wasn't she?

"Be assured, son, this ain't a pushover, she ain't called 'Glass Mokou' or anything. She will make sure to keep vital spots and weak spots guarded at any time, and will refrain from making taunts unless you're down for the count and can't attack her. She ain't a newbie, Chô. And she will be able to take quite a whoopin'!"

"Uh, Nanatsu?" I interrupted, or at least tried to. She didn't care, was so much into her role that she kept on talking, which kinda unsettled me a bit.

"Give this woman a chocolate bar and a red jacket, and she's our coach until the end of our days."

"Now, be careful. Mokou is fast AND strong! She ain't the champion for nothing! But all bad things come to an end, Chô baby! Let's cut this burning bird's wings! The audience wants a new champ, and we will be exactly that if we turn this champ into a chump!" Nanatsu swung a fist forward, "Can you taste it? The Gensokyo Circuit is about to be yours, kid!"

"Nanatsu..." I repeated, hoping to get through to her. Mokou and Keine were frowning at us, as was most of the audience outside the barrier. And they couldn't even hear us.

"Everything we've done up to this point, Chô, comes down to this! Be careful out there, the fight could end in the blink of an eye! So don't count the seconds, baby, make them count for you! Mokou is a beast in the offensive, but if you manage to get through that, all she has is stamina. Land the right punches at the right time, and we quickly drain that. Her punches hurt, but her defense is low!"

"Nanatsu!"

"Her fire will be the problem, kid. Get too close at the wrong moment, and she burns ya pretty bad. But there's many ways to eat a chocolate, but only one way to eat a chocolate bar!"

"Nana.. What?"

"What's your favorite flower, Chô? Mine's chocolate."

"What the hell, Nanatsu?!"

"But if we don't manage to beat her, I think I might eat my chocolate bar sideways! You get that sweet taste from victory, but not from choco..."

"NANATSU!"

She finally cringed and snapped out of whatever weird role she had fallen into. I mean, at first, it sounded like she really wanted to help, and I guess she did kind of analyze Mokou.

But what was that about chocolate?

"Uh... Yes?" she muttered, chuckling uneasy as she seemed to realize what had just happened to her, before she finally coughed,"Uh, so yeah, that's all that you need to know about Mokou! ...and chocolate. Now go out there and make me proud, son!"

I sweatdropped, but decided against saying anything. Rather than that, I turned back to Mokou and pulled my fists up, showing that I was ready this time.

"Oh, and Chô!"

Again, I turned to Nanatsu, wondering what else she had to add. To my surprise, it was less that she had to say, but rather what she had to give. In her hands, Nanatsu held a pair of black boxing gloves, the green flame that was my emblem on either of them.

"I found these under the ring. If you go ahead and fight Mokou in a classic boxing match, you might as well put these on." finished Nanatsu, before pulling one of the lower rope up and throwing the gloves to my feet. I frowned, but picked the gloves up. They seemed to be about the right size.

Still, this was just another evidence of how incredible the detail was that Yúgure put into each battlefield. Every time that I saw her terraform the battlefield, I found myself amazed even more than the time before. It was as if the detail was increasing every time that she created something, testament of her very active and extensive imagination, which this all seemed to originate from. Even a battlefield as simple as this – a boxing ring, nothing more – held great detail. The light fixture. The elastic ropes. The boxing gloves.

Finally turning to Mokou and putting the gloves on, I found that Keine had seen the gloves and had vanished under the ring as well. She reappeared a few seconds later, seemed surprised, but did hold boxing gloves as well, red ones.

How very smooth, Yúgure. How very convenient, Yúgure. Tell me what you want, but this sure wasn't a coincidence. I'm not saying that Mokou's team knew what battlefield we'd be fighting in. But somehow, it kinda feels exactly like that.

"Ready then, Chôzen?" inquired Mokou, catching the gloves as Keine threw them to her, "I know that I am! I'm kinda in the mood to mess your face up, and that for no reason at all."

I watched her as she put the gloves on, wondering what would await me in a moment. In one sense, the fight had already begun, meaning I could as well have exploited that and could've landed the first punch – but on the other hand, we had agreed on a specific set of rules, and I wouldn't go ahead and cheat, cause that would mean that I'd lose my chance to defeat her now, fair and square.

"Chôzen, don't mess up now! This is our chance!" I heard Nanatsu call from behind me, "Every journey starts somewhere - we made that first punch together, and now let's make the final punch together as well!"

I nodded, not willing to turn around and give Mokou the advantage of me being distracted. She had her gloves on now and had lifted her fists. The real fight could start any second, and she'd try to land the first punch. But one thing for sure, Nanatsu knew what words to use to motivate me.

"Walk all over him, Mokou."

I sent Keine a glare for that comment, which only intensified when I spotted the smug grin on the Were-Hakutaku's lips, especially when Mokou simply grinned herself and smashed her gloved fists together, a small shockwave of fire erupting from her.

"Don't worry Keine – I'm all fired up!"

With these words, Mokou began to approach me, fists still pulled up. She was moving her legs a bit as she came closer, not averting her gaze from me and not moving her fists down one bit. To be honest, it looked a bit as if she was dancing, but only a bit. Nowhere near enough to be actually considered dancing.

"Here we go, Chôzen!"

~ Theme change: Super Smash Bros 4 - Minor Circuit Theme (Remix) ~

The moment she was right in front of me, she suddenly rose her right fist over her head and grinned. Realizing what she was about to do, I quickly pulled my fists up and used them to protect my head from the punch that was aimed at it.

Mokou quickly pulled her fists back and, much like Nanatsu had predicted, immediately moved it in front of her body to guard herself. That way though, her face was open for attacks, an opportunity I wasn't going to miss.

Pulling my right fist back and aiming at her face, I tried to hit her with a direct punch. With surprising speed though, Mokou pulled both of her hands up and shielded her face, resulting in my punch harmlessly bouncing off her fists.

Retreating my hand, Mokou lowered her fists and grinned at me. She rose an eyebrow and let her grin become a smirk, flashing her teeth at me. She was provoking me with her smugness, and was doing a damn good job at it.

I wanted nothing more than to wipe that goddamn smirk off her face, but she knew that, and wanted me to want that. As such, the uppercut from the right that I went for never connected, Mokou falling to the side to avoid it.

A growl escaped my lips and I swung an uppercut into the other direction, which she avoided by falling to the other side as well. Left wide open by that second uppercut, Mokou's hook hit me in the side of my chest and sent a sharp wave of pain through my body. I stumbled, but caught myself, glared at the smaller female in front of me as I took my position again.

"Just hope that wasn't a star opportunity for her, or she might use a star punch soon."

"I have no idea what you mean."

Seeing as she wasn't making any attempt to attack even after a few seconds, I realized she was waiting for me to make a move, one I'd probably regret. Nonetheless, I decided to act. I had to act. But had to do so in a way that would make it hard for Mokou to immediately realize what I was up to.

So though it felt weird, I took a step to the right – and made a right hook aimed at her head at the same time. Mokou frowned for a second – And realized what I was up to one second too late. The hook connected and sent Mokou reeling to the side. While it left her wide open, I couldn't act on that, as I had to stop my own stumbling movements, and by the time I had come to a stop and had taken my position again, Mokou had already recovered.

At least the smirk was gone, replaced by a glare. Now she was serious.

Her head twitched all of sudden, confusing me – Before she sent a straight blow past my cover into my stomach, knocking the wind out of me. Thrown off balance, I stumbled back - thankfully out of her reach so that she couldn't land another hit – and fell against the elastic ropes. Using one arm to keep me upright against the ropes, I used my other hand to rub the spot she had just hit. That one hurt!

Growling like an animal, I pushed myself off the ropes and quickly moved back in front of her. The primal thing within me acted up and I felt myself falling into some kind of rage, desperate to hit Mokou and sent her down onto the canvas. For the first time since the beginning of the match, I flared my negative energy up and let it surround me, before going in for the attack. She saw the first uppercut coming and fell to the side and ducked, laughing mockingly, before moving into the other direction to avoid the second one, just like she had done earlier.

What she didn't see coming, however, was the third uppercut after that. Her eyes widened as she saw it coming her way, but it was too late to avoid, as she was moving right into it. She pulled her fists up nonetheless and really managed to bring them in between my uppercut and her face.

That my punch had enough power to slam her own fists into her face meant that it still hurt, probably.

In fact, it send her stumbling backwards with what was definitely dizziness. Her fists hung loosely by her side as she seemed to lose balance, falling to the right, but she wasn't defeated yet, tried to regain her balance, resulting in her running an almost complete circle. Just before she reached the spot she had started it, though, she suddenly fell onto her knees, stared at me one last time. And fell flat on her face.

Keine didn't hesitate. She pulled the lower rope up and climbed into the boxing ring, rolling in before she rose to her feet and took her place next to Mokou, who was lying on the ground on her face, dizzy from the hit. Thankfully.

"One!" counted Keine and pointed down at Mokou, then pulling her hand back up, "Two!"

I didn't wait for what was following. Instead, I fell back a bit until I was in my corner of the boxing ring, and watched as Keine continued to count, hitting 'three'.

"Not bad, Chôzen. That one was good." offered Nanatsu with a small smile the moment I stood in my corner, turning my attention to her just before Keine counted 'four', "But I don't think that'll be enough. But at least it means she is down once. Two more to go, and we have her."

"Right. That one was a lucky hit, though. She won't fall for that again, especially since it was a mistake on her part." I mused. Mokou twitched and coughed, making an attempt to stand back up, to which I tensed up a bit. Keine stopped counting – until Mokou sunk down on the ground again, not having recovered enough to stand up.

Five.

"Probably so." sighed the Shinigami at my side, her shoulders dropping a bit, even as Keine counted 'six', "But it's a start. And one we can work with. She's been down for six seconds now, so it means you've hit her quite well. She must be really dizzy for her first knockdown to last this long. So, if you manage to land a hit similar to that, but with a little more power, you might be able to win this fight in the second knockdown. We can move on to Keine then, and finally Kaguya."

"If things go like we want them to, that is." I replied and narrowed my eyes as Keine rose her hand to count 'seven', "But when did things ever go like we want them to?"

"Sev...!" Keine trailed off as Mokou suddenly rose her right fist and slammed it down on the canvas in anger, a small shockwave of fire erupting from that punch. The slight smell of a burnt glove lay in the air for a second, but when Mokou pushed herself up onto her feet, I couldn't find any damage done to her gloves. She must've burnt the inside.

The phoenix-possessed girl let out a roar of anger and returned to her position in the middle of the boxing ring, fists lifted once more to the height of her chest. She was mad now, that much was easy to see. I would be, too, if I had stayed down for seven seconds on the first knockdown, I guess.

Keine gave me an expectant glare, and I knew she was waiting for me to return to my spot in front of Mokou. The fight, being more or less official, wouldn't continue until the referee, which was Keine, would announce it.

"Let us just hope things turn out in our favor." I muttered to Nanatsu, but was too focused on my opponent again to send her as much as a glance. Despite that, I knew that the Shinigami was nodding to agree with my words.

"Let's do this then, Chôzen. Good luck." I heard Nanatsu say, "And don't forget to join the Touhou Fun... I mean, Club Touhou."

I frowned, rose an eyebrow, and twirled my head around to give my wife a curious glance. She, however, merely nodded, as if not even aware of the new strange thing she had said. While I would've loved to know what this was about, I had no time to lose.

Reclaiming my spot in front of Mokou, Keine nodded to me. She rose her hand again, and, as she swung it down, yelled 'Fight!'.

And fight again we did.

Mokou was in a rage now, but not enough to make unreasonable decisions or risky moves. Instead, her anger made itself apparent in her more offensive and faster fighting style. Immediately as Keine stepped back, she took a step forward and tried to hit me square in the chest, which I thankfully blocked. That didn't throw her off, however, and she immediately followed with a hook from the right aimed at my torso, which again I moved to block.

And with that failed, Mokou did something I had not been ready for. She took two steps back and brought distance between us – I didn't follow, knowing it would probably be a trap – and grinned at me, stared me right into the eyes, before she suddenly lunged forward in a punch aimed at my head.

I rose both hands to guard my face, knowing it was the spot that would knock me down the quickest if she managed to land enough hits there. On the other hand, if I managed to block enough hits with power like this one, Mokou would eventually tire out or hurt her own hands.

But by lifting my hands, I fell right for her trap. The feint.

Instead of going for my head, she aimed lower. With my hands in front of my face, I couldn't see how she changed the course of her hand, and wasn't prepared at all for when it suddenly hit me into the stomach, and that quite hard, forcing me to double over and all air to be knocked out of me.

Stars danced in front of my eyes, bright lights in different shapes. I had both hands on my stomach when Mokou exploited the fact that I was absolutely defenseless and began to beat my face mercilessly, without a doubt aiming for the first knockdown.

And though I recovered in time and brought distance between us, I knew she wasn't that far from it when I saw the world spin before my eyes for a few seconds. Only a few more hits from her like that, and I'd be down for the count for the first time.

I'd have to knock her down first. Hopefully for the last time.

Not wanting to waste any more time, I jumped back to my spot in front of her and rose both my hands. Mokou smirked, knowing what damage she had just done, but didn't let it get to her head, remained just defensive enough for me to not find an opening or for her to expose a weak spot.

Time to break through that defense.

Despite knowing how open it left me, I extended my arms to the sides. Mokou frowned and watched, her hands twitching a bit in anticipation, waiting for the right moment to either strike or defend herself. It was coming, but she wouldn't be able to defend herself with her fists, not with what I had planned.

I didn't punch, at least not in the normal sense. Instead, I brought my extended arms together, aiming to get her head in between my fists, as if I wanted to squash it in between. The eyes of the fire-wielding immortal widened as she noticed, and proved how effective her reflexes were yet again by ducking just before the black gloves slammed together.

But she wouldn't escape. With my fists still together, I rose them a bit, and then brought them down like a hammer on the unsuspecting immortal. This would hit, and would knock her into the canvas with her face first, which, without a doubt, would result in her second knockdown. She wouldn't get up.

If only she had been unsuspecting.

Instead of being hit by my hammer-like attack, she dove to the side and laughed mockingly. Not only had the attack missed her, it had also left me wide open for whatever attack the fire-wielding girl had it store. And what she had in store came quick and painful in the shape of an uppercut. Mokou pushed herself off the ground and threw herself up into the air, spinning from the force.

My head was knocked back when the red glove slammed into my chin. The world began to spin again, this time accompanied by a short moment of blackness as my entire body spun around and stumbled away from the immortal. I lost my footing and cursed, felt my body falling – and it hit the canvas. In a painful way.

I heard Keine approaching, but my body refused to move, colors and stars dancing in front of my eyes. The steps stopped next to my head, assuring me that it was indeed Keine that had been approaching me. The confirmation came a second later.

"One!"

"Allow me to assist."

"Insanity. Have been wondering what you've been up to. But wouldn't that be cheating...?"

"Two!"

"No one has to know..."

A new surge of strength rushed through me. The unpleasant mix of blackness and colors in front of my eyes was pushed away and I found myself being able to see again. I was on the canvas near the ropes and Nanatsu, with Keine standing right next to my head. My first wife was looking rather worried, but relaxed as soon as she noticed that I had focused on her.

"Three!"

My body was still in a huge amount of pain, but I was ready to ignore that and get up thanks to Insanity's help. Once more, I found myself grateful for the fact that, due to being part of me, held part of my power at all times and could give it back to me.

"Four!"

I pushed myself up onto all fours. Reached out and grabbed the lowest rope to support myself as I pulled my unresponsive and rebelling body up. No pain would stop me.

"Five!"

"Come on, Chôzen, you can do it!" encouraged Nanatsu, appearing in front of me, gesturing me to fight the weakness, "It's only Mokou, you can do it! I mean, yeah, it is Mokou, but it could be worse! She could be cheating! Like, having a hidden weapon in a glove or something!"

My other hand grabbed the other rope and pulled my body further up. Keine hadn't stopped counting yet, and wouldn't do so until I was on my feet again – and that despite the fact that she had stopped counting as soon as Mokou had made an attempt to stand up! But well, Mokou hadn't been forced to use the ropes, on the other hand...

"Six!"

I swung my body against the upper rope. Elastic as it was, I bounced right off, back into the direction of Mokou, and back to my old spot in front of her. Immediately, Keine stopped counting and nodded into my direction, acknowledging that I was back on my feet and once more ready to fight. And that one second quicker than Mokou when she had been knocked down.

"Alright. Fight!" exclaimed Keine, swung her hand down, and immediately retreated to the side of the boxing ring again, making space for me and Mokou. I was desperate now. Mokou wouldn't win. We both had been knocked down once, but it would be her who'd eventually be knocked out.

I just had to fight!

"Hey, Chôzen!" exclaimed Mokou all of sudden, catching my attention. She suddenly pulled her arms back and took a step back, extending her arms to the sides in a way that reminded me of my earlier attempt to squash her head.

"Need a hug?!"

"It's the Hakutaku Hugger!"

Mokou threw herself at me and tried to squash my head in between her fists, but took it one step further than I had by throwing herself at me to gain more momentum. Realizing what power this move held, I shrieked and fell to the side, twisting my body out of the way of the attack.

She brushed past me, one gloved hand sliding across my cheek. I could've easily countered and intercepted her attack with a punch of my own, but I hadn't been prepared, and it was better to avoid than to get hit and risk the second knockdown.

Mokou stumbled, but never hit me. Instead, she tumbled through the boxing ring like a drunk person, went right for the elastic ropes I had used to get up before. She threw herself into them and exploited the fact that they were pretty much elastic to throw herself back at me, keeping the momentum she had from her stumbling.

Once again, I fell out of the way of the girl that reminded me more of a raging bull than a fire-wielding immortal at that moment. But that didn't irritate her in the slightest, as she just used the ropes on what had originally been her side of the boxing ring to throw her once more at me, going as far as even gaining momentum.

And this time, that was her fault. I didn't avoid. Didn't make any attempt at sidestepping her attack. This time, I wouldn't need to. I concentrated as she came closer, aimed closely, even as her body began to catch fire. Mere meters lay between us when I swung my right fist in an uppercut.

And hit her square into the face, even though I had aimed for her chin.

The punch hurt me, but not as much as it seemed to hurt her. Pushed back by her slamming into my fist was my only problem, while Mokou let out a chortled and gurgling curse, before she fell sideways and reeled back into the direction of the ropes she had just bounced off.

For a second, it seemed like she had recovered already, as she changed the direction of her stumbles and came back towards me, one fist raised above her head and ready to strike me – but about four meters in front of me, she swung that fist down, made a less than gracious twirl, and landed sprawled out on her back right in front of me on the canvas, heavily breathing.

Knocked down for the second time.

Keine came rushing toward us and stepped over Mokou. She seemed displeased, but rose her arm nonetheless. Bringing it down, she began to count once again.

"One!"

"Good job Chôzen!" I heard Nanatsu shout behind me. Panting heavily, I turned my head and nodded toward her, grinned as much as I could. That second knockdown had worked really well. One more if Mokou were to recover this time, and she'd be forced to give up. That were her own rules, after all.

"Two!"

Knowing that I'd notice when Mokou would stand up – Keine would be stopping to count and wait for me to be ready to continue the fight – I rose my gaze and stared at the fight I had not yet managed to get a glance on.

"Three!"

Above our heads, Rumia and Kaguya were ducking it out in a battle of color and darkness. Black and crimson bullets, created by my second wife in an attempt to put pressure onto Kaguya, were surrounding their fight and limiting it to the space only right beneath the light fixture, meaning that the space they had to avoid any attacks was pretty much limited. To the sides by Rumia's bullets, above by the light fixture, and below by my fight with Mokou, which they would only get caught up in if they were to descend a bit.

"Four!"

But it wasn't only black and crimson up there. Kaguya was still using the Jeweled Branch of Hourai, releasing large clouds of colorful bullets that either remained in place or flew towards Rumia, forcing her to avoid – sometimes, dangerously close to the stationary bullets of color.

"Five! Come on, Mokou!"

But I knew Rumia could handle this. Years ago, putting too much pressure resulted in her snapping and losing it completely. The apocalyptic night had been testament to that, the very brink of her insanity, unleashed all at once.

"Six!"

She still was like that today. But she could work with her insanity unleashed. In fact, once she let her insanity, her madness and her bloodlust get the better of her, not only did Tyrfing gain power and what was coming close to sentience, but she also could tap deeper into the potential that was locked away within her by what little amount o sanity she had left.

"Seven! Mokou, this can't be it!"

But Kaguya was a powerful opponent. While heavily limited when it came to physical attacks by what little strength her fragile and lithe body possessed, her magical abilities were much, much stronger. For thousand of years, she had been keeping up with Mokou, who was considered stronger, and had even managed to overcome her several times. Her magic was powerful, but she also possessed quite a bit of wit. That made her one dangerous opponent. Rumia was strong, but she would have to be on her toes for this fight. I could only hope she wasn't one of those who underestimated Kaguya because of her appearance. That could cost her the fight.

"Eight!"

I lowered my gaze and balled my fists inside the boxing gloves. Mokou was still lying on her back, was still panting, and hadn't moved a bit. Two more. Just two more and she'd be out...

"Nine!"

I swallowed, felt every muscle within me tense up. One second and Mokou would've lost by her own rules. I could move on to help Nanatsu or Rumia, whoever would need more help. Just one more second. One more...

"T...!"

Mokou let out a furious roar and interrupted Keine. Her whole body flinched and shot up into the air as she hammered her fists down on the canvas. She landed in a kneeled position.

But she was back on her feet.

One last time.

Keine frowned at Mokou, then at me, and finally at Nanatsu. Technically, the tenth second had been over, but Keine hadn't announced my victory yet, and Mokou had managed to get up in the very last moment. It was up to Nanatsu to decide.

Technically not exactly a neutral decision that way, but Nanatsu would be deciding fair, and not necessarily in our favor. With how long she had worked with Shikieiki, no one doubted that, even I didn't.

And true to that, she nodded. Mokou had still made it in time, meaning she hadn't lost. She had just gained the second knockdown, meaning that one more knockdown would be my victory, but she hadn't lost just now.

I took my place in the middle of the boxing ring again as Mokou climbed to her feet and rolled her shoulders, which seemed to hurt or be tense. Well, I hope they hurt or were tense. It meant that she was indeed feeling the result of the fight instead of remaining unscathed.

"Are you two ready?" inquired Keine as she took her place next to us for the third – and hopefully final – time, "I know you can do it Mokou. Don't let yourself be defeated now!"

"Won't happen, Keine." replied Mokou with, despite the state she was in, a chuckle, "Just be ready to take on Nanatsu as soon as I win this fight."

"Confident as ever." I couldn't help but comment, raising an eyebrow at the fire-wielding girl, "At the moment, it looks like I'll be winning this fight."

"Just you wait. Keine?"

"Alright." responded the Were-Hakutaku, and rose her hand again, "Fight!"

Keine quickly moved out of the way and allowed the fight to continue, but she wasn't the only one to move. Mokou moved as well – backwards, two steps away from me. I frowned, as she turned during these steps, facing away from me and towards the audience.

And for whatever reason, as Mokou rose her hands into the air and allowed a small amount of fire to spread in a circle around her feet, the audience went crazy. Cheers and catcalls seemed to erupt – as far as I could tell, since there was no sound in here due to the barriers – and things were thrown up and down. Even Aya had jumped up from her chair and had slammed her hands down on the table the judges and Yukari sat behind.

Speaking of Yukari – When Aya had jumped up and had slammed her hands down on the table, not only had she knocked Rinnosuke over with her wings again and had forced Sly to jump over the table to catch his flask before it fell off, but had also somehow set the folding chair off.

And now, Rinnosuke and Reimu – who had rushed to the Sukima's help – were trying to free Yukari from the chair she was stuck in, with it having folded up with her in it. Looked hilarious, but the situation at hand didn't exactly make me feel like I wanted to laugh.

Cause what the hell? Why would Mokou turning to the audience cause this much of a reaction?

Mokou turned again, now facing another part of the audience, and repeated the process. Again, the audience went crazy, especially as Mokou turned back to me, the biggest smirk ever on her lips, of all time.

And suddenly, she struck a pose towards the audience to my right. Ended that pose by falling into the other direction to strike another pose towards the other side of the audience, wings – made of nothing but fire – spreading from her back.

"Super! Macho! Mokou!"

"Whatever are you... Oh shit."

As she turned anew, I knew what was going on. The poses. The turning. The excited audience. Mokou had been announcing her next move to the audience, a move she must've pulled off last year exactly like this, a trademark of sorts.

Because, after the second pose, burning wings still present, she sent a mischievous glance into my direction, and began to twirl on the spot. Not at incredible speed, but still so sudden that it caught me off guard. The first punch connected with my chest and knocked nearly all air out of me, causing me to double over, but she wasn't done.

"Release...!"

She continued to twirl. Turned faster as she was facing away from me, but slowed down and aimed shortly before she was facing me again. The second punch hit me in the chin and I fell sidewards, cursed that I had been played like that. The way it was, the next punch would hit me as well, and send me down for the count for the second time.

"the...!"

"And again I'm saving your ass..."

Insanity took over. His higher pain threshold allowed him to absorb what I had just taken, and he rose from the doubled-over position I had been in. Mokou twirled again, slowed down to aim, and I saw her eyes widen as she found that I had moved. She was too fast to slow down now.

Her punch missed me. She lost her balance and staggered.

"...Bogus!"

"Shut the hell up, flame."

And just like that, Mokou was suddenly wide open for me to knock her down for the final time. She was still staggering and couldn't do a thing as I narrowed my eyes and went in for the final punch. One foot slammed down on the canvas, closing the distance between me and Mokou. I swung my fist, aimed at her head, which was completely exposed and without any protection.

Beyond my fist, Mokou's lips curled up into a smirk.

~ Music fades out ~

She picked up speed again and continued to turn, but it wasn't her hand that slapped me across the face or anything, not a fist that defeated me and sent me down for the count for the second time. It was her burning wing.

It hurt like hell. My face was suddenly enveloped by fire and forced me to close my eyes, aborting my attack way earlier than I had expected. Mokou continued her attack before anyone else could've realized what was happening, and slammed her fist into my stomach with enough power for me to lose my ground. My entire body was thrown through the air – and that despite me being taller and heavier than Mokou! - and was stopped only when I hit what was definitely the elastic ropes, as my limbs got tangled in them.

Probably a funny sight, as my legs and arms were twitching a bit and I was tangled up in the ropes upside-down, but painful. And not only in the physical sense, but also when it came to my pride.

Mokou had cheated!

"Hey!" I heard Nanatsu scream, and I knew she had realized it, too, that Mokou had cheated just now. Opening my eyes, I found the world upside-down, but not only that. I could see Rumia fighting Kaguya. Could see Keine climbing into the boxing ring with a sinister smirk. And could see Mokou approaching me with a big smirk, smoke escaping her boxing gloves at her wrists.

"Well, it was fun while it lasted." snorted Mokou as she leaned over me, a big smirk on her lips as she reached for my collar, "I like the occasional change of pace. But let's go back to the real fun, right?"

"You cheater..." I growled, hadn't thought Mokou would go that far. I wanted to say more, wanted to complain more, but Mokou suddenly yanked on my collar, freeing me from my predicament. Pulled around by my collar, she yanked me up onto my feet, smirked into my face, and then pushed me away from her, sending me into a tumble.

"I didn't cheat, these rules were just made up by us and not by the judges, they're not official!" laughed the fire-wielding immortal behind me. I growled again, finally caught myself. Damn it, Kaguya and her little mindgames had rubbed off a bit on Mokou during the time I was gone. With anger boiling in my veins, I twirled around to give Mokou a piece of my mind in the usual Gensokyo way – And promptly received a powerful fist to the face that sent me tumbling to the side. But it wasn't over there, as another fist came from the other side, and for the split second that I saw it before it hit my face, I saw that the gloves were burning away, Mokou's fists burning through them.

The second hit to my face was just as hard as the first one and sent my entire body into the other direction. At this point, my legs were already giving in, my body unresponsive. But the third fist that followed wouldn't let me fall. It was harder and more merciless, mostly because the glove had burnt away completely by the time it hit my face, and finally gave me the final blow.

Everything was in slow-motion as I began to fall.

"Dreamland... Aaagghhhh..."

My entire body went numb as I fell into the other direction, turning on the spot. Wouldn't move or respond to my attempts to break my fall. I was already nearing the ground by the time that my body completed the turn, and I landed on my back in front of Mokou. The faint smell of burnt rubber was in the air, accompanied by defeat.

My face felt swollen, was undoubtedly bruised and beaten blue and green. And Mokou was standing triumphantly over me. Had reversed the situation. It should've been me to beat the champ, and not me being beaten by the champ.

Through what little vision I had with one eye forced shut due to being swollen, I could make out Nanatsu fighting Keine behind Mokou, having a hard time to keep Keine in place by the horns.

But as it turned out, Mokou wasn't quite done yet with me. She stepped up to where my fallen body lay and crouched down, grinning widely.

"Now that we're all warmed up, let's start the real fight. Right, Chôzen?"

Rumia's PoV

"Here it comes again!"

With this cheerful shout, Kaguya swung her Jeweled Branch of Hourai into my direction again. Diving to the side, I managed to avoid the dense swarm of colorful orbs thrown my way, but had to risk throwing myself into a stationary cloud of the same orbs.

It was by sheer luck alone that I got through without slowing down and colliding with any of the bullets. For a moment, I could see nothing but colors, Kaguya hidden from my vision. By the time I emerged, though, I found the lazy princess exactly where she had last been. Where she actually had been most of the fight.

For being a lazy ass and a spoiled princess, she could take quite a lot. Despite remaining mainly stationary and taking everything I threw at her, blocking only the stronger attacks – all ranged, as she didn't let me get too close to her - she didn't seem to be fazed at all. Not exhausted in the slightest. It was as if she had infinite energy that she could use to recover, and it was going on my nerves.

As much as I like my battles to be hard and challenging, with as much blood as possible being shed, I did not like enemies that could stand everything I threw at them, and remain unharmed even after over half an hour. It reminded me too much of fighting Mima and Yuuka.

"Something ain't right, Rumia."

"I figured that much." I replied upon hearing my own insanity speak up. Despite being insanity that was sentient as it was, it was surprisingly the more collected part of me. The calmer one, which spent time thinking about things, while I rushed into battle. Not my style, and yet somehow that of my own insanity, which was part of me in return.

"Oh, you figured out something?" giggled Kaguya lowly, making me narrow my eyes at her – she was a good deal of distance away from me, and had heard me. That is something even I notice. That I could hear her was only because I had grabbed Nanatsu's ribbon through the ritual of bonded hearts, which heightened one's senses.

Thinking of my partners, how were they doing?

Seeing as Kaguya was too occupied grinning like the stupid shit of a princess that she was at me, I lowered my gaze a bit to stare at the battlefield below.

And scowled.

Nanatsu was wrestling with Keine – she'd need the energy back once that'd erupt into a full fight, meaning I'd have to let go of the ribbon soon – and Chôzen was getting his ass kicked by Mokou. Literally, as she had thrown him into the ribbons of the boxing ring and kicked him out of it.

I balled my fists, one clenching around Tyrfing's hilt, the other around Nanatsu's ribbon. Great. Just great.

"Looks like your team is in bit of a situation, hm?" sniggered the lunatic princess – ha, pun intended! - from much closer than before. I rose my gaze to meet hers, finding that she had moved a bit closer to me, but was still out of my range.

A growl escaped my throat, but I tried to remain as calm as possible. Wouldn't let her get to me, as she undoubtedly intended to. She knew my short temper, knew my need for a fight. For blood to be shed. But I wouldn't fall for that trap.

"Aw, are you still mad at me?" chuckled Kaguya mockingly, waved her hand with the branch inside around a bit, "I knew we did not exactly start on the best terms, but are you really still holding that grudge? After all these years?"

"You were trying to take Tyrfing and make it your impossible request!"

"You really aren't any better than Mokou when it comes to holding grudges. At least she found a way to release her..."

"Bogus!"

The Flame-Soul appeared before me, gently floating up until it hovered right in front of me. I frowned, but it didn't say anything else, merely floated there – before darting over to Kaguya, and orbiting her left hand.

"Anger. I was going to say anger." muttered Kaguya, who had apparently heard the telepathic message as well. The Flame-Soul sometimes knew how to be random, that for sure – but this was no such moment. It had been a message, and one that I actually understood.

The word held no message. Was just to distract Kaguya for her not to realize what the Flame-Soul really meant to tell me – the reason for Kaguya's strength. The reason why she had been able to take everything I had thrown at her without as much as flinching, which was strange, even for her.

She had a natural high resistance to magical damage, I knew that from past encounters with her, but she should've flinched. Unless there was exactly that which the Flame-Soul had just shown to me.

Kaguya's left hand was clutched to a fist. And within this fist rested a white and red ribbon.

"The ritual of bonded hearts it is, and with Mokou, undoubtedly. Fujiwara no Mokou is sharing her power with Kaguya. Clever, given that Mokou had not been needing as much during her boxing match!"

My insanity was right. That had been the reason Mokou had insisted on the boxing match that, by now, had come to an end. Had she been relying on her strength during the fight with Chôzen while I had been fighting Kaguya using the ritual, I would've drained Mokou's strength. But during a regular boxing match, Mokou could give away most of her power and still fight Chôzen. She merely had been a little more susceptible to knockdowns than usual.

With me having understood it, the Flame-Soul suddenly made a back dash towards his original owner, who was having a hard time fending off the overly aggressive Mokou by one of the barriers.

"So, Rumia, shall we continue this then?" inquired the lunatic princess, turning my attention back to my own fight. Had she realized that I knew the secret to her strength now? I don't think so. She was still holding the ribbon.

Unaware how much it would be helping Chôzen in just about a second.

"Sure. Just let me do one thing..." I replied – And let go of Nanatsu's ribbon. Let the strength of the Shinigami leave my body.

Immediately, the Shinigami below us let out a furious roar as her strength flew back into her. I heard Keine gasp, but didn't need to look down to know that Nanatsu was, with all of her strength being back, now pushing the Were-Hakutaku around by the horns.

At the same time, I reached out into nothingness, but summoned a spellcard within my now empty hand. Kaguya frowned, but rose her Jeweled Branch of Hourai a bit to defend herself from anything that was to come.

If she only knew.

"Suicide Bullet 'Kaibutsu'!" I called out, the spellcard within my hand reacting and bursting apart into a swarm of darkness, changing it's shape to that of the familiar gun. Kaguya's frown increased and she tilted the branch within her grasp, creating a circle of colorful bullets in front of her.

But that turned out to be just as useless as I had expected it to be. I pulled the trigger the first time, darkness burst forth from the muzzle of the gun along with a single bullet. A dark orb shot through the air.

And hit Kaguya right into the face.

She gasped and stumbled backwards through the air, momentarily blinded by the darkness surrounding her head. Darkness that robbed one of it's sight, and drained one's energy, leaving only pain. As such, it was Mokou who screamed out and grabbed her own face somewhere in the distance. Sending a quick glance into that direction, I spotted her and Chôzen still near the barrier – but Mokou was now wide open for all kind of attacks, which Chôzen used to immediately land a 'Negative Bullet' that sent both him and Mokou slamming into the side of the boxing ring.

So I had managed to turn the fight back around.

My own fight went bad, though.

"YOU!"

Turning back into the direction of Kaguya, having been distracted for a moment too long, I found that the princess had regained her vision and had come charging right at me. I rose both my arms and crossed them in front of my chest in an attempt to guard myself, but it was too late for that.

Kaguya grabbed me by the collar, going right past my offense – since my only defense was my offense – at speed I had not suspected her to have. I cursed, coughed as she yanked me closer to her by my collar, and then moved her hand to curl around my throat.

"You think that was fun, hm? You think you turned the fight around, hm?!" growled the lunatic princess into my face, a whole new level of anger to her that I did not know from the otherwise so easy-going and lazy princess.

Guess she didn't like the fact that the burst of darkness had not only hit her oh-so-pretty face, but had messed up her hair quite a bit.

"Let's see if you think of this still as much of fun when I take something from you!"

I tried to fight the grasp of the petite hand, but it was Mokou's strength that now rested within the petite appearance of the princess, and Mokou had quite a strong grip for possessing the body of a girl. My entire body was suddenly pulled around Kaguya, then the hold on my throat was gone – and I flew through the air. Up. Towards the light fixture.

"And I take your shadows!"

Impact. Pain.

Nanatsu's PoV

Something rattled above us, causing both me and Keine to cringe and freeze up. I still had the Were-Hakutaku by her horns when I slowly tilted my head back to look up to see whatever had caused the weird noise.

It was Rumia. Well, it was her, more or less. She was the first thing that I found upon looking up, falling down upon me from right above, forcing me to let go of Keine's horns and dive to the side, not wanting to be hit by my falling girlfriend. Hitting the ground in a roll that was not as painful as it must've looked, but the thing that I saw through that would be.

The rattling noise had been the light fixture. Putting the pieces together from there wasn't that hard, just a quick process of seeing the light fixture shake and Rumia fall, looking like she was in a lot of pain. And we'd all three be just a few seconds later.

The light fixture was coming down on us.

Rumia hit the ground in front of Keine, who had looked up as well. Rumia herself wasn't moving other than writhing in pain, probably unaware of the danger above her, while I could only stare with wide eyes as I spotted the lights coming closer at an uncomfortable speed.

Nonetheless, I reacted. Reacted in the only way that I knew: Still on the ground, I reached for Senkoku – the hammer had slipped off my back and lay only a few inches from me, still within my reach – and pulled the hammer towards me. I wouldn't be able to swing it, not with the way I lay on my back on the ground, but it could at least serve as a shield of sorts.

I couldn't be defeated just now, not by something like this. Rumia and Chôzen relied on me to occupy Keine, maybe even defeat her.

Speaking of Keine – the Were-Hakutaku had her own idea of how to deal with the situation. While I tried to hide behind my hammer, she let out a growl that was fitting her more beast-like appearance a lot, and lowered her head again.

Not to cower, though.

Just before the light fixture hit us, the Were-Hakutaku swung her head back up, letting out a primal roar as her horns – and hard head, if I can trust the tales of her headbutts - smashed into and through the light fixture, shattering it into smaller pieces. She was unwillingly saving Rumia from the fate of defeat through that as well, though I wasn't aware whether or not she had even realized that the Angel of Death was lying to her feet and writhing in pain.

One of the smaller pieces landed on my hammer, but other than the weight, which I could just push off, didn't turn out to be a problem. Mostly because Keine had slowed the fall of the light fixture down to next to none.

"Kaguya!" I heard Keine scream up to her partner, giving me the time I needed to recover and get back on my feet, "Watch out what you're doing for a change! That could've hit me as well!"

"Sorry Keine!"

Back on my feet now, I quickly strapped the hammer back into it's place across my back. At the same time, I scanned the area to Keine's feet for Rumia, and found the poor woman buried beneath some of the heavy metal. She seemed conscious, but still in a lot of pain, though it didn't seem to be because of the weight on her.

Seeing Keine turn back to me from the corner of my eyes, I changed my attention back to her. She was enraged, that much was easy to tell. The way she snarled, some of her teeth bared, and had fallen into a position in which she was leaning forward and held her hands like claws. All of that spoke for a more primal Keine. Ex-Keine.

Past encounters and conversations with both the teacher herself and the humans of the human village had given me quite a lot of information about this change of the Were-Hakutaku. It wasn't only her appearance that changed slightly, becoming more of a beast, but her personality as well. Keine resented that, but had also exploited it in the past.

What one Keine, the calm and collected one, was hesitant to do, the other Keine – Ex-Keine – did not even think about twice. In the hakutaku state, Keine was direct, less hesitant and more ruthless. More of a Youkai. She rarely wasted two thoughts on something, and acted on instincts, unlike the normal Keine. A beast free of it's chains, eager to pick a fight and win it. Not quite full of bloodlust or pointless aggression, but unable to resist any challenge it was faced with.

As such, Keine usually stayed away from others during these times. Once the full moon peeked over the horizon, she isolated herself as to not end up hurting someone, in fear that she'd be unable to completely control herself. The only people she trusted to be around at that time was, as far as I knew, Fujiwara no Mokou, and the inhabitants of Eientei. In fact, she had begun to retreat there every full moon ever since Kaguya and Mokou had learned to let their anger out in challenges rather than through pointless killing of each other, if what I had heard from other people before our leave twenty years ago was right.

Thing was – both were the real Keine. Both the same Keine, only seen from two different angles. It wasn't that she was insane in the way that Rumia or Chôzen were, no second personality residing within her. It was her, with her desires and instincts released.

And she was way less predictable than she usual was, and way less pleasant to be around.

"Let's settle this already." huffed the teacher all of sudden, her eyes narrowing slightly. A hint of a challenge lay in them, the message for me to attack her. But I wouldn't. I was no mindless beast like Rumia could be, and was not falling for traps like Chôzen was ever so often in his sometimes naive way. To be honest, I've always considered myself to be the most thoughtful of us three. The smart one. The one with the brain. And with the way that these two relied on me for plans that didn't involve 'no plan at all', which was Rumia's way of approaching things, or the most chaotic and weirdest approaches, which was what Chôzen relied on ever so often, they probably thought the same.

But I wasn't the leader. I'm not made to be a leader. I'm the brain that works in the background, the part of a unit that takes a step back and takes a look at things from afar. Chôzen, on the other hand, knew how to motivate us. Knew when a fight was won or lost, and when to best make a tactical retreat – most of the time, at least. He had the strength to lead and the mentality to do so. And Rumia, Rumia was the weapon. Didn't think on who to attack as long as you told her what to do. She followed instructions, but unlike a normal weapon, questioned them. Was sentient, and always ready to add her own piece of mind. Sure, she wouldn't care who to attack, but only as long as it made sense to her.

I wasn't one to fall for taunts. Wouldn't charge blindly into just another fight.

Keine wouldn't get to me.

And since she didn't get me to approach her, charged at me.

She lowered her head and let out a roar, before she kicked herself off the canvas and rushed through what had remained of the light fixture. Bend metal was pushed out of the way, spotlights shattered as she stepped onto them and made her way across the rubble.

Just as I had planned.

Reversing the situation was easy with an enemy that was like this.

The final piece of black metal was thrown aside as she swung her arms at it. She lowered her head again and aligned her horns, ready to impale me with them and throw me through the air. And with her head lowered, wouldn't see me that well anymore, no matter how much she glared.

I reached for Senkoku again, pulled the hammer off my back, and swung it in one fluid motion from there. From there into the side of Keine's skull.

A groan of pain escaped the raging Were-Hakutaku as she was thrown off course and lost her footing. She stumbled, growled, hit the ground to my right and sled across the canvas into a pile of bend metal, which collapsed atop her.

She wouldn't be trapped under there for long. Not with how much she was raging. Not with how she was in her Hakutaku form. But it would at least give me the little amount of time that I needed. The window of time I had gained was small, so small in fact that I didn't remain where I was while I swung Senkoku onto my back again, but was already rushing to Rumia's help.

The first piece of metal was pushed off the Angel of Death when I slammed into it with my shoulder first, buying me some more time. Time, in which Keine was already freeing herself of the parts of the light fixture that lay atop her. I had no idea where Kaguya had vanished off to, and frankly didn't care, as long as I would get Rumia out from under the remains of what had once been the light fixture.

The boxing ring was now no longer as brightly illuminated as it was before, but that didn't matter. Without the light, Rumia wouldn't be able to call upon the shadows – without a doubt Kaguya's intention – but she didn't need those to win.

I pulled the other piece of scrap metal off Rumia, freeing her. The Angel of Death, thankfully fully conscious, immediately climbed out of the rubble, and used Tyrfing to pull herself up onto her feet. She was still holding both her weapons, both the cursed sword and the gun, and other than the fact that she still seemed to be in quite a bit of pain, seemed like she could continue to fight.

Which we really needed if we wanted to defeat Mokou's team.

"Are you okay?" I asked nonetheless, quickly checking her for any injuries that I could find, though other than a few bruises, there were none. None apparent ones.

"Have seen better days." growled my girlfriend, shifted her weight and leaned onto me, one arm thrown around my shoulders, "But I'm not defeated yet. Not before I haven't given that damn lunatic a piece of my mind!"

I couldn't help but let a small smile cross my lips. Same old Rumia. Stubborn, and always out for revenge.

The sound of something heavy being pushed aside was enough to tell me that Keine had freed herself of her temporary prison. Still in one hell of a bad mood, the Were-Hakutaku threw a part of the light fixture to the side, not caring where it landed, and stomped through the remains of the pile that had been on top of her moments earlier.

As she slowly stomped towards us, steam practically coming from her nostrils each time she breathed out in her anger, Kaguya slowly descended into my field of vision from above near Keine. With a sudden movement of her Jeweled Branch of Hourai, colorful bullets were released, though of a much different property than those before – they fell. Fell like rocks.

In a moment of clairvoyance, I unleashed hellfire around me and Rumia, shielding us from the explosion that rocked the whole battlefield upon impact of the colorful bullets with the weird characteristic. Lowering the walls of fire immediately after that as to not lose track of Keine and Kaguya, I found the reason for Kaguya's action – The explosions had cleared the battlefield of the remains of the light fixture, had sent the parts flying into all directions. Now, they lay at the foot of the barrier that surrounded the battlefield.

And Chôzen and Mokou were nowhere in view. I doubted that they had gotten caught up in the flying shrapnel, but had no idea where they had ended up, either.

With the canvas clear once more, Kaguya landed on it, right next to an enraged Keine. She looked amused, while Keine clearly thought otherwise. At this very moment, the two couldn't look any different actually. Kaguya was relaxed, amused, with a smile gracing her cute, beautiful features. Her midnight-black hair was slightly disheveled, but nowhere near enough to ruin the picture of perfect beauty that she was.

Keine looked the exact opposite. Unlike Kaguya, she wasn't standing upright. Leaned forward, fingers twitching impatiently like claws, eyes feral and narrowed at us. Her white hair with the green strands was a mess after her time underneath the metal, but her horns still stood out of the mess, reminded of how much of a beast she was beyond the appearance of a woman. Her dress had ripped slightly at one shoulder and at the bottom. Keine was angry and serious about this, unlike the relaxed and amused Kaguya.

It must have been the most ironic and at the same time most amusing thought I had that day, but as Rumia pushed off me and prepared Tyrfing and Kaibutsu for the upcoming fight of what was now two-versus-two, I couldn't help but realize something.

This fight was a beauty and a beast against a beauty and a beast.

~ Beauties and the beasts! Nanatsu and Rumia vs. Kaguya and Keine! This fight is brought you by: The Last Story – Evil Beasts ~

The four of us moved at the same time. Keine charged towards me with her head lowered and her horns pointing toward me. Both Kaguya and Rumia took into the air, with Rumia shooting with Kaibutsu at Kaguya, and the lunatic princess throwing back a volley of colorful bullets as they ascended. I pulled Senkoku and held it sideways in front of my body.

Keine impacted with the hammer, but thanks to the hilt not giving in, I managed to hold her just out of reach, though my body was pushed backwards across the canvas.

Above, Rumia managed to avoid a volley of colorful bullets and close in on Kaguya, landing a solid elbow into the princess' guts. The princess sunk a bit out of the air as all wind was knocked out of her and she doubled over, which gave me an idea. But first, I needed Keine out of the way.

That proved to be not as hard as it one would've imagined it to be, all I had to do was to push Senkoku to the side. Using Keine's own strength, this resulted in her being thrown onto the canvas to my left, giving me the space I needed to rush past her towards Kaguya.

On the way, I pushed Senkoku over my shoulder and onto my back, where it came to land on the hook at the back of my kimono specifically added for it. With it out of the way and Kaguya within reach, I took the last few steps and extended a hand towards the foot that I could now reach.

Kaguya liked videogames, right? This one should throw her back a decade or two!

She shrieked as I pulled her out of the air with my superior strength, her attempt to stay airborne going completely unnoticed by me as futile as it was. Still holding her by her foot, I began to turn on the spot, building up momentum with each turn, the centrifugal force pulling on the princess.

And then, for the split second of one turn, I saw Keine getting up from the ground. Turned once more. Build up more speed and more momentum.

Let Kaguya's foot go at just the right time.

"So long, King Bowser!"

"So long, Princess Houraisan!"

The princess screamed and flew, silenced as she knocked into Keine and sent the two of them rolling across the canvas. Quickly sending a glance to my right, from where I had felt the presence, I found the Flame-Soul floating at the edge of the boxing ring. I still couldn't see Mokou or Chôzen, but at least it meant that he was still fighting somewhere, and that he had not lost yet, which was a good thing.

"Keep on fighting."

"You too, you heard me?"

"I will deliver that message, but I don't think there's any need to. Look above!"

Doing what the Flame-Soul told me to, I quickly found what he had meant. Chôzen and Mokou, just below the orb with the artificial night sky in it, enveloped in their respective color of fire – in Chôzen's case, negative energy – throwing back and forth flames of their color, occasionally tackling into each other to go over into close combat.

One nasty tackle from Mokou sent Chôzen into the ceiling near one of the chains that the orb with the artificial night sky in it dangled on, causing the ceiling to give in and the orb to tilt. Mokou immediately followed up with another tackle that sent Chôzen on top of the orb, out of my view. She followed. Both were gone from my sight.

But I knew his fight wasn't over yet. Ours wasn't either.

Seeing Keine coming back towards me at incredible speed from the corner of my eyes, I lowered my gaze and prepared to meet her head-on again. Even focused on Keine, I spotted that Rumia had exploited Kaguya's defenseless state and had closed in to fight in her territory: close combat.

Keine had the same idea, but I wasn't as much at disadvantage as Kaguya was in close-ranged combat. So I let Keine close in on me. This time, she rose her head just before she got within my reach, not willing to make the same mistake she had made before yet again. She wasn't trying to get me with her horns, but instead threw a punch at me, which I caught within my left hand, and then pushed to the side.

She kept her balance somehow, and tried to hit me with the same fist again as she returned, this time from above. This time I could dodge, though I began to wonder how many times I would be able to do exactly that. Keine would eventually adapt to my fighting style. Now, it was new to her, we never had fought before. But she was smart, and would eventually be able to tell how long I needed to react to something. And once she would be able to, she would be able to land more devastating hits.

A glare from Keine, who had ended up leaned to the left after missing me, pulled me back into reality and told me I would have to prepare for the next hit. Indeed it came as predicted, and yet still caught me off guard by how it was executed.

Instead of turning back to me to try and land another hit, Keine pushed herself off the ground in the opposite direction. Instead of punching me, she twirled on the spot and swung her hands like claws. One collided with my side and sent a sharp wave of pain through me, leaving me open for the following spin into the other direction from the Were-Hakutaku, this one without claws, but with one leg pulled up.

A sharp hiss escaped me as her knee found its way into my guts. The world before my eyes erupted into color, before suddenly turning black as two fists came down on my head in a hammer-like motion, sending me down on the canvas with my chin first.

Another irritating thing about Keine: You tended to underestimate Ex-Keine due to Keine. Ex-Keine was on an entirely different level than the calmer version.

The blackness didn't last long. I was far from defeated, and far from unconsciousness. The world returned to its original colors and shades, allowing me to see what was in front of me. Spotting Keine's leg mere inches away from my face, I didn't hesitate to reach for her ankle and pull on it, earning a surprised gasp from my opponent.

She fell onto her rear, gave me the opportunity to quickly climb back onto my feet that way, and fell onto her back when I yanked on her leg again. Just like I had thrown Kaguya only moments before, I began to turn on the spot, twirling as fast as I could.

Keine, being taller than Kaguya and more developed, was weighing quite a bit more than the petite princess, and took me a few more turns to actually get off the ground, even with my high physical strength, simply due to the fact that the centrifugal force was working against me at first.

The moment Keine was off the ground and completely helpless, I let my rotations slow down just a little bit so that I would be able to see how Rumia's fight near the barrier was going. Not necessarily bad, as it turned out, as Kaguya was having a hard time keeping Rumia at bay now that the Angel of Death had gotten close once and was desperate to defeat the ex-princess of the moon.

Throw Rumia a bone and she bites off your arm.

A loud bang echoed through the battlefield as Kaguya finally managed to get some distance between her and Rumia, only for the Angel of Death to pull the trigger of her gun and envelop Kaguya's head in darkness. With Kaguya blind, Rumia lowered her weapon Kaibutsu and charged at the ex-princess with Tyrfing being dragged along the barrier. In the final moment, Rumia pushed herself off the barrier and right at Kaguya, slashing through the princess with Tyrfing, leaving her in a world of hurt as Rumia turned around, landed against another part of the barrier, and pushed herself back towards the ex-princess.

Knowing that Rumia was handling her fight just well, I focused back on Keine. Speeding up my rotations again, I aimed for the right spot to throw the Were-Hakutaku at before the circular movement got to me. I really did not like nausea.

I let go. The Were-Hakutaku's foot slipped through my fingers, brushed along them. And though I did not get to see her flight itself, as it took me two more rotations to even come to a stop, I did see how she impacted with the red wooden post in one of the corners with her face first.

A loud snap echoed around as the wooden post shattered into thousand of splinters. They rained down as Keine tumbled with her face planted onto the canvas over the edge of the ring and hit the concrete ground just outside it, getting caught up in the ropes and ripping two more poles out in the other corners as she pulled them down with her.

And then, I just stood there. Breathing heavily, even though I was far from actual exhaustion. My heart beat like crazy as I waited for Keine to make her next move, for her to reappear from behind the edge and climb back into the ring.

But she didn't.

Even the ropes refused to move in the slightest, meaning Keine wasn't even trying to free herself of them. This of course led me to frown after several seconds of no movement. Had I really just defeated Keine, just like that? Her head had always seemed to be what could take the most damage, and now a pole to her face had knocked her out?

I sent a cautious glance towards the large board, only to find that none of the fairy maids made any attempt to cross Keine's face out. So she wasn't defeated? Or just not declared defeated yet? There was only one way to tell.

With small steps, I closed in on the corner that Keine lay behind. Approached it with caution, fearing to walk right into the sight of Keine getting up and being ready to get revenge on me. But the closer I came, the more did it become apparent that Keine was no longer there. Not even tangled up in the ropes anymore, somehow having escaped them without me noticing. The ground in front of the corner was empty.

Immediately, I turned my head and scanned the edges of the boxing ring for Keine, wondering where she would appear from. She must've thought of sneaking up to me, so where was she? Where had she vanished off to?

The answer came quicker than expected, and not how I liked it. Something latched onto my foot and grabbed my ankle, something that turned out to be a hand belonging to Keine the moment that I turned back to the corner I had thought her to have escaped from. Instead, she had hid just behind the corner, blocked from my view by the edge of the ring, and had used the moment of my distraction.

She didn't give me the chance to free my foot. Instead, she pulled on it and sent me falling onto my back, pain flashing through my entire body as both my upper back and my head slammed into the canvas. It wasn't over there, as the Hakutaku quickly climbed up into the ring again, hand still curled around my ankle, and proved her own strength by pulling me over her head with it, sending me into the canvas yet again, making the pain only worse, my body writhing and throwing itself around as Keine approached yet again.

But I had learned to deal with the pain. Had learned to resist the effects it had on my body. The moment that Keine came closer, I focused on drowning out all the pain to get in control of my body again, catching her off guard with a well placed kick into her chest. It sent her stumbling backwards, flailing her arms around in an attempt to regain her balance. It failed the moment that she reached the edge of the boxing ring, which, now without ropes, couldn't stop her.

She fell over the edge. Let out a sharp cry of pain as her body impacted with the concrete below again. And I gritted my teeth as I rolled onto my stomach in an attempt to get back up on all fours, and onto my feet from there. Screw it, this hurt a lot more than I had thought. I shouldn't have underestimated Keine like this, I should've known better!

I found my way up onto all fours, still growling to myself. I had a high pain threshold, but Keine had more strength than I had guessed her to have, and her close combat hurt a lot more than I would have ever guessed it to do.

Keine wasn't just some mindless beast in her Ex-form. She behaved like one, but there was still a sharp mind beyond the instincts she mostly relied on in that shape. She could still think and react according to what she experienced, something that made her a lot different from the more mindless Youkai she resembled in that form.

She proved that once more as wood shattered just below my head.

A hand broke through the canvas, caught me off guard, a shriek escaping me as the hand scared me. It didn't go for my face, but instead grabbed my right wrist, and before I could even do as much as react, pulled on that hand. Pulled it down through the canvas and the wood below it.

Suddenly dragged down by that hand, I couldn't even try to react. My head slammed into the canvas and bounced off it, pain shooting through my skull as if it had just been split in half. It might as well have been, with how that hurt!

Rolling away from the hole, both hands on my face, I escaped Keine's second attempt at an attack. Lying on my back on the canvas, I waited for the pain to disappear as much as possible, not once making a noise. That was how she had found me in the first place. Beneath the boxing ring, there was no way that she could've told where I was above her other than through my growling.

I was just about ready to stand back up and move under the ring myself when I heard it. The sound of something hard being dragged along wood, coming closer to me. Keine's horns. She was too tall to fit under the ring just like that, even when she crouched, with her horns like that.

It felt like a reverse version of a shark attack as I heard the sound getting closer and closer. Instead of seeing the fin of a shark, I heard the sound of it moving. Instead of it jumping out of the water to get me...

Just when the noise was almost below me, I swung one hand up, then brought it down on the wood just to my right. It shattered under the impact and my hand went through it, reached into the space below the ring. And managed to grab a hold of Keine's throat almost immediately.

She coughed and wheezed as I clutched her throat tighter and pulled her up. More wood shattered as I pulled her through the canvas up into the boxing ring, followed by the sound of her slamming onto wood as I threw her just a few yard in front of me down on it, sending her rolling across the ground.

This battle was not turning out how I had expected it at all. First, it wasn't Miko and her followers but Mokou, Keine and Kaguya, and now Keine had played me quite well for a while, doing a lot more damage than she should have. And she still was not defeated!

The sound of feet hitting the ground to my right made me twirl around – I guess I was a little tense after all what I had just been through. It turned out to be Rumia, though, frowning at me. I frowned back – before Rumia suddenly shot past me, kicked Kaguya who had sneaked up on me, and sent the lunar princess flying into Keine, the teacher having just attempted to get back up on her feet.

Before I could say anything, Rumia pushed her back up against mine. With us standing close to the middle of the boxing ring – which had a lot of holes by then – this was a position that gave us somewhat of an advantage.

"Didn't go so well so far, hm?" muttered Rumia behind me, dismissing Kaibutsu all of sudden.

"Not really. I underestimated Keine." I replied, glancing over my shoulder to watch Keine and Kaguya untangle from one another and slowly get up.

"I underestimated little miss prissy princess as well. She's been getting some power from Mokou through the ritual of bonded hearts, and has learned the one or other move from Mokou." added Rumia with a nod, before I saw the tiniest of grins flash across her lips, "So, desperate times call for desperate measures, right? So, how about we finally try that in a real fight, eh, 'natsu?"

I immediately knew what she was referring to. Why she had positioned herself back-to-back with me in the middle of the ring, and had dismissed Kaibutsu. It was all according to one of her rare plans.

And boy, did I agree with this one.

A single nod, it didn't take more to let Rumia's lips curl up into the most evil of smirks. We had tried this combo attack of sorts, the thing she had called 'that', several times before, but never in a real fight.

About time then.

I heard the chains of bloodlust rattle as Rumia moved Tyrfing in front of her body. At the same time, I pulled Shi no Taizai from my back and unleashed its true form, thus unleashing its full power. The chains of Shi no Taizai rattled as well as I took a deep breath and held the weapon in front of my body, looking at it one last time.

Before shoving it past my own body towards Rumia with my right hand.

At the same time that Rumia reached to grab Shi no Taizai with her left hand, I used my own left hand to grab Tyrfing, which Rumia had offered to me past her own right side. We both accepted each other's weapon at the same time and pulled it in front of us – only to then repeat the same action as before, offering it to the other one past our right side.

The chains continued to rattle, I took Shi no Taizai back from the left, moved it in front of my body, swung it over my left shoulder and gave it back to Rumia, while taking Tyrfing as it was appeared over my right shoulder. The blade of bloodlust didn't stay in my hands for long, was immediately offered back to Rumia under my right shoulder while taking Shi no Taizai back from under my left.

And just like that, Rumia and I had chained us to each other by the waist and the shoulders. And now for the less tricky part. Shi no Taizai was passed over to my right hand. I extended my left, reached out blindly. Closed my hand around what I found.

And both Rumia and I hissed at the same time as we grabbed the other's ribbon.

The feeling that resulted from that was utterly weird. A lot of power was given to me from Rumia, but at the same time taken to be given back to Rumia. It was as if waves of power washed over my body. A large amount of power, given back and forth in between me and the Angel of Death.

And the chains around us turned black.

~ Music fades out ~

"BLACK GALE!" I announced at the exact same time as Rumia. We were moving in perfect synchronization, both pushed forward and extended the chains until we were no longer back-to-back, but had a bit of distance between us.

Neither Keine nor Kaguya knew how to react as the two of us began to move to the right, weapon extended, becoming one large twister of black color that took up the space within the boxing ring. Kaguya was hit and slammed into the ground by the hilt of Shi no Taizai. Keine tried to escape the ring, but was pulled back as dark winds began to surround the ring in one large tornado of black color, trapping the four of us inside. Trapping Keine and Kaguya in there with us.

The world spun around us. I couldn't see much. Panted. Cursed. Felt pain. We wouldn't be able to hold this up for long. The energy that was being moved back and forth between us was exhausting us more than it could give us strength.

But I'd like to see Kaguya and Keine try to stand this hellish winds until the end...

Chôzen's PoV

~ Flickering flame, heat and lack thereof clash! Mokou vs Chôzen: Mami Kawada – JOINT ~

"Give up already, Chôzen!"

I blocked the flame that was thrown at me, deflected it to the side.

"Not yet, Mokou!"

I unleashed a laser in an attempt to decapitate her, but the fast immortal avoided to the side and turned herself into a large flame of a bright orange color. Knowing what would be coming next, I enveloped myself in a green flame to absorb the impact of Mokou tackling into me, like she had done before.

"Chôzen!" she roared, trying to break through the flame of negative energy, but it was a smirk that lay on her lips, no snarl, no bared teeth. She knew she was at advantage. Knew she was leading. The entire fight had turned around after she had ended the boxing match.

"Mokou!" I roared back, pushed more energy into the flame. I wouldn't let her get through. Unlike her, I was serious about this. Was angry. Raging even. I didn't like to be played or manipulated, and the primal thing within me that had woken gradually didn't like it either. Liked it even less.

"Chôzen!"

"Mokou!"

"SNAKE!"

"LIQUID!"

"What are you two babbling about?! Making pointless references is my job!"

A sudden burst of energy sent Mokou backwards, which she exploited to make a backflip – one hand on the orb with the artificial night sky in it – that absorbed most of the power, resulting in her merely sliding a few inches over the ground. I, on the other hand, was catapulted backwards, heels digging into the ground in an attempt to stop the unwanted movement.

I didn't make it in time. My body slammed into one of the chains, which absorbed the energy of the impact, but briefly left me vulnerable and open for attacks. By the time I managed to raise my head and search for the powerful immortal, Mokou was already charging at me with her body engulfed in fire.

Throwing my body to the side had little effect, Mokou still slammed into me in a burning uppercut that might as well have burned my chin off – I knew that what little stubs of a beard I possessed there wouldn't be a problem for a while.

Knocked airborne, I could do little to avoid as Mokou followed to continue what she had begun. Dizzy from the first hit, it was hard to concentrate on using negative energy to shield me, and the pain didn't help either, but I knew I had to. I didn't know what specific parts of me to defend, so I just enveloped my entire body in the negative energy, as one hit could quickly lead to more, and too many would lead to another quick defeat. After all, Mokou was known for her devastating and powerful combos.

She proved this once again. Despite the negative energy guarding most of my body, I still felt the impact as Mokou, having pushed off the ground with her arms and legs engulfed in fire, slammed her knee into my back on the way up. To cross my arms in front of my body proved to be a wise decision, as the merciless beatdown from above followed seconds later, burning fists slamming into my arms instead of their original goal, my chest.

But Mokou could adapt, even in the heat of the moment – pun not necessarily intended. The last punch into my chest changed into a swipe into my chin that sent my body rotating, and as her punches resumed, they were accompanied by the occasional kicks. The fire-wielding immortal began to follow a steady rhythm that altered in between kicks and punches, but every time I thought I could adapt and change the flow of the negative energy to the area of my body I suspected her to hit next, she changed up the rhythm. Just a bit. Not even much. And yet enough to break through my defenses. To confuse me.

Her attacks were merciless and powerful. She wasn't going to waste any time in trying to defeat me, knowing that every second she wasted would give me the chance to turn the fight around and go on the offensive instead.

It fit perfectly with the element she controlled. Fast and powerful, fire rarely gave someone the chance to adapt. It wasn't predictable, spread like it wanted and in the most confusing ways. Mokou fought like that. Every time you thought you had her figured out, she behaved entirely different, as if the wind changed that allowed the flame to spread.

Fire controlled and wasn't controlled. And just like that, Mokou was in control of this fight.

But enough was enough. She had be in control long enough. And while fire wasn't controlled just like that, the saying 'fight fire with fire' made even more sense when you considered that only fire could fight fire for dominance, for control.

And while the fire that I controlled maybe wasn't real fire, I knew it would do its job just fine. So I waited for Mokou to get comfortable with the rhythm again. Didn't try to get through it, but merely see what she was doing.

And when she pulled her arm back for a punch, I knew my time to strike back had come.

Her fist impacted with my arms, still crossed in front of my chest to block most of the incoming damage. But instead of merely taking the hit, this time, I lashed out. Pushed my arms forward, and her arm out of the way. Mokou couldn't react in shock, was wide open for any attack, and we both knew it would be a 'Negative Bullet'.

At least, that was what I expected to happen. But reality looked different.

Instead of catching Mokou off guard and leaving her wide open for a Negative Bullet, Mokou's other arm came swinging down upon my now unguarded chest. A shockwave of fire erupted from the impact of her fist with my chest, knocking all air out of me. It was probably a good thing that it pretty much was enough to make my whole body go numb for a few seconds – otherwise, the impact with the orb down below, a trail of fire following me and exploding outwards in a shockwave, would've probably hurt a lot more than it already did.

Chains snapped through the impact, the orb moved. The ceiling groaned as the orb, now completely unchained on one side, fell and crashed into the barrier, unleashing a tremor that was enough to knock me off it.

I cursed as I fell, cursed as I saw Mokou coming closer to me again. My initial idea of breaking my fall and going over into flight was quickly discarded as Mokou charged at me, enveloped in fire. Avoiding Mokou became my main objective, something I meant to achieve by pulling my arms in and falling even faster.

She still caught up somehow, forced me to change my plan yet again. I avoided her first punch from above by falling to the left, then rolled into the other direction and curled my legs around her body from behind, effectively straddling her back while we continued to fall.

Only then did I see it, the 'Black Gale', Nanatsu and Rumia's newest combination-attack. The twister that destroyed everything that got into it, making no difference between friend and foe. We were falling right into it, and there was no way to avoid it anymore. We weren't going for the eye of the storm. Would never see it.

"No point in trying to avoid it anymore. Trust me."

I didn't reply to these words, but held onto them. Let them echo through my head as Mokou managed to twist around in my capture. She managed to free one of her hands, immediately set it ablaze and launched a fireball up at my face, but I managed to avoid it by twisting out of the way. At the same time, I reached back and slammed a fist into Mokou's face, earning a groan of pain from her as her head was pushed back.

The ground was constantly coming closer. In mere seconds, we'd impact with the canvas, and from there on, no one could tell what would happen, with us getting caught up in the 'Black Gale'. All I knew was: I'd be fighting throughout it for as long as possible, and with the only goal being to defeat Mokou before I was knocked out.

She bared her teeth and thrashed about, tried to turn us around. She achieved part of that by sending us into a rotation of sorts, spinning uncontrollably as the ground came closer and closer. The fall had just turned into the weirdest kind of Russian Roulette I had ever seen. But there was no time to waste thoughts about that. I wouldn't be the one to slam into the ground. I wouldn't be the one.

I wouldn't be!

The impact came. The wood groaned and bent, but didn't break. The lights dimmed, the black gale barely letting any light in, all illumination drowned out.

I sat on top of Mokou. Had not been the one to be slammed into the ground.

The moment of glee was cut short. Nanatsu's scythe passed just mere inches over my head, and Insanity took over. He didn't remain on top of Mokou, instead somersaulted forward and off the immortal, thus avoiding Tyrfing.

Towards the end of the somersault, Insanity twisted the body around to be facing Mokou. The immortal wasn't defeated either and already getting off the canvas, determination burning like forest fire in her eyes. Something sparkled as it passed over Mokou's head. Shi no Taizai's blade.

Reacting with that insane speed of his, Insanity let our body fall backwards, going into a backflip – both hands on the ground – that allowed us to avoid the blade by a hair's breadth. The backflip ended. Mokou was already charging at us, hands set ablaze.

"Ever had your adrenaline pushed beyond what is healthy? If not, prepare for your first time ever experiencing that!"

"What?!"

"It's the only way to not get caught up in the Black Gale! Nanatsu and Rumia should begin to switch things up any second now, and unless you want to be defeated, this is it! I'm giving you back the control now, so prepare!"

Despite his warning, I barely had any time to prepare. Mokou jumped towards me, Tyrfing's blade just behind her – and the world began to slow down. This was it. Insanity was pushing the adrenaline of my body to the limit. Was overcharging my body. Our body.

There was a hell to pay, but he was right. This was the only way.

Knowing that he could only do that in short bursts, I moved. My body was only moving slowly through this slowed world as well, as it was my perception that was boosted, not my body itself. I wasn't moving at incredible speed for others – I merely perceived time slower. Could react better. I was in one big slow-mo, and well aware of it.

Letting my entire body fall to the right, I let it slip past Mokou, avoiding her burning fists just by mere inches. The heat they radiated was almost unbearable, especially for such a long time – which was in reality but mere seconds – but I'd rather experienced that than getting hit. With my body turning further until I was essentially on my back in midair, I did not only avoid Mokou, but also the blade of Tyrfing, which passed over my body.

Time resumed to flow normal for me. I fell backwards to the ground, watched as Mokou landed on her feet and turned to follow – and walked right into the blade of Tyrfing, knocking her backwards. The moment of triumph was short-lived. Mokou fell into a one-handed backflip and charged at me right again.

And time slowed down again. Seemed to, at least.

I leaned my head back until I could see the ground I was still falling towards. Extended both hands and placed them on the canvas. Time resumed to flow, and I backflipped. Mokou came closer, threw her entire body at me. Time slowed down again. And I could already feel how much it drained of my strength for that to happen.

Nonetheless, I let myself fall backwards again into another backflip, this one much closer to the ground. Luckily, that turned out to be the right decision, as Mokou slowly charged over me that way – and at the same time, I avoided Shi no Taizai's blade. Exactly as Insanity had announced, Rumia and Nanatsu began to change things up. Altered the height of their weapons. They didn't even seem to be aware of the acrobatics Mokou and I were performing in their attack. Didn't even seem to be aware we were inside.

Time resumed. I ended the backflip and twirled on the spot, one heel sliding over the canvas. Mokou landed as well and made a turn, came right back at me. This time, time didn't slow down. Instead, I ignited my hands in negative energy and blocked her punch. Twisted my body out of the way of a kick.

I spotted Tyrfing coming at us just above the ground. Mokou must've seen the movement of my eyes, darting away from her to the blade behind her, as she pushed off the ground into a short jump. I did the same. Whoever had jumped a smaller distance into the air would land first and be able to react earlier than the other one.

The blade passed underneath us. We both landed. Mokou twirled on the spot and tried to kick my legs away, but I had set my feet onto the ground earlier, jumped off again right away. Her kick only hit thin air, but my kick hit its mark, hit her shoulder and sent her off balance.

She stumbled – and couldn't get out of the way as Shi no Taizai knocked into her heels and sent her falling over. Left her wide open for me to land on her and hurt her more.

That turned out to be a too risky move, though. Sure, it hurt Mokou, knocked all wind out of her – but also led to me getting hit by Tyrfing, sending me off the fire-wielding immortal again.

I hit the canvas, immediately pushed off into a backflip to get back onto my feet. From the new spot, I could see Keine lying motionless in one corner of the boxing ring, and Kaguya up in the air, staring down in confusion at the Black Gale, obviously trying to find a way to intercept it or get in without being hurt. Bullets were useless, I had learned that during our training, as the wind of the Black Gale pushed them away. The only way to intercept the Black Gale was to get close to Nanatsu and Rumia and attack them.

"You've let your guard down!"

I gasped, twisted my head. Mokou had recovered and thrown herself at me once more, her entire body enveloped in one brilliant flame. Even though I immediately pulled my hands up and charged negative energy into them, the tackle was too powerful.

My body was ripped off the ground. Flew backwards into where the elastic ropes should've been, but with them absent, the next thing in my path was the black twister that surrounded the boxing ring. And Mokou was still there, holding onto my collar with her left hand, right hand ablaze.

A punch was thrown into my face. I cursed, felt my head being twisted to the side, pain shooting through my system. Another punch followed, but it missed for the most part and merely sled along my cheek – we had entered the black winds.

With a completely different force suddenly pulling on my body, I was ripped out of Mokou's grip, but didn't gain any more control. If anything, I had even less control than before, my whole body rotating and pulled around. The world turned upside-down, then the right way around, turned and twisted as I flailed my arms around in an attempt to regain control.

I spotted Mokou on the other side of the twister. A white and red dot in the winds of black. She had just as much of control of her movements as I had – meaning none – and was flailing her arms and legs around as well.

At least she was just at much at disadvantage as I was.

The question at hand, though, was no longer how to win the fight or how to beat Mokou. It was how to escape the twister I was trapped in. That was throwing my body around, whirling me higher and higher into the air. The more I fought against the winds, the more did I seem to lose control of where I was going to end up, or if I was going to end up anywhere at all.

"If fighting the winds means to lose control, then shouldn't...?" My thoughts trailed off, a post flying past my head, forcing me to avoid by helplessly flailing away from it, "Well, it's worth a shot!"

I immediately extended my arms to the sides, but stopped to flail them around. Did the same with my legs, tried to keep them steady. A jolt went through my body, shook it – but after that, my flight as a lot smoother. I still had no control where I would end up, but at least my body was no longer rotating uncontrollably. I also picked up speed, which I could tell when I came closer and closer to Mokou again.

But with the lack of control, there was no way that we'd be able to continue our fight in the twister. Mokou seemed to think the same, but hadn't come up with the same plan as me, was still rotating uncontrollably.

The closer I got to the fire-wielding immortal, though, the more appealing became the idea of continuing the fight. I was at advantage. The advantage I needed to finish the fight. I only had to get so close that one punch could finish it once and for all – Mokou was pretty beaten up, after all.

I began to experiment with the position of my arms. Tried to see where it led when I pulled them closer to my body, or further away. Navigating suddenly became a lot easier after only a few seconds. I could increase speed or slow down. Could rise a bit or sink a bit.

And that was all I needed to defeat Mokou.

I increased the speed to as much as I could. Caught up with where the immortal helplessly rotated about. Believed that the only thing that could go wrong now was that Nanatsu and Rumia would stop the Black Gale all of sudden.

Was proved wrong.

Just when I was above Mokou, I used my entire weight to throw myself down at the immortal in one powerful punch. Everything seemed to work just fine. Until the moment I was actually charging towards her. The changed position of my right arm altered the pull that the twister had on me. Instead of going right at her, I missed her by a few inches and flew past her instead. She exploited that, reached for the back of my shirt as I charged past her, and held onto it.

That changed the path that I had completely. The twister was pulling on me much more than before, and that towards the outside. I lost control again, tried to regain it, but couldn't with Mokou holding onto me. Then the pull suddenly ended, Mokou was gone again.

The darkness vanished, and the next thing that I knew was that everything went bright, I was flung through the air – and impacted with my back into the barrier that marked the border of the battlefield. Orange flared up around me as the barriers energy was pushed to where I had impacted to prevent me from breaking through. But in front of my eyes, only white flared.

"CRAP, THAT HURT!"

Despite being disoriented for a second, I realized just where I was the moment that the white vanished. Halfway up the barrier, arms and legs spread out. It essentially looked like I was trying to make a snow angel in the barrier, which sadly wasn't anywhere as soft as actual snow.

"Shit, that went really wrong..." I cursed in my head. It was only then that I realized that the impact with the barrier had knocked all wind out of me, as I inhaled with a gasp and filled my empty lungs. I was panting. My body exhausted. It was hard to tell where the pain that was in my whole body actually came from. Leaning my head back and staring at the ceiling above, I waited for my body to recover.

But hey, not everybody could say that they were just flung into a solid wall at about 150 miles per hour and survived it with 'just' a few bruises. I think most people don't survive that at all, actually.

"And most people don't survive Mokou either! Watch out!"

Hearing the Flame-Soul's scream, I immediately lowered my head again, just in time to find Mokou break out of the black twister in the middle of the battlefield as well. She was upright and focused on me, eyes hard in determination. Her right hand was pulled back and burning, and its intended goal was undoubtedly my decapitation. And there was no way to avoid. No time to for me to fly up, down, or to either side. She was coming at me at the speed she had surfaced from the twister.

I was a sitting duck for her final hit.

Even as time suddenly seemed to slow.

"This is the final boost I can give you, so make the most out of it! Find a way to escape, unless you've already accepted your fate!"

"Escape? Where to?!"

I felt sweat run down my forehead in slow-motion. Mokou was, even with time being slowed down, still coming at me with incredible speed. My body would not be able to react in time, even with all this adrenaline.

"Well, this may be a crazy idea, but there is one way. If not to the side, not up and down, and not toward Mokou..."

I felt my body frown in slow-motion. Well, what would eventually be a frown by the time Mokou would impact with me, decapitating me. What did the Flame-Soul mean? The direction he was giving me was clear, he wanted me to go backward, but there was no way I could do this, there was a solid wall of energy behind me that...

No.

"No."

"I said it was a crazy idea."

"Yukari would kill me. Kanako would!"

"Don't forget that you'd be most likely disqualified before that."

"But Mokou would be, too!"

It became silent in my head as both Insanity and I contemplated the idea.

"I hate you."

"Nah, we both know you love me."

I shifted my right hand the little tiny bit that I needed it to in slow-motion. My bony palm came to rest against the barrier. Applied pressure onto it. Mokou was mere meters away. She would hit me, there was no way to avoid that anymore.

But hey, it didn't mean a thing if we were both going to be disqualified anyways, right?

~ Music fades out ~

"NEGATION!"

Just as the adrenaline boost came to an end and time resumed to flow normal for me, my powers were unleashed as I called upon them. Literally called upon them.

I could see Mokou's eyes widen in surprise for the split second before it all happened. Before the barrier behind me was negated and I was suddenly falling backwards out of the arena. Before Mokou slammed into my body just outside the battlefield, sending us both into uncontrolled rotations.

I heard people scream and saw them run from different angles as my body continued to spin. Mokou hadn't hit me that well, had merely slammed into part of me and had sent me into rotations, thankfully meaning I was spared most of the pain and unconsciousness.

The impact with one of the metal fences still hurt, and continued to do so as I hung over it like a wet cloth, arms and legs dangling over it. I had no idea where Mokou was, I had no idea where in the arena outside the battlefield I had ended up, and I had no idea what the hell had really happened after I had negated the barrier behind me.

But at least I had just eliminated both me and Mokou from the fight. It was up to Nanatsu and Rumia now to defeat Keine and Kaguya.

"Holy hell, did you all see that?!" I heard Aya scream – now outside the battlefield, with no barrier in the way anymore, I could hear her loud and clear. I made no attempt to move, but smirked. Heh. People knew me and still were surprised by what crazy shit I was doing? By what unexpected stuff I was pulling? By the weird decisions I made?

"Looks ta me like both Chôz'n and Mokou just flew outta the battlefield." snorted Sly, obviously amused by the turn of events. Always the same with him, always the same.

"What does this mean for the fight then?" added Akyuu, though way calmer than the other two judges – Rinnosuke seemed speechless, actually – or most of the audience (of which a great deal had run away from where Mokou and I had impacted).

"We can't disqualify Chôzen for using his powers. Every fighter was allowed to use his ability. Even for such drastic measures as this one, I suppose." mused Aya aloud, before falling silent again.

"Means we can only disqualify both of them for breaking the rule of fightin' outside tha barrier, eh?" sniggered Sly – and was met by silence. Uncomfortable silence. With most of the pain gone, I rose my head and shifted my weight, fell off the fence and landed on the ground of that story. I rolled my neck. Rolled my shoulders. Turned to frown towards the table of the judges.

They were exchanging nervous glances. Even Rinnosuke. Even Akyuu. Heck, even Yukari, who had been freed of her predicament with the chair, seemed uneasy. Scratched her chin with one finger as she looked anywhere but at the judges.

"Uh, guys?" asked Sly uneasily, a nervous chuckle escaping his lips, "There's the rule that'cha can't fight outside the battlefield and the barrier, right?"

"Well, none of the fighters should've been able to break through Yasaka-sama's barrier. We tested that." began Aya and rubbed the back of her head nervously.

"The only ones able to escape the barrier should've been me and Chôzen, so we definitely thought of that." continued Yukari where Aya had left off, turned to look somewhere to her right, only to cringe madly when she met the hard gaze of Shikieiki from afar, "But we kinda thought he wouldn't do that?"

"Are you. Kidding. Me."

Sending a glance towards the battlefield, I stared at the huge hole in the yellow-to-orange barrier. The hole I had negated in, through which Mokou – where was she, actually? - and I had left the battlefield. Well, at least I had managed somewhat controlled negation, somewhat I had deemed impossible twenty years ago. Sure, I still couldn't negate certain aspects without the risk of negating everything. I still couldn't negate only smaller things even if I concentrated on them.

But a hole of a certain width? Well, certain width was impossible, but I could at least prevent myself from negating everything of a big object.

Big, as in, the barrier was probably the smallest thing I should ever try that on. Even with how big it was, I had risked to negate it all.

"So what? Does this mean that Chôz'n and Mokou are not disqualified? That they can just continue their fight out here, in the middle of the audience 'n stuff?" inquired Sly – and was once again met by uncomfortable silence, "You've gotta be kiddin' me."

"Guess that didn't work how you planned it!"

Hearing Mokou's voice from my right, I quickly turned my head and rose my gaze. I found her without as much of a problem on the fence of the story above, she was the only person that had remained in the area and hadn't fled.

And she was the only person that would leap over the fence with her fists ablaze.

~ Music continues ~

Reflexes kicked in and I threw my body backwards. My hands came to a rest on the railing, I was in a handstand for a second, then let gravity do its work and turn my body the right way around. With a little bit of twisting, my feet came to rest on the railing, allowing me to make a quick escape without changing the story, and escape Mokou's flaming punch, which instead hit the railing with a loud echoing thud that made the entire fence shake.

"Ya gotta be kiddin' me, they're actually continuin' their fight as if nothin' happen'd!" I heard Sly's surprised gasp, though it was partly drowned out by Mokou's scream of pain. Well, I would've screamed like that, too, if I had just slammed both of my fists onto a railing.

"I wouldn't call it fighting as if nothing had happened! I had planned this to be end, and now we're continuing?!" I cursed inwardly as I continued to run on top of the fence, not caring where I was headed. I just wanted to get away from Mokou, and that fast.

"Where are you going, Chôzen? Didn't you listen? It's not over yet!"

"Shut the hell up Mokou!"

A ball of fire slammed into the side of the fence just below my feet, forcing me to jump and changed direction. Great, even there I was a sitting duck for Mokou.

There was no way but to fight back, after all.

Having changed direction, I was actually charging back towards where Mokou jumped on top of the fence herself. She was headed for me, wanted to turn this back into close-combat, even though she threw more fire at me along the way. I countered in the exact same way, though I didn't actually throw the fire like she did, but merely extended my bony hand into that direction and let it unleash orbs of negative energy. Kinda like a cannon.

One hit Mokou's right foot and sent her off balance. Most had missed her entirely, so when that one actually hit, I couldn't help but smirk. For a moment, it seemed like she was going to fall forward and slam face-first into the railing, sending a wave of excitement through me. Instead, though, Mokou front-flipped, one hand finding the railing and pushing herself off it again to complete the somersault, while the other threw another orb of fire at me, forcing me to avoid with a jump higher into the air.

I landed on the railing right in front of her, both of us immediately preparing for the inevitable close-combat. My left hand ignited in the green fires of negative energy, something similar happening to Mokou's left foot, as it was suddenly ablaze – and my punch, aimed at her head, blocked her high kick. Her high kick blocked my punch.

"A dramatic change has just taken place within the battlefield! As contestants Chôzen and Mokou have taken their fight outside, contestants Nanatsu and Rumia have ended their wind and have allowed us to see the boxing ring again! It seems that contestant Keine has been defeated! She remains unmoving on the canvas! It seems she has been unable to take the pressure of the black wind attack – or whatever has happened inside it!"

We both pulled back, fell into a sort of strange dance. She stumbled backwards and threw fire at my feet, over which I merely jumped, and when I unleashed a barrage of smaller orbs of negative orbs at her from the highest point of my jump, she graciously backflipped, her feet almost connecting with my chin as she moved backward.

From her new point, she charged forward in a tackle, but ended up being blocked by a shield of negative energy erupting from below. Pushed backward, she seemed open for attacks, but instead used the momentum to spin and try to land another high kick into the side of my head.

She cussed when I blocked it with my forearm, but the strength behind the kick was still enough to send me falling off the fence. Instead of falling into the story below, though, I used my left hand to hold onto the railing, swung myself with the momentum along it and back onto the fence just behind Mokou.

Back-to-back with the immortal, I tried to hit her by swinging my elbow back, but she caught it with her open hands, pushed it upward in hope to send me off balance, though it didn't work, and just gave me the momentum to do a cartwheel that changed my direction and allowed me to face her again.

"Now that's a show we're presented with here! Contestants Chôzen and Mokou just don't stop!"

For someone outside, it must've looked like the most coordinated thing ever – for us, it was but a game of action and reaction. To see what the other was doing and hoping to react accordingly in time, before trying to land a hit yourself. And try to avoid falling off the narrow fence.

It was my turn.

I ignited my left arm in green fire and took a step towards Mokou, waited for her left foot to ignite and come up in another high kick – before swinging my right arm at her instead. It went past her leg and hit her right into the face, the black bones making the disgusting cracking noise that I was used to whenever I overused them. But that was nothing I could really care about, as Mokou's foot, not being blocked, hit its intended target as well. My face.

We both stumbled away from another at the same time, though Mokou was much faster to recover and come charging at me again. A short distance in front of me, she pushed herself off the ground, ignited both of her feet, and kicked at my face with them. But I reacted. Caught each kick with my hands and pushed it back down. Left. Right. Left. Mokou landed, pulled her left leg up. Knee.

Slamming my right hand down on her approaching knee with much more strength than before had the intended effect of throwing her off balance. Pushed down, it missed the fence and instead went past it, causing Mokou to stumble and flail her arms around in an attempt to catch herself. Leaving her wide open for me.

The uppercut I threw at her hit her in the gut and made her double-over, with the nice side-effect of knocking all wind out of her and making her unable to react when I moved over into a right hook – sending her falling off the fence and into the story below, where she landed uncomfortably on her stomach on the railing.

"Nasty hit from contestant Chôzen Gekido there! Could this be the end for Fujiwara no Mokou? Will she be defeated like her partner, Keine? It seems we – What is this?! There is contestant Kaguya!"

I rose my gaze, twirled to the battlefield. Stared in shock as Kaguya appeared from seemingly nowhere – truth was, she had escaped the Black Gale by hiding on top of the orb with the artificial night sky in it – and dropped down towards where Nanatsu and Rumia stood back-to-back, scanning the area for her.

I wanted to scream for them to look up, but even that would've been useless, the distance between us was too great and the audience too loud. So, unable to do anything but stare, I could only watch in terror as Kaguya swung her Jeweled Branch of Hourai and unleashed a dense volley of colorful bullets. Rumia noticed them, twirled around and jumped away at the same time.

Nanatsu didn't have as much luck. With Senkoku still drawn, Nanatsu rose her gaze to see what had freaked Rumia out – and was enveloped in the volley of bullets. I couldn't see her anymore from my point of view. I knew she would've been able to stand this, trusted her to.

But then, Kaguya revealed another Impossible Request - the Brilliant Dragon Bullet. A single orb, more of a marble of dark-blue color, fell into the volley of glowing bullets. And within one strike of lightning between the Impossible Request in Kaguya's hand and the volley of bullets, everything was over. Kaguya front-flipped and landed graciously in a crouched position where the volley had been.

Nanatsu lay defeated at her feet.

Anger surged through me. Anger at Kaguya for pulling that off. Anger pushed pain away, numbed it, drowned it out. I needed to defeat Mokou. Now. Before anything else happened. I lowered my gaze and searched for the fire-wielding immortal, found that she was still lying on top of the fence.

Not wanting to allow her to recover, I leaped down as well. That was where the whole plan went to hell, though. Mokou had recovered much quicker than I had expected, and revealed the reason as to how when she pushed herself off the railing and waited for me – she was holding a pink ribbon in her left hand, on it black writing.

Kaguya's ribbon of the ritual of bonded hearts.

~ Music fades out ~

She caught my foot with her free hand before I could even touch the ground. With the sudden increase of strength she gained from the ribbon, she had no problem in pulling me around despite my greater weight, and before I knew it, she had slammed me into the wall closest to her. That was enough to break what little resistance I could offer, my whole body going numb at that impact. I cussed, cursed, growled – and was thrown.

"Contestant Mokou turned the fight around, just like that! When will the surprises finally stop?!"

"Shut the hell up, Rinnosuk-ARGH!"

Even in my thoughts, I couldn't help but scream out in pain as my body impacted with something that felt like a human and let out a shriek like one, and then something that felt a lot like wood. Something that was wood. Canvas. The middle of a boxing ring.

Through hazy vision, I spotted Mokou returning to the battlefield as well through the hole we had first left through, and she had thrown me into the battlefield again. I knew I would have to fight the pain unless I wanted it to end here, but that proved to be much harder than it sounded.

"I said it before, I'll probably say it again a thousand times: You should thank me, as I can give you that what you lack. Strength. You've lost your edge."

He took over the body again, forced it up onto all fours, then onto its legs. It was still unresponsive and the upper body was hanging somewhat numbly forward, but the hazy vision vanished. And so did my control.

"I'm sick of this shit. All this tournament, you've been beaten around like the goddamn weakling you've been at the beginning of your journey twenty years ago! What happened to the strength you gained in the apocalyptic night? When you realized who you were? Your purpose? All the strength you've gained from the journeys, the enemies you've faced? YOU were the one who defeated Mima? And ME?"

"Sorry..."

"Fuck this shit."

"Language!"

"Nope, not this time. Seriously, I might as well finish what you've begun in that half-assed way. Now get outta my way, you bloody noobs, I'm gonna finish this shit."

Insanity turned away from the nearing fire-wielding immortal to see what we really had impacted with first – and snorted in amusement when he spotted the unconscious Kaguya, which we had been lying on, with the exhausted and nearly defeated Rumia only a few feet away, standing there and staring at us in confusion.

It wasn't hard to realize what had happened – Mokou had intended to throw us at Rumia to defeat both of us at the same time, but Kaguya had gotten into the way, and had ended up being what we hit. I didn't need to wait for Mokou to land only a second later and cuss a silent 'Oh crap, hit Kaguya, aimed for the other one.'

Insanity didn't wait for that either. The moment that Mokou set foot onto the canvas and muttered the cuss, he twirled back around to the fire-wielding immortal and charged at her.

~ The first time Insanity fights in Negative Mind! Is this Chôzen's comeback? Music cue: Jeff Williams/Casey Lee Williams/RWBY – Die) ~

If Mokou wanted to gasp, she failed to do so. She merely managed to open her mouth and raise her arms, effectively blocking the full-body tackle that Insanity performed. Albeit not without being pushed backwards by him through the entire boxing ring, our body enveloped in the crimson variation of negative energy.

In order to fight back and regain control, Mokou pushed her arms forward and unleashed a shockwave of fire. One that Insanity barely cared about, as it only served to push him slightly away from the immortal. She still continued to slide and, even though she immediately attempted to stop, slammed into the one remaining post of the boxing ring.

Mokou cried out in pain and froze up, giving Insanity the time he needed to catch up with her. The first blow was sent into her stomach and send her doubling over, her face slamming into the knee that Insanity pulled up. In awe at how easy it was for him to fight back Mokou, who had been pushing me around during the entire duration of the battle, I watched as Insanity grabbed her head as her head came up again, and effortlessly threw her over our left shoulder onto the ground.

She hit the canvas, but wasn't defeated. If anything, the pain encouraged her to go all out on what was essentially my short-lived overdrive – Insanity. Short-lived in the sense that I could feel the drain that his domination had more than ever before, and that not only because I was already quite beaten up. Back then, even when Mima had me within the last inches of my life, giving Insanity the control of the body had never drained so much power from me.

But I had lost my edge. Had become weaker due to a lazy and relaxed lifestyle, while things had remained as hectic and chaotic as always in Gensokyo. And that aside – Insanity had grown stronger. The gap between us had increased, and that on both ends. I was weaker than when I left Gensokyo, he was stronger than when I left.

The immortal's body caught on fire as she rolled over the canvas, leaving back a trail of charred ground and burning wood, with a final hand print of black as she pushed herself up into what was essentially a backflip with one hand on the ground, one that she ended by falling into a crouched position, in which she sled a few feet over the ground.

Eventually coming to a stop, Mokou frowned at where we stood. Well, Insanity in my body. Can I even say 'we'? I always said 'we' when referring to him and me, the Flame-Soul and me, or both of them and me. We're different people, but kinda the same person. Doesn't this mean it is just me with schizophrenia? But the Flame-Soul has an own 'body' that is not just a figment of my mind and...

Argh, this is confusing!

"Shut the hell up in there. I need to concentrate."

It wasn't Insanity to move first, but Mokou. She rushed forward, right hand pulled back and blazing in fire, her intention of hitting Insanity square in the face so obvious that he barely had anything to do but catch the punch – and then slam a hand into her torso to send her back across the boxing ring, sending her to impact with the ground yet again.

But Mokou took the hit. Hit the ground, rolled on it, got back up and just charged at Insanity again. With hands ablaze and throwing fire, she at least forced Insanity to move our tired body out of the way of the explosions, but still didn't manage to land a good hit on him. Even when she forced him to move, he still managed to keep track on her and blocked her high kick with one of his own, crimson negative energy and orange fire mingling and mixing to the point where it was hard to tell which energy belonged to whom.

Insanity pushed forward, sending Mokou into a stumble, which she used to gracefully backflip out of the way of a punch. She fell out of the backflip right into a rotation over the ground, one leg extending and kicking Insanity's feet away under him. Mirroring her backflip, he ended up catching himself and land on his feet as well.

Mokou rushed towards him, punched, but got blocked by Insanity using his forearm. The same happened to the left hook, though she underestimated how much Insanity would exploit how open it left her. A kick into her stomach sent Mokou flying back yet another time, and Insanity fell into what was more of a feral stance, eying Mokou like she was his prey.

"She's fast, strong and can take a lot. I can see why she's the champion. Keine and Kaguya will have played their part in it, but Mokou's gotta be the toughest one we faced in this damn pointless tournament."

"Can't be that pointless if you try to win it."

"You know I love to show people just how superior I am."

"Let's see if you can stand it if I pick up the pace a little, Chôzen! Forgiveness 'Honest Man's Death'!"

With Mokou declaring this spellcard, Insanity changed from defensive behavior to offensive. Instead of letting Mokou come toward him, he fell into a run into her direction, not faltering even as the air at four points above Mokou distorted and began to spew out countless bullets towards us. Even as dark-red bullets began to pour out of her hands.

Even as Mokou unleashed a laser to sweep across the boxing ring.

He fell into it's direction instead, hopped just a few inches off the ground – just enough to not get caught up in the laser – and grazed it instead. Fell over it, never taking his eyes off Mokou even as the intense heat of the laser brushed along one of our arms.

Mokou must've noticed the crimson color in our eyes only now, as I could clearly see the terror that slowly found its way into her eyes. She knew she had made a huge mistake when unleashing the spellcard and becoming stationary, now wide open for Insanity to land one final blow to end it all. It was just Mokou now. Her other teammates were down, while I still had Rumia, who only needed to recover. Even if Insanity wouldn't win now, Rumia could recover and beat Mokou.

Insanity pushed off the ground, jumped right into the source of all the bullets right in front of Mokou. For the split second of diving through the source of bullets, he covered the body in an insane amount of negative energy of crimson color, spun in the air in a barrel roll – and was suddenly right in Mokou's face.

Her gasp was cut short by a fist that hit her from above. The familiar sound of a spellbreak echoed through the arena as she was thrown out of the air and slammed into the canvas with enough force to finally break the poor thing, putting it out of its perforated misery.

The entire boxing ring twisted and bent, splinters flying into all directions, making it hard to see Mokou as Insanity let our body fall out of the air and into the whirled up dust. The first thing I could spot through Insanity's eyes as the dust settled was a crater where Mokou had impacted, just beneath our feet. But Mokou wasn't there.

A movement to our left made Insanity turn. There, standing in the dust, barely conscious, was Mokou. The spellbreak and the following impact had drained more from her than I would've suspected it to do. Which kinda was only another proof of how much more powerful Insanity had grown in comparison to twenty years ago.

"Ready to finish this, immortal?"

"You're not Chôzen, there's no fun in this."

"Which only makes it more fun for me!"

Insanity didn't hesitate. Felt no remorse as he charged our bony hand up in crimson negative energy and charged at Mokou for the final blow. The immortal made no attempt to avoid, had probably already accepted the loss of the champions round. On the other hand, both Insanity and I had accepted our victory.

Even I was getting confident, smirking deep within the depths of my mind as the distance between me and the immortal decreased gradually.

Until I was suddenly ripped out of that very depths of my mind and was placed back in control.

~ Music fades out ~

I stumbled, so sudden was the transition from watching to controlling, from passive to active. From one to the other second, Insanity was just gone, and gave no comment on what was going on, didn't even respond as I called out to him.

My run faded into slower steps, confidence slowly dissolving the closer I came to Mokou without the power of Insanity keeping me going.

Before long, I stood directly in front of Mokou, staring into the eyes of the immortal. We were both silent for a moment, both of us trying to understand what had just taken place. And Mokou knew that the fight had just taken an unexpected turn. She knew. The goddamn smirk on her lips told me so.

"He was right, this is gonna be fun."

I wanted to curse, but Mokou didn't let me. If there was one thing she proved to be lacking at that moment, then it was tact, cause the punch to the face didn't only break my nose, but was rude as hell. My head snapped back, I saw stars, colors and weird shapes in front of my inner eyes. Thankfully, that somehow drowned out most of the pain the following punches caused.

I faintly felt how Mokou beat me blue and green. How her fists slammed into my torso, my shoulders, my arms and my gut. How she finished the combo that gave me the rest with a headbutt and sent my entire body stumbling backwards. The last thing I felt that I was sure about feeling was how my body ended up slumping against the last remaining pole of the boxing ring.

Through a hazy vision, I spotted Mokou staring down at me triumphantly. She knew she had me beaten, defeated in the moment of what seemed to have been my victory. It was up to Rumia now, was it? I lay beaten and broken at the foot of the last pole, and Mokou was not as defeated as I had thought her to be.

She could still stand, and as long as she could, we had not won yet. For Mokou to be defeated, it would take one massive blow, one I couldn't deal anymore. At least she was having fun, turning away from me and letting the audience celebrate her victory over me with catcalls and cheering.

Well, for me, it wasn't quite as much fun...

"It's gonna be."

I flinched as the sinister voice resounded through my head. Insanity was back, and he didn't sound weak or anything that would've explained his sudden disappearance moments earlier. If anything, he sounded smug. Like he had wanted this.

I got my answer when he took back control. No, he had been in control ever since Mokou's first punch into my face. That had been the reason I had barely felt the punches had not been because I had been losing consciousness, but because I had been passive in my own body.

He had taken those hits. I didn't feel like it did because I was defeated, but because I simply wasn't in control.

And as such, my body got back up all of sudden. I had no control over it, and could only watch from my own point of view as my body rose in the most creepy manner of all, rising from the slumped position on the ground against the pole without the use of his arms.

Mokou noticed that. She paused in her movements – arms still above her head, where she had been waving them to cheer on the audience – and turned her head slowly, frowning as Insanity slowly rose from the ground. Little did I know that there was no visible sign of Insanity's control at that moment, every green part of my body that would usually turn crimson when he was in control not turned yet. Only the eyes had turned from green to crimson, but I couldn't tell that, and would only learn later through Rumia's narration.

"What the...? You gotta be kidding me!" I heard the fire-wielding girl growl, before she turned to face me in her entirety, "You sure you want to push yourself past your limits more than you did already? Look, I know you're stubborn and stuff, but I was assured you knew when a fight is lost."

"Oh, don't worry, I know Chôzen and I have lost this fight." replied Insanity, my mouth moving by his command, the deep voice catching the immortal off guard, "But so have you."

Before anyone knew what was going on – even I didn't realize what Insanity was up to until he had already acted – Insanity forced the defeated body upright one last time, reaching out to show Mokou something he had been holding in between his fingers all along.

A spellcard.

"How does the saying go? I believe it would be 'An eye for an eye', right?"

~ Music continues ~

"Vengeful Enigma 'Retribution'!"

Crimson energy flared up around our body, embraced it within an almost unbearable warmth. Almost as if the energy itself was burning with the need for revenge. I felt Insanity's power skyrocket for a second, giving our body the boost that it needed to make the short movement of lifting its arms above it head. Suddenly swinging them down, Insanity threw his head back and let out an inhuman scream that would've made everyone too close him cover his ears.

Instead of Insanity lashing out, it was the crimson energy around him that suddenly charged at Mokou. The immortal had no time to react before the energy tackled into her and embraced her. The same moment that the crimson energy was gone, though, Insanity let out a pained growl and collapsed. Fell onto one knee, muscles twitching and tensing up as he watched the effect of his spellcard unfold. Cold embraced us. The warmth was gone.

The moment that Mokou was embraced by the energy, she pulled her arms up to defend herself , almost as if she expected it to actually slam into her like a physical body would. I expected it, too. But instead, it just embraced her. Covered her like it had covered me moments before.

"And now for the finale." chuckled Insanity with his dark, raspy voice within the depths of our mind, "Sorry that you had to get hurt even more, but it doesn't work without receiving physical trauma after the spellcard has been activated for the first time. Ya see, for a short moment after the silent summoning of the spellcard, my crimson aura flares up and silently takes all physical trauma for me. Sure, I still feel it, feel all the pain, but..."

Mokou suddenly cried out in pain. Through Insanity's eyes, I watched in silent amazement as fists and feet appeared within the crimson energy. No, the energy formed these fists and feet – replicas of Mokou's fists and feet! - that struck Mokou in the exact same way, manner, order and place that Mokou had struck me before!

"...by sacrificing the remaining amount of my power, giving all negative energy I have to envelop my opponent within, I can at least avenge my own defeat. An eye for an eye. Revenge in the very same way I've been beaten. I just take the energy, and it makes me stronger for one final attack."

As if to emphasize the point of this, Mokou received a headbutt from what had the general shape of her own head. A snarl escaped her, the head-shaped energy vanished and left Mokou to glare at me with the fire of anger burning in her eyes.

Before she went cross-eyed, her legs gave in beneath her, and she just collapsed. Too weak to continue to fight after everything. Taken out by her own devastating combo that had defeated me in the first place.

The irony.

~ Music fades out ~

The barriers came crashing down around us, and Insanity vanished int the depths of my mind, smug and satisfied. Finally collapsing onto all fours, part of that insane satisfaction rubbing off on me, affecting me and that primal part within me.

The primal part that wasn't Insanity, but part of the personality that I was. Result of my transformation. Result of who I was.

My arms gave in beneath me and I fell flat onto my body, but couldn't care less. We had won. I was down as well, but Rumia was still standing. Still conscious. Still not defeated due to Mokou's own fault. Even with Kaguya on her side, even with their constant killing having decreased to something that was equal parts rivalry and love – one sick love for sure, but they were all each other had into all eternity – they still ended up getting each other into crossfire.

As the barrier crashed down and I found myself lying on the floor, the audience cheered and Aya announced our victory. In the distance, through hazy vision, I could spot Nanatsu lying in the remains of what had once been the boxing ring, Keine not too far from her. Kaguya lay in a heap of wood, Mokou only mere inches away from her.

And Rumia still stood.

Rumia still stood. The relief that this brought to me made me give up to remain as much as conscious. I gave up struggling and, much like most of the other rounds of the tournament, let unconscious slowly overcome me. Let the voices of the judges

"...amazing performance today! No one has suspected such an outcome, I believe."

"Quite correct, Shameimaru." snorted Sly, letting his distaste for the reporter flow into his voice, "But I think the outcome is actually the least surprisin' thing. I mean, what the hell did we experience? A boxing match? A light fixture coming down? A tornado? Gekido and Fujiwara breakin' out of the goddamn impenetrable barrier and fightin' on the railin', before going back in and shattering the boxing ring? And you worry about the OUTCOME?"

"Oh, shut up you!"

A snort escaped my lips, the amusement at the situation not failing to reach me. These two, always on each other's throat, even after twenty years of not seeing each other.

"Yes, you two shut up now, please, I have an announcement to make. Yúgure, if you would be so nice, as to take care of their pain until Eirin arrives with her recovery medicine?" I heard Yukari interrupt Sly as he tried to add something insulting to what he had told Aya before. I frowned on the inside, listened as the audience slowly went quiet, to the point where I could hear the sound of footsteps approaching me.

"Thanks." I heard Rumia say to what was probably Yúgure, doing whatever Yukari had meant with 'taking care of the pain'. The steps came closer again, and this time, a hand touched my back. A stinging sensation came over me, a short pain of what felt like a needle at the center of my back – and then, all my pain was gone.

It felt weird. Like most of my sense of touch was gone along with my pain. But with the pain gone, there was pretty much only the exhaustion left.

But nothing that would keep me down on the ground. Which was pretty much the reason for taking care of our pain, probably. They didn't want us to be on the ground, barely conscious, for our own celebration, right?

My eyes flung open at the thought of all of this being finally over. While the tournament had been fun and a good way of getting back into the whole pace of Gensokyo, it had been pretty long and exhausting. Had felt like an eternity had passed since it started.

So for it to be finally over, and for us to be victorious despite having lost our edge, was worth all the struggles, and more than just satisfying.

Yúgure reached for my arm and helped me up, which I appreciated with a nod. Once she had made sure I was being able to stand on my own, she moved over to where Nanatsu lay, without a doubt to get her up on her feet as well.

I waited for that. Had a look around, let my gaze wander a bit. Eirin was heading our away with Reisen and Tewi in tow, a frown on her face that told me that she would've been more happy if Mokou, Kaguya and Keine would've won.

Can't blame her. At one point, I had even been close to giving up and letting Mokou win. Which was pretty much the moment she cheated and had me on the ground. But that aside, I can't believe I'm actually happy to see Eirin for once. No comment about exploding spleens would change that. I needed that painkiller or recovery medicine or whatever Yukari had called it. Badly.

"Ugh."

With a jolt, Nanatsu sat up, almost smacking her forehead into that of Yúgure. She seemed confused for a second, disoriented even, but eventually seemed to understand the situation. Well, the defeated Mokou next to the unconscious Kaguya in the pile of splintered wood was pretty much a big hint, I guess.

"Well, look at that, back in the land of the living, these three." snorted Yukari, causing me to cringe and realize who we were dealing with.

That old hag.

"Now, if you three would lend me your attention for a second, cause I have a kinda important announcement for you three to make." she continued, leaning over the desk of the judges and nonchalantly pushing Sly and Rinnosuke out of the way, "First off, nice work there. Congratulations, you've officially claimed the title of champion and have defeated the champions of the former year. That is quite a feat."

"It wasn't easy. But the long road now lies behind you. Many foes, equal to you in strength, have been beaten on the way. Outsmarted. At times, it looked like you'd not make it, but you're still here. At the end." added Akyuu, earning nods from Yukari.

"But there is no time to relax just yet."

I cringed at these ominous words from the Sukima, the mischievous and sinister smile that was on her lips.

"Eirin will give you a medicine that allows you to recover enough for what is yet to come." she continued, ignoring it as I narrowed my eyes and gave her the deadliest of glares, "This is something no one was prepared for. None of the fighters was told this, but there is one challenge beyond the champion of the former year."

"Oh come on, what is that?" groaned Rumia to my right, slumping her shoulders and looking in absolute disdain up to the judges, "I mean, we'll manage this one as well, I'm confident of that. But what else is there? Are you going to throw all the challengers at us at the same time? All the champions of the former years at the same time? Or are you trying to tell us YOU are the challenge? Cause that'd be a joke, we beat you in the first round."

Yukari didn't seem to like this, as she cringed noticeably and one of her eyelids began to twitch dangerously. Heh, serves you right, Yukari. Hope that hurt your ego.

"No, it's just one final fighter. Not a team, just her." growled Yukari, baring her teeth, "The undefeated one. The one that had been in the very first tournament, and had single-handedly made her way through teams after teams all by herself, until she became the champion."

Rumia rose an eyebrow, and frankly, I did so too. What kind of stuff was Yukari trying to tell us this time? Was this a joke? A final fight against one who had defeated teams of three in succession? Pfft, who's that supposed to be, Cirno?

"We can take her." snorted Rumia, laughing it off, before leaning a bit into my direction, "It's probably Cirno again and they think this is the greatest joke of all time to throw us off guard."

"You seem confident." huffed Yukari. I snorted to myself. We actually were. I, for my part, was, and Rumia seemed to be so as well. Merely Nanatsu hadn't said a thing, but she was obviously still a bit dizzy. We hadn't received the medicine yet. But it obviously could only be a joke. Cirno was the most likely answer. And if not her, it was someone else who could only be considered a joke.

"Yeah, we are." snorted the Angel of Death, "Now stop the joke already and get her the hell in here so we can beat her up and end this 'undefeated' streak of hers."

"Well, if that's the case, then why don't we just welcome her? The very first champion of these tournaments! The undefeated one! Cheer for her, folks, and be amazed as she beats this team into the ground as well, and that without breaking a sweat! Please welcome her with me...!"

The audience began to cheer again, leaving me to frown. Really, this had to be a joke. A joke that everyone was in on. Who could've been so strong as to have beaten Mokou, Kaguya and Keine all alone – she obviously must have, if last year's champions were fighting against her, too – without breaking a sweat? Obviously not Shikieiki, she was out of question.

And that only left very few people – if none at all - seeing as we had defeated most of the strongest people in Gensokyo during this tournament. Not Yukari, not Reimu, not Utsuho, not Yuuka, not Mima and not Remilia, Flandre, Satori or Koishi. Not Kanako or Suwako. Not Miko either, I doubt she could've done that by herself.

So, who was left? Who am I forgetting about? No one, right? This could only be a joke then.

A bad joke.

A really bad...

Cymbal. Cymbal. Electric Guitar. Music started.

All color was drained from my body, I felt it. The cold. The panic. The bad memories. Rumia's confident smirk fell, she became even paler than usual, and the very unlikely event of panic taking the place of Rumia's bloodlust in her eyes. Even Nanatsu's calm faded.

Not only I saw the bad memories in front of his inner eye. Felt the panic. The feeling of the most humiliating defeat we had ever experienced, the feeling of the helplessness from back then. Even Insanity deep within me froze up in sheer terror.

That song...

~ Have fun laughing as you realize it as well: Aya Hirano – God knows... ~

(1) The numbers used here for height and weight are that of Little Mac from the original NES Punch-Out, which the Flame-Soul was basically referencing at that point, going as far as calling her "Little Mokou". In a sense, the entire first half of Chôzen vs Mokou was one big Punch-Out Reference.

*Smash Bros Announcer Imitation* GAME!

God, this chapter took forever to fight. And kinda turned out longer than I expected.

Now, I know this isn't my best piece of work. To be honest, I kinda had it planned out quite a bit different when I first came up with this idea. That I fell sick halfway through, more noticeably within the final 72 hours leading up to this update, sure didn't help. I hope there's still at least some quality in this.

But it was still fun to write. Especially the Punch-Out part of the Chôzen vs Mokou fight was a lot of fun for me to write. Now, the decision to have that Punch-Out section was actually made long before the release of Smash Brothers for 3DS and Wii U, though the music got me into it. For that section alone, I actually searched for my old Punch-Out for Wii and played through it again, just to get a feeling how it works and what would make sense in there. Hope it was as fun for you to read as it was for me to write!

Now, I actually was tempted to use the "I burn" from the RWBY Yellow Trailer for the Chôzen vs. Mokou fight, cause the lyrics kinda fit with the theme, but decided against it, cause the music itself was not fitting. Felt too much like a dance club, and too less like the final fight of a tournament. And the other versions of it – I tried, didn't feel like they fit that much, either. So yeah, stuck with other songs that I found more fitting. But damn was it tempting to use "I burn", simply because of Mokou and Chôzen both using fire. Well, one of them does.

So... Am I the only one feeling like Mokou stole the show? I mean, not only did she deceive a lot of people, including Chôzen and Nanatsu more recently, but she tricked Chôzen again this chapter, and nearly defeated him for the better part of this fight. Come on, she had everyone tricked!

...But Moriyaism. Applause for Moriyaism, everyone! Moriyaism actually suspected that the champions would be Mokou, Kaguya and Keine early into the tournament! Man, when I first read that review I was all like – Oh come on, am I that predictable?

Heh. One thing for sure, no one is gonna expect what happens next. Cause, you know what's up next? Not only the 'extra chapter' for this arc (ya know, like the extra stage in the games), but the very end of the first arc. And with that, we're also (finally) going into the real story!

That's right, arc two is but one chapter from you, and it'll start the real story (I'm sorry it took so long...). Any idea who the real antagonist will be? The big bad for this story? We saw the antagonist already, that's all I'm gonna say right now.

As the next arc starts, we'll also come closer to where chapter 1 took us. You know, the godforsaken land. Hehe.

Anyways, this is SorrowfulReincarnation, and we'll see each other again for the extra stage of this arc - "The downfall of Chôzen Gekido".

So long~