"If you die around here, you'll burn so hard there won't even be ashes left. If I want your corpse, I'd better take ya down here!"

It was the damn cat again. Reimu turned to face Rin, while shielding her eyes from the glare of the fire below. She wasn't sure how much more of this she could take. Between the heat and all of the attacks she'd already weathered, she wasn't in good shape: The bits of her outfit that weren't shredded were still plastered to her body with sweat. She'd already shed plenty of blood tonight. And yet, the kasha was back, and ready for more.

Before Reimu's exhaustion-fogged mind could come up with a suitable retort, interlaced waves of red and blue bullets blasted outward from Rin's hand. Reimu forced her tired body into motion, weaving left around one of the slanted walls of magical energy, then a sharp right around another. Left-right-left-right-left-right... it was almost dizzying, but she allowed herself a confident grin as she got the hang of the rhythm.

And then, a blazing blue bullet clipped the shrine maiden's shoulder. The bullet was nonlethal, barely more than a hardy punch, but it caught her off-guard and sent her spinning. The cat grinned victoriously at her, but Reimu had bigger problems. She clawed for the air as she tried to stabilize herself, but she was too tired to exert the will to keep herself stable. She was losing altitude, and the fire was getting closer by the instant. The heat, she realized too late. If I don't do something soon...

Reimu's thoughts faded into a foggy muddle, and without the force to even slow her descent, she was entirely at the mercy of gravity. As she plummeted, she could feel the impossible heat growing closer and closer. And then, nothing.

It was a slow day on the banks of the river Sanzu. Only one soul had shown up so far, and honestly, he hadn't been the talkative sort. Afterward, Komachi had spent two hours sharpening her scythe—which, being a shinigami's scythe, held an eternal and perfect edge anyway—then three hours viewing the flowers on the opposite bank in Higan, and now she was squatting on the shore and counting the pebbles.

There were a lot of pebbles.

Somewhere around number sixteen thousand, four hundred twenty one, Komachi's concentration was ruined by the sound of a gasp behind her. The shinigami sighed. Time to get back to work. With a grunt, she pushed herself up to standing and hefted her scythe back across one shoulder. "Welcome, o recently departed, to the river Sanzu," she said, with all the enthusiasm of an underpaid tour guide. "Once I collect your toll, we will—" She cut off mid-sentence as she turned around, and after momentary shock, said, "Oh. It's you. Hah."

Reimu was struggling to regain her bearings, looking outright bewildered. "... here? Why am I here?"

"Well, uh, y'see..."

"I was in the middle of a fight!" Reimu took a step forward and leveled a finger at Komachi's face. "D-do you know what you've done?! All of Gensokyo could be in danger if I don't get back down there!"

"I-I didn't do anything! Look, you—" Komachi stammered, barely able to get a word in edgewise.

"Whatever you did, I ought to exterminate you right here!" Reimu reached down for her gohei, and only then did her rant stop. "… where are my things?"

Komachi shook her head wearily. "That's what I've been trying to tell you. Reimu, you're dead."

"Oh, come on, it's not all bad."

"W-what's not bad about being dead?!" Reimu shot Komachi a tear-filled glare before hiding her face behind her hands again.

She'd been crying like this for half an hour. It was a bit of a pain, really. Komachi had tried to herd her onto the boat, but the shrine maiden—well, ex shrine maiden now—was having none of it. It was worse than usual. Most people left a corpse and had a few days for their spirits to get used to the idea before they were laid to rest, but Reimu... well. The Hell of Blazing Fires was very efficient.

Komachi crouched down and patted her shoulder sympathetically. "Well, after you're judged, you can get reincarnated." She paused for a moment. "I mean, since it's you, you'll probably come back as a bug or something for a few lives until you work your way back up, but that's not so bad."

"A bug." Reimu sniffled, but lifted her head again to scowl at Komachi. At least the anger seemed to be distracting her from her despair. "Really."

"Oh, wow, if you could just hear how Miss Shiki talks about you—uh. Nevermind. I mean. I'm just the ferrygirl, I'm not authorized to judge anybody," she said, as encouragingly as she could muster. "Maybe you'll be a nice... I don't know, a squirrel or something?"

Reimu sighed and wiped her eyes with the back of a sleeve. "Let's just get on the boat."

"Normally, I'd need to ask you for a toll," Komachi said as she walked over and pushed the boat into the water. "But considering that you didn't even leave a corpse behind," behind her, Reimu winced, "we can make an exception this time."

"Great. Yes. Wonderful."

Reimu was too tired for actual sarcasm, and if Komachi understood the shrine maiden's attempt, she certainly didn't show it. The shinigami stepped into the boat and extended a hand to her. "Now, come. Let's take the last ride of your life." She said it as warmly as she could.

"And that time, she only lectured me for two hours. But still. It isn't like it's entirely my fault. It gets so boring around here, you know?" Komachi had been talking for... Reimu had no idea, honestly. The boat was plowing through thick fog. No sun shone in the sky, and the surface of the water wasn't visible. In this dead air, she couldn't even judge their speed by the wind. She hadn't said a thing yet, but that didn't seem to be stopping Komachi from chatting away.

"Hey," she finally interrupted. "How long is it going to be?"

"For you?" Komachi started to laugh, then stopped abruptly and forced herself to sound a little more sympathetic. "Uh. It'll be a while. You might as well get comfy."

Reimu gave a tired sigh and slumped back against the wall of the boat. "What did I even do that was so bad?"

Komachi slowly straightened her posture. "Showing no empathy for your fellow beings, you fought human and youkai alike!" she said, in a very passable impersonation of Eiki. As she spoke, she waggled her scythe in one hand like the yama's rod of remorse, not seeming to notice its weight. "Despite being a shrine maiden, you held no regard for the gods! You spent your days in idleness and...!"

"Okay, okay, I get it." Reimu waved her hand to shut the shinigami up. Komachi seemed to realize that she'd gone a bit over the line, and the two sat in silence for immeasurable meters. Reimu stared at her lap. "I just... I can't believe that I'm dead."

"I hear a lot of that," Komachi said. She rested her scythe's handle across her shoulders and looked out over the water. "It's how all of you mortals are. Spending every moment following your impulses, without regard for your soul. Is it really so hard to believe that such a thoughtless life would end without warning?"

Reimu didn't have a retort this time. She stared gloomily at her feet, while the boat continued to move gently toward her final judgment.

And then, without so much as a sound, she vanished.

Komachi stared at the spot where Reimu had been for a moment. But no, sure enough, the girl was gone. With a disapproving shake of her head, she pushed herself to standing and turned the boat back toward the land of the living.

Skipping rocks. That was a good way to pass the time. Or it would be, if the Sanzu weren't the physical embodiment of a metaphor that refused to behave like normal water. But still. Komachi had nothing better to do, even if the rocks did have an annoying tendency to slip soundlessly beneath the waves.

"... why am I here again?"

"Oh!" Komachi froze mid-throw as she found herself face to face with Reimu. "That was rare."

"What was?" There were a few tears brimming in Reimu's eyes already, but so far, her outrage was winning out against the terror of being dead again.

Komachi paid this no mind, though, and gave the rock a level-handed toss toward the river. It disappeared under the water meters away, but she could tell that it would have been an excellent throw otherwise. Seven or eight skips, at least. "A Continue," she said, with a slight bit of awe to her voice.

"A... what?"

"A Continue. Sometimes, people die but they don't stay dead. It's sort of... a near-death experience, but even longer, you know? One second they're dead... the next, they're back alive. Their life continues."

"But now I'm dead again." Reimu crossed her arms, and her expression demanded an explanation.

"Well, it doesn't make you immortal. I'll admit, most people don't die again so fast." Komachi frowned thoughtfully as she inspected the shrine maiden. Still no possessions except her clothes. "... burnt up again?"

"I... yeah." Reimu seemed a bit too embarrassed to meet her gaze. "The Underground is—"

"Ah, hold on, save that thought." Komachi gave a slightly sheepish smile as she pushed the boat into the water with a kick. "We've got a long ride ahead of us."

"A bird who throws suns, huh?"

"Yes. A bird. Who throws suns." Reimu threw her hands into the air in exasperation. "How am I even supposed to fight that?! The spell card rules don't exactly ban that sort of thing, but I didn't know that I needed to tell people 'don't throw stars at each other.'"

"Yeah, I hear you."

Reimu sighed, and finally dropped the topic. "So I'm... dead-dead now, right?"

"Well, you were dead-dead before," Komachi pointed out, slightly too cheerfully for Reimu's preferences. "It's just that you stopped being dead."

"That doesn't make any sense."

"It actually doesn't, no." Komachi shook her head with a laugh. "I mean, none of the yama can explain it either. Miss Shiki thinks that it might only happen to people who have a great destiny in store for them."

Reimu nodded along with this, then paused. "... my 'great destiny' was falling into a sun and burning to death?"

"Uh." Komachi frowned and tapped a foot on the floor of the boat. "Well. Maybe somebody... learned something from it? Or watched your tragic final moments and wrote a beautiful poem about it?"

"There was nobody there! It was just me and the bird, and I think she's too dumb to write poetry!"

"The universe works in mysterious—"

"I don't. Want. To hear it."

"I guess it's sticking this time, huh?" Reimu was slumped over the side of the boat, with the fingers of one hand trailing in the water. Again, she had no idea how long it had been, but it felt like neither of them had spoken in eons. The worst part was, she wasn't sure if the river crossing was that wide, or if she was just so bored that every second was dragging on. At least now she knew why the shinigami was always so eager to get away from it.

"Well, that's only to be expected, y'know? It's rare enough to get a second chance at life, so two would just be..." Komachi turned toward the shrine maiden, giving a wry smile, only to find that she was suddenly alone in the boat again. "... oh, for crying out..."

Komachi was in no rush to get back to the shore this time, so she left the river at its normal width and sailed back casually, with her feet propped on the edge of the boat. When she reached the shore, she wasn't entirely surprised when she found Reimu waiting for her, with her arms crossed and a scowl on her face.

"Do we still have to do this?"

"... sorry, it's the rules. Come on, hop in."

Reimu climbed into the boat and settled into her still-warm seat, while Komachi slumped back against the curve of the bow, with both elbows resting on the edge. "So, what was it this time?"

"Another sun. I don't know what's going on. I'm usually better than this."

"We all have our off days," Komachi said with a shrug. "And now that you're dead, you don't need to worry about it anymore."

"Dead for the third time."

"Dead for the third time," Komachi agreed. The boat turned itself and started drifting away from the shore. "If you keep this up, the yama will have to add to your sentence for wasting my time..."

"Do you think I'm trying to die?"

"Well, if you're going to keep getting pulled back like that, it seems rude to let yourself die. Whatever cosmic force is resurrecting you is probably starting to feel a little frustrated right now."

Reimu didn't dignify that with a response.

"How does it feel? Coming back to life, I mean?"

For a moment, Reimu considered staying quiet... but it wasn't like there was anything to do but talk. She'd certainly had enough of the scenery already. "It's like waking up, really."

"So you can remember everything that happened on this side?"

"Yeah, I guess." Reimu shrugged.

"Ahhh. Maybe that's it. You're being pulled back to bring wisdom from this land to the land of the living."

"Wisdom?" Reimu looked up and crossed her arms. "All I've heard is you talking about your boss yelling at you, and then we talked about birds."

"And I gave you a lecture on morals," Komachi corrected her.

"I've had better."

"Hmph."

Reimu looked out over the lifeless, foggy water. The boat didn't even make a sound as it slipped through the current, she realized. Maybe that was why everything was so vaguely unsettling. She didn't even have the sound of her own heartbeat, because it had stopped. ... Reimu momentarily blanched, then started drumming her fingers on the edge of the boat.

"What're you thinking about?"

"Does it matter?"

"Well..." Komachi gestured at the featureless expanse around the pair. "This is your last chance before your judgment. Maybe you could try to cleanse yourself of impure thoughts? The yama likes to see that kind of effort. She might be lenient. Or..." She glanced around furtively, then leaned forward. "I'm not supposed to do this, but if you want to put together a last message, I could carry it to your loved ones."

"I don't have any loved ones."

"Friends, then."

"Hmm." Reimu kept drumming her fingers and looked out over the timeless river again. "Tell Sanae and Kasen to decide between themselves whether one of them should take over the shrine. I think Kasen would be good at it. Um. Tell the fairies in the tree that they can have my sake. And tell Marisa that she can't have my stuff."

"Ahh, you see." Komachi held up a finger. "Concerned only with material possessions. This is what got you into this mess, I bet."

Reimu huffed. "Fine, then. Tell Marisa, and Suika, and Sanae," she began counting people off on her fingers, "and Yukari if you have to... that I'll miss them. Until I'm reincarnated, I guess." She slumped down a bit, as the weight of her situation hit her again. It didn't last long. "And tell Akyuu that my diary is hidden under the butsudan. If anything from there will help the Gensokyo Chronicle, she can use it. Except the parts about my love life. ... Happy now?" Her tone just dared Komachi to try finding something to complain about.

The shinigami shrugged. "It's your final message, not mine."

"Great." Reimu slid down to the floor of the boat, with her head resting against the wall. "I'm going to take a nap."

Napping as a ghost was hard, actually. It was possible, but it took a certain... non-biological sense of self that not many of the recently-departed could manage. When Reimu finally gave up on the idea and sat up, Komachi nodded knowingly. "I thought that would happen."

Reimu sighed, resting one elbow against the side of the boat and her chin in her palm. "I just can't stop thinking about the fight. If I'd just been a little quicker..."

"What was the spellcard like?" Komachi asked, out of idle curiosity more than anything else. "The one that killed you, I mean."

"Well, um." Reimu frowned as she struggled to remember. Really, she'd been too focused on dodging to get a good look at the big picture. "A lot of big stars flying in two circles around her, and then she shot little ones between them."

"Huh. Sounds nasty. ... if you couldn't handle it, you could have just shot back with your own spellcard to interrupt that attack. Maybe she would have picked up with something a bit easier afterward."

"I'll keep it in mind for any spellcard duels I have in my next life. As a squirrel," Reimu said dryly.

"Sorry. I'm just trying to help. ... if the big stars were flying in circles and didn't overlap, couldn't you just stay in the spot between those circles?" Komachi raised her hands and made two rings with her fingers to demonstrate. "... then you'd only need to dodge the littler stars."

Reimu studied the impromptu diagram for a moment, then shrugged. "I... guess that might work, sure. If I could save my energy there, it would sure have made the rest of the fight a bit easier."

Komachi nodded. "And if you didn't have to move as much, maybe that would let you focus more on your own counterattacking?"

"Hmm, yeah. I knew there had to be a trick to—" Reimu vanished mid-sentence, and Komachi rolled her eyes before guiding the boat back toward shore.

Komachi was whittling. Every now and then, she'd find a piece of wood big enough for it, and the scythe was plenty sharp enough to use as a knife if she was careful. She was seated on a small boulder, and the scythe's handle was on the ground, with the blade pointing upward and held firmly between her legs. She carefully maneuvered the wood around the very tip to make the cuts.

Reimu was no longer the slightest bit surprised by the sight. She crouched down and peered at the work. "Is that a cat?"

"It's going to be a dog, actually." Komachi didn't look up. Her hands guided it through a very precise curve, scraping a curl of wood off of the muzzle. "Did you try staying between the circles? Like we talked about?"

"Yeah." Reimu smiled sheepishly. "That actually worked. But she made a giant star that sucked me in this time."

"Jeez. That's rough." Komachi lifted the little sculpture and blew some dust off of it, then tucked it into her pocket. "Three Continues, huh?"

"I guess."

Komachi nodded, and without another word, stepped into the boat. Reimu didn't need to be told to follow her this time.

"So what's the scythe for?"

Komachi shrugged the thing off her shoulder and settled it into her lap, then looked at it as if she'd never seen it before. "Well. It's very shinigami-like, don't you think?"

"Yeah, but..." Reimu gestured at the fog around them. "It doesn't have much to do with your actual job, does it? They could give you a... an oar. You could row to make the boat faster."

"Well." Komachi rested the scythe across her shoulder again. "It's not about utility. It makes sure that when a soul arrives and see me, they know without question that I'm a shinigami. They actually only assigned them to us a few decades ago. The job's a lot easier now. In the old days, you'd get people who didn't believe you. 'Oh, you're not a shinigami, I'm not getting into that boat, I'm going home.'" She raised her hands and did her best whining voice. "But everybody believes you if you have a scythe."

"Huh. You wouldn't think it was that simple."

"That's why the yama are the yama. They truly understand human nature."

"Mmhm."

"It's the same with your outfit, right?" Komachi leaned forward and rested her forearms on her knees. "If you showed up to exterminate a bunch of youkai in a normal dress or kimono, nobody would take you seriously, right?"

"I guess..." Reimu looked down at herself with a frown. "I never really thought about it."

That seemed to be the natural end of the conversation, and the oppressive silence returned.. Reimu tilted her head back over the side of the boat to stare at the sky. She could feel her hair dangling in the phantasmal water, but she didn't really care at this point. After the heat of the underground, it felt kind of pleasant. "This would be a lot more relaxing if it were sunny. You should ask the yama about getting rid of this fog."

Komachi frowned at that. "I don't think it's really supposed to be pleasant. The whole point is to make you take a long ride with nothing to do but consider the weight of your sins."

"That sounds really boring for you."

"... yeah, it is. And you're... not thinking about your sins, are you?"

"Not really. I was actually trying to figure out what to have for dinner tonight." Reimu lifted her head back up out of the water. "I think I'm in the mood for soba."

"Don't you think that's a little... presumptuous? With your death and everything?"

Reimu shook her head. "I haven't died yet, have I? For good, I mean." She smiled, and Komachi suddenly realized that her earlier annoyance and fear had almost totally evaporated. "Besides, I'm the Hakurei shrine maiden. I don't leave youkai exterminations unfinished."

"Hmph. That vain overconfidence is another sin. I was wrong about you. You'll probably be lucky to come back as an insect." Komachi couldn't help but smile, though.

"Yeah, you're probably right," Reimu said with a smirk as she settled back against the side of the boat and closed her eyes. "But it won't be so bad being a worm or something, I bet. They don't do anything but eat and sleep, right? Sounds kinda relaxing. I'll just think of it like a really long vacation."

"Ah, with such a carefree attitude, you'll never escape samsara."

"Probably not." Reimu did not sound concerned. And then, she vanished. Again.

Komachi had finished carving the dog. She was pretty fond of it, actually. A few long strands of grass were enough to tie it to the prow of her boat, and now it had a figurehead. After admiring her work, she sat down, with her back resting against the beached boat. The fog was just thin enough on the shore that she could watch the stars as they came out.

She'd lost track of time, and didn't even notice Reimu's presence until the shrine maiden cleared her throat. Komachi just laughed. "What is that? Death number five? You really should..." She trailed off, as she raised her head and got her first glimpse of the girl. Reimu's outfit was practically perforated and covered in scorch marks. She'd made a cursory attempt to clean the soot off of her face, but there was still quite a bit. Her hair was plastered to her head with dried sweat.

And yet, she was smiling. And holding up a bottle of sake and two dishes, for that matter. The shrine maiden flopped onto the ground, filled one of the dishes near to spilling, and drained all of the contents with a single long slurp followed by a pleased sigh. Only then did she say anything. "Care for a drink?"

The shinigami raised an eyebrow. "I take it you survived?" she asked as she knelt down across from the girl.

Reimu filled both dishes and sat the bottle on the ground, then lifted one of them and downed the contents without pausing for breath. "Yeah. I still don't know what that was all about, but I beat the dumb bird, so I think it's safe for now."

"So, why are you back here?"

"I really needed a drink after all of that," Reimu said. She refilled her dish, but seemed content to let this serving sit for longer than three seconds. "And since nothing much came of this incident, I didn't get the usual crowd of youkai crashing at the shrine... Besides, I thought you might like the company."

"Well, I do appreciate it." Komachi lifted the other dish in a silent toast and took a sip. She was surprised to find that it was pretty good. Maybe the shrine maiden had splurged. "Four Continues, huh? I have to say, I don't think anybody's ever had that many in their entire life, let alone a single day."

"I guess I'm just blessed like that." Reimu grinned shamelessly and tilted her dish back. Komachi felt a little sorry for the sake. It deserved to be savored in quiet reflection, not gulped. She took a dainty sip of her own and studied the moon's reflection on the surface of her drink, hoping that Reimu might follow her example. Judging by the slurping sounds coming from her direction, she was not.

"Did you ever figure out why you kept getting pulled back?"

Reimu shrugged. "I'm not about to try dying again to find out."

"Maybe it was fate for you to win that battle." Komachi smirked and looked up from her drink. "Perhaps the yama don't know why it happens because the force behind it is even more powerful and subtle than they are."

"Ahhhh." Reimu sighed with relaxation as she finished off her dish. Again. "I'm not sure I'd call that yama 'subtle.' And besides, the important thing is that I'm still alive, right?"

Komachi chuckled and gently swished the contents of her own. "Maybe it's not so lucky for you. More and more time to build up sins and you'll be lucky to come back as an animal at all. Maybe you'll be a ghost."

"A ghost wouldn't be so bad. I have friends in the netherworld. … are you saying that being a worm is better than being a ghost?"

"Isn't it obvious? A worm starts without regrets and attachments, but a ghost is ruled by them."

"Ahh. Good!" Reimu poured herself another drink, then leaned over to top off Komachi's. "I'll do my best to become a ghost, then! Don't expect it to happen anytime soon, though. It's going to be a long time before I die again. Today was a fluke."

"That's right. You've got a long life of sinning ahead of you," Komachi said, with only the slightest bit of teasing sarcasm. Seeing that Reimu had already finished off half of the bottle, she took a few rather larger pulls of her drink. She wasn't going to let the girl get all of it. … maybe Reimu was rubbing off on her. "Do you think you at least learned something from the experience?"

"Nope!" Reimu said cheerfully. "Well, you did help me out with that one spellcard, so there's that. Thanks for that, by the way."

"Heh. You're welcome."

"And..." Reimu finally stopped drinking and flopped onto her back to look at the stars. "If you ever want to stop by the shrine while you're slacking off, you're welcome to. You're not so bad, for a lazy, judgmental shinigami."

"And you're not so bad, for a lazy, worldly shrine maiden." Komachi casually reached over and moved the bottle just out of Reimu's reach, but it wasn't really necessary: Within minutes, the exhausted shrine maiden was asleep.

"It still gets pretty chilly out here at night, you know," Komachi chided her. No response. "It'd be kind of ironic if you froze to death."

She crossed her arms and watched Reimu expectantly, as if the girl was going to realize her mistake and stand back up, but she was out cold. With a tired chuckle, Komachi shrugged off her vest, then draped it across Reimu's sleeping form. "There. I guess it wouldn't be like you to die that easily, but it's not like I need the extra work." She stood back up and admired her work, then thoughtfully bent down to snatch up the bottle. "Take your time and rest up, shrine maiden. Death can wait until tomorrow, at least."

Bottle in hand, Komachi leaned back against her boat to watch over Reimu until morning. It wasn't the worst way she'd spent a night.