Mayohiga Nights

Ran - Part 3

Ran has just put Chen to bed and disappeared into the bathroom to take off her makeup. You haven't said anything to her since you've returned to Mayohiga. You went back to your room, but recoiled from the thought of lying there on the bed in the dark and instead made your way outside onto the porch. Sitting on it, you stare out across the glowing fields. The landscape of Gensoukyou is just as beautiful under the veil of night. Even with the great yellow moon covering everything with its buttery light, the stars are still visible, a wide white-speckled wash of brilliance from one horizon to the other. Without electric lights, you can see a billion stars you've never seen before.

The sight should be uplifting, but for you it merely highlights how much you've lost.

Your eyes grow hot. The only thing you can think about is Ran. But your earlier images of her, those beautiful memories of her smiling at you across the kotatsu, of her running her hand through your hair, and especially the delightful weight of her cradled in your arms, have all been replaced by the look of despair you saw on her face, that unhappy, mocking laughter.

"Fate?" she had laughed.

Why did you come here?

Maybe it is time for you to go.

You hear the slide of the amadoa, but you don't turn around. You feel too fragile, and if it's Ran that's standing there, you have a terrible feeling that the tears that are threatening in your eyes will start to spill out.

After a while, you hear her step out onto the porch. You know it's Ran.

She sits down beside you, staring out with you into the deep shadows of the night. Silence, except for the scattered sounds of crickets and the gentle shimmering of the forest in the breeze. Ran's scent is all about you, and you squeeze your eyes shut, hoping you can hold back the tears long enough for her to leave.

"I'm sorry about what happened," she says, breaking the silence at last. "I- I guess I overreacted. Eirin was just trying to make me jealous, and then Tewi had to come along and..."

Ran falls silent and for a long while you're both sitting there, not saying anything. There's a tension in the air, and you realise that something has irrevocably changed between you. Your heart is beating hard, so hard that you begin to worry that Ran can hear it.

Finally Ran sighs. She takes your chin in her hand and turns your head to face her. There is no trace left of the regal being of several hours ago. She looks tired, fragile, and old. There is sadness in her red-rimmed yellow-gold eyes and on the wan smile that struggles to survive on her lips.

"This has gone far enough, I think," she says, dropping her hand and turning away to stare back out into the darkness. "I'm sorry to have led you along. It was cruel of me and I should have known better. But I think you know now, don't you, that nothing can ever happen between us?"

Your voice threatens to sticks in your throat, but you manage to say that no, you don't know that. You're still struggling to find the right words to express what you want to say, buffeted by conflicting emotions, when Ran reaches over and pats the back of your hand.

There is something hideously cold and final about the way she does it.

"Youkai and humans are... too different," she says. Her voice is rehearsed, and you hate the tone of it. It's as if all the closeness that had developed between the two of you has dissolved away, returning everything to the way it was when you first met her all those days ago. "Reimu probably said something like that to you the other day."

You mutter something in reply.

Ran sighs. "I know you're angry. But it... it has to be like this. What happened tonight was a warning, I suppose. If I'd let things continue, you'd have ended up getting hurt even more. We'd have ended up getting hurt more."

You open your mouth to protest, but nothing comes out. You have the horrible sensation of falling into some deep well, its darkness, like the darkness of the night outside, pressing in on you.

Ran takes your silence as agreement.

"Shall we just be friends, then?" she asks.

Your eyes are burning and your chest feels as though your ribcage has become a vice, crushing your heart. You force yourself to turn and look at her: those yellow-gold eyes you've fallen in love with, the sad smile that you can't stand seeing on her face.

Fate.

Fate brought you to Gensoukyou, and now it's going to pull you and Ran apart.

But only if you let it.

You lift your hand and brush away a lock of her short blonde hair from the side of her face. You let it linger there, your fingertips against her temple, your palm cupping her chin. You expect her to pull away, but instead she just closes her eyes.

You stroke the side of her face gently, your fingertips feather-light. Maybe you're afraid of breaking her, somehow, she's so fragile and beautiful in that moment. She sighs, so softly it's little more than an exhalation of breath, and then she turns her face towards your caresses. She lifts a hand and takes hold of yours and for a moment you think she's going to move it away, but instead she brings it to her lips and kisses it.

"Do you really want such a stupid old fox?" she mutters.

You don't say anything and just lean forward and bring your lips against hers.

In that moment, time and space hang motionless, as if crystallised. If your heart is beating, you don't feel it. All you can feel is the softness of Ran's lips against yours, the warmth of her breath, scented with the perfume of rice wine and the sweetness of mochi. You open your lips, and hers do as well, and after the lightest touch of your tongues you break the kiss.

She opens her eyes. There is a pinkness in her cheeks and her lips curl up into a smile you've never seen before. It's sultry, and almost predatory.

"Are you really that inexperienced, or are you just teasing me?" she asks. Then it's her turn to lean forward into the kiss, but this time she lifts her hands and cups your face as your lips meet. She won't let you move away again.

The tip of her tongue, hot and wet, slips between your lips and she kisses you deeply, her fingers trembling as she runs them through your hair. You kiss her back, slipping your tongue across the smoothness of her teeth. Ran tilts her head and her tongue attacks yours from another direction.

You're both breathless when she finally breaks the kiss.

"You taste like mochi," she says, licking her lips. "And rice wine."

You tell her she does too.

"I think I could just sit here and kiss you all night," she says. "But I don't think you'll be satisfied with that. I don't think I will, either." She gets to her feet and taking hold of your hand leads you back into the house.

"Shall we use your room?" she whispers. "Chen's is right next to mine and..."

You nod. As you push open the door, the eyes she turns on you are hot, glistening like molten gold.

"I sometimes get loud," she explains.

She sits down on the edge of the bed and pulls you down next to her. She keeps hold of your hand, cradling it in her lap, and together the two of you sit there, neither saying anything.

You mention Yukari and Ran chuckles softly. "She'll be up all night drinking and arguing with the Princess," she says. "I wouldn't worry about her. But we do need to be quiet. I don't want Chen bursting in on us and getting traumatised."

You chuckle at the image. Ran sighs and rests her head on your shoulder

"You know," she says, looking up at you shyly through her thick lashes. "There's something I want to ask you, but..."

You tell her to go right ahead.

"How old are you?" she asks.

You tell her. She exhales.

"That young?" She slips her hand onto your lap and moves forward to kiss your neck. "This is very likely criminal, then. Maybe that's why it's so exciting." The words, as she whispers them, are hot against your skin.

The touch of her lips as she runs them across your neck, the tiny licks and bites of your skin, soon have you gripping the mattress in excitement. Ran chuckles to herself.

"I guess you like being teased," she says. She begins to busy herself with untying the top of your hakama. It's soon off and after folding it she places it neatly on the floor. "Say banzai!" she says. You lift your arms and she slides your undershirt off, which quickly joins your hakama.

Ran runs her fingers across your chest and smiles secretively. "It's kind of disappointing, because I already know what you look like naked. But I guess you're interested in finding out about me, right?"

With deft hands she undoes the intricate obi behind her back. She folds it and lays it aside. Her kimono has slipped a little from her shoulder while she was untying her obi, exposing pale skin from her neck down to the top of her ample breasts.

Ran lifts her hands to the collar of her kimono and then stops, considering you with heat in her eyes.

"Maybe you want to do it for me?"

You don't need any more encouragement than that. You slip your hands under the material of the collar, but she quickly traps your hands under her own.

"Before you do, though, please promise to be kind to me. I am over a thousand years old after all."

Your reply is to kiss her, and as you slide both sides of her kimono from her shoulders you draw your lips down over her chin and neck and along her collarbone.

Ran is breathing heavier now, and you feel her chest rising and falling against your lips as you kiss even lower. Her skin is unbelievably soft, and her wild scent envelopes you as your lips trace the valley between her breasts.

"Please," she whispers, pulling your head against her chest. "Please. You know what I want."

What man, in this or any other world, could refuse such a plea?

Ran slumps forward with a gasp, her hair a mass of sweat, her face flushed, her eyes hooded, her lips slack and open.

You throw your arms around her and crush her to you. Her head resting on your chest, you lean over and kiss her forehead, tasting the warm saltiness of her perspiration. Ran murmurs, nuzzling you, her hands slipping up to run themselves through your own sweat-matted hair.

"I forgot what that felt like," she whispers, her eyes still closed. "It might get to be a habit. What am I going to do?"

She opens her eyes and looks up at you shyly through her dark lashes. You notice that she missed a spot of her eyeliner and you reach down and rub it away with your thumb. Ran sighs as you busy yourself smoothing her hair away from her eyes. With her large ears so close, you can't resist running your fingers up along the edge of one of them, and Ran is soon making a contented sound not unlike a purr.

"Stop it," she mutters. "Or you'll get me excited again and have to suffer the consequences."

But soon she's asleep and you return to stroking the smoothness of her back. You're sweaty and sticky and with Ran's head on your chest, it's a little difficult to breathe. But such overwhelming happiness suffuses you, a happiness that makes your chest ache, that you don't notice any of it. The last thing you see, as sleep overtakes you as well, is the glistening string of saliva hanging down from Ran's lips onto your chest.

She's drooling again.

When you wake up, Ran is gone. You stretch out your hands to where she was and feel only warmth and the depression her body has left. But her scent is everywhere. You hug her pillow to your chest like a child and lay there, breathing in the richness of her scent and thinking about everything that happened last night. You wish she was still here beside you.

Then you hear the voices. They're coming from the living room, and you suspect that it was them that woke you up. They're raised, and after a while you're able to start making out words.

It's Ran and Yukari. And they're arguing.

Yukari's voice: "...know how embarrassing that was? I was mortified. When Reimu finds out about it I'll never hear the end of it from her."

Ran. "Lady Yukari, it wasn't his fault. I don't think it's fair to blame him for something that..."

"No, Ran. I blame you. It's your conduct that I'm talking about. You seem to have forgotten that you're my shikigami. Your responsibility is to me and to me only."

"But Lady Yukari..."

"It was fine when he was sick. He gave you something to do. But now, this compulsion of yours is a distraction. It's made you weak."

"He hasn't made me weak." Ran's voice is soft but adamant. "He's made me happy."

Silence. "Happy?" Yukari's voice is pungently scornful. "It's not your job to be happy, Ran. Your job is to serve me and help me maintain the border. Everything else is immaterial."

'But it was you who wanted to keep him, Lady Yukari."

"That it was, Ran. And now that he's better, I think it's time for him to go."

Footsteps. Yukari opens the door to the room and looks straight into your eyes. Her own violet ones are frightening in their intensity.

"It looks like the sake is almost all gone," says Yukari without humour. "So it's time for the party to end. Get up."

You're really in no position to argue. You slip out of bed. Ran is just behind Yukari, looking in at you with a mixture of concern and despair on her face.

Once you're dressed, Yukari steps into the room and takes hold of your arm.

"Let's go, then."

Her grip is cold and inexorable. She drags you out of the room. Chen's door opens and the little cat youkai appears, rubbing her eyes.

"What's wrong?" she asks in alarm.

"Go back to sleep, Chen," Yukari snaps at her.

She marches you into the genkan and waits for you to put on your shoes. Then she takes a hold of your arm again and almost pushes you out the front door.

Ran is waiting for you both just outside. Her face is hard.

"Lady Yukari," she says. "He doesn't want to go and I don't want him to go either. I won't let you send him back."

Yukari stops and drops your arm. Her voice is dangerously gentle. "So it's got as bad as this, has it? A shikigami directly contradicting her mistress? You forget your place, Ran."

"I'm sorry, Lady Yukari," says Ran, her eyes lowered. "But I love him."

Yukari laughs. It's almost hysterical, and thick with mockery. "You love him? You know what I think, Ran? I think you love it."

Ran's face darkens and she takes a step forward.

"You'd raise your hand against me, Ran?" Yukari's voice is almost inhuman in its coldness. "The one who rescued you, clothed you and raised you? Ha!" She takes several steps forward, slow and threatening. "Get out of my way, Ran."

Ran shakes her head.

Yukari sighs. "Very well then. Since you insist on continuing this ridiculous behaviour, I will meet you half way. Fight me, if he means so much to you. Fight me in danmaku, here and now. Spellcard Rules. If you defeat me, you can keep him. But if I defeat you, I will do as I wish."

Ran's face pales, but she nods.

"Yukari-sama!" It's Chen, joining you on the porch. "Please, please don't hurt Ran-sama!"

Yukari turns on her, her arm raised as if meaning to strike her from a distance. "I told you to go back to bed!"

A wave of force slams onto the porch, and you feel it graze past you. Chen, however, takes the brunt of it and with a cry the little youkai is thrown back through the front door which slams shut behind her.

Ran's eyes are red. Somehow she looks already defeated. But then she turns to look at you. You smile at her and she smiles back. It's that sad smile you've always hated seeing, but there is love in her eyes, open and unconcealed. It wells up, and suddenly the look in her eyes hardens.

"Are you ready, Ran?" asks Yukari.

Ran nods. She smiles at you one last time then turns to join her mistress in the open area before the mansion where she's waiting,.

As Ran walks to meet her, spell cards in hand, Yukari takes out her own from a fold in her robe and rifles through them.

"Are you sure you want to do this, Ran?" asks Yukari with a grim smile. "I'm worried you might be out of practice. I don't want to hurt you."

"I'd worry about myself if I were you, Lady Yukari."

Yukari's smile widens and then she bursts into peals of laughter. When she gets a hold of herself, she says, "I was worried you weren't going to make this a contest, Ran. I'm glad I was wrong."

With that Yukari's violet eyes close. The long blonde hair that frames her face begins to waft, as though a strong wind has whipped up out of nowhere. But the air is totally still, and there is almost utter silence, as though all the earth is watching. Her robes begin to flutter and billow, and she rises slowly into the air, her feet leaving the ground.

Then her eyes flash open. The power apparent in their blazing violet is inhuman in its intensity. The unnatural wind rises quickly into a gale that lifts her high into the air where she hovers, waiting, her spell cards thrown from her hand now revolving in a slow circle about her.

"What are you waiting for, Ran?"

Ran's eyes, the beautiful yellow-gold eyes that made you fall in love with her, change. They flare as though an inner fire has been suddenly kindled within them, and their beauty takes on a fierce and unquenchable brightness. Her tails begin to snake, their fur standing on end as light spills up from the ground and envelopes her, like an aura of living fire. Her face is utterly transfigured, and you realise that here, now, you are seeing Ran in her true form, just as she looked when she fought against Reimu. Ran the youkai, the nine-tailed kitsune, the Gap Youkai's shikigami, Yakumo Ran.

Then Ran too rises into the air, coming level with Yukari, her spell cards floating before her hands in a wheel.

Yukari's mouth eases into the rictus of a smile. Her teeth are incandescent white needles like those of a shark.

"We fight until one of us is brought to their knees. Agreed?"

Ran nods.

The air before Ran opens and Yukari is right in front of her. She flicks her hand forward and a barrage of spears of light, like molten fragments of a star, spiral out. But Ran has already darted aside, each of the missiles coming within inches of her as she evades them in a flickering dance.

Ran gains height and then, with both hands raised before her, a fiery maelstrom of her own comes searing through the air towards Yukari. The Gap Youkai slips gracefully in between the impossibly intricate web of missiles, moving through gaps that you can't even imagine being there. Glittering spheres of light come perilously close to her, brushing past her robes, but she comes out from the storm of energy completely untouched.

Yukari laughs like the echoing explosion of a distant star. "So the old fox does remember how to fight!" She flicks a spiralling spell card from the halo surrounding her and cries, "Curse of Dreams and Reality!"

Wave upon wave of green and blue spears of burning energy spray from Yukari's hands, enveloping Ran in a maze of deadly magic. Your heart pounds as you lose sight of her, sure that there was no way she could have extricated herself from the barrage. But then you see a flash of blue, the suggestion of yellow from amongst the fiery display and Ran flies out of it, her own hands raised mid-gesture as she shouts, "Fox-Tanuki Youkai Laser!"

Beams of searing power spring from her hands and streak towards Yukari, and the Youkai of the Boundaries' eyes open wide in surprise as she vanishes amongst them. There is a blinding wave of light that blots out the sky and for a second you think that Ran's won.

But as it bleeds away, Yukari is still hovering there. Her lip curls in a delighted grin as she dusts off a sleeve. She is utterly unscathed.

Ran seems unsurprised. She wipes a drop of sweat from her brow.

"Well played, Ran," says Yukari. "Even those low-level spellcards can be dangerous, can they not? But you're not the only one that can play with lasers!" Her grin deepens with predatory intensity. She raises a hand and shouts, "Xanadu of Straight and Curve!"

The entire sky becomes alight with a meshwork of sparkling beams that quickly grow with blinding intensity. There's almost no space for Ran to manoeuvre, but somehow she manages it, sliding herself gracefully through narrowing gaps, and all the while Yukari is peppering her with a constant barrage of green and blue missiles.

The beams move slowly, but as Ran flies higher to avoid a wave of green projectiles she's suddenly cut off, trapped by a cage of the glittering beams. She hovers there for a second, the bars of light closing in upon her, almost touching her skin, until at last one of them begins to die away and she flies out through it, but not without brushing past another of the beams. There is a flash and you see the material of one of her long sleeves sear and burn away into nothing.

For a moment you think Ran must be injured, but if she is she shows no sign of it. She's already harrying Yukari with an intricate fusillade of blossoming green arrows, careening and reversing their path as her mistress flies dancing between them. Yukari's face is mask of manic delight and her laughter scours the sky as it burns with her and Ran's deadly magic.

"Mesh of Light and Darkness!"

"Charming Siege from All Sides!"

"Bewitching Butterfly Living in the Zen Temple!"

"Ultimate Buddhist!"

As they fight, neither of them giving ground, the air burning with the deadly fireworks of danmaku, you hear them cry name after name of powerful magic. Ran gives no sign of slowing, but unlike Yukari she is sweating, and here and there her robes are blackened with the burns of near misses. Yukari, however, remains unscathed, and you feel a hideous iciness in the pit of your stomach.

For all her grace and skill and power, Ran has been struggling to keep up with her mistress from the beginning. And it becomes all the more apparent when you notice that, despite the different names, their spells are very similar.

Of course. Yukari taught Ran everything she knows. This is a battle between teacher and pupil, a battle Ran just can't win. But she's fighting anyway, risking herself for you. You run out into the field, shouting up to them, but your voice is lost in the tempest of destructive magical energy above you.

The air reverberates with the crackling roar of missiles bursting, sizzles with the hissing of searing beams of light, and all the while the glowing sigils and revolving magic circles dance about them.

And still Ran fights on in silence, while Yukari laughs until it seems as though it's the sky itself that is doubled over in an ecstasy of hilarity.

Then the sky becomes clear. Ran and Yukari are floating there, on either side of the aerial battlefield. Ran's chest is heaving, her hat askance, her hair glues to her face with sweat. Yukari's laughter, meanwhile, has died away, the smile fading from her face as her violet eyes narrow.

A droplet of sweat appears at her temple and slips down to her cheek.

"It's time to end this, Ran," she says.

One last spell card is hovering before Yukari's face and with a sweep of her hand she sends it spiralling up into the air as she cries out,

"Boundary of Life and Death!"

Nothing you've seen before prepares you for what happens next. It's as if the very heavens have caught fire, as if the moon has disintegrated into fragments and is falling to earth in a meteoric bombardment. Blue spheres and great red globes of living fire streak through the sky at Ran and you have to shield your eyes as you search for her among them.

You can't see her among the burning maelstrom of light, but you hear her voice.

"Princess Tenko's Illusion!"

Yukari is grinning again as she conjures wave after wave of danmaku and sends it hurtling towards Ran. But whenever it seems as though the kitsune is about to be overwhelmed, there is a flash of light and the blue of her robes and the yellow of her tails appears elsewhere in the sky.

"Wily old fox," mutters Yukari. Her hands become a blur.

Soon the air blisters with the heat of her projectiles' energy. There seems to be no place left for Ran to hide, even with her teleportation. She seems to realise this, too, and after a series of near-misses Ran changes her strategy. She flies straight towards Yukari, zigzagging as the danmaku comes at her in a veritable tsunami of fire.

Yukari's laughter splits the sky. The spheres of energy are so thick now that Ran cannot dodge them cleanly. First one brushes her, leaving a burn-mark smouldering across her robe, then another, and another, and you wonder at how she is able to keep going. A globe of yellow spitting energy strikes her, knocking her hat from her head, its disintegrating fragments flying back in a shower of ash. Ran's face is a mask of pain, but her eyes remain glued on her goal.

Yukari.

Ran is right on top of her now and the last thing you see is the fiery blossom of danmaku that she manages to envelope Yukari in at point blank range. Then Ran, too, is wreathed in the glowing fire of the final wave of brilliant energy that Yukari manages to send against her and the two are silhouetted by the flare of a great explosion that rips across the sky with a shuddering roar.

Your pull your hands from your eyes and look up trying to see what has happened. There is total darkness, but then colour and light returns to your sight and the cerulean blue of the sky with it.

Floating down from it is a small, black figure, falling with her limbs slack and her head hanging backwards, seemingly little heavier than a leaf.

Ran.

You run out into the field, your feet crunching against the charred grass and broken earth of the battlefield, and you're beneath her when the little magic she has left gives out and she plummets straight towards the ground.

You catch her before she hits. You stumble forwards onto your knees, but somehow you manage to keep a hold of her. You lower her gently to the ground, cradling her in your arms, wanting to crush her to you but worried that to do so would hurt her. Her robes are little more than charred rags now, her body streaked with ash. But despite all your wildest fears, she seems unharmed.

She's breathing, her chest rising and falling as you brush a blackened lock of her once-blonde hair from her face. Her eyes flicker open, her gaze meeting yours.

"Just like the first time we met," she whispers.

Tears stream down your cheeks as you hug her to you, and Ran, slipping her exhausted arms around your neck, hugs you back with the little energy she has left.

"I'm sorry I lost," she mutters.

You tell her that she was the most amazing thing you have ever seen.

Looking up, you see Yukari float down from the sky and land on the ground not far away. Her hat is askew, her blonde hair disarranged, and as she comes closer you see her wipe a trickle of blood from the corner of her mouth.

"Such fierce eyes," she says to you, but there is no mockery in her voice for once. "The eyes of one ready to defend his love to the death. So like the eyes I saw on you, Ran, just a little while ago."

"You win, Lady Yukari." Ran begins to struggle to her feet and you realise she's trying to get up to kneel, but Yukari puts a hand on her shoulder and stops her.

"There's no need for you to kneel to me, Ran. You did yourself great honour out there."

"And yet I lost." Ran's eyes turn to you and they redden, filling with tears "And now you're going to send him back to his world."

"I will do no such thing," says Yukari. "Unless, of course, he wishes me to." Her violet eyes fall on you. "Do you wish me to?"

You leave her in no doubt that you don't want to go. Yukari laughs.

Ran blinks her tear-filled eyes in confusion. "But Lady Yukari, you said-"

Yukari kneels beside you. From deep within her décolletage she takes a silken handkerchief decorated with a little red bow and lifts it to Ran's face. Her fingers are tender as she cleans the soot from the kitsune's cheek and chin. "You're not a very good listener, Ran. I said that if I won I would do as I wish. And so I shall. I no longer wish to send your friend away."

Ran's face collapses in relief when at last she realises that this is no cruel joke. She begins to cry and you hug her closer to you and stroke her hair.

"You were never going to send him away?" Ran whispers.

"Oh no," said Yukari. "I most certainly was going to. But after you stood up to me, I decided to give you a chance to prove yourself. If you had shown even the slightest moment of weakness in our battle, he would already now be back in his world. But you've proven me wrong, Ran. I thought that your love for this human had made you weak. In fact, it's made you stronger. 12.8 percent times stronger." She smiles ruefully. "A remarkable improvement." She eyes you and there is again mockery, but affectionate mockery, dancing in the violet of her gaze. "Maybe I shall borrow him from you to see if he has the same effect on me."

"No!" Ran turns on her mistress, her expression suddenly fierce, but just as quickly she dissolves into barely contained laughter.

"Very well," sighs Yukari. "Then I will have to go and find my own. Perhaps there is some likely candidate in the human village."

You shiver at the thought of the diabolical fate now hanging over some ill-starred young man, innocently going about his business at that moment in the human village, and wonder what might have happened if it had been Yukari's violet eyes that you had woken up to, all those days ago.

You shiver again.

There's the noise of someone thumping on wood and shouting, and Yukari stands up.

"Poor Chen! I forgot all about her."

With a wave of her hand the door to the Mayohiga mansion flies open and the little nekomata comes bounding across the field, shouting "Ran-sama! Ran-sama!" She stops dead when she sees her mistress in your arms, but then she leaps forward, flings her arms around Ran from behind and bursts into tears.

"There, there, Chen," murmurs Ran, turning from you to hug her. "I'm fine."

"But you and Yukari-sama were fighting!" Tears well in Chen's wide orange eyes.

"We were just playing," says Ran as she strokes the little cat youkai's face. "Don't cry. Everything is fine now."

Yukari uses the opportunity to take you aside. "Congratulations," she says. "But what I said about the sake still stands. I think your continued presence in Mayohiga may prove disruptive. I must ask you to leave."

Your gaze follows her as it flashes across the ruined wasteland of the field and you nod, unable to argue with the smoking evidence all about you.

"And as you can see, it might take a while for Chen to get used to the idea of sharing her mistress's heart with another. Perhaps you can find a place in the Human Village? I will talk to Reimu about it."

The thought of meeting the miko of Hakurei again fills you with trepidation, and Yukari laughs at the look on your face.

"Oh, dear Reimu's bark is far worse than her bite," says Yukari. "But perhaps I'll keep an eye on her. She's never much enjoyed being thwarted and she might even be so bold as to try and spirit you back home given half the chance."

But the anxiety you feel from the threat of Reimu passes quickly as joy wells up in your heart. You're going to remain in Gensoukyou, and Ran is yours!

As Ran hugs Chen to her, she turns to look at you. Even battle-worn as she is, she is the most beautiful thing you have ever seen, and when she smiles, her great yellow-gold eyes glistening with emotion, you find yourself falling in love with her all over again.

"Well, well," says Yukari with a sigh as she flicks a spot of ash from her robe. "This has been fun, but I think everyone needs to go take a shower. There's a definite smell of perspiration in the air, and sweaty fox is one thing I can do without."

You help Chen support Ran as you all make your way back to the house. Was it really only a week ago that your places were reversed? With her arm in the crook of your own, she turns and whispers in your ear.

Three words. Three simple, single-syllable words that make you the happiest man in this world or any other.

"I love you."

The End