A/N: I'm back after a spell of demotivation so will continue to write this. Thanks for all your views and reviews, as always!

Deep inside the Bamboo Forest of the Lost, a lone figure treaded the broken trail with soft, gentle steps, listening to the deathly silence which filled the air. She had the appearance of a youthful woman, with beautiful dark hair that fell across her shoulders and pale white skin in contrast, yet her eyes shone with an eternal light which had not faded for many generations. The world had not degenerated to such a point so as to encourage her to leave it quite yet.

Kaguya Houraisan turned for a moment, floating above the ground as she spied a faint red light through the trees. A brief smile appeared on her face: she knew all too well who was waiting for her out there. Kill or be killed, just like they always did. Even after all this time, she did not tire of destroying her immortal foe. The satisfaction of putting her down was worth it every time.

Death was not an option for someone like her. She would live today, live tomorrow, and continue to live a hundred thousand years from now. It didn't make any difference to her. It was encouraging, however, to know that she was not the only one destined to live forever.

She summoned a glowing orb of magic in one hand and prepared a barrier spell in the other. Mokou had won the last fight yesterday. She could still see the triumphant look in the phoenix girl's eyes as she burned Kaguya to death, then waited for her to revive, before killing her again in exactly the same way. It had not been pleasant. The acrid smell of her own flesh burning was still fresh in her mind.

Kaguya felt anger flood through her just thinking about it. How dare Mokou take advantage like that in such a dishonourable and unjustified fashion? There were no strict boundaries when fighting to the death, but she personally respected the traditional rules of a duel between two combatants. It was only fair. She viewed her adversary as an uncouth, ill-mannered girl who lived alone in the middle of a bamboo forest, whereas she was the moon princess of the Lunarians; esteemed, respectable and a force to be reckoned with. She would simply have to teach the girl her place once more.

Be prepared, Mokou, she thought darkly. The red light in the trees grew brighter as she approached the clearing ahead. You were so good to me last night. Let me return the favour.

The moon princess rushed through the bamboo trees and into a wide, open clearing, ready to release her spell in a single, destructive attack. Instead, she found something that made her stop in her tracks.

Fujiwara no Mokou lay motionless on the ground next to a small bonfire. She was huddled close for warmth with her eyes tightly closed and no trace of magic around her. The phoenix girl's arms were held loosely to one side and she seemed completely defenceless. It was a perfect opportunity to attack her whilst she was vulnerable. The fire hadn't been burning for long.

She's asleep?

Kaguya stood there for several moments, the spell in her hands gradually dying away. Her enemy was right here, exactly where she wanted her. If she wished, she could use all of the power at her disposal to destroy her, crush her, make her sorry that she had ever messed with Kaguya Houraisan. Of course, Mokou would come back to life soon afterwards, but the memory of the pain would remain…

No!

She sat down quickly, crossing her legs and staring at her adversary. This was below her. Attacking a sleeping enemy was highly dishonourable and nothing less than cowardice. Besides, Mokou would taunt her for centuries about it. She knew she would. She knew Mokou would go on and on, boasting how Kaguya had to resort to dirty tactics by attacking her in her sleep, how she was too weak to take her in a straight fight…

I can wait, the moon princess thought silently. I have plenty of time for you, Mokou. I'll wait for you to wake up. I'll give you a little wave as you open your eyes, splash a bit of water on your face, maybe share some breakfast with you to get you in the mood. And then…I'll kill you. I'll tear you to pieces and teach you not to mess with me like you did last night. Maybe you'll enjoy the experience.

"Wake up, Mokou," Kaguya whispered. "Wake up. Revenge is sweet, but you're spoiling the taste."

There was no reaction from the white-haired phoenix girl, nothing to indicate that she had even heard her words. That was strange: Mokou had superb instincts, the kind of honed senses you had after fighting Kaguya every day for hundreds of years. She should have heard her.

Was she in that much of a deep sleep? It was past midday, after all. This was no time to be resting. Something about this scene was highly suspicious.

Slowly, Kaguya nudged the phoenix girl's body with her foot.

A circle of blazing fire immediately sprang up around her, alerting her too late to the presence of the trap. As her vision blazed red, she was just barely aware of Mokou whirling round to attack her at close range. One hand punched through the magical barrier she had prepared, grabbing her neck and burning her skin to the touch. Wincing, the moon princess released a rapid stream of multi-coloured danmaku into her opponent's body and blasted the girl back into the trees.

Sneaky.

She rubbed her neck painfully, already feeling her injuries begin to heal. It was a slow process, but better than nothing. Mokou's magic had formed a harsh resistance to her own over many centuries, and now it was getting harder to counteract the effects. She never had this much trouble with anyone else.

Kaguya scanned the forest clearing quickly but saw no sign of where her enemy had fallen. That was expected, because Mokou never stayed in the same place for too long during a battle. Area of effect spell it was, then.

"Divine Treasure: Buddhist Diamond!"

The spellcard unleashed a barrage of rotating danamku which shredded the surrounding trees and took out part of the forest floor as well. She changed the angle of her attack slightly as she continued her onslaught, making sure there was absolutely nowhere for her enemy to hide.

To her frustration, she still couldn't see Mokou anywhere. Countless bamboo trees had been cut to pieces in the wake of her assault, and she knew the phoenix girl wouldn't have fled from the fight. Not in a million years.

Where is she?

A flicker of red appeared on her vision from the extreme left. Typical: it was right next to her blind spot. She spun around to face the multitude of fireballs raining down on her from above, twisting round to dodge as best as she could, but there were many to avoid completely. There wasn't time to use a barrier spell to block the attack, either. Throwing caution to the winds, she went on the offensive instead and brought her hands together, focusing her current spellcard directly on her opponent.

"Burn to ashes," Mokou cried, a mesmerised look on her face. For a moment it was like the flames were dancing in her eyes as well.

Kaguya braced herself as their two spells slammed into each other head-on. The resulting impact sent both girls flying to opposite sides of the clearing, smoke rising from the explosion. The moon princess fought to control her trajectory, knowing that she risked impaling herself on the dangerous sharp stumps of the bamboo trees if she wasn't careful

She managed to throw herself to the side as Mokou hurled another fireball at her from behind. Somehow, she dodged this last attack too before they both crashed unceremoniously into the ground.

Winded but mostly unhurt, Kaguya slowly picked herself up again. As far as she was concerned, this battle had barely started. She saw that Mokou took a few extra seconds to get up, and smiled with satisfaction.

"You're slowing down, Mokou," she called out tauntingly towards her adversary. "What's wrong? Too tired to fight me seriously?"

The phoenix girl clicked her fingers, and her entire arm was bathed in glowing flames. Her pale shirt was partially burned from her own magic, suspenders reaching up to her shoulders, and the grass was scorched beneath her feet as she walked forward calmly.

"Don't mock me, Kaguya," she replied with a challenging look in her crimson eyes. "I'll never get tired of watching you burn. You made for such an easy target, you know? I knew you wouldn't attack me if you thought I was sleeping."

The moon princess bristled at that. "A cheap under-handed trick. You must be getting really desperate if you have to resort to something like that to gain victory."

"You're more the fool for falling for something so simple." Mokou laughed lightly as she continued to move forward a few steps, her muscles tensing faintly. Out in the distance, there was a slight tremor which shook the forest floor, but neither of them paid it any attention. "So tell me, Kaguya. What's it going to be today? How do you think I'm going to end your life this time?"

"I don't mind dying, just so long as you go first. I was just thinking of two words to describe your next death at my hands." The moon princess opened her hands to reveal two glowing orbs generating gem-like danmaku which began to rise up into the air above her, revolving in a circle around her. "Total obliteration. How's that sound?"

Another quake ran through the Bamboo Forest, then another. This time, both girls hesitated at the sound; it was not at all common for earthquakes to occur in this part of Gensokyo. Seconds later, however, there was only silence. After a short pause, Kaguya turned her attention once more to the white-haired girl in front of her. Their battle was much more important than random tremors.

"I won't be satisfied with just killing you this time, Mokou," she said. "You were especially sadistic to me last night. Too much for your own good. A new dose of pain will work wonders for you and teach you your place."

There was a loud roar from deep inside the Bamboo Forest, followed by a great trampling sound, as if a large animal was stampeding through the place. Again, both of them deliberately ignored it.

"Just try it," the phoenix girl taunted her. "You can barely keep your eyes on me anymore. Sheer power won't work against me when I can just penetrate your defences and burn you from the inside out. The sooner you work out that you can't win, the sooner that – "

Her voice was drowned out by the arrival of a great herd of utahraptors and allosauruses which charged into the area, flattening every tree in their path. At least a dozen of the carnivorous dinosaurs were now stampeding through the area and causing havoc through the Bamboo Forest. Kaguya and Mokou stared in complete astonishment as the creatures let out a deafening roar as one which could be heard for miles.

What on earth - ?

The ground shook once more, and then a Tyrannosaurus Rex thundered into the clearing.

Bewildered, Kaguya looked at the ferocious group of dinosaurs laying waste to the forest. She had never seen such beasts before, not in all of her years here at Gensokyo, nor did she recognise them from her time at the Lunar Kingdom. It was a complete mystery to her where they had even come from.

The dinosaurs had noticed them, too. One giant foot was raised to crush her underfoot. Kaguya dodged it easily, before being forced to take cover as the other allosauruses kept trying to squash her. From her vantage point, she watched as Mokou set one of the raptors on fire. The moon princess didn't feel any real fear from these beasts, although the sight of the T-rex was slightly worrying.

It just annoyed her a lot. How dare they interfere whilst she was in the middle of fighting Mokou?

"Kaguya!" the phoenix girl yelled across to her, blasting another allosaurus to the ground with a casual flick of her hand. "You're a complete hypocrite!"

"Excuse me?"Kaguya dodged another giant foot coming down towards her, then fired a stream of danmaku which took down another dinosaur. "What are you talking about?"

"You criticised me for pretending to be asleep by saying I use dirty tactics, and then you pull this one on me!" Mokou looked genuinely angry about it whilst sending a fourth creature to its demise with a well-placed fireball. "Setting all these wild animals on me in the middle of our personal battle? Is this really your idea of a fair fight? Shame on you!"

"I didn't bring them here!" Kaguya cried indignantly, flying forward as another cluster of bamboo trees almost fell on her. "Why would I do that? Why would you think that?"

The phoenix girl punched a raptor in the face and followed up with a fiery explosion which decimated the dinosaur behind it. "All right," she said. "You didn't send them?"

"Of course not!"

"Then why are they all attacking me?"

She had a point. As far as Kaguya could tell, almost all of the dinosaurs in the clearing had converged on Mokou, jaws snapping at her head in rapid succession. The white-haired girl was having none of it, however. None of the dinosaurs even came close to scratching her before she sent them flying back again.

"I think it's because you're the one glowing bright red with fire all over your body," the moon princess suggested. "It makes for an attractive target. And by the way, a few of them are trying to eat me as well." She glanced upwards in alarm as another dinosaur crushed a tree next to her. "You could try…not glowing red all the time?"

"Are you serious? There is never an excuse not to be glowing red with fire!"

There were still several dinosaurs left stampeding through the Bamboo Forest, and Kaguya was getting really put out now. She had been in the middle of killing Mokou with great satisfaction when all of these creatures had turned up and ruined it. Impatiently, she blasted another allosaurus down with a single spellcard. She'd brought a lot of spellcards with her today in preparation for their daily duel to the death, so she might as well use some of them against these beasts.

These creatures have the audacity to try and kill Mokou? Nobody's allowed to kill her. That's my job!

Throughout this time, the T-rex had remained completely still at the edge of the clearing, almost as if it was observing the whole scene from a distance. It did not attack, nor react in any way. Something about it didn't feel quite right to Kaguya, but she didn't have time to think about that now.

"Take that!"

Another dinosaur fell, then another, as both girls unleashed their attacks upon the invading beasts. It was several more minutes before all of the great beasts finally lay still on the ground, either dead or incapacitated. Kaguya and Mokou were both panting from exertion by the end of it, worn out from having to expend their energy again and again against an unpredictable threat. A few stray spells had set the Bamboo Forest alight in places, but it wasn't a major fire to be worried about. The magic would burn out on its own before long.

"Finally," Mokou said impatiently, stifling the flames on her clothes. "I have no idea what that was for – " She kicked the corpse of one of the raptors at her feet with a look of disgust on her face. " – but it put me into a really bad mood. Can we go back to killing each other now?"

"Right," Kaguya agreed. "Forget these stupid animals. Back to the real reason we came here!"

All at once, there was an ear-splitting roar from the edge of the clearing. A huge muscular leg slammed into the ground, then another, each thud sending another tremor through the forest floor. Savage claws lifted high into the air, and a great slavering mouth opened to reveal two rows of monstrous teeth.

Slowly, Mokou and Kaguya turned to see the T-Rex advance towards them.

The clearing was now cluttered with the piled-up bodies of dinosaurs, and this sight seemed to enrage the creature further. Both girls remained quite still as the earth shook beneath the dinosaur's tree-trunk feet. It felt as if the forest being ripped apart.

Brace yourself, Kaguya thought, preparing to use her next spellcard against the dinosaur. Across from her, she sensed Mokou doing the same. This one looks tougher.

Unexpectedly, the T-Rex came to an abrupt stop at the edge of the burning trees. It looked down towards them, eyes strangely unfocused, and let out another great roar which could surely be heard across all of Gensokyo.

From this distance, a shimmering light could be seen rising into the air just behind the dinosaur's head. The moon princess frowned when she saw it, her eyes widening in surprise when she recognised what it was. She sensed magic at play here. A lot of magical power, to be exact, and it made her feel much more wary than before.

There's someone riding that beast, she realised. Somebody…is controlling that creature…and they're using magic to do it.

Kaguya took a tentative step forward, trying to make out the form of the T-Rex's rider. The shining light solidified momentarily and then a face came into view.

She saw a woman hovering in the air above the dinosaur's back, but it was no woman that she had ever seen before. It was difficult to tell if they were human or youkai, though they seemed humanoid to some extent. There was a huge strain of magical energy present around this person, and alarmingly enough she found herself unable to determine what any of it was…

"Kaguya?"

She snapped out of her reverie to hear Mokou calling her name. The moon princess gave her a quizzical look.

"I don't know who that woman is," Mokou said, "but whoever she is, she definitely isn't from Gensokyo."

All at once, the shimmering light surrounding the strange woman intensified tenfold. Blinding light exploded outwards as if triggered by some adverse reaction. The two girls shielded their eyes from the harsh glow, as destructive energy shot out from the rider's body in a single beam of pure white light which seemed to blast apart the world around them…

"Yukari!" Reimu said fiercely, marching forward towards the youkai who had appeared discretely, as it was, out of thin air. "I have been searching for you everywhere!"

She didn't know whether she was more furious or relieved to have found Yukari at last, at a critical time when she had such burning questions to ask her. With the arrival of dinosaurs throughout all of Gensokyo, the one person who might be able to explain the mystery of this phenomenon had been conveniently unavailable. Until now, that is.

"Everywhere?" Yukari laughed genially. She adjusted her umbrella under the glare of the sun, a bemused expression on her face. "Apparently not, or you might have found me. But isn't it nice to be wanted?"

"I didn't say you were wanted. Needed, yes." The shrine maiden put a hand on her hip sternly and paced a little, not even sure where to start. There wasn't room in her head to fit all of the things she wanted to ask the youkai standing in front of her. "Where have you been all this time?" she said finally. "Gensokyo has been invaded by dinosaurs since this morning!"

"I'm glad you noticed, Reimu."

"Noticed? Of course I noticed! I was woken up by them in the middle of my hangover." With an effort, Reimu forced herself to stop pacing and try and relax. Everything should be fine now, after all. "But now that you're here, I expect you can clear up this mess and explain everything. Isn't that right?"

Yukari gave her a winning smile in response but otherwise gave no indication that she was in agreement whatsoever. The shrine maiden's expression tensed with uncertainty. This was exactly what she had been worried about.

"You are going to help explain what's going on, aren't you?" she said testily. "You aren't just going to give me a cryptic hint and then run off?"

"Well…" Yukari sighed. "I will say this. It's wonderful to know you have such high hopes even in this day and age, Reimu. And I would hate to crush them."

Marisa exchanged glances with Sanae. "She's going to crush them," she whispered to her.

Wordlessly, the youkai lifted up her free hand and opened it, revealing a strange silver-white object lying in her palm. As the three girls watched, the boundary opened up in the air, from which Yukari plucked out a second similar object…and then a third. The boundary closed again, so that the three unfamiliar objects remained in the blonde youkai's grasp.

Anxiously, Reimu stared at the three items that Yukari had retrieved. There were a whole range of things that these objects could possibly be, but one particular definition came to mind.

"What are these supposed to be?" she asked doubtfully. "Is that an…egg?"

The oval-like object moved from side to side. A small crack appeared in the top.

"I'm a little low on time myself, Reimu," Yukari said warmly, stepping forward towards her. "I'm not here to chat. Instead, let me grant you the pleasure of receiving this gift."

With that, she deposited the first egg into the shrine maiden's hands. Another crack appeared.

"Yukari," Reimu said, her voice shaking as she looked at the moving egg. Yes, it was definitely moving. "What is this?"

Marisa whistled in awe. "Whoa," she said. "I think it's hatching…"

"Hatching?" Desperately, the shrine maiden turned back to Yukari. "Take it back! I don't want this!"

"No," the blonde youkai said simply with a twirl of her umbrella. "My present. Let's call it an early birthday present, which means you definitely can't give it back. Oh, of course. One for each of you." She swiftly gave the other two eggs to Marisa and Sanae. "There we go! I believe I have done my duty to Gensokyo here." The boundary opened up behind her again as she gave Reimu a parting wave. "Good luck with the dinosaurs, Reimu!"

"YUKARI!" Reimu shouted, rushing towards her with the partly hatched egg in her hands. "You can't just leave! Come back here this instant! What is this thing?"

The egg in her hands moved more insistently, and fluid came out.

Horrified, she looked down to see a living creature stick its head out through the shell. It was vaguely reptilian in nature, staring up at her as the rest of the egg began to fall apart.

Oh no. It can't be.

"I would just like to say one more thing before I go," Yukari added, one step away from disappearing into the boundary. Her eyes met with Reimu's. "The dinosaur situation is still classified as an incident of Gensokyo. Incidents are your responsibility, Reimu. So when you were saying that I could "clear up this mess" - well, I'm afraid not, because it's on your shoulders. As you may have figured out already. Farewell!"

"Yukari!" the shrine maiden hollered. "You come back here right now! You haven't answered any of my questions! You can't just leave us here with these eggs and thousands of dinosaurs running amok and - "

It was too late. The boundary closed with an air of finality and Yukari disappeared completely, so that Reimu's last words fell on deaf ears. She and her friends were left standing there with three hatching eggs in their arms. Eggs which, if she was not mistaken, contained the answer to the dinosaurs' rapidly increasing numbers.

Helplessly, she gazed down at the egg in her hand. A newborn living dinosaur looked back at her and gave a little cry. She winced and tried to avoid looking it in the eye.

I know I expected Yukari to be somewhat unhelpful, the shrine maiden thought to herself. I didn't think she would explain everything, nor answer all of my questions at once. But I didn't expect her to go full circle by explaining nothing, answering none of my questions, and making our situation even worse!

The baby dinosaur in her hands let out another weird noise. Reimu had never held a baby before, but she instinctively knew that they didn't make sounds like that. On the other hand, it might be preferable to constant wailing, which was what happened to be the norm with human babies.

Her mind raced at why Yukari had chosen to give this egg to her, what on earth she was supposed to do with it now that it had hatched…and worse of all, what the existence of these eggs meant for the future of Gensokyo.

I can't deal with this. What do I do with this egg? What do I DO?

"Marisa," she said weakly. "I need you to help me." After a moment's pause, Reimu decided against it. "Sanae," she declared instead, turning to the slightly more reliable of her current companions, "I need you to give me some wise words of wisdom which will make this situation easier to deal with."

Sanae beamed at her. "You are now the proud mother of a dinosaur baby," she said. "That is not what I wanted to hear!"

Marisa was holding her own egg at arm's length, looking as if she wanted to be as far away from it as possible. "Well, I've seen everything now," she said. "Only Reimu's egg has hatched, but right now, I don't want to be a dinosaur mummy." She held her egg out to Reimu. "Here. You can adopt mine. I'm not cut out for parenthood."

"I could take it," Sanae said, her face shining. "Dinosaur twin babies. I wonder if Lady Kanako will let me keep it at Moriya Shrine? We could raise our own cute little dinosaur family."

Reimu squeezed her eyes shut. This was getting ridiculous. All she could think was that maybe this was Yukari's way of actually giving her a clue to the mystery surrounding the dinosaur incident. She had no idea where the youkai had found these specimens, but the eggs were surely the reason why the dinosaurs were multiplying so quickly. Was she expected to do something with them, perhaps?

She peered at her dinosaur baby, trying to see if she could gauge any clues from it at all. Its beady little eyes were fixed upon her. Try as she might, the shrine maiden couldn't work it out: she had no idea what she was supposed to be looking for. Unless…unless she was supposed to raise it, somehow. That brought a fresh stream of disturbing possibilities.

I refuse to keep this demented-looking baby, the shrine maiden decided, placing the hatched egg down on a rock. Maybe I should just leave it here with one of the thousands of adult dinosaurs roaming Gensokyo. That way, I wouldn't be so tempted to throw it at a tree.

It occurred to her that perhaps Yukari just wanted to get rid of these eggs and had done so in typical Yukari fashion: by dumping them on Reimu and her friends. She hoped very much that this wasn't the case.

On that note, she recalled that Yukari had mentioned something about being short on time. What could the youkai possibly be doing which was so important, that she could barely spare a minute to explain to Reimu what was really going on? It was all very suspicious.

"Marisa," Reimu said slowly. "Yukari wouldn't do anything that would put Gensokyo in danger, would she?"

The blonde magician shook her head, busily poking her own egg with the tip of her broomstick. "Wouldn't think so."

"Even if she thought she was actually helping, somehow?"

Marisa shot her a look which implied that she should know better. "Yukari didn't let the dinosaurs in, Reimu," she said seriously. "You know her better than I do, and even I know she wouldn't do that. Besides, it's physically impossible even for a youkai. You're tellin' me she opened a boundary to a dinosaur-infested planet somewhere and kidnapped every single dinosaur she could find?"

"And their eggs," Sanae said helpfully.

"And their eggs?"

Reimu had to admit it sounded a bit of a tall story. Still, she couldn't quite dispel all of her doubts quite yet. "I don't know what she did, Marisa, but she's acting really suspiciously," she said. "She won't tell us anything and avoided all of my questions. And when she did turn up, she dumped these eggs on us and left!"

"To be honest, Reimu," Marisa remarked, "you always think Yukari is acting suspiciously."

"That's because she always is!"

"Remember that time last year?" Sanae asked mildly, rolling her own unhatched dinosaur egg across the palm of her hand. "Remember when Reimu picked a fight with everyone in Gensokyo because she thought they were all acting suspiciously?"

Marisa nodded gravely. "Year before that, too."

"And the year before that."

"It's become like an annual thing now. I bet there's a special time of year known as Reimu Day where she just walks around beating everyone up for no reason. Wouldn't surprise me in the slightest."

Reimu glared at the pair of them. "Marisa, will you shut up?" she asked. "That is not true at all, I'll have you know. I did not fight everyone in Gensokyo. I fought nearly everyone in Gensokyo! And by the way, they really were all acting very suspiciously. Especially you!"

The blonde magician rolled her eyes overdramatically. "I think today must be Reimu Day."

"We're getting off topic here." The dark-haired shrine maiden picked up her egg gingerly, noticing that the dinosaur inside was starting to move out of the shell completely. Discretely, she tried to push it back in, hoping it would stay there. "Let's look at what we have so far. Yukari has been absolutely no help whatsoever and I have no intention of keeping these eggs. I'm tempted to leave them here with one of the adult dinosaurs."

Sanae's face fell with disappointment. "You can't be serious," she said, sounding quite shocked. "You're…leaving your egg behind?"

"I'm not keeping it, Sanae." She poked the side of her egg and heard a squelch sound in response. "It should live with its own kind."

"But that's terrible, Reimu. You're abandoning your own baby."

"It's a dinosaur," she replied irritably. "It's making weird sounds at me, it's covered with fluids, and I don't want to look at it. There's no chance that I can take it with me- "

Indignantly, Sanae sprang to her feet. "I must protest here, Reimu!" she cried, slapping the palm of her hand down against the nearest tree. "I thought you would be a better mother than this. There's no need to be so heartless! As your child, this dinosaur is your own flesh and blood!"

Slowly, the shrine maiden turned to stare at her testily. As much as she enjoyed Sanae's company, there were times when she felt that her friend was, for lack of a better word, completely batty. Especially where dinosaurs were involved.

She glanced towards Marisa for possible guidance and moral support, but the magician was preoccupied with balancing her own egg on her broomstick and wasn't really listening. Reluctantly, she turned back to Sanae.

"Please don't do this," she said between gritted teeth. "Please don't start another really stupid conversation."

"I would never abandon my own child to the unforgiving wilderness," Sanae said tearfully. "Be it human or dinosaur, every baby deserves the love and kindness of its parents. You should be ashamed, Reimu, casting your own offspring away like this."

"It's not my offspring, you idiot!" Reimu pointed at the baby reptilian face chirping away as it clambered to get out of the egg. She quickly pushed it back in again, though it was probably a doomed effort. "Look at it! Does it look like my offspring? If my skin turned green, it still wouldn't look anything like me. This thing looks like Godzilla's little finger fell off and grew a face!"

"But you have a responsibility as a parent!" Sanae folded her arms, looking genuinely angry about the whole affair. Reimu couldn't think why. "You must care for your dinosaur baby. Feed it. Wipe its face. Name it!" She gasped aloud at the thought. "You haven't even named your dinosaur yet! Quickly, name it before you lose all maternal attachment to it. I recommend calling it Timmy for a boy, or Sally if it's a girl – "

"Maternal attachment? What maternal attachment?" the shrine maiden exploded. "I obviously didn't conceive this egg myself, Sanae! Yukari forced this baby on me!"

There was a guffaw from her right. She whirled around to see Marisa doubling over in a fit of laughter, clutching her sides.

Great. Just what I needed.

"I can't believe you just said that out loud," the magician said in-between chuckles, a smirk on her face. "Yukari…forced this baby on you…" She rolled over on the grass, trying to breathe from laughing so much. "That's the best thing I've heard all year."

Fuming, Reimu grabbed her egg and nearly hurled it right at Marisa. With a distinct effort, she managed to stop herself, though she was tempted to really throw it at somebody if this went on for much longer. This was really getting on her nerves.

She didn't know which was worse: the green-haired maiden of Moriya Shrine, protesting angrily and passionately about the fate of a dinosaur baby that she'd received ten minutes ago, or the blonde magician over there who just thought everything here was a great big joke. Either way, every minute she spent with the two girls was another minute which threatened to drive her up the wall.

"This isn't funny! Stop laughing!" she snapped, getting more and more worked up. This was usually the point in which she started engaging with danmaku battles with the other person, but they couldn't waste time doing that. "Very funny, Marisa. Really hilarious. Now if you would just shut up and try and be serious for just five minutes, then we might actually make some progress here!" She turned around to face her other friend. "That goes for you too, Sanae! Whether you like it or not, we have no choice but to leave the eggs behind and – "

She stopped when she saw Sanae's expression. The young woman looked angry enough to duel her on the spot. Reimu knew that once that happened, they would be here for hours.

"Fine," she said heavily, knowing she was getting nowhere here. "Fine! I give up. We can take the damn eggs with us! We won't find a single use for them aside from a very strange form of missile, but I just despair with all of you. We can take them." She stamped her foot and cleaved a blade of grass through with her purification rod. "Are you happy now? Are you?"

"Very happy," the green-haired girl sniffed. She sat down again, cradling her egg lovingly in her lap. "I'm glad we came to an understanding, Reimu. We must save the dinosaurs."

"We're trying to get rid of them, Sanae, not save them, and I would appreciate if you stopped sabotaging my every attempt to actually do that!" The shrine maiden forced herself to calm down, just trying to get her thoughts in order. What had they been talking about again? She kept getting sidetracked. "As I was trying to saybefore," she said, still seething a little, "we will stick with the original plan. Yes, Sanae, we'll take the eggs with us. Thank you so much for reminding me. Marisa, was there anything you wanted to say?"

"Just something I'm wondering about," the blonde magician said thoughtfully, a frown on her face. "You say we're going for the original plan?"

"Yes. Is there a problem?"

"Well, the original plan was that we go to the Scarlet Devil Mansion and find Patchouli to help us, right?" Marisa paused with one hand on her broomstick. "You want us to bring these hatching dinosaur eggs right into the heart of the Scarlet Devil Mansion?"

With rapidly declining hope, Reimu simply looked at her and wondered if she could convey with hand gestures somehow that this was all Sanae's fault. She couldn't shake the feeling that it would be a really bad idea to take the dinosaur eggs with them. It would probably be a bad thing in general, but there was no way this could possibly work out in their favour.

Remilia and I have been on relatively good terms recently, she thought privately. Even so, I'm sure she is not going to be pleased if I turn up at her front door with all these eggs…

"I have an idea," Sanae said. "If Patchouli has a spell related to summoning and dinosaurs, then maybe she knows what to do with the eggs as well? It's a good enough reason to take the eggs over to the Scarlet Devil Mansion."

"Yeah, but what if she can't?" Marisa said, looking a bit worried. "What're we going to do with the eggs then?"

Reimu looked at her in surprise. "Why are you worried about it? I'm the one whose egg hatched first. I feel like I picked up the wrong baby in the hospital and it started crying. I don't even know what type of dinosaur it is." Against her better judgement, she held out her hatched egg to Sanae. "You're the dinosaur expert. What dinosaur is that supposed to be?"

"My expertise does not cover baby dinosaurs," the green-haired girl said solemnly. "In times like these, it shall hereby be known as…Dinosaur Zero."

Marisa shook his head. "Never mind what dinosaur it is. What I'm saying is, Reimu, that all our eggs are going to hatch eventually. I'm not keeping mine, no matter what Sanae says. We need to know what Yukari expects us to do with them – and fast."

"That's obvious!" Sanae said passionately. "We shall mother them. Nurture them! Care for them! How much you care for your baby will determine how it develops later in life."

"I know how my dinosaur's gonna develop all right. It's going to develop a low mortality rate when I chuck it in the pond." She looked at the dark-haired shrine maiden quizzically. "So? Don't we have any idea what they're for?"

Reimu didn't know if she would have an answer for her. Despite her best efforts, she was still no closer to working out what to do with the eggs, aside from waiting for them to hatch. It just seemed to complicate matters further.

"Your guess is as good as mine, Marisa," she replied uneasily. "Hopefully Patchouli can help us with that little mystery. That's all I can say until we have some more clues." The shrine maiden raised her purification rod. "Now, if everyone's ready, it's about time we started moving. Remilia won't be happy at all when we bring these eggs inside her mansion, but I want all of you to promise that you will not provoke her into a fight. That's the last thing we need." Her gaze settled on each of her friends. "Can you promise me that?"

Marisa hesitated, clearly having second thoughts. "Fine," she grumbled. "Guess I should save my spellcards for the horde of dinosaurs."

"Good. Sanae?"

The green-haired girl nodded confidently. "Absolutely, Reimu," she said earnestly. "I give you my word that I will not provoke Remilia, nor any other residents of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, into fighting us."

"That's great." Reimu breathed a sigh of relief, glad that they had finally gotten somewhere. There was still hope for the future of their trio. "We're all set, then. Let's not waste any more time and start moving!"

With that, the three girls flew up into the air and headed in the direction of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, their dinosaur eggs in tow. Just this once, the shrine maiden hoped that they'd covered absolutely everything and that nothing else would go wrong, though it might be a lot to ask for.

A fight with Remilia could go on all day and waste precious time. All they had to do was find Patchouli and get some logical answers: the kind of answers that Yukari had failed to give them. It was a reasonable request to ask the mistress of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, especially with dinosaurs roaming everywhere. Reimu felt fairly confident about what lay ahead.

Unnoticed by anybody, the tiniest of cracks appeared across the two unhatched eggs as they ascended, and something moved within.

Flying to the Scarlet Devil Mansion would take a good few hours from the Hakurei Shrine, even under optimal conditions. Thankfully, even though the earth was clearly under the domination of prehistoric beasts, the same could not be said of the skies above. In fact, it was clear flying for at least an hour before the three girls spotted any real signs of life above ground.

It was good to have a break from all of this, Reimu decided, even if such a thing was short-lived. She didn't want to deal with wave after wave of powerful magic-resistant dinosaurs and end up using up precious spellcards in the process. Yes, she understood that many of the dinosaurs were resistant to magic somehow. She didn't understand why for the life of her, but it seemed to be true from what she had seen.

Throughout their flight, her dinosaur egg had remained strangely dormant. The creature inside had stopped trying to crawl out, stopped poking its head out into the sunlight, and had even fallen silent completely. At first the shrine maiden was concerned and wondered if something had happened to the dinosaur, but the creature was still breathing normally and nothing seemed to be wrong with it. Was the dinosaur sleeping? She had no idea.

Flying at this height gave Reimu and her friends a bird's eye view of the surrounding lands for many miles. Looking at the landscape from above, she had to admit that Aya's newspaper articles had been quite accurate about their reports: vast amounts of woodland had been trampled by larger dinosaurs, the Human Village had almost been taken over completely, and she could see glimpses of magical attacks in the distance – presumably where youkai and magic-users like herself were fighting back against the creatures. It did not paint an optimistic picture for the future of Gensokyo.

There has to be a way to stop this, she thought. We'll know more once we find Patchouli, but I only hope she has some good news for us.

It was nearly two hours before they sighted the familiar form of the Scarlet Devil Mansion looming up in the distance. Relief flooded through her at finally reaching their destination, since flying for long hours could be strenuous even when it was powered by magical power alone. Similarly, she felt her friends relax a little. Now they could finally do some real research into what was really going on.

"We're here," Reimu said.

Her gaze fell upon the grounds of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, and her eyes widened in shock. Hundreds of dead dinosaurs lay upon the ground – across the perimeter of the mansion's walls, down the garden path, across to the foot of the next hill…The shrine maiden hadn't expected to see so many. What was going on in this region? Why here, of all places?

"Remilia's been busy," Marisa said with a smirk.

Reimu couldn't imagine that the residents of the Scarlet Devil Mansion had attacked the dinosaurs deliberately, not with numbers like that. The beasts must have attacked on their own. Most of the blood had dried by now, but the stench of the bodies encouraged her to fly higher.

"Let's have a chat with her, then," she said, changing her heading towards the main gates. "Maybe we'll catch her in one of her rare good moods."

There was a shriek from above, and a pterodactyl swooped right at her.

What the…? An aerial attack?

Taken by surprise, Reimu was forced to swerve to avoid the attack. What was this? She hadn't seen any aerial dinosaurs in the area. How had she not detected it beforehand?

Then she saw the thick cloud of icy mist rotating above them. She hadn't seen it, nor thought anything abnormal about it. There was another shriek, then another...and then the sound were everywhere. Four more pterodactyls appeared out of the mist and charged at them, attacking the three girls in turn. Quickly, Marisa and Sanae brought up their defences to repel the dinosaurs. More and more of them emerged in greater numbers, circling around their group in a strange pattern. This wasn't normal.

Who's doing this?

Her pulse racing, Reimu lashed out with the gohei and injured one of the creatures before it could latch onto her. It took her blow in its long neck and staggered back before being replaced by three more pterodactyls. Next to her, Marisa was fighting with another of the dinosaurs on her broom, and Sanae was blasting several away from here with a seemingly never-ending barrage of danmaku.

"Where did they come from?" Marisa said, firing her magic spells to eliminate as many of the beasts as possible. "It was clear skies for hours before we got here. The hell is this, Remilia's anti-defence dinosaur system?"

It didn't seem like it. They were still a fair distance away from the Scarlet Devil Mansion and the icy mist looked somewhat familiar to Reimu. At least a dozen of the creatures surrounded them, a whole pack of them circling them in a vulture-like fashion. Somehow, she had a feeling that pterodactyls should not be acting this way.

"Reimu! Watch out!" Sanae cried.

The dark-haired shrine maiden turned – and a stream of ice magic hurtled through the sky towards her head.

Ice!?...

Her reflexes kicked in and she reversed direction, firing at the pterodactyls blocking her path. She was aware of the ice missile shifting to match her and instinctively knew that a magic-user was in the area. Reimu felt herself slam into another of the winged beasts, breaking through the circle of dinosaurs.

She risked glancing at the direction that the attack had come from – and caught sight of a larger pterodactyl behind all of the others, from which she could definitely sense a degree of magical power. It didn't feel very powerful, however, but they were still at a strategic disadvantage.

The shrine maiden maneuvered through the flying dinosaurs, sensing the ice attack homing in on her. She dodged around another of the creatures, and the icy missile struck the pterodactyls face on. The dinosaur hurtled down to the ground, shrieking its death-cry as it fell. A blast from one of Marisa's magic spells kept the rest of the beasts away from them, giving the three girls a few moments' pause.

Reimu quickly counted the remaining pterodactyls. There were about ten in number, continuing to circle them.

"That's different," Marisa observed, gesturing to the leading pterodactyl. The creature was surrounded by streaks of ice which almost seemed to take on a life of its own. "A dinosaur with magic."

Sanae shook her head. "It's not the dinosaur. I can already tell it's her."

"Yeah, I know. What a drag."

Before them, the figure of a blue-haired fairy appeared from atop the larger pterodactyl. She hovered in the air, faint wings beating on her back; a blue ribbon tied in her hair along with a blue blouse to match. The look on her face was the same as always: proud, haughty and immature as every other time they had ever encountered her. The ice fairy raised her hands triumphantly atop the pterodactyl.

"Freeze!" Cirno cried, slivers of ice magic intertwining around her fingers and forming into deadly icicles. "Freeze in your tracks!" She grinned, excitement rushing through her face. "You won't get past me, humans. I'm the strongest fairy to ever ride a pterodactyl and they will devour you at my command." Her hands curled into fists. "This is payback for last time, Reimu and Marisa! Defy me, and my Ice Pterodactyl will send you to a watery grave!"

She punched the air and all of the pterodactyls started shrieking in unison. They didn't move or attack, but it was such a dreadful din that Reimu and her friends were forced to cover their ears with a pained expression. It went on for over a minute.

Sanae raised her voice to be heard over the noise. "Is this really necessary?" she asked.

In response, Cirno punched the air again. The pterodactyls began a new wave of high-pitched shrieking which started to really hurt Reimu's ears. She didn't know what on earth the ice fairy was trying to prove, aside from the fact that pterodactyls had some of the most horrifyingly bad singing that she had ever heard, but Cirno had never been someone for logic.

With her hands clamped firmly over her ears, she attempted to mouth to Sanae what they should do next. The green-haired girl frowned at her and didn't understand a word she was saying. She should have expected as much.

"Do we really have to do this?" Reimu called out to the fairy once the noise had finally stopped again. "Fighting pterodactyls? Listening to dinosaurs sing badly? Dodging badly timed icicles? "

"Yeah, I agree," Marisa ventured, sounding disappointed. "I'm up for a fight any time, but this is Cirno. There's no point. I could beat her with both arms tied behind my back and both legs tied behind my…" She faltered a bit here. "With one leg tied behind the other leg," she amended. "That's how easy it is."

Sanae gave the magician a worried look. "Marisa, if you tied your arms and legs like that, you'd just fall off your broom."

The ice fairy straightened up indignantly. "You'll regret making a mockery of me like this," she cried. "No one insults Cirno and the Ice Pterodactyl Brigade and lives to tell the tale!"

"The Ice Ptero – what?"

"My new title," Cirno said with a trace of what could be modesty, were the circumstances different. "No more shall I have to endure tolerating weaklings like yourselves. No, I shall rule the skies with my Pterodactyl Brigade and everyone will be forced to acknowledge once and for all that I..AM…THE STRONGEST!"

"But we're the only ones here. We flew for two hours before we even bumped into you."

"Enough!" she cried, raising her hands. Deadly icicles formed in the air around them. "It's time to take you all down! Nobody insults the strongest Ice Pterodactyl Fairy Rider every to fly the skies of Gensokyo!" Around them, the pterodactyls began shrieking again, ready to go in for the kill. "You'll be sorry you ever doubted me. My pterodactyls will take you apart!"