AN: Hoo boy. Where do I start? Ahem, it's been four months and a lot has happened since then. My excuse is that I've been addicted to a new franchise during my time away. It's called Shin Megami Tensei. My friend put it quite nicely. I was on a SMT exodus. I started with SMT Nocturne (Fuck you, Mot), SMTIV, SMTIV:A, Strange Journey Redux, Devil Survivor 1 and 2, Persona 3 FES, and SMT Nocturne Hardtype (FUCK YOU, MOT). That and coupled with my time at college leaves me a lot less spare time than I used to have.

Also, this chapter can be considered an anniversary chapter. Yes, it's been several days since the date this fic started on, but I'm begging you to consider it an anniversary chapter!

I've also been spending time with fellow writers and friends over at the Kamachiland discord server. One of my good friends is Shroom Crab. If you want in-detail spoilers on the plot of this fic, you can go badger him. He's somewhere in the review sections, you can't miss him. And be sure to read his fics too!

Review Responses:

KRKing: Oh don't worry, Tanin'iver will receive proper karma in the best way possible.

VolcaninFlare: Oof, sorry for the long wait. I hope you are still here somewhere to continue reading my fic.

Guest: Thank you for spending your quality time on my fic.

Mrcrazyman94: Believe me, I have plans for Yuriko no doubt.

tsun: Yes, I can understand where your coming from. I only hope to regain some of your trust in later chapters.

awaredell: I pray for what I have planned for the rest of these characters.

Masterx01: Thank you for your insightful criticism and advice during out PMs. You've brought to my attention many shortcomings in this fic and I will address them accordingly to the best of my abilities. I already some in mind I can work with in due time. I do have a more detailed plan for what I will do at the bottom of this chapter, so please look forward to that. There is no critique more hurtful to me than to fail at realizing the potential of a premise I made for myself.

Guest: I'm back and I'm raring to go.

A Stomach to Rival Yuyuko


"Where have you been this whole time!?" Touma made sure to keep his voice leveled to not startle her on how worried he was.

Koishi merely raised her head away from him. Unsure of how to proceed, she looked to be in contemplation, or so he thought. The lack of response and silence gave him enough reason to be anxious. Not for his sake, at least...

"Um...hello? Koishi-chan? Hello?" Touma belatedly asked as Koishi remained tight-lipped, giving no response.

To further elicit a response from her, Touma raised his left hand and patted her cheek. He repeated this action until she expressed something other than a stony face. Figuring that he needed to be a bit more forceful, he moved on to pinching her cheeks.

"Hm?" Koishi felt the tug of pain on her muscles and shifted her eyes to find the source. "Oh!" Koishi stuck her tongue at him, flustered after noticing his attempts at bringing her attention. She playfully shook his hand off of her before proceeding with a downcast expression. That was worrying. "I...had a sudden impulse to leave." Now she sounded sad and somber.

At least in Touma's perception of sad and somber. He just couldn't grasp a good read on what she's thinking the entire time. He couldn't help but feel even more worried than before.

Looking at such an out-of-place expression from the usually cheery Koishi made him understand something was really amiss. "You...felt like leaving?" The teenager started slowly, careful to not set her off as his head tilted in bemusement.

"Mm!" Koishi eagerly nodded, switching from one state of mind at the drop of a hat. "I thought it would be fun to play hide-and-seek with you." She ignored his surprised face from her sudden transition in demeanor. "When you found me, Something new sparked inside me!" Koishi excitedly said.

The atmosphere used to be somber. Now he felt almost drawn in by her cheerfulness. Barely aware enough outside of the effect, he shook his head to dispel it. So she was paying attention the whole time and was good at following the context. That was good, yet she felt distant and detached. Having felt that such a whimsical personality wasn't worth getting riled up or becoming persistent over, Touma just sighed instead. Her sporadic behavior will no doubt be troublesome in the future. He had to take control unless he inexorably fell into her flow.

Just what was with him and his tendency to get involved with mentally questionable girls?

"Koishi," Touma called her name sternly. "You need to let people know when you decide to head off somewhere unknown beforehand. Can't you understand how people will feel, especially people who worry over you incessantly when you do so without a prior reminder?"

"Hahaha." Koishi giggled, appearing to sink into her own reality and ignoring his stern tone. It would take some work for her to take anything he said to heart. "You sound just like Onee-chan."

"... I'll take that as a compliment." He concluded mirthlessly, not feeling satisfied at how little he learned. Especially the distance between them not having lessened an inch.

Koishi looked forward and hummed with her body restless in idle motion. Touma did the same towards the general direction being taken by Koishi. At least now, her attention span wasn't so flimsy like a minute ago. He released a sigh of relief when the Hakurei Shrine appeared on the horizon.

Observing their surroundings in the air was dull, to say the least. Nothing but trees and a damp atmosphere from the departure of rain clouds.

Speaking of rain clouds, the strange creatures of angel wings entirely composed of salt softly flapped their wings as to not disturb the air.

Before their assertion in controlling the sky, they were a hindrance to Touma's path. But when the initial blows had ended, he was running on fumes left when traversing the air. Appearing to be satisfied with that, the group of exotic beings backed off, removing their sights on him and remaining in the sky.

Finding a new object to admire, curiosity danced in Koishi's eyes as she observed the angel wings together with Touma.

"They look creepy and make my skin crawl." Said Koishi with ill-concealed fascination despite the jarring words, affirming Touma's exact thoughts.

One individual was spotted glaring at them, concentrated mostly on Touma, with a fixed stare. When the pair's eyes crossed with the angel, it reacted with red veins emerging from its eye. Twelve wings reared back and bent their tips at the center.

Touma prudently tugged Koishi's sleeve to rip the airheadedness out of her. "Descend, now!" He raised his voice to order her.

With unusual compliance, Koishi plunged down as ordered with her trademark dopey smile intact. Once they reached the ground, Touma broke into a sprint while Koishi rode his shoulders.

"Hang on tight, Koishi!" Touma cautioned as a foreboding feeling rose in him.

"Mm!" Koishi nodded lightly, having fun even under a precarious situation such as this.

Having expected an attack by one of the angel-like beings from above, Touma leaped over and took cover in a thick tree root.

A strong shockwave rocked near them from behind. The winds shook hard enough that they were visible to the naked eye. The unusual pair even felt the strong force shove the root to their backs. Once the aftereffects dissipated, the duo poked their heads out cautiously, or at least Touma did, to inspect the damage. Nothing but a harsh crater remained. The bombardment erased the area of its thicket and damaged the fertile soil that nothing new will ever grow beneath it for years.

"Hey, hey, Touma Onii-chan. Why didn't you stop that attack with your right hand?"

The boy in question regarded her with a tad suspect. "If I did, then the angel would be alerted to our location. It's best to leave it thinking the threat, which is me, is eliminated so that we don't have more of those attacks raining." He tentatively informed her.

"But what if that didn't work? How can you be so sure it would leave without making sure any trace remaining was destroyed?" Koishi doubted him without her usual smile fluctuating.

Touma raised his head in thoughtfulness. "If it's anything like an angel I'm familiar with, it wouldn't have the capacity to have doubts or cautiousness to eliminate a threat in its entirety. Angels are like robots running under specific programs underneath every exterior personality. Once we left its line of sight, we already escaped its radar. Just like how a sentry operates in a sense."

Koishi swayed from his shoulders. Her curiosity and inquisitiveness were not satisfied. "So what would you do if more attacks did occur? Can you block every single one of them when your sight is obscured by all of these trees?"

"Heh. Well, it's not quite special or anything, but I've got some confidence and experience from surviving things I normally shouldn't." His humbleness did nothing to ease the arrogant smile on his face.

"Hahaha!" Koishi chuckled. She relaxed her elbows on top of his head and laid her cheeks on her palms. "That's why you piqued my interest so much. Your subconscious reaction to involuntary movements is so well developed, it even sensed my presence way back in that junkyard. It's almost like a form of precognition. A very specific form, though." Her smile broadened.

That wasn't quite the reason he had expected to find out why she took an incessant interest in him since the beginning. He wasn't even aware of this extraordinary skill she suspected him of possessing.

"I'm not somebody special who has had this amazing talent since birth. I survive terrible things more than I could care to count. Wait, wouldn't that mean I'm lucky to have been able to avoid so much life-threatening violence for this long?" He firmly denied any bizarre element concerning his birth. He wasn't even sure if he had Imagine Breaker since birth. Or more accurately, he couldn't remember if he had it since birth.

"Hmm." Koishi made a thoughtful face, her purple wire appendage fixed into a question mark. "So what you're saying...is that you get bullied a lot despite being so strong. The nature of your precognition skill is the type to develop by avoiding or reacting to an attack's startup sequence before it's fired. Usually, only a weakling would be able to develop this from constant repetition or charging into fatal attacks. People who are strong rarely have this because they possess naturally fast reflexes."

He felt both a sense of amity and being wronged from her comment on him being bullied. It felt like someone punctured a knife in his heart and twisted it even further. Although, she didn't seem to mean anything ill from it.

He shed a few tears before replying. "Finally...someone that gets me." He sniffed and wiped his nose. "Although, you're kinda wrong on me being strong. This Kamijou-san is just a normal high school boy you can find anywhere. While I do have muscles, my physical strength is just average."

A deadpan expression rose from Koishi's face. "Touma Onii-chan. You are strong. Scary strong."

"Eh!?" He widened his eyes. "That's impossible. There's no way I could scare someone with my averageness. Nope, nuh-uh." Touma shook his head, a pitiful smile graced his lips by her mislead perception of him.

"You punched Marisa hard enough to knock her unconscious. You ripped a tree in half with your bare hands." She pouted at him, believing him to be lying to her. Not entirely done yet, she playfully punched his head to drive the message home.

His mind spurned into overdrive. No, that couldn't be possible. Could it? "That was ME!?" He yelled in disbelief by the startling revelation. There was no way such a demon existed inside him, right?

"And not just that. You scared a dragon from how silly you've been drunk as you shredded the area apart." She gingerly stated without minding his panicked state.

Naturally, he froze from that statement, having turned rigid with his muscles tense.

"What do you mean?" Touma carefully pried, securing his emotions to not run amok.

Koishi sat upright and placed her index finger on her chin. "They were watching you nap. You were sleepwalking, and the dragon was traumatized by what you did to them."

Bewildered, Touma was baffled, to say the least. "I did what?" He muttered incredulously.

"Ah mou!" Koishi flapped her arms, clearly displeased by how doubtful Touma was by her. "Idiot Onii-chans should be more trusting of little sister characters! We wouldn't do anything wrong to them...much." She crossed her arms and pouted to the side.

He was definitely feeling secure by the last remark for sure.

"Tell me more about the dragon! How it behaved, what it wanted, why it was in the forest!" Touma fired a barrage of endless questions at the satori. The poor girl felt an incoming headache from the restless and healthy teenager.

"Aah! No more! I wasn't paying attention very much. All I know is what I saw!" Angrily pouted the Koishi, whipping her free arms above.

"At the very least, I need to know what they appeared as!" The spiky-haired kid did not concede so readily.

Relaxed after narrowing down to one question, the greenette said, "Spiky all over, no eyes, no arms, just two fangs poking from their eye sockets."

Touma mused over the description and traced back to a specific dragon that grew from his dismembered arm a long time ago. In introspect, he was fortunate that horde was so focused on the threat before him in the form of a rampaging Misaka and not kill her during the process. The intentions were still a mystery, but it wanted to approach him this time? This wasn't like the pink and emerald who avoided him from the get-go.

Still, under a contemplative mood, Touma cupped his chin and proceeded to talk to himself. "Did it suddenly acquire an interest for me after the Windsor incident? Maybe something's different about it too. Or perhaps..." He mumbled incoherently under his breath.

Koishi slightly jumped from the familiar tone he used. "Were they someone you knew? Me and onee-chan own a variety of pets, but we never could tame a dragon before!" It was exciting to be associated with a man who accomplished something few can brag about.

Touma cursed under his breath for being so careless. Had he already forgotten how sharp Koishi could be when she wanted to? "It's not important."

"It so is! Even I can tell that was an adult dragon! Normally you'd raise an infant to nurture loyalty. An adult form like that would take thousands of years to grow to reach that size. How did you do it!?"

A frown spread on his face, Touma settled to remain quiet. It was not a wise decision to spew any clues of his association with the dragons, simply because of the potential bounty on his head in the future. But the honest glow of innocence from Koishi was infecting Touma's will to keep his mouth shut.

"Look, the dragon isn't important right. We need to-hrk!" Her frightening strength caused a cold gut reaction of having his head wrung right off his throat from her constant pulling at his jaw. "Kah! No more. Stop. Let go!" With each syllable, the strength in his lungs kept dissipating.

"I won't unless you tell me!" Koishi profusely refused with a defiant look. To further her threat, the satori twisted her thighs around his throat and pressed them. Being choked by her, Touma fell on his back with a thud.

Her current grapple on him prevented further progress from reaching the shrine. He had no choice, nor did his opinion hold any weight unless he conceded to Koishi's demands. Feelings of distress and a pale face from her tight grip left him little choice on the matter. Kamijou forced a nod and patted her thigh repeatedly to signal his consent. Released from the captivity of her powerful hands and soft legs, he leaned down and coughed. "Urgh... I may or may not be related to that dragon, including the others who have arrived here as well."

"More in detail, please!" Koishi further demanded by highlighting her pumped fists up in the air. Finally, the answers she had been looking for are being given.

Touma propped himself back up and did a quick survey of the area before resuming the path to the shrine. "I don't know all the details, but for some god knows what reason these scaly bastards decided to barge into my right hand." He would gladly divulge some secrets for some progress. Doesn't mean he couldn't reserve some very touchy details he'd rather stay secret.

"Then!? How many are there!?" It was like watching a dog who couldn't stop badgering its owner for attention.

"I counted nine the last time I saw them together in a group. But I suspect one of them is missing." Touma fed Koishi the most minimal amounts of info to keep her concentrated on him and prevent her from diverting into doing something that screamed 'Koishi.'

"So many!" Stars gleamed on the surface of her eye while she smiled broadly. The purple appendage around her bounced around to communicate the same excitement. "How do you go about controlling them when they misbehave?"

"I don't know, I just yell at them to shut up." Touma evenly told her, as if it were the most obvious tactic to use to command several ancient monsters, each with the power to end the world.

"Oooooh. I'll do the same! The next time I see a dragon, I'll tell it to shut up!"

He really hoped she wouldn't do that. She caused enough trouble on her own. "No. Bad. Bad Koishi, very bad." Touma scolded her the same way a person would reprimand their dog when they did something naughty.

"So mean! I'm not a pet like Orin and Okuu!" She whined in a fashion that matched someone her age, kicking a fuss on top of Touma. "One day, I will become someone on par with you. I'll have my own army of dragons together with my onee-chan, and then we can compare them!" She passionately proclaimed a really unrealistic prospect that wasn't reciprocated by Touma.

He felt bad. Really bad at how much he kept feeding Koishi the illusion of someone he's not unintentionally. He needed to clear up the misconceptions sooner than later before they inadvertently bit him in the ass. Looking back, the number of misunderstandings arose from his misfortune and how he suffered because of them, his precautions weren't misplaced.

That was when he noticed a clearing a few distances away from his front. How could he forget the first sign of human civilization he stepped on since coming to Gensokyo? Although, calling it a symbol of human civilization was giving Rinnosuke too much credit. Regardless, he felt exhilarated and delighted to see the familiar antique shop. From his position, it would take about fifteen minutes to reach the open area while holstering Koishi.

Instead of wasting away the lengthy period in silence, Touma initiated the conversation to Koishi on a matter he was troubled by "So, what was so important that you needed to do after you left?" Touma started a new conversation to pass the time.

With the usual smile, but far more lively thanks to the prior conversation, she adorably tilted her head before replying. "I was interested in finding a fishing rod!" Koishi answered in an infectious, upbeat manner.

There shouldn't have been a reason. There wasn't anything wrong with what she had said. All she did was express an interest in something mundane and harmless. Otherwise, her discretion was nothing to be alarmed about. However, Touma just couldn't stop his body from trembling all of a sudden.

"Touma Onii-chan, your body feels really weird. Do something to stop it." Koishi pouted, feeling uncomfortable from the jiggling below her.

"Aaah, yeah! Give me just a moment to relax!" It took quite an effort to wriggle his words out from his wobbly lips.

He just couldn't understand what was wrong with him. The words he heard chilled him to the core.

"Hey, do you think the shrine will have a fishing rod?

"Yes! I-I mean it better have one somewhere stored securely, after all! Ha-haha…" Touma frantically assured and agreed to that unlikely possibility. He was no expert on shrines and what duties took place in them, but the image of a fishing rod lying around like a sore-thumb was doubtful despite how much he was hoping for it to be a reality.

"Yeah...they better have it." A somber tone juxtaposed itself beside Koishi's optimistic expression.

She wasn't good enough at hiding her emotions as he initially thought. Sometimes, she seemed unaware of her own mask falling off. What made it even worse was how undisturbed she acted when it did happen.

'But why a fishing rod? No, scratch that, I'm better off not knowing what kind of horrible reason it is for my heart.'

Just as he was composing his maidenly heart, a disturbance was felt by Touma. From where the quiet antique shop rested, an unpleasant sound erupted from inside, and the roof got blown off from within. A black figure emerged from the hole it carved and the vague features of two horns rose along with its head.

"Look! It's Daidarabotchi-sama!" Koishi pointed her finger at the looming figure in pure mesmerization.

Touma was quick to recover and recognize the general shape of the shadow to piece together the only person that fit the criteria. "Isn't that Suika!? Rinnosuke's going to be pissed. He better pray Gensokyo has an insurance policy in effect."

Covering a generous distance after the lackluster attempt at conversing, Touma swore in his heart to not utter a fishing rod near Koishi, the spiky-haired teenager reached out to gain Suika's attention.

"Oi! Suika! Over here!" He yelled at the top of his lung.

The giant reared its head over to the voice of Touma, and its eyes flashed with recognition.

"Ah! Touma, you came back!" Suika, in her massive form the size of 130 meters, greeted him back with a smile and wave. "And I see you managed to pick up a stray cat along the way!"

He and Koishi had to cover their ears from the loud booming of her voice since the increased mass enlarged the power of her lungs to ridiculous levels.

"Aniki has returned!? This is bad! I haven't prepared myself yet...uwaah...I hope he won't be disappointed with a girl like me with this much unkempt hair…" Shion, a poverty goddess, fastened in the grip of Suika's fist, was lamenting her lack of hygiene being in plain view for the boy she was interested in.

"Who do you have there in your hands? Isn't it rude to pick up some girl stained with god knows what without their consent!? You have no idea where she's been. Show some respect!" Touma quipped at the giant after witnessing the unfair treatment for the bluenette when Suika started to whip her in a circle like she was a piece of string. To keep the fragile integrity of Shion's heart intact, the difference in height between her and Touma left little possibility for the former to hear his rude words.

"Zip it! You have no idea the trouble I've been through with her. If it wasn't for her meddling, I would've picked you up ages ago, and we'd be having fun making enemies out of everyone at the shrine. You show some consideration instead!" Suika fired back like an irate child, pointing her finger at his sprinting form. "Don't think you can get off scot-free from ditching me either!"

"Just what kind of hell were you expecting to raze with me as an accomplice!? I'm starting to think twice about our arrangement!"

"Too late to back out now! I'll forgive you if you drink from my gourd a second time." Suika produced the same, accursed gourd that forced Touma into an intoxicated state. He paled at the sight of how much larger it was having grown in size to accommodate Suika's increased mass. "This time, you have to drink all of it!" Suika charged him brusquely as she shook the gourd upside, and a waterfall of sake spilled down the area from where Kourindou resided.

"Hell no! I suffered enough alcohol for a year!" He ardently refused the second serving from the large Oni from where his puny form stood. How little did he know of the custom surrounding Gensokyo where everybody drank sake almost every day.

"Touma, you had better step out of the forest before I do it myself at the count of three!" Suika threw down her ultimatum and fiercely whipped the gourd around, spurting the flying contents everywhere.

"Uwah! Careful where you swing that thing!" Despite carrying additional weight, Touma avoided every incoming splash and covered his mouth to stop any from entering his system. "Enough already, I'm coming out!" Even Touma had to smile at how cheery and contagious Suika being a giant toddler could be with that earnest smile on her.

The border between Kourindou and the Forest of Magic was closing in. This strange episode of getting lost and meeting new and familiar faces was fast approaching its end. Touma maintained his smile and closed his eyes as his steps naturally took him to depart from the forest.

"Ready to leave this behind and head to the Hakurei Shrine with us, Koishi?" He directed the question to her when he raised his head slightly upwards. The boy still had the common sense to ask for her consent instead of forcing her if she didn't want to.

"Sure, I had a lot of fun together. I'm ready to eat and drink till I fall asleep at the shrine!" And swiftly did she respond positively with a fist raised to the air.

The unusual duo looked forward and continued to the next chapter of the night. If only such an obvious conclusion were allowed in a bizarre realm such as Gensokyo.

"Huh?" Touma ground to a halt when a chill crawled up his spine. He hadn't witnessed something out of place, but his body immediately reacted to the sudden change in the air. "Something doesn't feel right…"

"Onii-chan, there's something behind us!" Koishi alerted him desperately. Even she felt the need to express her anxiety with a frightened face. She did not falter from the sight that was the Blind Dragon, she did not pause when she ventured into the depths of Touma's interior body. But this...this was much worse.

Was it the dark playing tricks akin to the slight, visible movement of gas released from a stove or heat? Or the unwieldy earth expanding and resuming its uniform state? Something wasn't right about the forest. The domain which belonged to no one eerily felt like it was being consumed from the inside.

Touma did not look back. If he did, he would waste even the few precious seconds left to escape. Charging forward at top speed, energy burned in his legs to the fullest. He could make it, he could clear the twenty meters between him and Kourindou. But didn't he have a much more reliable vehicle?

"Koishi, get us out of here!"

"I...I can't! Something heavy feels like it's weighing down on me, even though the cheating spell lifted, I can't fly anymore! You have to keep running Touma Onii-chan!" For the first time, Touma had heard what Koishi's panicked voice sounded like, and it was a visible sign of disastrous proportions.

"Damn it! Suika, pull us out!" He resorted to the person on the other side to bail them out of the incoming disaster.

Even the leader of one of the most notorious youkai bandit groups in history felt trepidation from something at the center of The Forest of Magic. She acquiesced him and used her power to pull him and his companion towards her, but something was hampering the effect.

"Be careful, Touma! I've only felt this a few times before, but this is no doubt the work of a dragon! The forest is now someone's domain, and it's interfering with my power entering it!" Suika went full-alert and dropped both Shion and her gourd to crack her fists.

"W-w-what's happening now!?" Shion, out of the loop, squeaked out in fright as she felt a malevolent spirit radiate from the direction of the forest.

"Stay quiet! This is a really delicate time, and I would appreciate it if you don't mess with me again!" Her blood boiled from the memory of fighting a fierce spear long ago, and Suika reacted uncharacteristically vexed at the nearest victim who did not deserve it.

"Eep!" Shion scurried off into the distance, not wanting to get roped in for what's to come through pure instinct.

Suika clapped her hands together, and from her power came the weight of gravity magnifying. Within her palms was a swelling power, significant enough to cause reality to screech. A great destroyer, the devourer of stars. It's avaricious nature bent the laws of time-space and light would find it impossible to escape. A miniature black hole produced at the epicenter of Suika's closed hands.

"Jump!" She unleashed the natural cleaner of the universe out into the open so that its strong pull would carry Touma and Koishi to her.

"Kuh!" It was reasonable to hesitate at the prospect of jumping towards a black hole regardless if it wasn't authentic. But Touma had already trusted his fate to Suika, and he knew that she did not desire his death no matter what. All caution had to be thrown away. "Alright...I understand. I'm coming!"

As a safety precaution, Touma stuck his right hand forward to destroy the black hole if he got too close to it. The suction force was the only thing he relied upon, so the radiation was going to be siphoned away. Doing as ordered, his feet were lifted from the ground. The thumping of his heart rattled his entire body, but he gained more distance less than thrice the amount it would take if he ran.

A victorious grin came to Suika's face. "Hahaha! Too bad mystery man! Touma will be coming with me to the shrine!" She gloated before reaching the finishing line. A very arrogant proclamation met with a somber reminder of losing because another contender out of thin air would steal the goal.

Touma was the first to react against the visible threat. The shadows all around the earth spurn and congregated into geometric spears, the shape of triangles. They escaped the 2nd-dimension and extended from the ground at the speed of darkness, aimed at the giant target known as Suika. He tried to negate as many of the constructs as they flew by him, but hundreds were still standing erect and arrived without delay to pierce Suika's skin.

"Like that'll be enough to draw the blood of an Oni. Betcha didn't know about this little tidbit where my skin is as tough as a dragon god's scales!" She laughed at the meager ambush the assailant tried to pass off as first blood. That's when she noticed a peculiarity. More than half the spears weren't aimed for her, but the miniature black hole in her hands. "Hey, stay away from there!"

Unexpectedly, some of the shadows which extended from the forest were not wholly swallowed by the destroyer. It may have been due to an affinity the two resonated with. Whatever the case, the distance between the center of compressed gravity and the triangles stopped lowering. Instead, they cushioned around the death star akin to a cocoon.

"Whatever you're planning, it's not gonna happen on my watch!" After her firm declaration, power coursed through Suika's veins and mustered around her fingers. She positioned her hands at the sides of her black hole and hot, screeching lightning emitted from the tips of her fingers to scorch the amorphous shadows. They scattered and flexed with over a million volts to burn the dark into ashes.

But Suika's expectations were dashed. Out of nowhere, the shine of glistening white made her eyes twitch from the unblemished teeth marking themselves on the surface of the shadows. The form of mouths kept appearing; delighted by the free meal, they bore open to swallow all the electricity. Shocked and surprised, Suika's opening gave them the opportune time to meld together into a fist grasping the miniature black hole. Protected by the many mouths lining its skin, the shadow hand forced the sphere to erupt all the power inside the singularity to convulse and bend out of uniform.

There was another side of a black hole, the reverse form of a star in its hour of death where its life shined brightest. Supernova, the extraordinary heat, and explosion engulfing a star as its last breath was taken away. The prominence and brightness blinded everyone's sight in the immediate area, as well as setting the forest and Kourindou on fire. The damage had seared the soil into charred black, and vegetation was reduced to dust in the air. Suika's black hole had been repurposed against her as a faux supernova, engulfing her and generating powerful winds to throw her and the soaring duo back.

"Kwuh!"

"Kyaaah!"

The force of the explosion bulldozed Touma and Koishi from the air and back a new 20 meters apart from the boundary line. The duo tumbled against their will as resisting the impact explosion of a faux supernova was laughable, especially when they were in the air just a few seconds ago. Climbing to their feet, they were in time to witness the scourge closely around them as any remaining feelings of positively sunk. A thick moat of darkness colored the border. The worst part about this was the smoking, downed form of Suika reverting to her normal size.

Things couldn't end like this. Touma would not accept being prisoner to the damnable forest again. He rushed to where the stunned Koishi stood and grabbed her hand. "Stay close and don't leave my side until we're outta this!" The spiky-haired boy sprinted with the wordless satori in tow.

Koishi turned around to find out the murkiness within the forest had grown so thick, nothing was visible to her further than a few meters from her sight. "Hiii!"

"C'mon, we can still make it!" Touma encouraged her and persuading himself that he could still salvage the situation. "There has to be a way for me to turn this situation around." Then an idea struck his mind like a lightning bolt. "Koishi, fire the brightest magic bullet you can over the center of the line!"

Whatever trance Koishi was subdued in, her body moved automatically for her. She gestured her free hand, brewed a massive sphere of light, and chucked it hard over the line. The band bent from the shine of light and expanded outwards like the waning crescent. Just as he wanted, Touma crouched down and hammered his fist on that band, resulting in its destruction. Back to his feet, Touma forced more power into his legs and made a mad dash for the open gate with Koishi still stuck to his hand.

A foreboding sensation nagged at the back of his mind, and it came forth in the form of the two lingering ends of the moat stretching for another connection as a waxing moon. "Someone really is trying to prevent us from escaping. Koishi, take away the magic bullet!" Panic tainted his voice when he ordered the satori.

The orb of light dispersed like a balloon, and Touma wasted no time as he snarled fiercely. The band receded to normal, but nothing has changed. No time was saved, and the situation remained the same. But the worst had yet to pass. Things escalated beyond their control as the moat shivered like water, and thrust up to paint the air black. Such a detestable sight had clicked the final pin inside the rage-fueled Touma.

"Stop screwing around!" Touma roared at the top of his lungs like he was talking to the suspect responsible for this. "It's over! The bet is finished! I no longer have a reason for me to be here. I can't keep being distracted with these games when so much could be at stake. I already know you survived, so quit crying for something as petty as revenge, Rumia!" He already figured out the culprit when his mind returned to complete clarity a few minutes ago. The sneaking suspicion which crept his mind had convinced him thanks to her signature power before him.

No longer was there an alternative to be found in such constraining conditions. Touma reared back his clawed hand and drove it forward in the hopes that it would eradicate the hindering wall. It was too late by the looks of it. The new properties of the barrier allowed it to revive itself as Imagine Breaker stayed in physical contact with it. Lingering his hand on the spot, he grit his teeth and dug his fingers deeper into the thick barricade. The constant, high-pitch screech reverberated as the darkness continued to new heights. Touma hung his head down dejectedly from the disappointment of being delayed yet again, so he removed his hand from the place.

Koishi silently watched him worriedly, lightly tugging at the hem of his hoodie. His head remained downcast, and she could hear him breathe deeply. With one last attempt, Touma punched the wall once more, creating a beautiful sound of cracking glass as Imagine Breaker hungrily wished to sear through the unnatural barrier. With her hands still on him, Koishi raised her head to the sky and watched as the oppressive void of domination surrounding the entire forest converged to the center in the air like a dome to seal the dragon's territory.


"Urgh…"

A splitting headache ran circles around Suika's head as she forced herself awake. When clarity returned to her expression, she snarled below her breath before getting back to her feet. Never before had she experienced her black hole used against her in such a fashion. When her eyes came to, the first sight of treating her was the barrier marking the boundaries of the dragon's domain. She blinked owlishly and rubbed her head to soothe the burning pain.

"Great, just great. How am I supposed to call myself a trustworthy Oni after failing this badly on my partner?" There was an irony from her words from which she chuckled mirthlessly. Still occupied by her injuries, she did not regard the approaching Shion.

"Umm...Oni-san, what are we going to do about Aniki? Do you think he's still alive in there?" She nervously asked as she clasped her shaking hands, and lower lips quivering as well.

A sigh came out from the two-horned girl's mouth in response to her question. "Chill out, girl. I have a gut feeling it's going to take more than that to kill the kid from what little I've gleaned from him." Suika cracked her neck while she strolled onward to the edge of the boundary. "Oi! If there's anyone who can hear me from in there, respond quickly!"

"Suika! Looks like you're already back on your feet." The muffled, relieved voice of Touma came from the other side of the darkness. "Me and Koishi aren't clearing this thing any time soon. Is there something you've noticed over that side that we haven't?"

"U-Uh, just give me a moment to adjust. I still smell smoke coming from my body, ya know?" An emotion that could only be described as embarrassment, Suika dusted her skirt, which had its edges slightly singed, and deliberated on the next step. "Keep away from touching the barrier. I don't fully understand the specifics of how this works since I've never seen anything like it. I also advise you to step back to the side from where you're currently standing." She sucked in a large intake of air to her lungs, and Touma scrambled away on alert.

"RAAAAGH!"

Condensed streams of magic leaped from Suika's chest and past her throat. Breaths of fire scorched the air and the humidity dropped rapidly. When slammed against the field barrier, the flame did not spread to cover the area but was instead absorbed into it. Ticked off, Suika approached closer to inspect the dome with the remaining flames lingering in her mouth.

"The front is a bust, but I wonder what's keeping me from digging under it." Her knuckles gave a pleasant cracking sound and they burrowed to the ground. Driven by pure instinct, Suika jumped back in time to avoid dark spears stabbing from the cracks on the ground thanks to her fist. "That proves the barrier extends to the earth." Suika raised her head to observe the curve that trailed to the center. "And I seriously doubt we can reach inside by finding an entrance above."

"Then what do you suggest I can do from here? If a solution isn't possible externally, perhaps there's a key internally." Touma helpfully provided his input.

Suika crossed her arms to contemplate over his words. "Certainly that's possible. Something like this needs to be maintained and provided by an energy source from somewhere. Since I'm positive it's a domain, the only location has to be from the center where the source can distribute power everywhere equally. While I could find a flaw in this by patrolling around the boundary to find a fluctuating opening, it will take a long time."

The sound of another crack in glass resounded from within. "Then, I'll do what I can and scour from inside to destroy whatever is holding this thing up."

Suika grumbled in a saddened mood. "Mm...And things were finally looking up really nicely too." She sent a glare at Shion's direction, which the recipient flinched from.

Touma nodded as response and was about to declare his departure before being prompted to step back in surprise. "Something's different! This thing's closing in!"

"What!?" Suika's eyes shrunk and she bared her teeth. "Nothing seems different from over here!"

"Then it's growing thicker from inside!"

"But why!?" As Suika exclaimed, a reason propped up to mind. "The purpose of this thing isn't to only trap what's already inside, but to capture it as well!"

"Damn! We can't just let ourselves be put on the plate for free!"

The Oni sat down cross-legged and made further calculations to piece together a plan to save Touma. "A dragon's domain and its owner can only reasonably be killed by a dragonslayer." Suika clicked her tongue in frustration. "Too bad Reimu isn't around to use her dragon-slaying spell. Wait…" That's when Suika looked to see the prone form of Rinnosuke. "This bastard has been hiding some really important stuff. Now I'm wondering where he got father's sword."

"Sui...can yo...ill...hear me!?" The voice of Touma pierced the border walls almost inaudibly.

The escalating problem had Suika stand upright immediately. "Touma! Just keep moving inwards, but don't stray away from the border and let yourself get sucked into it!"

"I...der...nd...I'll...wai...or...ou."

The final words of Touma came up as jargon, but Suika understood them perfectly.

With his last whispers gone, the two-horned girl proceeded towards Rinnosuke's body and placed her hands to her hips. "Looks like the newest incident has arrived on short notice. Rejoice, Rinnosuke, you get to finally play a part this time as a hero instead of remaining stuck in your shack." She snorted at the burning remnants of Kourindou.

"The Ama-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi which Susanoo gouged out from one end of Father's tails…" Suika picked up the sheathed blade at the half-youkai's side and inspected it. When she laid her vice grip on the handle, the sword refused to budge open. "Who are you to refuse me? Do you dare to say the daughter of Orochi is not worthy of his blade!?" Indignant, the daughter of one of Japan's greatest monsters enforced all her strength to split the sword and sheath apart from each other. A pang of heat burned Suika's hand, forcing her to discard the sword and check it. A sharp cut had formed and blood spilled from it. "Heh, what a pleasant surprise. You're finally getting to the process of attaining an ego. You're just one step away from becoming a tsukumogami!" A delighted grin lit itself on the Oni's face.

"Um...oni-san, is there anything I can do to help?" Shion shyly muttered out from her corner.

Suika spared her a glance from her shoulder and decided now was good enough to get some of her questions filled in. "That depends on what you can answer me. Where did you get all that divine strength from? I know you never held that much, even during your incident with your sister."

"Um, uh, well, that is…" Shion looked away and fumbled her words inaudibly. The poverty goddess rubbed her arm and looked squarely at Suika. "I think it has to do with the dragon I encountered."

"WHAT!?" In one moment, Suika had moved from her initial position to grasping Shion's shoulders. The frightened goddess watched with quivering lips in the face of Suika's fierce expression. "When was this!?"

"B-Before Rinnosuke-san came back with Aniki."

"Any striking details on this dragon!?"

"I-If I recall, they had four eyes!"

Suika turned around and mused on the likely individual she had in mind.

"The details are a bit fuzzy since that I haven't been up to date with Ibaraki-chan...But now that I think about it more closely, didn't she mention a benevolent dragon full of wisdom and four eyes in passing?" After searching her memory, Suika rounded towards Shion again with a firm solemnity. "Today's your lucky day, literally. With that blessing on you, we don't have to worry about your misfortune infecting us."

"T-Truly!?" The revelation had shocked Shion to the core with her mouth agape.

"Yeah, so sit back for a bit, because for the first time, your luck will be necessary." A smirk adorned the lips of Suika. "First thing on our agenda is to wake up the sleepyhead currently lying on the ground."

The sword was picked up once more to be used as a poking stick to rile the prone body of the shopkeeper. No luck was found by that approach. Instead, his body was repositioned to be leaning against the last standing tree in the area. After that, the mirror which rested near where Rinnosuke used to lay had finally been given attention to.

"What a pretty mirror. Wonder why it happens to be just laying around in such an open area." Shion piped up, bringing up a good question as to what reason the object is needed for at the moment.

"Did the shopkeeper obtain a sense of fashion? Too late to improve his reputation I say." Suika walked forward and raised the mirror to her face. "There appear to be scripts engraved behind it. Weird. This looks like early Japanese, but I can't read what this other language is…" Befuddled, Suika fiddled with the intricate and ornate mirror from every nook and cranny. A response was elicited by the pristine object when the glass frame reflected the Tsurugi by Suika's hip. "Hohoho...I don't know which kami the shopkeeper prayed to, but his luck is strangely extraordinary!" A familiar excitement filled Suika's chest, the same one she felt when she recognized the Ama-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi.

"Is the mirror that special?" Shion tilted her head in confusion.

"Special? It's more than just special, sweetheart! Feast your eyes, for you are given the privilege to see two of the three treasures that make up the Sanshu no Shinki!" Suika proudly presented the treasures by raising above her head in each hand.

"Ooohh~" Shion clapped at the dramatic pose by the youkai who's shorter than her. Suika was slightly disappointed about the subdued reaction by the latter but reasoned it as the ignorance of a vagrant.

The eight-span mirror, Yata no Kagami, pulsated the more it echoed with the spirit of the Tsurugi. Black vapor sprung and spread all over from inside the glass frame and coagulated into a shadowy figure. The resonations emitted from the treasures increased aggressively. Once the shape gained a more solid foundation, two visible slit-eyes manifested. The newborn presence forced the Tsurugi and Yata no Kagami from Suika's hands to levitate freely. Though Shion gasped and felt a heavy pit in her stomach, Suika watched impassively as if she anticipated this. The latter gestured for the demure goddess to not act rashly as the two sacred objects flew in a straight path back to their true master. The sword slanted to his side protectively, and the mirror hovered above his head. From the man's collar floated jade magatama beads. The three pieces were complete, and the Imperial Regalia of Japan sung a heavenly hymn, enthralled by their jubilation at being granted awareness.

"I felt the same aura as that of the menreiki and karakasa obake from the shadow. But this feels far more divine!"

"This level is the least people would expect from one of the most sacred sets of treasures that crowned the imperial lineage. I never assumed much from this guy, but where did all this luck come from? Why does he have the Yasakani no Magatama too!?" Suika expressed her uncontrollable shock at Rinnosuke's luck that would make the heavens jealous. She speculated that one of his ancestors had been blessed by or is actually one of the Seven Lucky Gods.

The waking of Rinnosuke has been left to the devices of the Regalias, and Suika can now spend her focus back to the dome. The closer she was to it, the louder the reverberation of wind knocked her ears. Peering at the curve of the hindrance, she could make out the pieces of serpentine bodies raining holy fire at the roof of the dome. They were twelve in numbers, and the symbol of Christ's execution was carved upon their foreheads.

"The hell are those!? They aren't dragons I'm familiar with!" Suika could feel the stumble of Shion behind her despite the goddess was flying, and she couldn't fault her.

Removing herself from the twelve feathery abominations, Suika scrutinized the infinite void that maintained the domain. Still disturbed by the sight of those looming bringers of destruction, she was determined to solve this incident.

"Time to test out this theory gnawing at my head." An arm thrust forward, and mist expelled from the flesh. Soon enough, the muscles, bones, tendons, etc. had evaporated into mist and collected themselves into another body of Suika with an uncanny resemblance. With a snap of her fingers, the clone, ordered by Suika, rushed forward and punched the surface of the domain. The force of the impact left no ripples, and the clone was devoured, slowly enveloped by the self-defense mechanism of the dome.

"Spatial fluctuations detected, let's see where the void leads me to." Eyes closed, Suika used the established link between her body double and switched to their perspective as she sank into a vortex surrounded by razor teeth. She narrowed her brows in apprehension when the body-double was fully enclosed from every angle in some tar-like fluid. When she finally arrived at the predetermined destination, she was caught in pure surprise. "What is this!?"


"Remember, do not stray away from me."

"Un."

"Keep your hands locked onto mine at all times."

"Un."

"If you find anything out of place, anything that seems wrong with the environment, and above all, if something is piquing your interest, you are to immediately bring it to my attention by gripping my hand."

"Got it. Ignore everything you just said and wander inside alone."

"NO! That is the furthest course of action you can do!"

"Ehehehe~"

The unlikely duo was still fraternizing even under the pressuring atmosphere. That silver of positivity may be what kept them going from all the rough bumps along the way.

"Looks like it'll just be you and me for a little while longer, Koishi."

"I don't mind!' She cheerfully replied.

The two prowled near the border to not lose themselves in the unpredictable forest. As it grew larger and available space was being shrouded, they were forced to keep moving inwards at a steady pace.

"But man, I hope Suika can figure out how to save us soon. With such a huge scale event like this, It'll grab everyone's attention in Gensokyo, and more people will flock over."

"Forget about relying on Suika, we should solve the incident on our own!" Koishi raised a fist bump in great anticipation. "We're the ones closest to the core, so we have the highest chance at solving it!"

"So this is an incident, hmm? That reminds me of Rinnosuke's words on professional incident solvers."

"Yeah, yeah. The top two are Reimu and Marisa, but you already defeated the latter, Touma!" She proudly stated his achievements, almost like she was the one who accomplished the deed by associating herself with him.

"Ahahaha…" He rubbed the back of his head nervously.

"Enjoying ourselves are we? And I feel so lonely being left out."

The duo swerved their heads to the source of that voice beyond their vision.

"Who's there!?" Touma shouted out to the disembodied voice of the stranger. It was not a sound he was familiar with, he thought.

"If I must."

Touma followed the sound of giggling. His eyes widened at the embolden color of gold swaying in the air. Near that mane of gold were chilling, crimson eyes. For some miraculous reason, an outline of the person was able to be seen in the dark.

The silhouette stood from where they sat in the tree line and jumped, making a flip in the air, and landing gracefully with their feet tucked together. When their vague appearance was shed with some light, Touma's breath was caught in his throat. The dark served to heighten the allure of her blond hair. And her pale skin befitted the moniker of someone who was not blessed by the sun. And the face...it vaguely resembled someone in his memory.

Seeing his lack of instant recognition, the blonde woman directed to Touma. "Come now, Kamijou. Can you really not recall who I am?" She placed a dainty index finger to her cheek and leaned her head close to it.

"If I was familiar with a bombshell like you with the mature air, a body that wouldn't fall behind to any, and grace bequeathed only to the most open-hearted of onee-sans, I wouldn't be wasting my time here." He spoke his thoughts out loud. It was too late when he realized his action.

"Ara~? What could you possibly mean by that, idiot Onii-chan?" Koishi gave a serene smile without tilting her head to him.

"I only mean that if, and only if, I actually met this woman beforehand, I would never have spent time with you Koishi, which I totally don't regret. Not a single bit. That's why I know nothing about this woman. Oh yeah, that's what I meant." Touma fixed his words at the speed of light. "But that ara~ you used was kind of tasteless, Koishi. It did not fit your character at all."

"Boo~" She pouted at his assessment.

"Fufufu. My, what a cute response." The pale woman's gentle chuckle comforted Touma's heart to an extent that he almost wanted to wistfully sigh at the pleasant sound. "But it makes me quite sad that you can't remember the maiden you laid your hands on who then opened her heart out thanks to you a few hours prior." That dejected frown on her face made him want to voluntarily turn himself to the nearest court possible.

"Touma, what does she mean by that?" Koishi's peaceful face stilled. But anyone can guess from the tone and bottomless depth in her eyes that she was anything but pleased. Her monstrous strength on his hand was almost crushing his index finger into smithereens.

He needed to put an end to this fast.

He narrowed his eyes to concentrate a little until the name at the top of his tongue solidified. "...Rumia?" He lightly muttered in recognition.

"Rumia? Do you mean that youkai who hangs around with that group of idiots? She looks similar, but she certainly doesn't act and feel like Rumia."

"Fuhuhu. Has my infamy been brought to an end in only a hundred years that not even tales of my brutal suppression survived?"

"I don't know about brutal. Sure, Rumia is still considered an infamous youkai properly known to hunt and eat outsiders." The person being spoken of felt a smug smile tugging on their lips. "But! But! There's also that rumor about Rumia being very 'un-youkai-like' too. In an interview with that shady tengu, Rumia is prone to being lazy and considers hunting humans as "bothersome." The most well-known rumor is that she once deliberately allowed a human to escape her, but not before driving the fear of her down to their hearts. It doesn't end there either. Someone once claimed they begged Rumia to not eat them, and she did let them run off scot-free!" Koishi continued to speak of benign tales of the modern Rumia, unmindful of the heat-filled glare being pointed to her.

Gears ran inside Touma's head. True enough, he recalled his interactions with Rumia. The Youkai of Dusk was no genius, but even she could be observant once every blue moon. She had suspected him to be an Outsider masquerading as a native from his piss poor acting skills, and he was confident in his opinion of Rumia of not being the person she said she was. There were too many merciful acts that couldn't be waved off as mere idiocy on her part. The fact that she went easy on him, to the point of handing him a spellcard for fairness, was a testament to him standing as of this instance.

"Hmph, to think my mind had deteriorated that much." She pinched her brows from how bothersome she used to act. "That ofuda seal had done more than just regress my form and power. Even my memories and certain facets of my personality were locked away."

"So what you're saying is that you-"

"That's right~" The blond woman chirped at him. "I appear before you as the true form of the youkai you are familiar with. I am Rumia, an unclassified youkai born from man's fear of the dark! Reputable for cleansing the Earth of human civilization several times, and a professional at culling humanity from proliferating too much!" She introduced herself in utmost enthusiasm, lifting her chest up slightly.

Nonplussed at her introduction, Touma carried on with his intent. "That sounds quite grand and I'd even congratulate you on your return. But we need you to put an end to what's already happening. Stop this dome from growing any further immediately!" Touma hardened his features to bring out his fiercest scowl. By the time he witnessed the first scene of the darkness being bent by someone's will, he already deducted the mastermind behind all this.

"Hah! I went out of my way to greet you personally and the first thing you do is demand something from me?" She was not angry by any means from that amused look she was sporting. Rumia hugged herself and licked the bottom of her lips. "Don't look at me with such an intense fire like the sun. It makes me hunger for it to be shrouded with my essence."

Unflustered by her words, Touma stood resolutely without an inch of a twitch on his face. "Why go through all this trouble? What do you want from me anyway? You're gonna kill me for something petty like revenge? Or do you prefer to remove all pretenses and just get straight to eating me?"

Pleased by his response, Rumia regarded him with a smirk. "It's not proper to get too hasty with ourselves. Unlike my other, pitiful self, I don't let my emotions dictate my actions. My goal is simple. To repay my debt to you with a gift most fitting."

"And what could I have done to be so deserving more than your fury?"

"Come now, Kamijou. It's not polite to deny a lady when she calls for a gentleman. Has your mother not taught you that much?" Rumia shook her head at him light-heartedly. "I set this stage especially for you, the man of my interest. You've saved me the long wait of releasing myself from the seal."

"The ofuda, huh? So then that sacred object was trying to prevent this form from reaching daylight."

"Not quite the purpose it was used for, but you catch on fast." In one instant, Touma's hand moved on its own to intercept her movement, but she held his wrist on one hand and patted his head with the other. The sudden action brought Touma to a cold sweat. The speed she operated on was fearsome, but what felt even more terrifying was how chummy she was acting with him. "Indeed, I was feared for my power and influence, so that ribbon tied to my hair locked me in a weakened state by lobotomizing my intelligence to prevent me from questioning if something was wrong. Oh, how vexing indeed."

Touma chose to remain silent from the information in favor of astutely observing her body language. He heard her charming giggles up close as she disengaged from him and stepped back a few paces. It was a sight to see the woman with a mature body trailing both hands up her hair and then parting them.

"I'm almost embarrassed to have shown you something so unsightly. All of my memories. Without having that foundation, that brat can't be called someone whole can she? It's hard to disagree, right?" Rumia immersed herself in her own words so much, she did not notice the glint in Touma's eye and the air surrounding him to drop. "I would not have been so neglectful like her, falling behind so much with this unceasing, changing world. Those humans would've died no doubt if it were me in her place-"

"Enough." That was when Touma made his decision to cut in and snap at her sharply. "I don't understand you, Rumia. I haven't spent a single day trying to get to know you at all. The first time we met was by total accident. We talked about Gensokyo, we argued over the meaning of youkai, we even ended up fighting because you were just doing what you thought was the right thing to do. And you're most likely right that the one standing before me is the true Rumia." The Youkai drenched in Darkness looked at him in curiosity at what he was trying to get at. That act fueled Touma's confidence and his next words were filled with vigor. "But don't deny that corner inside you that made up the one I met! You can't just say those doubts and hesitance you've had about eating humans are the faults of ignorance! They were present inside her because they already existed inside you from the beginning! Those are your feelings deep down and nobody, not even yourself can denounce them! No matter how many times you forget, or how much you freeze and tuck them to the bottom of your heart, those emotions will never leave or betray you!"

Touma fully prepared himself to bail out with Koishi at a moment's notice now that he's said his piece. However, Rumia's next action did not fit any of his predictions whatsoever.

"...I see." That was the only thing she responded with. Her half-lidded eyes and hand to her mouth told him she had no intent on mocking him, getting angry at his word, or be regretful from what she said. The only emotion she expressed was pure contemplation. "Well...it no longer matters now, the past shouldn't control the present is a common opinion many tell themselves, right?" She gave a non-committed shrug and returned to her jovial mood with a smile. "How about this? I can listen to your request if you can accomplish the impossible."

"And what does that entail?"

"Which of us can outdo the other?" Rumia smacked her vibrant lips that seemed to tempt the outsider. "I'm giving you a challenge alongside my reward. Aren't I so great?" Her self-praise failed to elicit anything from the duo watching. "Feel free to explore and prod every inch inside me. Will you last longer than I can? Or will you be devoured whole by me? Don't betray my expectations of you now~"

With her parting words, she clapped her hands and sunk her body into a black pool beneath her. The figure of Rumia was completely gone from their sights, which meant now was the time to panic. They both noticed it at the same time and looked over their shoulders. The speed at which the border approached their side accelerated in an instant.

"Tch!"

Touma almost wanted to scoop Koishi in his arms but held back with the uncertainty of what might happen if she touched Imagine Breaker. So he burst into action by sprinting again. Their vision has been obscured and only a meter of visibility was around.

"Kyaa!"

That sound of distress clutched Touma's heart and his body chilled. He looked to Koishi and saw her feet being pulled down by shadowy hands. Their rate of spreading themselves was ghastly fast from already reaching her knees.

"Hang on!" He already put his right hand to move but paused when a whisper flew into his ear.

"Are you sure you want to do that? That darkness is coating her very thinly. Just imagine what might occur if you touch her skin." The sweet, disembodied voice of Rumia pricked his heart with the poisonous seed of doubt. "That power in your right hand is wasted in your attempts to save her. She's a lost cause. You can still save yourself if you abandon her here."

His reply was immediate in his throat. "Who said you'd be the one to decide that!?" Touma repositioned himself while having his hands still tightly locked with Koishi's, behind her and raised his right hand to wall himself and Koishi from the tumbling walls of Rumia's fangs. Thankfully, the provocative voice of Rumia had vanished without a word.

It might have been a trick to his ears, but Touma thought he heard a lingering sigh that gave the impression of indecisiveness before the source of it made a resolved stance. Right now, the cornered teen was stuck between a soul he can't save and the avalanche of certain despair.

"Touma Onii-chan." Koishi fixed her stare right at his eyes. "I'm not afraid."

"...Don't give me that." Touma started softly, gritting his teeth at the flow of events. "Don't try to reassure me that you're fine when you're not. I can tell that you're trembling on the inside." It was true when her shaking hands were any indication. "So don't lie to yourself and have faith in me, okay!?"

Koishi had no more words to say. Her lips quivered into an uncertain smile, and that was the response she could give him. As her bottom half was completely coated in Rumia's domain, she was affixed in place, and none of Touma's strength could unbind her. Touma's right hand was still occupied with keeping the walls from progressing onto him from behind. But that limited range did not stop a sliver of it from snaking its way on the ground and grabbing his feet, nor did it stop the adjacent substance from surrounding them.

Touma solemnly watched with indignation inwardly. He thought the smiling face of Koishi in front of him was being put on for his sake. He knew Koishi was silently crying on the inside, and her face did its absolute best to not betray those feelings by worrying him. She nodded to him before a sludge of black matter erupted underneath and consumed her figure.

The satori's figure, who shut her own heart, may have been gone from his sight, but he could still feel his hand latched to hers inside the gunk. That came with another problem. Touma's body was slowly being consumed alongside her. The process was not painful at all. It was not soothing either. To his sides, the avalanche shut off any paths of escaping and were covering him by the shoulders.

'If only….if only…!'

Dangerous thoughts such as 'if only' echoed in his head. He knew there was nothing that could change the past with human hands. That is the reason people should move on henceforward since they had no power to overturn what has occurred. That did not mean the irrationality of humans disappeared alongside this thought process. Feelings of regret and guilt will still gnaw away at the stability of a person's core regardless.

'if only I had…!'

The world did not wish to be surprised by more unknown manifestations of his thoughts any further. Touma closed his eyes with the complete swallowing of his body by the darkness. His feet were carried away from the comfort of solid ground and was thrown away into an unknown direction. The inexplicable force was staggering and his best efforts did not allow him to keep his hand latched to Koishi's any longer. The two were flung across an enormous distance in separate directions.

Eyelids still sealed tightly, Touma tumbled among concealed objects inside the center of a vortex. When time resumed, he landed roughly on something solid with a loud grunt and thud. Body spread all over a baffling flat plane, he groggily stood up without support near him.

When his eyes hesitantly released themselves, that's when the creeping terror was unleashed.

"… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … Huh?"

His voice squeaked involuntarily. It was dripping with anxiety and weakness. His body temperature had fallen from how cold he must've felt. His rate of breathing rose the more he hyperventilated. The core of his heart was pounding in his ear.

"A-Aaagh… hah… … … … … hic… …"

The reason why his lips felt oddly moisturized in his head was unclear. Did it come from the slipping cold sweat? Or was the taste of saltiness in his mouth meant the tears on his face were not an illusion?

"N-No...way…"

With blurred, unfocused vision, not from the dark this time, he saw the color of black and nothing more. The earth. The sky. Everything was pitch black without a unique outline in sight.

"Ka…"

His head swerved with such fervor it might've snapped right off. In every direction, in every perceivable turn, the image did not change. His legs felt weak and almost wanted to cave in.

"… … … … … …"

But there was a clear difference this time around. He was truly alone. There was no human, god, youkai, or entity to accompany him. He was, without a doubt, the only existence with meaning in the area.

"… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …"

There was no physical enemy, not a world he must traverse, or a disaster he needed to overcome. The enemy most insidiously lurking the familiar world could only be pointed at one person. Touma's real enemy was himself. The mental barriers he created had finally come loose. The old scars and nightmares surfaced in their entirety.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"


AN: Surprised about that ending, huh? Don't worry, it's not meant to look like an act of hatred on Touma, but an act of love. Okay, that does sound like bullshit, but he has a purpose being there.

Alright, to begin with what I have planned for this story and how to go about fixing it, I plan on doing a soft rewrite. Okay, not the most encouraging thing to say after four months. I understand, rewrites are a cautionary tale. Authors would post several fixed chapters and then abandon them afterwords. I get it, I've been there before plenty of time. My plan is fix the many, glaring flaws in this fic, one of which is the pacing. The other is to allocate approprite screen time for relevant characters of an arc. Recontextualizing some certain scenes and rewriting a few characterization is needed too. What I have set up is that I'll upload the current chapter in a new fic for archive purposes should people like them. I will be posting the updated versions and new chapters here, including changing the title of the fic for something easier on the tongue.

Huh, guess that means I'll be leaving Touma in this state for quite a while. Do your best, Touma!

As an apology and reward for the long wait and even more waiting for the next chapter, I have posted an updated bottom portion of Chapter 6: First Night IV to have the introduction of Othinus in this fic and my purpose for her in the future. If if you have time, please head over and read it.


Omake: A promise for the future.

"What oh what will I do?"

A disembodied voice questioned itself from standing by as the Imagine Breaker abandoned all rational and broke down. Without anyone important to witness his madness, Touma unleashed the dark fears and trauma burdened within him to the familiar void. Repressed frustrations spread all over his body as the twitching never ceased. Arms flailed wildly, trying to swipe away at something horrendous that has already passed on. That defenseless highschooler was stripped of the wards protecting him, and the nightmares began to surface.

There was nobody he could latch onto. Not a soul in sight to grant him relief and spare him relieving those hells he shared with only one other. Soldiering his eyelids together would not give an escape from the blinding miasma around him, it would only serve to allow his mind to devour itself further.

"Should I be overstepping my boundaries at this point this early? If I call myself an ability, then what is the right thing I'm supposed to be doing?" Surprised by how whimsical they must sound, a sober sentiment came all over their face for but a brief second.

This could be over. It would be so easy to grant him a release from revisiting this blank landscape. The accelerator pedal just needed to be pressed, and the monster of steel would rush and smash his body all over the bumpers. There would be no pain. Everything would come swiftly without warning. It was a job left unto their shoulders.

It would be so easy.

The unidentified person leaned deeper into the driver's seat wistfully and breathed a deep sigh instead. They had already identified their purpose from when they were born. To be troubled and question themselves meant this feeling truly belonged only to them, a result of acquiring and keeping human sentimental values for longer than was necessary.

"I feel as if I became much closer to Tenryuu than before. Damn her, did she foresaw things would come to this?" Fingers tapped the gear lever rhythmically from their owner's deep musing. This was a chance to set something right. This was a chance where they could offer something more than violence. This was a chance to redeem themselves for their poor inability to grant a shoulder for someone in their direst need.

"I'm not one for honey-colored words such as 'I will save you' or 'I will protect you' since I'm not the right person to be speaking them. Maybe if there was a chance, would you allow me to still act as your ability, even if I already have a new master?"

This could be a start to something more than being a horse for its king.

"I'd be doing something right about now, but oh well!" The melancholy was abruptly shattered from the person's flippant switch into a relaxed posture. A bottle of milk was pulled from the beverage holder next to them, and the person downed the contents enthusiastically. After finishing their drink, the mysterious bystander locked onto Touma once again. "I'll just use my hand dandy fishing rod remote controller and get him out of this funk. Who knows how many more months it'll be before me and Kamijou will ever see the sun again in our lives."

After some quick thinking, the truck remained stationary, and Touma stayed put, raving wildly into the open air.

"One year over there and not half a day here. I implore you to wait patiently until the day our dear Kamijou may be saved from his predicament." They shrugged as if none of it was their concern. "These words are only possible during an omake, so I'll say them just once. Happy late anniversary, dear readers. Next time, we begin the Blind Dragon's Incident."