Yukari pinched the bridge of her nose and let out a sharp breath. "I understand his potential and that he will have a great role in the future. I don't understand why you're insisting that I introduce him right now."

"One way or another, his fate will reach him." Her visitor, an aged woman dressed in a flowing blue longcoat and a lighter blue dress, sat back in her chair with a teacup in hand. As she flicked the gold streak in her otherwise black hair out of her face, she added, "Disaster will befall him one way or another and I've accepted that. However, I want him to be in a controlled environment when it happens. If we let him go, he'll be happier, but only for a short period of time." Her smile faltered for the briefest instant. "And I'm afraid he won't be ready if we don't start preparing him now."

"Don't you think I already know She's making a comeback?" The gap youkai set down her own teacup at their table. "But I can handle Her on my own."

She fixed her with a piercing look, completely different from her usually placid gaze. "Can you really?"

"... Aileen," Yukari whispered. "Are you trying to test me?"

"Of course not." Aile ran a hand through her hair. Several lines of white were already present in it. "Yes, you and the Hakurei shrine maiden put Her under during your last encounter, but She's coming back. No seal lasts forever, and it's slowly bleeding out. Her power is returning. She's already chosen Her Four."

Yukari blinked. "She... has?" The youkai wasn't aware of this occurrence – an extreme rarity for someone like her.

Aile nodded. "Yes. She was extremely careful not to alert you, but every plan has its flaws. She was focused entirely on keeping it hidden from you, but I picked up on it. However, Her Four are lying dormant. They could be anyone, anywhere."

"Again..." She took a slow sip of her tea as she mulled it over. "Our wars will begin anew… Do you have any more information?"

"I'm only human, you know that."

"Word of mouth is that you're the strongest demon hunter to ever live."

The Hunter in question nearly spat out her tea. "Yukari, I'm fifty six! I earned that title when I was twenty one! My body's already breaking down on me." She gestured to the white cane leaning on her chair. "I actually need this all the time now. Just walking up the stairs takes the wind out of me."

"But your magical power has only grown stronger," insisted Yukari. "Even if your body has degraded, your mind is as sharp – no, it's even sharper than it was before. Scotland's Sanctuary will not fall in your absence, seeing as you retired from the service years ago. The others can maintain it. You need to go to my Sanctuary, to Gensokyo, so we can work together." She pressed both hands on the table and leaned over it. "Don't you get it, Aile? This is our chance. The Wildcard has stepped into the open again, and if we play our cards right against Her, we can lock Her away. This time permanently!"

Yukari stopped as she felt something wet hit her shoulder. She looked up, realizing a storm cloud had manifested over them.

"I'm old, I'm sick, and I'm tired," sighed Aile. "I've served my role on the stage in this play we call life. This is the time for others to take up my mantle."

"And you will simply abandon your son?" Thunder clapped, and there was the briefest spark of fear in Yukari's eyes as murderous intent instantly blazed itself into Aile's face. Had she gone too far?

"How dare you," she said in a deathly low voice. "He means the world to me. How could you say such a thing?"

"I only meant..." Agh, this wasn't her forte!

"However, his power has begun manifesting. If we leave him alone, She will come to him and bring the End with Her. He has to come to Gensokyo, to learn our ways and to train so that he will be ready when She turns to him! His power is legendary, even you must have felt it!"

Yukari's eyes narrowed ever so slightly as she eased back down into her seat.

"Yes," breathed Aile. "Manipulation of yin and yang, of black and white, of right and wrong. The very ebb and flow of the universe passes through his fingers like sand in an hourglass, but just like that sand, his time is running short! If She gets to him, he will become one of the Four and then it will be over for us, for everyone, for everything. But if we teach him now, he'll know, and he'll be able to end Her when She comes for him! Him, and the one you planted alongside him!"

The youkai bit her tongue. "So you knew?"

"I knew the second she knocked on my door to meet her new neighbors seventeen years ago." She suddenly broke off as a coughing fit overtook her. Even so, she managed to rasp out, "You intertwined their fates, Youkai Sage. See it through."

Yukari's carefully blank gaze met Aile's, seeing an age-old passion alive once more in those eyes. After what felt like eternity, the gap youkai broke off and closed her eyes. "Alright. You win. I'll manage the boy. But I won't help him anymore than I absolutely must. He will grow on his own, and if he cannot rise to the challenge, he dies."

Aile had a faint smile as they got up. "I have faith that he will succeed. I know he will."

"Then let us hope your intuition strikes as true as it has before, Aileen."

"Farewell for now, Yukari."

With a wave of her hand, Yukari let open a ribbon-bound portal for her partner. Once she had left, Yukari followed suit.

– TOUHOU –

"There you are."

Yukari did a small spin on the spot. "Here I am."

Reimu frowned at her before returning her focus to the ground. "The party already ended while you were gone. Everyone's gone home. Thanks for helping me clean up, you're such a help as always."

She staggered back as if physically struck, dramatically bringing one hand over her heart. "Reimu! You wound me." The shrine maiden shot her a pointed look and she dropped the act. "Oh, alright." Another small gap opened next to her, allowing her to reach in and grab her half-finished teacup.

"Tea," noted Reimu as she put her broom away. "Talking with someone again?"

Yukari waved a hand lazily. "Connections are important."

Reimu made a scathing noise, but otherwise didn't comment. She definitely wasn't in the best of moods… had Suika tried to prank her again?

"Speaking of connections, I'll be throwing another Outsider your way soon."

"Another one?" The shrine maiden groaned. "I've had it up to here" she raised her hand to eye-level "with those creeps you send in every other week."

She chuckled, but didn't argue the point. She considered it for a moment, but ultimately decided against it. Had to ensure the full authentic Gensokyan experience, after all.

"Well, at least you've warned me in advance. But he's not staying in my shrine! Send him to the Myouren Temple. They have the extra space, so they can deal with him!"

Yukari gasped. "How heartless. Have you no respect for your fellow-"

"Oh, shut it. They're not even humans."

"Ooh, getting a little touchy, are we?"

"I said shut it!" Reimu procured her gohei from nowhere, levelling it at Yukari. "I've exterminated youkai for less and you're really getting to me right now!" Why did Yukari feel the need to always do this? What kind of sick pleasure did she derive from aggravating the shrine maiden? Reimu was starting to have enough of this stupid gap youkai constantly grating on her nerves every day!

"Okay, okay, I'll stop." Even so, Yukari's tone remained completely light and almost patronizing.

Reimu grudgingly put away the extermination rod. "... Exactly who are you dropping off this time?"

The youkai hummed thoughtfully, trying to think of a good way to put it. "Two rather special candidates. I think you'll like them."

"Last time you said that, the man in question tried to kill me with his hat. Why do they all wear fedoras, anyway? What's the appeal?"

"Outsiders simply have a tragically limited imagination when it comes to fine headwear," said Yukari. "By the way, where is that little inchling who's been here a lot recently?"

"Off with Suika. Apparently, they've become pretty good friends once they started playing around with each other's sizes. They're likely somewhere in the forest around the shrine." Reimu dithered on the spot, but let out a heavy breath and got up. "I'll be back in a moment." She went back into the shrine, leaving Yukari to enjoy the day in peace for a bit. It was a rather nice day – sunny, but not too hot, and the wind was quite nice. Not too many clouds, either. Tranquil and peaceful. It was these kinds of days that always blended together in her memory, but Yukari always loved these moments. The moments in which she had a chance to admire the simple natural beauty of her beloved Sanctuary.

Reimu returned, a tray of tea in her hands. She seemed to have also returned to a fairer temperament as she sat on the steps next to Yukari and took a sip. "That reminds me... those two you're bringing in wouldn't happen to be the two who crossed over last time, right?"

"Last time..." She tried to recall. "Renko and Merry, you mean?"

"Yeah, those were their names."

"No. Well..." Yukari giggled a bit, enjoying her little inside joke. "Not entirely."

Reimu frowned and looked over. "And what's that supposed to mean?"

"Come on, my dear shrine maiden, ask questions you know I can answer."

"Alright, how about this: when's the next incident?"

Yukari pondered it a little bit. "Exactly one week after the new Outsiders come in. You have until then to kick back, so no worries, you know? The incident itself will involve Cirno getting out of hand. You'll go to the Scarlet Devil Mansion and fight her there. The Outsiders will go with you. They'll chip in, but it won't be a very large incident. The one that comes after it, however, will be. For that one, try sending them out on it and see what happens. If they fail miserably, you shouldn't have any problem cleaning it up. As usual, don't tell anyone I told you."

"Sounds like you're just building a gauntlet for them," Reimu noted.

The gap youkai shrugged. "Maybe I am, but it's not necessarily for them, is it?"

"Try not to make my job more difficult than it has to be."

Yukari blinked, then laughed. "Reimu, Reimu! Why in the world would I want to do that? These will be simple things, you see. Basic errands. You could hardly call them incidents. I assure you, they will have minimal impact. See? Renewable incidents."

Even so, the shrine maiden pulled a face. Once Yukari had her mind set, she couldn't really stop her. Sure, she could turn her to a smear with Fantasy Heaven, but that'd probably just irk Yukari even more and convince her to make Reimu's job even worse. Before she could say anything, though, there was an unmistakeable clatter behind them, and she leapt to her feet. "A donation?" She stopped and glanced back at Yukari. "This better not be one of your tricks again…"

She shook her head. "Not me this time."

Reimu gave her one last look before starting off for the donation box. Sure enough, there was several hundred yen in there. Yukari herself rarely donated, and nobody would do it as a prank. But as she lifted the lid and scooped up the money, she did recall; the Hakurei Shrine existed on the edge between Gensokyo and the Outside World. While not at the physical edge of Gensokyo, it was still the exit door. So, on the other side of the veil, someone was…

– TOUHOU –

Two people stood at the abandoned, decrepit shrine. One was a quite tall male, which helped to emphasize his ankle-length black longcoat, and his companion, a shorter (albeit still of average height) female, dressed in all manner of pink and white.

"Where does my money go after I put it in?" The male walked around the donation box a few times, but didn't dare touch it. "I've been throwing in a few coins every day since I flew in last year, but my money is always gone the next day."

She shrugged, then went back to jiggling her leg. "Probably just some hobo taking it, you know?"

"Hopefully, it's going to someone who needs it," he muttered. "By the way, Karin, I hope you did your own notes this time."

Karin Muyoka made something of a whining noise. She stepped up to him, touching his arm and completely intentionally pressing her rather sizable bust up against him. "Darius~, you know I'm not that good with numbers. I need your help~."

He immediately pulled away, a look of irritation and disgust on his face. "Stop that! Jeez, Karin, you know I don't like being touched, and definitely not when you act like that. It just… weirds me out."

She laughed a bit, then stepped back. "Alright, alright. Your reactions are just too good."

"And while we're at it," Darius pressed, "you're definitely not bad with numbers. I stopped sharing my notes with you for the final half of last year and you scored perfect on all your assignments, including the final exams. Nobody else could do that! Hell, you scored lower when you're coping my notes! Why?"

She just adjusted her pink-trim blouse and shrugged again. "Still getting nineties off your work, so it doesn't much matter, does it?"

He rolled his eyes. "Unmanageable…"

As they set off back down the path leading back to the city, Karin spoke up. "You've tried grilling me, so now it's my turn. When are you gonna get rid of that stupid hand cannon?"

"Hey, I paid a lot of money for it, I'm not just going to toss it out or leave it behind!"

"If you get us arrested, I'm gonna say you coerced me! I want my physics degree!" A thought suddenly came to her. "For that matter, how'd you get your hands on a revolver in Scotland to begin with!?"

Darius flapped his hands frantically. "Shush, shush, shush!" He looked around, but it didn't seem anyone was on the path with them. "Turn it down a notch, Karin."

Her golden eyes met his black. "You're the one breaking the law."

"Yeah, I know, I'll take the fall if it comes. Look, forget about it. I'm a pretty careful person, if I do say so myself. I like to think I know how to deal with keeping it covered up, but not if you go yelling about it everywhere." His eyes wandered down to her legs. "And when are you going to go for something less…gaudy?"

Karin kicked him in the shin. "Excuse you! What's wrong with pink pants? They're cute!" With a haughty huff, she pushed her long blonde hair back over her shoulder and adjusted her wide-brimmed hat - lighter pink, with a red bow. "Besides, you wear that stupid coat everywhere but do I hound you every step of the way about it?"

"Oh, what the hell, you absolutely do!" Darius' voice was more than a little strained as he hopped on the spot, clutching his leg. "And stop kicking me while we're at it, you've done it at least five times today! You're gonna break my shins at this rate!" In the end, both of them managed to calm down and keep going. "… Hey. It's been a year, right?"

"Since we flew in from Scotland? Yeah. For university."

"Mm."

"That reminds me, you don't send a lot of letters home. I usually send them monthly, but I don't think you've even been sending e-mails. What gives?"

"I'll ask you to not pry into my family affairs," he said through clenched teeth.

This time it was Karin's turn to roll her eyes, but she let the point go. "Your Japanese has been getting better, at least."

"Still keep mixing up words..." Darius buried his face in his hands. "I can't believe I tried to order that during lunch in front of everyone…" He lowered his hands. "But that brings up another point – I've been studying for four years before we flew in. You've only studied for two, but you speak like a natural. That's insane! What's your secret?"

She reached up and bopped him on the nose. "Magic, of course!" But she dropped the silly façade quickly enough. "I'm not too sure myself, to be honest. It's just something I can do. Well, I mean, I do usually stay up pretty late to review, but more often than not it just comes to me naturally."

"A lot of things do." A hint of envy crept into his voice. "Grades, looks, social circles, extracurricular, multilingual…" His eyes crept over to her rather low collar. "Surprisingly good balance with those – owwwowowowow!" Karin ground her heel into his foot and didn't show any sign of letting up. "Okay, I'm sorry, I'm sorry! Have mercy!"

She gave him one last stomp before letting him go. "You deserved it."

He opened his mouth to give a rebuke, but just muttered, "Okay, yeah, I totally did…"

"But it's not like I'm a total goddess," she eventually said. "I mean, you do realize I only get three hours of sleep tops? How do you think I learned to ingest enough caffeine to knock out a bull and keep functioning?"

"You're pretty bouncy."

She lifted her foot-

Darius leapt back. "The walls, the walls! I meant bouncing off the walls-type of bouncy, not that kind!"

Karin stared at him for a moment, then raised her leg a little higher and kicked him in the chest anyway. "Look, I get it! Stop poking fun at me over it. Damn two-facer, do you want them or not?"

"No!" He glanced over. "Well, yes… but come on, what do you expect? Wear a collar that low, of course I'm going to look!"

"Try saying that one in court and see where it gets you!" She leapt up, causing Darius to lean back as her foot whipped just an inch by his nose.

"Holy f – Karin, calm down, seriously! I'm sorry, alright?"

She stopped, but still drummed her foot against the floor as she set it back down. "It's just… argh!" Karin turned and stormed off, leaving Darius to try and catch up with her rapid pace. "It's been killing me all week now!"

"Um, what has?"

"There's gotta be more than just this!" She gestured to nowhere in particular. "I spend anywhere from a quarter to a third of my life in school and then get a job and what? Gotta work, day in, day out, endless grind for some forty years! Family, vacation, break, sure, those are a thing, but I just wanna be free!" She led him quickly through the city, cutting a quick path back onto the university campus. "I mean, it's okay, but at the end of the day, what did I do with my life? My friends and family will remember me, but then when my kids have their kids and those kids have their kids, I'll be pushed out of line and forgotten! I get less than a hundred years in a world that's existed for billions!" Right up the steps and to the dorm rooms, she blew right through campus and to their room. "I mean, it's just so inconsequential! I feel like I want to – like I need to be part of something bigger!"

"That's what you were thinking about?" Darius wasn't sure how to respond. "Don't take this the wrong way, but… seems a little early to be having a midlife crisis, don't you think?"

She threw the keys onto the table in the corner of the room, then leapt into her bed and buried her face in her pillow for a moment. "I have… an intuition, Darius. I've told you about it before, right?"

He nodded silently.

"Well, it's been telling me that we're destined for big things. It's been telling me that for years, now. But in all this time, nothing has happened! It just makes me feel pointless!" Karin rolled over, thumping her head on the pillow once. "I dunno, Darius. It's been bugging me for the longest time now. But it's starting to quiet down. That's what's getting to me. I can't tell if those big things are about to happen… or if they'll never happen. I can't stand it!" She sighed, the fight visibly leaving her body. "I'm being unreasonable. I just want to be remembered – really remembered. I want my name in the history books. Is that greedy?" He tried to respond, but she just went on without waiting for his answer. "Look, I shouldn't be taking it out on you. I did kick you a bit too much, and I'm sorry about that. But… something's messing with my head lately, and it's definitely not stress because when was that ever a problem for me? One way or another, there's a storm coming."

They sat in silence for a long time, each in their beds on opposite sides of the room.

Darius opened his mouth slowly. "Karin, I…"

Both of them jumped as the bell went off. As one, they looked at the clock, then each other. "We forgot class!"

He leapt off his bed, diving to the floor and snatching up his bag. "Oh man, oh man, the prof's gonna kill us!" He paused. "Well, mostly he's gonna kill you for being late constantly-"

"Excuse you, which of us is scoring high nineties in hell?" Karin was still packing as quickly as she could, leaping back and forth between random patches of the room. "If anything, you're the dead meat!"

"One way or another, I'm not risking it!" Darius nearly broke the door off its hinges as they slid into the hallway, then immediately broke into a sprint.

"Hey!" Karin fumbled the keys as she realize Darius was running off. "Don't leave me alone to lock the door!"

"Sacrifices must be made!"

"Argh! Darius, when I catch up, I'm going to kill you!"

– TOUHOU –

If you haven't checked yet, skip straight to the very last chapter for the update there. As you can tell, I'm rewriting BWD to fix how revolting the writing was.

This chapter was completely reworked. Aile shows up here instead of near the end. Yukari misses the party, but we established a few important things. Darius and Karin are placed one chapter early.

Well, hopefully, this becomes much more bearable. I'm going to be trimming out unnecessary plot points, scrapping characters, ditching fights, and generally completely revamping this Boundless Universe. Let's hope things turn out better this time, shall we?