Cold.

It was cold that night, and yet it was only the beginning of summer in this unnamed place in Gensokyo. It was indeed cold for humans, one that they will say 'near-freezing'. For some youkai, it would be unbearably cold. For others still, it would still be a comfortable chill.

The north wind blew silently, out of tune to the natural order of the winds.

"Why do you seek me?"

It was a grassy clearing facing a large lake. The water splashed silently despite the near-freezing weather. The wind blew again, disturbing the resting branches of the trees. A few birds chirped as they looked at the two lone people at the clearing.

"I seek power."

Two seemingly young girls stood before each other. They may look young but both have counted years beyond what most humans could call "young".

"Why do you seek power?"

The girl with golden hair and eyes wavered, her long hair waving with the wind slightly. She was at a loss for words, as if the question itself did not make sense at all. She looked at the girl in front of her, a blue haired girl whose eyes shone like sapphire. Her wavy blue hair dropped past her shoulders and the wind blew it with much gusto. She carried a red blade in her left hand, its green bejeweled hilt glinting at the pale moonlight.

"Do I need to reason to seek something so simple?" the golden girl answered sheepishly.

The blue girl frowned and said, "To seek power without a reason is utterly foolish and futile." She turned away.

The golden girl grinned despite of the rebuke. "Fortunately, I'm not such." The blue girl faced her again, this time with more interest and then she sighed.

"You are already powerful, sukima. Youkai tremble when you come. Humans fear your name. Wild animals stay back once they sense your presence. What more can you want?"

"More power," the golden girl answered simply. The blue girl only raised her eyebrows.

"Times are changing. Humans are becoming less fearful of the youkai each passing day. The time of changes is passing by like a storm," the golden girl said calmly. "At this rate, the youkai will become nothing more than a mere childish tale to scare toddlers to sleep."

"As it should be," said the blue haired girl. "The time of the youkai has passed. The time of the humans have come, as I knew it would."

"Why do you side with the humans? Are you not like us, not just in power, but in your soul as well?"

The blue girl smiled.

"Perhaps. But the youkai have become greedy in their power. I have seen youkai kill and eat humans the same as wild animals feast on their prey. In the end, the youkai have become nothing more than mere animals, a mere instinct of hunger, greed and gratification. It is the fate of humans to dominate wild animals, and if the youkai have become such, then it is inevitable that the youkai will be dominated as well."

"Are we then to become cowards like the oni and hide underground," the golden girl said impatiently. "As the humans begin to rule the surface?"

"That is not a question for me to answer. I am a nameless youkai, born to ever watch the things as they unfold. I have neither the power to foresee or control things as they happen, and I cannot offer you any aid that you might ask."

"And yet you have the power to grant others more power if you wish, do you not?"

"Perhaps, perhaps," said the blue girl. "But I do not grant it just because they ask for it."

"And what would you have me do now? Watch the youkai dwindle until only the two of us are left?"

The blue girl thought for a moment before answering.

"It is not my call to make. Only a few youkai know me by sight, and it surprises me greatly to see the sukima and honor me with recognition. However, I do not have the answer you seek."

The blue girl paused before continuing. "Perhaps the humans at the village may have thought of something. Humans are generally smart at getting through the most of the impossible things."

The blue girl turned away and faded gently and suddenly into the night like the cool breeze, leaving Yukari Yakumo in her thoughts.

A week has passed since Yukari saw her. She knew her suggestion was insane, and yet it made perfect sense. Over the centuries, she had seen humans struggle against the impossible odds of the world; wild animals, catastrophes, the oni, the youkai...the world is full of danger that could have wiped out the human civilization in one fell swoop.

And yet they endured.

How? What made them cling to their survival so much that they have driven most of the oni into hiding, and the youkai at bay? She must know.

Getting the answer will not be easy, she thought. As one who controlled boundaries, there are even boundaries on what she can and cannot do. She is not a goddess after all. She cannot simply pull an answer off her sukima like some people thought of her.

It needs some thinking.

That day, a traveler arrived at the human village. She was dressed like a rough vagabond, and the people paid little attention to her. She was dressed uninterestingly, and moved with little intention of stopping. She wore a straw hat to hide her face and her hair was tied roughly with a scrawny silken rope.  And yet she saw and recorded everything she saw.

She saw the little human children scampering around as they played, and a few farmers carrying tools and crops from place to place. The market was filled with food, and not a few human wife were haggling over the prices.

She wasn't looking in front of her, and she bumped into someone.

"Hey, watch were yer going!"

It was a large monkey, er..human with a burly face. He had a large scar by his left arm and a bushy beard that one could call alive.

Or at least that's what Yukari thought of him. Yukari has seen not a few humans, but other than the Saigyouji girl, she hasn't been that friendly to the humans. After all, humans persecute her kind, and the only reason that she had been friends with Yuyuko was that she was like her in so many ways.

A fearful thing for the humans.

"You want some trouble, girl?" the burly man asked. He grabbed her by the collar and raised his other fist threateningly. Yukari was thinking of abandoning the plan and instead kidnapping this blockhead using a sukima and interrogate him instead. Preferably with something fun. But before she could say or do anything, something unexpected happened.

"Stop that this instant!"

A girl in white cloth shirt and red skirt was running towards them, carrying a thick wooden stick held dangerously high like a sword. The burly man dropped Yukari and faced the running girl.

"Sheesh, I'm not doing anythin'...yet," he grumbled. The running girl stopped and faced the man who was twice her height.

"As a peace keeper of the village, I cannot allow any of your outrageous behavior in this village. Unless you want to meet him. The man flinched.

The man left without a further word, only looking back threateningly.

"Don't worry about him, he's just all bark," the girl said. Yukari looked at the plain girl who lowered her stick on the ground as she watched the retreating back of the man. "So, are you all right?"

"I'm all right," Yukari said. She was surprised and amused by this human who generally went out of her way to help her. Most of the humans Yukari knew where like that big monkey, and Yukari found it disgusting. But this human was different, almost unnatural.

"Do you need some place to stay?" she asked. "I know a good place where someone like you can be safe."

Someone like you? Interesting, she thought.

She led him to a house at the edge of the village where a silver-haired man was carrying some seemingly piles of junk from his house.

"Oi, Morichika!" the girl shouted. The man looked at them and raised his eyebrows in question.

They drank tea inside the small house.

They drunk tea bricks, or rather, hardened tea leaves. It wasn't bad, but Yukari certainly had better tea before. There were also some wotou that Yukari did not touch, but the girl with her took one and started to eat it delicately.

"I'm afraid I have only a few selections of tea, so pardon me if you find my hospitality lacking."

The girl smiled and said, "Not at all. You tea offers a different variety than what I find in my shrine." Yukari listened intently when she heard the word "shrine".

Shrine. The only shrine around Gensokyo would be the Hakurei Shrine. So that would mean...

"Ah yes, Hinaka. You're understanding is much appreciated," Morichika said.

Yukari felt a strange prickly sensation at her neck, and it felt strange. It didn't feel like the usual excitement she feels before a fight, but rather, a sense of anticipation.

The Hakurei Shrine Maiden herself! Yukari is still shuffling her cards on what to do next. Her original plan was just to watch and to study. It all fell apart when she bumped into that large idiot.

The Hakurei were known among the youkai as the guardian of the area. Not a few youkai has tried to best them in combat, but none of them ever succeeded. Yukari herself had been at odds at the Hakurei clan at times.

This is her first time meeting a Hakurei outside of combat. The Hakurei girl looked young and lively, but Yukari could see the eyes of an experienced warrior in her face.

Very interesting indeed.

After they have drunk their tea, the table was silent. Yukari felt the eyes on her.

"So, why are you here?" Hinaka asked. "It's not everyday that we see youkai dressed like a human pauper in the village. And it is impolite to not to take off your hat inside ones house."

Yukari sighed. She took a deep breath and took off her straw hat. Morichika and Hinaka's eyes both widened as they saw her golden eyes regard them with interest.

"Very interesting. And here I thought that I would easily pass off as a human. I guess I have misjudged your race quite easily."

"The sukima," whispered Hinaka under her breath. "But..."

Yukari raised her hand, "I have not come as an enemy. I only wanted to see for myself what a friend of mine told about humans and--" she smiled sheepishly, "--I'm trying to stay off meat in my diet."

Morichika had recovered from his shock and coughed pointedly. "It's quite surprising to see a regal youkai like you dressed like a common beggar. What is your intention for doing so?"

Yukari thought better than to go fooling around with her words. And this...human, is interesting. She is different than other humans she had seen so far.

And this Morichika, something about him seems so wrong, and yet familiar at the same time.

"I have come because something is disturbing the youkai. You all know the migration of youkai this past few months, correct?"

Both Hinaka and Morichika nodded.

Since the last few years, with the start of the Meiji Era, many outsiders have been coming and going throughout the land. They have brought knowledge and ideas, intellectual theories that the people of this land found fascinating.

And yet there was one disturbing thought that these outsiders have brought.

Youkai do not exist. All natural phenomena can be explained by science.

Yukari could only laugh at them, and yet as the years drawn on, she saw the effects of that thinking on humans.

Humans fear youkai. That's why the youkai brought so much terror and destruction upon the humans. Why there were youkai hunters. Why there was Gensokyo. However, the humans outside of Gensokyo have learned science, turning their backs on the knowledge dearly bought by their ancestors and relying upon the words of these strangers. And it has taken their toll on the youkai.

Youkai everywhere had been driven away, as forests were cut down to be used for farming. Youkai who hunt at night are no longer feared, for the strangers have brought light on the streets.

Youkai now fear humans. What a twisted world it has become, Yukari thought grimly. The youkai that have been driven out of their homes have moved to Gensokyo, a place where youkai is thought to walk openly under the sun without fear of being killed. It was paradise for youkai, in a sense.

Gensokyo is a land that was placed for humans who had the ability to see, track and hunt down youkai. Those who live there are warriors of blood, honor-bound to their duty. And yet Yukari saw that dwindle as well as those warriors start to grow their families there. The youkai who had moved to Gensokyo in hope of getting a good challenge and food also have become docile, and only a few like Yukari move openly and hunt.

What has become of Gensokyo? Yukari was lost in thought.

"That has disturbed me as well," Morichika said. Yukari raised an eyebrow. She wasn't someone who could easily be distracted by her thoughts. "The number of youkai sightings have been alarming, and yet there are only a few instances that exterminators need to go out and hunt."

"And the foolish idiots at the capital wants to close us down! Now when the youkai are in their earnest!" Hinaka said heatedly.

Close down?

"What do you mean?" asked Yukari. Something she didn't know, hah, she must be getting dull at getting news as well.

"The people at the capital said that Gensokyo is using funds for nonsensical purposes," said Morichika before Hinaka could say anything else. "They want to relocate the citizens of Gensokyo to residential areas...as they plan to use it for industrial reasons."

Yukari had to catch her mouth from falling open. Here as well?

She heard stories of how humans made those "industrial" things. They tampered with the ground, reshaping valleys and turning earth into a huge disgusting pile of rocks. No sense of fashion at all. Youkai dislikes being disturbed.

"If they do that, what do you think the youkai will do? They'll go on a rampage, and everybody in this land will be affected," said Hinaka with frustration. "The people in the city have little knowledge of how the land works, and yet they presume to have the knowledge to make it work."

"Yes, but there is but a few things that we can do about it," said Morichika. "The government have guns you know."

"If I have to, I'll fight them to defend Gensokyo," Hinaka said with vehemence. "Guns or no guns. If they want to take Gensokyo away from us, they have to bring the army of Sekigahara themselves."

Morichika and Yukari were both silent by the girl's outburst.

It seems that the humans are disturbed as well, Yukari concluded.

It would be interesting to know how it ended like this.

Yukari was sitting on a cushion, sipping a luxurious jasmine tea as Hinaka swept the shrine grounds.

This girl, she flares with the flame of Ranmaru Mori, Yukari thought. It would be a shame if she burns just as fast.

She sipped more tea, ignoring the absence of furnitures around the shrine. The Hakurei shrine had always been known for its austerity. Only the gohei carefully placed at a corner of the room was the lone proof that it is indeed a shrine maiden's abode. Yukari did not touch it.

Hinaka lived alone in the shrine it seems, as both her parents were killed during a youkai extermination. When Yukari learned of this from Morichika, she thought that Hinaka might harbor anger against youkai, as most of her kind does. But Yukari was extremely surprised when she offered her a place at the shrine.

The girl insisted that she should stay at the shrine. While Yukari had a home, and it would be merely a manner of opening a sukima to get there, it was extremely impolite to refuse someone who offers you shelter.

Plus, Yukari wanted to know more about this girl.

She saw a red-spotted cat walking by who regarded her with little interest as it curled on a corner of the room. Hinaka finished sweeping the floor and came to sit on another cushion to rest.

"This is a pretty peaceful place," Yukari said.

"Don't be too nice. I know it looks like a dump," said Hinaka. "There are almost no donations at all, and I have to sell most of the stuff to buy food."

Hard times, I guess, Yukari thought. "You said that you were the peace keeper of the human village."

"A peace keeper," Hinaka corrected. "And they don't pay enough for rice."

Yukari had to laugh at that. Hinaka wasn't amused. Suddenly, the cat at the corner of the room jumped and landed on Yukari's laughing face.

"Wha--" The cat clutched her face tightly, but not quite roughly that the claws dug into her skin. "Get it off me!" Yukari was on her back as she struggled to take off the frisky cat on her face.

"Stop that, Hishiro," Hinaka told it. The cat jumped off the distraught Yukari who tried to recompose herself. When she sat again, she saw Hinaka holding two orbs in each hand. "Sorry about that, Hishiro is kind of protective of the shrine. I'm used to it, but Hishiro becomes angry when someone laughs at the shrine."

Hinaka put the orbs on a nearby cabinet carefully to keep them from rolling off into the floor.

"So, now what do you intend to do, sukima?" Hinaka asked.

"Please, call me Yukari."

Hinaka raised her eyebrows. "You honor me by telling your name," she said dryly. "But it would be better if I knew why a powerful youkai like you were wandering around the village."

"Ah, that is of little matter," said Yukari. "I was troubled by the fact of disturbance with the youkai, so I wanted to investigate." Yukari laughed gently. "It would seem that the humans are in a fix as well."

"For a youkai, you seem to be really interested in the matters of humans," Hinaka said.

Yukari laughed again. "Is that so? My...colleagues will disagree. In fact, you are only the second human I've talked to...as an acquaintance."

"Second? It would be interesting to know who was the first, but," Hinaka suddenly sat up. "It would seem that I have another guest."

There was indeed someone calling out the Hakurei at the shrine gate. It was a well-dressed man. Probably from the city. Yukari was disinterested, and she waited for the girl to come back. She amused herself by looking at the orbs.

She has heard stories about those orbs, although they were mostly rumors. While it's unknown to the humans, youkai love to gossip as much as humans do.

Hinaka came back shortly, looking more angry than before.

"They want us to leave by next month," she said quietly before sitting down. She said nothing more.

Yukari probed the Hakurei Shrine grounds. Hinaka regarded her with little curiosity as she watched the sky lazily while lying down on the floor without spreading the mat.

The great youkai who have gained wisdom over the ages, regarded the lie of the land with utter amusement.

Ley lines, so many of them...

She looked with inhuman eyes the energies that make up the land. She saw, to her surprise, that the ley lines of the wide and vast land of Gensokyo are all connected to one place.

She suddenly had an idea.

"What do you mean, to hide Gensokyo?" Hinaka looked at her disbelievingly.

"Not to hide," Yukari said, a fan in her hand. "I think I know a good way to solve everybody's problem at once."

Hinaka regarded her with dissatisfaction.

"You see, the youkai and humans have a common problem. The lands outside of Gensokyo are changing faster and faster. The outsiders have brought knowledge and ideas that both the humans and youkai of Gensokyo find...uncomfortable." Yukari stood up, her fan in her hand, "Therefore, I believe it would be of the best interests of the citizens of Gensokyo that Gensokyo be separated from the outside world."

Hinaka was silent for a moment.

"You are insane," Hinaka said simply. "Not that I don't believe that you can, but how do you think the humans will react if you told them that they will be living inside a border of your making?"

Yukari slapped her fan on her other palm. "You misunderstand me. A youkai like me cannot accomplish something like that, at least not alone."

The shrine maiden raised her eyebrows.

"I would need the help of the humans. And you as well, and a certain acquaintance of mine..."

Surprisingly, the humans at the village consented to her plan. While most of them were loathe of Yukari, they were not unaware of the danger posed to them by the city people. All of them have been born in Gensokyo, grown in Gensokyo.

Gensokyo is their life.

Like Hinaka, all of them are prepared to fight for it if the government did come to take it away from them. Of course, if there was an alternative, they'd take it. And Yukari simply just gave them one.

Now the hard part comes next. While the humans may think Yukari as a powerful youkai, the only thing Yukari can do is to manipulate the boundary to envelop Gensokyo. And to keep that boundary open in such a big scale will kill her. Or at least suck enough of her power to render her powerless for a long time. Not a nice thing to think about.

But she knew someone who had enough power.

"So you have come back."

Hinaka was dressed thickly, but she still shivered like they were in a middle of a blizzard. There wasn't snow, but the air itself seem to suck the warmth from your body.

The nameless youkai appeared suddenly and regarded Yukari indifferently.

"I see that you have found your answer."

"Yes. I now have an answer to your question."

"I would like to hear it," the nameless youkai said with a smile, "though I think I know what it is already." She regarded the shivering Hinaka.

"Yes, I want power to protect Gensokyo and preserve it as the people within it wishes."

The blue girl was quiet for a moment.

"Yes, that was what I expected. However, I cannot grant you your wish just yet."

Yukari took a deep breath. She knew what was coming next. Hinaka brought out her Yin-Yang Orbs.

Both Yukari and Hinaka was spent, and the nameless youkai brandished her scarlet sword.

"Is this the end of your will then?" she asked. "I was expecting something more."

Yukari could hear Hinaka panting heavily behind her. "What is she?" she asked Yukari.

Yukari was silent. Never in her years had she fought someone like the one before her. The Ability to Manipulate Energy, the nameless youkai of the lake.

"Do you give up, then?" she asked. "I have no intention of granting power to those who cannot fight for it."

She had the ability to manipulate any energy, to turn ice into fire, or your strongest attack into nothing more than an infant's punch.

She...was powerless before her. She, a youkai that have lived for centuries, a youkai that has attained the power to manipulate the boundaries of reality...

Powerless before the one who can manipulate the source of power itself.

"Never," said Hinaka. "I'd rather die first before failing Gensokyo."

Yukari heard Hinaka's words, and wondered where her courage comes from. Both of them were spent, almost at their limit. Hinaka herself looked close to collapsing.

"Then would you like me to grant you your wish?" asked the nameless youkai. She approached Hinaka, brandishing her scarlet sword while holding it with its green bejeweled hilt.

"NO!" Yukari gritted her teeth. With the last of her reserves, she threw open a hundreds, no, thousands of gaps around her and channeled everything she had in them.

The nameless youkai regarded her with a smile.

Yukari clenched her fists as the gaps open fired with all of a youkai's power. Countless balls of fire, lightning, and nameless things poured forth from the gaps, coming from places that Yukari didn't even know. She rained upon the nameless youkai everything she had, endlessly, repeatedly. She lost count of the time, as the boundary of time itself was being breached. Seconds became eternities, and Yukari felt as if she spent an eternity firing everything she had. She put Hinaka inside a boundary to protect her from the destruction of her power unveiled.

And still, it wasn't enough. When the dust faded, the nameless youkai stood unscathed. The ground around had cratered, the grass and plant life consumed beyond reincarnation.

"I see. I understand now," she only said. She approached Yukari and knelt before her. She touched her forehead and Yukari felt lighter. To her amazement, she saw her hurts and bruises heal almost instantly. She did the same to Hinaka as well when Yukari brought her out.

"I will aid you," she said.

At the Hakurei shrine, a huge ornate circle was drawn according to Yukari's instructions.

The four alignments, north, west, south and east...

Hinaka stood at the center, clutching the Yin-yang orbs and waiting for Yukari's instructions.

The four pillars of nature, water, wind, earth and fire...

The nameless youkai stood at the shrine gate, seemingly content to wait.

The four planes of realities, hell, earth, heaven, and void...

Yukari surveyed the circle and was content. It was a spell that Yukari knew from a long time ago, and yet never actually expected to put into use.

"Now, we begin."

The circle started to channel Yukari's power into the center of the circle, into Hinaka. The energies spread around the ley lines, around Gensokyo. In the horizon, a multi-colored wall of light started to form.

Yukari felt her power drained almost instantly, and then felt the bottomless surge of power from the nameless youkai.

Yukari started to chant words from forgotten languages, perhaps older than the history of the land itself. It commanded the earth, the land itself to do as what she wishes. She felt raw energy course through her, and Hinaka aided her as she channeled some of those energies through herself and through the land.

They were one with Gensokyo. They had become Gensokyo.

Suddenly, she felt something utterly wrong.

"This is bad," said the nameless youkai. "I fear that we are being hindered."

Suddenly, the sun became dark, and Yukari felt a strange unworldly presence around them.

Darkness. Darkness beyond the void, nay, darkness that devoured everything, even void itself.

"So, this is what you were up to."

Yukari saw a flying, golden haired girl, just like hers. Except she had red eyes and she regarded them with utter disdain. Around them, the energy driven and manipulated by Yukari swirled and danced as the boundary started its initial stages.

"I didn't think that you would be able to pull something off like this," the red-eyed girl said. She brandished a sword of purest black and smiled. "It would seem that this is my chance to kill you, Yukari Yakumo."

"Ah, you always come at the worst timing, Rumia," Yukari remarked in a conversational tone. "But unfortunately, I cannot have fun with you today."

"Is that so?" she said. She charged straight at Yukari.

"Yukari!" Hinaka shouted. The sounds of the energies around them are now deafening. It frizzled and crackled like lightning.

"Don't worry, child," the nameless youkai said. She brandished her red sword and put herself between Yukari and Rumia. Energies flared around her, and for the first time, she unveiled her true power. This was nothing compared to what she used on Yukari. This was pure energy in its purity  Crystal wings of energy formed behind her, and from it she channeled energies beyond human reasoning and hurled it at Rumia.

"Hinaka, we must continue with the border," Yukari shouted. "She can take care of Rumia!"

Hinaka nodded.

"Agh!!! You're so annoying!!" Rumia said as the nameless youkai parried her blows. Rumia found out that she can't use her darkness to blind her opponent, for she radiated pure energy, and dissipated her darkness like fire burns hay.

"GET OUT OF MY WAY!!" Rumia charged into her. They were fighting in the sky like two hawks. But the nameless youkai is no hawk.

She is an eagle.

Rumia is getting annoyed as each of her blows are being parried and her shots dissipated into nothingness.

"Damn you!" She suddenly unveiled her power, and darkness suddenly reigned upon Gensokyo.

"What's happening?" asked Hinaka.

"Don't mind them," said a worried Yukari, "just mind the border!"

The border was already half-formed, and Yukari can feel the drain on her body. It may not be her energies, but her body was serving as a pipe for the flow of power around her.

And pipes can burst.

On and on the battle at the black sky dragged on. Rumia showed no signs of fatigue, and the nameless youkai regarded her with indifference. The nameless youkai had showered Rumia with icicles, fireballs and bolts of lightning, but she wasn't surprised that Rumia herself isn't scratched.

Darkness that devours everything.

A match for someone that has near unlimited energy at her disposal. The nameless youkai knew it was a futile fight, but she must continue.

"What the heck..." Morichika arrived at the shrine to see a spectacle that will be forever etched into his memory. At the shrine grounds, he saw the ritual of Sealing being done by the shrine maiden and the Gap Youkai, while two unnamed beings fought at the black sky. Behind him, a few exterminators looked at the sky with jaws wide open.

"You, are so much fun to fight," Rumia said as they exchanged blows. "You're even more fun than Yukari!"

The nameless youkai said nothing. She felt her power waver for the first time.

Everyone who knew her thought she was a being of power, the strongest. The Nameless Youkai.

Truth be told, she knew that she was not immortal. She knew that she can manipulate a near infinite amount of energies. Her energy was sufficient to destroy worlds, but certainly not infinite. The power needed to create the border that can manipulate reality itself was taxing her.

She knew the fight with Rumia must end. Soon.

The border was nearly done. Yukari felt like she'd never felt before. It was as if her existence herself was becoming a mere tool to channel the energies flowing into her. She continued her chanting as Hinaka mirrored her words.

The Nameless Youkai knew she must do it, and soon. Her power was nearly drained by the border. She knew that the energies needed to create and maintain the border will kill her. She didn't tell anyone, not even the Gap youkai. Everyone thought that she had an unlimited reserve of energy. Still, it doesn't mean that she must scorn her duty to Gensokyo as well. She loved Gensokyo, loved it when she first came here and swore to protect it. Over the years she had become a docile youkai, and became a watcher of the events unfolding.

This would be her first, and last gift to Gensokyo.

Throwing away any regard to her safety, she created a magic seal with her body and charged at the maddened Rumia. She didn't defend herself, and Rumia easily stabbed her with her black sword. Rumia laughed like a maniac before realizing what she had done.

"Like my gift, black girl?" The nameless youkai asked as blood flowed from her chin.

She felt the last of her energies trickle away. But she was linked to Rumia. And Rumia felt her energy being sucked to feed the hungry border as well.

"Aaah! You stupid, stupid, stu--" Rumia's words faded as the Great Barrier started to form.

There was a rending crash, and the darkness cracked. The nameless youkai shouted in triumph as she burst into pure radiance and was no more.

The forming of border took almost no toll, if an indifferent human is to be asked.

Yukari lay on the shrine grounds, her vision was wavy and unfocused.

That, she told herself, will be the last time I help humans.

She could barely move, and she heard the voices of other people around her.

"Are you all right?" she heard a familiar voice ask her. It was Morichika.

Yukari tried to sit up, but felt gentle hands help her up. Her head swirled as she felt the ground beneath her feet again.

How do humans put up with this? Yukari asked silently.

Hinaka was unconscious but breathing heavily. She was exhausted...more exhausted, since she is only a human that wielded energies sufficient to destroy worlds.

Yukari looked around her and saw that nothing has changed. Yukari felt a pang of guilt and she pushed Morichika away and approached the gate leading to the outside world. It looked as if nothing changed. She reached out, and felt strange energies resisting her touch like a heavy curtain.

Yukari smiled. They did it.

She turned around, and realized someone was not there.

She found Rumia lying unconscious by the bushes near the walls of the shrine. Hinaka was now conscious, although she had little recollection of what happened. Yukari felt her youkai power heal her hurts faster than a human, and she could now walk normally. Flying would come a while longer, though.

"Why not just hang her," said Hinaka weakly. "She's more trouble than she's worth."

They were talking what to do with the unconscious Rumia.

"Do you have a spare amulet?" asked Yukari. Hinaka caught on quickly.

"You're pretty cruel, sukima," said Hinaka.

"Please, call me Yukari," Yukari reminded her.

They did not find the nameless youkai. Only her red sword remained. It was stuck at the ground, blade first. For the first time, Yukari was able to regard the sword closely. The hilt was fashioned in the image of a green dragon, and a green emerald adorned it's hilt. Golden bands wrapped the pommel, and the scarlet blade reflected the noon sun. Only an hour passed when they casted the border.

"You take it," said Hinaka. "After all, she is your friend."

Friend, thought Yukari. "Perhaps. But I'm bad at keeping things."

Yukari stood in front of the lake. Days ago, she was a different youkai entirely.  She was an indifferent youkai  to all humans. Perhaps, now her opinion of humans had changed. Some humans are certainly different, she thought. Some humans are worth talking to, or even--

And some youkai are just insane.

With her immense strength, she threw the sword as hard as she could across the lake. It vanished into the mist, probably landing somewhere in the waters.

Yukari turned away and started to walk back. Suddenly she felt a presence in the clearing. She was not alone.

Nearby, Yukari noticed a strange occurrence. There were frozen frogs everywhere.

She saw a fairy dressed in blue regard her with her blue sapphire eyes. She flew with icy, crystal wings, pretty similar to someone she knew.

"Who are you?" asked Yukari.

The fairy answered, "I am the strongest!"

Yukari laughed.