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Konoe Kanno      Last time Konoe and friends set foot into Phantasmagoria, they came to learn the truth about this world. It's history. And why is became a broken, fading shell.

     There were still questions, but there was one fact agreed upon by all; They were going to save Phantasmagoria.

     /How/ they were going to do that remained to be seen. But that was why Konoe has returned here this day. Rested and recovered from last time, she warily steps through the warpgate, eyeing the lingering shadows drifting this way and that among the ancient weaponry. She knew well enough at this point not to disturb them. Shadows aside, Konoe flicked her wrist, producing a single ofuda with the character for 'communicate' written on it.

     "Ahem. Sorry to interrupt your pleasant chat, but for those who are involved, I'm heading back into Phantasmagoria. I think it's time we took what Masakatsu gave us, and tried to figure out how to save this land." With that said, she lets the ofuda burn up into nothing, and then lowers her arm.

     "......"

     Her body lifted off the ground then, and she raised into the air preemptively, gazing out and around across the barren, colorless land. "Hm?" She intoned curiously, noticing something peculiar. Was that...color? In this world? It looks like a patch of green in fact...

     ...She'd wait for the others before flying off to check on it.
Alice Margatroid     Alice kept to her word and didn't have anything planned this week, staying at home, cleaning, cooking, sewing... trying to figure out how to make a specific doll, but nothing that would keep her away when Konoe requests her apperance. And when the message gets to her, Hourai and Shanghai perk up. "Are we going out again?" with a nod from the Dollmaker, it's not too long before they are out the door and into the air towards the warpgate leading to PHantasmagoria.

    Given a bit of time, Alice slowly catches up to the CatMiko with her two dolls in tow. "I came as soon as I got your message, Konoe." Alice mentions, "I told you I'd be here this time."
Sarah Parsle Just when you thought you were safe...

"Hey, Konoe." Sarah says, popping into the area. "Sorry I couldn't make it. Stairs." She doesn't explain more. She does, however, look around again, noticing a patch of color in the monochromatic area. "I'll have to figure out what I missed in the meantime, I guess. Probably something stupid important that we're all misinterpreting."

She sighs, resignedly, and pulls out her most powerful weapon, the Cane of Pacci, as she looks over at the others. "Okay, people and non-people. Let's get this done."
Reiji Arisu This is the second time now.

    One might think that Reiji was making a habit out of the saving of dying and rotting worlds. This is, however, his job. More than that, this world and what has happened to it is the antithesis of his very existence. Everyting that has gone wrong here is something that he has fought to prevent on his own world. To see him here, trying to make things right, shouldn't be much of a surprise.

He comes when called, moving with the swiftness expected of an Agent of Shinra.

    "Konoe," Reiji says, grimacing as he always does at the sight of such a blighted landscape. "Lead the way. Let's work to make all this right," because the price of failure is too high for Reiji to even fathom. They must succeed here.
Reimu Hakurei      Reimu flies along into the area with all four of the Yin Yang Orbs at her sides. As she surveys the surroundings, she manages to spot Konoe along with Alice, Sarah, and Reiji. She flies herself over to the trio and smiles as she floats in the air.

     "Well, did you manage to find Amaterasu again?"

     While it may have been rude of her to ask this, there was still a chance that Amaterasu might still be around. After all, she is the only person who hasn't said anything about this yet.
Xiaomu You don't always find Xiaomu where you find Reiji, and vice versa; however, the sage fox has made a point of being here to assist Reiji and the others - particularly because their teammate Konoe is so intimately caught up in things here. This is, to a large extent, her family's home, even if it might not be the exact same world Konoe herself is from. If nothing else, that makes it personal enough for Xiaomu to do what she can.

'What she can do' might be more impressive if she hadn't pushed herself a bit last night with a sustained series of rapid-fire cosplay transformations. She's pretty well rested up, though, and this time, she's got a charm which *should* buffer her against the deleterious side effects of being in a world which is, to all intents and purposes, post-apocalyptic in an extremely supernatural manner.

She simply nods to Reiji, agreeing silently but profoundly with his determination to drag this world back to a sort of pre-apocalyptic state. Even if he didn't actually mention that part.
Kirito How the heck does anyone save this land? Kirito's not sure it's a goal worth pursuing... but he's come this far. It wouldn't do to leave Konoe hanging. He comes through the warp gate same as usual... which leaves him standing next to Konoe and glancing around to eventually notice the same thing.

    Kirito's looking doubtful and wary. THAT screams 'trap.' But almost more importantly...

    "Why is it whenever we come here something CHANGES?"
Konoe Kanno      Alice arrives first, and Konoe resists calling her Doll Creep, given that she's taken the time to actually keep her promise. So she manages a small smile and a nod. "...Right. Thanks." She looks on ahead, peering out at that patch of green in the distance. That was very obvious, and not at all there the last times they came. Hm.

     Sarah arrives next, and Konoe looks down, descending a bit lower to get into proper talking distance. "Hi, Sarah." She tilts her head, ears flicking a bit after that. "...Stairs?" She'd ask more, but...it was probably some crazy Afterus thing. That seemed like it was always the answer when it came to that world. She let it be and focused her attention on Reiji the moment he called, looking in his and Xiaomu's direction.

     "Right. Thank you for coming. Both of you." Konoe felt a bit more at ease knowing that her Shinra colleagues were present. They were experienced with this stuff, right? She only had theoretical knowledge, but not a whole lot of applied experience. It would be good to have their expertise.

     And then there's Reimu, flying in. And the first question she asks has Konoe frowning. "......." She shakes her head. "No. I haven't seen mom at all." And Konoe wasn't sure if she was even /going/ to see her again, given the state this place was in. Kirito arrives next, completing the group and drawing her attention.

     Her ears fold forward a bit as she looks off at the green in the distance. The only spot of color in this place. "I don't know. It's suspicious, so... keep your guard up. But I don't need to tell you that." And don't talk to the shadows. Talking to the shadows is bad. They continue to drift in and out, totally ignoring everyone as they shambled across the battlefield, among the endless array of swords and spears stuck into the ground.

     Konoe shakes her head and rises into the air, before taking flight at a moderate clip. "That place might be a trap, but it's also a clue. Tread carefully."

     And off they went. Through the air, and across the ground, they traveled. It took a bit of a while, but eventually, that green patch in the distance began to grow larger and larger as they grew nearer and nearer. They began to be able to make out details. It was a field of grass and flowers. Teeming with life that was utterly at odds with the rest of the world. Konoe couldn't help but frown at the juxtaposition of life set against a dead backdrop. Hell, even the /sky/ above that field was blue. It was terribly unsettling.

     And they got closer, entering the field right about then. There, they find that at the center, which takes a bit of distance more, there are two small shrines erected behind rough stone platforms. One of them is in disrepair, with rotting wood and a collapsed mini-roof. The other stands strong, almost looking new by comparison. And someone speaks.

     "Finally, you've arrived." There's a coalescence of water and light as something forms on the stone platform before the broken down shrine. A white sun dress, long white hair, four tails with red accents, fox ears, and red eyes... It was Wakahirume. So she's still alive after all, huh?

     Konoe comes too a stop, blinking a few times in surprise. "...Sister? You're alive?"

     There's a scoff and a wave of the hand. "Of course I'm alive. Did you think I faded away like the others?" She smirks, sitting there before the ruined shrine, arms settling into her lap. "You saw Masakatsu's recollections, did you not? All of you did." Pause. She regards Sarah and Alice. "Well, most of you in any case." Her eyes close and she takes a deep breath.

     "Because I know you better than you know yourself; allow me to hazard a guess." Her eyes open. "You plan to try and save this land, don't you?" Her brows knit into a difficult frown.

     "Don't bother. It is an impossible endeavor."
Sarah Parsle Sarah must be in a good mood today, because she actually waves to the others. Kirito's question causes her to chuckle. "Be thankful it changes on its own and not according to some obscure quest progression mechanic, huh?" She replies... But then she shrugs. "Maybe there's some meaning to it. Maybe not."

She turns back to Konoe, nodding. "Stairs." She nods, agreeing. And still not explaining herself. IT is in fact some crazy Afterus thing.

After what happened last time, Sarah is sure not talking to the shadows. No reason to summon up those angry shades again. The XP was /terrible/. "Everything's a trap. Those weapons are a trap. The shadows are a trap. You being here is a trap." Sarah says, as they walk along. She's still going as they enter and she points at Waka. "Even Bubbles over there is a trap." She looks over to Wakahirume. "Oh, well, glad you could let us know it's impossible. No point in wasting time on pointless things, right?" She shrugs.

She then looks over to Konoe, folding her arms. "Welp, Kono, Bubbles just told us. I guess we better just walk right on out, huh?" You can practically hear the snark level rising. "But she does have one good point. What /are/ you trying to do with this place?"
Reimu Hakurei      Reimu raises an eyebrow for a moment, "Why are you here then? If it really was impossible, then you wouldn't even be talking to us right now." She flies closer and asks in a surprisingly cold manner, "Are you hiding something from us?"

     She glances back to Sarah and frowns noticeably, "If this was all just a trap, than this would have been much harder than it has been so far." Afterwards, she glares directly at Wakahirume as the four orbs begin rotate in the air, "Just go ahead and get to the point. If you're in the same situation as the others, then don't waste time."
Xiaomu An oasis of life in an otherwise dead world? Yeah, that certainly warrants investigating, trap or no trap. And Wakahirume's too obviously female to be crossdressing, so it can't be THAT kind of a trap either.

"Yo, Wakahirume-dono," Xiaomu waves to the daughter of the sun goddess. "Fancy meeting you here. Glad to know there's at least *one* kami still around ... and," she tilts her head towards the other shrine, "hopefully there's more than just the one."

Then she does something which might seem remarkably out of character, particularly with how little respect she gave Wakahirume LAST time around. She unpacks a package of fried tofu, and actually *kneels* in front of Wakahirume to make her offering. "I regret not having anything more appropriate to your tastes, but I hope you shall be so gracious as to accept this humble offering," Xiaomu intones - and her wording is downright formal, her dialect .... well, she actually SOUNDS like she's 765 (or so) years old, the way she's talking. Guess she takes some things seriously after all.
Reiji Arisu     The juxtaposition is jarring. One moment they're walking through a barren wasteland, utterly devoid of life, the next they're making their way into a lush, green grove, as if completely untouched by the blight just outside its borders.

But then the reason becomes obvious.

    Wakahirume, and a ruined shrine, and another just next to it. A suspicion is born- a nagging, creeping thought at the very back of his mind. Reiji puts it away for now- at least for the moment. "Two," Reiji corrects his partner, and gently pats Konoe's shoulder. "They are sisters, after all, aren't they?"

    As Xiaomu goes to offer customary tofu, segueing into what can only be described as her 'business voice,' Reiji instead focuses his attention on his surroundings. His senses broaden, carefully cultivated supernatural awareness expands to take in all the world around him. "We are Shinra," he answers Wakahirume. "We come to restore the balance. If it were truly impossible, then there would be no reason for this quest, and that is obviously not the case."

"If it were hopeless, then you would have let Konoe sit in comfortable ignorance for as long as it would have lasted."
Sarah Parsle "Maybe the traps just suck." Sarah supplies, snarkily. "Also, the trap might not be for /us/."
Kirito Indeed, Kirito of all people doesn't need to be told that. There's a reason he approaches from the sky too, held aloft on Fairy Wings that thrum with a noise like wind instruments playing...

    Hearing the words of she who appears though, gets him sighing. He really has NOTHING to say to that! Because he kind of agrees. But he looks Konoe's way anyways....
Konoe Kanno      Wakahirume twitches at 'Bubbles'. And she warily, WARILY eyes that damn staff in Sarah's grasp. Keep calm. Keep calm. ...Don't envelop her in a ball of blazing water. No matter how tempting it may be. Don't do it! DON'T....DO.....IT.....-

     Ah, but then there's Xiaomu with fried tofu! Immediately, her mood is improved and an impish smile forms on the kami's face. "Ohhh? Well! At least one of you here still remembers to respect the divine!" ...Her four tails wag quite obviously in a giddy manner, totally at odds with her haughty tone as she receives the package and then starts to nibble.

     It would have been cute, if not for the tense situation.

     Reimu is glanced at, and Waka pauses mid bite, crumbs spotting her lips. "Mmn?" Her ears flick at the mildly cold accusation. "Hiding something? My, how astute of you, shrine maiden." The fox says, rolling her eyes in the process. Reimu's orbs are eyed, and then she sighs. "So impatient." She picks up another piece of tofu and starts munching on that.

     Xiaomu's other concern is answered right then. "Mmn. Other kami? Well... There is that one over there with you." She vaguely gesture to Konoe, who perks up awkwardly. "As much as she may pretend to be a shrine maiden, she /is/ a kami." Konoe frowns at 'pretend', and opens her mouth to retort, but Wakahirume just keeps going.

     "As for the others... Well, in a manner of speaking, they are gone. And not gone at the same time." She closes her eyes, starting on a the last piece of fried tofu. "Indeed, this quest was not pointless. But the point you seem to assume is present... is not."

     Konoe frowns at this and steps forward. "Sister, stop beating around the bush! What's going on here? Masakatsu showed us what Phantasmagoria was like before! It was full of life! Like this place here! And then the humans and the gods fought, and what's outside of this place is all that's left! But there's a way to fix it, isn't there?"

     The fox deity's shoulders start trembling as a laugh starts up. "You want to save Phantasmagoria? Ahahahaha! Sister, before that, you need to look within." Her crimson eyes open, leveling a piercing gaze on everyone in a slow sweep. "To realize that you, each of you, have no power to do so. And that is because..." She finishes the last of the tofu and then completes her statement. "Phantasmagoria does not want to be saved. The land itself has actively resisted any and all attempts at rejuvenation that I have made. The last of which..."

     She raises an arm and points right at the catmiko. "...Was you."

     Konoe blinks. "...Me? An attempt at rejuvenation? What in the world are you talking about? Make sense!"

     Konoe was her latest attempt at rejuvenating Phantasmagoria? What does that mean? Wakahirume didn't answer just that second. Seemed she was giving her 'sister', and her friends, time to figure it out.
Reimu Hakurei      Reimu merely rolls her eyes before rubbing shaking her head in disappointment, "Let me guess. All of the shadows from before were essentially Phantasmagoria trying to resist, right?" She shakes her head for a moment and continues once more, "It honestly sounds like Konoe is supposed to perform some sort of divine intervention in order to restore this world's power, but she forgot how to do it, right?"

     At this point, it seems really likely to be the goal here. After all, the young miko works for the Hakurei God and Sanae performs miracles under Kanako and Suwaka's divine aid. It didn't seem too farfetched for this to be the case here.
Sarah Parsle Waka /could/ probably make Sarah's life literally hell and broil her like a lobster if she really wanted to. The question would be if she could do it before Sarah caught her in another dreaded Doip Loop.

But no one wants to be the one to press that button, so they seem to engage in detente. "What she's saying is that you're intimately connected to the state of this place and what happened here somehow." Sarah translates. "And I suppose understanding that will help you understand how to reach this place and convince it to stop being all morose and emo about what happened."

She pauses. "I guess Bubbles wants to do world therapy. What do /you/ want to do though, Konoe?"
Kirito "To hell with that!" Kirito comes slamming to the ground, rather dramatically in fact. God? Goddess? The Swordsman doesn't care who he pisses off, it seems... because the landing he makes almost right next to Wakahirume's a violent one that kicks up some dust.

    The Spriggan's look is fierce, disapproving, even a bit ANGRY... and focused right at Wakahirume.

    "Cut the crap already, Wakahirume! Everyone in the know's been leading Konoe around like a cat chasing a string. And I'm sick of it."
Reiji Arisu     Reiji stares daggers into Wakahirume. He's... He has EXPERIENCE. The barely-concealed heat at the back of his eyes seems to bore holes into her skull. This is not the first fox-cat that Reiji has stared down. It won't be the last. "Have you ever considered," Reiji says for a moment, "That it is resisting your attempts to restore it because YOU are attempting to restore it? Or rather, that the ghosts that still haunt it have forgiven you? We've seen it, the war between man and god. We saw you there. We didn't see Konoe."

"But from what you're saying," he inclines his head, "You're partially responsible for her. Gensokyo, it was your plan after all, wasn't it? You orchestrated that."

    Reiji sighs. He fishes around on the inside of one of his pockets and fishes out... a cigarette. With a quick flick of Karin, it comes alight and smolders between his fingers. "But even then... Have you ever apologized to the world for what happened?"

She doesn't strike him as the type to try.

More like 'BEHOLD MY DIVINE POWER, AND COME BACK TO LIIIIFE' or something like that.

"Regardless. We're looking for something called the Origin. Do you know where that is?"
Alice Margatroid     Alice has been silent through this entire exchange, Hourai and Shanghai just floating lazily around her. "Hmm." she mutters, looking between everything that's going on. "I'm not an expert on shintoism or most religious matters, but... Reiji's right. Have you tried to apologize for the world, to accept it back? Maybe it's mad at you..."
Xiaomu "Konoe's a miko as well as a kami," Xiaomu observes, getting back to her feet. "Or at least, she's been functioning as a miko, kami or not ... and *as* a kami, she's in a better position to intercede than a mere mortal shrine maiden. Hmm ..."

Xiaomu looks to her partner, nodding. Yeah, the Origin is probably where they need to go for any form of intercession to make a difference. If the kami hereabouts aren't listening, the only real option is to go somewhere that they *will* pay attention.

... wait. Nah. It can't be that easy, can it?
Konoe Kanno      Reimu makes a guess. Wakahirume laughs. "Ha! Ahahaha!" And she shakes her head, shoulders trembling from laughter still. "Oh, what an optimistic view. The young really do see things with such clear eyes, don't they?" She leans back and settles into the stone before the ruined shrine, sighing to herself. "Those shadows are the lingering memories of Phantasmagoria's people. Unable to move past the tragedies of the past." Kumanokusubi and Masakatsu both said the same things about those shadows. They were a byproduct, not the direct cause or reaction.

     Her eyes close as she listens to what Sarah says, "World therapy?" They open. "Girl, do I seem like the type to want to do 'world therapy'?" She shakes her head, about to say something, but then Konoe interjects. "Mmn.... I don't get it!" And Kirito's outburst happens, lending to a moment of mildly stunned silence. One second, two, three four, five...and then Wakahirume laughs.

     "Hah! Ahahahaha! Impatient! What will you do if I do not hurry up, Black Swordsman? Perhaps kill me again?" Yes, he did kill her once, didn't he? That was...an experience. But one got the feeling that if she were killed outside of Gensokyo with Phantasmagoria in this state, she wouldn't come back...

     Reiji speaks up next. "Oho? So you are saying that because I am the one attempting it, that the world is resisting me?" She shrugs. "Foolishness." But he did have a point. She just refused to admit that much. There's silence, and then Wakahirume shakes her head.

     "Fine. Then I will set the record straight once and for all. So listen closely." The deity's expression turns completely serious, and Konoe swallows a lump in her throat. "It is as you say, Shinra Agents. I am responsible for my 'sister'. As well as what happened in Gensokyo. But not just that. Even far before." Her four tails shift into view behind her, waving hynotically to make a point.

     "You see, my last attempt to rejuvenate Phantasmagoria was to leave this world, and find something out in the universe which could help revive this place. The result was a little cat with no name. She drifted across the stars. She was my eyes and my ears away from here. Eventually, that cat found her way into a land called 'Gensokyo'. A land not unlike our own. With humans, kami, and youkai living among one another. Brimming with magic power. I observed this land through that cat for some time. And by some strange turn of fate, my little cat, who wound up being named Konoe, ended up eating something she was not supposed to."

     Wakahirume chuckled wryly. "That cat gained spiritual powers. Skills she wasn't supposed to have. She gained awareness beyond that which I granted her. And in turn, she became more active. She fought many youkai, and eventually, she ran into a certain thieving witch and doll creep." Her eyes settle on Alice. "They took her in, gave her a place to call home." Her eyes settle on Reiji and Xiaomu. "She left Gensokyo, and made odd friends from other world. She joined an organization called Shinra." Her eyes sweep to Sarah and Kirito. "She had many adventures, and met new and interesting people." Her eyes settle on Reimu. "She met the one whom she should thank for inadvertently giving her a true sense of self."

     Her eyes closed. "And then I decided that Gensokyo would do." Her lips curled into a smile. "Using all of my strength, I summoned Takamagahara into Gensokyo. I comandeered their sun. And I used it to revive my fallen siblings, and to awaken our mother, Amaterasu. If Amaterasu were to awaken, then perhaps Phantasmagoria would follow." Her eyes open. "Mother awakened, through much trial. And yet...Phantasmagoria did not budge. In fact, it grew worse with each passing day. Our homeland would not allow it's chief goddess to exist away from it. It would not forgive us for what happened." She chuckles. "We were pulled back. All of it. All of us."
Konoe Kanno      Konoe interjects at this point. "...And then I came here after the shrine was abandoned. So that's why..... But... But what do you mean that I'm our eyes and ears? You're my sister! I'm not some....part of you! Just... tell us how to get to the Origin! We'll go there and talk to the world ourselves!"

     Wakahirume smirks. "Oh, but you are." What? "Tell me; how many tails did I have in Masakatsu's recollection?"

     Konoe frowns. "......Six tails...."

     "Indeed. And now, how many tails do I have?" She goes on to ask, giving the miko an amused look.

     "........Four......tails....."

     "Very good! Now....how many tails do you have?"

     Konoe falls silent. Her blood runs cold. She pales.

     ".....Two......tails....."

     Wakahirume's smile turns wicked. "Precisely. You, Konoe Kanno, are an existence, that is a part of me." She points at Konoe. "You are two of my tails. And this quest? All of this recollection? It's not for you to save Phantasmagoria, oh no. Forget such a silly idea." She made a beckoning gesture. "I wanted you to learn what happened here, so that you would know the follow of man and god together, before returning to me completely."

     "..........." Konoe is silent. Stunned silent as she hears the truth about Who She Is.

     "There is no saving the world. There is no going to The Origin, and reviving Phantasmagoria. There is only you and me, becoming one once again, and then fading into obscurity. Just as Phantasmagoria wishes for all of us."

     "Now come, me. It's time for us to sleep at last."
Alice Margatroid     Alice twitches at the words 'doll creep', "You fake..." she replies back in spite, muttergrumble, 'I'm not a creep...' "Theiving witch does, however, sound right for Marisa..." a shrug is given as she listens more, floating over toward Konoe. "And with Gensokyo resisting even that, you wern't satisfied... so you continued to toy with our cat...err... Konoe." a quick correction, and a frown.

    When Wakahirume speaks up again about those tails, her eyes follow them.. then back at Konoe. "That's... that's not true." she places a hand upon Konoe's shoulder, gripping it a bit tight to reassure her that she's here. "She's not part of you, she's better than you, Wakahirume. There's no way in Makai she'll ever agree to such an absurd idea!" she turns to look at Konoe, "Konoe..."

    "You aren't her. You're better than her. You're Konoe Kanno, not Waka nutjob. You don't have to listen to her, you're your own youkai... and you're a Shrine Maiden... you and reimu should just seal her up. And I'll lend my help to do it because no one threatens my cat..." she turns to look towards Wakahirume again and readies her dolls in a shielding stance. "I'm sure that we're going to this Origin... and reviving Phantasmagoria... with or without you... And we're keeping Konoe."

    Besides, Alice has a lot more fish to cook for her.
Reimu Hakurei
     Reimu grits her teeth for a moment. There had to be a way to handle this since there might still be a way to bring Phantasmagoria back. She remembers something very important though and she sighs as the four orbs arrange themselves in front of her. She stares at Wakahirume without a smile, but with rigid eyebrows, a frown, and plenty of determination,

     "Well, that's certainly selfish of you. No, it's actually much worse than selfish. It honestly sounds like you've learned nothing at all."

     She glances over to Konoe and smiles to her once more before sending her attention back to Wakahirume, "Well, I guess this will be your final fight then, Wakahirume. And if you're the only one who knows where the Origin is, then..." She sighs before setting her attention back to Konoe, "Konoe, you might have to absorb her if she doesn't talk after this."
Sarah Parsle Sarah listens.

And listens. And listens.

She pauses, and nods. "Well. That's actually worse than I expected. Congratulations. You have managed to prove with basic math that you need to eat your sister."

Sarah just lets that sit there, letting the absurdity speak for itself.
Xiaomu "So you're just going to give up, after all the bitching and struggling," Xiaomu comments mildly to Wakahirume. "All the catting around, all the trouble you've gone to, all the trouble you've put *us* through, and it just comes down to 'welp, nothing left to do, lemme re-absorb my sister and fade out of existence forever."

The sage fox shakes her head. "Not to mention, after dragging *US* all this way and into a situation which is, pretty much, somewhere between 'hell' and 'our worst nightmare'. You think *I* like being here? A world where mortals are all but extinct, the gods are gone, life itself is dangling by a thread. Just standing here ranting at you is kind of a strain. So ..."

She plants her staff next to her, pulls out Silver and Platinum, and makes sure the pair of handguns are loaded with the right ammunition for the job at hand. "See, you forgot something when you split off a couple of your tails to go looking around for you. Konoe developed her own personality - and a far sweeter personality than yours, I have to say - and she's not 'just' a piece of you to do what you like with. It's not even a case of 'not any more'; as soon as you split her off, gave her life, you stopped having a say in what she does except to try and persuade her from the outside. So ..."

She levels the handguns at Wakahirume - although her fingers are still resting outside the trigger guards.

"To sum all of that up? Shut your face, because Konoe ain't doing anything that isn't of her own choice, and Reiji and I will kick your ass just for trying to take her away like you're *entitled* or something."
Reiji Arisu     And there it was. Konoe's origins revealed. Her ties to this world, the mystery of her absence in the visions. It's all laid bare.

No. Not all of it.

    Part of him seems surprised at this revelation. The rest smolders with a fury unlike anything the others may have seen in him before- with the exception of Xiaomu, of course. Reiji takes a long draw of his cigarette. It seems to glimmer in the dark. "There's something missing though, isn't there?"

    "Wakahirume. Goddess of the Dawn. You died." He says, puffing again on his cancerstick. "In our world, that's how the story goes. Susanooh got drunk and offed you. Maybe that's not how it was here. But I know there's no way someone with your attitude would bring him back just because. So that's a little suspicious." He taps a bit of ash into a tiny, steel case. He's not littering, at least!

    "But there's more than that. You said that she's nothing but a part of you, but just now you claimed that she acquired her own identity. She went out. She lived. She became someone, something distinct from you, to the point that she didn't even realize the connection until right now." Reiji's voice seems to build in timbre, growing in menace despite remaining completely and utterly level. There's fire there, but it builds like a volcano on the verge of an eruption.

Soon. Not yet.

    "Your words are contradictory, Wakahirume. Look behind you for proof!" The exorcist levels his cigarette at the shrine. Shrines. The one that seems pristine- the one that almost certainly belongs to SOMEONE HERE. "Look! I don't see any other gods here but you and Konoe. That's hers, isn't it? You're jealous; of her power, of the life she's lived, of the integrity of her existence, brought forth by those she's met, the bonds she's made. And because she's just some 'pet cat,' you can't even see that she might just stand a chance of saving this world."

    "But then, it could all be yours again. If you could just bring her back home. If you could just overwrite her existence with your own, subsuming her. But even if you take her back, you'll never have what she's earned. Once you let her go, she became her own self. Just as Amaterasu was created from Izanagi-no-Mikoto's eye, you created her from your tails. She is of your lineage, but she is not you. Not anymore."

    "Maybe you could merge. Become one again. But that wouldn't do anything for this world. It wouldn't even really do anything for you. It'd relieve your own envy, quench your jealousy. But that's just spite." Reiji takes a long, (un)healthy draw of fragrant smoke. "Whatever happens today, I won't allow you to take her from us."

    "Whatever we must do," he exhales, moving to stand in front of Konoe, interposing his own body in front of hers. "We will save this world. We will take Konoe back with us. If your power is necessary, then so be it. We'll make it happen. One way or another."
Kirito Kirito might be a fake hero with virtual powers, but his feelings on this matter are pretty real, and growing ever more fervent and angry. A sinking sensation in his gut's more than enough.

    "I'm not gonna say something like trying to revive this place was a bad idea. I'm not even going to say anything that happened during the war was a fault on you. But your first mistake was using Gensokyo as your plaything and seed bed with nobody's permission."

    Kirito slowly, certainly, solidly reaches up... and draws his obsidian black blade. "The second? The second mistake is behaving with all the arrogance and superiority complex that the humans of this world started to picture the gods with! Like hell a world that's been through all this would cooperate if that's your attitude."

    His voice is trembling angrily now, and he takes a step back. "Whatever Konoe's chances are, I can't say. But yours are pretty much zero. But even if that's the case, you just want to take her and everything she's accomplished... and just vanish into the mists of time or something? If you don't want to do anything with your life, then what do you care what she does? Your whole mindset on this matter's flawed."
Konoe Kanno      Alice denies it. "...It is true. Are you really going to deny the basic facts? Her life is my life. Don't you know?" Wakahirume smirks. "We certainly don't feel the same pain, but her existence is inexorably linked to mine. Did you not see how she flickered some time back when I vanished? That was no trick."

     And then there's Reimu. "Hah! Absorb /me/? Are you a fool? I am the original! What do you think will happen if she absorbs me? Ahahahaha!" Well, actually... the truth was that she had no idea. This was a situation in which a reverse absorbtion has never been attempted. But Wakahirume was going to bluff anyway!

     Sarah's words cause her brow to twitch. If this were any other situation, she might have squabbled with the snarky girl, but... no, this time, she just chuckles and lets it be. She's already made her decision.

     Xiaomu is looked at next, and the deity shakes her head. "You call it giving up. But I call it 'adhering to the wishes of my world'." Her red eyes steel a bit. "It does not want to be revived. So I will follow my world's wishes, and vanish. Every last part of us. And that includes the other part of me. My 'sister'." The staff is planted into the ground and guns are drawn.

     "Really now? You're going to attack me? Try to kill me perhaps?" Wakahirume's smile widens. "You know what happens when I die, yes? Without a way to return, such as Gensokyo's abundant magic, your precious Konoe will disappear as well."

     And then Reiji speaks. "I died?" Well, yes. She's died. Multiple times. But that was back when... ah. Susanoo. Really, they'd bring that fool up? Her eyes close. "That man was always an anomaly. Even to Phantamagoria itself." What that meant, there was no way to know, and she certainly wasn't going to explain it right now, in this exact situation. But itgets words.

     As Reiji speaks about how she's jealous of her sister, of all the things she's accomplished in such little time, her amused look gradually grows more and more sour. "You think...that I, the original, is envious of the one I created? One who is practically my daughter, not my sister?" Her teeth grind. She glances aside at the other unmanned shrine. "........." It was true. That shrine was for Konoe. For moment she was created, it formed. Just for her. But Wakahirume would not admit that.

     No. She'd never admit that. ".....You foolish, insolent...." Steam starts to rise from behind her, and from the ground, liquid began to rise. All around them, small droplets of water rose into the air. Higher and higher. "Very well then." Kirito's words are pretty much the spark that lights the fire. And water bursts up from the ground all around, causing grass and flowers to rapidly wither into brown mush as they lose their moisture.

     "Then I will take her back by force and eject the lot of you from this place personally!"

     A whirlwind of water follows, swirling about with superheated steam high above. "Now die." She states, standing up from where she sits at her shrine. With a sweep of her arm, all the water in the sky freezes still ...and then splits apart into countless 'arrows' of impossibly hot liquid, raining down onto everyone from above. Except for Konoe. She just stands there, stunned silent despite all verbal prodding. And the area around her is intentionally not targeted.

     It's begun.
Xiaomu See, this is part of why Xiaomu double-checked the load in her handguns. Normally, in fighting to defend herself against a goddess who's out for blood, she'd use anti-spirit rounds. But under THESE circumstances, where Wakahirume is probably about as mortal as you can get when still slinging around godly power?

Plain old copper-jacketed slugs, not a spark of magic or enchantment or warding on them. They'll probably hurt Wakahirume about as much as pebbles from a slingshot. Which is kind of the point.

Xiaomu scoops her staff back up and sprints laterally, zigging and zagging with literally every bounding step and beginning to squeeze off shots at the daughter of the sun goddess. She's NOT aiming for kill shots; she wants to be sure that her bullets aren't going to be unexpectedly lethal in the event that she scores a direct hit. She's also got matters other than offense on her mind; that super-hot water and steam is gonna really hurt if it hits anyone - and as she recalls from the last boss fight against Waka-baka, it gets even worse than this. So, she needs to cool it down some ... ah, there's an opening in the barrage.

"XIAOMU BLIZZARD!!!"

Her handguns are briefly holstered, and Xiaomu draws Suiren, the shakomizue's blade flashing in the sunlight as a wave of ice magic washes forth in the wake of her slash. It's not aimed at Wakahirume, but mostly upwards into the sky - trying to 'cut' a swath of cold across the barrage of superhot water and even hotter steam, and chill the former into relative harmlessness, the latter back into moisture.

In the next instant, Suiren is sheathed once again, back to looking like a normal Buddhist monk's staff, and Xiaomu's keeping the staff handy even as she draws her THIRD sidearm: the Roc's Icebrand. A few more shots are squeezed off at Wakahirume; again, she's using a normal load, *not* anti-spirit rounds. But hopefully she can still start chilling Waka-baka out.
Reimu Hakurei
     Reimu merely smiles as the four orbs launch a large barrage of red needles directly toward Wakahirume. Each of the needles seem to be pretty sharp as they are unleashed in very noticeable clumps. As the water arrows fall toward her, she carefully maneuvers her way around the heated liquid. At the moment, all of the arrows seem to come close to hitting, but they just barely miss their mark every time.

     "If you don't give, than you will hate what happens next!" As the falling rain arrows continue, her orbs arrange themselves in front of her body and the needles clump further together, forming themselves into what looks like a large red wave when crowded even closer together.
Alice Margatroid     "Her life is her life..." she responds, looking between Wakahirume, Konoe and the shrines behind. An idea starts forming in the Dollmaker's head and, if things are true... "Shanghai. Hourai. With me." a swing of her hands and eight dolls surround Konoe and she leans in. "Konoe, these will follow your commands, use them wisely. They are also bombs if you need them. I'll.. be back, I have an idea."

    Now, the danmaku starts and Alice has one task in mind... going to Konoe's shrine here. Taking flight, the dollmaker zips around and grazes these superheated arrows, wincing some as even the mere disance from them is scorching. Following up with that danmaku barrage, Alice's own starts to fire... kunai shots, lasers from Hourai and Shanghai... all in pretty colors too as the Dollmaker tries to weave through and head towards that empty shrine.

    There's someone here who needs some faith now...
Reiji Arisu It's begun.

    Steam rises all around as a scorned goddess unleashes her terrible fury. Reiji moves in an instant, the exorcist bobbing and weaving through the lances of flesh-sloughing fluid. Splotches of red spread across his face and arms and legs as the scalding clouds rise all around him. Even when he evades, it burns. But not badly enough.

He has arms. He has legs. He has his weapons.

That's more than enough.

    "Alice is on the move," he says, sweeping through another pair of steam bolts. Arcs of lightning dance all around him as he advances, Chirai's electric fury twining through bolts of steam, causing them to atomize and fall away. EARTH conquers WATER.

Speaking of water, Xiaomu opens a path.

Reiji does not hesitate to exploit it.

    He leaps, twisting through the bolts raining from the sky, and passes directly through the middle of Xiaomu's frigid wave. It covers him, shielding his body in a layer of protective frost as he descends towards Wakahirume. Chirai swings again, but... reversed. He strikes with the flat and the blunt back end of the Wakizashi, using it more like a stun-rod than a sword. "Look at what you're doing, Wakahrume. Wasting what power you still have on a *temper tantrum!* Do you not see!?"

    He swings. Lightning leaps from the blade, lashing at the angry god. "Your envy, your conceitedness, your coldness, and that aloof mask. History repeats itself!" Reiji bobs underneath another steam bolt, trying to smack the flat of his blade into the goddess' flank. "You're commiting the sins of both Man AND God!"
Sarah Parsle There is a sigh. "I guess there's no avoiding this. It was going to happen from the beginning."

When Waka begins unleashing her destructive force, Sarah is already in motion. She knows where the safe spot is going to be, and by the time the rest of the area is peppered with galeforce winds, murderous hell-steam and doom-water torrents, Sarah is clinging to Konoe, ruthlessly exploiting the fact that Waka is not going to directly attack her sister (daughter?) to gain some measure of protection.

Alice says she has an idea. Sarah sees no reason to not let the creepy doll lady have a shot. Her only weapon, however, is the Cane of Pacci... But the power of such a weapon can be useful indeed when used properly.

The air comes alive with the sound of 'doip' as bolts of magic fire into the storm, flipping pieces of the ice created by Xiaomus' strike to cause it to widen the gap and give people more breathing room.

"She didn't listen to you before. Why would she listen to you now?" Sarah asks, idly. "If she's such a spoiled brat, do what you need to do to shape a spoiled brat up."
Kirito Oh boy.

    Kirito can recognize a confrontation coming here. But then, he was the one to draw his sword. That was quite a statement on its own, wasn't it?

    But only a moment later does he realize... there's a good chance... HE IS IN FOR PAIN TONIGHT. Pain, and possibly injury.

    His resolve doesn't waver, but it sure as hell ends up stripped bare of comfort.

    But so what, a part of him realizes.

    The others here are willing to fight even with their real bodies on the line.

    He has no right to complain here.

    Translucent black wings extend from his back and send him skyward, for Wakahirume's not the only one here who can fly!

    "Uuuuuuuuuarah!!!" Kirito manages some spectacular deflections and parries, blade flashing back and forth to deal with some of those boiling arrows. He's splashed by superheated water here and there, and it brings a look of REAL PAIN to his face as well as afew yells... but...

    BUT HE KEEPS FLYING. In fact his speed REDOUBLES.

    "Really mature goddess routine, turning to blows over words!" He spouts with grim and fierce fury in his voice. It could be a shout for some other warriors, but for him it's just a harsh, deep thrust of heavy words.

    "Which tells me there's some truth to them!"

    Oh yeah. He aims to swoosh by and slash her side! He's avoiding obvious vitals, but...

    She's a Goddess. She can take some hits.
Konoe Kanno      And then everyone gets right into it.

     Well, no turning back now.

     Xiaomu leads off with a bunch of shots from her handguns. Not anti-spirit rounds either. Just plain of copper slugs. Normally, this would have done pretty much nothing to her. If this was Gensokyo or anywhere else with sufficient magic power. But here? With nothing to ensure godly endurance or immortality, they actually hurt. There's a shot to the arm, and Wakahirume yelps in pain. She doesn't remain there after that. With a leap into the sky, she floats, and with her undamaged arm, she conjures up five thin, gleaming, razor sharp threads that seem to manifest from her claws.

     Those are swung outwards, tearing through the air rapidly and cutting apart most of the bullets that came for her after that. She recognized that they weren't trying to kill her. Which mean she didn't need to defend her vital points, did she? Reimu's words are heard, and Wakahirume veers through the sky, weaving this way and that to avoid being hit directly by the spray of red needles. They graze past her skin and dress, causing minor tears and cuts, but not yet finding direct purchase. "Oh really now? Will I? We shall see, won't we?"

     Alice's various kunai and laser shots actively keep the daughter of the Sun Goddess dodging, even if she can see where the dollmaker is headed. "What... What are you doing? Get away from ther- Tch!" With this many people on her, she had to pay attention, rather than focus on one person. She'd deal with Alice later. After all, there's a Reiji coming directly for her. Oops.

     Right through an opening of steam, created by Suiren, he bursts through and into her face. "Kh...! A temper tantrum!? You people- Agh!" And again, a strike that really shouldn't bother her so much seemed to hurt as if she were a mortal being. The electricity is enough to make her sudder, but she moves her arm and calls up threads again, sweeping her arm out and causing several whirl inwards, aiming to bind Reiji's arm back.

     "Do you think I wanted this to happen? No! I tried! I tried over and over and over and over!" She retorts angrily now, moving her shot arm despite the pain and flexing her claws. Superheated water coats her entire arm, growing into a massive claw that is reared back. "Century after century after century! I tried so many things! Do you think I never apologized!? I did! And it wasn't even my fault! We just did what we could to keep the Phantasmagoria running!"

     And then with a angry, desperate cry, she sweeps that arm forward, cleaving through space and causing a wave of flesh searing water to violetly spill outwards and rush forward in something close to a tidal wave. Interestingly, the wave parted around Konoe before merging again behind her. She was definitely a safe zone. "I did everything I could! I tried to appeal to the humans before mother got angry! They refused to listen to my voice! I tried to stop them when they marched before Takamagahara! They refused to listen to my voice! ACK!"

     Kirito SWOOSHES past her side, leaving a gash in her side which slowly begins to stain a growing red. Wakahirume responds by growling angrily and clenching her good arm into a fist, then veering down, down, down to the ground, striking the earth with her fist. And what follows is the earth SHATTERING as gouts of superheated water spurt up from ALL AROUND, flying high into the air and splashing everywhere! ...Except for Konoe, and the two shrines. "AND THEN THEY MARCHED ON MY HOME BLAMING US FOR EVERYTHING! MOTHER GOT SO ANGRY SHE ASSUMED HER TRUE FORM AND SLAUGHTERED THEM ALL! AND WE HAD TO HELP!? HOW DO YOU THINK I FELT ABOUT THAT!?"

     "EVERYONE DIED! EVERYONE! EXCEPT ME! HOW DO YOU THINK I FELT ABOUT BEING THE LAST ONE TO SURVIVE ALL OF THAT!? AND IN THE END THE WORLD HATES ME!"
Konoe Kanno      And in all of this, Konoe remains still, slowly raising her gaze once Sarah gets all up into her business for safety. ".........." Silently, her red eyes settle onto the girl. And then at the battle going on before her. She brings a hand to her face and just stays that way, lost in thought, and unsure what to even do now.

     ...Who was she?

     ...Wakahirume? Konoe?

     What was she supposed to do? Just fade away? ...Save this world? ...Will the world let them save it? ...Was it presumptuous of them to think they had the right?
Reiji Arisu So.

That's what this was.

Reiji's lips press into a thin line. Wakahirume swings her terrible, superheated claw and Reiji-- presses through it. Terrible, swelling blisters rise from his exposed flesh as Xiaomu's frost is flash-evaporated by the scalding wave. The exorcist grits his teeth, lowering his crossed arms. He needs to press through the pain. He needs to push through.

Closer. He leaps forward, dodging around an enormous steam geyser. Right. Left. Right again. One catches him a little too close- but he's already a mess of burns and pain. He can take a little more. Just a bit closer. Reiji slides Chirai back into its sheath, body seeming to fold into itself.

Iaijutsu!?

No.

He gets close enough, and then... Uncoils like a spring and throws his arms around the screaming goddess.

Reiji has used... A hug?

    "I see." He murmurs over his embrace. "Yes. We were making the same mistakes just now, weren't we? Attacking for no reason but because we believed it was right. Because we believed it was our right. We are guilty as well, now."

"You can stop," he says, then. "This must stop, now. This struggle is useless."

"If all you wanted was for someone to listen, all you had to do was ask."

REIJI HAS ACTUAL FEELINGS!?

IT'S A COLD DAY IN HELL.
Alice Margatroid     Alice continues up her danmaku barrage all up until she gets to the shrine... "You've killed the faith that my cat has had in herself. All of this, all of what you're doing..." she lands in front of the shrine and takes a soft breath, kneeling down in front of it, she starts to pray. Meanwhile, Hourai and Shanghai move to cover Alice's back, sending out pulses of lasers towards Wakahirume's way.

    Even with the battle raging on, Alice closes her eyes and concentrates.

    "I am Alice Maragatroid... my prayers are here for you, my faith in you shall not waiver. We have had our bad times, and plenty of good times and I wish to see these continue with you. You've entwined yourself into my life... into the lives of many others. You're known for being kind hearted and stubborn and we accept you for this. I shall stick by your side, just as you stuck through mine... I could not see having life without you to be there. I pour my heart and soul into this, as a fellow youkai, as my friend and companion, as someone I want to continue to be with. Please, accept my faith in you that you shall grow strong, that you shall persevere with your friends here right beside you and that our love and adoration for you, Konoe Kanno, shall be there forever more."

    It's here she reaches into her dress and pulls out a small pouch and inside it are small coins to which she deposits into the box and rings the bell... before going back to praying for her cat using everything she can muster. She is, however, a sitting duck...
Xiaomu "Awaha.... ?"

Xiaomu slides to a halt, half staring at Reiji hugging the hell out of Wakahirume - maybe actually hugging the *literal* hell out of her, she can hope. Then the sage fox glances upwards and around generally.

A couple more shots with the Roc's Icebrand, another wave of ice magic from Suiren; she's not aiming anywhere NEAR Wakahirume now, mostly because there's all too high a chance that she'd hit Reiji instead, and that would be a Really Bad Thing. No, Xiaomu's trying to mop up as much of Wakahirume's prior attacks as possible - chilling the superhot steam and water back to a relatively harmless temperature, trying to weigh the threads down with ice so that they're a little less likely to cut through anything at a flick of a divine hand, tidbits like that.

And once the lingering attacks have subsided - assuming they DO - Xiaomu's very probably going to go follow Alice's lead. Or she might stick closer to Konoe and make sure she's doing okay.
Reimu Hakurei
     Reimu smiles brightly as she flies directly over to Konoe. She does not care anymore about the heated water splashing close to her. The pain is may hurt, but it's time to contact Konoe now.

     "Konoe, don't just stand there. After all, you've certainly proven yourself to be better than Wakahiru-"

     Her eyes bulge out as the wave begins to come out, At this point, she didn't really have a choice anymore and concentrates for a moment. As she is concentrating, a large barrier made of a huge red talisman appears above her head and at that point, the orbs stop firing as she stays in front of Konoe.
Kirito Kirito is getting PISSED indeed. The Spriggan hisses tightly as spears of boiling water pierce his avatar... and red, sore, corresponding marks might be there when he comes out of FullDive.

    "Just what's the POINT of this fight?! What's it ACCOMPLISHING?! Besides ruining this place even FURTHER now!" His words are harsh and biting, though he... gasps at seeing the crzy thing Reiji just did.

    Wow. Uh. He wasn't expecting that. He's not sure what will come of it. Will Wakahirume respond kindly to that? Or try to devour his liver or something?
Sarah Parsle Sarah looks back up at Konoe. Perhaps she's not just using the girl for safety, though that's a big part of it. She shrugs at the cat miko. "You've been through a lot, Konoe." She says, simply. "There's three ways this has to end. She consumes you. You consume her. Or we somehow find a way to convince her to abort this plan and to look for another solution besides the one she's chosen."

Sarah says this with all the methodical ponderance of someone explaining raid boss mechanics. "I'm not going to lie, I wouldn't give a damn if Bubbles bit it here. I think you're way easier to deal with. But at the same time, I don't think that's optimal. You care for her too, after all, that much is obvious."

At this point, Sarah, still blatantly abusing the area of safety around Konoe, looks to Waka. "You felt like crap. But you did everything you could. You're alone. You're angry. Life was unfair to you and your family. Have you considered that the place doesn't want to move on... Because maybe you don't want to move on either? You're trying to make things like they were. The past doesn't work like that. You can't ever really go back. All you can do is go forward. Everything dies everyually. Everything changes on a long enough timeline."

She looks out over the wrecked battlefield. "Maybe she picked this fight because she's tired of fighting. She knows she can't beat all of you. She tried that already, remember? It's not about ego."

She tilts her head. "It's about suicide by hero, isn't it? But is that really going to solve this? You'll be dead, and your sister will either fade out with you or she's going to have to muddle through it on her own. Is it really right to dump it all on her?"
Konoe Kanno      Reiji does a thing.

     Wakahirume was prepared for a strike, but... "Buh....?" Instead there's a hug. ...A hug!? A HUG!? She hears his words and freezes up. All of the water and steam and debris flying around stops then. Clumps of dirt and stone fall back to the ground without purpose, and all of the water flowing through the air begins to just fall as slightly warm raindrops now. "......."

     After several moments of silence into the hug, Wakahirume just starts sobbing. She doesn't say anything or try to explain. She just sits there and cries, letting out centuries worth of angry and frustration. Having to shoulder such an impossible weight all by herself, trying to fix a world that didn't want to be fixed. That blamed her and those that passed, man and kami, for what happened to it.

     And Alice's prayer happens as she speaks, Konoe's ears flick and she perks up somewhat. "...?" She can hear a voice. And it's not like Alice is anywhere close to her. It's... like she's being spoke to directly in her mind. She can hear all of Alice's thoughts and feelings. And something else wells up inside of her. An indescribable feeling, but one that confirms to her one undeniable fact; despite everything that Wakahirume said earlier, she knew now. She was her own person. And her own existence. She may be linked to her, but...that was it.

     Realizing this now, and having proof, thanks to Alice, Konoe lifts her head, a light returning to her eyes. "....I see now..." She looks at Reimu after, and Sarah as well, and nods slowly. "....Right. Thank you, Reimu, Sarah." She pauses, thinking on what was said, "....I know. I... have to do something. And I know what I want to do now." She smiles a little more than she usually did. "And it's thanks to everyone here."

     With that said, she begins to stalk forward, through the wreckage of the once beautiful field. Which was once the last place of life left on Phantasmagoria. She approached Wakahirume and came to stop in front of her, once Reiji finally sees fit to let her go. "....Thank you, sister." She wasn't going to call her Mom. She's already gotten used to the former. "...For everything." You made me, and gave me a chance to go out and see what lie beyond out own hopeless world. A chance to have a life better than the one you had." Her eyes close. "...I had a good life. When I was a cat, I lived carefree, drifting from family to family...people were nice. They took care of me, fed me, played with me... And then I ate Hakurei's mystery." She chuckled sheepishly. "...That was stupid. But I was curious. ....But now that I stand here talking about it... I don't regret it at all."

     Konoe glanced towards Reimu for a moment. "Sure... I was confused and angry at first. All these skills and thoughts in my head that I didn't recognize. But..." She looks at Alice. "But I met people that I cherish now." Her gaze moves on to Reiji, then Xiaomu, and then Sarah, then Kirito, and finally, Reimu. "...All sorts of people. We weren't always friends. Sometimes we clashed, but... They helped me." She turns back to Wakahirume. "And I hope I helped them in some way too."

     Her smile grows wider and more genuine. "And not just them. You too. You helped me so much, even if I thought you had a bad attitude. You worked so hard until the very last moment, didn't you?" Wakahirume keeps her head down, wiping her eyes with her face hidden. "....But that's why I don't want to just fade away into nothing. I want to keep living. And I want you to keep living too." She offers Wakahirume a hand then. "....Let's save Phantasmagoria, sister. All of us. Maybe we can't bring our family back, but we can strive to move forward into a better future. Together."
Konoe Kanno      "......"

     Wakahirume is silent for some time. And then there's a low chuckle. "....Really, you've grown impossible, me." Pause. "...Sister." That's the relationship they fell into, isn't it? Thee's a sigh, and then Wakahirume raises her head, looking up at Konoe, Reiji, Kirito, and over at Sarah too. ".....Being killed would have been a reprieve from all of this. Everything." Shr shook her head, and then stared up at the little pocket of blue sky left in this world. "But you just won't let me go, will you? I have to keep on struggling? After all of this time?" Her gaze returns to Konoe's offered hand.

     "......."

     She reaches out and takes it, clasping it into her own. "...I'm sorry." And then there's a FLASH.

     "WHA-!" Konoe's voice can be heard yelping as the light grows blinding. An intense surge of power rushes through the area like a forceful gust of wind, and then.... the light fades.

     Once everything clears, Wakahirume is gone. As if she never was here. Her ruined shrine creaks, and then crumbles, falling to the ground in a heap of rotted wood and stone. And Konoe is all that's left.

     She stands there with six tails, looking around frantically. "Sister? Hey! Sister! Wakahirume!"

     She hasn't realized.
Xiaomu She probably shouldn't do this.

This is not exactly a happy moment or a time for joking around, but as Xiaomu hears Konoe calling out in the wake of Wakahirume's softly and silently vanishing away (and her shrine collapsing in a manner that's anything *but* soft or silent) ... well, Xiaomu just figured out exactly what happened. Not quite the resolution they were hoping for, but ...

Aw, heck with it.

The sage fox walks over to Konoe - not walking up in front of her, but *behind* her. And she starts petting Konoe's tails.

One ...
... by ...
... one.

One, two, three, four, five, six, one long stroke along each.

And when Xiaomu's petted each of those six wonderfully fluffy tails (hey, she can appreciate another girl's tails), she'll be right there to tug Konoe into a hug if she needs one. Which she probably will when the realization sinks in.
Alice Margatroid     Alice has been there praying her heart out for this, so when the noise of something breaking down hits her ears, she breaks out of her concentration and looks around, "Eh...eh?" the danmaku has stopped... there was some crying.. and all is silence. Until she hears a very familiar voice. "Konoe?"

    She lifts herself up, dusts off her dress and takes flight towards where everyone was gathered, noticing the ruined shrine, a frown comes upon her... she hopes she didn't pray to the wrong shrine, she wouldn't be able to live with herself. So when she sees a six tailed being nearby... with a certain fox stroking tails... she picks up her flying pace and stares.. "Konoe? Is... that you Konoe?" she looks to everyone else... a look of thanks upon her face before landing in front of the kitty youkai.

    "Konoe?"
Reiji Arisu Sometimes, you can't save them all.

    Reiji releases Wakahirume with some reluctance. That much pain, that much loneliness. It's a surprise she didn't off herself ages ago. She's been trying for all this time- and nobody to appreciate her efforts.

Was it a surprise that she tried to make some company for herself?

And now she was gone. Well. Sort of.

    Reiji gently lifts a few of the smaller stones and trinkets from the fallen altar, stuffing them into his pocket. For later. "Konoe," he says, moving toward the last goddess of Phantasmagoria. "...She was tired. Too tired to keep going. But she's left all she had to give with you," He's... been through this. This awful process. The exorcist rests a hand on the goddess' shoulder. "She'll always be there. Be strong, we'll make her dreams come true, one way or another."
Reimu Hakurei      Reimu watches it all as the large red talisman fades away from existence. From there, she walks over to Konoe and smiles, "Well, I believe it's time for us to get going, Konoe. Do you want me to go ask Sanae to come along next time?"

     She didn't really know for sure if it was Konoe, but something tells her that it probably is her. After all, she hasn't started attacking and she seems genuinely concerned right now. However, something was still nagging her at the back of her mind. There is still the matter of the origin that needs to open up. However, something tells her that it might open up very soon.
Kirito Kirito swoops down as the call of battle dwindles to nothing, thanks to one very unexpected hug. It's a very good thing. He really wasn't feeling it... definitely did not want to do more than maybe bonk Wakahirume on the head a few times and knock some sense into her...

    But the thought of a TAKEDOWN HUG had not occured to him...

    While he won't admit it openly, the boy shows a frown as he ponders where he's lacking there that he shied away from being so.. direct.

    Either way he comes in for t a soft landing... just as Wakahirume's speech is nearly over. But he heard all of it. He's there to see the results... while smoothly sheathing his sword over his back again.

    He's THOROUGHLY surprised at the transference of tails though. It's odd. It's very odd.

    This is the outcome Kirito'd envisioned being the ideal impossible before the battle begun, and... it just happened.

    He can't help but gape in awe. Or smile approvingly at Konoe. Even if it's a bit sad...
Konoe Kanno      Konoe is still looking about for Wakahirume. Maybe she flew away or- "Gah!" And then Xiaomu comes out of nowhere and starts petting her tails! All two....three...four...five? Six? At first there's confusion, and then dread as she looks behind herself seeing way more fluff back there than what she was used to having. "....Wait-" She mumbles, bringing a hand to her face. "...wait no...no! She didn't!" But she did. The realization dawns on Konoe, and right about then, Xiaomu's hug is entirely necessary. She doesn't return it, but she just stands there, shocked all over again as she grasps what happened.

     It's clear to Alice now that it was Konoe. Wakahirume 'committed suicide' by reverse absorbing herself into her sister. She was gone. Now a part of Konoe, instead of the other way around like she had blustered about earlier.

     Reiji's words are heard, but she can't accept them. But right now, she can't really muster up the words to protest Wakahirume's decision. With everything said and done, there was... nothing more to do here, was there? Not in this immediate moment. They still needed to approach the Origin and appeal to Phantasmagoria itself, but... that would come later.

     Now, they were going to need time to process all of this. Konoe was going to need to accept it and move forward, just as she had tried to tell her sister moments earlier. The true test began now.