Backfiring Lunacy

Chapter 2

Reisen pulled herself together, adjusting her tie to make sure her appearance did not seem amiss or astray to those that she encountered along her way to the Scarlet Devil Mansion. The moon rabbit knew the path mostly. She had been taught how to walk through the bamboo forest for a while by now from her formal master, Eirin Yagokoro, the doctor of Eientei whose highly skilled in her role. Allegedly, Reisen had been told that Eirin has lived longer than Kaguya by 100 more years, putting their experience close together. The suited rabbit was only 38 for her age, but that was considered in moon years. In reality, she was much older than just 38 in Earth years, but she was considered around 40 for her age.

Reisen walked with a gait of solemnity -- but especially vulnerable uncertainty. The rabbit wasn't quite prepared for anything that was going to suddenly lunge at her in the darkness without her noticing. She had many ways to defend herself though, from firing Danmaku bullets from her finger or using her lunatic red eyes to manipulate the attacker's insanity and create illusions of herself that would disorientate the opponent. Even despite that, Reisen was not as strong as one would consider -- sometimes even weaker than the likes of humans with special abilities.

Still, whether Reisen felt the need to get stronger or try harder, she always relied on Eirin to assist her with it. The doctor had various medicines that could be tested on the moon rabbit to see if it helped increased her strength or at least some attribute that was beneficial. Sadly, not all of these cocotions or medicines could be simply injected into her body via a syringe. Some had to be drunk from a glass that the medicine was poured from, and most of them tasted so disgusting to Reisen that she almost always refused to drink it -- but she knew she didn't have a choice in the matter anyway. All she knew was that she was a young student of Eirin that she referred to as Master, but she also referred to Kaguya as her master, which was immensely confusing at times.

Before Reisen could continue to ponder these thoughts, she perked up when she thought she smelled something or heard something that sounded like a flicker. A sizzling sound? Who is associated with fire? Wait a minute, thought Reisen, but before she could turn back, a bright fire had appeared not too far from her right in front. The moon rabbit yelped in fear -- jumping away quickly before getting ready to use her finger gun. She knew all too well who it was. The fire, the bamboo forest...

"Mokou, is that you?" Reisen said in the apparent blanket of darkness that seeped into the normally bright daytime. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw exactly what she anticipated it would be. Fujiwara No Mokou was originally a human, but after drinking the Holy Exlir, she became immortal and ageless along with the gift of eternal youth. Even thought she was a human, she was considered one of the most powerful humans in Gensokyo -- being able to surpass the likes of Sakuya.

"What are you doing out here, Reisen," the white-haired human spoke in her questioning tone, "You do realize there's an incident going down, right?"

"Yeah, I know that," Reisen suddenly turned away for a moment before rubbing her head in embarrassment for what she had to say next, "I just thought I'd get a better view."

Mokou folded her arms during Reisen's answer before putting her hands on her hips and sighing contemptuously. If only certain species knew what was truly happening wasn't worth their concern, thought Mokou. She detested the fact that some people had to push boundaries and always try to discover why something is.

"Go home, Reisen," commanded the immortal human suddenly, "I'll lead you back to Eientei if you have trouble anyway, so don't worry."

"I'm not going anywhere!" the rabbit suddenly raised her voice in defiance, "Either get out of my way or I'll take care of you myself!"

Fujiwara No Mokou was stunned that the purple-haired bunny would be so stubborn, and yet, so confident. Not only was she disobeying Kaguya's orders, she was even disobeying her. Mokou chuckled before raising a firey fist that glowed in an orange hue -- a Phoenix was behind her back that displayed her sigil.

"Well, so be it, Reisen. I hope you know what you're up against." sighed Mokou. This wasn't going to be pretty.

Reisen immediately raised her right hand and fired Danmaku bullets at the white-haired immortal, hoping to at least slow her down or hit her once. A single strike was all she needed to try to run away, but her wish did not come true. With swift dodges, Mokou's speed being faster than light had allowed her to dodge the bullets with ease. As Reisen looked up fearfully, Mokou's firey punch connected with enough force to send the moon rabbit a good number of feet. Reisen yelped in pain as she was sent flying towards the path opposite to where she was planning on going before landing on her back and sliding amongst the dirty path.

"Had enough already?" the rabbit heard come out of the human's mouth. Reisen did not get up and pondered if she should continue. I was so easily flung away just by a mere punch, and none of my bullets connected! Reisen quickly put her brain to work. Clearly there has to be a way! Aha!

Reisen arose with a groan of pain, before making her way to her feet. Mokou merely looked at the bamboo forest on her left, before looking at the purple-haired rabbit again, holding up her fist that sizzled with fire. Mokou was surprised at the determination of Kaguya's lackey, but it was going to be all for naught anyway.

"You should've stayed down." Mokou said with a hint of disappointment in her tone. "This would've been a lot easier for you and me."

"You haven't seen nothing yet!" declared Reisen. Putting a hand to cover her right eye and closing her eyes, Reisen's eyes suddenly glowed red -- the beaming of the light shining on the path with brightened it ever so slightly. Mokou was taken aback for a moment and confused with what was Kaguya's lackey going to do. Reisen carefully looked at Mokou's eyes and tried to use wavelengths to manipulate her mind and make it go insane. When using it on other opponents, they have all hallucinated and had illusions, which gave rabbit the upper hand in battle that made her formidable. However, when Mokou looked at Reisen's eyes as well.

"AAAAARRRRRRRGGHHH!" Reisen suddenly screamed in immense and withering pain as she held a hand over her right eye. The unbearable and insurmountable pain she experienced on her eye made her legs start buckling until she dropped to her knees in anguish. Covering her eye, she felt like she was suffocating in a pool of turmoil -- she could feel herself slipping away. She tried to escape, but she could feel herself being pulled down into another world entirely. She could not tell where she was or where she had transferred to -- she could only feel the pain surround her before another lapse of it began again.

Mokou gasped in surprise upon seeing the moon rabbit suddenly scream before dropping her knees and covering her eye. The immortal human had only planned on deterring the misguided rabbit away from trying to make an injudicious decision. Now, she could only watch as the moon rabbit was trembling and withering in agony -- and she was far too shocked to move or know what to do.

And before she knew it, she could hear what sounded like...laughter? She thought that maybe she wasn't thinking straight, but that was simply not possible. When she had consumed the Holy Exlir to grant herself immortality, she also had a clear mind that prevented others from manipulating it in any way or fashion. Mokou pieced this slowly together to figure out what the hell just happened, but right before she could...

"W-What is going on?! W-W-Why are there 5 of you! Who are you?! What are you doing?!" Mokou heard Reisen scream in terror as she fell to her back before prompting herself up with her palms and try to crawl away from Mokou while maintaining eyesight. "G-Get away from me!" The moon rabbit suddenly arose to her feet and making a run back to Eientei to trying to get away from the immortal human that defeated her and used her ability against her.

"Wait! Reisen!" Mokou tried to call to the purple-haired Lunarian, but it was of no use; and before Mokou knew it, the rabbit was gone.