The Disillusioned Land

Chapter 14 - A Drastic Measure

We slowly walked in silence on our way back to the room where we met that corrupted shrine maiden- Shiraki was what Kyoko called her- our footsteps echoing off of the bleak, empty halls. Kyoko stared at the ground as she slowly followed me, I decided to speak up to get her out of her thoughts.

"Were you close?"

"Huh?" she quickly snapped her head up when she heard me talk. "W-what did you say? Sorry, I didn't catch it..."

"Were you close? To the shrine maiden I mean."

"I-" she stopped walking when she said this, trying to gather her thoughts. "S-something like that yeah." she smiled weakly when she said this. Shiraki must have meant something to her. I walked up to her and put a hand on her shoulder.

"I'm sorry." Another death on my conscience, added to the mountain that was already there.

"T-thanks. But you don't need to act like it was your fault. I was the one who dragged us here, remember?" If only she knew. I couldn't say anything after that, I just rested my hand on her shoulder until she spoke up again.

"Well, let's keep going alright? We're here to put an end to this incident aren't we?" She tried to smile in that confident way that she did when we first got to this hellish building, but I could tell it wasn't all there.

"Yeah, let's end this." Once I said that we resumed walking back to that room in silence.

Once we were in the central obelisk room, a strange urge overtook me. While Kyoko walked into the next room, I stopped and stared at the one winged youkai bound to the obelisk. All of the magical energy from the dying youkai around fueling Yukari's plans is pouring straight into this prisoner. Our prisoner. A voice echoed in my head.

"Do it. Do what you should have done in the first place."

I took a few steps closer to the bound youkai, my hand reaching up.

"Hey! What are you doing?! Don't go touching weird things! We don't know what'll happen!" Kyoko shouts at me but her words barely reach me. I step even closer to the youkai, only inches away.

"Don't worry," I finally reply to Kyoko. "I know what will happen."

"That's right. We can't change the past. All you can do is repent for what you've done."

I start to rip the talismans off of the youkai. And as I do an alarm begins to blare in the facility.

"See?! This is what happens when you start doing random things! Come on already!" Kyoko shouts at me to come with her, but I have to do this. I rip more and more of the talismans off of the angel in front of me, until she is finally free.

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How long have we been fighting? I'm making no ground at all. Yukari is practically playing with me at this point. Where are you Marisa?!

"Oh, Reimu, dear, are you ok over there? Not running out of energy are you?" Now she's laughing at me, great. All I need is one opportunity, then I can finally put this to rest. "I truly am sorry Reimu, but I'm afraid I have no more time to play with you." On saying that a massive gap opened up in front of her, there's no room to dodge this one. I'll have to risk it all on this next attack.

"Goodnight, Reimu, it's been fun." She lifted up her arm, about to unleash her attack, when suddenly an alarm began to ring out. Yukari froze, her gap disappearing.

"N-no, this alarm is-" Yukari looks stunned, simultaneously angry and scared. I took this chance to launch my attack.

"Dream Sign 'Evil Sealing Circle'!"

"Tch- I don't have time for you, Reimu! 'Boundary of Life and Death'!"

I could barely see through all of our danmaku, the small room where we were in was destroyed beyond recognition. Dust, smoke, light and rubble was all I could see. After all of that I was exhausted, heavily panting to catch my breath. I hope I hit her enough to put her out of commission. Everything finally cleared. She was nowhere to be seen.

"...Dammit..." She must have gapped away in the chaos, always was good at running away. All I could do at this point was sit on the floor and sigh. That alarm was still blaring through her building, I guess wherever that came from, Yukari will be.

"Time to go, you aren't getting away from me a second time." I got up and started running through the halls.