On the path to the Hakurei Shrine, the shrine maiden Reimu Hakurei and witch Marisa Kirisame walked side-by-side, too absorbed in discussion to appreciate the fine afternoon stroll. In recent days, the mysterious phenomenon known as "Perfect Possession" had spread like wildfire throughout Gensokyo, along with rumors of a "strongest and most disastrous duo". It was Reimu's sacred duty as Hakurei shrine maiden to investigate strange incidents such as this and keep them from threatening Gensokyo's balance. Marisa had no such duty, but as Reimu's longtime friend and rival, she always stuck her nose in anyway. Heedless of the sunshine and blossoming flowers around them, the two shared their knowledge of the incident.

"Yukari keeps telling me to be cautious," Reimu grumbled. "She wants me to study how Perfect Possession works in depth before I go resolve the incident. No need to overthink it, I can just hit the culprits with a Fantasy Seal. That usually clears things up."

"I dunno," Marisa said. "I met the masterminds, or at least gods claiming to be the masterminds, and they aren't called the 'most disastrous duo' for no reason. Whew, they were tough."

"Wait, you fought the incident culprits already? You stole a march on me while I was training?" Reimu's eyes narrowed.

"Not really stealin' a march. I got my ass handed to me." Marisa gave a rueful smile. "It was a poverty god and a pestilence god working together. I wasn't able to sync up with my Perfect Possession partner, we got all confused and couldn't fight effectively. The poverty god's got a nasty misfortune aura, it took me right out."

"What were they planning? Were you able to figure out why they started the Perfect Possession incident?"

"That's the thing, I'm not sure they're actually the masterminds. Their goals seemed real petty. I met 'em at the Prismrivers' concert in the Garden of the Sun, and it sounded like their master plan was just to use Perfect Possession to rob the audience blind. I tried to stop 'em, but yeah. Disastrous." Marisa shrugged.

"There have been complaints about pickpockets at the concerts lately. I didn't figure it was related to the incident, though." Reimu's pace quickened as she thought through the implications. "It's hard to imagine this incident was started just to steal pocket change. The mastermind went to a lot of trouble to spread the rumor of Perfect Possession and use the remaining power of the Urban Legend incident to make it real."

"I guess it was a bad idea to leave that Urban Legend incident lyin' around unresolved," Marisa grinned. "Awfully sloppy of the shrine maiden, huh? Isn't she supposed to take care of that stuff?"

"Some incidents have to just run their course. Fighting rumors is like trying to punch fog. It's easier to wait it out and smack down anybody dumb enough to make trouble instead." Reimu swung her purification rod through the air, fighting off rumors, hidden masterminds, or perhaps her own embarrassment. "Anyway, there's a chance that your disastrous duo of gods are a distraction set up by the real mastermind, to draw attention away while they enact their real plan."

"Maybe..." Marisa walked in thoughtful silence for a moment. "But who'd run a messed-up scheme like that? Using cursed gods as just pawns in their game?"

"I can think of one black-hearted youkai who loves convoluted schemes," Reimu said grimly. "Could Yukari be holding me back from properly investigating this incident because she's the one behind it? It makes too much sense."

Marisa's eyes widened. "Now that ya mention it, Yukari was at the concert too. She said some hard-to-understand stuff about Perfect Possession, tried to get me to leave, then sat back and watched the disastrous duo wipe the floor with me."

"Yukari," Reimu sighed. "Do you remember exactly what she said?"

"It was like a riddle or somethin'. She asked if I knew what species was the best at possession. I said it was probably ghosts, and she gave me that look. You know, the look like you're the stupidest student in class and you've just flunked for the third time in a row."

Reimu did know that look. "The answer she was looking for was probably 'gods'. Like the two gods you fought."

"Gods are good at possession?"

"Every time a god is enshrined, the god's divine spirit basically possesses that shrine. Also, it's kind of a shrine maiden's job description. When I'm dancing kagura, I'm being possessed by the gods and acting as a vessel for them to interact with the world. I'm not just jumping around for the exercise."

"Huh, so you could say that the species that's the best at being possessed is shrine maidens?" Marisa raised her eyebrows.

"I guess so?"

"Doesn't that make you the ideal Perfect Possession Master?" Marisa struck her palm with her fist. "The disastrous duo is so strong because they've got a god doing the possessing, the ideal Perfect Possession Slave. But having a shrine maiden on the other side as the one being possessed, you'd have an ace to match their ace."

"An ace..." Reimu considered it. Whether or not it was true, it was certainly flattering.

Marisa walked in front of Reimu and grabbed her hands. "Hey, how 'bout you join forces with me to solve this incident? You've got your natural talent as a Master, and I'd be a Slave that has experience fighting these evil gods. We'd be the strongest duo for sure."

"WRONG!" Marisa and Reimu both jumped as Cirno swooped out of the treeline, scattering leaves and twigs. "The strongest duo is me and Dai-chan, and we're gonna prove it right now!"

---

When Cirno had gone with Daiyousei in tow looking for humans to prank, she had found Gensokyo's pair of incident resolvers. She'd had run-ins with them before, she knew they were powerful. But so much the better to show the power of her pairing with Dai-chan! She followed behind the two as they walked, waiting for the right moment to make her dramatic entrance. She listened to their talk about the most powerful "Master" and "Slave"; apparently those were the terms the humans used instead of "tagged" and "it". But they were missing something important in their discussions - what made you strong wasn't your species, whether you were a god or a shrine maiden or a fairy. What made you strong was the power of friendship and your fighting spirit! Cirno couldn't listen to it any longer and leapt out to confront them.

"Who are you?" asked Reimu, recovering from her surprise.

"Hey, it's the ice fairy who hangs around the lake, Cirno," Marisa said. "It looks like she's Perfectly Possessed."

"What's the matter? You didn't think us fairies knew about Perfect Possession?" Cirno put her hands on her hips. "If you want the title of strongest, you'll have to beat me and Dai-chan first!"

Marisa was a little taken aback. "No, I just... well, whatever. It's a nice chance to get a warm-up before we go solve the incident. Come on, Reimu!"

"What? Right. I'm Master, OK?" Reimu closed her eyes and opened her heart to Marisa's possession.

("Take it easy on 'em a little," whispered Marisa. "They're only fairies, after all."

"They're the ones who picked a fight," replied Reimu grumpily. "I don't see why I have to hold back."

"It won't be a good warm-up if you end it instantly with a full power attack, ya know?")

"Quit whispering to yourselves and let's go fight! We spent hours practicing, I wanna use my special techniques already!"

---

In a nearby forest clearing, the two teams faced off - Reimu possessed by Marisa versus Cirno possessed by Daiyousei.

"We're the challengers, so you get to make the first move," Cirno said, puffing out her chest.

"I'll take you up on that." In a flash, three needles appeared between Reimu's fingers. Cirno ducked out of the way as they went whizzing past her head.

"Ha! I can do that too!" Cirno formed sharp needles of ice and sent them back as a return volley. Reimu sidestepped, and they smashed against the trunk of a tree. The battle was on.

The two circled each other cautiously, exchanging brief volleys of needles. Thin, easily dodged danmaku; it was child's play. "What's the matter?" asked Reimu. "Is this all the danmaku of the strongest duo amounts to? Surely those can't be your 'special techniques'."

"You're holding back," said Cirno. "I'm not gonna show you more until you show me more."

"If you say so." Reimu pulled out a set of paper talismans. "Then try dodging this."

The talismans came flying through the air, glowing with energy. They moved slower than the needles, but when Cirno tried to spin out of the way, they changed direction to follow her. Cirno juked left and right trying to get them off her tail.

"Homing talismans are just the thing for a fight like this," Reimu said. "You don't even have to aim." A swarm of talismans chased Cirno while Reimu stood calmly observing, launching talismans one after another.

"You're still taking me lightly!" Cirno was incensed. "Try this! Ice Barrier!"

Cirno hovered in place, surrounded by a glowing shell of ice. The leading wave of talismans crashed into the ice shell and the frost instantly spread over them, encasing them in their own shells of ice. The next wave coming behind touched those shells of ice and froze themselves, and so on in a chain reaction, leading all the way back to Reimu's hand. Then the giant mass of frozen danmaku exploded in a powerful blast that knocked Reimu back into the undergrowth.

"That's what you get," crowed Cirno, as she rushed in to press the advantage with a spray of ice bullets.

"Not bad," said Marisa, rising from the brush Reimu had fallen into. "But I bet you can't block this." She raised her mini-hakkero and started firing multicolored laser pulses into the air, sizzling through the ice and driving Cirno back.

"Actually, we can." Daiyousei's arrival came with a cloud of cool water vapor. When Marisa's lasers struck the cloud, they were absorbed and dissipated harmlessly, nothing more than a colorful light show. Daiyousei had to stop for a moment to marvel. "Just like you said, Cirno! So long as we switch at the right time, our defenses are invincible."

"I got more tricks up my sleeve than just lasers," Marisa said. The witch dove into the cloud swinging her broomstick at the fairy, but Daiyousei melted into the mist and reappeared behind her. Claws of water vapor reached out and nearly knocked Marisa's witch hat off as she dodged away to put distance between them again. "Oh? You're a slippery one, ain'tcha?"

Marisa conjured star-shaped bullets, magic bombs, and even a piano to throw at Daiyousei, but she kept vanishing into mist before they arrived, each dodge making the cloud thicker and reducing visibility further.

Marisa was starting to get frustrated with the lack of progress. "This seems more like a job for you, Reimu."

Reimu popped back into existence. She'd had time to catch her breath while swapped out, and she calmly raised a talisman. "You've done pretty well for a couple of fairies, but this is the end. So long as I leave enough space between each talisman, you can't use that chain reaction attack."

Reimu loosed the first talisman and Daiyousei moved to evade, pouring rolling waves of fog into the clearing. The homing power kept chasing wherever Daiyousei tried to flee. Reimu counted seconds under her breath, timing the release of the talismans to keep them from flocking too close together. More and more mist pumped out as Daiyousei tried to dodge Reimu's danmaku. The clearing was saturated with it.

"Don't be stupid," Reimu called from within the mist. "Even if I can't see you, the homing talismans aren't going to be fooled by a little fog." She stood unhurried, waiting for the talismans to chase down their prey.

"Ha!" Cirno laughed from the center of the fog bank. "You're the stupid one! You fell for our trap! Freezing Cloud: Global Cold Chain!"

Cirno put her Ice Barrier back up, forming a shell of ice around her once more. Reimu's talismans were spaced out perfectly to avoid creating a chain reaction, but the talismans weren't Cirno's target. As the ice touched the suspended droplets of water in the mist, they turned to ice, freezing the droplets next to them, which then froze the droplets next to them, all throughout the clearing. It didn't matter how Reimu spaced her talismans. She was caught in the middle of a powerful chain reaction and there was no escape from the giant ice bomb. Cirno and Daiyousei had won the duel.

---

"I should've just blown them away with a Fantasy Seal," Reimu grumbled, nursing her bruises.

"Awww, don't be a sore loser. Look how happy they are." Marisa gave a thumbs up to Cirno and Daiyousei, who were hugging and high-fiving and celebrating their win.

"I didn't expect a couple of fairies to be able to put together an attack like that. Maybe I do need to look into Perfect Possession a little more."

"I was going to say we should go to tonight's concert so I could get a rematch," said Marisa, "but clearly we need to train more as a Perfect Possession team before we can face the strongest duo."

"Did you say the strongest duo? That's us!" Cirno came over, beaming with pride, with Daiyousei following along behind.

"Nah, nah, I was talkin' about that so-called 'strongest and most disastrous duo'." Marisa shook her head. "A couple of nasty villains causin' trouble for Gensokyo. They've been hanging around the Prismriver concerts in the Garden of the Sun, shaking down the audience. I was thinking I should try to stop 'em but-"

"There's bad guys at the Garden of the Sun?" Daiyousei was aghast. "That's where Larva and Lily were going! We have to go warn them!"

"Warn them?" Cirno raised her fist to the sky. "We have to go beat the bad guys up! The title of strongest duo belongs to us, I won't let them have it. We already beat the shrine maiden, we can beat some two-bit villains no problem. Come on, Dai-chan!"

"Hey, wait," Marisa called out, but the two flew off before she could stop them.

"Look what you did," said Reimu. "You gave them an inflated opinion of themselves and now they're gonna run headlong into disaster. Well, at least they're fairies. Even if they die, they'll bounce back quick."

"Wow, heartless." Marisa hopped on her broom. "Come on, let's go see if we can help them."

"Didn't you just say we needed to train more before we confronted the villains? Let that conceited fairy find out the hard way how strong she actually is," Reimu said. But Marisa gave her puppy-dog eyes until she relented.

"All right, all right," sighed Reimu. "I guess there's no point in teaching that ice fairy a lesson. That one wouldn't stop being an idiot even if you killed her." The two headed for the Garden of the Sun together, toward the strongest and most disastrous duo.

Cirno and Daiyousei arrived at the Garden of the Sun as the long shadows of early evening were spreading across Gensokyo. At dusk, the field would ordinarily be filled with the eerie susurration of emerging nocturnal insects, marking this as nature's territory: the territory of fairies. Recently, though, the humans of Gensokyo had erected a wooden stage in the center of the field, and started holding concerts in the evenings, drowning out nature with their own raucous sounds. Although tonight's performance had not yet begun, a crowd was already milling around, surrounded by colored lanterns, gaudy banners, and food vendors hawking their wares. A discarded paper flyer danced by on the breeze, and Daiyousei snagged it out of the air.

"Porree... porreezoom..." Daiyousei couldn't make heads or tails of the words printed on it. "Cirno, what does this say?"

Cirno squinted at the sheet. She took pride in having the best vocabulary among the fairies. "Prism... Reaver... Wiz... H." She racked her brain. "Prism means 'rainbow', reaver means 'bandit', wiz means 'magician', and H means 'naughty stuff'. So it's talking about a rainbow bandit magician who does naughty stuff."

"Could that be Marisa?"

"It's Marisa for sure." Cirno nodded. "There's a drawing of people playing instruments and a list of dates, so this is probably a special invitation for Marisa to come see the concert. We should give it to her when we see her."

"Anyway, we're supposed to be finding the bad guys." Cirno pocketed the flyer and began scrutinizing the throng of humans. "Do you see anybody who looks like a disastrous duo?"

"Maybe we should just go home." Daiyousei shifted uncomfortably. "We don't know who we're looking for, and I don't think Larva and Lily would have hung around someplace so noisy and crowded. They're not in any danger, let's just go."

"This isn't about them! There's a pair of villains going around calling themselves the strongest duo, and we gotta shut them down and take the title for ourselves. Don't you wanna be the strongest?"

"I do, but-"

"Did we do all that practicing our super cool moves for nothing?"

"No, but-"

"Look, over there, she looks pretty villainous. Come on!"

---

Yukari Yakumo, the youkai of gaps, smiled behind her fan as Cirno dragged a horrified Daiyousei to confront her. "Oh, my, good evening. Miss Cirno and, I don't believe I ever got your name, miss?"

Cirno rebuffed the pleasantries with an accusatory finger. "Are you the villain?"

"I'm so sorry about this," Daiyousei said, bowing to Yukari. "Cirno, you can't just run up and call somebody a villain! Come on, stop and think for a second. She's all by herself, she's not Perfectly Possessed or anything. She's not the pair we're looking for."

"Even Gensokyo's fairies are talking about Perfect Possession now?" Yukari snapped her fan shut. "This has gone quite far indeed."

"We're not just talking about it, we're doing it," said Cirno. "And if you don't stop attacking the concerts, we might just show you! Evildoers have to answer to us, the real strongest duo!"

"Aren't you misunderstanding something? I am an evil, evil villain, you've got me there. But I'm not to blame for this incident. The blame lies with those self-centered sister gods lurking behind the stage. The ones who invented Perfect Possession and have been using it to steal from crowds, the rumored 'strongest and most disastrous duo'."

"I just told you, the strongest duo is me and Dai-chan."

"Ah, of course. I understand, child of nature. I understand what you're after very well. If you and your friend 'Dai-chan' would like to prove your mettle against the most disastrous and... second strongest duo, you don't have long to wait. Once the concert starts, they'll creep out to prey on the audience. That will be your chance to protect Gensokyo and make your reputation. The Master has the form of a young lady loaded down with flashy jewelry, surrounded by an aura of wealth, and her sister the Slave is the picture of poverty. You'll know them when you see them."

"Hey, thanks!" Cirno grinned. "You're not so bad after all, lady."

Yukari suppressed a titter at that. "Out of the mouths of fairies... Well, I must be going. I wish the two of you luck in your battle." Yukari opened a gap in the air and slipped through it, leaving Cirno and Daiyousei to lie in wait for the villains.

---

Marisa brought her broom in for a landing on the outskirts of the Garden of the Sun, with Reimu floating down after her. As they landed, a gap opened and Yukari slipped out to greet them.

"Good evening, Reimu. What a surprise to see you here. Taking Marisa out to see the concert tonight? Ah, it's a splendid thing to be young and in love."

Reimu bristled. "Cut the crap, Yukari. We're here to resolve this incident."

Yukari folded her hands under her chin and gave her widest, most insincere smile. "You see, I figured you must be here on a date, because we agreed that this incident needed more investigation before you could go out to resolve it. Surely the Hakurei shrine maiden wouldn't rush blindly in without understanding what was going on? She's simply enjoying her youth."

"I didn't agree to anything! You just decided that on your own! Since when have I ever understood what was going on when I resolved an incident?"

Marisa made a placating gesture to the two of them. "Look, we were gonna do more investigatin', honest. But there's a couple of innocent fairies that got an idea in their heads that they're gonna be the ones to resolve the incident. They're runnin' right into a trap. And it's sorta our fault for various reasons, so we came to help."

"Ah, I see. Those fairies were running right into a trap, so you came to help, by running into the trap yourself. And you dragged the Hakurei shrine maiden into it with you." Yukari sighed. "They say you should secure your own oxygen mask before helping others, you know."

"Who says that?" Marisa asked, nonplussed.

"You already had your chance, Marisa Kirisame, you human magician who still needs oxygen to breathe. You lost, and you've done nothing to stop yourself from losing again. Before you take another try, it's only fair for you to give Cirno and Dai-chan a chance of their own."

"But they're gonna get creamed!"

"Yes," Yukari agreed, "they are. Let's watch warmly over them while they make their doomed attempt." She opened a gap providing an aerial view of the two fairies waiting by the stage. "If you won't learn from your own mistakes, then you must learn from the mistakes of others."

---

As the sun slipped below the mountains, giant kappa-provided spotlights switched on, and the gathered crowd cheered as the band took the stage. The band's frontwoman, a drummer in a sharp white Outside World-style suit, moved forward and addressed the audience.

"Thank you all for coming out tonight, we've got some rockin' tunes for you. I'm Raiko Horikawa and we are Prismriver with H!"

The Prismriver sisters launched into an upbeat number on trumpet, fiddle, and keyboard, with Raiko providing an enthusiastic rhythm on drums. With that as the cue, the disastrous duo finally slunk out of the shadows towards the audience.

The leader of the pair was a young woman in an extravagant outfit: a cream-colored cashmere dress, a purple coat embroidered with golden flowers, and a pair of shiny leather high-heeled boots. Her brown hair was done up in an intricate twin-drill hairdo with red silk ribbons, crowned with a gleaming top hat and pair of Outside World sunglasses. Just as Yukari had said, she was bedecked head to toe with a lurid assortment of gold and jewels. Everything about her screamed "money to burn".

Trailing behind her was a gaunt, barefoot young woman in a shabby brown wool shirt and threadbare blue skirt. Her clothes were ragged and worn, the biggest holes sporting makeshift patches made of eviction notices and past-due bills. Her dark blue hair was tied up in a ponytail with a black ribbon that was so moth-eaten, or perhaps rat-chewed, that it looked like it would crumble at a touch. Everything about her screamed "starving to death".

Cirno rushed up to confront them. "There you are, villains! Your reign of evil ends here!"

The rich lady yawned. "Ho-hum, more people who want to play hero. They're like a plague in Gensokyo, it seems. I don't understand why you won't just let me take these humans' money. All money exists to be spent by me anyway."

"Spent by us, you mean," pouted the poor lady behind her. "Don't forget my cut, Joon!"

"Your poverty is incurable, Shion," Joon said. "Giving money to you would just be throwing it away before it could be properly wasted."

"You promised if I helped you out I could get in on a cut of the money! I want to buy a beef bowl and a pair of sandals!"

"Hey!" Daiyousei summoned all her courage and interrupted the bickering. "Don't talk between yourselves like we're not even here. You've been telling everyone you're the strongest duo, but the truth is, the strongest is Cirno! Apologize and admit that she's the strongest, or we'll have to s-smack you down. Don't underestimate our Perfect Possession skills!"

"Oh? You think you're stronger than the worst, most disastrous duo?" Joon drew herself up with a jangling of jewelry. "My name is Joon Yorigami, pestilence god of wealth and expenditures. Together with my sister Shion, the poverty god of indigence and deprivation, we're the masterminds of Perfect Possession and the strongest possible duo. There's no way you can beat us! Take your best shot, little fairies."

"You don't need to tell us twice!" Daiyousei squeezed Cirno's hand, then Perfectly Possessed her.

"Here we go, sis." Shion Perfectly Possessed Joon, and the pestilence god's wealth aura became tinged with the poverty god's misfortune. The battle had begun.

---

Seated on the grass a safe distance away, Reimu, Marisa, and Yukari watched the battle through a gap. Yukari had pulled sake and snacks out of thin air, and the three were having an impromptu picnic as they watched the fight unfold.

"You know, the fairies are actually doing pretty well," said Reimu, munching on a rice cracker. "I feel less bad about our little setback earlier."

At the outset of the battle, Joon had hung back and pelted Cirno with extravagance magic, but she seemed to just shrug it off and responded with her own ice barrage. Seeing her ranged attacks ineffective, Joon had switched to rushing in and trying to fight hand-to-hand. Wreathed in a decadence aura, Joon had charged in like a streak of golden lightning, but whenever she got close, Daiyousei would swap in and melt away into mist, finding a new vantage point from which the fairies could pepper the plague gods with projectiles. The disastrous duo wasn't making much headway.

Marisa stood up and cheered as Cirno slammed down a set of ice meteors from the sky, blasting Joon with frozen shrapnel and forcing her to fall back under the cover of a shimmering barrier of coins, hailstones pinging off the precious metal. "Hey, they could really win this thing! We got all worried for nothin'!"

Yukari sipped her sake coolly. "There's no doubt this is a bad matchup for that god of indulgence. Against a simple fairy, afflicted with neither need nor greed, she's casting her poisonous pearls before a purehearted swine. But in the end, the result won't change."

"Whyzzat?"

"You should know, you've been through it. You see how the poverty god has barely surfaced at all so far? They're holding their ultimate attack in reserve. When they start feeling cornered, the poverty god will come out with an attack those two have no defense against. It won't be long now. Pay attention this time."

The three leaned forward to watch the gap as the fight neared its climax.

---

After a few unsuccessful charges, Joon had fallen back to rethink her strategy. She wove her way through Cirno's barrages of ice bullets, waiting for an opportunity to present itself. When Cirno suddenly stopped firing, she thought she saw her chance.

"Run out of energy? I've got you now, you little twerp!" Joon turned and charged at Cirno, fists blazing with profligate energy.

"Freezing Cloud: Dry Ice Fog!"

Daiyousei switched in for a combo attack. Cirno had let up her danmaku assault in order to build a store of ice energy, and Daiyousei tapped into it to generate a solid wall of fog in front of Joon. Joon broke her charge and swerved away, but she couldn't avoid grazing against the fog bank and chilling the right side of her body. Frost traced over the patterns of her coat.

"Ahhh! Shit, shit, shit!"

"It's working, Cirno!" Daiyousei was giddy. "We really are the strongest duo!"

"A couple of piddling fairies want to call themselves the strongest? Don't make me puke." Joon gritted her teeth, but her frustration was quickly replaced by a sadistic smile. "I didn't want to have to resort to this against such a weak opponent, but you went and made me mad. Come on, Shion!"

Cirno swapped back in to weave a lattice of ice, and to mock Joon. "You're the one getting your butt kicked by 'piddling fairies'. If we're a weak opponent, you must be the most helpless, pathetic-"

"Possession Exchange: Absolute Loser!"

Cirno felt a yank as something was ripped away from her soul, and a horrid shudder as something else entered. Her joy at her imminent victory vanished like mist and was replaced by a profound gnawing sorrow. Daiyousei's presence inside her had been replaced by something empty, moldy, hopeless. She was hemmed in on all sides by an intense aura of misfortune, and her heart quailed.

"Hah! Now you're possessed by the worst, most vile poverty god! When it comes to helpless and pathetic, my sister can't be beat." Joon stood in front of her, triumphant and smug.

"It's cold in here, sis." Shion's voice filled the air around Cirno like the moaning of a ghost. "I hate the cold."

Cirno tried to shake off the smothering misfortune. She summoned all her icy powers to create a massive glacial spike and projected it towards the taunting pestilence god. Joon got a predatory look in her eyes and charged towards the spike. There was a Perfect Possession swap and suddenly it was Daiyousei in the path of the ice.

"Dai-chan! No!"

"Cirno, help! I can't control my body!"

Tendrils of mist whipped out towards Cirno: far from Daiyousei's strongest attack, but Cirno was too shocked and despairing to even think of dodging. Daiyousei's mist and Cirno's ice spike hit simultaneously, smashing full force into the two fairies and sending them sprawling on the ground. A perfect double defeat.

Joon and Shion stood victorious over the senseless fairies. Joon started going through their pockets.

"Pebbles, berries, and a folded-up concert flyer. There's really nothing to be gained from picking on fairies, huh?" She stuck the loot in her purse anyway, on principle.

"I'm still shivering," Shion whined. "I always get the nasty jobs. Why don't you be the Slave sometimes?"

"Do you really think you could fight as a Master?" Joon gave her sister a pitying look. "You're worse than useless. Your only talent in combat is to be a burden on an enemy to seal their defeat."

"Joon, you're always so mean to me..."

"Come on, let's go rob these suckers blind. If we get a good haul, I'll buy you something at one of these food stalls to warm you up."

Before Shion followed Joon to the concert, she stopped over Daiyousei's unconscious body for a moment. She untied the yellow bow from the fairy's hair and tied up her ponytail with it, replacing her disintegrating black hair ribbon with a battle trophy. Now, even if Joon stiffed her yet again, she'd still gotten something out of tonight's labors.

Oops, forgot to mark that as an update.

Daiyousei flew slowly over the Misty Lake, reflecting. Perfect Possession had been a lot of fun at first. Just trying it out with Cirno might have been enough, coming up with special combo moves together, secrets for the two of them to share. But when they'd actually gone and beaten the shrine maiden? Daiyousei had dared to dream of more, that she'd finally found a way to stop being one of Gensokyo's weaklings, that she and Cirno could be the Fairy Queens of Gensokyo. But now, she'd lost her ribbon, she was having a fight with Cirno, and she had been put firmly in her place.

Daiyousei landed on a rock jutting out of the middle of the lake. She had been trying not to cry ever since her argument with Cirno, and she was done trying now. Sniffles at first, then a couple big tears rolling down her cheeks, and finally a crying, bawling fit. It wasn't fair to lose so much in a single day! Just because she tried to play along with Cirno's new game!

Next to the rock, the waters parted and a dripping blue-haired head poked out. Wakasagihime had swum to the surface to investigate the noise. "What's wrong, little fairy? You're making quite a fuss. Did something happen?"

Daiyousei really needed someone to talk to, even a mermaid. Stifling her sobs, she recounted the past two days, with their highs and then their lows, lows, lows.

"That's an awful thing to say." Wakasagihime was appalled on Daiyousei's behalf. "That's no way to treat a friend."

"It's true, though. She's too much stronger than me. I can't keep up with her."

"It doesn't matter how strong you are!" Wakasagihime splashed her tail in the water. "I understand where you're coming from, little fairy. Trust me. Among youkai, a freshwater mermaid is about as small a fry as they come. Since the start of the age of Spell Cards, I've never once won a danmaku duel. But even so, I have good friends who love me. True friends who would never insult me or put me down just because I'm not as strong as them. If Cirno would say horrible things like that to you just because you lost at danmaku, maybe she doesn't deserve you as a friend."

Daiyousei looked like she was going to burst out crying again. Wakasagihime decided she was taking the wrong tack. "What I'm hearing is that you feel guilty about not doing well in fights. You feel like you're letting your friend down. I can understand how you'd feel that way. But there's more to friendship than fighting together, you know? I see you two playing by the lake all the time. She's happy, you're happy, you're enjoying being with each other and it doesn't matter how strong you are. That's what friendship's about."

"Yeah..." Daiyousei sniffled and kicked her feet in the water. "That's fine when there's nothing going on, but when an incident happens, like Perfect Possession now, Cirno gets excited, drops everything, and goes chasing after it. And I can't follow. 'Cause I'm too weak."

"It's okay if you're not involved in everything she does. My friends live on the land, I can't follow anywhere they go. But I enjoy my time with them when they visit my lake, and I wish them well when they leave. And it works for us, we maintain a friendship like that."

Daiyousei wanted to maintain a friendship with Cirno, even after all the nasty things she'd said. But something sounded off in the mermaid's explanation... "And then what do you do, when they go off to do their stuff on land? When they leave you all alone?"

"I wait for them to return. I can take it nice and easy in my lake, it's not so bad to have time to myself. I sing songs, I polish my rock collection, I think of what I'll say next time we meet. Before I know it they've come to see me again."

"Wow." Suddenly, Daiyousei was finding it hard to keep feeling sorry for herself. Compared to the mermaid, her problems didn't seem so bad. She could fly around wherever she wanted, go see Cirno whenever she wanted. She wasn't stuck waiting patiently in the lake like a floating piece of seaweed. And sure, she might be weak, but she'd won at danmaku sometimes. She'd even beaten the shrine maiden!

"Rock collecting is a lot of fun, you know. I could show you my collection, maybe give you some nice ones to help you get started. I've got a couple pretty banded ones that glitter in the sun if you hold them right, perfect for beginners. A nice hobby could help you pass the time while you wait for your friend to get you your ribbon back."

"No, actually I think I need to be leaving. Thank you, though. I appreciate you listening to my story..." Daiyousei flapped into the air with a shudder. It was frightening to think of ending up like this mermaid, sitting in her pond and letting Gensokyo wash around her. Maybe there was more to friendship than fighting together, but a friendship without it didn't sound like any fun. A life of sorting and re-sorting a rock collection was not the kind of life Daiyousei wanted. She couldn't just wait around for Cirno to do everything for her. She needed to prove she was strong enough for Cirno to treat her as an equal. It was her ribbon that was stolen, she should be the one to get it back herself. And to do that, she'd need to find the right partner... Daiyousei's sorrow was fully replaced by strategizing as she flew off, hair fluttering behind her.

Wakasagihime smiled as she watched Daiyousei leave. Fairies were resilient little things; nothing brought them down for long. Soon enough Cirno and Daiyousei would be laughing and playing together again, their quarrel forgotten, she was sure of it. It was a shame she wasn't able to make a new rock collecting friend, but the important thing was, she'd managed to improve Daiyousei's mood and get her to stop crying.

She had her peace and quiet back.

---

Back in the Garden of the Sun, Cirno ducked as a giant, razor-sharp blossom spun over her head. "Stop! You're not listening! There's bad guys on the loose in Gensokyo! We need to team up to fight them, there's this thing called Perfect Possession-"

Yuuka smiled and summoned a wreath of flowers around herself. "I'm looking forward to seeing my cute little sunflowers grow up big and strong. You're the one who's been ripping up my groundcover, yes? I'd ask you not to do that." She flicked her wrist and shot a volley of floral danmaku at the ice fairy.

Cirno would have loved to keep fighting, but the flower youkai clearly wasn't going to be any help. She only cared about her flowers, she didn't understand what was at stake. Cirno would have to look elsewhere for a strong Perfect Possession partner to get Daiyousei's bow back.

---

Ran Yakumo, the kitsune serving as Yukari's strongest shikigami, made her way through the lunchtime crowds in the Human Village's downtown. Youkai weren't allowed in the village, so she had disguised herself with a large petticoat to hide her nine tails, and an intricate bonnet to hide her ears. The fancy western-style attire wasn't exactly inconspicuous, but it stopped the populace from panicking they were going to be eaten.

Ran's destination was the Moonlight House, one of the village's highest-class drinking establishments. As the name implied, it did most of its business at night, but today it was loud with music and drunken gaiety, even though the sun was barely midway through the sky. An aura of putrescent opulence hung over the building, tangible from the street. Ran nodded to herself. No doubt about it, this was the place.

The air inside was heavy with tobacco smoke, smooth and rich; the good stuff. Someone tried to hand her a glass of imported champagne, but she brushed it off and went directly for the jewel-adorned young woman kicking back at the center of the merriment.

"Hey, don't be a party pooper, have a drink," said Joon. Her face was flushed, her words slurred. "It's all paid for anyway, courtesy of our generous benefactor." She winked at an elderly man at the bar, who gave a hopeful wave.

"We need to talk," said Ran.

"Oh, shit. It's Yukari's lapdog. You come to yap in my face?" Joon made a barking motion with her hand and giggled. "Arf arf! Oh, excuse me, that was insensitive. You're actually a lap fox, aren't you?"

"Lady Yukari wants me to remind you that Gensokyo has rules, and you need to follow them. Robbing humans at the Garden of the Sun is one thing, they leave the bounds of the village at their own risk. In here, enthralling and exploiting humans with your powers like this is off-limits."

"Aww, don't give me that. I'm not doing any harm - this is the happiest day of that old geezer's life. What was he gonna do, leave his money to his kids? This way everybody gets a happy memory before he passes on, and the economy gets stimulated. It's a win-win."

"If one person starts to violate the neutrality of the Human Village, soon all the gods and youkai will be fighting over it. If the village becomes a battlefield, that puts the whole of Gensokyo at risk. The rules exist for a reason, they're for everyone's benefit, for the stability of our entire society."

"I'm through with 'stability', all right? I'm sick to death of it. I didn't come here for more stagnation, I came to par-tay. Yukari's not the boss of me, I'm not a lapdog like you. Actually, that's backwards, I guess I'd be a lap god?" Joon threw her head back in gin-soaked laughter.

"Given everything Lady Yukari has done for you, it would be expected to show a little more gratitude than this."

"Gratitude, hah. Gratitude is only as good as tomorrow's stock price. No matter what world you're in, the strong eat the weak." Someone handed Joon a silver pipe. She took a deep puff and exhaled a cloud of smoke in Ran's face. "I have this opportunity now, and I'm gonna take full advantage of it. If your mistress has a problem with that, she can meet me outside. I'll introduce her to my sister, and we'll see how they hit it off." Joon was a little too sloppy to be properly menacing, but the threat was clear.

Ran was unmoved. "Right, the other one, where is she right now? Is she causing problems in the village too?"

"Well, I couldn't bring Shion in here, could I? She'd make the party stink of poor. She's down by the canal begging for her supper. I'll tell her you stopped by. Unless you want to find her and have a go right now?" A waiter came, carrying a loaded snack tray. Ran hesitated, but there was nothing in her shikigami programming against a quick piece of fried tofu.

"I came here to deliver a message," Ran said, licking her fingers. "I've delivered it. If you persist, that's on you. You can't say Lady Yukari has been inhospitable."

"If Yukari wants to threaten me she can do it to my face!" Joon yelled at Ran as she left. "You go tell her, she can take a shot if she wants. Me and Shion are ready! We'll show her why we're known as the strongest, most disastrous duo!"

The music had stopped and the revelers were staring slack-jawed at Joon. "What are you all looking at? This party's still going!" She gave a peremptory clap. "We're not done having fun."

---

Reimu shook her head as she watched the disguised kitsune leave the Moonlight House. Yukari was sending her shikigami for a secret rendezvous with the pestilence god? That settled it. She knew who was behind the incident. Now she just needed to figure out the how, and the why. And the what-to-do-about-it.