Murasa was in darkness.

She'd seen a lot of that lately, really. It wasn't that surprising.

Around her, the sea was calm. It was pretty much always calm this deep, but still. Subtle currents whispered to her in a hushed tone. Somewhere in the distance, a whale called.

None of that cared about her, she knew. The sea was as indifferent as ever. It would be just as happy to crush humans beneath the waves as to let them travel on its surface. But it was calm. It felt more... congruent. Something had been out of place, and now it was back where it belonged.

She stretched out and let herself drift in the dark. You didn't notice the chill after a while, and the noises faded into the background. It was peaceful—nothing to see, or hear, or feel. This was probably what being dead was like. The non-ghostly kind of dead, but a comfortable version of it. The one where there was nothing left to worry about, because there was no 'you' to do the worrying. She felt like she might stumble onto Nirvana if she analyzed the feeling for a while. But, she wasn't in any rush. It would be a real shame to skip over Sukhavati anyway.

There wasn't any way to tell how long she'd been floating there. There was nothing to judge the time against, and she didn't exactly have a heartbeat anymore. She wasn't concerned anyway.

But, call it 'a while.'

After a while, something changed about the darkness. The slightest fraction of light trickled down to her, reminding her that, contrary to the direct evidence, she still existed.

She shifted around and sought it out.

It was as far away as the stars, and about as dim. But, in the absolute darkness around her, even that was almost blinding. She almost turned away and returned to her rest, but... she recognized that glow. It was important, somehow. With a little push, Murasa took off toward it.

The water didn't resist. They were in concordance. It parted ahead of her without a hint of turbulence, and closed in behind her just as smoothly. The thing was impossibly far away, but she'd get there eventually. It was her natural place, and now she was returning.

In time, it came into view. A ship floated on the surface, glowing and radiant. It was like a new sun, lighting the sea. She paused, admiring it, but there would be plenty of time for that later. She knew this ship, after all. It had hauled her out of the water centuries ago, and she'd been living on it ever since.

Drifting closer, she reached toward it. Her hand breached the water's surface and grasped for purchase, until she found a rope ladder. She hauled herself up, and took her first breath of fresh air in ages. As the water cleared from her vision, she saw a silhouette against the sky above her, a hand stretching down to help her up...

And awoke, sputtering, with seawater in her mouth.

Murasa gagged and coughed, belching out a mouthful of freezing water.

Ichirin, who was now pressed up against her beneath the covers, gave a groggy yelp and scrambled out of the bed.

"Murasa, what the heck?! This is—" Ichirin looked down at herself, bewildered. It wasn't a lot of water, really, but it had still left her hair half-soaked and a big wet spot down the front of her clothes. "... a lot better than waking up to a flooded room, I guess."

"Yeah." Murasa coughed a few more times, getting the last of the water out. "Sorry."

Now that she didn't feel like she was drowning, she could get a better look at her surroundings. They were still in the same hotel room. Sunlight was coming in the window, but not much.

She felt like she'd run a marathon while violently hungover, then been kept awake for three days. She felt like her whole body had been dehydrated, then been reassembled after crumbling into powder. She felt like all of her parts had been removed, leaving only a floppy skin sack that couldn't do much except ache.

With her arms shaking from the effort, she rolled herself over and half-buried her face in the pillow. "Feel like 'm gonna die."

"I don't think ghosts can do that."

"Don't care." She coughed a few more times, getting the last of the water out of her throat. Now that she was a bit more awake, something was poking at her attention. She ground the heel of a hand against her forehead as she tried to jump-start her brain. "What, uh. What happened last night?"

"I was really hoping you could tell me that. … you really don't remember anything?"

"Mmngh. Think we talked on top of a building?"

"And then you said you were going to the museum and flew off. After an hour or so, I gave up on waiting for you and came back here to get some sleep. … then I woke up in the middle of the night and there you were, in bed, like nothing had happened. And, er. It's evening now. You've pretty much been in a coma for about fourteen hours. I guess you had a pretty big night?"

Murasa scrunched her face up as she considered that question. It wasn't an easy answer. Her memories were one long blur that transitioned into something like dreams. She could remember going to the museum now, and... hijacking a ship from it... but after that... uh...

"I either did something really good, or something really dumb. Maybe a bit of both?"

"That sounds about right."

"I mean. At least I didn't wake up and find out I'm halfway through drowning you. After the past few days, that's a pretty good start." Ugh. Talking was hard. She groaned and squirmed around, trying to get comfortable, but it only helped so much. That feeling of being drained was sticking with her. "Think I kinda blew my load, though."

"Ew."

"You know what I mean. Pushed myself way too hard. Used up all my..." She waved a hand in a vague gesture. Even that felt like an effort. "Ghost juice."

"'Ghost juice' is still pretty gross." Ichirin seemed convinced that Murasa wasn't about to explode into seawater again any time soon. She moved over and slipped into bed, carefully avoiding the big damp spot. Sidling up against Murasa, she draped an arm over her. "So was it worth it?"

"Think so. It isn't really that often that you get to try fixing stuff you messed up a thousand years ago, you know?"

"Mmhm." Ichirin tugged the covers up over them. "That's good."

Murasa gave a little sigh of affirmation, settling in. Ichirin's presence helped with the aches, at least a bit. It didn't change the fact that she was exhausted. This was, she was beginning to sense, not going to be a long conversation.

"... hey, Ichi?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks for, uh, sticking around, and putting up with all this. If you hadn't done everything the other day, and kept me sane... I dunno. I might still be out there drowning people and stuff. I think I'm gonna be okay now."

"We've been together for like three years. It would be weirder if I didn't." Ichirin threw in a reproachful pinch to Murasa's side, but was getting too lazy to make it count. "Now shut up and get some sleep. I'll carry you back to Gensokyo if I have to, but I'd rather not."

Murasa mumbled something in response, and even she wasn't quite sure what it was. She melted into the bed with a sigh. As exhausted as she was, she barely lasted five minutes before she was asleep.

She dreamed of a shining golden ship, illuminating the dark.

The next morning, after another ten hours of sleep, she felt... less bad. She felt like a stuffed animal that had gotten all its stuffing removed and been turned inside-out. It was a step up, at least. A small step.

The improvement was countered by the fact that she had to actually get out of bed. Their hotel was only a few blocks from the train station, but it felt like a strenuous hike. She was already dreading the walk back up the mountain. At this rate, they'd have to drag her back to the temple.

She grit her teeth and pushed herself until they were inside the train station. Then, she slumped down on the first bench she saw.

Ichirin looked down at her with barely-concealed worry. "You still look pretty rough. Are you sure you're up for this?"

Murasa groaned and leaned back, resting her head against the back of the bench. "I'm dying, Ichi. I'm frickin' dying."

"That's what you said last night, too."

"Still dying."

"Quite a prolonged death scene you have going here." Mamizou looked down at her with rather less pity. "Never would have thought a phantom could get sick, and yet here we are."

"Yeah, uh." Murasa glanced aside, uneasy. She hadn't told Mamizou about anything that happened. Of course she hadn't. Ichirin could handle that kind of thing, but she didn't trust Mamizou not to throttle her. "Pretty weird, huh?"

"Yeah, real mysterious." Mamizou didn't bother trying to hide her skepticism.

It seemed like a good time to change the subject. "Anyway! How long until the train thing gets here?"

"Still another ten minutes or so. Wanted to leave some extra time in case you went and collapsed on us or something."

"Mmh. Great. That's ten minutes I can nap."

With a little sigh, Murasa closed her eyes and tried to get comfy. Not that it was easy. The bench wasn't too comfortable, and the train station was loud. She was never going to get used to the sounds of the outside world. Everywhere you went, there was a dull roar of vehicles, distant machinery, and way, way too many people. Here, it seemed like they were all twice as loud. Or maybe that was just her headache.

And to make it worse, a cry of "Mami!?" pierced the air.

With a groan, she cracked one eyelid. It wasn't hard to find the source of the shout. A girl was barreling toward them, only slowed down by the bag over her shoulder. A human girl, to all appearances. She was wearing glasses, and her brown hair was gathered up in pigtails, bouncing with every step.

She sort of skidded to a stop in front of the bench, staring up at Mamizou in bewilderment.

Mamizou looked almost as surprised. "Sumi? What're you doing here?"

"Shouldn't I be the one asking that?! It's a lot weirder to find youkai out here!"

"Prefer it if you eased off on the Y-word. Wouldn't want to give folks the wrong impression."

"Sorry. But really, what the heck are you doing out here?" The girl glanced to Ichirin. "And you? Did you just decide to have a group trip, or what?"

"It's only the three of us," Ichirin said. "Oh, speaking of which... Cap, I don't think you've met Sumireko, have you?"

There was no way around it. This was a sitting-up-straight sort of occasion. Begrudgingly, Murasa pried her body off of the bench and sat upright, taking her first good look at the girl. Actually, she looked pretty familiar. It was hard to place, though. Brown hair, glasses...

"Er." Murasa sneaked a peek at Mamizou, double checking something before she dared to voice her suspicions. "Oh. Oh! Jeez. I didn't even know you had a kid, Mamizou."

Mamizou blinked in surprise. "Eh?"

"What?" Sumireko sort of sputtered the word out, and her face quickly started reddening. "No! No! It isn't like—I don't even look like her! … do I?"

A strangled snicker escaped Ichirin's lips before she managed to silence herself. "Well, maybe a little, now that you mention it."

"We're completely different! I'm pure human! Anyway, I just know these two from, er, you know." Sumireko looked to Murasa, then past her, glancing around like she was wary of eavesdroppers. "The G-place."

"Oh. Okay." Murasa was a bit relieved, really. She wasn't sure if she was ready for a world with two Mamizous in it.

"Seeing three of you out here is still pretty weird. … ohhh, wait, I get it! I bet we're all here for the same thing! You came to check out the ghost ship, right?"

Murasa felt Mamizou and Ichirin both shoot thoughtful glances her way. She stiffened up in her seat, too surprised to even try to hide her shock. All she could do was roll with it. "Ghost ship, huh? First I've heard of it. Mind filling me in? That sounds right up my alley."

"What, really? Um, hold on." Sumireko dug in her bag and pulled out a little... rectangle thing, then started fidgeting with it. It sucked up all of her attention for a few seconds, but finally, she turned it around to show off what she was looking at.

The thing was displaying a picture. It showed a modern city from the air at night. The roads and buildings were mostly visible as constellations of light. There was a river running down the middle, visible only as a swatch of darkness. Sailing down it was the unmistakable outline of a sailboat... but a sailboat that was glowing green and trailing a heavy green fog behind it.

Murasa was almost certain that Ichirin and Mamizou were looking at her much more intently now. She didn't dare to look up and find out. "O-oh! Neat."

Sumireko pulled the thing back, grinning. "See? The news says it has to be bogus, but I know the real deal when I see it. Nothing this interesting ever happens out here in the real world, so I'd be missing out if I didn't come to investigate. I mean, it's been a day and a half since it appeared, but that just means I have some detective work ahead of me."

"Yeah, real interesting. Funny thing..." Mamizou's gaze was still fixated on Murasa's face. "This is the first I'm hearing of it, too."

"And, get this. The same night that boat showed up, this old historic boat went missing from a museum right by the same river. Lots of places have talked about that, but they're still treating it like some boring theft. That's just a dumb cover story for the masses, but they're eating it up. The truth has to be a lot more interesting."

Murasa got the feeling that she was only going to give Mamizou more ammo for later if this conversation continued, but she had to hear more. "Yeah? What really happened, then?"

Sumireko grinned. She'd obviously been hoping for that question. "There are, like, eighty theories going around on Occult Twitter, but most of them are pretty dumb 'oh yeah that ghost showed up because Venus was ascending in the constellation of Libra' stuff. Amateurs like that just make the rest of us look bad. But on this one imageboard, somebody leaked a transcript of the police interview with one of the security guards at that museum. He says the boat was stolen by a ghost. And everything he said lines up! The ghost said she was taking the boat back to the ocean, and the boat made it out to the ocean before people lost track of it. Plus, nobody's seen it since. Pretty suspicious, right? If there's this big glowing sailboat around, somebody would have noticed it by now. Seriously, it's obvious that the ghost stole it. That's just Occam's Razor."

"Gosh," Mamizou said flatly. "Can't hardly imagine what a boat-hijacking ghost would look like."

If Sumireko noticed the sarcasm, she didn't show it. She sort of seemed lost in her own little world now, wrapped up in occult theories. "I mean, the guy didn't really say, but he got its name, and that checks out too. It's some old ghost from folk tales or something, and a boat-sinking ghost. According to him, this, uh, Murasa ghost or whatever is out to trying to steal back stuff that humans took from the ocean or whatever. That seems like it fits all the evidence, but there's this other guy in the thread who thinks she's some kind of psychopomp. It's not even based on anything! He just likes the idea, and he won't shut up about it… so, yeah! I had to come down here to investigate, and I'm definitely going to prove him wrong."

That finally distracted Mamizou from scrutinizing Murasa's expression. "Are you telling me you came all this way to win an internet argument?"

"Yeah, an internet argument about ghosts. This isn't some dumb shipping flame war or something, sheesh."

Mamizou opened her mouth for a retort, but she was drowned out by the approaching clatter of a train. It only grew louder as it slid to a stop in the station, its brakes hissing and making conversation impossible for the next few seconds. When it finally came to a stop and started discharging passengers, she instead said, "Looks like our ride's here, girls."

"Oh." Sumireko looked a bit crestfallen. "You're leaving?"

"'fraid so."

"You could catch another train this afternoon, you know. Even if this thing is news to you, I bet you'd be a huge help in the investigation! I could pay for lunch, maybe? Er. Somewhere cheap. I don't really have a lot of spending money since—"

"Nuh-uh." Just to punctuate that, Murasa hefted herself up from the bench, giving a groan of effort. She'd almost managed to get comfortable for a few minutes, but now her aches were back with a vengeance. Figured. "No offense or anything. Just, I think I have about five hours before I pass out, and I'd really like to try getting home first."

"Oh. Okay, yeah, I wouldn't want to keep you up."

"And it sounds like we've got lots to talk about on the train, too," Mamizou said, in a voice that dripped with threats of pointed questions to come.

"I guess I can still run my findings past you later. I have two super-easy classes this term. If I nap through them, that's basically two extra hours a day that I can hang out over there!"

"Dunno if I'd brag about that." Mamizou took a step toward the train and waved the other two forward. "C'mon, girls. If we wait too long, all the good seats will be taken. Chat with you later, Sumi."

"Sure! Have a nice ride!"

Ichirin shot Sumireko a wave and started off toward the train, trailing along behind Mamizou. Murasa lingered for a moment, stretching and trying to work some of the ache out of her muscles before she consigned herself to a long train ride. It gave Sumireko an opening to add, "Oh yeah, I don't think I caught your name?"

"Eh? Oh, uh."

The thought of lying didn't even occur to her. After hearing Sumireko's take on the whole affair, Murasa was feeling... just a little more proud of herself. She could have told the truth, and that would have been enough. This occasion, though, felt like it merited the whole truth.

She reached down inside herself, slipping beneath the surface of her own conscious. This was a real stupid risk. She knew that much. But, it had been a pretty rough couple of days. If she didn't break up the tedium, she'd go crazy.

The thing she was looking for was still there, of course. It was a part of her. She was starting to suspect that it always would be. It had been lurking this whole time, waiting for another chance to exert its will over the world. This time, she let it out. She opened the door just a crack and let the smallest fragment of it escape. As always, it was eager to. Dark urges bubbled up and dyed her thoughts. Her hand clenched, searching for a ladle, and she forced it open again. It was as hungry as ever, but for the moment, she could hold it off.

Water dripped from her body. Flame boiled from her eyes. Her flesh was growing cold and pallid, and she was ever-so-slightly translucent.

She leaned in over the suddenly-terrified Sumireko, pulled her in by the collar, and rumbled, "MU. RA. SA."

And with that done, she ripped it from her mind and shoved it back down, deep inside. The foreign presence barely even resisted this time. Maybe it was just as exhausted as she was. Maybe she'd gotten a bit more experienced at controlling it. Maybe it felt just a little more psychopomp-y? She had no idea what the word meant, but it sounded neat.

Sure, her clothes were soggy with seawater now, but she suddenly felt better than she had all day. All trip, even. She gave the still-stunned Sumireko a hearty slap on the back. "Looking forward to hearing what this investigation turns up, though. Drop by and fill me in sometime, alright?"

Sumireko stammered out some response, but she didn't hear it. She was already moving, making her way toward the train and home.