Time to face the Night. Is this the end? Or is the Night just beginning?

"You've amassed quite a bit of… popularity." I say to Charity.

She tilts her head to the side. "Hm?"

"Much of Gensokyo is looking for you now. And, to be blunt, there are many people who want you dead." I continue.

She just smiles and sighs before turning back to polishing her sword.

"Yukari, you worry too much! It's all good fun. Everyone's just stuck up right now because I always win." She replies.

I hesitate to agree with her. "Perhaps… but must you really go out again so soon? You will inevitably run into trouble at this rate. And it is quite late. You should rest."

"It'll be fine." She says with a bright smile. "Besides, didn't you say no one really goes to the mountain these days? Those tengu could use a good shaking up, and since no one else will do it then why not me?"

Hmm… Perhaps she does have a point there…

I nod. "Fine. You know I won't stop you anyways. But please try to at least be a little careful. I don't want you getting hurt out there."

"Don't worry. I'll be fine. Besides, I do have my own little friends if things get bad." She says as she picks up her blade in one hand and heads for the door.

"Yes, I know. Goodbye for now."

She waves back. "Bye now!"

Charity steps out through the door and vanishes into the border; off to Gensokyo once more.

But as soon as she leaves I am hit with another terrible pain in my head.

Gh… this migraine… terrible. Just what is wrong with me? Am I really getting to be so frail as this now? Ugh… I can barely think like this…

I wait for the pain to subside a moment before opening a gap and proceeding home.

I suppose I have been rather inactive lately. I haven't really picked up a spell card in a few months. Perhaps I should train again. Give my mind and body a stretch.

After thinking about it for a moment I decide on that.

Yes. Train. I feel like that is what I should be doing. Definitely. I can practically hear Charity's sweet voice saying 'you should try to work out and toughen up, maybe then you wouldn't feel so tired all the time'.

I chuckle to myself; my voice echoing through the emptiness of the border.

Hmhmhm… such a sweet girl. I think I'll do just that.

"Mister? Mister! Time to wake up!"

"She said his name is Joseph. Did you already forget you birdbrain?"

"Unyuu… sorry…"

"Joseph? You need to wake up now. Come on, get up."

"He's not moving. Maybe we should shake him!"

"What? Okuu people don't like being woken up like that. Hey, are you listening birdbrain? Stop that! Stop!"

"Wake-y shake-y! Time to get up mister!"

"His name is Joseph and stop trying to shake him! He's going to get mad at us!"

Between the violent shaking and loud arguing, I am forced out of my sleep. I slowly open my eyes and pull get up off the bed.

"See! It worked!" Says a young girl's voice.

I take a deep breath and reorient myself to the world.

Standing a short distance away from me at the edge of the bed are two young girls, both distinctly youkai. One is a tall and mature girl with a young face and an innocent grin. The other is a short red haired girl with a mature face and a wry smile

The taller of the two is dressed in a white shirt, green skirt, and wears a green bow in her hair. Her great black feathered wings match her coarse black hair. But what makes her so strange is the burning red cats-eye gem nestled over her breasts. It almost seems to be a part of her…

The other girl is dressed in a black dress, and her hair is tied into braids with small ribbons; also black. Defining her as a youkai are two large cat ears atop her head; although she doesn't have a cat tail like Chen did.

More youkai… I think to myself. Do they live here too?

The winged girl introduces herself. "Hello! My name's Okuu! Nice to-ow!"

The girl next to her jabs her in the side. "He just woke up Okuu, and we don't use nicknames to introduce ourselves. Show respect or Satori's gonna get mad at us!"

"Unyuu…" The girl mumbles in apology.

The other sighs and turns back to a nearby dresser. Sitting on top of it is a small tray with some food on it. The girl picks it up and sets it on the edge of the bed for me.

"Anyways, since my friend here already started the introductions, I may as well go ahead and introduce myself as well. I'm Rin, and this is Utsuho. We are Satori's pets."

Huh? "You two look more like people then pets."

"Well, we have our humanoid forms, but we really are just youkai animals." Rin replies. "Satori took us in when we were young and gave us a home. In return, we help her manage hell's furnace below."

"Sounds like a tough deal to me. Having to work in hell." I say before turning my focus to eating the meal set next to me.

"No way." Utsuho replies with a grin. "We work hard for Satori's sake. She's so nice, and we love her very much!"

I smile a little. "I see. Well I'm glad you think so. I'm sure she could use a few friends down here."

Utsuho nods. "Yep!"

"Speaking of work." Rin interrupts. "We got called off by Satori a little while ago. She wanted us to wake you up and come back to the study. I don't know what's going on, but it's pretty important if she called Utsuho out from the furnace."

The study? She wants them to help with the fight now. What does she have planned with them? Can these two really help?

Rin and Utsuho head for the door.

"Anyways, you'd better hurry." Rin says as she steps out. "There are a bunch of people in the study, and everyone's waiting on you I think."

I nod. "Tell them I'm on my way."

"Ok. Hurry though." She replies.

"Yeah!" Utsuho chimes in. "If you're late, we'll start the party without you!"

Rin sighs again. "Okuu, it's not a party."

"It isn't?"

"No. Now come on, let the man have his peace." Rin says as she pulls her friend out the room.

The two girls close the door behind them and leave me alone.

Everyone's waiting… heh… I never thought I would be the one to have a team behind my back. I think to myself as I quickly try to eat the rest of my food.

I don't recognize half the things on my plate, but I'm so hungry I don't even care. I soon finish my meal and set the tray back on the dresser.

Alright. Let's get back… although it would be easier if Ran would just open a gap back…

My thoughts go unheard though, and I am left to walk back to the study room. It takes me a few minutes to get a sense of direction in this place, but I soon find my way back to the entrance, up the stairs, and back to the study room.

As I step in, I find this room to be extremely crowded and loud.

Remilia, Patchouli, and Sakuya are all sitting together chatting quietly about the mansion's repairs. Daiyousei and Kisume are standing next to each other; both of them wave as they see me. Satori is standing in front of a kneeling Utsuho and Rin and is scolding them both; apparently they were supposed to wait for me so I didn't get lost.

I also see some faces I haven't seen in a while. Seiga and Yoshika are by a bookshelf off to the side. With them are two other individuals. Two people I didn't think I'd see again. A girl in blue and a short tomboyish engineer.

Huh? "Nitori? What are you doing here? And Rika too? I hope you two weren't forced to come here."

Nitori speaks quietly, still a little uncomfortable around so many people. "The other kappa refused to do anything about this. I want to promote peace between youkai and humans, but if this person is threatening that something has to be done. The other kappa want to turtle up and hide from this, but I refuse to do that. I've heard your story from the others Joseph. I'm sorry I couldn't help you before, but maybe now I can use my technology to make a real difference in the world."

Rika speaks next. "I can't be Gensokyo's greatest engineer if there's no Gensokyo. So, when Seiga popped in and gave me a chance to do something about this Nightcaster mess I jumped right on. I didn't think I'd see you in the center of all this though."

Nor did I… "Thanks for coming though. I'm sure I your weapons will be of use. And I hate to ask this of you Nitori, but we may need your weapons too; even though you don't want to use your technology for that."

"Don't worry, I'll help." She replies.

I then turn to Seiga. "Thanks for getting the extra help."

The hermit manages a small smile before giving one of her spiteful remarks. "Gensokyo is threatening to collapse into utter madness and you still find the time to sleep this late. What a fool. But… you're welcome."

Same as always… Still nice to see you again.

"Are we all here now?" Remilia asks. "I would like to get this started soon."

"Not yet." Ran replies from the corner she is standing in. "Yuuka is still on her way. She should arrive in a few seconds."

Yuuka? Oh yeah. I almost didn't notice her. Where is she? Satori?

Satori hears my thoughts and turns away from her pets long enough to reply.

"She requested leave after awakening. She is going to gather a few of her own reinforcements to increase our strength just a little more."

Although we already have some of Gensokyo's finest on our side. I wonder if we may be a little overkill here.

Satori shakes her head. "I don't think you understand how bad some of these attacks are Joseph. The attacks on the Genbu Marsh and the Garden of the Sun were of unprecedented destruction. This Nightcaster is worse than anything any of us have seen. Worse than anything you have seen. You will need all of our help with this."

I nod. "I see. Thanks."

"Ah. She's here." Ran says. The room quiets at her statement as if it was a warning.

A dark gap opens to the surface. Yuuka comes in through it, followed by two people I don't recognize.

Yuuka is clean and composed in her same plaid outfit. She is quite beautiful, and has both a seductive and threatening air about her. She truly feels like one of Gensokyo's mightiest. When she stops in the middle of the room and turns to me I feel a slight shiver.

"So, Satori wasn't joking when she said a human was at the center of all of this. I was truly hoping I wouldn't see one of your kind involved…" She says in a low smoky tone.

"Who I am doesn't matter. What matters is that we work together to get this done." I calmly reply.

She crosses her arms and glares at me; her eyes delivering a piercing red gaze. "You're awfully confident to assume I've come to help. What if I just came here to kill you? You struck me while I was down and helpless. That's not something I'm willing to forgive. And after losing my garden, I'm quite sure I have it in me to do some killing right about now…"

"Don't try to act intimidating Yuuka." Satori replies. "Joseph is a veteran, not the kind to bow to threats. And I can tell in your heart that you didn't come here for harm."

Yuuka whirls to the small psychic. "Oh? And what does my heart say about what I want to do to you and your smart mouth now? Hm?"

Satori listens for a minute.

She then shrugs. "I've heard worse."

Yuuka almost staggers at being disregarded.

"Really Miss Kazami." Remilia adds in. "You come in here trying to throw your weight around, but let us not forget that not too long ago you were a broken mess."

And besides…" Seiga adds in next. "You would have to be some sort of coward to claim to be so powerful and then bring others to help you. Truly, you are a fool."

Yuuka growls in anger. "You people…"

But then, Daiyousei flies up from her seat and hovers over the room.

"Everyone! Stop it!" She commands. Surprisingly, her soft voice carries well through the room and everyone stops.

She goes on with a small speech. "I know we all have our differences in here, but we have to work together now. There's a really bad person out there who's hurting Gensokyo, our home, and we have to do something about it. If we don't stop fighting and shape up we're going to lose everything that matters to us! So please, don't fight…"

Patchouli nods. "She speaks reason."

Everyone else agrees. Yuuka reluctantly nodding in the end.

"Very well." Yuuka mumbles. "I agree, but only this once. Only because I've been humiliated beyond belief. Only because I want revenge."

She then turns to me. "Human… don't get cocky just because I've agreed to this alliance of yours. And don't think you're getting away with attacking me either. When this is over, it's nothing but punishment for you. Long. Painful. Punishment."

"Yes yes, enough with the idle threats." Satori interrupts. "How about you introduce those two you've brought so we can continue?"

Yuuka glares at her, but after a few seconds she gives up with a sigh. "Yes… Well, seeing as everyone else is reaching into their resource pools for this incident, I thought I may bring out some of my old allies as well. I hope you don't mind a little more to this mess of people in here."

Yuuka gestures to the two girls next to her, and they begin introducing themselves.

One is a neatly dressed blonde girl wearing a white dress shirt and black skirt along with a fluffy white hairband. She speaks in a sweet, but refined voice. Distinguishing violet leather wings and a chilling air about her tell me she is a vampire like Remilia.

"Greetings everyone. My name is Kurumi. I'm the vampire who watches over the Lake of Blood, and technically under Yuuka's employ. I'm still fully committed to her cause and will help you all however I can."

Remilia seems to scowl at her, apparently not fond of another vampire in the group, but she says nothing and allows the second individual to speak next.

The other girl holds a massive scythe with a nearly impossible bend in it. She is dressed in a brown formal dress, and her short curly hair is covered by a white wide-brimmed hat.

"Name's Elly." She casually says. "The Reaper of Mugenkan. It's been a little while since I've really been out fighting, but if all of us are here then this should be easy. I'm happy to join up with you guys."

"And I'm Koishi! Nice to meet you all!" Comes a mysterious third voice.

Hm?

Yuuka and everyone else looks to the young girl next to her. She is dressed in an off yellow shirt and has a green shirt. Her strange light green hair is topped with a black wide-brimmed hat designed like Elly's. I notice immediately she has a third eye like satori, but hers is blue and closed tightly shut.

She had not yet noticed her, nor had I, nor had anyone else. No one has any idea where she came from.

"What? I didn't bring you here. Who are you?" Yuuka says to her.

"Huh? I can't introduce myself then?" The girl asks.

Satori sighs. "Ah, I forgot. This is my younger sister, Koishi. She will be joining us in this affair, although her role will be secondary."

"Huh? Why?" Koishi pouts. Her attitude is rather childish and silly.

"I don't want you getting hurt." Satori replies. "You can help if we really need you, but you will stand back. And don't think your subconscious manipulation will influence me on this either. I will not bend on this matter."

Koishi looks down. "Oh… ok…"

Utsuho skips over to her and puts an arm around her. "Don't worry. I'll stay with you and-"

"No, you're not." Satori interrupts.

Utsuho gives a surprised look. "Huh? But what about the-"

"I will manage the furnace along with Rika and Nitori for the time being as we work behind the scenes. For now, you and Orin are being assigned new jobs. The resolution of this incident is now your priority."

Rin is also shocked. "A new job? So this isn't chores anymore?"

"No." Satori responds. "This incident is your job now. Mistakes will be met with reprimands, so show respect and take this seriously."

"Aww…" Utsuho whines.

"I said take this seriously." Satori repeats in a harsher voice.

Utsuho immediately snaps to attention. "Y-yes!"

After that, I take a second to look around the room and count everyone in the crowded and busy room.

Seiga. Yoshika. Remilia. Patchouli. Sakuya. Rika. Nitori. Daiyousei. Kisume. Ran. Satori. Yuuka. Elly. Kurumi. Utsuho. Rin. Koishi. I count. Seventeen people.

This is a small army. I think in awe.

I raise my voice to speak to everyone. "Thank you. All of you. I never thought I would be able to receive so much help here in this world."

"Don't thank us yet." Seiga say right next to me. "We still have to win this first."

Satori nods. "Indeed. We all have a brutal battle ahead. I hope you all came prepared."

Huh? "What's going on? Did something happen?"

Nitori speaks in reply. "I have a friend. A goddess who guards the bottom of Youkai Mountain. She said she saw a strange and scary person heading up. It sounded like her when I spoke with her about it."

The Nightcaster. She's still on the offensive. Damn…

"Has the attack happened yet?" I quickly ask.

"Not yet. It could be any second though." Nitori replies.

"There was no noise on my way here." Yuuka adds. "We have time."

"But not enough to waste." Sakuya replies.

"We need a plan." Remilia states. "Joseph? You know the Nightcaster's strategies. This is where you come in."

"Why?" Yuuka huffs. "Not to be overly boastful, but between me, the vampire kid, and the bird, we have three of Gensokyo's greatest superpowers with us. Why plan when we can just go there and destroy her?"

I shake my head. "No. No. The Nightcaster is smarter than that. If she is intimidated then she will run without a second thought. We can't let her do that."

"Let us not forget Yukari is on her side too." Ran adds. "She is the superpower of Gensokyo."

"Then what is it?" Yuuka angrily demands. "You'd better plan fast human! My patience is very thin!"

I think hard. Alright… hmm… we have a lot of people…

"We need to contain her and her minions." I slowly begin; talking faster as I formulate a real battle plan. "A ring to hold her and her army. No, two rings. One to hold her and one to close in for an attack. Corner her. Make her nervous. She acts superior all the time, but I know if the odds are skewed against her she'll lose her cool fast."

Satori nods as she read the rest off my mind. "I see. Have one ring of people focus on defense and slowly close in and another ring to go in quickly to focus on attacking her minions. Simple enough."

"There are several places around Youkai Mountain I can send you all, so this works." Ran says after her.

"Right. So we need to organize by speed and ability." I go on. "Koishi, Rika, Ran, Satori, and Nitori aren't going, right? So with me that's Thirteen-"

"Twelve." Seiga interrupts. "Yoshika does not leave my side."

"Yeah! With Seiga!" Yoshika cheers loudly.

Twelve then… "Perfect. Two groups of six to surround the mountain on all sides and close in."

Satori takes the next step for me. "I think, according to what I've read of everyone's experiences, I think Rin, Daiyousei, Seiga, Remilia, Sakuya, and Joseph will be the attack group to go first. Utsuho, Yuuka, Elly, Kurumi, Kisume, and Patchouli will be defenders on the outside. Any objections?"

Everyone is quiet for a second before Kisume suddenly speaks up.

"Hey, hold on a minute. Why am I a defender and the zombie is an attacker? I'm faster! I am! Swap me with her!" She complains.

Satori looks to Seiga, who merely shrugs.

"Very well. Kisume will go first and Seiga second. Anyone else?" Satori asks.

No one replies.

Satori then looks to me. "Joseph, this plan means you will arrive alone at Youkai Mountain, and it is the middle of the night. I cannot guarantee that there won't be interlopers who will try to attack you on the way up. Are you fine with this?"

I nod. "We don't have time to come up with anything else."

"Very well." Satori says. "Those assigned to attack go straight up the mountain and search for the Nightcaster as quickly as they can. Those who defend are to advance slowly; taking time to scan for threats and let nothing past. Agreed?"

Everyone agrees in unison.

I suppress a laugh. A Slayer with an army of youkai. Haha. This is crazy alright. But crazy is what I need now. This will work. I will end this quarrel this time. You aren't escaping me Nightcaster!

Confident and ready, I turn to Ran. "Alright. Let's open some gaps and get to the mountain. No time to waste."

Ran silently nods and turns to the back wall behind her.

"Remember everyone, return to your entry spot when you finish so I can bring you back." Ran says as she opens the first gap.

Everyone hustles around her in a big crowd. Ran opens one gap after another, and one by one we file through to begin the attack.

"We're really doing this? All these people after one person?" Elly says as she hoists her scythe over her shoulders and enters the first gap. "This is gonna be fun!"

"Don't get carried away. You're defending." Patchouli says as she steps through a gap opened for her.

"Ah, defending will be so boring." Seiga says as her gap opens up. "But, some quiet time on the mountain would be nice too."

"Be careful Milady." Sakuya quietly says as she leaves.

Remilia's gap opens next. "You too Sakuya."

"Hmph. Defending…" Yuuka says with disgust as she steps through her gap.

I wonder what her problem is.

Kurumi turns to me and replies almost as if she heard my thoughts. "Yuuka hates humans very much. A human priestess tried to exterminate her when she was young and she never got over it. But she admires strong people too. Don't show any weaknesses around her Joseph. She'll grow to like you over time."

"Thanks." I say to her as she steps through a gap.

"Woohoo! Over world here I come!" Kisume squeals as she rockets through a gap on her bucket.

"Take care mister!" Utsuho cheers as she exits.

Rin merely sighs at her friend's forgetfulness and leaves without a word.

"Good luck." Daiyousei says as she brushes past me.

I nod. "Thanks."

My exit comes up last, but before I can step through Ran stops me.

"Wait a moment. There is one last thing. I didn't feel like the others would need to know this part. I can't trust that they would keep my involvement a secret as well as you have." She says.

She opens a small gap next to her and reaches into it. When she pulls her hand out, she has a pair of colored orbs.

"These yin-yang orbs are connected to each other. It will allow us to communicate, as well as allow me to hear what you hear. You can use it to speak to me wherever; just speak to it."

I don't know what a yin-yang is, but these orb's use is simple enough. I gladly take them.

"Thanks. I'll talk to you if I need to." I say.

Ran then takes a step back and gestures to the gap. "Go now, and stay safe."

"I will. Thank you again."

I step forward. The warmth of the study vanishes behind me as I enter the gap.

Surrounding me now are many tall dark leaved trees. The faint light from a half full moon provides my only way to see through this dense thicket.

I shiver from a gust of wind. It is a cold night tonight.

But I soon feel a different kind of chill. A chill from my warning senses.

As I look up at the giant mountain through the trees, I see what I feared I would find. The light of fire and lighting. From the mountain I hear the sounds of loud fighting, roaring monsters, and terrible magic. The Nightcaster is there, and she's attacking.

No! She's already here!

I rush forward through the trees and head towards the mountain.

I've never been to this mountain, but I'm not afraid of what I will find here. I know only one thing now.

My allies are at my side, and my enemy is right in front of me. After all this time here in Gensokyo, all these preparations, all this strangeness, it is time to confront my enemy.

It is finally time for me to face the Night.

A/N

Two weeks too long, but I'm here with another chapter! Thank you again for coming back to my story.

So I get to a part I've really been wanting to get to. All of my characters gathering up for a big plan. I feel like this really tested my ability to manage all these personalities, but at the same time it allowed for a few fun lines between strange pairs of characters. Naturally, I think most people in Gensokyo would butt heads with each other when forced to work together, but this situation eventually gets resolved as everyone eventually gets on the same track. They'll be more individual interactions as the story flows around this group now.

I also add a few characters here. Again, I tried hard to keep everyone's focus time in this chapter balanced and applied details where I thought they were needed. For Utsuho, I went with the silly forgetful type character with Rin being her comedic 'straight man' for the most part. Yuuka is an aggressive elitist, although she doesn't get very far with her arrogance thanks to people like Satori and Seiga who are hard to impress. I don't touch too much on the 98 characters Elly and Kurumi just yet, but we will see a bit more of them over time. Overall, this chapter is a bit messy and chaotic, but I think everything still worked out pretty well.

Edit:

Temporary Hiatus

I'm sorry, really I am; but I have to stop this for now. Maybe not forever, but for a while.

There are several things leading up to my decision to discontinue my story for now.

1) My time, the one things that I feel like really allowed me to stick with this story as long as I have, is slipping away from me these days. I'm simply too busy to regularly update this like I have been. I feel like I'm letting my readers down by making promises of speedy updates, and then failing to do so. I can't keep forcing myself to write like this anymore. I have too much to do.

2) My interests have changed a little. I've grown to like writing and storytelling elements a lot more than I originally thought I ever would. I never thought I would really be able to get into this writing business when I started last year, but I think I've really fallen in love writing. I want to do more than just fanfiction. I've become more interested in creating original stories now. It's not that I don't like touhou any more, but my desire to write about touhou is burning out. I've lost the fire for this story, and I'm afraid that it's already starting to show in my last few chapters.

3) I think my story has decayed quite a bit in quality. The things I'm doing now are vastly, vastly different from what I started out trying to do. I think that's just a natural thing with Touhou. All the interesting characters, places, and interpretations are just too much sometimes, and it's really easy to get lost in it all. I won't say I hate my story, because I think I've written one hell of a story so far, but I'm dissapointed in it because I know I can do better than this. I feel like continuing with this story would just be putting the characters and plot to waste just because of how much I messed things up.

I hate myself for doing this to you all. After getting so many positive reviews and favorites, I have to turn around and let you all down, but I'm sorry I can't keep going on.

I won't say this is the end for my writing here though. Maybe when I find it in me to carry on with this I'll pick it up and see Joseph through his journey, but for now I need to get out of Gensokyo and go on to other things. I have other strange places in my imagination to visit and write about.

So, dear readers, thank you all so much for your time, and farewell for now. Thank you all again for reading with me as much as you have.