Chapter 10 - Shine

Shine
Reimu could feel the numbness and pain leave her body, energy rushing in to replace them. She slowly opened her eyes to see an unexpected sight. In front of her was Haruhi sitting on a plain white throne, up some stairs. Haruhi was looking at Reimu with an unamused expression, legs crossed and her head resting on her left hand, elbow propped on the throne's arm. They were on some brilliant white observation platform, windows around the walls revealing stars in all direction. Konata was looking out one the windows, completely ignoring the other occupants. Reimu grit her teeth before realising her arms were suspended in the air, her wrists secured by an invisible force. A rainbow barrier appeared between the two empresses. Lazily, Haruhi used her right hand to flick a finger at it. Hit by a powerful but intangible force, the incomplete Hakurei Barrier immediately shattered, Reimu crying from the pain caused by the energy backlash.

"... What do you want?" Reimu growled, completely helpless.

"I just want us to talk," answered Haruhi, with a serious tone.

"Huh," smirked Reimu, "You? Talk? Can't you just assimilate me and take everything from me? My thoughts, my opinions, my free will?"

Haruhi frowned, "I want us to talk, person to person."

Reimu took the liberty of turning a deaf ear to Haruhi's request, "What did you do with Gensokyo?"

"... I protected it from your and Yamaha's stupid plan to blow up your respective kingdoms."

"So, you're going to take over Yamaha too, right? While you're on a roll? You've got the Thunder Child now, right?" jeered Reimu.

"I can't actually," explained Haruhi with a scowl, "Yamaha aren't that careless. You're aware of White Noise, right? Used by the Thunder Child to get through the Sonic Barrier? Sonic Amps can use White Noise to reflect anything, and break the Thunder Child's own White Noise Barrier in the process, and then use the Sonic Noise again to dissolve the object while it's stopped. Yamaha attempted use White Noise to stop Okuu reaching Africa but as you know Alice did a great job sabotaging the Amps."

Reimu looked to the side, thinking about what she just heard, "Wasn't it you who brought the moon down?"

"Not really, but it was under my observation."

"... And Yamaha let it through? Why? No, first, why did you bring it down in the first place?"

"To get someone, called Solace, into Yamaha with the moon."

Reimu blinked, "But then, if Yamaha used the white noise against the moon..."

"She would have died," sighed Haruhi, brushing her hair back, "Yamaha might have had to let it through just in case, to avoid breaking The Unwritten Law. I don't want to risk doing anything like that again."

"... Where is this conversation going?"

Haruhi sat up straight, "I want to ask for your help."

Reimu sniggered, "You need my help? Why would I want to help a power hungry god who has no care for individuality?"

There was a pause. "Okay," began Haruhi, sighing again, "Let's have a history lesson. Think back to Doomsday, particularly The Bad Apple Incident. Who caused it?"

"... I did," grumbled Reimu, lowering her head. She quickly raised it back again, "But it was be-!"

Haruhi held up a hand to interrupt, "I understand. I'm not blaming you. Now who turned it into a full scale war?"

"Miku," Reimu instantly replied.

"Finally, who joined way after the conflict started?"

"... You?"

"Exactly. I joined last, after realising my powers. Did you know my aim was to stop the idiotic conflict?" questioned Haruhi. Reimu blinked in confusion. "But I failed. I failed to stop you and Miku. All I could do was deny you both some territory. But now everyone," Haruhi's voice was growing louder, "Everyone. Everyone!" Haruhi stood up, furious, "Everyone on Earth thinks I'm power hungry! Everyone thinks all I want to do is control the world! Everyone fears me!" she shouted, "Everyone, including you and those mindless hunks of junk, consider me a threat! Of course I have to take away people's free will! If I hadn't, they'd start thinking of ways to dispose of me! Lock me up! Imprison me!" Haruhi was making strong arm gestures at herself. Her voice went down a little, "I hear you had Sasaki with you all this time. I hear the first thing you did to her was imprison her. Why? Because of powers she doesn't even want? Do we not have a right to freedom? Are we destined to be shackled for eternity? Will people only accept us as slaves?" Haruhi sat back down, sobbing into her hands. Konata bowed her head down.

"I give them as much free will as much as I can afford," continued Haruhi, crying into her hands, "I don't have anyone imprisoned. I've made their lives comfortable. They can do whatever they want whenever they want. All I do is stop them from doing or thinking evil. And yet, I'm still hated. Naluri, a girl with complete free will, wants nothing to do with North High or our attempts for peace. Solace is currently doubting whether obeying me was a good idea. And she has good reason to. I almost killed her... I was too overconfident..."

Reimu was speechless, not expecting Haruhi's outburst, "... What do you need my help with?"

Haruhi wiped her face on her arm, "I want us to work together to convince Miku to stop this conflict. I know we blame her for starting the war but maybe she's just misunderstood like us. Yamaha is only uptight because of us. Even though they aren't exactly the most human-friendly of kingdoms, they do follow The Unwritten Law incredibly well, allowing the moon through their Barrier. I believe you don't know yet that your American defence failed."

Reimu's eyes widened, "... What?"

"Yamaha took over the entire United States of America," explained Haruhi, leaning back on her chair, "They managed to shut down all your anti-missile facilities including The Statue of Liberty. They took the direct route by blowing up the Lake Ontario Nuclear Facilities, knocking out all power in the New York state."

"But wasn't Marisa there?"

"Yeah, but the Stray Posse got there a lot earlier. Marisa was in the heart of the nuclear explosion." Haruhi put her hand up to once again interrupt Reimu who was in shock. "She's alive. As far as I know. Yamaha went all out for Marisa, the panic to keep her stable was tremendous. Everyone else from Touhou has been imprisoned." Haruhi looked directly into Reimu's eyes, "Just because they come from Touhou."

Reimu looked down, "...I'll help you. As part of North High..."

"No," rejected Haruhi. Reimu looked back up. Haruhi got to her feet, "I don't want Gensokyo. We will remain as separate territories. All I want is cooperation and friendship between us." Reimu's wrist restrains vanished, setting her free. "Please."

Rubbing her wrists, Reimu paused before nodding, "... Of course," she agreed.

Haruhi smiled, stepping forward to descend the steps, "Thank yo-" A sudden pang of pain in her heart distracted Haruhi, causing her to miss her next step. As she fell forward, the pain began twisting and crushing, Haruhi unable to counter. Her life faded from her body before she hit the floor.

It was ironic that the first fatal casualty since Doomsday was the supreme goddess herself.

KITT was taking a roundabout way towards KC's house as the area was full of activity, the roads and airspace full of construction and medical vehicles.

"Why are there so many late medical vehicles?" asked Alice, "Did someone stay in the blast area?"

Ilse followed one particular ambulance pass by with her eye, looking out the back window. She caught sight of the notebook on Cirno's lap and noticed the writing on the inside of the front cover. Horrified, Ilse snatched the book from Cirno, seeing 'Suzumiya Haruhi' written on the first page. She closed the book, revealing two words embossed in shiny silver on the front cover: 'Death Note'.

"...Cirno... You... idiot..."

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