“Best thing you and Anon can do is leave.” Okina says, pointing a hand towards us, readying her Backdoors.

“… But… w-with what I have…” The bakeneko’s whole body trembles, a mere glimpse of what’s going on inside, and I can’t help but feel grateful she’s in Reimu’s hold—the wings of an angel, turned guarding—, yet she straightens herself and, stumbling quite a bit, she reaches into the long, white sleeve of her qipao. “W-We could save—” A Backdoor is already opening beneath her as she speaks, perception too slow to do anything about it, both hers and mine.

Hana’s perception is not.

A blur of red and white removes Chen from Reimu’s hold as if it’d pierced time, and every pair of eyes rushes to a biting remark only as cold as the sight: “SHE’S DYING TODAY!” With both hands gripping Chen's arms like burning chains, she roars with torrential rage, her face looming over Chen’s. “Even if you pulled off a miracle that could stop her, I’d kill her anyway!” Chen cries and whimpers in pain, her eyes oozing dread.

“Hana!” Reimu intervenes with a severity that should’ve left Hana paralyzed. The girl does not back down, flashing her red eyes towards her mother with righteous wrath. “Put her down now; she’s done nothing wrong!”

“I’m not buying this drivel! Never again!” She hisses through pressed teeth, tossing the bakeneko, choking in pure terror, onto Reimu’s arm, pointing a finger at them as the older miko kneeled to measure the damage. Chen gazed at Hana as if facing Death itself, kicking her legs to create as much distance between her and the younger miko. My legs felt like jelly. I cannot move. “Yukari’s not worthy of any mercy, any show of kindness! You dare say nonsense like that because she’s never put you through the same torment I have experienced! You have no idea of what she’s done to my body, to my mind!” The Gohei appears in her hand, a seething wrath sensitive on her very skin. “You don't! You never will! Who do you think you are that you assume you have a stake in how her future will play out, you coddled brat?!”

Each word made the bakeneko rattle as if physical. My legs refused movement; my heart bleeds. I know Hana’s suffering; I was a part of it. My daughter… “—I-I’m sorry, I just wanted to help… f-family…” Chen stammers, clinging to Reimu for protection.

“You don’t get to decide any of that! You’re weak and pathetic!” She points the Gohei towards the bakeneko. Reimu doesn’t lift hers, but her only hand creaks. “Y-Yukari has thrived in… every single moment of weakness I’ve shown; every modicum of affection I’ve shown. I thought I could save her too, get to know her and… do something—anything.” for a moment, the Gohei threatens to lower, yet its blue hues and runes grow stronger, alight like a thousand bonfires of azure. “I have given Yukari courtesy enough. We’ll kill her.”

Reimu lowers her face, eyes closing painfully.

She… knows it.

She knows what our daughter—our little baby—has endured.

Chen was pale as fog and trembled like a leaf against prevailing winds, looking at Hana with a spirit of bewilderment, and the ache to hug her in my arms and ward off that terrifying sight echoed loudly. A glimmer of poise shone in her eyes, however, of challenge. Whatever its meaning, it died upon hollered words: “Look alive!” Okina called, throwing her head towards the white shine of war, and Hana and Reimu reacted similarly. It took not a second for Hana to fold into herself and disappear, Okina following.

Gently, Reimu left Chen in my hold, her wings unfurled around us as her every movement bore haste.

Yet, when our eyes met, it was like a lifetime.

“… Protect her.” I commanded. Our little girl, once so innocent and gentle, twisted by this war—by her pain—, my arms encompassing all of Chen as if to save my life.

Reimu paused, nodded once, and then disappeared.

Love destroys like nothing else.

Somehow, it had not destroyed her entirely. A better person—a person I have loved—exists within there.

A skeleton stripped of her flesh.

I hold Chen as if this is our last time together. “I-I’m so sorry for Hana…”

Clashes happen in the background, deafening and vicious.

“… No one deserves to go through that pain,” she whispers, clutching me through her tears of fear. “Mine will never be as great as Hana-chan’s; I'll never know. B-But I never want my pain to consume me like t-that, Mr. Anon—” Beneath us, the ground feels as if it is a cloud in the way it parts. Her voice tightens with resignation; a battle everlasting. “—I know how things will end; it'll be full of sad… B-But I want to help her! At least try! I want us all to be happy, have a… future…”

Behind her, a cruel shadow.

“I want to do my best—”

A childish dream of genuine kindness. Love…

Something stops our fall, like a hook, and it rips Chen away from my arms, and they feel empty, begging for something to cradle. We share a long look in frozen time, the realization of what’s happening not dawning as the world quells.

… And love destroys.