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The setting sun cast a warm glow on the top of the Shining Needle Castle, and painted Gensokyo’s sky in countless shades of amber, crimson, and violet. Only Youkai Mountain’s highest peaks blocked the view from the castle’s highest balcony. For most of the inchlings, there were few reasons to climb all the way up to the castle's foundation-turned-roof; it was cold and windy, and the view was almost as good from the top floor, where one was less likely to be caught in a sudden gust of wind and risk falling all the way back down to Gensokyo.
For Sukuna Shinmyoumaru, this had made it something of a sanctuary. Even if the inchlings were safer here than they’d been with the oni, and the castle was big enough that everyone had plenty of space, things still got really noisy, especially in the evenings. Shinmyoumaru didn’t really mind being a local celebrity (it was usually pretty fun), but even she needed to take a little time alone to think.
She sat down on the side, swung her legs over the edge, and leaned back on her elbows to watch the sky. The sunlight was fading now, and the stars were coming into full view. As night fell, Shinmyoumaru lay back onto the roof, and found herself tracing old lines in the sky, an old memory rolling through her mind.
Shinmyoumaru was fascinated by the stars and the constellations; there hadn’t been anything like it back in the oni’s world. “Seija,” Shinmyoumaru asked, pointing wildly at another patch of sky, “who’re those stars?”
“Them?” Seija snorted. “That’s Hoshiguma-douji.” Seija’s hand clasped Shinmyoumaru’s wrist gently, guiding her hand to point a little bit higher. “That’s her horn, see? And if you go down a bit, you’ve got the rest of her.”
Shinmyoumaru nodded. “There’s a lot of oni, aren’t there.”
“That’s what you get when you’re the strongest around.” Seija said bitterly.
For a while, there was nothing but the sound of the wind over the castle. “Are we up there, somewhere?”
“I don’t think there’s an inchling, but...” Seija pointed off to the southern sky, where a pair of brighter stars stood out in a sea of dim ones. “There’s the amanojaku. You can’t really see anything but the horns, ‘cause we’re so sneaky.” Seija nudged Shinmyoumaru with her elbow. “Once we’re in charge, though, you can pick the best spot for the inchling, just you wait.”
Shinmyoumaru blinked as her eyes fell on the amanojaku’s constellation.
There wasn’t much left in memories anymore.
“Let’s just surrender together.”
One last offered hand, one last chance to go back.
“Hell no! Who said anything about surrender?!”
A bitter, hateful glare.
“I’ll tell everyone to devote themselves to your capture.”
A shaking mask.
A tremendous crash pulled Shinmyoumaru from her thoughts.
She pushed herself upright and whirled her head around, to where a massive stone sat half-embedded in the castle roof, with a smiling blue-haired girl standing atop it. Seemingly mindless to the fractured foundation beneath her, Hinanawi Tenshi leapt from her mount, a smaller keystone flying out from somewhere to carry her to a gentler landing next to Shinmyoumaru.
“Hey!” she shouted, dropping herself down next to Shinmyoumaru, “they finally let me leave Heaven again after that mess with that binbougami, so I came to say hi!” Tenshi flopped back onto the stone, not bothered in the slightest by the impact. “What’re you doing?”
Shinmyoumaru lay back down. For a long time, she didn’t say anything.
“Tenshi,” she said, quietly, “if you could take my power, would you?”
The wind whistled around them.
“Huh?” Tenshi asked, turning her head to give Shinmyoumaru a befuddled look. “Why’d I need your power? Haven’t you seen enough of mine?” With the last flicker of the setting sun, her smile was literally dazzling. “I’ve taken on all of Gensokyo twice, after all!” Tenshi pumped her fist. “What’ve you got to say to that?”
“I’ve done it three times.” Shinmyoumaru said, a sly grin on her face.
“Wait, three?” Tenshi held up her hand, counting quickly on her fingers. “The outsider’s incident, our run, and… what?”
Shinmyoumaru closed her eyes. “I’ll tell you about it sometime, maybe.” She sighed quietly. “Not right now.” She’d have to figure out what it still meant to her, first.
Tenshi didn’t answer. Shinmyoumaru opened her eyes again; Tenshi was sitting up, looking at her with a confused look on her face. “Were you crying?”
Shinmyoumaru held a hand to her face. “I… guess I was.”
“Do I need to go kick someone’s ass?” Tenshi asked, a fiery look in her eyes. “Or do I need to bring you someone so you can kick their ass?”
Shinmyoumaru shook her head, smiling. “No, I’ll be fine.” She slowly sat up, then froze as a flash of light cut through the night sky.
Behind her, Tenshi oohed loudly, and pointed over Shinmyoumaru’s head. “Did you see that?!” She clapped her hands together. “Heaven’s too high up for shooting stars; I didn’t know they had them in Gensokyo!” Tenshi laughed. “I still don’t get why everyone else stays up there all the time.”
“It’s the first time I’ve seen one from here.” Shinmyoumaru smiled, tracing the path of the fallen star with her eyes. “Right down Hoshiguma-douji’s horn, too.”
“Down what now?”
Shinmyoumaru smiled. “See those stars, there? The triangle? They’re sort of like a horn, right?” She took Tenshi’s hand, and pointed it up at the stars. “Well, if you go down a bit...”