[h2]Fujiwara no Mokou[/h2]

Seizing the orb—

Well, this hadn't been a great idea, even for her, had it? Oh, it wasn't like it was doing any permanent damage, Mokou was instinctually aware of [i]that.[/i] But the rage of thousands of souls, their resentment urging her to take it out on everyone around, then the city, then the [i]world[/i]—

There was the faintest flicker of flame.

Ah, it was a familiar feeling. Destroy and destroy and [i]prove[/i] that your existence still meant something, even in the face of unchanging immortality, even when all of society had long forgotten you existed. Even the urgings of vengeful spirits to go further and further on this self-destructive path… that was familiar too, wasn't it? You couldn't burn everything you saw for centuries without attracting that sort of attention from the victims. And the fire responded so readily, it would be trivial to flood the room with it. That would start a fight with [i]everyone[/i], but this was what she lived for.

Yet… she'd been here before. Mokou knew where this path lead; she'd die a thousand times or more until… she'd just get tired. No closer to death, and with nothing in her unchanging life to show for it. No matter what the vengeful dead wanted, there would be no satisfaction to be found, and while they had numbers, she had both experience and familiarity with it. What was the anguish of thousands of spirits? She'd long lost track of how many [i]she[/i] had burnt to ash.

Mokou wrenched her hand free with a sigh. "Vengeful spirits. Thousands of them."