STEVE (a Touhou LW original) refers to an atmospheric phenomenon where the night sky glows with a purple ribbon of light. This is a fitting temperament for Flandre, who is obsessed with playing the villain. Acting on impulse has caused her Phases and Essences to change. "Ugh, you're talking to me again? I was nice to you once, and now you think we're friends?" (Strong against Fire Phase.) "You know I'm gonna roast you, and you come talk to me anyway? You really do get a kick out of this, don't you?" (Weak to Wood Phase.) "Ew! Gross! Are you actually enjoying this?!" (Weak to Metal Phase.) "...Oh, hey, Remilia. Yuuma. Relax, the investigation's going fine. I'm being totally thorough. Huh, this? Oh, right. Playing pretend only works if you take it seriously, so..." (Weak to Earth Phase.)

The ability of Flandre Scarlet from the world obsessed with pretend villainy (a Touhou LW original). This ability seems practically the same as the Flandre of our world's ability. Stealing something and destroying it are complete opposites. To steal is to keep, and to destroy is to lose, though that has gone right over Flandre's head. Evil runs rampant in harvest season. Human history shows that civilization's great leap forward began with the invention of agriculture. That may be hard to grasp for those living in a far eastern island nation so blessed by nature, but the region humans consider their birthplace was by no means rich in resources. That's why humanity has always been driven by the urge to secure resources, protect them, and increase them. Hunting, gathering, and herding left life almost entirely at nature's mercy, until agriculture made the future something people could predict and calculate. Onmyoujutsu to read the calendar, feng shui to analyze weather and terrain, divine power to understand the nature of life... All of them began as faith and, through mathematical reform, eventually grew into science. It was all for more grain, more farmland, and more hands to work it. There was no grander purpose. Once the Second Agricultural Revolution was set in motion, it drove humanity forward like an unstoppable torrent. The Industrial and Information Revolutions were nothing more than inevitable consequences farther downstream. And that current will keep flowing until humanity either destroys itself or devours every resource in the reachable universe. Nobody knows for certain what triggered the First Agricultural Revolution, but one theory suggests it was a catastrophic famine caused by natural disasters such as volcanic eruptions. In every era, there have always been those who seek to profit not by producing, but by plundering. And when lawless plunder runs rampant, no one bothers to put real effort into making things. Ultimately, law and government were created to safeguard the fruits of agriculture. But some see it differently. To them, government is simply a cover for plundering with a system behind it. Some describe civilization as humanity domesticating itself, or as crops enslaving humankind. Humans should have reached the very top of the ecosystem as the lords of all creation. It should have been paradise. Yet once they stood there, what they felt wasn't triumph. It was the sense of being ruled by something they couldn't see. Unable to accept that, people began searching for the invisible rulers they felt were controlling them. Some hoped a merciful god would save their souls. Others claimed that aliens brought civilization, that the powerful had borrowed the strength of devils, or that a secret shadow government was controlling everything... A benevolent god and a sinister conspiracy may seem like opposites, but like yin and yang, they're two sides of the same coin: a belief that someone unseen is in control. Humans sense that someone is unfairly taking from them. But that feeling is really just their guilty conscience, because deep down, they know they're stealing from someone too. Every resource becomes valuable only as it shifts from a state of high energy to one of low energy. Firewood and oil are useful because they release heat, but once they've burned down to low-energy ash or carbon dioxide, they're no longer of any use. On Earth, all that energy comes from only two sources: sunlight and geothermal heat. Every resource we can use today was either drawn directly from one of them or from reserves that built up and transformed over countless ages. Crops are a clear example of the first kind. They simply use sunlight to make carbohydrates, producing the raw material for sugars that humans can absorb. In that sense, agriculture is like an adapter that humans have plugged into their own biology so they can feed on sunlight. So, what about vampires? They count as demons, but they're in a class of their own. Magic books and similar texts show that most demons are summoned to serve humans. Why they serve varies, but since they're put to tasks like building temples, they could be considered similar to oni. Vampires, however, are the opposite. They rule over humans. They're the true lords of creation, a species that preys on humanity itself. Does that mean they feed on sunlight through humans? It's true that vampires have long sought to overcome the sun, but no, that's not what's happening here. What vampires feed on is human blood, and blood is fate. Not just the fate of a single individual, but liquid spiritual information, encoded with the fate passed down through generations. In drinking it, vampires consume the fate of humans long past. Less than twenty thousand years have gone by since the First Agricultural Revolution, which is far too little time for humanity to evolve. Human blood hasn't changed since the days when people spent their lives hunting, when they worshipped the moon and relied on moonlight to find their prey. So what vampires really feed on is the power of the moon.