Saturday, March 27, 2010

Paradise Sukima 8

It’s early morning, and the three little mischievous fairies fly above Alice’s house, giggling and snickering amongst themselves. A blur flies by and leaves a roll of newspaper in front of the door, and out of the sky, a second roll of newspaper flies straight to the door, making a loud thump after hitting the door itself. Inside her room, on the comfort of her bed, Alice tosses and turns, sweating coldly, looking as though she is under a lot of pain, when in reality, inside her mind, she is seeing certain events... Alice suddenly finds herself right in front of Marisa’s empty house. She looks around and tries to call for Marisa, but no sound comes out of her. Even though it seems empty, she enters the house, and finds it really is empty, except for the small steps heading to the door that leads to Marisa’s new basement, so she follows. She slowly opens the door, and after getting inside, she spots the gate with the swirling vortex in the middle. She opens her eyes wide and exclaims “what the hell? Marisa, what the hell have you done!?” She gets closer to the vortex and realizing it’s sucking in air, she gasps and tries to run away, saying “that FOOL! I have to tell Reimu... gyah~!” She trips and quickly finds herself being sucked inside the vortex, and once in it she realizes she’s inside a large void. She calls for help, but her voice fails her again, so she decides to investigate, and heads straight toward the small light at the end of the large black tunnel. The more the walks, the farther it seems to be, however, a small turn-color flame gets her attention, and quickly she sees a large black and white flame enter the same room and sit in front of the small turn-color flame. She flinches and thinks of turning back, but when she looks at the small flame she asks “Ail, is that you?” Suddenly, Alice feels as though she is inside a tube, being forcefully sucked out of the void, and a deep, calm and wise voice says to her “not yet. We have only just begun his healing. Come back in a few days, young girl.” Alice wakes up and sits on her bed in a frightful jump, her face covered in sweat, panting as though she’s just run a marathon, her heart racing, beating so hard she feels as though it’s going to pop out, and right after finally calming down, she notice Shikieiki and her shinigami, Komachi, standing next to her bed. Before she is able to speak, Shikieiki says “you have seen what she has done, and now I ask you... will you help us?” Alice wakes up on her bed again, feeling more calm, but still sweating a lot, while Shanghai and Hourai call for her. Sounding groggy, Alice says “i-it’s alright. I... just had a bad dream.” Hourai exclaims “but you looked like you were hurt!” Shanghai cries “who hurt mom! You just tell me and I’ll throttle them!” Alice grabs her dolls and holds them tight, then whispers “it’s alright. As long as you’re with me, I’ll be fine.” Outside the house, Komachi smiles while standing next to Alice’s window, then walks away from the house, back to Shikieiki, who says “very nice job. Now, if you were this devoted to your REAL job.” Komachi scratches the side of her head and smiling nervously, she says “th-that’s... really. Um, I mean, heh heh.”, then thinks “but if I do that, you’ll be too stressed out.” Shikieiki sighs, then says “never mind. Marisa’s moving, many trials are set in motion, and now we wait to rescue that soul and close that gate.”, then she stares toward Alice’s house. Komachi looks worriedly as Shikieiki, then asks “Eiki-sama, is something wrong?” Shikieiki sighs, then says “looks like we’ll have one more trial in our hands. I just hope it doesn’t break her.” Komachi silently stares back at Alice’s house, wondering what Shikieiki means with those words.

That afternoon, after the events outside Remilia’s mansion, Reimu arrives to the Human Village, accompanied by Kimi and Agava, and all three land right in front of Kyo’s house. Agava looks around curiously, while Kimi stares toward the town’s center, and staring back at them are a few humans, some hidden inside their houses, while others stand on plain view as they stare at the visitors. Kimi takes one step away, but Reimu places a hand on her shoulder and in a very serious tone says “keep your head, and try to keep trouble to a minimum.” Kimi turns her head to Reimu, then nods and quietly continues toward the town’s center, followed by Agava, who says “man, this village is so boring.” Kimi replies “well, why the hell are you here, then?” Agava quickly replies “chief’s orders.” Reimu sighs and asks herself “I wonder if I did the right thing...”, then she turns around toward Kyo’s house and says “well, I have my own business to attend to.” She walks to the house’s porch, and just as her knuckle reaches the door, from inside Medicine shouts “HEY~! Who ate my dumplings!? Kyo, you hog, I was saving them!” Kyo shouts back “who the HELL are you calling a hog, you little imp!” Medicine replies ”watch it~! Still, why do you eat EVERYTHING in this house!?” Kyo threateningly says “so you really want me to kick you back to that hill, don’t you.” Medicine sniffles, then suddenly cries out loud, and from the second floor, Luna, though sounding playful, her voice emanates an ominous feeling as she says “Kyo~ You better stop picking on her~!” Still holding her knuckle to the door, Reimu sighs and says “geez. I better just get it over with.” She knocks the door twice, and immediately Medicine opens the door, then stares at Reimu and says “Kyo~! You got a guest!” Looking bored and sounding uninterested, Kyo approaches the door and says “Reimu. This is a surprise. Come on in, I’ll...” Before he continues, Reimu says “this isn’t a social visit.” Kyo stares, then suddenly his expression changes to concern when he looks into Reimu’s eyes, urgency ever present in them. Reimu continues “look, I need your help. I am certain you felt that magical shockwave, correct?” Kyo nods, but then gets mad and says “look, Reimu, I am human, and you know that. How the hell am I even supposed to...” Reimu grabs him by his shirt, and in a sudden rage she pushes him against the wall beside the doorway and angrily says “I don’t want to hear excuses, Kyo! Listen, I can’t count on youkai! Even those that are friend are bound to ignore the incidents that are happening. I need a human friend, and you are the only one available!” Kyo looks a little scared toward Reimu, but calms down and asks “but what about Maris-“ Reimu’s eyes hide under a dark shadow as she shouts “SHE CAN’T HELP!” Their eyes meet once more, then Reimu releases Kyo and with a cracking voice she says “I am going to tell you something, and after I do, I want you to promise me you’ll do your best to help!” Kyo glares back, wanting to complain, but he realizes Reimu is holding back on something, however he can’t tell what it is. All he knows it is something of great importance, so he keeps quiet and nods. Reimu sighs, then says “alright, listen up...”
From one of the trees directly in front of Kyo’s house, a pair of brown eyes glare straight toward Reimu and Kyo, and while she speaks, Kyo exclaims and shouts incoherently. The onlooker continues to stare, then says “so~ even that maiden has a heart. Pheh, humans. They’re so, like, pathetic and weak. Still, this is a really good story. Front page material, even.” After Reimu finishes her tale, Kyo places a hand on his eyes, hiding a hate-filled rage as he asks “and he’s... alive?” Reimu nods and says “but he’s acting subconsciously. Right now, he’s only answering to Sanae and Budou, so it’s useless to even talk to him.” Kyo waves his hand in front of Reimu, signaling her to stop, then uncovers his eyes and looking straight at Reimu he says “I will help you out as best as I can, but I will remind you, my powers are minimal compared to Ail’s, or anybody else.” Reimu looks surprised at Kyo, then says “wait a minute.... humility!? Since when did YOU learn that?” A vein pulsates on Kyo’s forehead as he threateningly says “I can still kick butts, you know!” Reimu laughs for some time, then says “ok, alright, I get it!” Both turn serious again, then Reimu calmly says “then I’ll be back at the shrine. If there is something too big, you come and get me.” Kyo nods, and after exchanging glances, Reimu lifts to the air, then says “oh, Kimi and Agava are looking for Kali in the village. Keep an eye on them!”, then flies away. Kyo grumbles as he thinks about what Reimu told him, all sinking slowly into his mind, while Luna stares at him from the window with a mischievous smile, then says “well, it seems we have work, huh?” Kyo sighs and sounding a bit annoyed he says “sure looks that way. And from what I can tell, this could turn very ugly, very soon.” Luna sighs and says “well, you have me, and I will help you. You know that.” Medicine and Su-San peek from the doorway, then Medicine says “then that means you get to have some help from me and Su-San. You are so~ lucky!” Kyo turns away from them and smiles, then says “I’ll keep an eye out on Agava and that Kimi Reimu just mentioned.” Luna immediately adds “any sign of trouble...” she flicks a silver strand of hair from her face and finishes saying “...I’ll come and save your hide.” Kyo smiles and pulls out the amplifier belt, revealing the amplifier itself to look like an elegant belt buckle, then flies away toward the town’s center while putting the belt on. Luna quietly stares on, then says “I think we better contact Momiji.” Medicine nods with a smile.

In the Scarlet Devil Mansion, after easily going through the gates, since Meiling is missing from her post, and easily sneaking through to the basement, since the fairy maids and Sakuya all seem to be scattered around, Marisa walks straight to Flandre’s room. She hears a strange noise, however it’s simply a bit of dust that falls from the ceiling, and after shaking off the sudden scare she says to herself “geez, this place is even creepier without the fairy maids. I wonder what’s going on here?” When she stops talking, she hears a girl, crying and sobbing from deeper into the basement corridor. She feels an ominous energy, and thinks “whoa. Even I could feel that, and I don’t have any magic. I better hide!”, and as quickly as she can, she rushes inside Patchouli’s library. A few seconds later, her eyes and cheeks full of tears and her hair a dirty mess, Meiling walks by, sobbing and crying, repeating “they hate me, I hate them. They hate me, I hate them.” She looks to the library’s door and reaches for it, then suddenly opens it and shouts “Patchouli~!! Why do you hate me so much~!?”, expelling a powerful aura that sends even Marisa flying a few feet in the air. After struggling to get up, Marisa Realizes Meiling is standing right next to her, breathing heavily and crying. She stands perfectly still while looking up to Meiling’s distraught eyes, then Meiling angrily says “YOU! You hate me the MOST! I hate you too! I’m going to kill you!” Marisa yelps and jumps away just as Meiling tries to punch her, and after noticing the large hole on the floor left by Meiling’s punch, Marisa exclaims “whoa! Meiling, take it easy! I-I don’t hate you!” Thanks to the enhancements she did to her shoes, Marisa’s jump made it seem as though she’s flying on her own, however, unable to control the fall, Marisa is still airborne when Meiling jumps to her in the blink of an eye. Marisa thinks “dammit, I don’t remember her being this fast. Perhaps it was my magic. Crap, I need my magic now!” Meiling grabs Marisa by her shirt and forces her to face her directly as she says with a cracking voice “you just like to bully me. You truly hate me!”, then tosses Marisa straight toward the sharp edge of one of the bookshelves. Marisa screams, unable to control herself as she forcefully flies toward the hard edge, and as she approaches the bookshelf she thinks “dammit! Didn’t that yama say I could use my magic when in danger? I’m in danger, so why is nothing working!? I need help! Someone help!” Even though she thinks it, she’s too proud to call for help and thinks of any possible way to save herself, but luck is on her side, and finds herself inside a giant water bubble made by Patchouli, who casually flies toward Marisa and calmly says “you picked a really bad time to come and steal my books.” Marisa wants to thank Patchouli for saving her, feeling incredible relief from the fear she was just feeling mere seconds ago, however Patchouli’s comment makes her a little mad, so she shouts “I didn’t come to steal ANYTHING!!! I and I haven’t stolen a thing! You can HAVE all your books back after I’m dead!” Patchouli hums, then Meiling start to cry louder and louder, and in an instant, Sakuya and a few fairy maids appears just in front of Meiling. The gate guard stops crying, but continues sobbing. Sakuya looks back for a moment and says “Ma- *pant* Marisa, l-lady Patchouli *pant*. Let me handle this.” Meiling suddenly screams “you saw, miss Patchouli! You saw it all! Sakuya mistreats me! It’s UNFAIR!” Sakuya calmly says “Meiling, you know very well I haven’t mistreated you once. In fact, you KNOW you earned those punishments.” Meiling stops and thinks, then smiles and says “oh, you’re right...” Her smile turns into a frown almost immediately, then shouts “it’s the MAIDS!!! They are making FUN OF ME!” Meiling suddenly flies away, and Sakuya, even though she’s exhausted and out of breath, points to the door and shouts “fairies, after her!” The fairy maids salute Sakuya, then go after Meiling. Before Sakuya leaves, Patchouli says “Sakuya, you need to rest. You are exhausted. Remember that you are still human!” Sakuya turns her face side-ways to Patchouli, and with a smile on her face she says “don’t worry, miss Patchouli. I’ll be fine!”, then flies out the door after Meiling.

After the library settles down, Patchouli and Marisa are close to the floor when Patchouli pops the bubble with a pin and Marisa falls straight to the ground on her back, getting wet as all that water lands right on her. As she gets up, Patchouli calmly says “so you truly lost your magic after all. For a moment, I thought I was losing my own powers.” Marisa looks a little surprised, but then smiles and says “I knew trying to hide that from you would be pointless, ze.” Patchouli stares at Marisa, then says “even so, you still came here, knowing well enough how dangerous this place is for common humans. Perhaps you need help?” Marisa grabs Patchouli by her shoulders and looks into her eyes, showing despair on her own, then says “I did something really stupid and got sealed. Patchouli, is there anything that could break this seal?” Patchouli stares back as casual as ever, but after looking into Marisa’s eyes she sighs and says “the seal placed on you is far too powerful. Even if I could do something to break it, doing so will destroy you, and not JUST in body.” Marisa loosens her grip on Patchouli and looks away, hiding her disappointed eyes with her hat, then says “I guess she was right after all. Oh well, it never hurts to ask...” Patchouli continues to stare at Marisa, then says “I see. So asking me for help was actually your backup plan.” Marisa holds her hat by its brim with her right hand, and lifting a smiling face she says “I was hoping to ask Flandre for help. If she can help me, I can at least move around with ease. If she lends me that flying machine of hers, I can fix my mistake and return everything to normal, da-ze!” Patchouli lets out a small smile and a soft giggle, then says “I see. Then you are very lucky she’s back to normal. She almost killed me yester...” Patchouli stops talking, then looks out her window. It’s already dark by now, and some lights come from the Hakurei Shrine. Patchouli narrows her eyes and while looking out she says “odd...” Marisa stares to the window, then Patchouli continues “there’s a pretty heavy battle being held at the shrine.” Marisa opens her eyes wide as she gasps and exclaims “Mima-sama!”

Moments earlier, Reimu arrives to the shrine and finds it eerily quiet. The lights are still off and not even the wind against the trees makes a sound. She prepares her gohei and approaches the open doors, calling “Rika! Are you there?” There’s no answer, except for the chirp of a small sparrow on a tree branch. Reimu glares at the bird and says “so it’s you. What did you do this time?” The Rabid Karate Night Sparrow ruffles his feathers and tweets twice. Reimu turns her sight to the left, and in a flash she finds herself blocking Mima’s crescent moon staff with her gohei from the right. Clenching her teeth and glaring with fury, Mima tries to strike again, but Reimu easily deflects the staff and counters with a forward kick. Mima disappears before the kick hits her, then her raging voice echoes all over the shrine as she asks “why!? Why the hell did you do that to her?” Reimu looks around, keeping a very serious expression on her face, but doesn’t answer. Mima reappears right behind the maiden and swings her staff with all her might, slicing a few strands of hair from Reimu’s head after she dodges the attack, then shouts “why the HELL did you seal her powers!? You KNOW how important that is to her! You KNOW it’s her only defense against the youkai! Why in hell’s blazes would you do that!?” Reimu keeps quiet, rolling on the ground, avoiding Mima’s continuous attacks and countering as best she can every chance she gets. Mima stops and shouts “so you think it was FUN!? Is that it? You know, you’ve been abusing your powers and your stature a little too much, and I, for once, am TIRED of it! I’ll enjoy separating that head from your body!” Rage takes Reimu senses and goes for the attack, using her gohei to try and strike Mima, and while their weapons collide Reimu shouts “you stupid ghost, are you even LISTENING to yourself!? You don’t even know what happened, so don’t spew that crap out now!” Reimu tries to strike Mima hard, but the spirit manages to deflect the attack, sending Reimu flying back. Reimu spins in the air and lands on her feet a good 5 feet away from Mima, and pulling out some charms and needles with her left hand she shouts “you have some guts saying all that! Do you think I enjoyed doing that!? Do you really believe I’d do something like that to my BEST FRIEND, just for a few cheap laughs!? I am not you!” Mima pulls out a spell card and says “Orrery’s Sun”, and while four orbs, green, blue, red and yellow, spin around the enraged spirit she says “of course. Why else would you do that? Give me one good reason you went and sealed off Marisa’s magic!” Suika and Aya, who are hiding on the roof of the shrine, gasp and look at each other in surprise. Reimu clenches her teeth so tight, she feels as though they are about to break, but doesn’t care. Even with that spell active, Reimu blindly rushes to Mima and tries to strike the spirit with her gohei, but Mima disappears and quickly reappears a few feet behind Reimu, firing 4 laser beams, one from each orb, however Reimu tosses her needles and amulets, and all explode after they come in contact with the piercing lasers, raising a thick smoke curtain. From the other side of the curtain, Reimu shouts “you have NO IDEA about ANYTHING! I didn’t have the choice! Your ‘apprentice’ did something very stupid, even for her, and I ended up having to seal her!” Mima shouts “you’re just coming up with the greatest excuse ever, aren’t you!?” Reimu flies straight at Mima, coming through the smoke curtain as fast as possible, pointing the tip of her gohei at Mima’s face and glaring back at Mima with great rage. Mima blocks the attack, then Reimu suddenly disappears and reappears sliding underneath Mima, her foot covered in an orange aura as she makes Mima trip and fall on her face. Reimu takes the chance and summons her yin-yang orbs to her and fires glowing red charms at Mima, making her fly away after they all explode with great force. Mima’s spell is cancelled out, but she manages to flip in the air to face Reimu, then lands safely on the ground and poofs a pair of feet under a long blue skirt, then stands up straight and points at Reimu, then menacingly says “I’ll make you pay for what you did to her!”

Mima and Reimu exchange powerful danmaku blasts and heavy blows as night creeps out on them, and the only thing lighting their view is their danmaku, glowing charms and lasers. Winded, Mima and Reimu land several feet away from each other, waiting for the opponent’s next move, then suddenly Reimu angrily shouts “you think I enjoyed that!? I was FORCED to do that! I warned her not to open that gate, but she did, and look at what happened!” A single, small tear escapes Reimu’s right eye as she says this, and noticing, Mima lowers her guard for a moment, however the evil spirit raises her staff again and shouts “you’re just FULL of lame excuses!”, then pulls a spell card and raises it above her head, and in an ominous tone of voice, she says “you should have seen her. That wound you left on her head crippled her so easily, and all she can do now is run.” Reimu clenches her teeth and glares back at Mima with rage in her eyes after hearing all that, then prepares her gohei and pulls a spell card from under her sleeve, then Mima continues “you took her life away, Reimu, and I intend to make you pay in full! Twilight, Crescent Moonlight!” The crescent moon on Mima’s staff glows yellow and 8 lasers fly out of it, each going its own direction. The lasers bounce off trees, rocks and even the ground itself, then head straight to Reimu, who stands in place, clenching her teeth and glaring at Mima as an ominous aura surrounds her. All the lasers pass right next to her and leave a large burn mark on the ground, however, one of the lasers passes close to Reimu’s left, burning through her clothes and leaving a small cut on her waist, however Reimu continues to glare, not even flinching from the pain. Mima laughs and says “so you’re giving up? Good, cuz’ here comes the SECOND WAVE!” Another wave of bouncing lasers fly from Mima’s staff, and waving her left hand across her body, Mima releases arcs of 5 medium orange orbs, and an extra-large yellow orb that comes from Mima’s own body every second, all headed straight to Reimu, who continues to stand in place, glaring at Mima and holding her spell cards and gohei in hand. Mima cackles as each and every single shot headed Reimu’s way explode with great force the moment they touch Reimu, however Mima is not done, and even with the curtain of smoke covering Reimu, she jumps from where she is, points her staff down, then lunges is straight to where Reimu stands. There is a loud impalement sound and Reimu’s grunt, followed by Mima’s laughter, then Mima shouts “and that’s what happens when you mess with me!” There is only silence, then Reimu shouts “Barrier, Extending Barrier!” Mima screams out loud and the dust clears, revealing Reimu standing just to the left of Mima’s attack full of cuts all over her face and body, but still glaring angrily at Mima as wave after wave of shocking barriers mercilessly punish the evil spirit. When the spell ends and Mima falls to the ground, Reimu approaches her and sounding dangerously upset, she says “you almost got my eye”, then pulls another spell card and shouts “Treasure Tool, Yin-Yan Demon God Orb!” Before Mima is able to Recover, a burning blue yin-yang orb, twice her own size, burns her very skin. She screams to the air, wishing for the spell to end, then is suddenly flung to the air and falls away from Reimu. Breathing heavily, Mima struggles to stand up, and sounding aggravated, she says “no, no! No way! I’m not DONE!” After finally standing up, Mima glares back at Reimu, then a white spell card forms right in front of her, and after grabbing it she shouts “Ghostly Sign, Cold-Hearted Dead Mist!” Mima’s body and clothes turn completely white, then very suddenly, she explodes, leaving behind thick white mist clouds, leaving Reimu almost blind in the center of the mist. Mima’s voice echoes all over as she laughs and says “you really think you’re all that, don’t you? Face it, you always knew someday, some youkai would finish you off. Although, in all honesty, I never thought it would be me. But because I like you, Reimu, I’ll let you have one last wish.” Reimu finally smiles as she flips her hair, then says “I wish for you to shut he hell up already!” Annoyed, Mima replies “I’ll make you eat those words as you choke on your own blood!” White danmaku petals fire themselves from the mist clouds and all scatter around at random, giving Reimu a very hard time to dodge, getting grazed by many bullets, her clothes getting torn all over. The area inside the mist clouds fills with enough danmaku to light up the night and reveal Mima’s silhouette floating to Reimu’s left. Reimu smiles once more, then places a spell card on the ground, touches it with her gohei, and just as a few bullets hit her back she shouts “Divine Arts, Omnidirectional Demon Binding Circle!” A large golden pillar reaches to the sky and strikes Mima so hard, she can’t even scream. Mima’s spell cancels out, and right after Reimu’s spell ends, Mima falls on her face to the ground. Again, Mima struggles to get up, but before she manages to do so, Reimu lowers her gohei and hides her charms and amulets, then says “see that this ghost doesn’t bother me again, Rika, or I will seal her off for good!” Before Mima realizes what she means, Rika comes from behind and strikes Mima behind the head with the hilt of her family sword, leaving the spirit lying unconscious on the ground, then says “as you wish... my lady!” Without saying another word, Reimu heads to her room, then Rika asks “is there anything you need, my lady?” Sounding aggravated, Reimu replies “take care of that wound of yours.” As Reimu continues her way to her room, Rika sighs and thinks “what about your wounds, my lady?” From the roof, Aya and Suika stare nervously, then Rika loudly says “could you guys help me here?” Before anyone answers, a silver washtub falls on Aya’s head, knocking her out-cold, then the RKNS comes from the right, chirping madly and grabbing Suika by one of her horns, then takes her away. Rika sweats as she looks up, then says to herself “I really didn’t see that coming.”

Meanwhile, back at the SDM, Meiling chases some fairies to the clock tower, followed shortly by Koakuma and Sakuya. She turns around to her pursuers and cries as she says “they mock me, call me names, and you protect them!? *sob* You really hate me, don’t you!?” Sakuya raises her left hand to stop Koakuma from trying anything, then says “don’t worry, I intend to finish this.” Meiling stances ready, even though she’s still crying and sobbing, and after standing 4 feet away from her, Sakuya says “perhaps THIS will help you see reason.” She pulls out a spell card and calmly says “Sakuya’s World.” The world around her completely stops and turns dark, then Sakuya moves as quickly as her exhausted body can to place as many daggers as she possibly can around Meiling. After she’s done, she breathes heavily and thinks “this had better work. I’m exhausted already.”, then clicks her stopwatch, letting time flow free again. For a second, Meiling stops crying, then flip-kicks, back-flips, chops, jump-kicks, then summersaults and spin-kicks when high enough, knocking out all of Sakuya’s daggers. Sakuya turns around with horror and exhaustion in her eyes and exclaims “no! For the love of the gods!” Meiling kicks Sakuya so hard, she sends the maid flying to the entrance of the mansion, where she falls on some bushes that cushion her fall, however, she falls unconscious due to her exhaustion. Back at the clock tower, Meiling starts to cry again as she stares at Koakuma, then says “you see? You see what you made me do!? I’m going to have to teach you a lesson!” Koakuma stutters and sweats, then desperately looks around as Meiling approaches her, then smiles and says “er, I think I’ll be running now!” In an instant, Koakuma is flying for her life, while Meiling chases her down with hatred in her eyes, shouting “come back here, you intruder! Get BACK!” Back at the mansion’s front yard, Sakuya wakes up, moaning and holding her head, saying “ooh, that hurt more than I thought it would.” Sakuya stops moving and talking, then looks around herself with her eyes as they glow red. She calmly gets up and heads to the door, but the second she opens it, 4 blurs enter through the door, then a 5th one pushes her inside, making her fall on her face. Sakuya struggles to lift herself up, then realizes she is in the mansion’s foyer, surrounded by 4 female vampires and 3 males. The largest male walks close to Sakuya and in a commanding tone says “where is the so-called queen of the night!? I am here to claim the throne!” Sakuya says under her breath “Sakuya’s... W-world.” She stops time and pushes her body again, releasing an insane amount of silver daggers all around each of the vampires, then stands away from them as she releases time again, and all her daggers hit their mark, each getting stabbed on their wings and hearts. As they fall to their knees, Sakuya smirks and says “s-*pant* so you thought *pant* you could just barge... in like that?” Sakuya gasps in horror as 6 of the vampires stand right back up, all laughing as if just hearing a wonderful joke. One of the females shouts “GLIDE! She killed GLIDE!”, as the still body of the dead vampire burst to flames and turns to ashes on the floor. All the others stop laughing, and after noticing the male vampire turning to ashes, the largest of them all walks to Sakuya with rage in his eyes. Sakuya is exhausted, she can’t run away. All she can do is wait, as the large vampire approaches her, grabs her by her shirt, then lifts her to face him and says “you are going to pay dearly for that, human!”

Meanwhile, at the Moriya Shrine, while Kanako and Suwako struggle to maintain order inside the shine, arguing with Koishi and Lily, and trying to keep Ail from flying to the ceiling, outside the shrine, Budou sits on the farthest corner of the porch, hugging her knees as she looks to her feet. Sanae and Chen sit close by, looking worriedly at her, then Chen asks Sanae “is there anything else we can try?” Sanae sighs and replies “we’ve tried talking to her, food and toys... I can’t think of...” Sanae raises her finger and gasps with a smile, then excitedly whispers “there are some strange flowers that bloom during the night. She loves those. I’ll go pick some up!” Chen immediately hops on her feet and says “then let’s go!” Sanae lightly pushes Chen back down and says “please, stay with her this time, in case she wants to tell you anything. These flowers grow very close by, so I’ll be alright.” Chen stares back at Sanae with worry, but nods and gets closer to Budou. Sanae says “I’ll be back real quick.”, then walks to the shrine’s lake. Using the light from the moon, Sanae quickly finds a bed of dark round flowers with what look like a pair of yellow glowing antenna, on the edge of the lake and whispers “yes! Budou’s ‘grape flowers’. If these don’t cheer her up, nothing will.” On the shrine’s porch, Chen pats Budou’s back, trying her best to somehow comfort her friend, but Budou continues to stare at her feet while hugging her knees. Chen opens her mouth, but is suddenly called inside by Suwako, who shouts “Chen, could you PLEASE come here for a second!?” Chen sighs, then whispers to Budou “I’ll be back in a second.”, then heads inside the shrine. The second she leaves, Budou gasps and raises her head, then exclaims “mama!?”, and even with her injured wing bothering her, she flies as fast as she can to the shrine’s lake. Very quickly, she finds Sanae lying on her back next to the water, holding on to her favorite ‘grape flowers’, however her eyes are closed. Budou’s heart races at the sight and immediately dives down to check on Sanae. She kneels next to the maiden and whispers “mama... mama what is it? Mama, wake up.” From behind, a familiar voice laughs and says “she’s not going to help you, little crybaby! After I’m done with you, I’m going to make her pay. Getting away from that blasted cat was a pain!” Budou turns around in a fright and gasps when she faces the same vampire she and Kyo faced during winter’s end. The vampire smiles and says “surprise, little brat! I am going to enjoy ripping you to shreds!” The vampire jumps at Budou, but the little youkai remembers some of her training and drops on her back, letting the vampire fly right above her and straight to the water. There is a loud splash, then silence. Budou stands up and stares at the water as the ripples settle and the reflection of the moon becomes as clear as if it were reflecting upon a mirror. She turns to Sanae and whispers “mama. Mama, wake up!” She touches Sanae’s forehead and feels she is very cold, then tries to lift her head, but feels something wet underneath, and after pulling her hand away, she realizes it’s blood. She starts to cry and says “mama, no! Don’t go! Don’t leave me too!” As she says this, she shakes Sanae’s body, hoping to wake her up, then is startled when the vampire rises from the water, cackling and shouting to the air. Budou hopes those screams would reach the others at the shrine, but there is too much noise for them to notice another outside noise. The vampire smiles and asks “are you surprised, little baby?” Budou flies next to Sanae’s unconscious body and pulls her only spell card. The vampire pulls out her own spell card and says “Bloody Night Fangs!”, then flies straight at Budou and Sanae while her fangs glow red. Budou bravely shouts “Wave Sign, Shapeless Mind!” The shapeless green beams take the shape of a giant spiked ball that flies so fast, the vampire can’t dodge and is struck hard and sent back into the lake’s waters. Budou reaches for Sanae, desperately wishing to be able to save her before the vampire comes back, however the vampire rises from the water again, this time going straight at Budou and knocking her away from Sanae, then grabs the maiden and lifts her from the ground and opens her mouth, ready to bite down on Sanae’s neck. On that second, the world around Budou turns grey and everything seems to move slow as she thinks “no! She’s going away. She’s going away too! They have taken everyone away. Papa, Phredia, and now mama! No, I won’t allow it! Don’t take her away! Give my mama back!” Suddenly, Budou flies so fast, she creates a beam of light behind herself, sending the vampire against one of the large logs on the lake after tackling her, and after safely catching, and placing Sanae behind her on the ground, she bravely faces the vampire and sounding enraged she says “you keep away from her! You won’t take her away!” The vampire recovers before plunging into the water again, then notices Budou’s eyes glowing aquamarine, and with a mocking voice she says “oh my, it seems I hit a nerve or something. That’s good, you know. Now, when I take her away from you, It’ll hurt DOUBLE!” Budou bares her little fangs at the vampire and hisses threateningly, and as the vampire arcs her body to lunge straight at Sanae again, a spell card, glowing yellow, appears from Budou’s forehead, and without waiting for another moment she shouts “Wave Sign, Ringing Ears!” Budou claps her hands and cups them around her mouth, and using all her might, she shrieks for as long as and loud as her lungs allow her. Invisible sound waves reach the vampire, paralyzing her and making her falls straight to the ground right in front of Budou and Sanae, then the sound waves turn to circles of light-blue danmaku orbs that fall like snowflakes on top of the vampire’s back. The vampire screams and lifts to the air again, however, Budou cups her hands around her mouth and shrieks again, paralyzing the vampire once more, then follows the attack with light-blue lasers that come from her fingertips and head straight toward the paralyzed vampire, who tries to scream in pain as the lasers and danmaku orbs all explode on her. Just as the vampire falls again, Suwako and Kanako appear beside Budou, Kanako asking “who dares attack my Sanae and Budou right in the safety of our shrine!” The vampire gets up from the ground and Suwako immediately grabs her by the neck, then says “what the...? This vampire is wet? How is this possible!? You should be ashes!” The vampire laughs softly, then progresses to a cackle, then says “beaten by a mere child. And even with my improvements.” Kanako holds Sanae on her arms as she gets up from kneeling on the ground, then asks “what do you mean ‘improvements’?” Again, the vampire laughs, then says “after that wonderful magical shockwave hit this land, we vampires were gifted with amazing powers! We... can touch... WATER!!!” Kanako and Suwako look at each other, then at Budou, who silently glares at the vampire as she continues “we all went through a stage of madness, but those of us that survived have gained immunity to many ancient weaknesses! Some of us can even walk around in broad daylight! We have become invincible!” The vampire laughs while Suwako continues to hold her neck, then Budou snarls, and in an instant, she stiffens her left hand, rushes to her, and thrusts it right through the vampire’s chest, to both Suwako and Kanako’s surprise, and as the vampire turns to ashes, Budou says “so much for invincible.” She turns to face Kanako, who stares back with horror and surprise, and looking seriously at her, she says “gramma, big sis. I can feel them. They are surrounding us!” Suwako asks “Budou, what happened? You just...” Budou turns her head and stare at Suwako, her eyes slowly turning back to violet as she says “I won’t let them take mama away. She’s all I got left! They won’t take her from me!” Kanako and Suwako stare at each other in complete shock, however Budou wakes them up from their trance as she shouts “hurry! Mama’s bleeding! She needs help!”

Back at the SDM’s foyer, the vampires laugh as they use Sakuya like a ball, tossing her around the air toward each other, some of them hitting her so hard when they pass her around, they make a loud thudding sound, then finally, one of the females tosses Sakuya to the air and using his claws, the leader flies to her and sends her down as hard as he can, making her bounce violently against a wall and falling on the carpet on her face. They all laugh hard as Sakuya’s head bounces twice on the ground, then stops. Their leader raises he hands and declares “this loyal human wasted her life for a master that didn’t even show her face! Not even to save this pathetic life! I hereby declare myself the KING of this castle!” The other 5 vampires clap and cheer, then their leader says “as for this human... She’s too loyal to her former master. You make partake on her carcass as you see fit!” The other vampires cheer, then drool as they turn to face Sakuya. They all start slurping and laughing, then stop. Their leader awaits to hear them ripping the human’s body to shreds as they viciously suck on her blood, and maybe even some painful moans from Sakuya herself, however all he hears are five quick thuds. He turns around and finds Remilia and Flandre staring back at him with glowing scarlet eyes. The other vampires quickly get up from the ground, groaning and holding their wings and arms, all regrouping with their leader, then Remilia calmly says “you wanted to challenge me, well here I am.” The tall vampire stands proudly in front and center, then smiles as he cracks his fingers. In a flash, Remilia is already clawing off his wings and cutting his torso in half. The other vampires rush to attack her, but one of the females suddenly explodes, turning to ashes in an instant. Remilia looks back and sees Flandre with her hand clenched, then says “let’s show these wimps what power truly is!” Flandre jumps toward the group, joining Remilia in the air and saying “right behind you, sis!” Their hands look like blurs as they swing their claws at the invaders, quickly and easily defeating them all, then, while Flandre sits on the back of one of the male vampires, Remilia walks to her challenger, places her hands on his head, then the other vampires, and even Flandre, wince at the sight as the sound for ripping echoes around the mansion. The body of the tall vampire ignites in blue fire, then turns to ashes, and while Remilia walks to Sakuya, she says as loudly as possible “tell your friends, I am the true queen of the night, and if any of you ever come to my mansion again, I...” Remilia suddenly stops talking as she kneels next to Sakuya and raises the maid’s head. Her forehead is badly bruised and bits of blood course down her face, and her abdomen seems to be full of her own blood. Flandre gasps and asks “Sa... Sakuya-san?” Remilia, who has her back turned on the vampires and her sister, stares blankly at the wall in front of her. Inside her mind, grey images of a beautiful woman in maid’s clothing, covered on blood while on the floor suddenly course through. The grey images continue, pools of blood everywhere, maids lying dead all throughout an entire corridor. Flandre crying on the ground at the end of the corridor, blood splattered all around her, and torches and pitch-forks lying on the ground. Suddenly, the images show Flandre, staring back with a maddened look on her face, then all the previous images cycle back through her mind. Remilia stands up and gently places Sakuya’s limp head back on the ground, then her nails grow twice their size, her eyes glow bright scarlet, and even her fangs seem to grow. She turns around and reveals a monstrous face, but before the four vampires could react, Remilia is right in front of them all, slashing her claws as two spell cards float in front of her. She constantly repeats “Spear of the Gungnir. Scarlet Devil. Spear of the Gungnir! Scarlet Devil! SPEAR OF THE GUNGNIR!!! SCARLET DEVIL~!!!” Her voice echoes far after declaring her last spell card, and she only stops slashing her claws after the very last bit of ash completely disappears from view. The vampire under Flandre trembles and whimpers, then Flandre gets off him and pulls him up by his wings, then looking quite annoyed and sounding dangerously ominous she says “you should have played nicer...”, then tosses the vampire to the air, where Remilia cuts him in half with her claws, then Flandre blasts him from sight. After all the vampires are destroyed, Remilia rushes to Sakuya and turns her around, revealing a cut on her forehead and a single gash on her abdomen. With a cracking voice, Flandre asks “sis? What are we going to do?” Remilia, holds Sakuya for a moment, then screams to the air.

Meanwhile, in one of the deepest corners of the mansion, Meiling has cornered Koakuma. The little devil panics and tries to fly above Meiling’s head, but the gate guard lifts her foot up high and kicks Koakuma back down to the corner. Whimpering, Koakuma thinks “what should I do? What should I do? She’s going to kill me, lady Patchouli! Please, help me!” Meiling towers in front of Koakuma and says “you’ll pay for trespassing and telling the maids to hate me!” Koakuma suddenly opens her eyes, and a red spell card materializes in front of her eyes, startling Meiling. She grabs the spell card and shouts “Mind Sign, Pleasurable Mind!” The entire mansion turns into a large landscape filled with flowers, coursing rivers, rainbows and some trees for shade. Meiling blinks twice, then rubs her eyes, and instead of just Koakuma, she sees the entire Scarlet Devil Mansion inhabitants, including the fairy maids, all smiling and waving happily toward her. The gate guard starts to cry, then holds her head with both hands and says “wha-what is this? No... what have I done!? What have I been doing!? Koakuma!? I’m sorry! I’m so sorry~!” Outside the illusion, Koakuma holds a wooden board and is ready to strike Meiling as hard as she can with it, but then Meiling says “I’m so sorry. I don’t know what came over me! Of course I know you all love me! And I love you all too!” Koakuma stops, then sighs, and after throwing the board away, she cancels her spell, allowing Meiling to see her. The second she does, Meiling lunges to Koakuma and gives her a tight hug, sobbing and apologizing over and over. Koakuma nervously pats Meiling’s back and softly says “it’s alright, miss Meiling. You’re back to normal now.” Suddenly, from the foyer, Remilia’s voice makes the entire mansion vibrate as she screams Sakuya’s name. Still holding Koakuma in her hands, Meiling looks at the little devil and says “that was miss Remilia!”, then runs to the entrance while holding Koakuma around her arms. Patchouli and Marisa are the first to arrive to the foyer, finding Remilia quietly combing Sakuya’s hair with her fingers. Patchouli opens her eyes wide and whispers to Marisa “go hide at the library!” Marisa gulps and silently nods, then heads back to the library, however when Patchouli goes to approach Remilia, Marisa turns around and hides behind the doorway to the basement, though only Flandre seems to notice her. From the next floor, Meiling shouts “I’m coming! ...I’m coming!”, and the moment she notices Sakuya, she gasps and stares, releasing Koakuma from her arms. Patchouli slowly approaches Remilia and softly says “Remi... She needs the lunarian doctor.” Remilia looks to Patchouli, but says nothing, so the magician continues “Remi, you need to go, now!” Flandre shouts “I’ll do it! I’ll get that doctor here in a flash!” Remilia shouts “NO!”, then gently places Sakuya down and calmly says “I’ll go get the doctor. You try your best to clean her up and treat those wounds.” She walks to the door, but stops and turns her head left and says “miss Kirisame, you help too, or I swear I’ll have your head!” She opens the door, and in an instant, she flies away, flapping her wings with force. Marisa comes out of hiding and slowly approaches Patchouli, who kneels next to Sakuya and begins to treat her wounds with a white piece of cloth she pulls out from her coat. The doors to the mansion close on their own as everybody else approach the fallen maid.

To be continued...

Characters and Scenario belong to ZUN -Team Shanghai Alice-
Ail, Budou, Phredia, Kyo, Luna, Agava, Kimi, Kali and the RKNS were created by Willie G.R.

Budou’s "Wave Sign - Shapeless Mind" & "Wave Sign - Ringing Ears"
Mima’s "Twilight - Crescent Moonlight" & "Ghostly Sign - Cold-Hearted Dead Mist"
AND, Koakuma’s "Mind Sign - Pleasurable Mind"
Spell cards were created by Willie G.R. (any similarities are strictly coincidental)

Rika Onkamikami was created by Snapshot 2010

MAR 27 2010
Written by
Willie G.R.

A/N:
Geez, all this happens in a single day. Talk about a “hard day’s work”. Well, now the stage is set for the next incidents to occur, while Marisa bravely faces danger, all to fix all the damage she’s caused. Uuu~ this chapter came out quite action-packed, and all by accident too. I wasn’t expecting so many battles at once. It’s crazy I say XD!!!

Anyway, thank you all for reading, and I do hope you are enjoying this Sukima so far. Also... well it’s slow progress, but I’ve managed to edit a few more chapters of Misplaced Sukima. Geez, so many mistakes I failed to see before. Ah well, when I am done editing them, I am sure I’ll feel great about it. Take care everyone, and again, thanks for reading.

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Paradise Sukima 7

At Marisa’s house in the forest of Magic, Marisa hurries around inside her house, reading through notes made by herself, pilling up past experiments and baskets full of mushrooms on the kitchen table, and after stopping and looking at the pile she mutters something to herself, then says out loud “alright, time to start working here. First things first...” As she says this, she grabs some strange black mushrooms with small purple dots and starts crushing them against a soft white mineral stone, making a paste with them, then continues saying “...I have to reach the Scarlet Mansion. If Flandre lends me her flying machine, it should make things easier for me. After that...” Marisa takes off her shoes and grabs the paste made from the mushrooms and minerals, then spreads a bit inside each shoe, then puts them back on, then grabs one of Patchouli’s books and reads it quickly while saying “...I’ll need to head to the shrine at the Youkai Mountain, ask those goddesses for help... I might have to blackmail them though, and after that...” Marisa grabs a small lemon-green ribbon and some red thread, then starts sewing small magical symbols, along with the symbol of the yin-yang, all while looking over the open book on the table, then continues “...I’ll need to head to Nitori. The yama is right. I CAN use science!” Marisa takes off the white ribbon she usually wears, then replaces it with the lime-green ribbon. After that, she grabs a few black orbs with a small opening on the top of them and starts filling all she can with some black powder and places a small string on the opening as she continues saying “that’s right, I still need that flower youkai’s help. That’s not gonna be easy, but...” Marisa walks to her kitchen and rummages through some cabinets, gasps excitedly and pulls out two smoothed wooden ovals, then says “if I manage to get her help, it’ll be easier for me to seal this void. Oh, that’s right, I’m going to need help getting Ail’s consciousness back.” Marisa rushes outside her house, grabbing her broom and hat on the way out, and after exiting she puts her hat on and says “right, maybe the Lunarians have something that could help me with that.” She starts to kick the air and while she does, her body lifts off the ground as small magical blades form right in front of her shoes, then swings her broom around and notices a small magical aura around it as she skillfully swings it, and with a confident smirk she says “this will be like learning to use magic all over again. No matter. I passed Mima’s tests once, so this should be no problem, ze!” She looks back to her house, and with a slightly saddened look she says “don’t worry, Ail. I’ll be back as soon as I can, save you, AND close off that void.” She turns around and smiles with great confidence, then raises her broom and shouts “onward, Kirisame!” She takes on step toward the road and a golden washtub falls right on top of her head, knocking her to the ground, where she shivers and moans in pain for a moment, then says “ow~” Above her, the three mischievous fairies, Star Sapphire, Luna Child, and Sunny Milk, fly away while giggling to themselves.

Inside the dark void, the guardian dragon’s fiery black and white soul enters the void and stops right in front of Ail’s blue fiery soul, and burning like wildfire the large dragon’s soul crackles along with a soft growl. The guardian dragon shapes his head through the flames and smiles as he asks “little human, are you thinking of the blissful release of the eternal sleep?” Ail’s soul turns to face the large black and white yin-yang fireball with a dragon’s head, turning reddish-orange as he says “well, there’s nothing else to think about.” The black and white flame takes the shake of a humanoid dragon, holding a cup of tea while sitting on a cushion. Ail’s soul turns yellow as he excitedly asks “uu~ how did you do that!?” The dragon takes a sip of tea and says “I just willed myself to this. It takes a little practice, but once you do it the first time you...” As the dragon speaks, Ail’s souls spins around rapidly, then suddenly takes the form of a human, holding a cup of tea on his hands while kneeling on a cushion. The dragon raises his left eyebrow, then says “oh, I see... Never mind what I said.” Ail and the dragon look at each other for a moment, then Ail asks “I was wondering. How exactly are you going to help me? And how do you know so much about me?” The dragon sighs deeply, sounding as though he’s growling, then calmly says “while we unlock your memories you may come through fabrications, whether of your own making, or from already restored memories, that might mislead you.” Ail pops a pair of brown eyes from his ghostly body, and blinks twice. The dragon chuckles and says “you seem to be adapting faster than I thought. And no, I cannot read your mind, like your friend, Satori, but I can keep track of your train of thoughts and easily detect any fabrication you might come across.” Again, Ail blinks twice, then the dragon says “as for how I know about you... You were described to me by a dragon called Dai-Drecon, and as for how I know so much, all I can say is you have a few guardian angels taking good care of you. That’s all I am allowed to tell.” Ail sighs, then says “geez. Satori would be such great help right about... wait, how do I suddenly know that name?” The dragon smiles and says “you have a great heart and powerful feelings for all your friends. You will remember everything with ease. This does not mean you will remember everything at once. There might be memories inside of you that you might want to forget, but if we are to fully heal you, we must go through those.” Ail takes a gulp from the cup of tea he’s holding while staring back at the dragon. To his surprise, the cup really has tea in it, and it’s his favorite green tea as well. The dragon chuckles and in a playful tone of voice he asks “you really thought these were empty?” Ail takes a deep breath, then sighs and says “Budou... Sanae...”

Flying close to the Misty Lake, sounding a little annoyed, Reimu asks “Sanae... I said to bring Ail. WHY are they here too?” Sanae flies immediately besides Reimu and says “Reimu, I tried! You saw it! There’s just no way to shake them off!” Flying behind the two shrine maidens are Budou, Koishi, Lily, Chen, and Phredia, who is helping guide Ail to the right direction by pointing at Budou. Koishi happily says “I want to see how Flandre is. I haven’t visited her since that solar eclipse.” Chen says “I’m strong! I can help!” Lily shouts “Ail is here!” Budou adds “where papa goes, I go! He might need my help!” Flying above the lake, Reimu face palms, sighs, then whispers “kids these days.” Right after she says that, she and Sanae place a blue barrier in front of themselves just as a large fireball and a powerful red orb come flying to them, striking them hard and pushing Sanae back. Sanae catches up with Reimu and asks “what the hell was THAT!?” Reimu points ahead toward the large dark-colored dragon and the little blonde vampire. Sanae turns around and says “you find a place to hide with Ail and don’t let him out until Reimu gives the signal!” Budou, Lily, Koishi, Chen and Phredia all salute to Sanae, and after looking at them doing that, Ail mimics them all and salutes Sanae with a most serious expression, then smiles again while still holding his hand on his forehead. Sanae excitedly waves both hands away from herself and says “go, go! Hide already!” The girls quickly rush to the shores of the island, dragging the still-saluting Ail with them. After they are safely hidden under the trees there, Sanae turns to Reimu and asks “so what do we do?” Reimu grabs Sanae’s cheeks and starts squeezing her face hard, stretching Sanae’s cheeks, then just like that, she lets her go. Sanae angrily shouts “OW~~! What the hell you do that for!?” With a mischievous smile on her face, Reimu giggles and says “sorry, but you’re just so adorable. I had to pinch those rosy cheeks of yours!” Sanae rubs her red cheeks, trying to hold back the tears of pain as she angrily says “that’s not funny!” Reimu smiles and says “but at least you have my scent.” Sanae stares curiously as Reimu continues “I want you to handle Kimi while I handle Flandre. Now that you have my scent, Kimi will recognize you as a friend, and won’t kill you.” Sanae turns pale and trembles as she asks “k-k-k-kill me?” Near the shores of the lake, Koishi and Phredia stand guard, Koishi saying “we’ll keep you guys safe, so there’s no need to worry.” Phredia nods after Koishi says this, then they start looking at Flandre and Kimi fight, watching worriedly as many stray bullets rain down all around the mansion and the lake. While this happens, Chen wanders closer to the mansion gates and finds Meiling sitting with her back against the gates and burring her face in her knees as she hugs them while sobbing loudly. Before Meiling notices the nekomata, she’s already next to her, gently patting her head and saying “miss gate guard, please don’t cry. Miss Reimu and miss Sanae are taking care of everything.” Meiling raises her head and looks toward the smiling Chen, then asks “y-you like me?” Chen smiles as she nods and says “well of course, miss Meiling. I know how hard being gate keeper is. Remember when I replaced you while you were on vacation?” Meiling smiles, her eyes still full of tears, then grabs Chen as if she were a pet, and while petting her head and calming the nekomata down she says “you like me. That means I like you.”

Meanwhile, at the Forest of Magic, a black blur jumps from tree to tree at great speeds. After reaching the exit of the forest, the blur reveals to be Marisa, moving at inhuman speeds. While running she thinks “good. The paste I made from the mushroom and the stone should evaporate in a week, but with this magical boost, I’m sure I’ll be back long before it’s gone. Now, I need to move fast. If what that yama said is true, which it probably is, I don’t have much time...” Marisa’s train of thought is disrupted when a translucent shadow flies above her head. Curiously, Marisa looks up and finds she’s being trailed by the translucent Mima, and with surprise she exclaims “Mama-Mia~!” Mima blushes and stares annoyed toward Marisa, then stops her by punching her head and angrily saying “don’t say things you’ll regret!” Marisa holds her head with both hands and runs around in a small circle before falling on her knees. Unknown to Mima, the wound left by Reimu is still fresh, and Mima’s sudden attack just made the wound throb painfully on Marisa’s head, making her dizzy enough to fall on the ground. Worried, Mima says “whoa, are you alright? I didn’t hit you that hard!” Marisa’s world spins slowly, and Mima’s words seem to echo inside her head, but after rubbing her eyes she recovers and says “so-sorry... And yes, you did hit me that hard!” Mima slumps for a second, then says “I’m sorry~”, then flies around Marisa and sounding quite casual she asks “you know, there’s something different about you... Hmm, did you cut your hair?” Marisa wants to rub the cut on her head, but she doesn’t want to give Reimu away, so she just grabs her hat by its edges and lightly shakes it left and right, soothing the throbbing pain on her head. After that, she gets up and says “something like that, ze. Say...” She stares at Mima, as if contemplating something, then says “I’m trying to get to the Scarlet Mansion. Could you take me there?” Marisa realizes what she just said, and Mima is already looking at her suspiciously. She knows her old teacher will notice the seal immediately, so she quickly and nervously starts speed-walking, rapidly saying “well, it was fun, but I really need to hurry, so bye~!” Mima quietly flies from behind and gives Marisa a hug. The second she touches her she gasps in surprise and backs away as she says “Marisa, what happened to your magical aura!? And why aren’t you flying!? Did something happen to... you?” Mima notices a little blood on Marisa’s head and quickly lifts the witch’s hat, revealing the wound and angrily asking “who the hell did this to you!? Did the one that did THIS also seal your magic!?” Marisa takes the hat away from Mima and nervously says “i-it’s ok, Mima-sama! It’s... just temporary! Th-that’s why I’m going to the scarlet mansion! Patchouli should be able to...” Mima forcefully gets closer to the nervous witch and sniffs the wound. Marisa backs away as fast as she can, hoping Mima doesn’t catch Reimu’s scent, but it’s too late and Mima angrily growls and says “Reimu!! What has that maiden done to you!?” Marisa nervously says “Rei-Reimu? No, Reimu hasn’t done a thing. I’m the one that...” Mima’s aura glows gold as the rage evident in her face takes over her senses and shouts “that’s lazy, laid-back wench! I’ll make her PAY!” Marisa tries to calm her down, but before she can even speak Mima flies away so fast she causes a powerful back-draft. Marisa keeps to her feet and while looking toward Mima with fright in her face she says “dammit! This isn’t good!” Marisa starts to run again, and while zipping through the village she thinks “maybe if I can do this fast enough, Mima-sama will calm down, and maybe Reimu will...” The second she thinks of her friend her eyes water, however she continues to run, fixed on reaching the SDM as quickly as possible.

While Reimu and Sanae approach Flandre and Kimi, from the other side come Remilia and Sakuya. Remilia observes all that is going on, then says “Sakuya. Meiling is going to become and hindrance. Give her the rest of the day off and make SURE she stays in her room.” Sakuya bows in mid-air and says “as you wish, my lady... but what about the gate?” Remilia stares at the ones close by to Meiling and says “it’ll be alright.” Sakuya bows again, then heads down to Meiling. Remilia stares down and notices Budou and Ail, and with a very serious expression on her face she thinks “someone is about to meet their fate... but I can’t tell who...” A scent reaches her, turning her full attention to Ail, who is hiding behind a bush, while smiling and staring toward the mansion. Remilia drools and says “again... It’s happening again!” As fast as she can, Remilia flies back to her mansion and breaks through one of the windows. Meanwhile, Sanae flies high above the fight, while Reimu takes a direct approach and shouts “WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TWO DOING FIGHTING AGAIN!?” Flandre stops and looks at Reimu, but Kimi unleashes one last attack that Sanae intercepts after diving from above, and with a cocky smile on her face, she shakes her finger at the dragon and says “nah-ah. Let Reimu sort this out, ok?” Kimi rushes to Sanae, opening her mouth widely as she does, but stops just inches away from Sanae, then sniffs her. She turns back to her human form and says “you should have told me you came with Reimu. I was about to eat you.” Sanae smiles, her face turning pale and her cheeks turning blue as she softly says “you don’t say... heh heh.” After Kimi turns back to human, Reimu strictly says “alright, ladies, I’m giving you a choice. Either CUT IT OUT, or I’ll ‘cut it out’ FOR you!” Flandre flies close to Reimu and stares at her with an innocent look. Reimu sweats and asks “wh-what? Do I have something on me?” Flandre’s eyes sparkle as she smiles and gasps with excitement, then exclaims “MOM~! Mama, you’re home!!!” Before Reimu can say another word, Flandre clings on the her, wrapping her arms around Reimu’s waist and rubbing her face on Reimu’s belly. Nervous, Reimu asks “wa-wa-what’s going ON here!?” Flandre cries “mama~, I was looking all over for you! I cut my finger, and came looking for you, but you weren’t home, then this dragon says she’s going to teach me a lesson, and then you came back!” Reimu wants to push Flandre away, but after looking into her sad, glassy eyes she can’t help but feel at ease, and without realizing it, she finds herself holding Flandre against herself, lighting rubbing the back of her head and saying “it’s alright already... Geez, what should I do now?” Kimi and Sanae approach Reimu, Sanae struggling to hold her urge to tease Reimu, while Kimia bows and says “miss Hakurei, I am sorry for all this, but this little monster started attacking me and telling me I killed her mom. Geez, what a nuisance!” Reimu stares a bit angrily to Kimi, but sighs and says “well whatever. I’ll take care of this from here.” Kimi taps Reimu’s shoulder with her hand and says “miss, I can’t find Kali anywhere.” Reimu turns to face Kimi and says “that’s not good news, Kimi. Unlike you, she doesn’t have any honor. Please, do whatever you can to find...” Flandre suddenly lets Reimu go and turns around, firing a large orb that strikes Kimi on the face. The dragon brushes off the steam clouds that rise from her cheeks, then growls and starts shooting many large fire orbs at Flandre, just as she pushes Reimu away and turns her attention to Kimi. Sanae swoops from above and places a barrier in front of Kimi, while Reimu does the same for Flandre, shouting “NO MORE FIGHTING!”

Meanwhile, at the mansion’s gates, after the bullets stop falling to the ground, Sakuya is slowly losing her patience as she forces a smile and forces herself to speak tenderly, saying “come on Meiling. I’m giving you the day off. You can go to your room and rest and do whatever you want.” Meiling continue to pet Chen, who has fallen asleep on Meiling’s lap while purring. Sakuya sighs angrily, then says “look, I’m trying to be nice here, but you’re not making it easy. Answer me already.” Meiling turns a neutral face to Sakuya, and sounding a bit annoyed she asks “do you even like me?” Sakuya is caught by surprise, but she quickly shakes it off and says “what kind of question is that!? Come on, I’m giving you a day off here!” Meiling turns her face away and says “you don’t like me... Leave me alone!” Sakuya sweats as she gets closer, but Meiling punches the wall behind her, startling Sakuya, however she startles Chen as well, so the nekomata screams and runs away. Meiling desperately shouts “kitty~! Wait, don’t go!” Sakuya sighs, then says “now look what you did.” Meiling’s eyes hide under her hair as she slowly gets up with a serious look on her face, and after turning herself to face Sakuya she reveals great rage in her eyes. Sakuya backs away and asks “Meiling, what’s with that look!?” Meiling screams to the air, startling even Flandre and causing her to hug Reimu tight, then points at Sakuya and shouts “you HATE ME~! You made the kitty go away! She liked me, and you hate me! You will pay for that!” Sakuya pulls her Luna Dial from her left pocket, along with some knives from the right one, then scoffs and says “don’t do something you’ll be sorry about.” Meiling raises her fist and throws the first punch, however Sakuya disappears and reappears right behind Meiling. The gate guard loses her balance and falls, avoiding Sakuya’s knives from behind by accident, then gets up and looks to the mansion. She clenches her fist and says “you coward! You ran inside, didn’t you!? I’ll find you! You are going to pay for hurting that kitty!” Meiling runs inside the mansion, ignoring Sakuya as she shouts “Meiling, you idiot, I’m right here!” Sakuya sighs and crosses her arms under her chest, and looking worried she says “this is not good. She didn’t even sense me. Who knows the damage she could cause in this state!” Sakuya nods and says to herself “I better go after her.”

At the island shores, Ail, Budou and Lily all come out of hiding after the shower of bullets stops. Koishi and Phredia relax as they turn to their friends, then Koishi smiles and says “looks like they took care of everything without problems.” Budou sighs with relief and says “good. But I wonder why miss Reimu made us bring papa along.” From the trees above Agava says “who knows. Maybe he’s her backup plan.” Budou and Koishi look up, then Koishi says “oh, miss Agava, miss Rumia.” Budou asks “Agava? She looks so different. Did you lose weight?” Agava jumps from the branch and raises a fist to Budou, shouting “you want me to smack you!”, while Budou turns away with a mischievous smile, covering her head and sticking out her tongue. Rumia gets their attention, asking “is that his body, or his mind?” Budou and Agava curiously look to Rumia as she smiles and sits on the branch, then Koishi asks “Where is Ail?” Before Budou panics, they hear a light splash and Lily exclaiming “it’s spring!” On the lake’s shore, Ail is jumping on top of the water, while Lily, Cirno and Daiyousei fly around him, all having fun and giggling, Cirno saying “I can walk on the water too!” She freezes a bit of water, then stands on the frozen patch, boastfully saying “you can’t beat this!” Budou worriedly shouts “papa, how are you doing that!?” Suddenly, a large fireball falls and explodes next to Koishi, Budou and Agava, sending all three to different directions. Budou falls on her face, closer to the shore and away from the cover of the trees, and while trying to recover, three more fireballs the size of one of Flandre’s extra-large orbs head straight to where Budou is. When Budou manages to lift her head and see the large fireballs headed her way, she tries to get up, but quickly finds out her left wing is badly injured and freezes in place, pain, fear and anxiety taking over her senses. Out of the bushes, Chen flies straight to the closest fireball and shreds it to pieces with a single swipe of her claws, but finds herself blowing on her burned hands after falling back down. Some ice shards and petal bullets fly toward the second fireball, miss it, but manage to blast the third out of the way and veer the second one away from Budou, but is now headed straight to Ail, who is running to Budou with a worried expression. Budou realizes the ball of flames is going to strike Ail and gets a boost of courage that allows her to get off the ground and run straight to him, even with her injured wing. Budou jumps in the air, shouting “PAPA, NO~!” Budou and Ail are mere inches away from each other when they realize the large fireball is even larger than they thought and is about to impact them both when a small sparkle seems to enter the fireball itself. A large explosion rattles the island, and in what seems like an instant, the explosion sucks itself in, then stops. Koishi runs along with Agava, saying “not good. This is definitely not good!” Agava nods and says “save your breath and run!” Koishi, Agava, Lily, Cirno and Daiyousei all arrive to the center of the explosion and find Ail covering Budou up as best as he can, a little singed from the blast, and Budou lying underneath him with some blood trickling down the back-side of her left wing. Budou gets up as Lily worriedly asks “you alright!?” Ail smiles and waves, but Budou rubs her head and weakly asks “where is she?” She looks around, looking to her concerned friends, then asks “where is Phredia?” Budou starts to breath faster as she looks around, hoping to find her fairy amongst her friends, and looking between Chen and Koishi to her left, she notices a small dark-blue dress buried under some dirt. Desperately, Budou crawls through her friends and straight to the dress and immediately sticks her hand in the pile of dust and gently lifts off the elven fairy, her wings twitching, her entire body burned and her tiny eyes narrowly open. Budou whispers “no. You’re ok! You are ok!”, but Phredia’s dim glow shuts off and the tiny fairy collapses with a smile on her face. Just as her friends surround her, all staring quietly with saddened faces, Budou places the fairy to her chest, where she turns into a tiny golden light orb that sinks itself into Budou’s chest. Koishi kneels down next to the shocked bat youkai and places her hand on her shoulder and forcing a smile she says “she’s alright... She’s going to hide for a while, but you’ll see her soon.” Budou stares at Koishi, then looks around to her friends, and lastly at Ail, then turns back to Koishi and starts to cry on her shoulders.

From above the trees, Sanae desperately shouts “BUDOU~! What happened!?” Reimu holds Flandre like a toddler and is followed by Kimi as they descend, then angrily says “dammit, this is why I didn’t want you to come!” Budou continues to cry, even though Chen and Lily are patting her back and head, along with Koishi who continues to hold Budou, all trying their best to calm her down and stop her from crying. Sanae lands, and sounding more agitated she asks “what happened!? Why is she crying like that!? Budou!?” Sanae notices the blood on her left wing and gasps, but before she can inspect it, Budou turns around, revealing her tear-filled eyes, her red cheeks and the look of despair in her eyes, then jumps on Sanae, calling out to her mama for comfort. Saddened, Koishi forces a smile and says “little fairy, so brave and bold.” Agava notices the confusion in Sanae’s eyes and bluntly says “a tiny fairy with pointy ears took on a huge fireball to save the little girl and the boy.” Rumia continues to smile as she says “she is so brave.” Reimu glares at Kimi, and sounding nervous, Kimi says “it was an accident!” Flandre tugs Reimu’s skirt, then asks “mom, why is that girl crying so much? It’s making me want to cry too.” Reimu pats Flandre’s head and says “that child has lost so much in such little time, and for someone so young, she’s proven to be very strong.” Flandre looks confused, but before she asks, Reimu says “she has gone through a lot, Flandre. Besides, there is no shame in crying. It’s a way for the soul to speak through our bodies.” Flandre looks to Reimu’s eyes, but keeps quiet, holding back the urge to cry as well. From the other side of the shore, Marisa approaches the waters, out of breath after her run through Gensokyo. She looks to the shores, panting “I *pant pant* made it!” She notices Reimu and quickly hides behind a tree, then thinks “Reimu! She’s safe! Oh, if she stays here long enough, Mima-sama will cool off and leave her alone.” Marisa peeks through the right side of the tree, and with longing in her face she says “Reimu, I’m so sorry. Please forgive me. I swear... I’m going to fix all this, just please, forgive me!” A single tear falls from her left cheek, but she steels herself, fills herself with resolve and thinks “now it’s not the time! I’m going to have to take the other side. Reimu, just you wait! I’ll fix everything.” She runs along the shores at a normal pace, so as not to attract Reimu’s attention, heading to the western side of the shores, but unknown to her, all the way on the other side, Reimu already knows she’s there, keeping quiet and thinking “Marisa, you dummy. What are you doing out here? It’s so dangerous...”

Inside the void, Ail’s soul turns to a deep-blue color and sighs, then the dragon guardian says “ah, little one. I sense a memory coming back to you.” Ail sadly says, I’m not sure. Somehow, I feel as though something terrible has happened... and I was hoping it was just my imagination.” The dragon keeps quiet for a moment, then says “perhaps you should concentrate on the returning memory. Don’t let yourself wander needlessly elsewhere. Focus on those memories, and the here and now.” Ail sighs, then says “if this is a memory, I wish it would just disappear.” Curiously, the dragon asks “really? Want to share it with me?” Ail sight sadly again, then says “it seems when I was younger, I used to live in that horrible world, outside of Gensokyo. And I must say... it was just as horrible.” The dragon quietly stares, then after a bit, Ail continues “when I was younger, I see myself trapped inside a large building. Inside, there were many rooms, all with little chairs with tables on them... and in the center of the rooms, there was a bigger human... talking about names, years, and numbers...” Ail looks away, then the dragon says “that particular thought is a fabrication.” Ail looks back at the dragon and smiles, then says “th-that’s right. I remember now. Things like flying and magic are treated as the ‘impossible’ in that world. The teacher... yes, that’s what we called the person talking. There were more than just one, but they would all tell me that magic is just in fantasy stories, and that I shouldn’t believe in that. But the ones I didn’t believe... was the teachers.” The dragon sighs and says “there are many beings living in different worlds and dimensions. Sometimes, souls like us tend to end up in the wrong place to live... but we must move on, regardless. You were gifted by fate, little human. You were allowed to enter the world that was meant for you, as was I.” Ail scoffs and says “then that would explain why I was always alone out there. It’s like, even when I was little, I was always away from the others, dreaming of magic. As I grew older... I see this pattern repeats itself... until one day... This human approached me, and protected me from other humans. They were... pushing me and calling me names. I was 12 years old when Kyo~...” Ail stops and looks at the dragon, turning gold and excitedly saying “my friend! I did have a friend... I mean, I DO have a friend. Kyo! Then that means these Sanae and Budou are real too!” The dragon smiles and happily says “good, good. You have taken your first step to self recovery. Now, I want you to empty your mind, little human. There is still more for you to remember before we begin with your journey to Gensokyo.” Ail suddenly starts changing colors and asks “there’s more?” The dragon nods, then says “you remembered your childhood and a very important friend to you. But you are still forgetting something very important from the world of the humans. Something that nothing can sever from your heart.” Ail curiously asks “whoa... is it really that important?” The dragon nods, then says “empty your mind. Meditate. These important memories will come to you. I promise.”

Back at the shores of the Scarlet Devil’s Island, Budou has fallen into a deep sleep and Sanae has managed to wrap the root of her left wing in a bandage, stopping the bleeding. Reimu approaches Sanae and gently places a hand on her shoulder and softly says “look, the incident’s been solved, so why don’t you take Budou and Ail and go home.“ As Reimu finishes her sentence, Flandre lets go of her and exclaims “daddy, is that you!? DADDY, IT IS YOU~!” Before Reimu can grab her and ask, Flandre flings herself to ward Ail and hugs him tightly, saying “daddy, what a ridiculous disguise.” Koishi smiles and is about to comment, but Remilia and Sakuya come flying from one of the windows and from inside the mansion Meiling shouts “FINE, I’ll go to my room! Geez, you’re worse than my MOM!” Rubbing their heads as Lily White springs out of the bushes, holding Remilia’s umbrella already open and covering Remilia from the rays of the sun, Sakuya and Remilia get up, then Sakuya comments “well, at least she went to her room.” Remilia dusts her skirt and looking slightly annoyed she says “Sakuya, I just got kicked out of my OWN castle by a SERVANT! What will people think?” Before Reimu is able to answer, Agava says “that you’re pathetic?” Reimu and Remilia both glare at the shadow youkai, one because she stole her line, the other because she answered too bluntly. Agava reads the atmosphere and slowly backs away, then Reimu says “well I’m glad you’re here. We seem to have a little problem.”, then points at Flandre, who is hugging Ail’s neck as he stares blankly toward Chen. Remilia sweats as she stares at Flandre, then walks to her, sighs and places her arm on her sister’s shoulders, then says “Flandre, please wake up. Mom and dad are gone, and you know this already.” Flandre ignores Remilia and continues to hold Ail, then let go of his neck and grabs his hand, pulling him toward Reimu and saying “c-come on, onee-s...chan. J-just like before. Family time with mom and dad.” Remilia sighs and sounding saddened, says “Flandre... don’t make this harder than it already is.” Some tears escape Flandre as she pulls Reimu and Ail closer together and says “but... but... mom... and dad.” Remilia trembles as flickers of old memories flash by her mind, at first, showing images of two adults, whose face hide under shadow, stand beside herself and a very happy-looking Flandre, then the flashes progress further, the adults gone, but Flandre still smiles, then suddenly, Flandre’s smile is replaced by a maddened look, then she disappears. Remilia raises her face, however her eyes hide under shadow as she raises her hand to Flandre and says “don’t leave me alone again, Flan. Stop all of this and come home.” Though still smiling, Flandre can’t hold back her tears, and slowly, she loosens her grip on Ail and Reimu, then from behind, Koishi places an arm on her shoulder and says “your real parents are never gone, no matter what others may say. As long as you are alive, they live inside you.” Flandre releases Reimu and Ail, then looks at Ail and whispers “idiot big brother... Even without your brain, you’re still bothering me.” Remilia looks confused to Flandre, and while Sakuya takes the umbrella from Lily’s hands, Remilia says “Flan, don’t leave me all alone again.” Flandre sighs and shrugs, then says “geez. And you’re supposed to be one with all the charisma.” A vein pops on Remilia’s forehead as she glares at Flandre and asks “what the hell did you just say to me!?” Flandre giggles and says “I came to my sense when I saw dummy-big-brother. I just...” Flandre’s arms tremble as she clenches her fists and says “after red and white sis acted like mom... I wanted it to stay like that, even if just for a little while.” Flandre turns to Reimu and bows, saying “thank you very much. I won’t forget that warm feeling again.” Reimu smiles sheepishly, but then she sighs and pats Flandre on the head. Flandre walks to Remilia, stops in front of her, then bow and says “I’m ok now, onee-sama. I’m sorry to have been such a burden.” Looking serious, Remilia lifts Flandre’s face, holding her chin on her hand, then lightly shakes her head and says “let’s just go home.”

As Remilia, Sakuya and Flandre head back inside the mansion, Remilia walks backward, looks neutrally and waves at Reimu, saying “thanks for everything!”, then turns around and continues to the mansion with Sakuya and Flandre beside her. Reimu sighs and says “finally. I can get back to those books now.” Sanae holds the sleeping Budou on her arms and seems a little annoyed as she gets closer to Reimu and asks “you didn’t get any funny ideas, right?” Reimu smirks, then says “I don’t know what you are talking about.” Sanae gets a little agitated, but Koishi points to the sleeping Budou on Sanae’s arms and says “miss, you don’t want to wake her up!” Sanae calms down and sighs, then says “you’re right. I’m sorry. Anyway, where’s Ail and Chen?” Both maidens look around a little worried, but spot Kimi pointing toward the lake, and when they take a look, Chen is angrily shouting “give me back my hat!”, while Ail skates on the water and Lily, Cirno and Daiyousei fly in circles around Chen and switching to Ail, Cirno holding Chen’s hat and taunting the nekomata. Sanae and Reimu stare awestruck, then ask at the same time “how is he DOING that!?” Koishi smiles as she stands between the maidens and says “he’s flying just right, making it look like he’s walking on the water.” At the same time, Sanae and Reimu say “ohh, I get it now.” Kimi approaches Reimu and says “Hakurei Maiden, will you allow me permission to enter the Human’s Village to search for Kali?” Reimu hums while she thinks, then says “I better go with you. I have something to do at the village.” Meanwhile, at the other side of the lake, facing the shores to the other side, away from where Reimu is, Marisa pulls up her hat and from under it a forest-green bag pops out. As she opens it, she says “well, I’ve read how it’s done, now I just hope I can do this!” She pulls something out of her bag and raises her right hand while holding her hip with her left, putting on a very serious expression on her face, and floating just above her head are the wooden ovals from under her cabinet. After the unexplainable display, Marisa blushes and says “so glad nobody saw that.” She grabs the ovals and taps each on the rough top, revealing tight transparent bands nailed on to the sides, then sits down and struggles for a moment as she slips her shoes through those bands. After she gets up, she feels taller, then comments “well, I somehow feel more confident for some reason, ze.” She looks up and spots Sanae carrying Budou, and followed by Ail, Chen, Lily and Koishi, all flying away to the Youkai Mountain, and shortly after, Reimu, Kimi and Agava fly fast toward the Village. Marisa says to herself “darn it! If I had known they were leaving already! *Sigh* Well, whatever. Now it’s time to test my balance.” Marisa walks to the shore, making sure not to scratch the smoothed bottom of the ovals, and just before touching the water, she takes a deep breath and says “well... here goes nothing.” She places her right foot on the water, and immediately she loses her balance, waving her arms rapidly in the air, while swaying and bending her whole body, putting on a ridiculous scared face until she finally regains her balance. She takes a deep breath, then says “alright. Here... I... GO!” She impulses herself to the water and starts to skate on it. At first, she clenches her eyes tight and hopes she won’t end up drowning, however she manages to keep her balance as she skates through the water, and after realizing she’s alright she opens her eyes and excitedly exclaims “YES! I’m doing it, da-ze!” She places both arms behind her back and continues to skate the waters, but instead of heading straight to the other side of shore, the takes a left turn and skates toward Cirno and Daiyousei, happily waving at them and having a great time. The two fairies gasps with amazement, then follow after Marisa as she continues to skate the waters. Cirno flies closer to the water, then freezes it and makes a trail for herself, skating along with Marisa, saying “this is EASY!” She giggles and turns her sight to Marisa, and with a cocky smile she says “I can do this with my eyes closed!” Daiyousei says “Cirno-chan, you’ll get hurt!” Marisa Chuckles and says “keep your eyes on me, little fairy!”, then jumps and spins in the air, then lands and continues to skate. Cirno pouts and puffs her red cheeks, then sounding a bit unsure she says “w-watch! I’ll do it with my eyes closed!” Before Daiyousei can protest, Cirno closes her eyes and jumps, but forgets to freeze the water in front and falls into the water with a quick yelp, then continues to spin on her back after she floats back up in a daze. Marisa laughs hard and says “try again, amateur!”, but forgets to look in front of her and spins in the air after colliding with the island’s shore, landing hard on the ground and moaning in pain. She manages to sit up and rubs her head, then says “uu~, I better be more careful next time, or I’ll end up like that idiot, ze.” From above, flying aimlessly in the sky is a black round blob that asks “is that so~!?” A silver washtub falls into the black blob, making a loud clank, accompanied by a painful grunt, then the blob vanishes and Rumia falls straight to the ground below, exploding hard upon crashing while three giggles echo around the area.

Meanwhile, at the Hakurei Shrine, Mima shouts “she sealed Marisa’s power! I don’t think that’s funny at all!” Rika looks desperately toward Mima, and sounding twice as desperate she shouts “she must have had a reason! Miss Mima, please don’t don this! Even if you ARE right...” Mima summons her crescent moon staff and vanishes from Rika’s eyes. Rika looks around, but before she is able to sense her, Mima reappears from behind and strikes Rika on the back of the head, knocking her out and catching her before she falls. She places the unconscious shrine maid on the ground, then says “this doesn’t concern you at all, so butt out!” She glares outside the shrine and clenches her teeth as she angrily growls, then shouts “and you two better keep out of this, or I am going to have to kill you! You got that!?” From the roof, both Aya and Suika stare seriously down to the front of the open entrance, but neither one says anything. Back on the ground, Mima rests on the shrine’s porch next to the open entrance and angrily stares toward the trees, waiting for Reimu to return.

To be continued...

Characters, Spell cards and Scenario belong to ZUN -Team Shanghai Alice-
Ail, Kyo, Budou, Phredia, Agava, Dai-Drecon, Kimi and Kali were created by Willie G.R.
Rika Onkamikami was created by Snapshot 2010

MAR 21 2010
Written by
Willie G.R.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Paradise Sukima 6

So much has happened in the course of a few hours. Worlds forcefully joint; fate destroyed; lives shattered; bonds broken. Amongst all of this, there is still some hope... One little glimmer left inside a single person...

At the Scarlet Devil Mansion, concerned after missing Flandre during breakfast, and still missing her when it’s so close to lunch time, Sakuya Izayoi decides to investigate and heads down to young Flandre’s room in the basement, and while she investigates Remilia sleeps ever so peacefully in her own room. Sakuya passes by Patchouli’s library, just as Patchouli walks out and says “it appears Koakuma will be out for a bit.” Sakuya stops and bows, then replies “whatever that was, it knocked out almost all of the fairy maids, and left Meiling on edge.” Patchouli stares at Sakuya, then asks “what about Remilia?” Sakuya smiles sheepishly and sweats as she says “well, I found her flying in her sleep.” Patchouli narrow her eyes and asks “and what about you, miss chief maid?” Sakuya blushes in embarrassment, then says “I... I’m too ashamed to say!” As she says this, she thinks of the bathroom door with an “Occupied” sign on it as a fog-horn plays its loud “toot”. Patchouli stares into Sakuya’s eyes, then blinks once and says “that shockwave affected everyone differently, it seems.” Sakuya quickly says “that’s why I’m headed to Flandre’s room. She hasn’t come out all day.” Patchouli hums, then says “I’m coming with you.” Sakuya lightly bows and says “much appreciated, lady Patchouli.” Now the two girls head toward Flandre’s room at the end of the basement while Remilia starts to moan and clench her eyes while in the comfort of her own bed, as if experiencing a nightmare. Sakuya and Patchouli arrive to Flandre’s room, and right after placing her hand on the doorknob, Sakuya says “something’s not right.” Sakuya slowly turns the knob and prepares herself for anything, but immediately after opening the door she finds out the room is empty, all of Flandre’s things destroyed. Sakuya gasps and says “oh no, she reverted!” When she turns around, she gasps in horror upon finding Patchouli on the ground with Flandre sitting on top of her, talking in a twisted tone of voice as she strangles the magician, saying “you are not onee-sama! Where is onee-sama!?” Sakuya instinctively shouts “Patchouli! Flan! Flandre, let her go!” Flandre releases Patchouli’s neck, leaving her unconscious on the floor, and turns around to face Sakuya, revealing a pair of black eyes with red pupils staring back at her with hatred. Sakuya gasps as Flandre asks “how do you know my name!? You killed her, didn’t you! You’re the vampire hunter... you killed ONEE-SAMA!” Flandre hisses as she launches straight at Sakuya and then... At Remilia’s room, Remilia suddenly wakes up and looks at her hand, noticing the symbol of a watch glowing. She gasps and rushes out the door, reaching the mansion’s foyer and finding Sakuya running up the stairs in a hurry. When Sakuya sees Remilia, she shouts “it’s Flandre!” Right in front of Sakuya, breaking the stairs from underneath while looking like a big blur, Flandre flies up and stops for a second and uses a wall to impulse herself toward Sakuya, readying her claws for a swift kill, but Remilia easily intercepts her, blocking her attack with ease with her own claws and calmly says “Flandre, you are out of control. I want you to go back to your room!” Turning back to normal, Flandre says “AWW! I wanted to kill the intruder!” Strictly, Remilia says “Flandre... go now!” Flandre slumps as she sadly flies away to her room while saying “I never get to have any fun!” Sakuya gasps and exclaims “lady Patchouli!” Remilia calmly says “relax... Flandre used to be a little more obedient... a very long time ago, so she’ll just head back to her room. She’s behaving the way she did when we first entered Gensokyo though... This is bad.” Sakuya looks completely confused at Remilia, who turns to face Sakuya with a very serious expression, then says “do not let ANYONE near that room. Only I can approach her now! Did I make myself clear!?” Sakuya nods, and sounding almost scared she says “a...understood... my lady.”

At the Hakurei shrine, Reimu arrives carrying various books and rolled up papers with her, and just as Rika closes the door of the greenhouse she heads to greet her mistress. Before Rika reaches her, however, she notices a very gloomy expression in Reimu’s face. Before she can greet her, Reimu tries her best to sound calm, but only manages to sound as though she’s suppressing herself as she says “Rika... I will be in my room. I want complete silence. Understood?” Concernedly, Rika asks “my lady, what-?“ Reimu raises her tone of voice, sounding aggravated when she says “NOT... a sound... understood!?” Rika winces, then nervously bows and says “u-understood.” Mima and Aya approach Reimu, Mima saying “come on, Reimu, at least-“ Before Mima can finish, Reimu shouts at the top of her lungs “I DON’T WANT TO HEAR ANOTHER SOUND!!!” She takes a deep breath and calms down a little, noticing the girls around her staring back at her nervously and quite surprised. Sounding a little more calm, she says “I need to study these. I need complete concentration. Not... a sound.” As she says this, she emanates a powerful aura that frightens everyone around her, even Suika, who hides herself on the roof. Reimu quietly walks to her room, and after various thuds on the floor, she slams the door to her room so hard, the wooden frame cracks. Rika, Aya, Mima, and Suika, who jumps from the roof and lands next to Rika, all stare frightened and concerned at Reimu’s room. Meanwhile, at Marisa’s house, the witch finally wakes up and instinctively rubs her head. The first thing is notices is the blood and sharp pain from Reimu’s kick, saying “uh... It hurts. *sigh* It wasn’t a dream after all...” The second thing she notices is her hat is missing. She desperately taps her head repeatedly and sounding even more desperate she exclaims “my hat! Where’s my...” She gasps and thinks “NO! I left it back there!!!” She remembers when Shikieiki asked her to remove her hat, and how she obediently took it off and placed it on the desk in front of her. Marisa clenches her teeth and determinedly she says “oh no! I’m not leaving my hat there!” Ignoring the throbbing pain on her head, she lifts her arm and tries to summon her broom, however, it doesn’t come to her. With a quick and confused “huh?” she tries again, and again, until she remembers about the yama’s punishment. She opens her eyes wide and falls on her knees, using her arms as support to prevent her body to fall to the ground as the realization slowly sinks into her mind. Outside her house, her scream of despair echoes far, getting the attention of a few youkai and fairies, all recovering from the shockwave caused by the opening of that gate in her basement.

At Entei, Sanae, Budou, Lily, and Byakuren enjoy some tea and snacks in the mansion while Eirin treats Ail in her clinic. Although Budou and Lily look happy, Sanae is still unable to smile, so Byakuren approaches her and asks “you’re still worried?” Sanae sighs and whispers “you saw all those cuts, those wounds... the bullet wounds.” Byakuren rubs Sanae’s head, and with a cheerful smile she says “cheer up! The lunarian is taking good care of him!” Sanae sighs again as she looks at her teacup, then says “but he didn’t say a word... he still hasn’t said a single word.” Byakuren sighs and drops next to Sanae, then says “maybe he’s in shock. I’m sure... oh.” Before she finishes, Eirin walks out of the clinic and shouts “miss Sanae, miss Byakuren, could you please come over?” Sanae and Byakuren stand up, placing their teacups by the table, Sanae saying “Budou, miss Lily, please behave.” With glints in their eyes, Budou says “alright mama!”, and Lily nods. When they arrive at the clinic, Reisen exits and says “I’ll keep an eye on things over here.”, then continues to the mansion. Immediately after entering, and Eirin closes the door, Sanae rapidly asks “what happened!?” Eirin quietly walks past them, then picks up a tray that holds 3 bullets from her desk, then says “I found these, literally lodged on his bones, one on his shoulder, one on the left calf, and the last one just above his abdomen, plus 7 more bullet wounds, however it appears he took care of those himself.” Sanae looks a bit surprised, but before she asks, Eirin continues “also, it appears he hasn’t been eating properly! He’s lacking many proteins and necessary elements for proper bodily functions... AND...” Eirin raises her hand in front of Sanae’s face to stop her from talking, then says “as for the reason he’s not speaking...” From one of the beds, a girl’s voice happily says “...is because he’s acting on subconscious.” Eirin growls and says “I wanted to say that, dammit!” From under the bed, Koishi pops her smiling face and says “you were too slow.”, then jumps out and sits on the bed, and with that happy smile, she continues “but even though he’s acting on subconscious, he should at least be able to speak... I wonder why he won’t even peep.” While Sanae and Byakuren stare at Koishi, Eirin face palms and softly says “ugh, what an annoying girl.”, then walks to Ail’s bed, revealing him sitting like a frog on the bed and staring into a small mirror in his underwear after pulling the curtains, then says “his basic functions are here. He’ll feed, sleep, breathe, he can even learn a few things... other than that... he’ll be acting like a child.” Koishi giggles and says “the only way to live.” Sanae looks aggravated at Koishi, then at Eirin, then desperately asks “what does this all mean? Eirin, what happened to him?” Koishi sighs before Eirin, annoying her a little, then says “who knows what could have happened to him, but...” Eirin continues “it’s like his consciousness is not there. I tried many methods of psychology, Reisen tried her own methods, but nothing made him react. What we have here...” Koishi continues “...is the starving shell of his former self.” Before Byakuren or Sanae can speak, Eirin adds “another interesting thing is... though he does react to ‘Ail’, there is absolutely no reaction to his full name.” Immediately after hearing that, Byakuren calls “Anilan!” Ail continues to stare at the mirror, completely ignoring her. After that, Sanae calls “Ail” in a motherly tone, then Ail turns his face away from the mirror, and the second he looks at Sanae he smiles, waves, then continues to stare into the mirror. Concerned, Eirin says “I’m worried about those two, though... What if he rejects them while in this state?” Sanae smiles and says “I don’t think that will be a problem.” Then stares at Ail and says “he loves Budou too much, and I’m sure he’ll remember Lily White.” Eirin suddenly gasps, then says “that’s right, about his clothes...” She pulls Ail’s destroyed and bloodstained clothes from a trash bin and says “they are completely useless. He’s going to need new clothes.” Ran opens the door from behind them, and with a smile on her face she says “that shouldn’t be a problem at all.” She carries a fresh set of clothes she brought from Ail’s house, and while she smiles and offers them to Sanae, through the door, outside the clinic, Budou, Lily, Koishi and Chen have Tewi, Reisen and Kaguya trapped on top of a tree, all three giggling and shooting danmaku at anyone that tries to come down. Koishi suddenly shouts “raid their drawers!”, to which all the girls cheer and run inside, ignoring the angry shouts from the tree trapped girls.

Back at Marisa’s house, Marisa sits by the entrance to her house on the open archway, swaying back and forth while holding on to her knees, trying to think of something other than her lost magic, or her lost hat. While staring blankly at the path in front of her house, she thinks “it’s going to be ok... I’ll be fine. No magic? No problem... No hat... No... magic... Mom...” A tear escapes the right eye of Marisa as she continues to stare at the path to her house, but she looks up and suddenly narrows her eyes and shouts “YOU~~!” Shikieiki and Komachi stand by each other’s side, staring concernedly at Marisa. Marisa springs to her feet and while staring angrily at the yama she shouts “what now!? What the HELL do you want now!? My soul!? Well go ahead, dammit! TAKE IT ALREADY!” Shikieiki calmly walks to Marisa and looks into her eyes, then looks back to Komachi and in a disappointed tone of voice she says “we’re too late. She’s already been sealed!” Marisa narrows her left eye and raises her right eyebrow, and sounding annoyed, she asks “what the HELL are you two talking about!?” Shikieiki turns to Marisa, then says “Kirisame, you need to calm down!” Marisa feels her insides burn with a sudden surge of rage and shouts “calm down!? You want me to calm DOWN!? What the HELL are you saying!? Thanks to you, Reimu HATES ME! My magic is sealed, I lost mom’s hat in your STUPID courtroom, and now you’re telling me to CALM DOWN!!?” Shikieiki raises her voice over Marisa’s and says “you opened a gate that links two paradises by FORCE not even knowing where it leads, you tricked your FRIEND into opening that gate for you almost costing him his LIFE, and now you DARE question my methods!?” Marisa stares back at Shikieiki in shock, but calms down and drops on the floor, right back under the door’s archway. After she calms down, Komachi approaches her and kneels down, then with a soft voice she says “you are lucky Eiki-sama was there. She saved your life!” Shikieiki immediately says “for what you did, the punishment was un-birth... Your entire life would have become non-existent, and furthermore, if that yama of the dragons had his way, you would have had to suffer that fate while being left alive.” Marisa raises her face as Shikieiki says “could you imagine such a horrible fate? To wander the world, nameless, without friends there to support you, nobody to care about you... That was to be your punishment, Marisa.” Marisa looks up and sounding tired she says “you... you need me for something. That’s why I’m still here, isn’t it?” Shikieiki steps away and lifts her sword to cover her mouth, revealing her burned hand to Marisa, then says “yes... and no. What I want from you... Marisa Kirisame, is for you to learn from this mistake. Repent for what you have done, and help us restore everything back to its former balance.” Marisa gasps at the sight of Shikieiki’s hand, then Komachi softly says “for helping you, Eiki-sama was punished. Yamas aren’t supposed to let emotions take over, but Shikieiki is different.” Marisa sighs, then asks “but... what can I do now? I don’t have any magic. How am I supposed to do anything at all!?” With her good hand, Shikieiki pulls a key made of orange flames from her pocket, then smiles as she kneels in front of Marisa, then inserts the key into her chest and says “I can’t remove the seal yet, or it will destroy your soul. What I can do is weaken it, to at least allow you to use your magic when in danger.” Marisa stares back curiously as Shikieiki slowly turns the key, then slowly turns it back and pulls it away with a smile, then says “well, lucky you. You should be able to use your broom for defense at least.” Marisa looks confused toward Komachi and Shikieiki, then asks “why? Why are you helping me like this?” Shikieiki backs away and places the key back in her pocket and almost drops her sword, but she tightens her grip and winces from the pain on her burned hand. Marisa stares at it and asks “how bad is it?” Shikieiki sighs and smiles, then says “don’t concern yourself with me. Right now you have to concern yourself with how to close that gate. Like it, or not, you are the only one that can save Ail’s consciousness, seal the void, and close that gate.” Marisa immediately asks “then why did you involve Reimu!?” Shikieiki winces in pain again and drops her sword on reflex, however Komachi is by her side and catches the sword before it hits the ground, smiling as she offers the sword back. Shikieiki takes the sword and says “she is the guardian of this paradise. Regardless of what I would have said, this task also belongs to her. Now, I want you to remember, you may not have your magic at all times, but you have a brilliant mind...” Shikieiki lets out half a smile as she says “and even without magic... you can still use magical items, science... and...” Shikieiki approaches Marisa and bends down to her ear and says “with a little bit of faith, even you can cause a miracle to happen... all you have to do...” Shikieiki suddenly materializes Marisa’s hat on her right hand and continues “...is believe. Have faith in yourself, Marisa. Have faith in your friends, the spirits, the gods... As long as you have faith, everything is possible.” Unable to fully grasp Shikieiki’s words, Marisa sighs after accepting her hat back, then says “look, I’ll do what I can. I don’t know what that is, but I’ll do it... just, please... give me some time to think.” Shikieiki smiles as she backs away from Marisa and stands next to Komachi, then says “try to think fast, miss Kirisame. Time is not on our side, so every second you waste while ‘thinking about it’ is a wasted chance to do the right thing.” Marisa closes her eyes and places her hat on her chest while holding it with both hands. There is a sudden wind and Marisa is about to speak, but when she opens her eyes, the yama and her shinigami are long gone. She looks to the golden afternoon sky, then sighs loudly and says “mom... I wonder what I should do now. Where do I go from here...”

Meanwhile, inside the dark void between the two worlds, the voice of Ail echoes as he calls “MARISA~!? Marisa, where are you!?” Though his voice echoes everywhere, his location is unknown, even to himself. All he can see is darkness all around, and slowly, but surely, the darkness gets to him. Sobbing, Ail says “why in hell’s blazes does this keep happening to me!? That girl said she was my friend.... I should have known. I don’t have any friends!” He pauses for a moment, then suddenly screams as hard and loud as he can “you damned gods and your stupid fate make me sick!!! LET ME DIE ALREADY, YOU BASTARDS!!!” After that, an unsettling silence takes over for a few seconds, then suddenly the deep and gentle voice of a dragon says “little human. You speak as though you have earned the comfort of eternal sleep.” Without thinking, Ail shouts back “with all the shit I’ve been through, and who knows WHAT ELSE I’ve been through, I think I’ve earned that... But these damned gods and this fate... Anyway, who the hell are you? And where are you!?” The voice calmly says “calm down, little human. First of all, I am the guardian of the land you and that female tried to invade.” Ail angrily replies “she tricked me!” The guardian dragon says “it’s alright little human. Neither one of you meant harm, however... that’s another story. Now, I am here because I was asked to help you.” Ail calms down a little, but still sounding a little aggravated he asks “help me? I can’t see, I don’t know where the hell I am, I can’t even see YOU... I can’t see myself! How can you help me!?” The dragon calmly says “well, we are in front of the entrance to my world, but if you won’t take my word for it, you’ll need to open your eyes.” Ail asks “my eyes..?” Slowly, Ail opens his eyes and finds himself next to a large white light that looks like a doorway, inside a room with black floors and walls and a roof with waving purple energy. In front of him is a large black and white fireball that looks like a slow-spinning yin-yang orb with a steady dragon head while the symbol itself spins all the time. The dragon spirit smiles and says “welcome to the void, little human.” Ail finally takes a good look at himself and realizes he’s a ball of fire that constantly changes colors. Ail is surprised, his rage subsided and replaced by confusion and surprise. While looking at himself he asks “wha? What happened to me?” The dragon takes a deep breath, making it seem like he’s growling, then says “when your friend and you opened the gate to our world, your body was to be sacrificed in order to make a perfect union, however, the female magician refused to let you die, and when she tried to save you, this void was created, and you and your body were separated.” Ail sighs and turns blue for a moment, then says “why save me? She should have let me die. Freedom from the gods and fates.” The dragon smiles and says “for the same reason you sealed away all your former memories.” Ail looks confused, then asks “what do you mean?” Still smiling, the dragon says “while you were in a world outside of your paradise, you were hunted down, and you feared they might catch you one day and get to Gensokyo, and to Budou and Sanae, and all your friends there.” Ail gasps and says “Budou. That name makes me feel at ease... and Sanae... I have a strong feeling about that name... Argh! But I can’t remember!” The dragon quickly says “it’s alright. That is why I am here. I was asked to help you regain your memories and return you to the path you were force out of.” Ail looks even more confused, then asks “my path?” The dragon smiles again, then says “relax. We have plenty of time. For now, I want you to rest and calm yourself... after that, I will do what I can to help you regain your memories, and set you on the right path again.” Ail sighs, then suddenly feels exhausted. He slowly floats to the black ground, then turns white, thus falling asleep. The dragon smiles and says “you will rest now. When morning light comes, you and I will begin with your self-recovery. You can’t die, little human... You are too important a soul to just wander around without aim.” With those words, the dragon turns into a black and white flame, then flies out the white light, back into his world.

That night, at the Moriya Shine. Sanae walks out the room corridors, then approaches the goddesses and sits by the table with them, then sighs and sounding disappointed she says “he knows how to take a bath after all.” Both Kanako and Suwako open their eyes wide as their faces turn blue, then Suwako looks a bit annoyed as she whispers to herself “so she’s a pervert after all.” From under the table, Koishi pops her head and crawls right in front of Sanae, then angrily says “oy~ We are subconscious! Not incapable!” Sanae sweats and says “you should go home now.” Koishi smiles again, then says “oh there’s no way I’m leaving now! Things are getting too interesting, and perhaps there are a few things I can teach Ail, now that he’s subconscious and all that.” While saying this, a glint escapes Koishi’s eyes, then Sanae angrily shouts “now WAIT a minute! Don’t go teaching him perverted things!” Koishi asks “aww, why not? It’s fun being a little naughty.” While Sanae argues with Koishi, the goddesses just watch them while Budou sits by the shrine’s porch with Phredia sitting on her shoulder, both staring at the whistle on her hand. Budou asks “Phredia, why didn’t this work right? Why did it send papa to the temple?” Phredia shrugs and shakes her head left and right, then Koishi, who now sits right beside them, says “the witch at the forest should know.” Budou gasps and exclaims “that’s right! I can ask miss Marisa!” Koishi smiles, then says “we should go in the morning. I’ll come with you. I’ve always wanted to visit that witch’s house.” From the path to the shrine, Chen’s voice says “I’m coming too. It sounds like it could be fun!” Chen and Ran get closer, revealing themselves in the light coming from the shrine, then Ran says “as long as you keep safe, you may go.” Budou flaps her wings as she happily looks at them, then says “Chen... miss Koishi! Thank you... eh?” When Budou looks beside her, Koishi is already gone. Inside the shrine, Sanae is running around, shouting “that is not PROPPER!” Lily smiles and shouts “fun, fun, FUN~!” Koishi laughs hard and says “Sanae’s underwear is a great mask! Ail, you should try it!” Sanae shouts “DON’T TURN HIM INTO A PERVERT!” Watching from the table, Suwako and Kanako quietly stare, both looking slightly annoyed. When everything calms down, Ran is inside, holding Koishi around one arm and Lily on the other, then looks at Ail, who is wearing a pink shirt over the many bandages on his body while sitting next to his futon, then says “I see someone’s having fun here.” Sanae sweats and sounding agitated she says “i-it’s just a shirt!” Ran smirks and whispers “right~!”, then says “well, we left everything in the house as it should be... except, um...” Sanae quickly asks “you blew up the kitchen, didn’t you!?” Ran rapidly shouts “I’m not a menace!”, then quickly composes herself and says “no, it’s Yukari-sama. She liked Ail’s bed too much and took it with her... I couldn’t convince her to leave it.” Sanae sighs and lightly face-palms, then says “well, it’s not like he’ll be using it much.” Ran stares neutrally at Sanae, then says “Well, the important thing is the house is ready, except for the bed” then she looks at Koishi, then Lily and says “and you two better behave, or I’ll be coming by more often.” Koishi and Lily smile sheepishly wile a small sweat drop rolls down the left side of their heads, then say at the same time “hai~!” On their seats, Ran’s hand marks brightly shine as pain throb though and keeps the two mischief makers calmed. Still sitting by the small table and looking both bored and annoyed, Kanako asks herself “when the hell did this shrine become so popular?”

The next morning, before Sanae wakes up, Budou, Koishi and Chen fly away to the Forest of Magic. On the roof of the shrine, sitting next to Suwako and mimicking her by sitting like a frog, Ail silently waves to Budou, revealing one of the bandages on his shoulder, making Budou wave back, but looking a bit sad after seeing the injury. Phredia lightly pats her back and hugs the back of her neck, then Koishi approaches Budou and says “don’t be sad. His injuries will be healed soon. Who knows, he might even start speaking again.” Budou smiles back, then continues on her way to the forest. At Marisa’s house, inside the basement, Marisa stares silently and expressionless at the swirling vortex as it continues to blow a cold but gentle wind. She approaches one of the white stones that hold the gate in place and thinks of removing it, however, a lose piece of paper comes from within the vortex and gets caught on Marisa’s leg. When she looks at it, for a second, her eyes sparkle, but she sighs and thinks of dropping it, but something in her heart prevents her from doing so and ends up folding it and placing it in her pocket. Shortly after, there is a knock on the door to her house, and at first she wants to ignore it, but her hope of that being Reimu wanting to make up again pulls her straight to that door. When she reaches the last step back to the living room there is another knock, and sounding annoyed Marisa says “just a minute... Geez, how impatient.” When she opens the door, Chen, Koishi and Budou stand there, all looking up to her, saying “hi~!” at the same time. Marisa focuses on Budou, then whispers “she told you.” Marisa ignores Koishi, who walks right in as she drops to her knees and places both hands on Budou’s shoulders, staring terrorized back at Budou, then softly says “Budou, I’m so sorry.” Budou stares back at Marisa with great confusion, then Marisa suddenly continues “I didn’t mean to do it, I swear! It was supposed to be something special, but it turned out so wrong! I’m so sorry!” Budou stares into Marisa’s eyes, then Phredia comes from under Budou’s hair and stares, then Suddenly Budou’s eyes hide under shadow, then asks “so you called papa back? And you caused him to keep quiet!? WHY!?” Marisa releases Budou and tries to push herself as far away from the little youkai as possible, and sounding very nervous she says “I-I swear, I only wanted him to open the gate for me with one of his gaps. I swear, I never meant to lose his body and his conscious mind, I swear!” Phredia stares at Marisa, then looks at Budou, who says “Phredia says you are telling the truth... and she also says you are responsible for getting his mind back.” Marisa nods as Budou stares seriously and says “you’ll be glad to know we found his body, and that he is ok... But you do know I have to tell mama about this.” Marisa whispers “wa... you didn’t know? Then how-?” Budou immediately says “Phredia read your eyes and told me everything. I am not mad, miss Marisa. You brought my papa back, but please, find his mind for me. I miss him!” Budou almost sobs when saying this, but she steels herself, preventing herself from doing so, then pulls her own whistle from her pocket and says “this is what I came here for.” Marisa grabs the whistle, then stares confused at Budou, who notices and says “I tried over and over to call papa with that, but it never worked. I was hoping you could tell me what happened to it.” Marisa sighs and wants to tell Budou about her punishment for what she did, however she stares at the whistle and notices the magic around it, surprising herself with this. A bit excited, Marisa says “I... I can see it. Budou, this whistle heard you making a promise to it. That’s why it didn’t work... You promised something and put a powerful emotion in that promise. The magic in this whistle picked up on that, and that is why it didn’t work.” Marisa hands the whistle back, and while Budou picks it, she whispers “my... my promise... I forgot about that.” Suddenly, Marisa realizes Koishi is picking up everything in her house, saying “ooh” and “aah” and making a bigger mess than there was before, while Budou realizes Chen is chasing Tokiko, trying to eat her while the youkai screams and tries to run for her life. Marisa quickly turns around and shouts “you little subconscious monster, what are you doing in there!?” At the same time, Budou turns around and shouts “no! Chen, don’t eat my friend! Chen~!” Shortly after the girls leave, Tokiko reveals herself hiding behind the chimney on Marisa’s house, while Marisa stands outside her house, watching as the girls leave, and with a confident smile on her face, she says “I saw the magic. I can really do this!”

While flying high above the Human Village, Chen and Koishi fly next to Budou as she finishes saying “...and when I promised I would call papa after I became stronger, the magic in this whistle absorbed that emotion. At least that is what miss Marisa said to me.” Chen smiles and says “well, at least you now know why it didn’t work.” Koishi smiles dreamily and says “you better be more careful with what you say from now on.” Immediately after saying that, Sanae says “so that’s where you were! Honestly, you had me worried for nothing after all!” Budou, Chen and Koishi look to the right, then Budou exclaims “MAMA!” She looks back at Sanae with a serious expression, then Sanae asks “what happened?” Budou says “we need to go to the Hakurei Shrine. I have to tell you and Hakurei sis something very important.” Sanae is a little surprised by Budou, acting all grown up and serious, but she decides to just nod and follow them all to the shrine, thinking “whatever this is... it has to be very important. She’d never put up a face like that if it wasn’t.” Meanwhile, at the SDM, Remilia is walking alongside Sakuya down to the basement, then Remilia suddenly says “remember, stay out of sight! If she sees you, she will attack you!” Seemingly calm, but showing her nervousness through her eyes, Sakuya bows and says “as you wish, my la-“ Remilia covers Sakuya’s mouth with her hand in a flash, and looking into the maid’s eyes she says “I am serious. Do NOT let her see you. Use your Luna Dial without hesitation if I give the signal. Now... let’s go.” Like a sudden thunder strike, Flandre’s voice echoes all the way outside the mansion when she shouts “MAMA~~!! Mama, where are you~!!” She starts to cry out louder “MAMA~~! I cut my finger! Mama!” The entire basement shakes after there is an explosion coming from Flandre’s room, and before they know what is going on, Flandre stands in front of Remilia and Sakuya, crying and holding out her finger, showing them a small cut and crying out “onee-chan, onee-chan! Where’s mama. I hurt my finger.” Remilia notices Flandre’s eyes and signals Sakuya to relax, then says “Flandre, our mother are father aren’t here. They are-“ Flandre immediately exclaims “they are outside!? *sob* Mama~! Papa~! My finger~! It hurts~!” Unable to stop her, Flandre flies past Remilia and Sakuya, holding out her finger and crying out for her mother and father. Sakuya asks “my lady, what just happen?” Remilia narrows her eyes and says “she’s acting like she’s a hundred again. She should be easier to handle... Sakuya, after her!” Sakuya bows, then says “right away, my lady!” After breaking her way through the front wall, Flandre flies above the mansion and shouts “mama? Papa? Where are you!?” She starts to sob as she looks around and fails to find her parents, but to the distance, she notices a woman with long hair flying above the lake, and thinking it’s her mother she smiles and exclaims with glee “MAMA~~!”, but when she gets closer, she realizes it’s someone else. Kimi Hong turns around with an angry expression in her face and asks “what? You want another beating, blondie?” Flandre stares back with rage, then says “YOU! What did you do to my mom, dragon!?” Kimi stares back confused, then shakes her head left and right and says “look, I have NO time for you. I need to find...” Before she finishes, Flandre fires a large energy orb, which Kimi deflects with one hand. Glaring back at Flandre, in an ominous tone, Kimi says “it appears you didn’t learn your lesson from last time, little whelp!” From below, Rumia stares up and with a smile on her face she says “Uu~, those two are going to fight again.” Agava reveals herself from behind the tree Rumia is on and sounding confused she says “odd... She never told me she was fighting the dragon again.” From the mansion’s entrance, Remilia and Sakuya watch as Kimi and Flandre fling overpowered spells at each other, so Sakuya immediately says “we need Reimu, my lady.” Remilia looks on with a very serious and annoyed face and says “shit.. there’s no helping it. Sakuya, try to keep up!” Remilia lifts to the sky in a big hurry, followed closely by Sakuya, who is using her Luna Dial to help expedite the journey.

At the Hakurei Shrine, to Budou and Sanae’s luck, Reimu was having breakfast by the table and has listened to the story Phredia and Budou had to tell. Budou is almost to tears, but she wills herself to finish the story, saying “...Phredia also saw how confused papa was. He didn’t even recognized her, but Ma... miss Marisa kept pestering him.” Budou starts to sob when she says “and when miss Marisa use mine and mama’s name, he recognized us, and after that...” Reimu lightly bangs on the table while glaring away to the exit of the shrine, then says “that is enough. You’ve been brave enough to tell us all of this, now rest.” Budou kneels beside Sanae, who extends her arm to her, and as soon as her hand touches the little youkai, Budou begins to cry and asks “why does this has to happen, mama?” Sanae suppresses her rage as she brushes Budou’s hair with her fingers, then says “that... witch. If I get my hands on her-“ Sounding aggravated, Reimu quickly says “don’t concern yourself with her, I already dealt with that.” She narrows her eyes and reaches into her pocket, quickly tossing a glass rose at Sanae and says “at least we know Ail’s body is safe. Call Ayalina through that if you want. Tell her Ail is here, but he’s acting subconsciously. However, if you don’t think you can, then don’t bother. Just, please, do NOT call her here.” Sanae stares a little confused at Reimu while Rika and Koishi finish fixing the sliding doors to Reimu’s room, then Rika says “my lady, please calm down. All this stress is not healthy for you!” Reimu raises her voice a little as she says “well I WISH I could, but there are too many question that need answering, and not enough time to answer them all! That stupid witch did something VERY DANGEROUS, and I have to fix all of it.” Rika approaches the table and worriedly says “but my lady, if you would just calm down a little. Maybe meditate a few hours, that-“ Reimu bangs on the table with both hands as she springs to her feet, scaring Chen right from underneath the table itself and on to Sanae, then narrows her eyes as she tries to look at Rika’s and as calmly as possible she says “I... am going back to my room. Remember, not a sound.” Rika continues to stare determined at Reimu, trying to look into her eyes, however Reimu skillfully avoids making eye contact so Rika says “my lady, please allow me to help you!” Reimu ignores Rika and walks to her room, walking past Rika and Koishi as she heads inside, then calmly says “you shouldn’t worry about me. Besides, you have two more guests to tend to, so please, do so. Oh, and try to keep the noise to a minimum... I need all my concentration here.” She slowly closes the sliding doors, leaving both Rika and Sanae staring back both concerned and confused. Rika turns around, asking “two guests?” From outside the back of the shrine, Lily’s voice comes inside clearly as she happily shouts “it’s SRPING!”, followed by various explosions. Rika panics and whispers “too much noise!” Rika, Budou and Sanae rush outside to find Lily flying around Ail and dancing in the air, while Ail jumps around like a frog, and trying out single-handed handstands, only to fall on his head and roll on the ground, then try again. Budou gasps and involuntarily flaps her wings as she excitedly shouts “PAPA~!” She flies so fast to Ail, Phredia falls right out of her hair and on to Sanae’s hands. Ail silently smiles at Budou and opens his arms widely, catching Budou in a hug-tackle that sends them both sliding next to Rika’s greenhouse while Lily continues to dance around the air and excitedly shouting “it’s spring~!” Sanae sighs along with Rika, who also flaps her small wings slowly, then look at each other and at the same time they say “kids.”

An hour later, Chen is summoning cats to the back of the shrine, while Budou, Ail and Lily enjoy tea and snack, both girls sitting as close as possible beside Ail, while Sanae and Rika enjoy a quiet chat and Koishi sits on the roof next to the drunken Suika and Aya. While Koishi continues to smile, she pokes Aya’s shoulders, and although Aya gets mad, all she does is whisper “quit it!”, in fear that Reimu might really hurt her if she causes too much noise. From the sky, a faint voice calls for Reimu. Aya looks up, and suddenly Remilia and Sakuya appear in the sky just above the shrine, and while descending to the shrine grounds Remilia shouts “REIMU~! It’s an emergency~!” The second they land, Rika approaches them and nervously bows down and whispers “please, keep it down. Miss Reimu is studying in her room.” Remilia glares at Rika and swings her arm offensively toward Rika and says “you keep away from me! I’m not here to speak to you! I came here looking for Reimu! Besides, you are NOT to be trusted!” Rika gasps, her heart thumps hard twice, then she backs away as a dark depressive aura surrounds her. Remilia continues to head inside while Sanae approaches Rika, angrily saying “hey, she was just greeting you, you spoiled brat!”, then kneels beside the shrine’s maid, patting her back and whispering “it’s alright. There, there, let it all out.” The moment Sanae comes to comfort her, Rika sniffles and lets a few large tear drops fall from her wiggling white eyes. Sakuya stares sadly toward Rika, then bows, but says nothing. Aya rushes down to Remilia and gets in her way, whispering “you stupid brat, are you trying to get us all killed!? Leave Reimu alone!” Remilia bluntly shouts “get the hell out of my way, crow! This is important!” Remilia pushes Aya away and walks up to Reimu’s room, then starts to knock on Reimu’s door without stop and shouts “REIMU~! I know you are there, so just wake up already, you lazy shrine maiden! This is an emergency!” Rika, Chen, Sanae, Suika, Aya and even Koishi all stare from outside the shrine with terrorized faces, Aya whispering “nice knowing you, you little brat.” Remilia notices this and loudly says “geez, you’re all acting as if Reimu has a plague or something.” She knocks hard on the wooden frame of the door and shouts “REIMU~! Wake up already~!” Reimu’s doors suddenly burst open and Reimu’s head pops out 10 times its own size, and while breathing fire and glaring through glowing white eyes Reimu shouts “IF YOU DON’T STOP THAT NOW I’M RIPPING YOUR DAMNED WINGS OFF~~~!” Remilia shrinks to the size of one of Alice’s dolls and while crying she runs straight to Sakuya, whose nose is bleeding twin streams. Reimu walks out of her room, shouting “you BETTER have a good reason to be pissing me off!” Sakuya winces as she tries to cover her mistress and herself from Reimu’s fiery breath, then says “miss Reimu, we are terribly sorry, but Flandre-“ Reimu stomps hard on the floor as she walks up to Sakuya and shouts “I don’t give a damn! I have MUCH more important things to deal with, and if SHE thinks...” Rika rushes to Reimu and immediately pushes her away, saying “my lady, please, calm down, please!!” Reimu shouts “Rika, don’t get in my way!” Rika says “please, miss Reimu, you’ll wake them up!” As Reimu looks to the table, where Rika is pointing to she shouts “what the hell are you talking about..?” Reimu suddenly stops struggling against Rika as she stares at the subconscious body of Ail as he sleeps while holding the sleeping Budou on his right, and the sleeping Lily on his left. Reimu stops in place and looks around, then notices a mirror on the wall behind her, getting a good look at herself. She thinks “wa-what’s this? I’ve become a monster.” She looks at Rika’s worried face and thinks “Rika. What have I done?” Reimu sighs and falls on her knees, feeling as though the weight of the world has just been lifted off her shoulders, then says “Rika... I’m sorry. I... I lost my control there.” Rika continues to hold on to Reimu and kneels down along with her mistress, then smiles and says “it’s alright, miss Reimu. The important thing is you finally calmed down.” Reimu places her left hand on her forehead, taking many deep breaths, then says “th-thank you, Rika. And sorry... to all of you. I don’t know what came over me.” Rika says “then perhaps if you tell us about it, you might feel better.” Sakuya interrupts while still holding on the her normal-sized, but still trembling mistress on her chest and says “I’m sorry to have to ruin the moment, but this is really important. Miss Reimu, Flandre has completely lost control, and she and that wild dragon are fighting again. We need your help to stop them.” Reimu suddenly composes herself and stands up with a determined look on her face, then says “a-alright. Rika, please take care of the shrine. Sanae, you are coming with me... and bring Ail with us.” Sanae gasps and enters the shrine and looking terrorized toward Reimu she says “Reimu! You can’t take him there! He can’t fight!” Reimu smiles and says “oh, he’s not going to fight, He’s helping us bring Flandre down a couple of notches, is all.” Sanae stares confused toward Reimu, then hesitantly nods. Outside the shrine, Aya, Chen and Suika stare at Koishi as she smiles while sticking out her tongue, then Aya asks “so how did you put that mirror there so fast? I couldn’t even see you do it.” Koishi winks and calmly says “oh, you know. I just did it without thinking much.”

To be continued...

Characters, spell cards and scenario belong to ZUN -Team Shanghai Alice-
Ail, Budou, Phredia, Ayalina, Kimi and Agava were created by Willie G.R.
Rika Onkamikami was created by Snapshot2010

MAR 16 2010
Written by
Willie G.R.